After a hiatus for the past few weeks, I am back and ready to post some new material! I've been busy wrapping up the semester, spring cleaning, relaxing and getting used to not going to class. Here are some topics to look forward to:
- Stretch Marks, Self Esteem and Body Image
- Calorie Counting: Why I vouch for it and why I stopped
- Natural Hair and Exercising
- P90x Progress
- My favorite healthy recipes
- Cheat meals and eating junk food in "moderation"
Chalean Extreme is a strength training program by celebrity fitness instructor and creator of the Turbo Jam series, Chalene Johnson. The 90-day program is designed to build muscle while shedding fat by lifting heavy weights. It also contains two cardio workouts and a yoga workout to increase flexibility and strength potential. The program is also split into three 30-day phases: Burn Phase, Push Phase and Lean Phase. Each phase differs by the amount of reps and how heavy each set of weights should be.
FYI -- You do NOT have to use free weights during this program if you don't want to, you can also use resistance bands. One of the ladies in the video uses them and she gets a good workout too (plus, she's 60 years old -- NO EXCUSES!). I used the resistance bands for some of the exercises and they are no joke. Chalene will also teach you how to create your own resistance too.
Anyway, towards the end of each week (for all phases), you have the "Burn Intervals and Ab Burner" and "Burn It Off and Recharge" workouts. Burn Intervals consists of intense cardio and strength endurance circuits followed by a 10-minute ab workout. "Burn It Off and Recharge" is a 35 to 40 minute cardio workout followed by a 20 minute yoga workout.
The overall structure of Chalean Exteme is as follows:
Burn Circuit 1 -- Rest Day -- Burn Circuit 2 -- Burn Intervals and Ab Burner-- Burn Circuit 3-- Burn It off and Recharge -- Rest Day.
The above schedule is applied to the Push and Lean phases too.
In the Burn Phase, Chalene has you slowly lift weights heavy enough to fail within 10 to 12 reps while working one part of the body at a time. For instance, she may have you do bicep curls using 15 lb weights. And she stresses -- not just for the Burn Phase, but for all of them -- YOU MUST LIFT HEAVY ENOUGH TO FAIL BEFORE THE EXERCISE ENDS. This means, if you're doing bicep curls and you get to the 12th rep easily, it's time to get heavier weights or find a way to create your own resistance.
After every few exercises or so, Chalene will tell you "It's time to get extreme!" and at that moment, its time to flex your muscles and perform three intense reps of whatever exercise she tells you to perform. Trust me, you will need to do a gut check and break those muscle fibers down! It's the only way to get stronger.
In the Push Phase, you must lift weights heavy enough to fail within 6 to 8 reps. This is the month where you'll be building most of your strength. Just like the Burn Phase, after every few exercises or so, you'll get Extreme with three intense reps to break the muscle fibers down. By the end of this phase, I had quads, hamstrings and calves of steel!
In the Lean Phase, you're back to failing within 10 to 12 reps, BUT, you're working more than one body part at a time. So instead of doing simply bicep curls, you're doing exercises like bicep curls with a lunge. This is the month where you'll see the most drastic results, but not just because you're working multiple body parts, but because you're getting Extreme after every exercise! In my opinion, this month was the most intense one. Even during the last week of the program, I still had trouble keeping up with some exercises.
One of the biggest changes I noticed while doing this program was how hungry I became during the Burn Phase. It became a struggle to keep myself full as I started building muscle. I think I started noticing this change within 2 or 3 weeks of the Burn Phase. This continued until I was about 2 weeks into the Push phase and at that point, I was able to feed myself the right foods to diminish the hunger.
Here was my typical diet plan for this program. For the record, it's not much different than how I usually eat now and the main thing I changed was how frequent I ate.
Breakfast - Scrambled eggs with spinach, onions, and red peppers or tomatoes and a two slices of turkey bacon. The alternative to this was oatmeal with 2 to 3 teaspoons of brown sugar and one teaspoon of cinnamon.
Snack - Peanut butter and bananas on toast or greek yogurt, chocolate chips, banana and peanut butter.
Lunch - Turkey sandwich or wrap with spinach, a little bit of mayo and lemon pepper seasoning.
Snack - Greek yogurt, chocolate chips, bananas and peanut butter again. (I really like that combination)
Dinner - Salmon with brown rice, asparagus or kale, maybe with carrots too and in a dill sauce.
I had my days when I moments of weakness (which I'll get into in another post), but those moments didn't happen too often. But when they did happen, I was usually very hungry and I would eat pretty much anything at that point (like a triple dipper appetizer from Chili's--yum!).
Okay! On to the part you've been waiting for: my results! Below is my transformation photo. Top left is Day 1, top right is Day 30, bottom left is Day 60 and bottom right is Day 90!
As I stated earlier, my diet didn't change much because I eat clean 85 percent of the time anyway. Here are my measurements:
Day 1 Day 30
Waist: 42 inches Waist: 36 inches
Breast: 46 inches Breast: 41.7 inches
Hips: 44 inches Hips: 39.5 inches
Weight: 210 pounds Weight: 198 pounds
Overall, I lost 6 inches off my waist, 4.3 inches around my breasts, and 4.5 inches around my hips! And I lost 12 pounds! 12 pounds may not seem like a lot, but the inches I lost are the results I'm proud of the most. I definitely got leaner and saw definition in my arms and legs and I feel STRONGER! Plus, its good to know I'm burning calories while I'm resting. I encourage anyone to do this program, even beginners. I was a beginner and I ended up getting through the program just fine! Also, the 90 days goes by really fast once you settle into the routine.
This is the first exercise program I've been able to complete from start to finish, therefore, I'm very proud of this accomplishment. Give this a shot, Chalene is here to help you. You can even modify this so it works for you! This is a program where failure means success.
That's all from me this week! Talk to you soon! Look out for my next post!
With love,
The Nubian Nerdy Fit Girl
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