Kettlebells & Booty Barre - 4 Weeks Later

Fun Rating: ★★☆☆☆    Difficulty Rating: ★★★★☆     Results Rating: ★★★★☆

   Well, November's workout is over. I stuck with it well enough, especially after swapping Insanity for the Booty Barre, which even now I maintain was the right thing to do. If I hadn't, I think the workout would have fallen apart quite early on. By substituting something out of my abilities with something within so soon, I think I did myself a lot of good - even if I am disappointed with the fact that it had to be done.

   It was a demanding workout, with more moves and more reps than last month's, but I think I did well. The one regret I have is that I tried to stick to the same 1500 calorie diet as I did last month, despite the fact that this month's workout was more demanding, with harder moves and a different formation. It took me a while to realise that, and even longer to even start adding just an extra 100 calories. I'm wondering if that hindered me in any way. During the last week of the workout I found myself getting curiously hungry, to the point that on one day I was almost sick. I assure you, I wasn't starving myself in the slightest. I've been eating well, getting all I need, but hunger sparked out of nowhere for no reason that I could see beyond the possibility that I was getting too little. As a result, in that case in particular, I grabbed the closest edible thing to me to make it go away, and those were Rolo cookies my dad had bought us. They were delicious, so good, but most certainly the wrong thing, and I had half the bag then and there, eating too quickly to enjoy them. This is why you need to make sure you eat enough and get a good breakfast, lunch and dinner in particular. Starving yourself (which I was not, but it holds the same effect) and letting yourself get hungry will either make you ill and send your body into starvation mode where it will burn as little as it can to save energy - the opposite effect anyone starving themself would want - or they'll lead you to pick up the closest thing like a bar out of a vending machine to curb the hunger, which is also not good. After increasing my calories by 150, this stopped happening and I felt a lot better.

   The workout was enjoyable enough, but to be fair I absolutely love my kettlebells, and the ballet-inspired aspect of the Booty Barre made me feel wonderfully feminine while doing it, as well as strong.

   This month my bum has seen a definite improvement. I've never been blessed with one, but I consider myself lucky. Every woman in my family, on both sides of the family, have giant bums even if they're not fat. My sister and I are the lucky ones, and instead of fat bums, we have none at all. This means there's nothing back there to lose, only to gain, and I promise you, you would be surprised what a good bum-focused workout can do. I've been very much working my ass on this month, and I feel great for it.

   The kettlebells were amazing, and the mirror in the bathroom of Seeg's parents house is half-body rather than face alone, so stepping out of the shower while we were there for the last 3 days of November (I still kept up with my workout!) showed me the results. Not once did I step out and think "oh god, quick, where's the towel?!" and that is an incredible feeling.

   However, as I did state two weeks ago, I was suffering from a rash for the first three weeks of this workout (it left just in time for us to go away to the Netherlands for his grandmother's cremation), and I was - I'm sorry for mentioning it - on my period for the first two weeks, too. As a result, it was really hard to see any change in my body both visually and on a deeper, physical level because I was either ignoring it since periods tend to make you gain 5 kilos and a second chin, or I was focusing on the strength of the rash and how infuriatingly itchy it was. So this month I honestly can't tell you how I felt while doing it because I was distracted.

   As far as the results go, my hips are suddenly more angular, as are my shoulders, but not in any kind of freakish or bony way. That's the bonus of using weights and increasing muscle: it helps you to avoid the 'starved' look that comes with excessive dieting alone, making you look weak and tired and causes people to spout the phrase "eat a sandwich". It rounds you out, smooths your lines and keeps you looking fit and strong, and that's where I'm getting.

   The scales didn't see much of a shift, I admit, I'm still at 56.7kg, but my waist has shrunk by half an inch, which is incredible because I'm at the point where there's less and less fat to lose, and at times like that it's a lot harder to shift it, which is why people who are obese will see a faster change in the beginning than other, slimmer people would, but I think that that's good, as it can certainly give a much-needed push.

   In short, this workout was fabulous. I do think I could have taken in a few more calories as, believe it or not, sometimes eating more helps you lose more as you have the energy you need to complete your workout properly without leaving you weakened or tired for the rest of the day, and with intense and frequent workouts, you need a good amount of calories, the right fats, and proper rest to get the best out of them.

   This month I'm doing something similar again, but it feels closer to October's workout as far as the body-weight training goes, but the strength/resistance training is different, using dumbbells instead of kettlebells.

   Next month I will be doing another new workout as I'm making the same resolution again in 2015, but it is going back to my old system of new DVDs, so it should be a little more fun - not that I don't enjoy this!