Day 29: Working out again!

So, I was back on the wagon today! It was only day two of level three and that means that I still have eight more days to go even though I am on day 29. My stomach issues were much better (thank goodness because I hate feeling sick to my stomach!) and I had some time to exercise in the morning. I definitely am a little out of it. I think that if I hadn't missed so many days in the past couple of weeks I would have been stronger this go around, but oh well. I ended up doing a lot of the modified moves because my muscles were killing me. I would say that it was mostly the moves that worked out my quads that I had to modify. In the second round of strength moves we have to do jumping lunges and at first when I do those it starts out really easy and I think to myself, "wow, these are super easy and I can't believe that we get to do these." Then the time keeps going and I think, "wow, these are getting really hard...I don't know if I can keep on going...keep going, I am sure she is going to say you only have a couple more to do." Then it ends, but the next round of them I had to take a break because my quads were killing me. I have to be honest and tell you that I didn't completely finish today's workout. I was doing the last circuit and my baby started crying. While I was working out during this section I was trying to calm him down by talking to him or quickly making one of his toys rattle to get his mind off of wanting to cry. I got through the strength and cardio with him crying off and on. By the time I got to the ab section he was in a full blown cry. I thought that I could just work through it, but after doing the ab part for half of it I just quit and picked the baby up. So, I missed about 30 seconds and the stretching of the video.

One random thing that I like about level three are their outfits. I think that this level they have the best colors going on. I especially like Jillian's sports bra. I told you it was going to be random :)

Well, I don't know how great these next eight days are going to go because I have discovered that after recovering from my stomach issues I now have the beginnings of a cold :( My throat and head hurt and I know that if I am feeling sick I won't want to exercise. I am really bummed out because I was on a great stretch of being healthy. I got the cold from my husband and I am sure that I will pass it on to the baby and the toddler and that won't be fun. I also have family coming into town and I have a feeling that my exercising might be put on hold. So, it could be 45 days for me to finish this 30 day shred!

Day 28: Still sick

This post will be short and sweet! I was still not feeling well so I didn't exercise :(

Day 26 & 27

Friday 2/25 & Saturday 2/26 I did not exercise :( I know that I should not have any excuses and I should have fit in some time, but I just didn't. Yesterday my husband was taking this first flying lesson (he wants to get his pilot's license) and had to be out of the house by 8:30. On most days he is out of the house around 9:30 and that extra time is what I need to workout and not worry about the two boys. Then during the day there is a little free time where I could probably fit in a workout, but it seems like whenever I do the baby or the toddler will wake up from their nap early, so I just do other stuff that needs to get done or just relax a bit. Then the evening came and the night gets away from me. I cook dinner, then we eat, and then it is time to get the boys to bed, and then I am tired and just want to relax on the couch and watch some TV. My motivation to exercise is completely gone.

Today was my husband's birthday and for his birthday he took my car in to have the oil changed and have a recall issue done on it, very exciting! We were planning to go out together and do gymnastics class with my toddler, but he had thrown-up the night before and said that he wasn't feeling well, so that is why my husband took my car and I stayed at home with the boys. Then around noon I started feeling sick too. It made me think that I either poisoned our food from the night before or we had a stomach flu. All day long my stomach has been hurting, but it hasn't been bad enough for me to throw-up. Not feeling well definitely doesn't make me want to exercise.

It is hard to believe that if I had stuck to my original plan of getting this all done in 30 days that I would be done really soon. Right now I still have 9 more days to go and I am determined to finish up the video even if I go past the 30 days!

Day 25: Level Three!

I finally moved on to level three and it was exciting to do a new workout! The warm-up was a little different and more difficult, but not all that hard. I thought that the strength moves were hard, but for some reason it felt like they were easier to me than level two was. It seems to me that my quads are my biggest issue. When they start to burn, which doesn't take much, I can't go for very long. In level three it seemed like a lot of the strength moves had to do with my arms. There were the jumping lunges and those hurt after a bit and I had to take a break. I think that the cardio portion was harder for me on this level then on level two. I did all of the cardio moves that were in this section and as the days go by I may have to modify them if my knee starts hurting.

