Body Back

After the holidays I was NOT feeling good in my own skin.  When I looked at pictures I saw chub that I wasn't proud of and I was needing some motivation and a challenge. Enter Body Back. I had a friend who had participated in the program this past summer and looked GREAT!  After completing the program she just looked so toned and her race times were dropping.  I was intrigued.
This winter session since was the first time offering it at 5:30 am so the price was lowered from $275 to  $240. A good discount always reels me in.

I was scared to do the 5:30 am session because I thought I might be exhausted the whole week and cranky.  This was the opposite of true. Yes, it was hard to hear my alarm go off at 5 am two days a week but once I was up and moving I felt energized the rest of the day. It was so helpful knowing there were other people getting up and working out with me so that I stayed accountable.

I knew going into this program that I wanted help with my eating.  I feel like on my own I do a good job of working out consistently and switching up my exercise routine.  My Achilles heal is my love of food and more specifically desserts.  Basically every night once Brooklyn was in bed I would sit on the couch and eat some type of sweet to unwind.  Having a toddler is mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting.  Eating was my way of feeling better.

With Body Back there are no foods that are off limits.  What is encouraged is whole minimally processed foods and keeping a food diary.  Keeping a food diary helped me SOOOOOOO much! I realized I was eating WAY too much and I felt just as good or better eating less. All those little handfuls of goldfish crackers and eating off of Brooklyn's leftovers was adding up. I used MyFitnessPal app to track my food, exercise, and water intake.  Super easy.  I get a lot of my recipes online and so to get the nutritional info I'd just type in the URL and it would import the recipe and calculate it all for me.  MFP has settings where you can input your activity level and your weight loss goals and it will calculate your macro nutrient and calorie goals.  At first I had set me level at lightly active and my calorie goal was pretty low.  After two weeks of losing over a pound and a half I was SO discouraged to gain a quarter of a pound the third week even though I had stuck exactly to my calories and exercise plan.  After talking to my Body Back instructor and my friend who had participated I decided to up my calorie goal by about 300 calories a day.  I also played with my macro nutrients (fat, carbs, and protein).  I found my sweet spot and felt energized and after that I lost about 3/4 of a pound to a 1 pound a week.

What really sets Body Back apart from other programs in my opinion is the camaraderie and support.  Each week you have a weigh in where the instructor can look over your food diary and talk to you about any struggles that you are having.  The class size is limited to 12 participants and there is a wonderful feeling of empowerment and lifting each other up as women trying to reach our goals.
Each week we would focus on some kind of emotional aspect of health such as stress, self love, friendship, etc. We would participate in discussions on these topics and for me it felt like a mini group therapy session where afterwards I felt supported and like I wasn't alone in my struggles.

The class always ended with a mini meditation that I looked forward to.  I found the guided meditations were helpful in my everyday life in learning to better manage stress and also in falling asleep at night.  As a side note, getting up at 5:30 am will help you fall asleep pretty quickly at night too.

We began the 8 week session by taking measurements, taking before pictures, and completing a fitness test.  At the end of the 8 weeks we did the same.  Here are my improvements.
Weight: 148.7 to 141.3
Chest: 35.75 to 34.5
Waist: 31.75 to 30
Butt: 38 to 38.25 (this went up but I consider it an improvement since we did a lot of booty work and it's looking more toned)
Thigh: 21 to 22 (I have chicken legs I attribute the gain to muscle, I'm totally pleased)

The fitness test was done by completing each excercise for a minute.
Burpees: 21 to 25
Bicep curls: 24 to 35
Plank: 2 minutes to 2:33
Push ups: 18 to 38
Sit ups: 26 to 28
Squats: 38 to 47
Side Plank: 55 sec to 1:08