BBG Beginner 1 Month Check In

I hope you’re all having a great weekend so far! I had a pretty productive day yesterday with my monthly massage, some blog business, and hanging out with friends where I got them to try out a game with me that I was sent for review. It was pretty fun and I’ll be writing all about it for you guys in an upcoming post so be on the lookout for that later in the month!

I have a bit of a lengthy post for you today, so grab a cup of coffee and/or a snack! 

I’ve mentioned it on here once or twice in passing, but I have started using the Sweat app/BBG program last month. If you follow me on Instagram and watch my stories then you have probably seen my posts since I post on stories every day about my workout. As of today, I have been doing BBG for 1 month! I can’t believe it! So I wanted to share a few photos and my whole story of how I got in to the program and why I’m doing it. And by photos I mean just a few snippets from over the month – not a before/after photo. While I know everyone loves before/after photos (I’m one of them) – I’m just not comfortable enough to share them.

First, why did I join BBG? Well actually, first if you don’t know BBG stands for “Bikini Body Guide” which is a program created by Kayla Itsines. I first heard of BBG through famous blogger, Rachel Parcell. I follow her on social media and she would post about the program all the time and how amazing it was for her. I was amazed at how in shape she was getting. I mean, she always looked good but she was in amazingggg shape shortly after having her second baby and she was crediting it all to BBG. I wasn’t motivated to start right away though. It actually took months of me seeing her photos and stories on Instagram to actually download the Sweat app and start. I stopped going to kickboxing in the early fall because I wasn’t going regularly so I didn’t want to waste my money paying my membership fees. I kept telling myself I would join a gym where I could go whenever – not just when class times were – and monthly fees were less. But that never happened.

So what was the catalyst? I can’t say for sure what it was, but one day I decided I was going change everything. Okay, well not everything, but change my whole outlook. You always hear about the law of attraction and positive vibes attracting positive things, but many people don’t put it in to action. I don’t know what it was, but something made me have this “a-ha” moment where I decided I would do anything in my power to bring all the positive and good things to me. It’s something I’m being very mindful of and takes work, but I remind myself that good things will come. For example, it’s very easy for me to get anxious about things (usually things that are beyond my control) and I can spiral in to this state where I feel overwhelmed or like things just will never work out for me. But now, when I feel it coming on I try to push away the negativity and think of the positives because that positive energy will help attract more positivity. It’s not always easy, but it’s something I’m working on! This whole law of attraction thing led to me wanting to feel better about myself not just emotionally and mentally but physically. I want to feel amazing inside and out and be super confident. Working out is key to that. So I decided to get the Sweat app and start the BBG program. I have been super motivated and dedicated to it. I haven’t missed any days, except for my rest days once a week which you need to let your muscles recover so you don’t get injured. I have been doing the BBG program for a full month and I’m so excited that I haven’t wavered at all! I mean, when I grew up doing dance and even when I got older and did yoga or zumba or kickboxing it was a 1-2 times a week thing. But I’ve been doing these workouts on the app every day. That’s exercising 6 days a week!

The BBG program has 3 workout categories to complete each week: Resistance, Cardio, and Recovery which has the foam rolling exercises and your rest day. In Resistance there is arms & abs, legs, and full body exercises to complete for the week. In Cardio you have to do 3 LISS (low intensity cardio) a week with the option to do HIIT (high intensity) once you build up your endurance. I typically do a recovery day with foam rolling in the middle of the week or on a weeknight where I don’t have time to do a 30 minute workout and I save a rest day for one of the weekend days. That means, I need 1 day where I double up on workouts. Lately, I’ve been doing arms & abs and a cardio session on the same day. But it doesn’t really matter, you can make whatever schedule you want you just want to try to get all the workouts done in the week.

I also love that you can do everything at home. I use a yoga mat in my basement and am able to do everything there. All you’ll need are some hand weights, a bench or some kind of step to do the step-ups or knee-ups. Some of the squats also have you hold a resistance ball which I don’t have so I just use weights.

For LISS, I’ll ride my stationary bike one day and on the other days I’ll do some YouTube fitness videos like dance cardio or pilates or something like that. I love the Popsugar Fitness videos and I’ve also used Blogilates videos. There are so many fitness videos on YouTube to choose from! Once it’s not so cold out I plan to walk outside for my cardio too. I’ve been really dedicated to this – to the point that I had to fit in one more cardio for the week a few weeks ago and I was meeting a friend at the mall. She indulged me and accompanied me on a 30 minute non-stop walk around the mall before we got dinner.

I’m not amazing at all the exercises. I still hate pushups, but straight leg sit ups and straight leg raises are my favorite.

The Sweat app includes a meal plan so each day they give you ideas for breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. They tell you a meal idea, the ingredients, and the recipe. I’m not currently doing the meal plan, because that’s a lot of work, but with just the exercising I’ve lost about an inch from my waist in 1 month. My weight hasn’t really changed. I’ve maybe lost a pound or two but I feel like that’s normal fluctuation and I can’t fully credit it to the workouts. But, I’ve read that it’s common to not see a change on the scale at first because you’re burning fat and gaining muscle and muscle weighs more. I saw more of a change physically after the first 2 weeks, which was probably water weight or that initial fat that is easy to burn off. I’ve seen a little progress physically in the second 2 weeks but it’s been slower. I haven’t gained weight or added the inches back so I think maintaining what I lost is also a win.

I’m feeling good and today is the last day of Week 4 of BBG Beginner, which is the last day. Tomorrow I will begin BBG 1 which is a 12 week program. I anticipate BBG 1 to be a little more difficult, but I’m up to the challenge! It’s okay if I’m not great at it or if it’s hard. I’ll go at my own pace and build from there. The important thing is to keep moving! I’ve read that a lot of people will do BBG 1 over again at the end of week 12 instead of moving on to BBG 2 just to get better at it so I know it’s all a process.

This might sound crazy, but although I wouldn’t have described myself as unhappy before this, it’s almost as if the good things I’m feeling now/the belief that good things are coming makes me realize how unhappy I was before. And I don’t mean that in a “omg I was so depressed before” way. It’s kind of like “I’m feeling good about life and I didn’t realize just how unfulfilled I was feeling before”. If that makes sense.

So as of right now at the end of Week 4 I’m in a good place. I’m feeling better about my body and my whole giving off good energy to receive good energy in return is going well so far. I feel like I’m on the verge of good things personally and I’m going to keep sending out those positive vibes out in to the universe! If you’ve got any good vibes to spare for me, please send some out!

If you made it this far in to my post, thank you for reading! I’ll be back in 4 weeks to do a month 2 check in! Wish me luck!