Last year I got married. I also fully completed a Whole 30, for the first time ever. I was exercising consistently, eating well, and surprising sleeping well. After our wedding in December though, I slipped back into old habits through the holiday season, as we all do. I made it a goal to get back on the wagon for 2020, and while I was being pretty consistent about working out thanks to Orange Theory, everything else was lacking. Fast forward to now (April 2020) and I’ve taken two steps back, all the way to where I was in January 2019. Quarantine 2020 has not been kind to me, considering the hubs and I are snacking all the time, drinking, and Orange Theory is closed. I’m officially back at my heaviest weight and not feeling so great about myself.
Which brings us to my ‘7 Healthy Weeks’ challenge. I’ve decided to do a ‘healthy’ challenge instead of a ‘fitness’ challenge because I want to focus on my entire well-being. While I have scale and number goals, I also want to work on getting my body and my mind back into the arena I was in 6 months ago. On top of that, I have chronic back pain (which I discuss in detail HERE!) and am working to alleviate the stresses that tend to cause the most inflammation and pain for me.
Accountability has really been one of my main goals for 2020, and in keeping with that I’m planning on sharing the next 7 weeks of my challenge on my blog. My hope is that if I put the words out in the universe, I’ll be more likely to stick to it. I’ll be sharing my entire journey. The achievements, the struggles, weekly recaps, my workout routines, favorite meals, and anything else I feel will help to motivate me. I’m going to need all the help though, to stay motivate! So feel free to message me on instagram or comment any of my posts with your most inspiring suggestions. Or even with what other things you’d like to see from me. And now we get into the details!
TL:DR, I’m spending the next 7 weeks starting tomorrow, or approximately 45 days getting my body and mind back into a healthy state. #beachbodyready
About the Plan
Before I dive deeper into my plan, it’s important to note that I have completely made this plan up. It’s based on things I have found that work for me and my own personal goals I have set for myself. Feel free to copy but I’m no expert.
I’ve broken my plan down into three categories. Fitness, Food, and Other. I know super original. Each of these areas have milestones, goals, and some sort of structure around them. I’m hoping that with all of these combined, I can get myself back into a healthy state.
Fitness
In terms of fitness, I’ll be using the next 7 weeks to focus on my half marathon training. One of my goals for 2020 is to get my half marathon race time down to between 2 hours and 2:10. My workouts will mainly focus on running and increasing my running endurance. My workout template for the next few weeks will look like:
While there is only one full day of ‘Rest’ on the calendar, I’ll be using both ‘Arm’ and ‘Ab’ days to rest up my legs. Due to the COVID-19 quarantine, we broke down and purchased a treadmill, so these will also mainly be treadmill miles. In addition to these specified workouts, I’ll also be adding in some outside jogs with Sadie. As Sadie is in no way a professional running dog, aka she pulls, stops, and trips me way to much; I don’t want to count those walks and jogs as apart of my schedule. If they get added in that is fantastic but in order to set myself up for success, they’re not included in the schedule.
Food
Losing weight or getting in shape is 20% fitness and 80% food. Food is also the part I struggle with the most. I love to eat. I love to drink. Honestly it’s why I work out as much as I normally do. I don’t plan to do a complete Whole 30 during these 7 weeks but will aim for a more Paleo focused diet with minimal consumption of alcohol, sugar, and dairy. Since my workout plan focuses mainly on cardio, I don’t want to take out grains or fruits since they’re best for fueling for runs. One of the hardest things for me not to eat during my Whole 30 last year was rice and oatmeal, therefore once again setting myself up for success by including them in my plain. I’ll also allow for one day to have a drink.
My goal is to focus on Whole 30 type foods, minimally processed foods, and less snacking!
Other
In additional to focusing on food and fitness, I’ll be working on realigning my sleep patterns. In order to be in bed by and hopefully asleep by 10:30, I’m aim to start getting ready for bed by 9:30 every night, including weekends. In doing this, I hope to be better about waking up with my alarm clock, because if you know me you will know that getting up in the morning is not my strong point.
Goals
Now that I’ve laid out my plan, let’s talk goals. I have both measurable and non-measurable goals that I am trying to reach.
I know all of these goals are a bit of a stretch. 15lbs in 7 weeks is a little over 2lbs a week. However, I feel that with getting back into a regular routine I’ll be able to shed some of the extra fairly quickly. When I did the Whole 30, without regularly running I lost 10lbs in 30 days. So an extra 5 in an extra 15~ days seems doable to me. In regards to waist size, I really have no idea if 2 inches is doable, but I’m giving it a shot!
For my running times, the 10:15 is what I ran a mile in this weekend. A month ago I was down to just over a 9 minute mile. Getting my single mile down to 8 minutes is a bit of a push, but I’m going to try my best. Same goes for my 5K time. The 32 minutes was from a few weeks ago, and shaving off 4 minutes is less than a minute and half per mile.
Wish me luck y’all!
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