Reflections On The Beginning
For those of you, dear reader, doing Tone It Up's Bikini Series today marks day eight, the beginning of week two. One week down, seven to go. An ideal time to reflect, in my opinion. To do so, though, I need to go a little further back. As you know, my TIU journey began a year ago, just in time for the 2016 Bikini Series and the remainder of the year was spent bouncing around between jobs and continents - which marks a story for another day - and is only relevant because it influenced my health & fitness journey. I spent several months staying with my father, financially strapped (moving continents ain't cheap, folks) and so, only partially following the Plan. More than anything, though, my workout moral flagged. I was an avid spin class gal - gotta LOVE those, right! - but was lazier about the rest, especially towards the end of #LookForLove and through March. The irony being, that that marked the return to my own apartment, as well (and consequently the loss of spin classes... I'm still sad).
In April, I recommitted to the Daily Moves (that they then decided to take away... color me confused!) and spent the first ten days sore as.... well, you get the picture. I hobbled and refrained from laughing - and loved every minute of it! As the start to the Bikini Series approached, the sore muscles receeded. The morning Booty Call became more routine and I was eating more regularly (I have a bad habit of forgetting a meal or two, sometimes).
April 24, 2017 marked the start of the Bikini Series. I kicked Booty Call booty with an early morning jog and the Daily Moves, despite the frigid temps. I ate lean, clean & green (hello, delicious spirulina superfood smoothie) and knocked out a PMWO (the HQ conference WO and an Aaptiv core WO). The week continued and while I did have a couple rice cakes topped with dark chocolate, I also fell in love with tahini, doscovered a peanut butter jar as big as my head, got the swweetest thank you package from a fellow TIU girl, made it to both live workouts, got my bundle, completed Popsugar Fitness' 21 Day Arm-Sculpting Challenge - and got the shittiest job news on Wednesday. While the job stuff is worthy of another post, what I didn't have was sore muscles.... and I'm almost a little dissapointed. Go figure. Getting myself back into gear at the beginning of April was paying off.
I did every workout on the schedule, except a 20-min jog on Friday and managed to knock out five of six Week 1 goals. One of these goals was to journal daily. I opted to do this in an abbreviated format - a page in my bullet journal for the week - so as not to overload myself. A sentence or two each day seemed to make sense; taking a moment in evening to assess. I missed one day - Friday - and only wrote one line on Wednesday, but I am calling it a win.
Overall, I'd say the lifestyle continues, as it should. This isn't a diet, this isn't about the next eight weeks - this is about forever. That said, I do LOVE, LOVE, LOVE (yes, the shouty-capitals-knd-of-love) the energy that buzzes around the #TIUteam during the Bikini Series. It is so much fun!
Here's to a successful Week 2 - remember it is not about a temporary diet, or calories, failing or succeeding - it's about making yourself a priority, it's about being generous with yourself and picking up each day as if yesterday, however more or less successful, never was. Every day is a day to change yourself and your surroundings. We've got this, team.
xx
