ChaLEAN Extreme - Day 1

I have been wanting to do ChaLEAN Extreme for a year now and I can finally do it!  I am so excited.

I had meant to start it yesterday but had been sick over the weekend and didn't get my measurements and pictures taken.  I did that last night and boy was it depressing.  I purchased a cute workout outfit that I knew was going to be too small but that was totally within the realm of fitting in 3 months.  I had just eaten a large amount of carbs (Olive Garden) so that didn't help; I felt like a great big blob.

THEN!!!!!!  I got on the scale this morning.  I haven't been real good about it lately, as I just get up and go.  I have gained EIGHT pounds since going back to HGS!  Ugh!  Not happy about that. 

Josh was just trying to make me feel better and he said that I was a little bit off the hook since I had been working many hours and had not worked out very much, plus I also gained it through the holidays.  I told him that the only reason that I can be a little bit off the hook is because I made it into the gym this morning and stuck to my menu plan today.

Yes, I said that I made it to the gym today.  You are probably thinking, "I thought that ChaLEAN Extreme was a home program."  And you would be correct.  If you have weights or have the money to buy them.  (Not completely true; you can also use resistance bands.)

I do not have any weights and when looking to buy some decided that I was going to be spending way to much on individual dumbells when there are sets that you can buy that are adjustable.  Although I didn't have the money for that either.  So, I thought to myself, "I pay a monthly fee to a place that HAS ALL THE DUMBELLS I NEED! 

People did look at me funny with my laptop sitting on the table and me working out to a video when I was at the gym.  But, I look funny running too so what's the difference? 

The key here is that I didn't allow excuses to stop me from getting my workout on.  I don't have the money to buy the weights, and I really wanted to do something other than the bands even though I'm sure they work well.  My thought process is that I do pay the Riverplex to use their dumbells, and nobody is responsible for my workout other than me. 

I may have looked funny, but how many people were still in bed at 5:30am?  I know I wanted to be; almost reset my alarm clock.  But then I thought to myself, "Even if you don't go to the gym, you aren't staying in bed so you might as well go to the gym" 

My workout went well, although I could have used heavier weights.  The idea behind ChaLEAN Extreme is that you use heavy enough weights that you actually fail between the 10th and 12th rep.  There were times today that I could have gone beyond the 12th rep, so I will be upping my weight on Thursday.

Hope all my other ChaLEAN Extreme pals are loving it so far!  I think this is going to be an amazing program.  Can't wait till the pictures I took last night are REALLY before pictures!