Anyone who knows me, knows I like a good challenge. Tricia and another talented instructor, Deb, started a 6 Week Weight Loss program about 6 years ago. Although it is called a weight loss program, the intent is the help all of us work to improve our fitness, nutrition and general lifestyle habits for 6 weeks with the hopes that these changes stick after the 6 weeks. I figured, why not give it a try?! While I am lucky enough to love to workout, the concept of balanced meals and healthy eating is lost on me.
So going into this 6 week challenge, I had 3 goals:
1. Build Strength - specifically upper body and core
2. Pull back on the wine consumption ( apparently 3-4 glasses of rose a night is NOT good for you!)
3. Cut back on the sugar (I truly believe that having dessert after every meal, even breakfast, is a necessity!)
The good news was, my coach, Jessie, is a certified trainer and super meal prep guru!! I knew she would give me some great tips on how to eat healthy and avoid the sweets!
I have to be honest, walking into this, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. This was a classic example of Susan trusting the people she respects without asking a lot of question!! Tricia said it would be amazing, I took her word for it, and signed up!! So walking into the kickoff meeting at Denali was a bit of an eye opener. First off, the ice breaker was a WORKOUT, I mean true workout. Jessie and Brittany (our coaches), came up with a great game. Each person would introduce themselves and then introduce a favorite move. We would all say their name and repeat the move 4 times. Of course it's fun for the first 2 or 3 rounds but by the 5th round of squat jumps, I was wondering why I even bothered to go to 6 AM cycle!! I ended up sweating almost as much as I do in Tabata!
After the ice breaker, Tricia, Deb, Jessie and Brittany gave us a run down of the next 6 weeks. What I loved about it was their approach. They were entirely realistic and understanding that we were all coming from different places, different goals, different challenges. The program introduces one nutrition and one fitness challenge per week. Of course Kristin (my cycle instructor and fellow wine lover who also signed up for the challenge) pretty much said it all " PLEASE do not take my wine away until the last week!!!!!" Well, guess what the challenges for the first week are? Only 2 (YES, TWO) glasses of wine per week and workout 5-6 times a week. Now let's be real, a glass of wine is 8 oz. which in my house is 1/3 of a glass of wine :( Which means, I would be having LESS than a glass of wine per week. Things were NOT looking so good!!
Fortunately, the next day was my check in with my amazing coach, Jessie. The check in included a few things:
1. Discussion around my goals
2. Measurements - Jessie weighed me and then measured my biceps, waist, hips and thigh
3. Strength and Fitness Baseline - this required me to do as many pushups as I could (literally, no limits no requirements, just go for as long as you can!!!) and then a timed one mile ride on the bike
What I appreciated more than anything was Jessie's realistic approach. I talked to her about the fact that I feel lucky enough to love working out but the reality is I struggle with snacking and wine. She and I chatted briefly about it and how I can reset my expectations to meet my goals. Little things like not going cold turkey but making small adjustments each week until I get where I want.
I'm looking forward to this journey and am grateful to have such amazing coaches, mentors and fellow team members to try this with me!!! I know this isn't a true Studio review but given this will be a big part of my life for the next 6 weeks, I'll be blogging about it!!!