This level I had the complete joy of having my toddler exercise with me. This time he was really into the exercising. It is a lot of fun to watch him watch the video and try and do the moves that are a little hard because his coordination isn't there yet. He did the warm-up with me and then started doing the strength moves with me. When we got to the "superman" move (not sure if this is what it is actually called) he decided that it would be fun to sit on mom's back. He sat on my back and didn't want to move, but I had to get my husband to take him off so that I could actually finish! After that he lost interest in exercising and came back once more to workout with me. I did have to take a few breaks because my quads were killing me, but I actually thought that I would do worse than what I actually did for this level!

Day 22, 23, & 24: Level Two Completed

I can't believe that I am behind in this blog by three days! The time just got away from me. Also, I usually would type up the blog in the evenings and lately that has been impossible with the baby. I have mentioned before that he has been especially fussy and lately I have been holding him in the evenings so that he will fall asleep and stay asleep. Since I can't do much while holding the baby I eventually fall asleep too. The extra sleep that I am getting on the couch is nice, but I am not getting anything else done. My dream is for the baby to start taking naps during the day and to go to sleep at night without needing me. My oldest one didn't start sleeping through the night until he was nine months and I don't know if I have it in me to go another five months like this!

Now back to the working out section of this blog. For level two I missed three days. I wasn't sure if I should make up the days or if I should just move on to level three so that I would be done in the 30 days. I decided that I should just finish up level two. The past three days I have done level two and I finally finished it on Wednesday! I had to make modifications to level two because of my right knee that was hurting. Like I mentioned before I didn't do high knees, oblique twists, and jump rope and instead did punching or jumping jacks. For some reason the jumping jacks don't seem to bother my knee. I also still would get really tired doing the last ab workout. It hurt my arms more holding myself up then it did my abs. I don't know what happened with me and this level, but the motivation really wasn't there for me. A lot of the times I really didn't want to work out and was not looking forward to it. I would think about being finished during the workout a lot and I found myself not pushing as hard as I could probably go. I think that I was also getting a bit bored with doing the same workout every day. I am just glad that the level is done. I will be starting level three today and I hope that it goes better than level two! I know that level three is a bit harder than level two, but I am excited to start some new exercises. I am still contemplating whether or not I should do a couple of days where I exercise twice in one day to finish up in 30 days. I guess that if I can find the time and motivation I will.

I also just wanted to say that I wish that I would have taken some body measurements before I started "The Shred" to see if I am leaner. I know that I have actually gained a pound since starting this and I would like to think that it is muscle that I gained, but the sweet stuff that I have been eating has been a little crazy lately!

Day 21: Life Happens

Surprise, surprise I didn't exercise today either. Boy, this is getting bad! I am finding that I should have maybe started another 30 day challenge rather than this one. I don't know what is going on with my baby, but the past few days he has been super fussy. He wants to constantly be held and he is back to breastfeeding every 1.5-2 hours (we were at about a three hour time span). Then the easiest way for him to fall asleep is to breastfeed. If I try and put him down after he is done eating and has been alseep for a bit he wakes up instantly and then it is hard to get him back to sleep unless I feed him again, which I really don't want to do because I would just be breastfeeding 24/7. So, for most of today I was holding the baby so that he could get some sleep. During the night he has been super fussy too and I have been lacking in the sleep department, which makes me too tired to exercise in the morning.

Then there is the toddler. For the most part he is pretty good, but he has his moments and those seem to be at the end of the day. Although, today he seemed to have them starting around noon. Dealing with his tantrums and terrible twos is tiring and bedtime couldn't come soon enough. Once he was in bed and the baby was asleep I felt like I got a break! I had some dessert (are you surprised by that?) and now I am catching up in this and with some email. I am too tired to exercise and am ready to go to bed shortly.

Perhaps tomorrow I will have more energy and time to continue with level two, so that I can get it over and done with!

