As I sit here sipping on my delicious post-workout protein shake (read, Why Whey is Your Best Workout Buddy), I’m feeling energized and positive from my workout with James, my G Force personal trainer. I’m already seeing benefits and I just had to give you an update!

To give you a bit of a back story, I started working out once a week with James six weeks ago, though today was only our fifth session as our schedules conflicted two weeks ago (I worked out on my own that day because I AM COMMITTED.)

If you’re interested, here’s Part 1 of My G Force Training Adventure where you can see my before pics and measurements. (By the way, the picture in today’s post is NOT James & I – maybe in Part 3 – but we DO do some boxing in every session which is my favourite part of our workouts!)

I’ve been really enjoying my time with James, he’s extremely motivating and he’s been teaching me more about exercise and nutrition so that I can make better choices on my own.

Every session has been a bit different but today we really mixed it up and kicked it up a notch or two!

Why? Well, not only is it to keep it fresh for my own interest level and to shock my body, but my progress has been amazing! So said James and I’m definitely feeling it myself. I’ve been getting stronger, and we can tell by how much more I can do in the exercises that stay consistent within each workout (like pushups).

Now, keep in mind, I’ve been working hard on my own when James isn’t here. I’ve been eating clean (meaning I’ve cut out all the fast foods, junk foods and processed foods) and for the last two weeks, I’ve been physical every day, either walking, jogging, Pilates, Yoga or working out to my favourite DVDs.

So in today’s session, James felt it was time to push me a bit harder. Thank you, James! Instead of doing exercises which isolated muscles, like bicep and hamstring curls (which we’ve been doing in previous sessions), we did more cardio while doing a full-body workout, working the big muscles but also making sure we worked the stabilizer muscles (smaller muscles).

It was SO fun! He pushed me just perfectly so that it was a highly effective workout (read, Are You Under-Training, Over-Training or Effectively Training to learn more about this). James guided me through more high-impact exercises (read The Value of High Impact Exercises) that required an increased heart rate so we could burn more calories, like a whack load of burpees, more challenging pushups by turning the BOSU ball upside down and lunges with kicks.

I really kicked my ass in this workout! But not too much, it felt good! And one of the reasons for this was I took James’ advice. You see, in our last session I didn’t quite have the energy to really push myself. Not only was it hot (we had a heat wave here in Toronto) but I had eaten fruit and cottage cheese (good) about 3 hours before the workout (not so good).

This time, I timed my breakfast so I was finished it about 1.5 hours before my workout, and I had 2 soft boiled eggs, flax toast with a little butter and 3 slices of tomato. James said that was perfect – the carbs from the toast gave me the immediate fuel I needed for an energetic workout AND because of the timing, my body would have used most of the available calories already so that during the workout, I was burning more of my stored energy: fat.

So that’s Part 2, Readers, in my G Force training adventure. Oh! You’ll probably also want to know the benefits I’ve received so far… well, besides increased energy and a more consistent positive mind frame, I’ve lost 10.5 pounds, went from 35.4% body fat to 32.2%, and lost almost an inch off my waist, 2 inches off my hips and a half an inch off my thighs! Whoo Hoo! Thank you, G Force!  :)

Stay tuned for Part 3 and also a fabulous recipe (shared by James) for a nutritious, delicious and highly energizing protein pancake – perfect for a pre-workout meal.