September Shape Up: Blake’s Week 1 Progress Report

Blake has completed her first week of my September Shape Up plan!  In case you missed last week’s post providing an overview of the plan, CLICK HERE  to catch up!  Blake is my rock-star lawyer and fit friend who has decided to take the challenge head on!  She’s living proof that it’s possible to make time for you health and fitness despite a tough work schedule and lots of travel.  She’s gotten some inspiring results in her first week.  Below is a summary of her progress.  You can get more details on her blog http://www.binanutshell.com/

Blake’s Week 1 Progress Report (in her own words)

I’m feeling a little zippier and giving up dinner has been way less difficult than I anticipated. At the beginning of the challenge I weighed in at 168.0 and when I stepped on the scale this morning I was at 165.9. That’s a loss of 2.1 pounds!

Surprisingly for the most part kicking my diet into gear may have been the easiest of Brit’s tasks. I swapped three dinners for smoothies, not the suggested 4 but I didn’t have dinner on Sunday night because of a late lunch, so I would actually consider this a win! I did realize that I am grossly unprepared for smoothies. I used to tend to stay away from them, but I have really enjoyed them over the last week. The definite downfall of my eating this week was the wedding I attended on Saturday night – I am definitely not perfect, but I got back on track on Sunday.  I’ve been focused on swapping out my usual afternoon Sprite Zero for water and have found myself keeping a glass on my desk regularly. This is always a challenge of mine and I am pleased with my progress thus far.

I am a little disappointed with my athletic endeavors last week but it has been really tough with a steady slate of early morning, lunch and dinner meetings last week.

Blake’s Weekly Workout Run Down

• Tuesday: Missed out on a workout because I flew in on Tuesday morning and had a late meeting Tuesday evening.
• Wednesday: Flywheel and lifting 80 pound bags of grout around in my garage (long story)
• Thursday: Fab Arms and Core
• Friday: 10 minute HIIT Circuit
• Saturday: In North Carolina for a wedding – lots of walking and dancing (does this count as a workout?)
• Sunday: Rest Day

Blake’s Goals for this upcoming week

• Focus on my workouts!
• Continue to focus on drinking water
• Play with more smoothie recipes! I welcome recommendations! Tweet me @BlakeSachs

Brit’s Tips – My Advice for Blake:

You are off to a good start so keep the momentum going!   More cardio ma’am – strength training is great for building lean muscle mass and boosting your metabolism, but to really drop pounds and increase lung capacity, you’ve got to log those cardio hours.   Also, EXCELLENT job with the smoothie substitutions.  I personally  find this to be the most difficult part of the plan because I love big dinners.  Keep this habit going and you are sure to continue seeing results.  Last, but definitely not least, just focus on small improvements every day.  The “Big Bang” approach to fitness and weight management will just make you crash and burn, so keep up the consistent steady progress.  WAY TO GO!  Lots of luv, Brit