Well I did it folks, another Asana Rebel program down! I just completed the 6 week Bikini Body set, and I am both proud, and amazed at what I’ve accomplished in six weeks.
I set out with different intentions in mind than I did with ‘Fatburn 1’ program. I knew that six weeks would bring me to the beginning of May, which was good timing. Next week is my Red Paw test, and I’ll be making a lot of dietary changes going forward, so I’ve spent the month being a lot more lax with my eating habits, and I needed a regular workout that was going to support that. I figured the bikini body would be high enough intensity, without having to redo Fatburn 1, or start Fatburn 2 before I was in a place with my diet I was happy starting that.
I have spent the past six weeks in a poorly constructed maintenance mode. I eat at odd hours, I’m drinking too much. I’ve had more ice cream in the past six weeks than I have in six months. I’ve been putting cream in my coffee almost every day which is something I haven’t done in years. I drink juice, eat second portions. The last week or two I’ve tried to dial back in anticipation for my tests next week, but I needed to make sure I was mitigating the damage I was doing, and as anticipated, Asana Rebel’s Bikini Body workouts were exactly what I needed.
The recommended format was four days a week, so that’s how I set it to build the program, supplementing with their others sets on my ‘rest days’. One of my missed days, March 22nd, happened in the first week of this program, but because of the flexibility of the schedule, and the ability to edit as the week progresses, I didn’t miss a day of the program, just my green dot for the day.
I had just finished the eight week Fatburn 1, and had done a program set every single day, and was supplementing with one, sometimes two or three other sets a day, as well as morning and evening yoga. I expected to have an easier time getting into the routine of this program, as the Fatburn program was relatively intense. Oh boy I could not have been more wrong. The intensity of the Fatburn program was built around an all body and balanced workout. The Bikini Body sets were built to target one area for the duration of the set, either upper body, core or legs. If I had accidently worked my lower body on my rest day, it was definitely a mistake, especially in the first two weeks.
One exercise that really stood out for me in this one, was the forearm side crunch/oblique crunch. The first time I did them, I almost had to pause the program to recover. Not only was I getting the burn in my side body and obliques, like you’re supposed to, but my incredibly locked hip flexors were not impressed with the movement. I absolutely dreaded them, and thankfully they didn’t move through the rotation of exercises too often. However, this past weekend when my sister visited me, we were demonstrating some of our favourite, and our most hated exercises, and I showed her the oblique crunch, and low and behold, six weeks of targeting those areas, I couldn’t remember what I hated so much. My movement was strong and fluid, and while I got a healthy side body burn, the pain in my hips were gone, and my arm doesn’t shake holding me up anymore. It was the reminder I needed that with consistency, comes strength and progress.
As for my weight loss over the six weeks, this was completely a maintenance set. I have been holding steady at 137lbs, surprisingly, considering my poor eating habits, and the fact that I abandoned doing yoga twice a day. I think the next four weeks, while I complete the Strong Back program will be more the same. Right now, my primary focus is just going to be strength and maintenance, especially once I get my allergy test results back. If I have a lot of big changes to make to my diet, anything more than basic fitness might be more detrimental to my body than helpful, so until I know what I need to cut out, I’m hesitant to go too hard. Once I get those results though, and see what changes I need to make, I’m looking forward to getting back at it, and going hard on the Fatburn 2 program to try to reach my ‘130 by 30’ goal.
I go for my Red Paw tests next Wednesday morning, unfortunately not really giving me enough time to reflect and write about it. Anna is going to pop in with a Wellness post I know she’s been dying to share with you all though, so look for that!
Until next!
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