Weekly Wrap | As Many Reps As Possible

AMRAP, as many reps as possible. I've seen this fitness term tossed around my social media for years and always felt a little intimidated by that kind of workout.

When AMRAP showed up in all of my strength training workouts last week, I figured it was finally time for me to give it a try. And, you know what? It wasn't bad at all. My body and my mind were clearly ready for a new challenge.

This got me thinking. Timing is everything.

Last week things just seemed to be falling into place. The timing was right for a lot of things in my life and it felt really good.

• I took on those timed AMRAP workouts like a champ 
• my FASTer Way To Fat Loss VIP group monthly topic is MINDSET. We're talking about the power of positive thinking and how to avoid the self-sabotage trap (I do this A LOT)
• I took a step toward learning something new (not quite ready to share what it is yet, but it is definitely something I have wanted to do for awhile and now is the right time for me)

It was a good week all around. Here's a look at my workouts for the week:

Interval Training
I loved the workout space for Monday's HIIT workout! "Up by 10" is a tough one ---> I may have cheated on the in & outs and the plank pushups, but I still got in plenty of the total 550 reps! Tuesday's sprint workout seemed tame in comparison, but I still felt a good burn.

Strength Training
Like I said, first time doing AMRAP workouts. I don't know what I thought was so intimidating in the past, but I liked this type of workout. I was surprised to see how many or how few reps I could do in the timed portions. I also tried my new weight lifting gloves...I like the fit, but I'm on the fence on how I feel about wearing them.

Active Rest Days
For my Friday yoga session, I did Yoga with Adriene's Stretch and Soothe. We had perfect weather for our Sunday SUP session. I am so grateful that I've learned to embrace my active rest days. I used to think that I needed to work out EVERY day hard. I didn't realize that I was actually hurting my body. Making progress means taking rest days and giving your body time to recover.

Have you ever felt like something was perfect timing?

I’m linking up with Holly and Wendy for the Weekly Wrap!

Staying On Track

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It was another good week of carb cycling. mrC and I have been faithfully following the eating schedule and matching workouts from FASTer Way to Fat Loss®. Already we are seeing changes and feeling better. And we are having fun!

Monday and Tuesday were low carb days. I did one sprint swimming workout and one HIIT workout at home. My swimming sprints (25 meter freestyle sprint, 25 meter breaststroke recovery x10) were good. I was able to push myself on the sprints because I was the first one in the only lap lane. My HIIT workout was ok, but I didn't push myself as hard as I could have --> cue goal for next time.

Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday I did strength training. I have to admit that I am really enjoying using weights again. I've been going to the fitness center for these workouts because I need the variety of weights equipment and I'm trying to go heavy on leg day. It's still a learning process to figure what is too light versus too heavy. At the end of each session I add in a plank workout and on Thursday I swam 300 meters.

Friday and Sunday were active recovery. I did some yoga both days because my body needs that extra stretch session, but we also took our inflatable SUP boards out on Sunday. It was really windy so I got more of a workout than I anticipated, but it was still fun being on the boards.

We lost faith in the scale at the fitness center after getting vastly different readings one week apart. Instead, we decided to purchase a smart scale for home use and found this Mifit for a reasonable price. This smart scale shows more than just our weight. We now also know our body score which includes assessment of body fat, BMI, muscle, water, bone mass and more.

In terms of personal results, I focus mostly on how I feel in my clothes, but I am also a data junkie and like seeing the numbers confirm my progress. It also gives me another challenge to increase my muscle over fat percentage.

I’m linking up with Holly and Wendy for the Weekly Wrap!

Fitness Restart and Positive Sneak Peek!

My big plans to jump into post-vacation carb cycling with FASTer Way to Fat Loss® 100% to start off the week fell apart before the week even got started. Here's why:

1) I realized that I had round three of laser hair removal on Monday. If you have had this before then you know that the doctor recommends not sweating or being in the sun for 24-36 hours. I wish I could workout without sweating! Heck, I wish I could do anything around here without sweating! Not going to happen. That meant no low carb day workouts. Instead I ran some errands (including finally getting my hands on this cute HK tee from The Gap) and got my nails done.

I figured I would still EAT a low carb diet on those days, but...

2) we brought back some Hawaiian sweet rolls from the US and decided it was a good time to make crab dip ---> and we finally found all of the ingredients. It is not low carb but serious deliciousness. I guess you could say we splurged a little ;)

So my carb cycling re-start didn't go exactly as planned. It wasn't a complete failure though. I did continue to shorten my eating window and extend my fast each day.

On Tuesday afternoon I figured it was safe enough to go for a walk. We decided to check out a couple of villages (aka different residential development phases) that we haven't really explored yet. It was a beautiful day and we found some great views.

Just because things didn't go as planned doesn't mean I was giving up. Today I was back with a regular calorie day and a strength training workout. I did a double warm-up: first a 15 minute walk to the fitness center and then an easy run on the treadmill. I planned to run 10 minutes using 4:1 intervals, but after the second interval I just finished the mile.

The workout was a mix of legs, chest, triceps and shoulders. Today was the first day I was feeling back to normal after my big return to Bodypump last week. I made sure not to go too heavy on the weights.

On our way out the door, mrC decided to do a weigh-in, so I did too. I'm down 6 pounds from my FASTer Way to Fat Loss® start weight back in June! I'll be taking full measurements in about a week and a half, but I'm excited by the sneak peek. This program really works!

I really liked today's workout. It was a perfect way to jump back into strength training. A little post-workout cool down at the pool was also nice. It's so hot and the sun is so intense that I can only read about two chapters (and they're short) of my pool book between dips in the water and it's a really good book. It's my pool book because I only read paperbacks at the pool. I'm actually reading a different book on my Kindle app.

Here's a look at my regular calorie meals:

Broke fast around noon: turkey and Swiss roll-ups and pb&j apple cinnamon rice cakes.

Dinner: gluten free spaghetti and meatballs

Snacks: 3 mini York Peppermint Patties and some vanilla greek yogurt.


Have you ever had to restart a fitness plan?
Do you read two books at at time?