I'm a shredhead

Today was day 2 of my 30 day shred. Wow. It is HARD.

After day one, I felt very shaky and sick. But I did it.

Last night, Bryson woke at 3am, 5am, & 8am. Each time he did I felt more and more muscles that I didn't know I had. Like one that made my elbow hurt. WHAT? It just hurts to go up the stairs, or down the stairs, or to sit on the toilet, or to get into the car. This morning it wasn't the good hurt either. It was the kind of hurt that made me panic that I just got several of my friends into this to be accountability partners, and I wasn't gonna make day 2. OH. NO.

But then guess what happened. I read on our message board that 2 of my gal-in-pain-pals had already completed day 2. Okay, so it's possible. And Lawrence was on his way home to give me the 20 minutes I needed to do the video. So I got dressed. I decided I needed to use 1.5 lbs for a few of the exercises rather than 5lbs, which was WAY too heavy. I might need to invest in some 3 pounders. Anyway, the support that can come from friends doing it too is pretty encouraging.

So for those that don't know, the 30-day shred is a workout DVD from one of the "Biggest Loser" trainers, Jillian Micheals. It is 20 minutes. Three 8 minute circuits. Each circuit is 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, 1 minute of abs. She works in big muscle groups and small ones at the same time so you don't have any rest, and burn max calories. There are 3 levels, I'm still on level one, and the motified movements in level one at that.

And it's hard work. It is.

But when you are short on time, and an hour work out sounds overwhelming and unrealistic, this sounds doable. Even for 30 days in a row. But it is A HARD 20 minutes. It has to be.

Some of my favorite things she says in the level one work out.

If you are looking for a modified version of a jumping jack, look elsewhere, I get 400 lb people to do this, so can you

No rest, if you want to work out for only 20 minutes a day, then you have to make every minute of that 20 minutes count.

If we are going to make big promises (up to 20lbs in 30 days), we have to give you a work out that can deliver

I'm paraphrasing of course. She's a pusher, and she's pushing me.


Tonight Lawrence and the girls started the work out with me. Lily wanted to use my 1.5lb weights because daddy has told her she could (thanks daddy). Little did he know, I'd NEED them! But being the very ingenuic daddy that he is, he made Lily and Addie their own weights out of tinker toys. Bryson woke from his nap about 5 minutes into the video, so Lawrence tended to him. And let me tell you. He is in good shape and he was struggling! He'll tell you that he isn't in great shape, but he does pushups regularly and sometimes with TWO girls on his back, and he couldn't do push ups for the full minute like you are supposed to. So he had to stop and watched with Bryson in his arms, impressed as I finished day 2. Addie lost interest, but Lily finished the whole video with me. She's a bit of a spaz with her jumping jacks and punches, but we were both impressed that she didn't lose interest. She changed into shorts and a tank top half way through because she was so hot. I forgot how buff she is! Man the girl has muscles. Lawrence said, "If mommy keeps up with this video, she'll have arms that look like Lily's. " Seriously, I'll take them!

So after finishing day 2, I think I might be able to do this. I mean, I am doing this. Every single day for thirty days. There, I said it. I'm committed. I'm going to be healthy and fitting exercise into each day. I haven't pushed myself in a long time, and it's nice to find the lost muscles. They needed to be found. Here's to making them strong and giving me lots of energy and strength.

Thanks to my fellow shredheads... you know who you are, I'm not sure if you want the blogosphere knowing who you are. I'm proud of you and so glad we are doing this together.

Go US!