I Like to Move It, Move It!

Last month, I mentioned I had purchased one of Jillian Michaels' workout DVDs for when I couldn't get myself to the gym. You can read my initial thoughts here. I'll admit that I haven't been the best about following it on my off days. I started out with grand intentions of doing it every day I couldn't get to the gym, and even on those I could, but I kind of fell off the wagon. Whoops.

Source

But thanks to LA Fitness, it didn't come back and run me over. I'm still going to the gym 4-5 days a week, and I've made some new records. On Friday, I ran 4.5 miles on the cross trainer in 42 minutes averaging about 7 miles per hour. I was really proud of myself! Today, I decided to try the dreaded treadmill, and I ran .8 of a mile at a steady pace, before returning to the elliptical for another 2 miles. The treadmill still puts a little too much pressure on my toe and ankle, so I'll have to work that in slowly.

Anyways, back to Ms. Michaels... I completed 5 days of the 30 day shred, and I would definitely recommend it to others. There are three different levels, and there are modified exercises for each level. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I could do the 'harder' versions of most of the moves! Jillian's system is 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of ab work. You work through this for 20 minutes without a break.

When I first stuck in the DVD, I was sure I was going to power through Level 1. After all, I had been going to the gym and working out for 6 weeks! Surely I was in decent shape by now! Not so much- I was sweating and out of breath after Day 1. I wanted to collapse on the carpet and not get up. It did get easier after the next few days, but even at day 5, I was still pretty worn out!

The worst thing about the DVD is that you can't skip through a lot of the introduction. I recommend turning it on, and letting it play through the first sections until you get to the workouts. Other than that, I loved the fast paced exercises that are easy to do at home. Jillian keeps you motivated and is encouraging through the whole thing, and it definitely helped me from turning off the TV :P

All in all, I'm really glad to have this DVD as a backup in case I need a home workout. I definitely need to push myself to add it back in, since I'm not losing the weight I want! Stupid pizza.