Day 20: Cleaning

So level two was a big bust for me! I didn't workout on day 20 either, so that means that I missed three days. Yesterday was a busy busy day for me. In the morning we had gymnastics class and then we had friends coming over to take a look at our newly renovated living room and dining room. They were there to recommend paint colors because I have no interior decorating sense whatsoever. Since our friends were coming over we needed the house to be somewhat presentable. Having a toddler and a baby makes cleaning up difficult. Plus, the toddler seems to be like a tornado that comes through all the rooms of the house and he hasn't grasped the concept of picking up after himself. Also, our housekeeper's mother passed away and she has been gone for the whole month of February and won't be back until the beginning of March. This means that all of the dust and mess from the construction was still lingering around with all of the normal dust. I had some serious cleaning to do. I spent the rest of my day, until our friends came, cleaning up. I think that all of the calories I burned cleaning was equivalent or more than what I would have burned exercising, so I feel a little bit better about missing out on yesterday's exercising. After our friends came over we then left to a friend's house for a birthday celebration dinner with some friends. Once dinner was over we came home and passed out on the couch around 9pm because we were so tired!

I decided that I will continue to do level two today (day 21) and maybe I will also make up the other two days that I missed. I haven't decided yet. I am also hoping that on level three I don't miss as many days as I did in level two!

Day 19: Punches

This morning I knew that I had to workout. I didn't work out yesterday and I couldn't skip two days in a row. My husband was also going to a concert in the evening so it was just going to be me and the boys and I had no idea how that was going to work out, so in the morning I had to get it done. I got up at 6:30 (the baby and my husband were already up) and started the workout. I was feeling good about the workout today and was a little bit excited about it. I decided that I wouldn't do any of the jumping moves that I have to do in the cardio sections because those parts seemed to make my knee hurt. Instead of high knees, oblique twists, and jump roping I did punches. This seemed much better for me and I was still working out. I know that I probably wasn't working as hard just doing the punches, but I would much rather have a good knee then injure it doing this workout.

Halfway through the workout my toddler woke up and he immediately went and got some shoes so that he could join me when it was the jumping parts. I think that he was a little sad that I wasn't jumping and was doing the punches instead. He did do some ab stuff with me and then he decided that breakfast would be more enjoyable for him :)

Tomorrow is technically my last day for this level (this level flew by) and I have a bit of a dilemma. Do I do tomorrow's workout and then start on level three the next day? Or should I do level two, two more times to make up for the two days that I missed? That would mean that my challenge would become a 32 day challenge and that would be hoping that I don't skip any days in level three! I guess that I will see how I am feeling this weekend.

Day 18: BFQ

Today I was a Big Fat Quitter. I didn't work out in the morning because I was really tired and both my husband and I had to get ready and out the door at a specific time, which seems to be hard for us to do. Then it was night-time and I was too tired to workout. I had also eaten some pizza (homemade with lots of veggies on it) and cookies and thought that I might be sick again after the workout. I was also just too comfortable on the couch with a blanket and watching some movies. Christopher was really trying to motivate me to workout, but I had made up my mind that I wasn't going to work out. I also figured that my knee could deserve a little break.

Day 17: Bad Idea

I really wasn't thinking tonight when I was doing my workout about how I would feel afterwards! When I was done with my workout I was feeling like I had to throw-up and I still kind of feel that way about an hour later :(. I'll get to why I feel so sick (if you haven't guessed yet) a little bit later...

This morning I was once again tired and not feeling like working out in the morning. I knew that I had the evening free to workout so I decided that I would work out then or if both boys were sleeping during the day I would try and workout then. Well, my toddler seems to be boycotting his naps lately. For the past two days he gets into bed and within 10 minutes he is out of bed and causing havoc. I really love nap times and I hope that he isn't getting rid of his naps! The baby slept for a little bit during this time, but he would have slept more if the toddler didn't wake him up. Did I mention that I love nap time for my boys? Well, I REALLY do! Since there was no sleeping I didn't work out in the afternoon. I still knew that I would be working out and I wasn't going to skip out on today, but it would have to be after the boys went to bed.

