This post was updated accordingly for days 22 – 28 of this challenge.
Click here for week one’s updates of this challenge.
Click here for week two’s updates of this challenge.
Click here for week three’s updates of this challenge.
I was supposed to start the final week of the Flat Stomach Challenge yesterday but unfortunately my headache from Sunday still hadn’t subsided. I slept for quite a long time but was still feeling weak and tired. I guess this happens every time I go outside because I’m exposed to new germs that I normally am not exposed to when I’m indoors. It’s pretty much been a pattern every time we’ve gone to Costco in recent weeks.
The final week only has one rest day since it’s understood that we’d take a longer rest period after the challenge is complete. It’s also the most intense week, so since I wasn’t feeling well I decided to just pace myself for this final week.
I took an extra rest day yesterday and thought I’d be better after another night’s rest, but my headache got progressively worse as the day passed and now I don’t think I’ll be able to do my workout today either. I wasn’t going to try to bring forward Wednesday’s rest and then do 6 days straight to try and finish at the same time as everyone else anyway, but now I definitely won’t be able to.
Also Sundays are typically my sabbaths so I’ll probably end up taking another rest day this week as well. As such, my updates for this post will be on the days I actually do the challenge, rather than daily.
Week Four
1/27 – Day 22: Completed 17:49.
Videos completed: 10min HIIT, Ep 5. 10min HIIT, Ep 2. Abs & Flat Stomach, Ep 6. Lower Abs, New Cool Down.
I cannot stress how thrilled I am that I managed to get this workout done. It’s pouring rain outside and it’s fairly chilly inside too and it’s just one of those days where I didn’t want to do anything. But I could tell from the moment I woke up this morning that I was feeling much better and more alert.
I slept well last night, my headache is fully gone I had a good amount of energy. If I really wanted to make excuses, I could have decided to take another rest day to ensure my body was fully recovered before doing my workout but I decided to just go for it today.
I did still take it a little easier in that I used the first HIIT as a warm up (going at my own pace and partially adjusting moves so that I’d get a bit more of a stretch in), which worked out well. I intentionally slowed down many of the moves in today’s workout so that I could properly engage (and feel the engagement of) my muscles.
Weight-wise, I haven’t updated my weight tracker on this blog in a while, but I’ve been tracking it offline and it’s remained the same for the past 3 weeks. It’s looking like it’ll be the same for this week too. I guess this is my new set weight since it’s been very easy to maintain.
The weight itself is perfectly fine for me but I would be interested in changing up my body composition if possible, to continue increasing in muscle. I will probably have to start pushing myself more in my workouts moving forward.
Not too much to say about the workout today – I took more breaks during the ab videos (and certainly a longer break between the two) so that I could complete moves in good form and keep my muscles engaged. Only 5 days of workouts left in this challenge!
1/30 – Day 23: Completed 19:32.
Videos completed: Warm Up, Get Fit – Arms & Upper Body (x2), Ep 3. Arm Workout, New Cool Down.
It’s been a really busy week and I’ve also been fairly lazy with exercising. I wasn’t expecting to workout today either but I’m glad I randomly decided to just do it anyway. I used 5lb weights for the Get Fit video (both times) and focused on my breathing as well as my mind-muscle connection.
I feel like I worked decently hard today! I intentionally slowed down the movements so that I would be able to feel it more, squeezed my muscles more than the previous times I’d done this and made sure to engage my core as much as possible. I took a little break between each video but otherwise did not need breaks during the videos themselves.
Overall enjoyed the workout a lot. I love the Get Fit videos in general anyway, and I guess I also just really enjoy arm day because it didn’t involve an ab workout too haha. My abs are still really weak; in all honesty I should work them more but it takes a lot more effort and mental preparation.
It was an approachable workout for me, which I definitely appreciated after not exercising for a few days. I think it’s also what motivated me to just get it done today too, so I’m thankful for that! Because it’d been a while since I exercised, I decided to dedicate time to do the proper warm up and cool down today as well, so I think the break has done me good.
I say this quite frequently, but I felt stronger today and was able to do moves with better form than before. I’m really happy to be increasing in strength! I’m not sure if I’ll be working out tomorrow because it’s my sabbath, but I am hoping to finish up by the end of next week if possible.
2/2 – Day 24: Completed 18:53.
Videos completed: Warm Up, Ep 1. Full Body, Ep 4. Booty Workout, 6 Pack Abs, New Cool Down.
Eyyy I’m so happy! It was pretty late in the day but I decided to just go for it and I’m glad I did. For the first time, I did the high impact moves for the majority of the full body workout. Goodness me, it’s a whole other ball game; I had to pause the video multiple times to take a longer breather. Half way through the video I realised this one was already pretty challenging even without the jumps.
