Every once in a while, you get the opportunity to pause and reflect on where you've come, and what it took to get to where you are. I have that opportunity today. After 30 days of relentlessly following the Insanity workout program, I find myself thinking back on where I started, what the journey looked like, and what the final destination became.
Anyone that knows me will tell you that I am among the first to stand up and speak to the benefits of eating healthy and exercising. We only have one body and one life to live, if you treat you body poorly you will reap a harvest of heart disease, diabetes, and extremely high medical bills. However, treat your body right and you will feel better, be stronger and go farther in life than you ever thought was possible. You cannot undo a lifetime of poor eating and exercising choices, so the perfect time to start is today.
However, these 30 days have made me realize that while eating healthy and exercising is important, there are other factors to consider that are perhaps more important than the former. The first is time. Just like you cannot reverse the effects of a lifetime of poor choices, you also cannot turn back the hands of time. While I was fiercely pursuing the completion of my 30 day Insanity program, I at times lost sight of other important life and health factors. My sleep for one. Because I work a hectic schedule, about 11-12 hours per day of commuting and working, squeezing 45 minutes of Insanity into every day gave me little time to prepare dinner, get Eden ready for bed and spend time with my husband, Brandon. Something had to give, and since I didn't want to sacrifice time with Eden or Brandon, I sacrificed my own sleep to the point where six hours of sleep was a good night. This was neither healthy nor good for me.
Because of my lack of time, I began to feel anxious - I could hear the clock ticking with every minute that went by. If friends or family asked me to get together, I would either turn down the offer or go but constantly calculate in my mind how many things I would fall behind in for every extra minute I was out. The Insanity program didn't give me breaks, save for one day per week, and I usually spent that time catching up on everything that piled up during the six days before.
Not only did my sleep and relationships suffer, but my body suffered as well. Of course I expected to experience muscle pain from an intense six day a week workout routine, but what I didn't expect was the vast number of times my right knee would collapse on me mid-workout and the pain I would experience during the day after. All the squats, lunges, jumps and high-intensity movements gave my poor knee little relief and had me cautiously relying on railings anytime I attempted stairs.
But surely I saw some great results after 30 days of working out right? I mean after all that sacrifice, how could I not be pleased with my results? While I will admit my entire body, especially my butt and thighs, are much more firm, I didn't see quite the results you might expect. I actually gained three pounds, my bulging calf muscles felt like they might split out of my skin, and my ravenous appetite meant I was likely to ingest more calories than I would burn doing Insanity.
Of course muscle weighs more than fat and burns fat more quickly the more you have, meaning the increase in my appetite was partially a result of feeding my muscles, but I didn't like the change. I started the program to get lean and firm, yet my muscles thought I was training to compete in a body building competition. They just kept getting bigger actually making my clothes tighter.
So what have I learned from this experience? While I will always be an advocate of exercise I have realized that, like everything else, it should be done in moderation. You really can have too much of a good thing and variety is important. I think my knee would have fared much better had I varied my activities, like biking one day, swimming another, and then doing Insanity. I should have listened to my body on nights when I was exhausted and gone to bed instead of forcing myself to finish 45 minutes of exercise when my form was likely not very good. I shouldn't have let my exercise routine take over my free time to the point where I was stressed at the mere thought of spending time with the people I care about.
So what am I doing now? I'm giving myself a flexible 3-4 day a week exercise schedule, doing any activity of my choosing. Today I used lunch time at work to take a Pilates class at the gym next door. I couldn't believe how peaceful yet difficult the class was. Instead of again going through an exercise program I had grown to hate, I found myself rejuvenated, refreshed and strengthened instead of exhausted. During my 30 days of Insanity, we had some beautiful days in Denver. I should have gone for a bike ride with my little family, or gone out for an invigorating run, but instead I stayed inside and did the same movements I had been doing for weeks, counting the minutes for it to end.
Life is precious, and there is very little time to do the things that you want to do. From here on out, I'm still going to take care of my body, but I'm going to do it in ways that benefit my whole life rather than just my body. Wednesday nights I am going to start taking a Zumba class with a friend, on Saturday I'm taking my daughter swimming at the rec center with my husband and my parents, and Mondays and Fridays I am going to force myself not to work through my lunch like I usually do and take yoga and pilates classes instead. Because while Insanity is a great way to get in shape fast, I have to question what I lose from following such a rigid program. Maybe I will go back and do it again at some point but for now however, I am choosing the healthy-er life and focusing on what matters. My body might not be as chiseled as it would be if I continued with the program, but I believe I will be happier and more content overall, which to me is what living healthy-er is all about.
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