21 Day Fix, Day 4: Pilates and Fro-Yo

You have to change your mind to change your body

DAY 4 WORKOUT: PILATES FIX

I think I need to stop underestimating the difficulty of these workouts. Heading into Pilates, I wasn’t sure what exactly Pilates was, but I was expecting some sort of easy-peasy stretching routine. Haha, was I in for a surprise! This was a brutal, full-body workout and I was in pain 2 minutes into the warm-up. And it only got better from there :)… About halfway through the session, Autumn demonstrated the next exercise, and I loudly proclaimed (apparently to my dog because she was the only one around), “yeah right I can’t do that!”. But, as soon as those words left my mouth, I shook my head and said “No, I can do this!”… You’ve gotta change your mind to change your body. I felt so accomplished after this workout, and very proud I survived the round of elbow plank intervals at the end of the workout when my body was screaming. Ten-second planks seem like nothing until you get on the floor and actually do it.

Speaking of the floor, so glad I bought the yoga mat yesterday. I honestly don’t know how I would have done any of the workout today without it. I had just planned to “make it work” with my area rug and save myself the $15 expense of the yoga mat. But, lets be real, I spend more than $15 at Chickfila…and I’m busting my butt, going all in on this program, and making an investment in my future health, why skimp on the equipment I need to get the results I’m working so hard for? By the way, Target has yoga mats and weights 10% off through April using their Cartwheel coupon app.

DAY 4 FOOD REVIEW

I mixed up breakfast today. I made whole grain oatmeal and stirred in some cinnamon, raisins, and 100% pure maple syrup (you are allowed 1-2 teaspoons/day of an all-natural sweetener, like pure maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, raw sugar, or stevia). This was the sweetest thing I’ve eaten all week, so I felt like I was eating a cookie. It. was. great.  

The greatness continued with my shakeology. I added 1 teaspoon of peanut butter to my chocolate shakeology and it was delicious. Move over chocolate-strawberry, we have a new leader…

I feel like I’m on a roll today because my snack was Fro-Yo! Anniston had a birthday party at Sweet Frog and I’ve been secretly looking forward to today’s snack all week. I got their nonfat, no sugar added fro-yo with blueberries, strawberries, kiwi, mango, blackberries, walnuts, and almonds (totaling 1 red, 1 purple, and 1 blue). I loved this so much. Anniston had the same, but she got rainbow sprinkles too…However, she was more interested in the fruit than the fro-yo- I think I need to learn from my baby here :)

For dinner, I had originally planned to make this grilled honey-mustard chicken. However, I used up my sweetener allocation in my oatmeal, and I had to convert last’s night dinner into a mustard-based pulled pork. So, I didn’t want to use the same flavor profile and have mustard chicken tonight. Instead, I did a simple swap and made a greek yogurt marinade with garlic, parsley, and oregano. I grilled that on the foreman and made a giant side salad (1 green container of organic spinach leaves + 1 green of mixed vegetables: tomatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini, and broccoli + 1 orange container of homemade balsamic). I ended up mixing the chicken with the salad and it was very satisfying.

OTHER THOUGHTS

I bought a new water bottle (Camelbak Eddy) to help me with hydration. I had to have my 1-year-old help me figure out how it works because its basically a glorified sippy cup, but now that I know how to use it, I really like it! I’ve always struggled to drink water, but I know it’s critical to me being successful with my goals here- my body needs it. According to the book, you need to drink half your body weight in ounces of water per day (so if you weigh 160, that’s 80 ounces of water per day). Before I bought the water bottle, I drank a little over 32 ounces a day (which was a vast improvement from my usual water habits, when I would easily drink 32 ounces of coke a day, but barely 32 ounces of water a week!)… Anyways, today, I had 6 refills of water, totally 121.2 ounces! Wow! I’m not used to needing so many bathroom breaks, even in the night…

Which brings me to sleeping. I have not been sleeping well since I started this. Between the bathroom breaks and leg cramps (3 last night, dang lower fix), I’m just not resting well. Granted, I have been up to almost 1am every night chopping vegetables and prepping for the next day, plus the time change, I think I could just be all off. I’m hoping to finally catch up (and maybe even get ahead) of the prepping this weekend, which can allow me to go to bed earlier and hopefully rest more peacefully during the night.

On a positive not, my leggings keep falling down. I don’t see any major changes in the mirror yet, but something must be different if my leggings aren’t fitting tight! Whoop whoop!