80 Day Obsession - Week One

I made it through week one of 80 Day Obsession! Week one was full of learning, ups and downs, meal prep, timed meals, intense workouts, challenging new moves, delicious combinations, random things thrown together, early bedtimes, dishes, epsom salt baths and a few tears - but I made it.

The Workouts

The workouts in 80 Day Obsession are intense! This week ranged from 31 minutes to 60 minutes, with most of them being on the side of 45-60 minutes. I was definitely challenged by the movements, range of motion, and intensity.

Total Body Core kicked off the week with a full body workout that engaged the core with each movement. It was a swift kick in the pants but felt great to get started.

Booty focused on, well, the booty and incorporated lots of crazy movements with the resistance loops to target different parts of the booty. It hurt for a few days. 

Cardio Core alternated low and high intensity cardio with tough core moves and it certainly challenged me! 

AAA (Abs Arms and A**) was probably my favourite workout of the week. I really enjoyed the focus on these three areas, the moves and the flow of the workout. It also seemed to go by the fastest, which was a plus. 

Legs - one thing to know about trainer Autumn Calabrese is that she loves working legs whenever she can and it's her favourite day. As I write this post, I can still feel the impact of leg day!!

Cardio Flow was a challenge, especially when I learned that we would be repeating this workout every week and that in week 5 we would increase the number of reps we do, and then again in week 9.

Roll & Release included some helpful guidance for stretches with a foam roller - totally necessary after this crazy week! It's kind of a bonus since Sunday is a rest day, but definitely provided some love for my poor muscles.

The Meal Plan

The 80 Day Obsession meal plan was a really good thing for me. I can fall into a pattern where my eating is really great, but then lots of little treats and extras start to creep their way in. Following this meal plan this week has certainly broke me away from the little treats and extras, and has helped me to focus on eating nutritious food to fuel my workouts.

It felt like more food than I would normally eat, and I'm working to adjust myself to eating a meal first thing in the morning before my workout. I followed the meal plan that I created, but by the end of the week my meals ended up being random combinations of foods that fit into my allotted containers. One thing that helped me to be successful was to keep things simple! I heard this advice before I started the program and I'm glad that I listened. 

I also found that doing a bit of meal prep on Sunday made a big, big difference. I'm going to continue meal prepping, even just a little bit each week as I found it to be really helpful to my success in following the meal plan and my own sanity. On the days I was at the office for work, I packed a large lunch bag with up to 4 meals for the day. When I was home, I followed my set meal times and grabbed what I needed when it was time. Having a plan was key and I enjoyed my meals throughout the week.

I decided to keep things simple again for week 2. I have a couple of meals out this week (last week there was just one) but I feel confident in following my plan and sticking to my plan. I may just be the gal busting out the rainbow containers at a restaurant so that I know I get my portions right.

The Rest

Getting up at 6am on weekdays got easier as the week went on and my body fell into a routine. I found that by the end of each day I was absolutely pooped, so I was clocking a solid 8-9 hours of sleep each night. Autumn talks about the importance of sleep all the time and I found it best to listen to my body - I needed those zzz's.

I didn't have a tonne of social situations this week, so there was very little sneaky food to avoid. I did say no to a gluten free muffin. There was one night I found myself wanting to eat, pretty much for something to do, so I just had a cup of tea. I felt satiated most of the time, so wanting to reach for snacks was mostly mental instead of physical.

Most days I had a lot of energy. The exception to that was after leg day. I had gotten a little less sleep than I had wanted and the workout just tuckered me out. I had a short nap midday and that seemed to do the trick. I find that I start powering down a bit before meals, but I'm getting into the groove and know that I want to stay within that 2-3 hour meal window.

I cried a couple of times during the week, which wasn't very surprising because it's often how I express my feelings. Twice on the first day when I was listening to an inspiring video from Autumn, and then again when Eminem's Lose Yourself came on. (who knew Slim Shady would have such an impact on my feelings?) There were some other tears during one of the workouts that was particularly tough and then on Sunday I just found myself having a low energy, sad day.

I know that this can be a tough time of year for me and that I'm doing something more extreme than usual. I'm challenging my physical and emotional fitness, so Sunday made a lot of sense to me even though it was hard. I'm thankful for my boyfriend who has been doing everything he can to help and make things easier for me, sweet friends who continue to check in and the awesome gals in my January and 80 Day Obsession groups who inspire me every day. (We'd love for you to join us!)

