Making the Team
Hello all! It's been a while since I made a post. The last time I posted, I described the beginning of my fitness journey from a medical scare, to people who inspire me, to challenge groups and my first real experience with Beachbody. Many people haven't had the chance to experience a challenge group first hand, so I wanted to dedicate this post to explaining what exactly a challenge group is!
So as the name of the group says, it is a challenge group; a group with challenges. While the group itself is a full monthly challenge, there are many little challenges throughout the month. Let me explain this a little better.
As I mentioned in my last post, my Beachbody coach, Sam, is someone that I've known for a very long time. She would contact me every few months to let me know that there was a new challenge starting. I kept declining and declining until I got to the point where I needed something, and someone, to help me refocus (not to mention that Beachbody was having a spring sale that month). So I told Sam that I thought I was ready to finally join a challenge group. Her response was one that I will never forget. Even through a text message, she seemed genuinely excited that I was going to join their group. I felt that I had finally found a group that would keep me accountable for my health and fitness. Sam set me up with everything I needed and about a week later, I received everything in the mail and I was ready to start my first challenge group!
Before our group started, Sam set everyone up in a Facebook group. We had a full week of preparation in that group before our actual challenge group started. This included things like setting goals, listing the habits that we are trying to change, making meal plans, choosing our workout program and just simply getting acquainted with others in the group. The stories of everyone else in the group are absolutely inspiring and everyone is so amazingly supportive.
Alright. So Day 1 arrives! Every day, Sam makes a post in our Facebook group to give us motivation, reminders and prompts to get involved in discussions. Can you believe that? Every day!! This woman is a friggin rockstar!! In addition to being a full time teacher and planning a wedding, she still finds the time to plan and run a health and fitness support group. And why? Because of her passion and drive to help others. Every day is a different discussion from recipes, to challenge checkpoints, to reminders to stay on track on weekends or to make sure you get over a setback and start again strong. Something I really like about these challenge groups are that Sam doesn't expect you to be perfect. She is realistic. She knows that life happens and people have things come up that cause setbacks, even if it's something as simple as getting together with friends on a patio. She doesn't demand perfection. She demands that you try your best. At times she actually encourages that you enjoy yourself, as long as you are mindful about how you do it. Don't over-do it. And get right back into the groove of things after the weekend or event. Each of her posts are intended to involve and motivate. Get involved in the discussions and do your job and you'll find success. I'd love to link the posts here but because of the nature of the challenge, the Facebook group is a closed group. One of the moments in my first challenge group that I will never forget was when Sam commented on one of my posts about a setback and said three simple words. "Proud of you!" Wow. That hit me hard. I will admit I had tears in my eyes. It was a rare moment that someone said that they were proud of ME. I was in a difficult place and I was told something I really needed to hear in that moment. That alone gave me the motivation to keep going. That is a feeling I will never forget.
In addition to the Facebook group, Beachbody has their own app dedicated specifically for the challenge groups. This is where we log our workouts and our Shakeology (protein and superfood smoothie powder exclusively from Beachbody). It is very simple and is organized in a similar fashion to a Facebook feed. It is not intended for specific meal and calorie entry but to keep track of the workouts that we do every day and the Shakeology we consume. It is a wonderful place for us to share our Shakeology recipes and to keep us accountable for doing our workouts. Seeing everyone's Sweaty Selfies are so wonderfully motivational and inspirational. I can't tell you how many times I have come up with excuse after excuse to not workout. Once I go into that app or onto our Facebook page, I usually ALWAYS end up doing my workout. Notice how I said "usually" as I am not perfect and I have let my Mean Girl get in the way on occasion. (Stay tuned for more on the Mean Girl in a future post).
This group has been such a big part of my fitness journey. I am currently in my second month and second challenge group. Although the second challenge didn't start off well, I feel that I am back on track for success. I will use an excuse for why it didn't start well. During the first official week of our challenge, I was scheduled to take a group of my grade 6 students to an overnight camp for three days. We left really early Wednesday morning and got back mid-day on the Friday. I was literally going to be on an island for the next two nights. I didn't have internet access, I didn't have access to a blender for my Shakeology and I didn't have access to "real food" that I could prepare myself. My colleague and I brought healthy snacks that we could have between camp meals, but we also brought some yummy not-so-healthy snacks for us to enjoy. In terms of my challenge group, I wouldn't have anything to really keep me on track. I used that as a big excuse to really slack off for the first couple of days before the camp, but also for the weekend after we got back. "I was at camp for the last three days so now I need to rest and enjoy my weekend". I really didn't need that weekend as the camp turned out to be quite relaxing itself. That time reminded me of how much I love spending time by the water.
The following week, I was ready and refocused to get back into the swing of things. Has it been perfect since I started up again? No. Have I been trying my best? Meh. I could be trying harder, but I am definitely more cognizant of what I am eating, drinking and how I do my workouts. This past week was a Beachbody exclusive preview. Shaun T Week!! Shaun T is the instructor of the Insanity videos. That was a week that I wanted to do from beginning to end. I LOVE Shaun T! I managed to get in 5 of the 7 workouts this past week. In my defense, I went for a nice walk on Saturday and ran a 10k Sunday morning. I think I'm okay with not doing the other two Shaun videos. I ran my second 10k in 1:20:15 which was about a minute and a half faster than my previous and first 10k. I am very proud of myself for that. I thought I would be really struggling today as I could barely walk last night but even though I could have used ever excuse in the book, I got right back into my program today and completed the PiYo Define: Upper Body workout.
