I'm trying (and mostly failing) not to complain about the winter, so all I'm going to say here is this: I am in the process of adjusting my life plan so that I work here from April to January, and then I leave and spend the first three to four months of every year travelling. Still not sure how that is going to work, but every day I have to wake up to winter makes me more and more focused on making that a reality.
And now, back to the focus of this blog, which is my transformation from Fat Anna to Fit Anna.
On Thursday, I went to a trial class of kickboxing fitness, which is not quite kickboxing, but is more like an exercise class in a kickboxing gym, and includes heavy bag work as part of the circuits. I loved it! I had a bit of a giggle because one of the circuit stations was a plank station, and we spent three minutes there doing 1- minute plank variations. I was good for the first minute, which was a regular plank, but when we moved to the variations, I had to take a couple of breaks. All in all, it was a good workout, I got to punch and knee some heavy bags, and the only thing that I am still feeling 4 days later are my calves from the skipping warm-up we did.
My personal conclusion? My Couch Potato program worked!!!!
And so, that is what I'm actually focusing on today in this blog entry.
Really quickly, before I get to that, I am on week 2 of my Beginner Program, which includes the following:
- 3 days of running (~25 minutes)
- 3 days of strength training
- 2 days of cross-training
- Planking every day (1 minute plank, 3/day)
- Yoga twice a day every day
- Meal plan - ~1500 calories/day
And now, more about the Couch Potato Program I followed.
I started with the standard Couch to 5K running program, added strength training on alternating days, yoga twice a day, and a daily plank.
Let me just say I am not a trained fitness anything, so in creating these programs, I am following my instincts based on 16 years of my own personal experience with various trainers, several books on strength-training, some martial arts, and some running.
My guiding principle is that as long as you start off easily and progress steadily, you are capable of great things. For me, that includes things like starting as a couch potato and running a 1/2 marathon within the year, or never having done a plank to being able to do multiple repetitions of plank variations each a minute or more. The only thing that I believe takes a long time is starting as a couch potato and becoming a competitive body builder. That kind of muscle development, if you are starting at nothing, takes a long time. That of course, is just my opinion, and having no desire to become a competitive body builder, I am not intending to figure out how long it takes to get there when you start at nothing.
I did not develop any of the individual programs I follow by myself. I found the running program (Google Couch to 5 k, or check out the link from the right-hand list of inspirational web sites), found a beginner's weight-lifting program I liked, after a little research determined that my yoga needs would be met by a beginner-level sun salutation routine, and with a little more research found an app that is perfect for me, and happened upon a plank challenge that I adapted. Then I took all of those and put them together into an 8-week program
In the end, this is what my Couch Potato Program looks like.
Fingers crossed that I never have to follow it again... I would much rather progress through the other programs I have cobbled together, moving towards that future Fit Anna, hiking through the mountains in Peru, up to Macchu Picchu for her 40th birthday.
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