Epsom salt baths are my new favourite thing and I think I'm going to have a love/hate relationship with my foam roller.

I'm really proud of completing week one and feel great about continuing onward with this program! There are parts that are going to get easier and more intuitive (following the meal plan, knowing how to take care of my body, finding joy in the process) and also parts that are going to get tougher from here (pretty much anything related to the workouts!!) I'm thankful for this process and look forward to how I feel at the end of week 2.

If you want to follow along my daily adventures with this program, I've been sharing a lot via Instagram - you can follow me @ashleydtl or on Facebook. Would love to connect with you there!

80 Day Obsession: Day One

Today marks day one of my 80 Day Obsession journey. 80 Day Obsession is a brand new workout program from Autumn Calabrese (creator of 21 Day Fix, 21 Day Fix Extreme, Country Heat and Hammer Chisel). The program targets your abs and booty over the course of 80 different workouts spread out over 13 weeks (6 workouts each week), along with a detailed timed-nutrition plan. I have been actively watching the results from coaches who were in the first test group over the last few months, and they've really inspired me. I can't wait to jump into something completely new and challenging to kick start this year.

That being said, I'm pretty nervous! This is completely outside my comfort zone - longer workouts, targeting my most challenging area (my core), 80 different workouts, the longest fitness program I've done, along with the timed nutrition plan. Thankfully there is lots of delicious, nutrient-dense food on the plan, but it does require some time and prep to make it happen.

I was like a little sponge this week, learning everything I could about this program - printing off my materials, reading and highlighting, watching videos and reading blog posts. I'm already obsessed! The workouts use resistance loops, sliders and weights, and thankfully I've gotten a bit of practice with all of the equipment doing 5 days of a prep workout. 80 unique workouts for an online fitness program is unheard of, so it's going to be really cool to see how the workouts progress over time and become more challenging.

The meal plan is a huge part of the program and it's going to take some getting used to. I spent the weekend getting ready by grocery shopping, meal prepping in addition to taking before photos and measurements.

I'm not normally a huge meal prepper. I'm good at planning meals and grocery shopping, but I don't usually set out time in advance to get things ready. That being said, the times I have done some prep, it's been a huge help to my week! So for 80 Day Obsession, meal prep is just going to be a part of my life, and it certainly was this weekend.

Following the advice of the test group participants, I did my best to follow the nutrition plan as written, keep things simple and choose foods I enjoy. I added in a few new recipes to try (including some quinoa egg cups for easy morning meals) but there's really nothing fancy on my plan for the week. To give you an idea of what my meal plan looks like, here's a sample day for my first week.

It feels exciting to be kicking off the year with a brand new program and an amazing group of people doing it with me! I'm part of an epic coach test group with more than 40,000 coaches taking part, and I've got a small and mighty group of gals who are jumping into the program in our own private group. I'm already so inspired by their motivation and commitment to the program - it's going to be an awesome journey with all of them. I'm planning to share my journey with the program here on the blog and through social media. I want to inspire others to feel their very best this year and hope that it will be an additional way for me to be accountable.

I'm ready to see some changes in my body, get stronger and truly go outside my comfort zone with this program. The workouts are going to be tough and they will progress over time. The nutrition plan is going to require some dedication in addition to all the planning (did I mention there's no booze or much sugar happening during this program!?) I'm doing it to prove to myself that I can, and hopefully achieve some awesome things in the process.

Over the course of the next 13 weeks, I'll be documenting my journey, nutrition and things I learn along the way. If this program piques your interest and you're not already working with a coach, please send me an email and we can chat about your health and fitness goals.

It's time to get obsessed!

2016 Year in Review

At the end of last year's year in review, I concluded by saying that I wanted to blog more, but that is actually what I did the very least of. There have been so many times where blog post has been written in my planner on my to-do list, but it's always fallen to the very end. So I'll start by saying that in 2017, I am going to write more. Let's start there.

Oh, 2016.

I know that I'm not alone when I say that 2016 was a tough year. For me personally, it was a doozy and while there were lots of really great things that happened, I'm really looking forward to a fresh start tomorrow.

When I look back on everything individually, I'm happy to report that there were definitely some good things that it's been nice to reflect on as I've sat down to write this post.

Over the course of the year, I got to travel to Nashville and NYC again, and also experienced my very first cruise. All 3 trips were amazing for all different reasons.

