Fastforward to now. I am a graduate of the Beachbdy program Focus T25! I’m proud to say that for the past 10 weeks, I have been killing it in my living room and kitchen by working hard and eating clean. This was no easy feat, because let me just give you a recap of the events that have occurred in the past two months that could have easily derailed my progress:
1.) I am blessed with a baby who loves me so much that he chooses to spend most of his night hours waking up to see me. I’m constantly running on zero solid sleep. I don’t even know what REM sleep feels like anymore. I quit crying myself rivers about this months ago.
2.) Hubby and I went on a rampage one weekend and cleaned and reorganized the basement, which did wonders for my OCD but it left me with a pretty bad asthma exacerbation. I really didn’t feel like going on steroids for it, so I just sucked it up for a few weeks. Note: I don’t recommend doing this, and the only reason I did is because I’ve known this asthma for 26 years and I know my limits. And steroids in breastmilk just doesn’t seem right to me; I don’t care what the latest edition of Medications and Mother's Milk says.
3.) My period returned with a vengeance. Thanks for not having my back on this one, breastfeeding. Ugh enough about that.
4.) Like the rest of American families, we are busy as $&%#. Granted, I haven’t been working during this timeframe, but with two kids now, one of whom has way too many extracurricular activites, and a husband with long hours some days……it still was hard to find even just 25 minutes some days. I really had to plan.
I’ll just leave my before and after pictures here. I haven’t been a stickler for body measurements and body composition lately so I don’t have objective numbers, other than the scale going down 10 pounds.
(Note: I did not follow the diet plan for this program, since I’ve been doing my own clean eating thing. This is a review of just the workout program).
This is a Beachbody home workout DVD series by Shaun T (best known as the creator of insanity). It consists of two 5 week phases, Alpha and Beta. There is a third phase Gamma which you can purchase separately but I am choosing not to do that. The workouts are 25 minutes long each for 5 days a week, with Friday being a double workout day. “Alpha” serves as the introductory phase to build a base, whereas in “Beta,” things pick up a little bit and become more challenging.
Pros:
The #1 best thing about this program is the 25 minute timeframe. Even on days where the baby was being clingy or having crappy naps or I was busy chauffeuring the 10 year old around, I could always find 25 minutes if I planned it carefully enough.
There is also minimal equipment. The Beta phase calls for hand weights and a yoga mat. I would say the yoga mat is optional and you could get away with using a towel if you really don’t want to lie on the ground, but you will definitely need hand weights. I start with 5# the first week of Beta, then upped it to 10# for the last 4 weeks for more of a challenge.
This is personal preference of course, but I don’t mind looking at Shaun T while doing these workouts. He has a boyfriend in real life so I’m sure my chances with him are at a negative percentage, but still. Holy abs and glutes.
There is a team member in all the workouts, Tania, who performs the moderated versions of all the moves. In real life, she had a baby prior to filming, so I felt like I had someone I could look up to. Corny, I know. But I really had to start out with the moderations for some of the moves.
Cons:
There isn’t a great variety of different moves, so by the time I got to the 3rd weeks of Alpha and Beta, I felt like things were getting somewhat redundant.
There were days, particularly toward the end of the 10 weeks, when I felt like I wasn’t being challeneged enough. But this might just go to prove that the program is indeed worthwhile, since I started out with pretty low activity tolerance.
Is this program for you?
If you are a fitness nut who’s been at it for a while and you are looking to get to the next level, then this is not for you. These 10 weeks of 25 minute workouts will not morph you into a fitness model or Arnold Schwartzeneggar or enable you to run a marathon. However, if you are someone who has been out of the fitness scene for awhile, or you are looking for a program to get you started on a fitness journey, then I would highly recommend this.