For those of you who follow along on Facebook, you know by now that I broke my ankle last weekend. This is especially depressing considering how committed I’ve been to my gym routine at Orangetheory Fitness for the last four months, and I’m working hard on the food side of things right now in hopes that my forced downtime doesn’t completely derail all of the awesome progress I’ve made.
But, wait! You can also check out my newest post: Does Orangetheory Fitness Work?
Just before my accident, I participated in OTF’s six-week body transformation challenge. It was a pretty fantastic way to stay accountable and huge motivation to dig in and go for some personal bests along the way.
I had seen such massive gains in my heart health and overall stamina in the first three months at OTF that I decided to start transitioning from a power walker to a jogger — and the challenge seemed like the perfect opportunity to go for it.
All of the participants were broken into teams headed up by each of the coaches. My coach (Alexis, whom I adore) even created a private Facebook group for her team and shared tips, recipes and encouragement along the way.
It’s important to point out that we were not being judged on weight loss. And that’s because weight is a really tricky indicator of health or improvements to one’s health. Instead, we were challenged to reduce inches and the winners were ultimately selected based on a series of photos and measurements taken at three intervals throughout the six weeks.
Despite a week-long trip to the Calgary Stampede where I ate the entire Midway — which fell exactly halfway through the challenge — I still managed to lose about an inch off of my arms, two more inches off of my waist and another 1.5 inches off my thighs. IN SIX WEEKS!
You can see the biggest differences circled. I still have a lot of work to do on all that back fat, and reducing belly/waist fat is my biggest priority moving forward, but seeing improvements like this is really encouraging.
Yes, I was working out diligently — at least four to five days a week — and eating well, including a daily green-based protein smoothie in place of a meal plus recovery protein bars after each workout. I was eating healthy snacks. But I wasn’t starving myself by any stretch and I had that week-long vacation plus another long weekend vacation thrown in where I indulged. (Wine included!)
I didn’t “win,” but this six-week challenge proves that you can see real results in a very short period of time.
I’m excited to get this broken ankle chapter over and done with so I can get back to OTF. I miss the people, I miss the satisfied feeling I get after I finish a class and I miss tracking the progress I’ve been making in both my in-class abilities and the extra room in all of my clothes!
Fingers crossed, I’ll be back before the official end of summer. In the meantime, you should totally go check out your local Orangetheory location and see what all the fuss is about. The hype is real, people.
DISCLAIMER: I’m partnering with OTF for the year.
kathy downey says
You have made such great progress,once your ankle heals you can continue,you look great!
kathy downey says
You have made such great progress,once your ankle heals you can continue,you look great!