30 Day Shred

Since I'm actually getting serious about my health and my body, I decided to get a serious workout program. Not that Zumba is in anyway for pansies, but I needed some strength training to go along with the crazy cardio that is Zumba.

I've been a "Biggest Loser" watcher for a few seasons and can be caught with floods of tears streaming down my face as the contestants come to grips with their fears and overcome amazing odds. I also love to watch Jillian as she screams in peoples faces. Why this makes me happy, I'll never know. These poor 400 pound people are dying on the treadmill and she's practically spitting in their face and telling them that, unless they die or pass out, they are staying on the freaking treadmill. The concept that you can't change by staying where things are easy is what I'm after. It's come to pushing myself to places where I'm about to die, feeling like if I do one more lunge, my leg is going to collapse and I'll have to be life-flighted to the hospital.

Kyle has been going to basketball practice every evening this week and coming home in agony, sweating profusely and crawling into epsom salt baths to prevent major soreness. I found myself envying him as he awoke in the morning, barely moving because of the previous days workout. Not that I'm a glutton for punishment but I know what he's been feeling and, how much more alive can you feel when you've pushed your body to the limit? If could choose a life of no pain and still have the perfect body, I don't think I'd do it. What reward is there in that? Like my sister-in-law always says, "if it were easy, everybody would be thin". And, like Tom Hanks said in A League of Their Own when Gina Davis threatens to quit the team because it "just got too hard", he replies, "it's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard...is what makes it great!"

And, speaking of hard, I'm now embarking on Jillian Michaels 30-Day-Shred. I bought the DVD yesterday, did the first workout last night and did day-2 this morning. The exercises themselves are very old-school; jumping jacks, butt kicks, crunches, lunges, chest-fly's etc... but are very effective at making you feel like your going to die. There are 3 levels of intensity, I'm on level one and will remain there for 10 days, move on to level 2 for the next 10 and then on to level 3. The workouts are only 20 minutes which is another bonus. I'm still planning on doing either Zumba or walking or the elliptical as well.

Also, I bought a scale. This was an agonizing decision. I've not had a set of scales in my home for years but decided that the whole production of using the Wii was just too humiliating. I got a $10 set of manual scales, nothing fancy. When I first stepped on them, it said I weighed 190 and I about had a full-blown conniption. When I stepped off the dial bounced around and landed on 5 pounds. I found the adjustment dial under the scale, thanked the Lord for that little thing, and adjusted the scale until it read zero. When I stepped back on I was somewhere between 180 and 185. Those little tick-marks are tiny and my eyes 5'6" away from where they are. I started thinking I should have gotten a digital scale but figured this was just as good. Next week when I weigh in, I'm going to get somebody to take a picture of it with the zoom lens...I'll post the results. For now, I'm leaving my weight-loss ticker where it is. No way in hades I'm I moving it up because me weigh-in method changed.

My exciting news is this...I grabbed a pair of capri's out of my dresser yesterday when I was getting ready to go to town. I thought they were the ones that I bought this summer, as size 14. When I started buttoning them up, they were a little snug and I thought, "what the crap??!!" Then I realized they were some older ones that were a size 12 (a small 12) that I couldn't even zip a few months ago. They were a little snug but they zipped up and only cause a little muffin-top and not a big old nasty "I'm gonna shoot myself" bulging muffin-top. It was so exciting, I was euphoric for hours. I went to give blood and my blood pressure was 113/65 and my heart rate was 55! My iron was one point too low so I couldn't give blood but that little piece of information also made me feel amazing. All this exercise is benefiting my body in ways I didn't even know.

I'm hoping that next week, I'll have some bigger results where the weight is concerned...but for now, I'm thoroughly sore and feeling like I'm making progress. YAY!!!