MakingMine

I gave Insanity a try last fall and made it through less than half of the program. I’m currently doing Brazil Butt Lift and absolutely loving it. I’ve proven to myself that I can stick with a program, so what went wrong with Insanity?

Sure, Insanity is much harder than BBL, but I think there are several important factors that contributed to my failure:

1. I didn’t take personal responsibility for the program

• J and I tackled Insanity together. And by together, I mean that I rode J’s coattails. He set up the calendar, made the charts, and tracked our measurements. I followed. While having a “workout buddy” was definitely nice, I didn’t take responsibility for myself. If J woke up at 4:00am to complete Insanity, I was on my own and a little lost for my portion. I didn’t have a clear picture of what was ahead, so every single day was incredibly daunting. 

2. I waited until the very end of the day to complete the exercises

• I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. I dreaded marching my butt down to the basement to do Insanity, so I would put it off from the time I woke up until 9:00 or 10:00 at night. I set myself calendar reminders throughout the day to tell myself to go do it, but I knew they were arbitrary so they were easy to ignore. I would fall asleep exhausted and wake up with muscles so incredibly tight I could hardly get out of bed. 

3. I tried to take on too much at once

• When I decided to tackle Insanity, I also decided to would be a great time to start running again. I added an hour on the treadmill to my exercise regimen most days, leaving very little endurance for Insanity.

4. I didn’t fuel my body properly

• I totally revamped my diet around the same time. While this should have been a good thing (think: no soda, no sweets, more veggies, lean meats), I under-fueled my body. I increased the quality of my meals (GOOD) but also dramatically decreased the quantity (BAD). With little power, my body literally rejected the Insanity program. I also did not take water intake seriously at all - total dehydration.

5. I didn’t set any incremental goals

• This point goes back to the first. I didn’t have a clear idea of what I was doing. All I knew was that I wanted to complete Insanity. But that goal in itself was not enough to motivate me to keep pushing forward. I needed to break down the 60 day program and set some tangible goals for myself to meet. Looking back, this would have been very simple. There is a fitness test conducted throughout the program - how about setting goals for improvement at each of these checkpoints?

I really want to try Insanity again. I have a better grasp on where I went wrong last fall and I think I can be successful by course correcting these areas. I think point #1 is key - something that has made BBL totally different and a mistake I’ll never make again. We’ll see how the next couple of months go and I’ll possibly start again in May! I hope this info helps anybody who is struggling with getting through a fitness program!