Well there it is. A brief look into what a challenge group is all about. There is so much work put into it from the online coaches but their commitment to each and every one of us is second to none. Having a place to go to where everyone else is doing similar things is so beneficial for success. Keeping each other accountable doesn't only help you to succeed, but is also so rewarding. I'm very glad I took the plunge into this venture. In my first challenge group, I only lost 3.5 pounds but lost 10 total inches in body measurements. I was very proud of that as I can feel myself getting stronger and building more muscle. I'm not ready to give up. I'm ready to dig deeper. This is my team. The only difference between this team and other teams is that there are no tryouts. As long as you have the drive and commitment to succeed, you're in! This is my tribe. I was accepted into this wonderful group of people, into this team, to achieve my goals and to help others achieve their's. I am accountable. I am ready to play the game as hard as I can. Together we will win.
So as the name of the group says, it is a challenge group; a group with challenges. While the group itself is a full monthly challenge, there are many little challenges throughout the month. Let me explain this a little better.
As I mentioned in my last post, my Beachbody coach, Sam, is someone that I've known for a very long time. She would contact me every few months to let me know that there was a new challenge starting. I kept declining and declining until I got to the point where I needed something, and someone, to help me refocus (not to mention that Beachbody was having a spring sale that month). So I told Sam that I thought I was ready to finally join a challenge group. Her response was one that I will never forget. Even through a text message, she seemed genuinely excited that I was going to join their group. I felt that I had finally found a group that would keep me accountable for my health and fitness. Sam set me up with everything I needed and about a week later, I received everything in the mail and I was ready to start my first challenge group!
Before our group started, Sam set everyone up in a Facebook group. We had a full week of preparation in that group before our actual challenge group started. This included things like setting goals, listing the habits that we are trying to change, making meal plans, choosing our workout program and just simply getting acquainted with others in the group. The stories of everyone else in the group are absolutely inspiring and everyone is so amazingly supportive.
Alright. So Day 1 arrives! Every day, Sam makes a post in our Facebook group to give us motivation, reminders and prompts to get involved in discussions. Can you believe that? Every day!! This woman is a friggin rockstar!! In addition to being a full time teacher and planning a wedding, she still finds the time to plan and run a health and fitness support group. And why? Because of her passion and drive to help others. Every day is a different discussion from recipes, to challenge checkpoints, to reminders to stay on track on weekends or to make sure you get over a setback and start again strong. Something I really like about these challenge groups are that Sam doesn't expect you to be perfect. She is realistic. She knows that life happens and people have things come up that cause setbacks, even if it's something as simple as getting together with friends on a patio. She doesn't demand perfection. She demands that you try your best. At times she actually encourages that you enjoy yourself, as long as you are mindful about how you do it. Don't over-do it. And get right back into the groove of things after the weekend or event. Each of her posts are intended to involve and motivate. Get involved in the discussions and do your job and you'll find success. I'd love to link the posts here but because of the nature of the challenge, the Facebook group is a closed group. One of the moments in my first challenge group that I will never forget was when Sam commented on one of my posts about a setback and said three simple words. "Proud of you!" Wow. That hit me hard. I will admit I had tears in my eyes. It was a rare moment that someone said that they were proud of ME. I was in a difficult place and I was told something I really needed to hear in that moment. That alone gave me the motivation to keep going. That is a feeling I will never forget.
This group has been such a big part of my fitness journey. I am currently in my second month and second challenge group. Although the second challenge didn't start off well, I feel that I am back on track for success. I will use an excuse for why it didn't start well. During the first official week of our challenge, I was scheduled to take a group of my grade 6 students to an overnight camp for three days. We left really early Wednesday morning and got back mid-day on the Friday. I was literally going to be on an island for the next two nights. I didn't have internet access, I didn't have access to a blender for my Shakeology and I didn't have access to "real food" that I could prepare myself. My colleague and I brought healthy snacks that we could have between camp meals, but we also brought some yummy not-so-healthy snacks for us to enjoy. In terms of my challenge group, I wouldn't have anything to really keep me on track. I used that as a big excuse to really slack off for the first couple of days before the camp, but also for the weekend after we got back. "I was at camp for the last three days so now I need to rest and enjoy my weekend". I really didn't need that weekend as the camp turned out to be quite relaxing itself. That time reminded me of how much I love spending time by the water.
The following week, I was ready and refocused to get back into the swing of things. Has it been perfect since I started up again? No. Have I been trying my best? Meh. I could be trying harder, but I am definitely more cognizant of what I am eating, drinking and how I do my workouts. This past week was a Beachbody exclusive preview. Shaun T Week!! Shaun T is the instructor of the Insanity videos. That was a week that I wanted to do from beginning to end. I LOVE Shaun T! I managed to get in 5 of the 7 workouts this past week. In my defense, I went for a nice walk on Saturday and ran a 10k Sunday morning. I think I'm okay with not doing the other two Shaun videos. I ran my second 10k in 1:20:15 which was about a minute and a half faster than my previous and first 10k. I am very proud of myself for that. I thought I would be really struggling today as I could barely walk last night but even though I could have used ever excuse in the book, I got right back into my program today and completed the PiYo Define: Upper Body workout.
Well there it is. A brief look into what a challenge group is all about. There is so much work put into it from the online coaches but their commitment to each and every one of us is second to none. Having a place to go to where everyone else is doing similar things is so beneficial for success. Keeping each other accountable doesn't only help you to succeed, but is also so rewarding. I'm very glad I took the plunge into this venture. In my first challenge group, I only lost 3.5 pounds but lost 10 total inches in body measurements. I was very proud of that as I can feel myself getting stronger and building more muscle. I'm not ready to give up. I'm ready to dig deeper. This is my team. The only difference between this team and other teams is that there are no tryouts. As long as you have the drive and commitment to succeed, you're in! This is my tribe. I was accepted into this wonderful group of people, into this team, to achieve my goals and to help others achieve their's. I am accountable. I am ready to play the game as hard as I can. Together we will win.
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