In January I signed up for two different 15 day challenges, the 15 Day Fit Body Challenge by Trainer Lindsay and Crystal Paine’s 15 days to a Healthily You. I have really enjoyed both challenges – and while both are health related, they are both completely different.
Crystal Paine’s 15 days to a Healthily You
Let’s start with Crystal Paine’s course. I am a HUGE fan of Crystal’s blog, her books and her courses. I think I’ve taken them all – I know I’ve read all her books (at least once). This class was set up as a 15 day challenge, but it has lasted me much longer than that, and with each day we have little assignments or projects and honestly I am still working through a lot of these. The class really focused more on the whole health – it wasn’t a weight loss or fitness group, but your mental/spiritual/physical health. I LOVED it. A good friend and I took this together. And some of these days were rough! Jumping right into it, during day two we discussed what self care really looks like and what your soul really needs. This really brought up some big thoughts and I was so glad to have a friend to chat with about some of these assignments. This class has, and still does as I work through it, really made me sit down and think about how I live my life and what I can do to improve.
Taking care of ourselves is a gift we can give to others. Putting ourselves last hurts other people in the long run. -Crystal Paine
Maybe my favorite part of this class is the growing list of books that I now want to read, such as: The Fringe Hours (one of my favorite books, but one I want to reread now, Wild and Free, Finding Spiritual Whitespace, The Happiness Dare, Breaking Busy (which I bought a year ago and have been too busy to read!), and Food Freedom Forever.
Overall – I really loved her 15 days to a Healthier You course. I took it at my own pace and didn’t stick with the classes pace, but I am okay with that, because I am enjoying learning and growing from it. It’s one I am still working on and one that I will continue to work on.
15 Day Fit Body Challenge by Trainer Lindsay
So I LLOVVEEDD this challenge! I had a friend who put together a little facebook group of us who did this together and I really enjoyed it. It’s all free and super easy to follow since it is all laid out for you. Trainer Lindsay will email you the workouts and a meal plan in a file. I turned around and then printed my file and had it bound together at the little UPS store by my house – because it was super cheap to print and I loved having the recipes and meal plans right in my fingertips. I kept them out on my kitchen counter the whole time so it was easy to access and see exactly what I needed to eat and when.
Basically the diet plan is a low carb/high protein/healthy fat/carb cycling kinda mix. I think it’s really most similar to the Ketogenic diet, or a modified Atkins, which now that I’ve been researching it more and after reading more about it, I wonder if this would be good for my kids to eat too…we have epilepsy in the family. Trainer Lindsay really pushes the protein and believes that we don’t eat enough protein – which in my case, is probably really true. I had such hard time getting used to eating that much meat! But I’ll be honest, I sure missed my carbs!!!
Huge disclaimer – I did everything exact the first 15 days, with one exception, I never gave up my Diet Coke/Diet Dr. Pepper. I just couldn’t give up everything I loved at once. And now that I’ve trained my body to drink more water (something talked about in both this challenge and Crystal’s challenge) I haven’t had the desire or the time time to drink as much soda as I did prior to this. So to me it’s a win! I haven’t give it up, it’s my one vice that I love – and I know I’ve given it up in the past, but it’s just not something worth giving up right now.
Like I said, I did everything exact the first 15 days. There are just a few meal plan options in this free challenge (you can pay for a 60 day challenge that has more options) but I just cooked one meal (times 3) and then had everything ready for the next 3. Then the 4th day I would switch it up and try another day. YES – this means for 15 days I did kinda eat the same thing over and over. But the recipes were really good tasting and I enjoyed them. (I can totally share my favorites if you want!)
YES – my husband thought I was crazy and the rest of the family did NOT want to play long….so YES, I did prep my food and make dinner for my family too. It was a lot of work! I did the challenge a second time around and mixed and matched and was a lot more relaxed and allowed myself more cheat meals than maybe I should have. But I really tried to stay true to healthier options, drinking more waters, always did the workouts, and tried to push more protein. And was it work it?
YES! I totally loved it!
The workouts are short (under 20 minute) and have plenty of breaks and are easy to follow. The first 15 days I’m embarrassed to admit that 2 pound weights were hard for me, but the second time around I moved up to 5 pound weights. The first time around I did ever single work out – and occasionally threw in a run too. But the second time around I did cut down to half a work out on the days I did a longer run. It’s been nice to have a little bit of cross training activity – something besides running that I actually enjoy.
For this challenge I had to weigh in, take measurements and before and after pictures. HA! I am not going to post those! Somehow, my measurements stayed the same BUT…I lost 6 pounds this last month and I feel way stronger! I believe a lot of it has to do with that fact that I have now trained my body and can drink a gallon of water each day. But it has been really rewarding to see those pounds gone and seriously – I feel so much stronger!
also – ps, the Ideal Lean protein shake is one of the best ones I’ve tasted and NO this is not an affiliated link at all, I just LOVE this stuff. It has zero sugar and they have some really great recipes with it too on their website. I loved having a little chocolate mug cake made with it at night when my sweet tooth was having a craving – and I don’t feel bad because it’s really really not bad!
Final Thoughts:
In the end I totally loved both challenges. I’ve really loved learning some new things about myself and trying new things. I would LOVE to do the 15 day Fit Body challenge again with friends, so if you are interested let me know!
