Fitness Friday – Episode 5

Hey lovelies!!! Waddupp?!!!
I know you’re wondering what’s the ish with this girl and why is she so pumped up and all over the place with excitement?

Joy! Oh joy!!

Well, first off I’m glad to be here again, cos every single moment is a gift I treasure and talking to you delights me, so you can imagine how excited I’d be to have the chance to talk with you. So, please feel free to leave a comment and I’d be more than happy to reply.

That said, wanna know the explanation for my joy! This is a week of milestones, baybay!! Follow me and I’ll tell you all about it!!!

So, here’s how week 5 went down!
Saturday:
I decided on a cardio session today and put in a total of 30mins. No HIIT sessions today. It became hard for me to determine which was more punishing than the other. Is it the HIIT or the cardio workout? Still difficult to determine honestly.

Sweat and nails…

Sunday:
This was supposed to be a rest day with absolutely nothing to do. However, I’ve had a running battle with PMS for years now, and it hit me harder than it has in recent months, so I had to be deliberate about how to deal it this time. For this reason, I ignored rest day and went into a 20-minute yoga/relaxation session to destress my mind. For the 1st time in forever, I did not give in to my hormones and the impact they usually have on me. I can confidently say I won this round against PMS. See you next cycle, sis!! Now, I know you’ve got nothing on me! Nada!! Zilch!!!

Celebrating victory over PMS!!!💃💃💃

Monday:
Today makes 4weeks of consistency. I celebrated with a 20minute intense cardio session that involves 30seconds of workout and 15seconds of active rest which essentially means I’m not resting even though it’s meant to be a break from the workout. I guess the joy of doing this for this many days got the better of me so much so that I went on to include my HIIT training for 18minutes! What a way to celebrate 28days of not slacking!!

Kick fat’s ass!!!

Tuesday:

Today I woke up a grouchy Gretchen, absolutely not in the mood for anything whatsoever. Even my photos said that much. But a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. Besides I did not celebrate 28days only to return to the couch because my mood said do. No, we don’t do that here! “So, get up and work!!!”, my motivated self barked at my tempted self. And workout I did for 18minutes of upper body and abs. I did and I’m proud I did!

End of game!

Wednesday:
Today was a day to push myself the hardest. 30mins cardio and 18minutes lower body and abs HIIT session. I don’t know why or how come I woke up so pumped but I did. Maybe to make up for yesterday’s lack luster performance. 😂😂 But I pushed myself to the limits and beyond and it was really hard and exciting at the same time, so much so that I already began to consider taking Thursday as my rest day, but I’ll let my body determine that by Thursday morning.

Work done…

Thursday:
This is the 31st calendar day of consistency! My goodness!!!
I consider myself a glutton for punishment cos today was a very difficult session using the videos by Juice and Tonya. 60secs per exercise split in 3 parts of work, hold pose and go back to work. Like we say in my part of the world, my eyes saw my ears. 😭 😭 Hard stuff mhan! So hard I only went 79% of the way (the video had an on-screen prompt). I was also running late for work, so that gave me further guts to just abandon the workout so I could beat traffic. Then again, this was me running away from the fight to live to fight another day. 😂😂

Peace, people!

Friday:
The beautiful day that marks the end of the week and weigh-in day!!! Read to the end to know how that went!
So today I worked from home and had tones of reports to turn in, data to analyze, and tasks to assign. I deliberately got into my workout clothes before getting to my desk and I sat there from 8am till 6:35pm – yes kitchen breaks here and there but you get the gist. I really entertained the temptation of just letting everything just got to shit, but then I remember we don’t do that here! So off I went for a 10minute cardio and 18min lower body and abs!!! Oh yes!!! Guts for glory baybay!!!!

Cardio burn…

So about those milestones!!!
1. I hit 31 full days yesterday. That’s one full calendar month of awesomeness, consistency, grit and undoubtable guts!
2. This was weigh-in day and my goodness!!! I’ve lost a total of 2.6kg (5.7lbs) in 31 days. What a joy!
3. For the first time in forever, I did not use my menstrual period as an excuse to skip workout! I did it, damnit!!! I did it!!!
I swear if I wasn’t teetotal, I’d have downed glass or two in celebration of my awesomeness!!!💃🏾💃🏾💃🏾💃🏾

I look back at all I have achieved so far and all I can say is, “Weldon, girl!!!👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾”
As always, thanks for following and I hope to see you again next week Friday! Much love! 💖🤟🏾🫶🏾

Fitness Friday Episode 4

What’s up, beautiful people?! It’s a beautiful moment to be alive. If you’ve made it this far in spite of all you’ve been through, you deserve a hearty congratulations for showing up, showing out and looking those challenges in the face and saying, “Kiss my beautiful behind!” So leave your worries behind and come along with me for a highly summarized version of Week 4. Shall we? Let’s go!!!

