Fitness Friday: New Bathing Suit

In other words, I hope all this working out is working! I bought myself a new bathing suit since we're heading to the beach for the weekend. Eying myself up in the mirror I want to say that I can see a difference from 3 weeks ago. My abs have a hint of an indentation on each side of my belly button now (until I sit down). I think my thighs might be a little smaller too. Now I really wish I would have taken my measurements before starting so I would know if this is wishful thinking or not.

Oh well, the important part is that I feel good and working out is good for my body any way. I held at 132.4# at my weigh-in on Tuesday. Isn't week 2 usually the toughest on biggest loser? I think that is when they typically lose the least amount of pounds.

Level 2 is getting much easier. I am amazed at how well I can handle the strength moves now after just 1 week of trying. The cardio still gets me, it is really hard and I "feel like I'm going to die" like Jillian says. My muscles are not sore after working out at all this week. My abs do burn during double crunches and my legs almost give out after every static lunge.

On the downside, my left ankle has been bothering me some. It started during week 2 and I thought it was from slipping around and doing jumping jacks on my wood floor in socks. I found some New Balance shoes on clearance so I picked them up. New Balance makes the best running/workout shoes ever, IMHO. Any way, I can't tell if they are helping but I hope they will at least keep the problem from getting worse so it can get better. My ankle doesn't hurt during the workout at all but it hurts a lot afterward if I step wrong or stretch it a certain way. I don't want to quit so I'm going to give it a few more days to get better on it's own.

I've started to think about what I want to do after week 4 is done. I'd like to stick with the 30 Day Shred until I'm comfortable at Level 3. After that I might try some of the Biggest Loser workout DVDs are other Jillian Micheal's material. I feel good about pushing myself to do this every day and I don't think I'll be ready to quit after 1 more week. Any suggestions? I really need something where they talk you thru it, if I'm just supposed to listen to music and jump around I'll turn it off for sure.

For those who haven't been following along you can check out my other Fitness Friday posts to hear more about my journey through the 30 Day Shred.

Fitness Friday

Fitness Friday was started last week by Amy over at Muddy Boots. I see she hasn't done a FF post yet today so it may not be an ongoing thing. However, I've been working my butt off and I'm ready to talk about it!!

I haven't mentioned this sooner because I know how I am. I get all fired up about things and forget them the next week. I didn't want to talk about working out if I was going to quit. Well, not this time!! I started Jillian Micheal's 30 Day Shred Workout on Monday, June 15th. I've worked out Monday - Friday for two weeks now.

I heard about the shred from several different places right in a row, even from one of my new favorite blogs Cents to Get Debt Free.

For those not familiar with the workout it goes like this:
There are 3 levels, progressively harder.
Each level is a short warm-up, 18 minutes of hard work, and a short cool down totaling around 22 minutes.
You do 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, 1 minute of abs and repeat 3 times.
Each 6 minute circuit features different exercises so it is NOT BORING, which I like.

I stuck to level 1 for the first 6 days. Tuesday I moved to level 2. I confess that I didn't work very hard Tuesday morning because I was confused and slow to grasp the new moves. This could have been avoided by watching the segment first but I thought it might scare me off. Instead I watched it on fast forward afterward, pausing for the moves that stumped me. Wednesday, despite getting up @ 5 AM in hopes of working out, I was only able to squeeze in about 10 minutes total. I worked extra hard for that 10 minutes to compensate! ;) Today was the first time I really got in to level 2 from start to finish. It was challenging and I was fighting hard at the end just to finish.

I can honestly say I have never physically worked this hard before, at least not consistently. It is addicting. I can't wait to get up and get started. I feel so good afterward and think this is a big part of why I've been in a really good mood lately.

As for physical results, I am already seeing them. Day 2 I weighed 134.8#. After one week I weighed 132.4#. I won't be surprised if I gain or level off as I build muscle but I'd like to be around 120-125 like I always was until the last couple years. My clothes fit a little better already.

I haven't changed much about the way I eat although I am watching my portion sizes and avoiding mindless eating and stress eating. I'm trying to add in more fruits and veggies and have realized that I eat A LOT of bread.

What do you do to stay in shape? Have you ever taken on a regular workout? Were you happy with the results?