I've just been SHREDDED

I first heard about the 30-day Shred here.

Then my blog friend Beth talked about here.

Then my 30th birthday brought me several gifts of money, so now I own The 30-Day Shred. Jillian Michaels, of Biggest Loser fame, is the instructor, and she is as hard on this DVD as she is on the show. She has also trained 6 of the 7 winners on the show, which is another reason I bought her workout instead of Bob.

This DVD is divided into three routines based on ability level. Each routine is broken into what Jillian calls circuits. You do 3 minutes of strength training with weights, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs. You do this 3 times, and combined with a short warm-up, and short cool-down, you have completed 20 minutes of working out.

And let me just say....you feel every minute of it. I've done many workout tapes in my day, and up until now, Cindy Crawford's Shape Your Body was about the hardest I have ever done. I feel as tired after twenty minutes of Jillian's workout as I felt with forty-five minutes of Cindy's workout. And I only did Level One!!

I figure if this is a 30 day program, I'll do level one for 10 days, level two for ten days and level three for 10 days. That is, unless I find it super easy after five or six days. We will see. I'm not going to kill myself doing this by any means.

Not only do I have a little more time on my hands thanks to summer break from school, but I have a little bit of motivation. We hope to make a beach trip before summer is over, so I will have to buy a bathing suit. The other is that some of the teachers who did the school version of Biggest Loser have decided to do it over the summer. We weighed in on Monday, June 15th. We will weigh in again on our first day back, August 17th. The person who lost the most will win the money. We thought since on the show they go home for 6-8 weeks before the finale, we could "go home" for the summer and see how we do without our motivation as well.

I'll end this post with this final thought, in case any of you decide to try the Shred. In level one, you do a move called the "butt kick". And it does exactly what it says it will do....and the very next move you get to punch out all your aggression. By the end of the video I wanted to punch Jillian, but I feel so great right now.

Can't wait to see how Shredded I am in 30 days!

Biggest Loser--Week Three

Ok, I just realized I didn't update last week. Sorry about that.

Week one I lost 2.2 pounds. Week two I gained a pound.

Today, I found out I lost 3.2 pounds! WOOHOO!!!! Don't know my percentage because the teacher in charge of our weight had to leave right after weigh in to take her son to the doctor. But who cares? I lost weight!!

I am so excited about this. While I had purposed to work out and exercise over my spring break, the constant cold rain just did not motivate me. I stayed inside and cleaned my house instead. I scrubbed baseboards. I did some heavy-duty mopping. I did about a million loads of laundry. I played with Quinn a lot.

I also had Buddy's parents here for the weekend (more about that later), and we usually go out to eat. Then there was the Easter Egg hunt (more about that later). Not to mention the temptations to snack just because I was at home.

Regardless, I made a conscious effort to do better. I consider this a success!

Biggest Loser---Week One

We had our weigh-in for the Biggest Loser at school on Tuesday.

As luck would have it, I actually lost 2.2 pounds!! I say luck, because I didn’t do a thing to help myself in the “lose weight” department. I cut back on my snacking and that was about it. I didn’t work out at all.

Two pounds lost is still two pounds lost. I’m two pounds lighter than last week. This would be 1% of my weight, if you want me to be specific. We are doing this by percentage of weight lost (like the show) since no one weighs the exact same amount. I was not the “biggest loser” of the week. That would be our school secretary who lost 5 pounds this week.

I am definitely motivated now. If I lost 2 pounds by doing nothing, imagine what I could lose if I DID SOMETHING??

I’ve already walked over a mile this week. Long story short, but I walked one of my students home from school on Tuesday. It was a little over a mile to walk to her house and back to the school. I guess if I’m going to walk anymore this week, I’ll either need to bundle up and take an umbrella, or else turn into a duck. I think I’ll just pull out some workout videos instead.

I appreciate everyone’s encouragement while I try this. I may not have as much to lose, but it’s still something that is important to me.

Will I Be The Biggest Loser??

When I wrote my February Update of my goals for this year, I mentioned that I had not had much luck in the weight loss department. I also mentioned that I had joined a "Biggest Loser" group at school. We had our first meeting today and had our "official" weigh-in.

I would guess we had at least 15 ladies sign up this morning. We each contributed $10. The person who has the overall biggest percentage of weight loss after 8 weeks will win all the money!!

I am NOT going to tell you what my weight was today so don't even ask! The only "rule" of the game is that we must all agree to wear the same exact thing to our weigh-ins. I chose to bring in work-out clothes to weigh with, and then change back in to my work clothes later. I am at a slight disadvantage, since a lot of the people doing this challenge go to the gym, and while I would love to go, it's just not in the budget right now. (Remember...I'm in FPU...) If anyone would like to take me as their guest, just let me know.

I will keep you updated on my weekly weight-loss percentage.