Rewind to Monday. For Valentine's Day I had made some heart cookies. I had some leftover dough that had been in our freezer for awhile and I decided that it was time to use it up. After the cookies were made my husband suggested that we bring some to our neighbors because they brought us some cookies a couple of weeks ago. When my husband said this, it was in front of my toddler and my toddler got really excited about the idea. I then told my husband that the dough kind of had a freezer burn taste to it and it wasn't that bad, but I don't know if we want to give it to the neighbors. We decided that we would not give them these cookies. Unfortunately, my son had it in his mind that we would be bringing our neighbors cookies. He kept asking about the cookies and so I decided that I would make some more cookies just so that we could bring some over to the neighbors. We made the dough, for our new batch of cookies, yesterday and I wanted to bring some to book club, but we didn't start in time and had to leave so we saved the dough for today. This evening I started baking the cookies and making the frosting for the cookies. Of course, when we were baking the cookies I would eat some of the dough (I know it is bad, but I can't help it!). Then after the cookies were done I had one cookie. Then it was dinnertime. Today is our dog's birthday and for her birthday she gets a plain hamburger from In-N-Out. Since we were going there for her birthday dinner we decided we would get our dinner from there too. I had a hamburger with some fries. After dinner I made the caramel frosting for my cookies. The frosting consists of 7 tablespoons butter, 2/3 cup light brown sugar, 1 tablespoon corn syrup, 1.5 tablespoons hot water, and 1 2/3 cup powdered sugar. You can see how sweet that is! I was eating some of it (after it cooled down) and then I had one cookie that had this frosting on the top of it.

About half an hour later I decided that I would do my workout. I was doing it and feeling alright. My right knee was hurting so I took it easy on the jumping exercises and by the time I got to the jump rope section I didn't do all of it because of my knee so I did some punches instead. Other than my knee I felt pretty good about the workout and how I was feeling. When I was done with the workout and we are stretching I noticed how much more flexible I am this evening then when I am during the morning. I wonder if I am more flexible in the evening because my body is more stretched out? Anyway, I stretch and then I turn off the video and I instantly feel like I have to throw-up. My stomach hurt so bad and I felt so sick. I hate feeling this way! I got some water and sat down on the couch. I know that I am sick because I ate so many sweet things and had fast food right before I worked out. Why I didn't think that I would be sick after this workout I don't know. It all makes perfect sense that I would feel sick, but I guess that my brain was on a sugar high and wasn't thinking correctly :( I am feeling a little bit better, but my advice for today is: don't eat fast food and cookies right before you workout!

Day 16: Tired

The baby was pretty fussy during the night and our older son came into our room around 5am and woke all of us up. My husband was able to get the toddler back to sleep by sleeping in his bed with him. I couldn't get the baby back to sleep, so at 6:30 I decided that I would just get up and workout. I set the baby down on his play gym and started working out. It is amazing to me how different a workout feels when you are tired. I just couldn't get my body really motivated. I wasn't trying at all to push myself and do the harder moves. I was just trying to get through the workout. I even took a couple of breaks without first trying to talk myself into pushing through the pain. I was sorting of hoping that my baby would start crying or become a little fussy so that it would give me an excuse to stop and take a break, but that never happened. The nice thing about doing the workout so early was that it was over and done with so early. My husband and son were still not up when I was finished. It was pretty funny because after I had eaten breakfast and was sitting on the couch with the baby my husband tells me that he can watch the baby so that I could workout. I laughed and told him that I already worked out. I guess that I didn't work out too hard because he wasn't able to tell that I worked out at all!

One thing that I am noticing and I am not happy about is the pain I am having in my right knee. Sometimes I even feel it in my left knee. This is the same pain that I got when I was running about 1.5 years ago. It made running painful for me and I am just hoping that the knee pain isn't going to return because I have a half marathon that I am doing in July and I really want to get back into running. I never thought that I would say that I want to run, but I do! I find that this video (especially this level) has a lot of jumping moves, which don't seem to help the knees. I only have a few more days of this level and then I move on. I hope that level three has some more knee friendly moves.

I also think that when it is a rainy day and all gloomy outside it makes me less motivated to workout. I kind of just want to veg out in front of the TV all day, but that won't happen with a toddler and a baby!

