Home » Operation Beach Body Is In Effect #NYLean25 – Week One

Operation Beach Body Is In Effect #NYLean25 – Week One

[ 2 ] April 7, 2011 | Gangstarr Girl

Ok, so I know it’s random of me to not have blogged for months but then all of a sudden pop up with some random post about beach bodies and such, but c’est la vie. Anyway, a lot has been going on with me for the past few months, some of which as forced me to be better about my health. It’s a long story that I will have to break up into smaller stories (ie.various blog posts), which will happen at some point but I digress.

About that beach body that I want…

I grew up an active child. I ran track in elementary school, played kickball any and everywhere whenever I could, climbed and swung on monkey bars like I was actually a monkey, and took dance lessons. Yet, I took for granted how fit I was. I started dance lessons at age 5 (once a week) and by the time I was 17 I was dancing about four times a week, sometimes for hours so I managed to stay in decent enough shape in terms of endurance and muscle strength. However, my diet sucked and as a result I was still a little heavier than I’d like to be (at the time, I didn’t know anything about nutrition and reading labels, and eating fresh food).

By the time I got to college, I didn’t really dance much except for a show here or there, parties (which don’t really count) and a tap dance troupe. After college I stopped being active for a few years and then I got asked to participate in BAM DanceAfrica in 2008. Because of BAM, I was back on a rigorous dance schedule and by that time in my life, I was eating a little better so my weight was in a decent place. BAM DanceAfrica took place in May 2008 (Memorial Weekend) and after that, my active life style went downhill again (way down). So let’s fast foward to Fall 2011. I got weighed for the first time in three years and discovered that I had gained 30 lbs…d’oh!

No bueno. I have asthma, allergic rhinitis (look it up, or just wait until another blog where I explain that situation) and I’m overweight. Jeez Louise. I wasn’t happy about being uncomfortable and borderline God knows what other diseases (hypertension runs in my family) so I decided to make some changes, but for real this time (*Cue “Man in the Mirror”). I started making changes in my food choices (some at the request of my allergist) to help manage my symptoms (because I’m not Ia fan of taking four different meds a day and side effects) and I started going to the gym again. That was at the end of January.

On Friday, I started a new program called NY Lean 25. The easiest way to describe it is that it’s the abbreviated version of p90x or the Insanity workouts. It was created by Robert Brace (more on him and the program later) and the idea is that all you need is three days a week for 6 weeks and 25 minutes each day, and he will whip you into shape as long as you follow either his diet, or a decent diet in general (more on that too). Friday (April Fool’s Day) was the kick off of Blogger Madness. I’m typing this on Wed night and since Friday I have lost 3 lbs (mind you, I missed Monday’s work out, and haven’t even been to the gym since the kick off). #Awesome.

I am now 17 lbs lighter than I was in January. I have about 15 more to go but I’m excited that my clothes are beginning to fit again (I was wearing leggings all the time because nothing else really fit right) and I’m excited about NY Lean. I’m going to skip all the formalities and not post a before and after picture however, there are other bloggers participating who are doing that so I will link you to them at some point, or you can also just take my word for it that not even a week into the program, I am already a believer. Again, there will be more to come about the program over the course of the month. This blog is just a preliminary so that I can begin to get all the thoughts out of my head that have been floating around for a while.

I wasn’t feeling blogging for reasons I won’t share but I’m back, and that’s what matters. New me, new direction. Stay tuned.

And as far as NY Lean, there’s so much that I want to say that I really just need to vlog instead of write. That will come but in the meantime, check out this video to get a better understanding of the program: