It's 4:30 am on day 1 of the 30 day challenge, and while I'd like to have a dramatic story to tell of my alarm clock screaming at me and that I've hit the snooze button three times, in reality my cell phone is peacefully chirping at me and slowly turning the light on to wake me gently (my friend Cia likes to say I have the alarm clock of a Disney Princess). I'm a bit of a morning person. I know... gross right? Anyway... it's 4:30 am and I'm getting ready to HIIT it... here we go!

The workout

When I first saw the video, I had mixed feelings for two reasons. First, they're only 12 minutes. But that's actually going back to business as usual for BodyRock, the prior challenge videos of 40+ minutes were unusual for BodyRock. Since the workout is only 12 minutes I'll be doing a warm-up and a cool down video too. To see all the videos I did for today take a look at my day 1 videos post. Second, I was a bit sad that because of the format I wasn't able to just turn on the video and do high knees while Lisa demonstrated the exercise I would be doing next... that format worked really great for me. With the new (old) format, I have to watch the video before my workout to make sure I know the moves we'll be doing. The upside is that since there are only 4 exercises I only have to preview the first round and I'm good to go... OK, I can do that. Besides, the moves look kick ass! I've noticed a lot of folks on the BodyRock.tv Facebook page talking about how they wish Lisa were leading these challenge videos, and I miss her too, but Melissa is pretty awesome. I remember thinking the same think about Lisa when she first came on-board... I missed the host I was used to seeing, that had become so familiar to me, but Lisa grew on me... on all of us, and I'm confident Melissa and Rita will too. OK, let's get to that workout!

Modifications for my back injury

• Spiderman kick throughs: I couldn't do the kick through because of my back, so I changed it to side planks which is a close approximation of a kick through and should work the same muscles.
• Forward/backward lunge and jump: I kept the exercise the same but changed my weight to dumbbells at my side to be easier on my neck and back
• Rope pulls: these killed my tailbone, so I changed them to sit ups to work the same muscles

I would have liked to see the forward/backward lunge and jumps separated by the rope pulls to give my legs a bit of a rest, and if I do this workout again, that's exactly what I'll do. Overall this was a tough workout. I also loved that I could hear Melissa struggling along side me... This was me about half way through the workout ;) And this was me after the final round:

My food

I'm using a lot of the recipes from the Catching Fire nutrition guide. I picked recipes with similar ingredients so that my shopping list would be easy. Here are the recipes I chose:

• Gluten and Dairy Free Mini Quiche (mine have dairy)
• Easy Bean Salad
• Kale Salad that Converts
• Dressing for Everything
• Tandoori Chicken

I also bought steak and chicken to grill and have on top of salads (the kale salad and salad made from the extra spinach).

Here is what my shopping list looked like:

• Olive oil
• Apple cider vinegar
• Grey Poupon
• Maple syrup
• Mixed beans (I bought the mixed bean soup mix from the bulk section and cooked them in my crockpot for less sodium)
• Garbonzo beans
• Coconut milk
• Chopped mixed nuts
• Chicken
• Steak
• Eggs
• Milk
• Parmesan cheese
• Frozen peas
• Spinach
• Kale
• Tomatoes
• Raisins
• Baby sweet peppers
• Cilantro
• Avocado
• Garlic

If you follow me on Facebook, you probably saw my lunch post from yesterday. I packed the same thing for today. I find it easy to make large batches and duplicate some lunches and dinners a couple of times throughout the week. Last weekend I made a big batch of Leek and Potato Soup, so I packed that along with a kale salad. Now, on this kale salad thing, let me tell you... I'm NOT a fan of kale... but this salad is amazing! It's from Ciara Foy who wrote the nutrtion guide for this challenge. You can find the original recipe on her page here. I did make the following adjustments:

• Swapped mixed nuts for the pine nuts as they were less expensive
• used 2 tablespoons of olive oil for the dressing as the apple cider vinegar was too strong
• I skipped the hemp seeds
• I added 1 teaspoon of Grey Poupon to the dressing

I also made a big batch of the dressing to use for the rest of the week on my salads and to cook chicken in etc.

Food log

Breakfast

Coffee with a tablespoon of grass-fed gelatin (I'll tell you about the supplements I take in my day 2 post)

Lunch

• Leek and potato soup
• Kale salad with tomatoes

(Today was our company meeting and there are always sweet treats available after the meeting. Today, I skipped the malasadas.)

Snack

• 2 mini Gluten and Dairy Free Mini Quiche
• 1 pickle

Dinner

• Grilled steak (marinated in olive oil and balsamic vinegar)
• Spinach and tomato salad with dressing for everything and Parmesan cheese

Throughout the day I also had a coffee tumbler with two slices of lemon in it which I filled with hot water and sipped on all day. So, there you have it... my Day 1 of the challenge.

Are you doing the 30 day challenge? How did day 1 go for you?

  FYI... posts for future days should be shorter now that we have the food situation all squared away!