Day 15: Cuteness Abounds

I got up and was ready to exercise since I had missed exercising yesterday. I got the video started on the TV and that piqued my son's interest. My son only gets to watch TV when he is either sick or if he goes pee or poop in his potty (this is a bribing technique that is working and we need him trained!). When the TV is on it is a little bit of a big deal for him and he gets very interested. I started my warm-up and he started it with me too. He joined me for the neck circles and the jumping jacks. When we were doing the jumping jacks he says, "those are hard." He then again said that jumping would be easier if he was wearing shoes, so off he went to put on my tennis shoes. When he had them on he came into the living room and was trying to jump with them on, but saw that it was not easy to jump with shoes that are much too big for him, so he told me that he had to go get his shoes so that he could jump. He went and got his sandals and put them on. He stayed with me for most of my workout and did some strength moves and even took my weights from me while I was doing cardio and was trying to lift them up. I was afraid that he would either drop the weights on me or himself and so I took them away promptly. Then when it was the ab time he would lay next to me and try and do the ab workout too. It was all so very cute and there was no way that I was going to be annoyed that he was making the workout a little bit hard for me to do because he would get in my way. I had my husband take some pictures of my son and if I wasn't feeling lazy right now I would upload them. One of these days I will just have to do a post with all of my pictures and videos that I have taken during this challenge.

My workout went really well and even though it was interrupted a lot by my son I didn't mind because he was just too cute! I am excited that he gets to see his mom exercise and he is interested in exercising with me. I hope that he continues to be interested in exercising with me and his dad when he gets older. I decided that I will not be doing a "double" today to make up for yesterday. Once again I am a bit tired this evening and I have gotten sucked into a whole bunch of TED talks and I am enjoying all them quite a lot. If you have some free time these talks are really great.

Day 14: Fail

I hate writing this, but I did not work out today :( I feel a little bit disappointed that I didn't do my first 30 day challenge, but I don't feel upset about it. Heck, I could still workout if I really did care. My house is a disaster because we had construction going on and it needed a thorough cleaning because there is a layer of dust on everything. I was literally on my hands and knees cleaning the floors. Then today I wanted to get my weekly grocery shopping done in the morning and then in the mid-morning and afternoon I wanted to keep cleaning, which I did. There was some down time that I had during the day, but that time was spent holding my baby while he slept. He seems to only sleep when he is being held during the day and if he is put down he wakes up within five minutes and it is hard to get him back to sleep. It is really frustrating because I can't do many things while holding him. I am still trying to figure out what I should do to break him of this habit. This afternoon and early evening we were at a friend's house and when we got home it was time to cook and eat dinner. When we were all done I was just plain tired! I didn't feel like working out, but just vegging out watching some movie. I thought that I could do what my friend did when she missed a day and that was do a double. I was thinking that tomorrow I could workout in the morning and in the evening. I don't know if this is doable because we have an appointment for my baby tomorrow morning. I will try my best to do it...

Day 13: Motivation

This blog was inspired by a friend's blog about her thirty days of trying to do Bikram Yoga each day. I really enjoyed reading her blog and it inspired me to do something too. I thought that the best thing to do would be to get back into exercising because I needed to start and this was the motivation to get me back into it. Now once I have started this blog I have heard that I have motivated a couple of people to start some exercise program too. It is really exciting to know that a couple of blogs has motivated some people to work out! I hope that my blog continues to motivate others to do stuff that I am doing.

