Your jaw is going to drop when you see Sarah’s progress from 30×30 Fat Loss Shred + the 5 Week Food Plan. More importantly, she has the BEST tips for finding enjoyment in cooking, for not spending hours meal prepping and for getting through tough workouts.
I mean this really and truly… Sarah was a huge inspiration to me personally during this challenge. You cannot help but feel her passion for healthy living when you watch her Instagram stories. I knew these plans were powerful, especially when combined; Sarah’s progress both inside and out are everything I could hope for for the women who follow my plans! Congratulations, Sarah!
Photos take 26 days apart; follow Sarah here
Sarah is such an inspiration that I wanted to interview her here on my blog so that we can all steal some of her tips and tricks.
30×30 FAT LOSS SHRED
1. What did you think after your first workout?
Truthfully? “Is Lauren out of her mind?” Hahaha. 30×30 is an annual program so it’s very easy to forget how hard it is. After my first workout, I laid down on the ground, gasping for air, and couldn’t believe that I had survived and that I had 29 more days of this. It was so hard!
2. In your opinion, how is the 30×30 plan different from other workouts?
The program is time based so everything is perfectly laid out for you. Once that timer starts, there is no stopping it until it’s over. In my opinion, that’s both good and bad. Good because you have a defined time limit for getting your workout in and can easily set aside that time in your day. Bad because the rest breaks seem to get shorter and shorter. It’s also different from Lauren’s other plans in that it’s mostly cardio based and uses more body weight than her other programs. Although, I was SO EXCITED when I got to pick up a set of weights for a few of those workouts.
3. The 30×30 workouts are intense. Do you have any tips on pushing through when you wanted to quit or stop short?
Rest. Specifically, 2-3 seconds in the middle of a minute exercise was very helpful it making sure I got through the whole minute. A minute of mountain climbers is hard, ya’ll. Taking a 2-3 second mini break was exactly what my body needed when I thought I wanted to quit. Also, those 2-3 second mini breaks definitely decreased in frequency as I got closer to the end of the program! Having my accountability partners to text on my rest breaks was also so crucial to making sure I got through my workouts. I would complain and whine that it was hard and they would be my virtual cheerleaders telling me that I am stronger than I think, unstoppable, and I can absolutely finish that day’s workout. Love you girls. Thank you.
5 WEEK FOOD PLAN
1. What did you think after the first week of following the plan? Is it really that easy to follow?
I could write a novel about how much I loved the 5 week food plan. When I first started my fitness journey years ago I would spend hours in the kitchen on Sunday prepping for the week. It got to the point where I was burnt out and not looking forward to spending half my day in the kitchen on Sunday. If you guys know me, I love to cook so that’s how burnt out I got. When I first read through Lauren’s food plan I thought to myself “wait, it can’t be this simple. This is brilliant!” I don’t know why it ever occurred to me to make extra food at dinner to eat lunch the next day. The most time I spent meal prepping in the 5 weeks of the food plan was 1 hour. It completely changed my outlook on meal prep.
The other thing I love about Lauren’s meal plan (aside from the fact that she uses cheese in her dishes) is her ingredients are simple and don’t cost a fortune to buy. My grocery bill was so reasonable for an entire week of eating for both my husband and I. I was completely floored.
2. What was your favorite meal from the plan?
Just one? It is a three way tie (in no particular order) – taco lasagna, BBQ chicken pizza, and chicken cordon bleu casserole. Side note: there was not a single meal I made during that 5 weeks that my husband didn’t devour.
3. You make cooking and eating healthy meals look so fun… what are your tips?
Cooking is my passion. If I could quit my job today and become a chef full time, I would. I love the whole process – prepping the ingredients (yes, I am that crazy person who still loves mincing her own garlic and dicing her own onion), the way my kitchen smells as I cook a meal, the art of creating a beautiful plate a food. It all brings me so much joy. I also love sharing that passion with others through my makeshift cooking show “Cooking with Bogo.”
One of my goals for Cooking with Bogo is to show everyone that cooking is not hard. At all. All you really need is to be able to follow a recipe. Okay, and maybe a good chef’s knife. The feedback I get from people also fuels my passion to continue to do what I do. It makes me so happy when people send me messages telling me that I inspired them to get in the kitchen and try something new.
YOUR RESULTS
1. You obviously made incredible physical progress in 30 days, tell us more…
30×30 is so challenging. The second I knew that Lauren was planning on releasing a new 30×30 program, I texted my girls and told them the only way I would make it through 30 days is if I had them as my accountability partners. They were a big reason I was able to keep going.
My success can also be attributed to getting buy-in from my husband. Usually, we take turns cooking dinner and I got him to agree to hand over the reins to me for 30 days and put our nutrition in my hands. He was on board 100% and was a big part of why I was able to stick to the food plan for the entire 5 weeks.
The third thing that made me successful was taking the program one day at a time. I refused to look ahead in the program (didn’t want to scare myself). Each day I told myself, it’s only 30 minutes…you can do anything for 30 minutes of your day. Before I knew it, 15 days had passed. Then 20 days had passed. Then it was over. I think that’s what has kept me going all these years on my fitness journey. I always know where I want to get to, but once I know that, I put that aside and think about HOW I’m going to get there – 1 day at a time, 1 rep at a time.
2. More importantly, how did the plan make you feel after 30 days? Inner results!
Simply put, I felt unstoppable. Strong. Fierce. A force to be reckoned with. When I look back on how I felt after that first workout on day 1 compared to day 30, it’s night and day. Don’t get me wrong, I still strongly dislike a minute straight of anything, but now I can get through it with minimal rest, good form, and a smile on my face. This program challenged me mentally in ways no other program does. I am so unbelievably proud of myself for completing it and every single person in this community should feel the exact same way. We did it! Now, where’s my barbell… 🙂
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