Wow, I feel like I blinked and week 1 was already over. Where did that time go??
Let’s dive in.
What went well
Meals
Honestly, I feel like I smashed it this week. Coming from someone who drowns in anxiety over the idea of cooking, let alone trying to make something that’s remotely good for myself (not something quick and dirty to grab), the fact that I’ve been making meals, and not stressing super hard over them, is unreal.
Here’s a look at some of the meals I ate this week:
- Various protein smoothies (strawberry, blueberry etc) – some made with Maca powder, some with cashew spread
- Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie made with lentils instead of meat, with the top being a combo of cauliflower and potato mashed in together
- Open Mexican Chicken Burger (this was great to remind myself it’s very easy to just pan fry a bit of chicken breast and throw it on a sandwich)
- Open Spinach & Ricotta Sandwich for breakfast, which felt incredibly decadent and luxurious, and it was so good
- Warm Beef Vermicelli Salad – stop the press. I actually made this one for both my husband and I….meaning, I cooked for someone else! He said it was “nice”, which basically means “I have a list of 30 improvements I could make to this meal but it’s rare that you ever cook for me and I know it stresses you out so I’m going to keep my opinions to myself”. Thanks hubby.
- Cabonara, made with just egg and parmesan, no cream
- Buckwheat Pikelets with Blueberries, which I enjoyed far more than I expected
The beef vermicelli salad I did actually get my husband’s help with a bit. It was a night where I was extremely fatigued, where in times past I would just ignore my meal plan and go for something simple. On this occasion, I asked him to grill the steak for me while I focused on chopping up the veggies. So it was a team effort, but still a huge win for me mentally to not throw in the towel.
Workouts
There were only two days that I didn’t do a workout last week, and technically one of those days I did some yoga before I went to bed (but it doesn’t quite count).
That’s a huge step up from maybe 1-2 a week.
Even more when you factor in that all I used to do was treadmill work, and none of it was strength. This time, I’m following the workouts in the challenge:
- HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)
- Boxing
- Circuit
- Dance Fit
- Stretching/Yoga
I’ve also combined that with still walking on the treadmill, or taking the neighbour’s dog for walks. So my step count has been a lot higher than it has been for a while.
I’ve had to compensate for my knees for some exercises, but thanks to the hanging TRX straps we’ve got outside, I’ve been able to safely perform squats and lunges without too much grief on my knees. However, that does mean that I’m actually getting a great workout in…another way of saying that for three days it hurt to try and sit down on the toilet. Ohhhh I’ve missed the feeling of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).
It’s been freaking great to get back into the workouts.
What can be improved
Sleep
Hands down, my sleep needs improving. I’m waking up extremely drained, or sore, or in the middle of the night and unable to get back to sleep. Today I’ve got a massive knot in my shoulder and shoulder blade from sleeping wrong, which I’m trying to massage out.
I’m exhausted.
I think I’ve managed to figure out that it was a combination of my back and neck being super tight (I have scoliosis and see a chiro regularly), and my pillow being trash. I saw my chiro Friday, and tonight I’m swapping out my pillow so that should hopefully address that one. I’m also going to start spraying magnesium on my feet before bed too.
I already put away my phone well before bed, and I’m reading my kindle now instead. I go to bed at a reasonable hour, and I also use mute on my nose to open my airways.
Fingers crossed I get some better sleep this week.
What brought me joy this week
The dance workout! I have absolutely no photos or videos to show (for good reason, I’m very uncoordinated), but trust me on this one.
It came after a night out with my sister to go see a band in Brisbane, which I got home late for. I got to bed just before 1am, and was awoken by my fam just after 5.30am, so I was lacking sleep (always what you want after a week of shite sleep, as mentioned above).
I knew that if I didn’t do a workout first thing in the morning it wasn’t getting done, so imagine how excited I was to discover it was a dance workout.
With songs from Kenny Loggins (Footloose), Britney Spears (Work It), Jennifer Lopez (Let’s Get Loud), and Tones and I (Dance Monkey), it was the total pick-me-up that I needed. What a way to burn some energy and start the day!
Round Up
I haven’t weighed in yet, I’ll be doing that Mondays (aka a full week after the challenge started). But I can already see that I’m feeling less bloated, and the heartburn I typically feel before bed has calmed down a lot.
I do already have some thoughts about the app which I want to cover in a full review, but here they are for now:
- The one-click link to add your grocery shopping list to your woolies cart is hit and miss. Luckily I realised I was missing some things and was able to go and add them, but that could have been super annoying.
- There are inconsistencies in the app on how to swap meals, so sometimes it can be confusing.
- When you swap your breakfast you get a prompt “do you want to eat this every day?” It’s annoying. I don’t want to eat the same thing every day, but I would love if you could just swap that meal during the week. If I have it three times and I swap once, give me the option to replace the other two times with a single click.
- I wish I could select no seafood, because ick.
Overall, it’s been a great start to the challenge and I’m really enjoying it so far!