Fitness Fridays: Workout Routine

You may not know this because you don't know me but I used to be really heavy. I am 5'6" tall and at my heaviest, I weighed about 231 lbs. I have always been a heavy person. I was always the chubby little girl and then the fat kid but when I became a teenager, the fat sort of proportioned itself in the right places and I was considered "thick". I was happy to be considered thick. In the black community, when a girl is thick, this means that she has a large butt and thighs (both good things) with a waist that is smaller in proportion Yes, I was a big girl but I was very curvaceous. However, no matter how hard I would try to hide it, I was unhappy. I felt fat and not like a curvalicious diva. I was unhealthy and I was in my mid 20s with high blood pressure and gastrointestinal disease. I was out of shape. I felt like a cow and I really wanted to change but I wasn't honest with myself. Furthermore in my early 20s, I lost about 60 lbs (through natural and unnatural methods) and I hated the way that my body looked. I lost all my butt and legs. I became top heavy. I was all boobs and I still had my stomach. To further explain my prior weight loss methods, I would exercise everyday and starve myself. I went to one of those "weight-loss doctors" and he used to give me Phentermine (super crazy appetite suppressants), water pills and weekly shot in my butt that contained B12 and some other crap that was supposed to boost my metabolism. Listen, it worked. I was dropping 5-10 lbs a week and even when the weight loss slowed down, I was still losing about 2-3 lbs a week. However, I didn't like the shape that my body developed into and I didn't really feel healthy because I was filling my body with these strong chemicals. Then I started law school and I became too busy to concentrate on starving myself. Although, I have to admit that the Phentermine makes you hate the idea of eating. It is serious (and dangerous). Once in law school, I stopped taking all of that stuff because I needed to be able to focus (the drugs made me feel like I was in a fog all day) and I started eating. These are all good things but it would have been nice if I continued to exercise. I didn't and naturally, I gained back all the weight (and more). However, shortly after started law school, I met Joseph and he loved fat Tiffani (at least that is what he said) and it is always easier to be fat when someone loves you.

All my health problems came back but so did my booty!! So I was willing to deal. However, I eventually just got tired of it again. I was tired of every doctor telling me that I needed to lose a few pounds. It wasn't until, I went to my primary care doctor and he threatened to put me on blood pressure meds. A week later, I went to my Gastroenterologist and he said that my stomach issues would improve if I lost a few pounds and about 2 weeks after that my freaking Gynecologist jumped on the blood pressure band wagon and threatened to take me off of my birth control pills because they have a hormone that increases blood pressure (not sure if it is estrogen or progesterone). This was really hard on my moral and they were right...it was time.

So I decided to try to lose weight the right way. I kept seeing Jennifer Hudson on tv and people used to say that I looked like her when I was fat...so maybe I could look like her (or better) when I am skinny. So I joined weight watcher online. However, this is not a post about how great Weight Watchers is...I will save my WW tips for another Friday). This is a post about my fitness routine.

When I started working out, I was doing random Jillian Michaels' DVDs. I did "30 Day Shred", "Ripped in 30", "6 Week Six-Pack" and "No More Trouble Zones". I lost about 40-50 lbs by sticking to my weight watchers and working out with my DVDs. Then I saw an infomercial for Jillian Michaels' Body Revolution (this is still fairly new. It is a 90 day intense workout program that is a combination of circuit training, cardio and abs. Each workout is roughly 30 minutes (sometimes a few minutes longer with warm up and cool down). If you follow the program, you will work the front of your body 2 days a week, the back of your body 2 days a week and cardio 2 days a week. The program requires you to workout 6 days a week with one day of rest. I did the complete Body Revolution program 2 times and I started to notice a lot of definition in my shoulders, arms, and legs. I was starting to become toned and I lost inches.

However, I decided that I needed a change. I needed a challenge. Joseph, my fiance, had previously purchased Shaun T's Insanity. He started doing Insanity strong but quit after a few days but in Joseph's defense...it is really hard...ha! No seriously, it is really hard. Insanity is a 60 day program (there is 1 recovery week in between the 1st and 2nd month). Insanity is pure cardio circuit training and there are no weights involved (unless you get the deluxe program). However, it is probably some of the hardest cardio that most people will ever do. I promise that you will be dripping, if you really push yourself during any of the Insanity workouts. While doing Insanity, I burned a ton of calories and lost a lot of weight. I did Insanity 4 times from beginning to end.

 

And then came the plateau. I plateaued and was no longer losing weight after my second time of doing Insanity but I continued to do it and didn't make any changes to my diet or exercise regimen because I didn't know what else to do. I knew that I needed to add more weight lifting to my regimen but the cardio in Insanity was so intense that I thought if I did something less intense, then I would gain weight. I am so afraid to gain weight. I wanted a program that combined the intense cardio of Insanity with the weight training from Jillian Michael's body revolution. So, I decided to combine them and below is my current workout routine.



Weekly Workout Routine:
Sunday: Body Revolution  (circuit video and cardio video, which is about an hour of exercise)
Monday: Body Revolution (circuit and cardio, 1 hour)
Tuesday: Insanity (any of the videos, usually the videos for month 2)
Wednesday: Body Revolution (circuit and cardio, 1 hour)
Thursday: Body Revolution (circuit and cardio, 1 hour)
Friday: Insanity (any video)
Saturday: sometimes I rest, other times I do Shaun T's 20 minute workout, "Fast and Furious".

So far, I have been having pretty good results with this combination. I have some type of cardio at least 6 times a week and weight training 4 times a week. I know that I should definitely take a rest day every week but I get a little obsessive about working out. It is amazing to see your body change. I am even starting to see definition in my abs. I do not have a six-pack but I have the beginning stages of a 4 pack. The problem is that I still have a little pooch/pouch over my lower abs. It is so frustrating because I try to eat fairly healthy and I workout extremely hard but the pooch is still there. It is much better than it was when I started working out but it is still there. To amp up my above workout routine, I have added wrist and ankle weights while doing the Insanity and Body Revolution workouts. I am only working with about a pound and a half on each arm and leg but let me tell you, it definitely makes these already difficult workouts significantly harder. Sometimes, I think that I may be pushing myself a little too hard but then other times, I think that I should step up the weights in my ankle and wrist weights and hopefully increase my results. To date, I have lost over 70 lbs and I have come such a long way from where I started but I am still chasing that ever elusive six-pack. Maybe one day, I will either achieve the six-pack or I'll accept that my body is perfect just the way that it is.

Overall, I love the feeling of being someone that worksout. I have workedout 6-7 days a week for the past 2 years straight and I feel like a new person. Gone is that fat girl that I used to hide inside of. But losing weight does not solve all of your problems or change who you are. It just allows your inner self to shine. So I will continue to keep you updated on my progress and hopefully one day I will have courage to post a pic pf my new body on this blog. Until my next post...