After seeing people take the 30 Day Workout Challenge on the gram, I challenged myself as well. I was working out before the lockdown was announced; I would run 5-7kms everyday, but now due to the restrictions, I knew I had to continue working out at home. But that required major motivation. Working at home for a few days (a week?) is still easy. However, it gets challenging when you do it after one week because a) the weather is not pleasant b) you prefer pjs over workout leggings c) you just wanna take a nap d) oh no, you just had food and e) because bleh!
I thought challenging myself would be a great idea especially if I do it on social media. If I would have simply shared it with my friends, I wouldn't have taken it this seriously. Posting on social media just makes you more serious about things.
30 DAY WORKOUT CHALLENGE
So what is it? Simply put, it's a challenge to get my ass off the bed everyday to workout for an hour. Lucky for me, I challenged myself after I was done menstruating for the month, so I had no reasons to call it off midway. Keeping in mind my period cycle, I can pull off 30 days of working out (though I would start pmsing and wondering "Oh, is it blood?" frequently towards the end of 30 days). However, I know my body and I know my period cycle. So I don't think that would really intervene in things.
The 30 Day Workout Challenge is more or less ––
- Working out for one hour everyday - typically includes arm exercises, cardio or full body workout, stomach exercises
- Including proteins in the diet - consume proteins everyday
- Having green tea - a mug post lunch
- Watching what's on the plate - reducing sugar intake, avoiding maida, consuming less oily food
MY WORKOUT
I am following multiple videos, probably the reason why I go mute when people ask me what routine I am following. There's a Chloe Ting 2020 2 Week Shred video I'm following. It's a full body workout routine. Then I'm following her Abs workout and Arms workout (standing arms workout). Along with Chloe Ting, I do Zumba, aerobics as well depending on my mood for the day.
Post workout routines, for the remaining 15-20 minutes, I just play Workout Motivation Music, in which really hot, fit girls workout in their gyms and you're so motivated looking at them that you don't wanna stop exercising. During this, I do many workouts including squats, crunches, short jumps, jumping jacks, moving my waist in a circular motion, more arm exercises, a few exercises to define the waist and so on. To sum up, this is my workout routine:
- Full body workout - involves full body exercises (not to confuse it with cardio)
- Cardio - when you think the fat burn process is taking too long or when you're feeling too bloated someday, burn those fats baby! Cardio involves Zumba, aerobics, short jumps, jumping jacks, high knees, etc.
- Abs - check for ab workout routines on YouTube and ensure to be very serious about them. The stomach takes the longest to reduce so involve some really hardcore stomach exercises in your routine. Along with the workout you would follow, separately do more crunches (especially the ones that involve you touching opposite knees to burn fats from the side of your stomach).
- Arms - unfortunately, everything I eat either goes in my arms or my face (chubby cheeks aren't all that adorable for me okay?). I follow a separate routine for my arms. The more the arms pain, the better. I also make sure to add in pushups and mountain climbers.
- Butt - squats, squats, squats.
- Legs - I don't quite workout for my legs as when I'm working on full body or cardio, it burns my leg fats too. But again, check for leg workout videos on YouTube if you need them.
- Face - I have a round, chubby face. I do a few face exercises for carving a jawline (takes the most time but worth it in the end).
MY DIET
I'm not big on diets. I workout so that I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want. Probably, the only change I usually bring in my diets while I'm religiously working out is watching what I eat. I try to avoid junk and sweet food. Like the other day, I saw ice cream packs and I badly wanted to buy one. But I just refused and walked away. Then I get pizza cravings now and then but I think of how utterly evil maida is to the body and how pizza is nothing but a lot of maida and cheese, and I drop off the plan to order in. Instead, I make something savoury like dal tadka with jeera rice or cook a regular sabzi in a fancier preparation (or just have a few pieces of savoury snacks to curb the craving).
I'm a firm believer in eating Indian food so whether it's pohe, upma, dosa, thalipeeth, roti sabzi, rice, dal, bhakri, pulses, etc. I don't like following a western diet which includes smoothies, salads, boiled veggies, etc. I prefer what we have been eating for generations together. As Rujuta Divekar, my favourite dietician, says, "How to decide whether a dish is healthy? Just eat anything that your grandma once cooked." Since it's our traditional food, it suits our genes. It suits the season, it suits the region we stay in, it suits our bodies. So oats? You can skip it if you want. But upma? Definitely have it!
Here are a few changes I've done to my diet. (Psst! I also prefer homemade food since it's much healthier so you will find me cooking instead of eating out or ordering in.)
Liquid intake
I consume a great number of liquids. I have this 750ml tumbler next to me throughout the day. I easily drink 3 litres of water per day. Next, I make sure to have a cup of green tea everyday. Currently, I am drinking Lipton Pure & Light Green Tea. I heat water for 2 minutes and then dip the teabag. I have green tea post meals (usually it's after lunch but sometimes I consume it post dinner).
I also take one effervescent tablet of Vitamin C. People with less amount of Vitamin C tend to have more fat accumulation around their stomachs and waist. (However, I take this tablet for immunity boost and skin improvement.)
Another minor difference in my lifestyle is that I now drink tea only once (in the morning) as opposed to having it twice a day.
There's another drink I've heard of: warm water with 1 tbsp of honey and half a lemon juice. I'd had it just once on an empty stomach as I'm not disciplined about it yet. People have noted amazing differences after having this concoction. I might start being religious about this drink from tomorrow.
Consuming a bowl of Proteins everyday
I make sure to have a bowl of proteins everyday. So whether it is in the form of eggs (two boiled egg whites), dal, sprouts, paneer or spinach. I don't go all out with proteins because it's my belief that proteins lead to breakouts and a lot of heat generation. Yet contrary to my meals earlier, now I ensure to include a bowl of proteins everyday.
Replacing maida with wheat
You get wheat options in most of the dishes: whole wheat pizza, whole wheat bread, whole wheat Maggi, wheat roti, etc. I avoid maida as it's a big no considering it pushes fat accumulation. Maida also leads to obesity, increased cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, keeps you hungry, clogs arteries, raises blood sugar levels, etc.
Are you following any workout challenge? How about you take up this 30 Day Workout Challenge?
P.S. All information mentioned above is my belief/works on me. If you happen to know more than me and want to comment about it, please do so with a little amount of sensitivity. Happy workouts!
