Keep It Interesting - What haven't you tried?

After a lot of careful thought - I decided to make an investment in a circuit training program. I did a lot of research, talked to people who had completed different versions and ended up going with ChaLEAN Extreme. Now, I'm probably a LITTLE biased because I heart Chalene Johnson and think that her workouts are fantastic (check them out at www.turbokick.com).

I'm at the point where, I'm doing almost everything I can to get healthy. I'm not perfect at it, but I prepare healthy meals, keep eating out at a minimum (good for the wallet and the belly), I have workouts scheduled on my outlook calendar/blackberry phone everyday to keep me aware of my fitness goals. I'll lose weight and then hit a plateau.

Don't you hate that? So i'm finally back at my "more normal weight" - you know, the one where you don't feel like you are enormous but you still want to lose a bit more. But this is where i always plateau. This is right around the weight i was in highschool and even then i wanted to lose 15 pounds or so.

Here i am again. This time - i had to ask myself, what is it that i am NOT doing. It was a little exasperating if i'm being honest. I definitely have those moments of "This is too hard." "I'm working hard and not seeing any results so I'll just quit."

But ultimately - I have come too far (AND SO HAVE YOU!) to quit now. If you give up on your workouts even for just a few days, coming back will be hard all over again. So just stay consistent.

This brings me to the whole "Keep it interesting" concept. I like variety in my workouts - I do TurboKick on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursday (one is a class I participate in, another is me practicing for when i actually teach the next day), Hip Hop Hustle on Tuesdays, and i was doing a little bit of weightlifting for my upper body 2x a week.

But i was just not impressed with myself when it came to the weight lifting. In the end - muscle burns fat. Just sitting here on my butt at my office I am literally going to burn more fat when i have more muscle. So i decided that i needed to not just switch things up - but to integrate something totally different into my fitness program.

ChaLEAN Extreme was my answer. I bought the program, got some starting weights and completed my fitness test over the weekend. I started circuit #1 on Monday and have been following her "workout calendar." So having ALMOST completed the first week of the program i have to say - this has gotta work. This is different enough from anything i was doing before that I'm SUPER curious to see the end result.

And curiosity in this case has me hooked. I'm curious if i stick with this and all the other things i'm doing to be healthy - will i finally break through? And oh my goodness - will i hit a new goal weight, body fat goal, and look pretty awesome this summer in a sleeveless top?

Well, I just might. So i've made the commitment to get up at 6am every morning to fit this into my schedule. I am NOT a morning person by the way. But that's what pushing yourself is all about. You have to be open to change to be changed.

If you are stuck, you've got to try something new to get out of it. Sometimes it might be a little scary, more of an investment than you initially wanted. Whatever the excuse, just push past it and make your move. What is it that you are NOT doing?

Why haven't you started doing it yet? Aren't you curious what could happen if you just tried it out? I'll be checking back in with results from ChaLEAN Extreme. And that's right - i'm 100% confident i'll see change. Because i'm open to it, i'm ready for it and i'm okay with working hard for it.