I must have increased in strength though because I was able to land softly each time for the jumping moves that I did, and I also did not do moves that would have shook the floor had I jumped (i.e. jumping jacks). My max heart rate was at 173bpm and my average was 156bpm today, which is the highest it’s been in a while.
I did proper pushups today, though in reality I’d only been able to do 2, my elbows were pointed further out than I’d have liked and I wasn’t able to lower my chest as far down as I’d have liked. The third pushup I attempted I actually lowered my chest fully to the ground… aaand couldn’t push myself back up haha, so I went onto my knees to complete the move. Still, that’s more than before!
I don’t know if it’s because I was exhausted from the HIIT or because I haven’t worked out as much lately but I found the booty workout exceptionally difficult today. I only used light resistance but oh boy did I feel it. Perhaps I was also more intentionally focusing on squeezing my glutes? I’m not sure. Either way, I worked hard.
For the final video, I just didn’t use weights because I don’t think I’d have been able to do the moves with good form otherwise. Again I focused on engaging my ab muscles and I think it made a difference? Not sure because I was ridiculously tired, but I think my holding plank form improved.
3 days of workouts left! Chloe announced she’s launching a new program on Feb 15th (pre-launch on Feb 11th) so I’m hoping to finish up the workouts this week (or early next week), rest up, then start the new program.
2/8 – Bonus: Completed 18:50.
Videos completed: 10mins Standing Abs Workout, 10mins Lower Abs Workout.
I guess I really went an entire week without exercising. Last week was just exceptionally busy for a myriad of reasons, but moving forward should be better. Today I woke up with a mild headache but I still wanted to exercise.
I didn’t feel like I had the strength to do 4 videos (or a HIIT video at all) but I did want to do some abs, so I chose a couple of my favourite ab videos and did those. I still have that mild headache but I’m really glad I exercised. The standing abs was fairly doable, which was great for my head, but goodness me, that lower abs video was painful.
I knew it would be painful but I guess I’d just forgotten how painful was. I focused hard on engaging my core so it was extra difficult today, yay. This lower abs video is genuinely one of my favourites because it burns every single time. It felt like Chloe was trying to destroy me when I was ready to collapse and she declares we’re only “almost half way through!” lol. Ma’am, I thought we were done already. Thank goodness for her totally hype music and words of encouragement that kept me pushing through.
I didn’t anticipate it being too hardcore so I didn’t even bother getting out of my shirt (I had a sports bra on underneath) but I ended up sweating through it lol. My mistake. Post-workout ded face today:
2/10 – Day 26: Completed: 09:59.
Videos completed: Warm Up, Ep 5. 10min HIIT, Ep 4. Booty Workout, Ep 2. Abs & Flat Stomach, Ep 6. Lower Abs, New Cool Down.
Wow, what a morning. It has honestly been so long since I did a workout in the morning. I got up at 08:10, a little sniffly, having had just over 6hrs sleep and before my alarm even rang. I probably woke up a little bit before that before deciding to just get up.
And in a surprising bout of productivity I decided to just start my workout at 08:50. Last night’s dinner must not have been fully digested yet as I was still decently full (well, I did eat a lot of pizza and pasta after all), so I felt like I had enough energy to just go for it.
I used to like making excuses to say that I can’t workout on an empty stomach, I don’t have enough energy etc. but lately I just haven’t really had time later on in the day either. I realised that Chloe’s new challenge pre-releases tomorrow, starts on Monday and I haven’t even finished this one. It’s only 3 more days. I gotta just get it done.
I’m so proud of myself this morning! Was I tired? Yes. Did I take extra breaks? Yes. Did go harder than last time? I’m not sure. But the important thing is that I did it.
I did a lot more of the full impact HIIT movements because I was able to jump lightly and that took a lot out of me. My heart rate wasn’t even that high but I was in need of extra breaks to breathe and drink water. My form was good and I worked hard on engaging the right muscles.
I am especially proud of my single-leg deadlift form (it was the low impact move for one of the final exercises) because my back was actually straight rather than slanted and I could literally see my core muscles working.
I used a light resistance band for the booty workout but I felt weaker because it really has been a while since I worked out, plus I’m about to start my period, so I think it would have been just as hard without a band. I really want to grow my hamstring muscles so I focused harder on working those, and I could actually feel myself doing the moves a little differently than before. I still need to improve on my form in that regard I think.
I honestly wasn’t sure I’d be able to do both ab workouts (in fact, one of the reasons I’d been putting off this day was because I wasn’t mentally prepared to do 4 videos, it just felt like a lot) but amazingly I managed to push through, switching to low impact whenever I needed to. For today, that actually meant for many moves I previously busted through high impact with no problems.
