Muffin Top(ple) Monday

Yea yea I know it's Tuesday, but I wasn't feeling well yesterday and spent most of the day with my head under the covers so I'm playing catch up.

So I did great with the walking thing for 2 whole days. Then I woke up late one day and didn't have time to exercise before work and that's all she wrote.

It's amazing to me how easy it is to get OUT of shape and how incredibly little motivation or effort it takes, but how extremely difficult and time consuming it is to get IN shape. Personally I think it should be the other way around. Being in shape should just be the way of things, and you'd have to work really hard at getting fat and lazy. Once upon a time I could jog a mile with relative ease. And by relative ease I mean being slightly winded at the end but not doubled over gasping for breath, which is how you'd have found me after this morning's workout.

I got up at 6am and did day 1 of the 30 Day Shred with Jillian Michaels.

Jillian Michaels, winning trainer on NBC's The Biggest Loser, helps you lose big – up to 20 pounds in 30 days! Her 30 Day Shred DVD includes three 20-minute circuit-training workouts that burn mega calories and build strong, lean muscle. Each level contains a 20-minute workout based on Jillian's exclusive 3-2-1 Strength/Cardio/Ab training circuit: 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of ab work. There's also a brief warm-up session and a cool down stretch. Follow Jillian's program for 30 days and you will see amazing results!

You can buy this DVD on her website for $10 or if you have Comcast, you can get it for free on OnDemand. I have Comcast. Yay Me.

I need to lose a lot of weight. Any toned muscle I once had has long since turned to flab so I figured just walking in place, however energetic the walking, probably wasn't going to get me the results I wanted. At least not in this decade.

So I decided to turn it up. The intensity of my work out that is. When I starting typing that sentence I was originally typing 'turn up the..' but couldn't figure out how to finish it. Changing the wording of the sentence didn't stop one of the cheesiest 80's songs of all time from popping into my head.

"Pump up the volume, pump up the volume, pump up the volume.
Dance! Dance!"

Sorry, I had to share the torture.

Moving on.

So I thought the 10 minute mile I did last week was a decent work out. It got my heart rate up, accelerated my breathing and I broke a little sweat doing it. Psh!

Half way through Jillian's 20min shred I was gasping for breath and holding on to whatever hope I could find that my arms wouldn't disconnect from my body, fall off and flop on the floor. Ole Girl Kicked. My. Ass.

After finishing the workout and peeling myself off the floor, I managed to roll up my yoga mat and drag my butt to the shower. Barely. I may or may not have fully bathed. I couldn't keep my eyes open and it took every bit of concentration I had to try and return my breathing to normal so I know I got wet and I know I got soapy but that's about all I recall of this morning's shower.

I knew I was out of shape, but damn. If the workout I got this morning is even half the crap she puts those tubbies through on The Biggest Loser no wonder they're dropping 10-15 pounds a week!

Her claim is you can lose up to 20lbs in 30 days by doing this workout program. I don't know much my arms weigh, but I imagine them falling off would be close to, if not a few pounds more than 20, so this video just might live up to it's promise.

The good news is - in spite of the piece of cake I had at my niece's birthday party slash Easter egg hunt and the brownie I had at Matthew's mom's Sunday evening, my scale says I've dropped just under 4lbs since Friday. And that was BEFORE I let Jillian beat me like Mommie Dearest. I'm going to do my best not to weigh again until Friday, but I imagine if I can keep up with the 30 Day Shred I'll have dropped a few pounds by then. Or at least an appendage.