Call me Mrs. McElhealthy

Charlie Brown and I enjoy a little friendly competition, so in the midst of summer when we both need a bit of a healthy change, we looked no further than a small gym down the street from home. It's called OrangeTheory Fitness and it's basically a one-hour bundle of awesome. For Chuck, it forces him to hit the treadmill and log some miles, and for me, it forces me to get familiar with lifting and various weight floor exercises.

What's up with this Orange place, anyway?

So glad you asked - I didn't know what to expect either when Chuck said that he wanted to try it out. In a nutshell, OrangeTheory Fitness (OTF) is a one-hour, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout that incorporates treadmills, rowing machines, free weights, and various fitness equipment - think BOSU balls, Reebok benches and TRX bands. Every workout is different, but each workout usually includes around 30 minutes of running on the treads, and 30 minutes on the weight floor/rowers.

To really maximize your workout, each member wears a heart rate monitor, and your stats are displayed on a screen in the room. Heart rates are broken into color-coded "zones" to represent the percentage of your max heart rate - gray, blue, green, orange and red. If you make it to the higher end of the spectrum (orange and red) throughout the workout, you earn "splat points," meaning that you are working toward the coveted afterburn. By seeing your heart rate, you can get out of your own head and literally SEE if you can push yourself a little harder. It's a great motivator to keep you accountable and test your limits without hurting yourself.

Having been an OTF member for just a few months, I have already noticed a difference in my strength and ability - in fact, I have run my fastest 5Ks EVER this summer, including a PR a few weeks ago! It's so nice not to have to really think about my workout when I walk into the studio - I love feeling completely spent after each workout, and always am excited to go back the next day for more.

Mooooooooove over, dairy

Additionally, I decided to reset my diet a bit and eliminate dairy for the next 30-some days (essentially now until our anniversary at the end of September). Pizza, ice cream, cookies, yogurt, cheese on top of basically everything - for five weeks, it's off the menu.

Why cut out milk, ice cream, cheese and butter? Well for me, I always felt bloated at the end of the day, and didn't know what was to blame. I don't really eat processed junk food or red meat, I drink alcohol on the rarest of occasions, and I stick to organics when I can. It wasn't until we tried a paleo-based diet earlier this summer that I realized that cheese (and most dairy products, really) are something that I tend to consume on a near-daily basis. When I have limited them out in the past, my little pouch of a belly didn't poke out, and I seemed to feel a little less groggy.

I also am a sucker for a good challenge, too. Because I tend to resort to microwave nachos for solo dinners and snack constantly when I'm bored or stressed, this dairy-free adventure is causing me to choose healthier options.

It's been a bit of a struggle to get creative with meals that don't include any dairy, but as of today (Day 14), I don't completely hate everyone and everything, so I feel like I'm conquering my cravings a bit.

So what's going to happen at the end of the challenge? Uh, hello - I'll be celebrating my will power's victory over a milkshake and a cheese platter. YOLO.

#OrangeTheory #Fitness #Healthy #Wellness #Cleveland