I wasn’t able to go the full duration for a lot of the moves today. I especially wasn’t able to do full impact for all the moves, but the important thing is that I did my best and was moving my body. I was even able to do all the videos I planned to do; it really helped that I just had her videos in a playlist so when the next video started playing, I figured why not and just kept going.
I felt amazingly accomplished this morning, having completed my morning routine and workout before the time I’d previously been waking up. I’m not sure if today was a fluke, but it’d be really great if I could continue this productivity since I know I can workout well without eating beforehand too.
2/11 – Day 27: Completed 10:09.
Videos completed: Warm Up, Plank Challenge, Ep 3. Arm Workout, 5min Cool Down.
Amazing, I’m thrilled that I just went ahead and finished my workout this morning as well. I still woke up with a mild headache, but it really is a mind over matter thing as the headache quickly dissipated when I decided to ignore it and just get on with my workout.
My right wrist was still hurting somewhat so I did more on my left arm and also did more of the low impact moves. Today’s plank challenge took quite a lot out of me and I didn’t have the mental vigour or desire to repeat the arm workout (especially given my hurting wrist) so I only did it once.
I made it short and sweet, but don’t worry I definitely felt it in my abs. I felt the burn more in my abs than my arms today during the plank challenge, which I’m going to chalk up to a combination of better engaging my core, better form and less compensating from other muscles (especially when doing some of the lower impact moves). And possibly my arms having gotten stronger too.
Despite taking it easier, I felt like I worked my body harder and still pushed myself where possible. My arms were trembling at one point and I was able to just hold it those 3 extra seconds when I heard the beeps. I ended on a quick 5min cool down today, which was perfect and allowed me to finish my entire workout in less than 40min. I don’t think I’d have had enough energy to do more than that today.
I can’t believe it! One more day left, which I should be able to finish up tomorrow. Lol I guess it really does take a deadline for me to get my butt into gear haha. The new 2021 Hourglass Program pre-released today. I am definitely tempted to try that after this one. Starting on Monday would be perfect.
2/12 – Day 28: Completed 11:18.
Videos completed: 25min Full Body Burn, Ep 6. Lower Abs, New Cool Down (loosely followed).
Yaaaay! Wow. I am amazed, I have officially completed the Chloe Ting 2021 Flat Stomach Challenge!! Goodness, it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to complete a 4-week long challenge. The last time I was able to complete one was the Summer Shred challenge last year. (At this point, I’ve probably dropped the final week of the Get Peachy Challenge.)
Regarding today, I still had mild pain in my right wrist sometimes. I also started my period today, which is typically my weakest day of the month. This month, maybe because I was a lot more consistent with working out, I barely had any period pains. I was still considering skipping, but after getting up I just really wanted to exercise, so decided to go for it.
I did workout at my own pace, doing primarily low impact moves. Because I was already weak today, I skipped the workout, instead going slowly during the first set of the 25min workout to warm myself up. I did not have enough energy left after that workout to do the 2 week abs video – I still remember its intensity – so I skipped it.
I did my best for the lower abs workout though. It was the final video! I went for it as best as I could. The ‘congratulations’ song at the end of the 25min video hyped me up for it and I’m so happy I managed to complete this challenge on the first day of my period, no less.
If that’s not a sign I’ve grown stronger, I don’t know what is.
I didn’t think I saw a massive difference since my waist measurement didn’t really change, and my weight didn’t really change either. However, I looked in the mirror this morning and saw that my legs were noticeably slimmer. In fact, I could hardly believe it when I took a picture and compared it to my starting photo.
It wasn’t intended to be a proper after photo (I may take an update photo tomorrow depending on how my period bloat goes, we’ll see) but I’ll share it regardless. Here it is next to my starting photo:
I am also certain that it is not just due to the pants that I am wearing because the same grey leggings have been feeling larger on me as the weeks went by; I actually wear the waistband a good inch or two above my waist now because there is ‘excess material’. Okay maybe I will try to take a proper update photo once my period bloat goes away.
Overall, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this challenge. I liked the variety, I liked that we worked different body parts on different days, I really like the way the program was put together. I love that I’ve “seen” results despite not expecting to see any.
Most of all, I’m thrilled that I managed to finish this challenge. 4 weeks is really tough for me to continue momentum and this final ‘week’ proves it for sure lol. But I finished!! Yay! I still think it’s one of her best, or at least one of the challenges that I have enjoyed the most.
I will probably be starting Chloe’s new 2021 Hourglass Challenge on Monday. I’m very glad that it’s only going to be 3 weeks long. That’s the perfect duration for me I think. My body seems to want a decent rest before continuing after that. Onwards and upwards!
Muchos love,