Isn’t she lovely? ❤️

Saturday:

I finally fulfilled a nagging obsession – doing a handstand!💃🏾💃🏾

Thankfully I had my daughter ready to take photos and videos. Can’t begin to describe the joy I got from all that adrenaline rush! Then I got around to the main business of the day, my lower body and abs workout for the day! In all it was a good workout day and I killed it – dedication, grit, resistance and the whole 9 yards!

The thought that I was obsessed with. Very delighted to have gotten it out of the way! 🤣

Sunday:

This was rest day. Nothing to do, just resting and staying beautiful, and keeping a tab on the calories like I always have on every other day of the week.

No sweat or grime… Just a lovely lady. ❤️

Monday:

This was the 1^st day of many new days, and I tapped into my early morning mojo, and worked out for about 20mins. Upper body and abs day. It was also a milestone achievement as it was the 20% achievement mark, as well as the 21^st day of consistent workout. I can’t believe that for the 1st time ever, I hit the established duration for forming new habits and I couldn’t be more proud of myself.

Smiling helps me cope with the exhaustion.

Kept my carbs down as, but almost fainted at work from what felt like a low blood glucose. Scary stuff I tell you.

Tuesday: Road trip day. No time for pre-dawn workout, so I moved it till later in the day. Twas a rainy day but I still agve my all and then some more.

Getting up from this mat took a miracle… Oh the pain! 😭🤣

Wednesday:

Rest day on my VShred schedule but since I only rest once a week, I put in a full body 20min yoga stretch for flexibility. The first instructor was way too noisy for my comfort, so much  so tthat her voice was interfering with my concentration and had began to annoy me. I didn’t last 5mins with her before I switched to Yoga with Adrienne, who times all her routines with the 10second rest intervals telling you what each pose entails. Finally some peace in paradise!

Butterfly forward fold…

Thursday:

So for some reason I had the brilliant idea to change my routine a bit. Since I passed the 21-day mark, I decided to include cardio warm up to my routine, which essentially lengthens my workout time. Not only this, I have also eliminated the 60second rest periods between each set of the VShreed workout. This essentially cuts my HIIT duration by about 40%. However, I must be honest. It has been bloody! But I love it!!!

Smiling before the mayhem begins….

Friday:

The beautiful day that makrs the end of the week! So today was essentially an intense training day where I went the extra mile and then some more. I very well am sure that I had a vision of the pearly gates. Fuuny thing is the cardio warmup I used is said to be for beginners. Oh the irony! Please don’t show me what’s for pros if that torture was for beginners!😭😢

The story of how I have so much makeup on before a morning workout is a very funny one. 🤣🤣🤣

I look back at all I have achieved for the week in terms of disciplineand enduranve and I confess that I’m happy with where I am, and I can’t tell you how excited I am for the days ahead and how much strength of character sticking to my commitment has helped me imbibe.

As always, thanks for following and I hope to see you again next week Friday! Much love!💖🤟🏾🫶🏾

Fitness Friday Episode 3

Hey People! Thanks to everyone who has interacted with my blog lately. It feels great to know someone is reading, and enjoying, my ramblings.

So, come along with me and I’ll tell you how Week 3 went down. You ready? Let’s go!

Grateful for the weekend and the start of week 3 chronicles.

Saturday:

What a day! The clouds were already dark and heavy with rain before 7am. I had a manicure appointment, after which I was to get some cooking done.

Put in 35mins of abs, upper and lower body interval training and hopped right off the floor, into the car and off for my appointment.

Truth be told, by evening I was feeling like a pile of shit! I hurt nearly everywhere with an unusual kind of soreness was quite. Possibly because this was the longest duration of HIIT training since this journey started. I’m not doing that ever again, so help me God!

35mins done. Me thinks it took a higher power to get me off the floor afterwards cos I could hardly feel my legs. 🤣

Sunday:

Up and thankful for life! It started out as a good day. Shooed my family off to church so I could get some school work in – my deadline was more like a life and death situation.

Got that out of the way and settled into a 10mins yoga flow for my neck, back and shoulders. It gave some relief from the soreness I felt the previous day. Slept soundly and deeply.

After just ten minutes… I felt like just sleeping there.🤣

 Monday:

It’s a public holiday here – the first day of the next 4 years of my dear Fatherland, Nigeria. Coincidentally, the weather today started out mirroring my worry for my dear country, but again being a “cup half-full” kind of person, I called it the shower of blessings. And when the clouds unleashed the rain, I regarded it as the rain coming down to wash away my fears, fill my soul and drown my tears (©Celine Dion).

