30 day shred, day 19, LEVEL 3

After a great 3 mile run, I decided I better get my Jillian workout in before the day gets away from me.  Level 3, here I come!


I followed Anita (the 'easy' one) and I didn't think it was too bad, but I noticed that there is quite a bit of difference between 'easy' and what Jillian's expecting.  She kind of makes you feel like a cheater by following Anita but I told myself it was ok because I was just getting my feelers out for it.  You definitely use Level 1's and Level 2's workouts to build up to this.  It's no longer black and white, strength and cardio.  Everything is mixed together.  


Jillian also talks about her diet plan, which did NOT come with this DVD.  She doesn't mention this until Level 3 and then says "With this 30 day shred DVD and my diet plan, you'll be shredded in no time."  Well, I had expected to be shredded with just the exercises.  The diet plan should have been mentioned before this.  I wouldn't have followed it anyways, but it would have given me more realistic goals.


Tomorrow I'll get more organized and get the list of exercises going.  11 more days! 

30 day shred, day 17 & 18

I did Level 2 last night around 9pm, and then got up early to do it this morning (5:50am) because today and tonight will be busy.  But I think I'm ready for Level 3!

Last night I did most of the strength exercises, so this morning I did a lot of them without weights.  I'm ready to shake things up, so tomorrow or this weekend I'll try Level 3.  I'm kind of nervous.

 

I looked at myself in the mirror while getting ready this morning, and I'm definitley not shredded.  My husband kind of laughed when I told him I expected more.  "You can't expect to be shredded in 30 days honey."  Well, Jillian said I would!  He then said "You did say you lost 1/2 a pound!"  I didn't have the heart to tell him I had gained it back.

 

I do see more definition in my arms, perhaps a little in my abs, but that's about it.  I'm able to do 20 girl pushups, without a problem, so I know I've got more muscle, I just can't see it.  And the rest of my body looks the same.  Kind of disappointing.  I know you are all thinking "But muscle weighs more than fat, so you lost fat and gained muscle!  I'm sure you look a ton better!"  Really, I don't.  I still had to jump into the jeans I wore yesterday (seriously, I was in my bedroom jumping to get them pulled up).  They certainly weren't loose and they almost became shredded!

30 day shred, day 16

Cheater cheater brownie eater!  I can hear you chanting that, because some how you KNOW!  You KNOW that I skipped yesterday.  What'd I do?  Had a little pity party for myself, which didn't end until 9pm tonight.  Kept on eating all day, but pulled myself out of the slump after 2ish brownies and a big sugar cookie.  But after eating that, I decided I needed to jump back on the wagon.
My sugar filled, bloated belly could only handle level 1 today, and I did feel like puking a few times, but I got through it (not real puking MOM, just being funny).  


I'm hoping to get a run in tomorrow, to run further from this slump!

30 day shred, day 15

HALF WAY THERE!!!  WHoot Whoot!!!

Level: 2

Date: December 11, 2011

Time of exercise: 5:15pm

Qty (each strength is done twice):

walking pushups:  5, 4  

squat and row:  14, 14*
medium grip row w/

static lunge:    23, 16
pendulum lunges w/ 

hammer curl**:  31, 28

military press w/

leg extension:  15 ,7*

chair squat w/

v fly lift  :     23, 15

weight: -.5 lbs 

* - didn't complete the strength for the whole time allotted 

** - due to my bad, crackling knees, I won't do the lunges.

Notes:  I'm half way there!  In 15 days I'm going to have abs!!  :)

My husband must have known it was my halfway point because he had sugar cookies waiting when I got home from my 4 mile run.  I ate one before these exercises, which wasn't probably the best idea, but it sure was good!  

It's a bit early to be thinking about this, but I think for my maintenance (after these next 15 days), I'll do these exercises on my days I don't run.  I've signed up for a marathon in May, so it would be hard to be doing this after or before a 20 mile training run!