The cruise was awesome to take a break, see my Beachbody friends and experience something entirely different. It was so much fun to explore, partake in all sorts of activities, workout at dawn with my favourite trainers, have awesome nights out and of course, meet Stan the dolphin.

Being in Nashville again was just as much fun as the first time around. The energy at Summit is always infectious and I continue to cherish time with my Beachbody family. I loved exploring new parts of the city, getting re-energized about this biz and generally nerding out over all things Beachbody related. I also stayed in the sweetest airbnb on my last night with the most lovely host! It was a really really wonderful trip.

And NYC was exactly what I needed. This second half of the year has been rough, and I decided that a trip on my own would be good for my soul. I saw 5 shows in 3 days, ate all sorts of delicious food, visited with friends and relished the energy of my favourite city. A full recap of that trip is coming in the new year.

I continued my fitness journey, completing a variety of programs that were all very different! With all of the challenges I was facing, I found myself in a place where I wasn't feeling great about my body in this last half. I recently completed my first round of an MMA style program that re-ignited my excitement and gave me some incredible results in 30 days. I'm kicking 2017 off with round two and I'm pretty stoked to jump back in!

My work life has been awesome, but hectic. At MT, we said goodbye to a cherished team member, welcomed two amazing additions to the team, launched a charity cookbook, ran the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program and oh-so-much more. I was recently promoted to Operations Director and I am really looking forward to the things we're going to do in 2017.

Additionally, I've continued to grow my biz as a health and fitness coach and I still absolutely love it. Our groups continue to grow each month and I am looking forward to diving into 2017 with our January group. I'm looking forward to continuing to grow our team, developing myself as a leader and helping even more people feel like their very best selves in the new year.

I also got to celebrate the marriage of my best friend (& adopted little sister) Jessie over the summer. It was a beautiful wedding and I felt so blessed to be a part of her special day.

Amid all of that, I found time to ride Cecily around the city, meet Tony Horton and Shaun T, visit with friends, see incredible shows, share a post on xoJane that sorta went viral, Fringe it up, read some amazing books, create delicious meals and even perform too (videos here, here and here)

And I got another tattoo.

this too shall pass (courtesy of Aaron at Speakeasy Tattoo)

This couldn't have come at a more perfect time and continued to serve as a reminder as the year went on.

Right around the time that I got the tattoo, we went through some scary health stuff with my dad and then 2 months later, my nan suddenly passed away. I kept looking down at my arm and tried to remind myself that things would keep moving forward and that this too would pass.

A hard summer turned into a tough fall and an even more difficult holiday season. Corbin and I went through a hard time this year. After defining what some of the issues were, we went to therapy together and really tried to be a team as we faced our problems. I'm writing this post from my nearly packed up bedroom with empty walls and a handful of hangers still in the closet. We broke up a week before Christmas and I'm getting ready to move into my own place on January 1st.

It's still very raw and very sad. Our relationship was incredibly special and I will have a lot of great memories - many of which have been captured on this blog. I have a lot of love for Corbin and all that we've shared. I've also learned a lot about myself and what I need throughout this process. I didn't think it would end up this way, but I feel confident that we're both going to come out on the other side even stronger as individuals. It's so so hard, but it's the right thing for us at this moment.

So now I'm here on the 31st, feeling very ready to turn the page and begin again.

I'll spend the day finishing up packing and preparing to move into my new place tomorrow. I'm going to be living on my own for the first time and it feels very liberating, whilst also being scary unknown territory for me. I've been spending more time than usual on Pinterest and I'm looking forward to creating a space I can thrive in. Tonight I'll be ringing in the new year with friends and tomorrow I'll start a fresh page in my gratitude journal as we load my belongings onto a truck and into my new apartment.

In the past I've picked a word that would be the theme for the coming year but I'm not exactly sure what that should be for 2017 just yet. I think I need to sit with it before I make a choice (I may have just signed up for this email series to help as well). I haven't set goals or intentions either, though perhaps I need to get clearer on that, especially if I aspire to blog more in 2017. On that topic, writing this post has been cathartic - take note, future Ashley!

I feel very lucky to have had an incredible group of friends to support me through all of this. I know that I wouldn't be standing without their love and support.

While 2016 has not been my favourite year, I hope that in time I can reflect on all of the good and the fun that also happened in a year filled with tragedy, sadness and anxiety. I also now have a permanent reminder of some sage wisdom, and can look down at my arm in case I need a reminder.

Here's to new beginnings. Happy New Year, friends xo