So, I switched to Pop Sugar fitness on YouTube and got on a 20min HIIT session. Boy! This was intense and fun. Major snag is that I found the instructor too garrulous for my liking. Yes, the workout was fun but a 20min session was filled with about 6mins total of what sounded like he was trying to trash-talk my fat and cellulite away. Never again, bro! I’m going to skip your page next time I see you pop up on my feed!🙄

End of the show!!! Yassss baby!!!💪💪💪

Tuesday:

Today! Oh today!! Not only did I wake up in a very unusual funk, I had an extremely hard time staying sated all day! As at journalling time, I feel a nagging hunger pang that keeps screaming, “Eat rice! Eat rice!!”, in my head. Oh, the struggle!!!😢😭

Like I said, working out was kind of hard, but as always, it got easy to flow with the moment I got into it. And like a flash 18mins abs and lower body was over! I felt really great afterwards and I must say that this is the first time in my 8years of being on and off this wagon (I’m staying committed this time. That’s my pledge to myself) that I didn’t give in to the temptation of not working out! And yes, I’m proud of myself.

Oh! And today was weigh-in day but I didn’t like the story on the scale. I lost 1.4kg (3.3lbs) in 15 days. This explains my reluctance to set a weekly goal of 2lb/week cos I know how incredibly hard it is for my progress to reflect as the numbers on a scale. Well, for what it’s worth, my favorite pajama pants have begun to sag at the waist. That’s qualitative progress!!!

My face when I saw the numbers on the scale…😭😭

Wednesday:

What can I say? Today was indeed a wonderful day. Imagine waking up sore in every single muscle, and yet you know you’ve made a promise to yourself not to fail yourself. So, you muster every last bit of spunk left in you, and drag yourself into your workout clothes, then guess what? You still don’t find it in you to do anything, so you sit at your workstation to resolve some urgent work-related matters and minutes drag into hours and before you know it, it’s 10am and you still haven’t done shit! I was almost getting exasperated with the way the day was turning. I had two video meetings which I had to attend with my workout clothes (I threw a wig and a blazer on though😂), and by the time all that mayhem was over, it was already 2pm!

Between this time and when I actually got into my routine, I took some shots matching the ones I took on the 16th of May when this journey started, and boy! I was thoroughly impressed with the outcome! If anything, it was a huge consolation for the disappointment on the scale yesterday! Coincidentally, I was wearing the exact same gear today as on the 16th, so it was easy to measure the qualitative change.

That said, the progress report and the thought of how difficult it was to get into that spandex and crazy tight bra were the two major motivators to go into those 18minutes of torture, and I braved it and succeeded in not failing on day 16 of 105! Yippee!!!💃🏾💃🏾💃🏾 I’m very proud of myself for surviving two consecutive days of near misses. Good job, Jairho! 👍🏾

Well, tomorrow had better be better cos I can’t take more of any sluggishness or lack of zeal. Go, crush it babay!!!

Let’s play, shall we!!! Did this to get myself in the mood. It worked like magic!!!

Thursday:

It would appear that this unwillingness to exercise is attempting to come to stay! No mi hombre! You lie!!

For some reason, I woke up yesterday feeling like every muscle fibre in my body was under lock and key. Quads were on fire, hamstrings felt like 50 needles found their way into each, the erectors of my back were now ‘curvators’ cos I couldn’t flex my back into a straight stance. What da?!😭😭

Thankfully, today is rest day on the VShred schedule, so rather than truly resting, I converted it into a full 20min post-HIIT stretch. Contrary to my expectation, I was quite fluid with my movements and was able to achieve most of the curls and curves with relative ease. This leads me to the truism that post-workout soreness is not meant to keep you from gunning for today’s set.

I felt much better over the course of the day and I honestly couldn’t have been happier that I took my rest day to cure my muscles. This was a day very well spent!

Yoga day… I didn’t come to play!

Friday:

Finally!!!

The end of the workout week is here and I’m very excited that I stayed consistent despite how difficult the week has been. Today had me hitting the flow for a lower body and ab routine. 18mins as usual, and I was beautifully spent at the end.

Had to get it done and out of the way cos of the number of family and work commitments I had lined up for the day. As at journalling time, I’m grateful I did, cos the day almost went batshit cray-cray. Talk about taking advantage of the now to do what you have to do rather than putting it off for later.

Proud of myself for seven days of consistently kicking fat’s fat butt!💪💪💪

Yep! That’s how the past 7days went and I hope to see you again next Friday for Episode 4. Until then be good, stay safe and keep kicking ass!

Muahh!!!!😘😘😘😘😘