The Bare Minimum

Can I be completely real for a second? Rest day is my least favorite day of the week. Why? Because, honestly, it scares me. There is still this small voice inside my head that tells me I'm quitting if I take a day off or if I take today off, then I may slip and take tomorrow off. That basically by taking this one day to let my body heal and recover, I'm setting myself up on the slippery slope of failure. So many weeks, I skip my rest day. I'll schedule it on the calendar, but generally I'll find something to do. That's just me and I'm certainly not recommending that approach to any of you!! In another post, I'll go through the benefits of taking that rest day to better illustrate why it's so important, but for now just trust me when I tell you that your body needs one!

But as many of you know, last week was Hell Week. And y'all there is no better way to describe it!! I finished it strong though and had big plans for this week. I finished Hell Week Monday and started the full 22 Minute Hard Corps program yesterday. Because the program starts on a Monday, and I was starting on a Tuesday I knew I would need to either skip my rest day or double up one day, which is totally fine with me...until I did yesterday's workout. Y'all day 1 of the program is the easiest day and I could hardly get through it. Every inch of my body hurts!! I don't think I can physically do a squat...I mean I can hardly get up and down the stairs. And this isn't just typical day after leg day pain...it is full body pain. Everything is sore! 

So, today as I'm looking at my workout schedule I have a couple of options. Let's be clear, simply skipping the workout is NOT AN OPTION! While I realize that I have no choice but to take my rest day today, I have to make the rest of my schedule work so that I'm able to accomplish everything I had planned for this week. You may not need that structure, but for me, deviating from the plan can lead to major issues if I don't set clear expectations for myself. I took the time, I reworked the schedule, found a day that I could double-up and simply moved my rest day from Sunday to today, and bumped everything else back a day. 

Y'all life is going to be thrown at you all of the time. There will be days where something happens and you don't get your workout in. You can't beat yourself up about it. Take the time to look at your schedule and see what you can do. Is there a day that you can feasibly double-up? Can you move your rest day? Maybe you can't do either of these. That's still ok. Shake it off and get back to work. 

In addition to having my workout schedule and my meal plan for the week, I also have a set of 3 basic guidelines that trump everything else. You can make your rules or guidelines anything you want, but these give me the bare minimum that I must do each and I use them to dictate everything else.

3 Basic Guidelines:

1. Never miss a Monday - The Hard Corps program is set up to begin on a Monday, with your rest day and meal prep day on Sunday. This schedule works perfectly for this guideline, but since I completed Hell Week on Monday, I actually began the program on Tuesday, which threw everything off by a day. This was going to put my rest day on Monday each week, which breaks my first "rule." I feel like my Monday workouts set the tone for my week, so not having one creates a problem for me. However, today's rest day problem actually created a solution to this scheduling issue. By the end of the week, I'll have my rest day moved back to Sunday and I won't have to worry about "missing" Mondays.

2. Never go more than 2 days without working out - Y'all life is going to happen. There are going to be days when you get off schedule or you miss your workouts. Set a standard for yourself. Make that schedule and then decide what the max number of days you can go without a workout is. Make that your bare minimum and stick to it.

3. 500 extra calories - I've already written about my "cheat" meal experience and how I use these 500 extra calories, but if you missed that you can read more about it HERE.

Each of these guidelines is simple. They are easy to follow and easy to stick to. They're my go to when I get thrown off track and I use them each week as I make my workout schedule. What are your bare minimum requirements or guidelines for yourself?

Hell Week Is Here

So, as many of you know my August Challenge Group starts next week. What am I doing to prepare for it? Well, beyond finding meal plans and recipes that suit different allergies and tastes, planning fun mini-challenges to mix throughout our larger challenge, and filling those last few spots, I've also started Hell Week.

My workout plan for myself throughout the August Challenge Group, is to officially get started on the 22 Minute Hard Corps workout schedule. But I had a week to fill and I needed something to challenge me, really get me on fire before I jump into this group. So, the Hell Week Challenge seemed perfect. 

What is the Hell Week Challenge? It's a 7-day challenge and each day is a different mix of 22 Minute Hard Corps workouts. And unlike the regular schedule where you have 1 regular workout and maybe a core workout, during Hell Week you've got 3 cardio/core workouts (2 cardio/1 core) or 2 resistance workouts. 

As of today, I'm on day 3. And assuming it's going to be pretty similar to day 1, it's going to be hard!! Y'all these workouts are short but they are jam-packed!! You never stop moving and you're engaging multiple muscle groups throughout the workout. Seriously, after each cycle, you get a 22 second break. 22 SECONDS!!!! 

But, as hard as these workouts are, they are so much fun!! I haven't loved a workout program like this since P90X, and I might love this one more!! Tony is harder on you than ever before and there's a lot less chatter, but it's fun. You might miss out on his Pterodactyl impression or doing the Superman-Banana, but you'll have just as much fun with A-Skips and the Gorilla Crawl. And I mean, who isn't up for a Frog Burpee?!

I know today's post is a little shorter than usual, but I just wanted to give you guys a little insight into this Hell Week thing you keep seeing me post about and share why I love this program so much!! It is definitely not one for the faint of heart, but if you're brave enough to give it a try, I know you'll love it!!

Don't forget, there are only 3 days left to sign up for the August Challenge Group!! Within the group you'll get access to meal plans, meal prep strategies, recipes, shopping lists, workout schedules, plus I'll be sharing more of my journey through the Hard Corps program. If you're interested in joining, comment with your email below or message me on Facebook. The group starts August 1st, so don't delay!! You won't want to miss this!!