30 day shred, day 14

Level: 2

Date: December 10, 2011

Time of exercise: 6:45am

Qty (each strength is done twice):

walking pushups:  5, 4  

squat and row:  14, 14* - only 2 more on this second set to finish
medium grip row w/

static lunge:    23, 16
pendulum lunges w/ 

hammer curl**:  31, 28

military press w/

leg extension:  15 ,13* - only 3 left on this second set to finish

chair squat w/

v fly lift  :     23, 15*

weight: -.5 lbs 

* - didn't complete the strength for the whole time allotted 

** - due to my bad, crackling knees, I won't do the lunges.

Notes:  I burned 155 calories today doing this 25 minute exercise DVD.  Not bad!  I wasn't too far off with what I thought.  My kids were up all throughout the night, and I finally gave up lying in bed at 6am, so I managed to get in 3.1 miles of running before this.  It seemed tiring to do these exercises, but I also did them last night around 9pm, so it was less than 12 hours ago!  I need to be more consistent when I do these so I'm not doing them so close together.
Lots to do today (we're cutting down our Christmas tree!), so I'm signing off.

Allison

30 day shred, day 11, 12 & 13!

I'm back!!
I took a little over a week off (because even after 7 days, I could still feel a little twinge in my ab muscle, so I played it safe).  I felt in great shape to start this up again (2 days at Level 1 to ease into it, and then today at Level 2).  Apparently ALL my exercises comes in waves because I only ran once during my 10 day Jillian Michaels hiatus.
The good news is that I lost a half pound during that time! No idea how because that covered Thanksgiving and eating out for three days straight while I was in Cali.

I couldn't start blogging 2 days ago when I started this up because my internet was down and just came up today.  I never realized how much we used the internet.  Way too much really, but it's hard to finish up Christmas shopping without it (last year I probably did 85% of my Christmas shopping online, this year I'm closer to 60%).

But I have really exciting news!  Exciting for me anyways.  While in California, some parts of Michigan got a great big covering of snow.  My cell is on the phone list, so I got a call at 3am telling me that my kids didn't have school.  Doh!  I tried to get back to bed, but I couldn't.  I started surfing the internet and I came across the product from BodyMedia.  It's a band that you put on your left arm (I'm sure you can use your right) and you wear it 23 hours of the day.  It measures how many calories you burn a day, how many steps you've taken, how much moderate and vigorous activity you've done, and how many hours you've slept (and how many hours you laid down).  You can also use it to input your calories for the day.  I bought the LINK, which has Bluetooth technology built into it so I can press a button and it will update an app on my phone.  (BodyMedia Link: BodyMedia page , I bought mine online from Costco: Costco's BodyMedia Link  (I'm not a Costco member, so I had to pay an additional $9, but that was a steal compared to what other places were selling it.  I got mine for $179 (plus $9) and it included a year of the website subscription.  My sister-in-law is a member at Costco, but I didn't think she would have enjoyed a phone call that early.)).  Apparently these things are just expensive paper weights if you don't get the subscription to see your activity.  The subscription runs $6.95/month (if you pay for a year) or $12.95 if you pay monthly.

Above is an example of what I see on my iPhone.  The 6 minutes of vigorous activity was the 6 minutes of cardio in Jillian's workout.  Not surprised with how much sleep I get (the website will show when you lay down and when you are sleeping and when you are just laying in bed), but I was surprised with how many steps I took in a day and what they consider Moderate Activity (must be the walking).  I thought I burned roughly 2,000 calories a day, so I was pretty close to that.  Now I just need to eat less!

So that's it for today!  I'll be back to my regular template style tomorrow.  Happy Holidays!!

Allison

P.S.  If I remember tomorrow, I'd be interested in seeing how many calories I burn while doing the Jillian Micheals workout.  I estimated 120 calories for the 25 minutes.

Pausing...

There is a lot to be thankful for this year.  A wonderful, caring husband, great kids, a job I love.  But there is one thing that gets me agitated.  My body is like the body of a 70 year old.  My knees crack, I have sciatic nerve pain, and now, I have a pulled ab muscle.  Never had this problem when I didn't have abs.  Now that I'm trying to get some, they decide that walking pushups are too much for them and they go on strike.  On the bright side (I'm stretching here because I really am upset about it), it's a good time for it.  I'm heading out to California tomorrow morning, so instead of packing the DVD and weights like I planned, I'll leave them here and give my ab a few days to heal.  I haven't tried running yet (was thinking about getting out today, but I may just have another rest day), and hopefully won't have an issue with it when I try in CA.

Keep your up exercises!  And be sure to warm up good!