Woo hoo! I did it! I just finished the Beginner 21 Day Kettlebell Challenge and I’m so excited to have finished. This was a great three weeks. I lost weight, I lost inches, I gained inches and I rekindled my love for the kettlebell. 🙂

Many  thanks to Jamie Espalin for encouraging me to take measurements and photos. I am going to save the photos for a day in the future where I think you’ll be able to see a huge change. But I will share the measurements with you. It’s pretty astounding.

Overall, I had a net loss of 13.25 inches. That includes the inches I gained. 😉

I gained a half an inch in each bicep and 1/4 inch in each of my forearms. I could fairly feel my forearms growing that 1/4 inch, too. I’m happy with gaining inches in my arms because I’ve been swinging Mick every day for three weeks and it only makes sense.

But what doesn’t make sense is the inches I have lost. Astounding is the word I come up with because I’ve never experienced anything quite like this before.

I lost two inches from my hips and an inch and a half from my waist. In three weeks. For real. But here’s a crazier thing. My natural waist is above my belly button where they say you should measure your waist so I usually measure both. At my belly button? I lost 7.75 inches. In three weeks. For real. Astounding, no? 🙂

I thought it was weird when I first took my measurements that my right thigh and calf were each an inch bigger than the left side. I was so sure I was wrong that I measured twice. (I did that with my belly button measurement, too, eventually asking David for help because I was so sure the tape measure wasn’t in the right place.)

Anyway, I lost an inch off of the right thigh and calf and now I’m symmetrical. 🙂

I’ve been eating very clean paleo throughout the challenge. The book suggests having a cheat meal of one hour once a week and I’ve done that. I like it. It gives me a chance to eat things that I don’t otherwise eat and keeps me from craving or missing them the rest of the time. Plus, I don’t end up feeling bad after eating it because I have permission.

I lost a full 10 pounds. In three weeks. For real. I’m super excited about that, too.

Over the course of the 21 days, my average swing went from 17 in each 30 second interval to 19. And the one minute rest period started seeming long.

So…starting tomorrow, I’m going to move up to the intermediate version of the challenge and do another three weeks. I’m excited and a little nervous because it looks like a real challenge but I know I can do it.

Thank you again, Jaime, for encouraging me along and thank you for teaching me how to do the swings!