Day three of the second level was a really good day. My husband and the boys went for a walk and I got my shred on. I was feeling great and really ready to exercise. I tried my best to give it my all. I have noticed that when I do the high knees portion on the cardio my right knee starts to hurt and this is not a good sign. When I was running my right knee would start to hurt and made it difficult to run because of how badly it hurt. I just hope that I don't mess it up doing this workout because I have a half marathon to train for that I will be doing in July. I would like to start running and hopefully I can get motivated enough to do that. I did have to stop and take a break once, but that is better than what I had been doing. I was also all sweaty and very red in the face after the workout and I attempted to get a picture, but the picture just looked like me and you couldn't tell that I had just worked out :)

Day 12: Need Shoes

Today was my second day on level two and I decided that I would do the workout in the morning again to get it over with. This morning the muscle that I pulled in my quad hurt a little bit and I decided that I would workout as much as I could and not overdo it. I forgot to write yesterday that the warm-up that is now in level two is very similar to level one, but this time around we get to do neck stretches and I LOVE those! It feels so good to stretch my neck and I wish that we could do it longer, but oh well. I got started with my exercising and it was going pretty well. My muscle wasn't hurting and I was not doing the easy version of the moves. I was even able to do most of the workout without stopping. I think that I had to stop just a couple of times because I needed a little break. Towards the end my muscle was starting to hurt in my quad, so I did take it easy then; I didn't go as deep into my squats. Right now, I also am doing the single jump rope move and not the double. The double really wears me out especially since it is at the end. I try and do as many as I can in the double then I switch to the single and finish with the double. I really hope that by the end of these 10 days I will be able to do the double jump rope the whole way through.

The highlight of this workout was my son. I was working out and he decided that he would come and workout with me. He started the warm-up with me and when I got to the jumping jacks he started jumping and said, "these are hard." He was doing his best trying to jump out with both of his legs. He was also holding his blanket and a stuffed animal while trying to jump. He tried to do a couple more moves along with me and then left. He then came back a little bit later when I was doing some more jumping moves and he started doing them too and he stops and tells me that these are hard and that he needs shoes to make it easier. He goes and puts on my tennis shoes and comes back and starts jumping! It was the cutest thing ever. I think that he saw that the ladies on the workout video were wearing shoes and he just associated the shoes to them being able to jump better. I really wish I could have caught that moment on video, but at least I am blogging about it so that I will always be able to remember it!

After the workout I felt pretty good. I definitely think that today was much easier than yesterday and I hope that it keeps getting easier for me. I am also hoping that I can reel it in with the dessert that I am eating. I got on the scale today and I have gained a pound since starting this program! Yesterday was a Valentine's Day party for my mom's group and I baked about 65 mini cupcakes. Before I frosted them I probably ate about five. Then when I frosted them I probably ate about five more. Since they were so tiny it was easy to keep eating them. Also, at the party I had some cookies, pizza, and other high calorie food. I wish that veggies tasted as good as dessert :)

Day 11: Over-shredded

Today I moved on to level 2 and it was much harder! I think that it starts out easy and gets harder, whereas with level one it starts out harder and gets easier. There were a few times in the workout where I had to stop and catch my breath. My legs also felt like jello a couple of times, so I stopped then. I tried to do my best and I think that I could have pushed a little harder, but I didn't. I did break a sweat with this workout!

I did this workout in the morning and it was nice to get it done with. Throughout the whole day I would think, "I still have to do the workout tonight," but then I would remember that I already did it! I have heard that it is better to do workouts in the mornings because it gets your body warmed up to burn more calories throughout the day. I can't remember where I heard that though. The bad part about doing the workout in the morning and doing the blog in the evening is that I can't remember everything in great detail.

Okay, the bad news. I think that I over-shredded today :( It seems to me that I pulled a muscle in my right quad. After I was done working out there was one spot in my right quad that was hurting pretty badly and it felt like it was stretched too much. When I would get down and up that area on my quad would hurt the most. I know that pulling a muscle isn't a huge injury, but I don't want to keep irritating it to make it worse than what it is. Tomorrow I will continue to do level two and I will see how my muscle feels after that and see where I go from there.

Day 10: Level One Completed!

I just finished level one of The Shred!!! That is really exciting that I have gone through 10 whole days of working out and not skipping a day even though I really wanted to most of the time. It feels great to be done. I think that I even stepped it up a notch on this workout because I knew that it would be the last one for this level.

I think that I needed this workout today too. My toddler was being a pill in the morning and I was ready to drop him off at the courthouse with my husband, who unfortunately got chosen to be a juror. My baby was also being super fussy in the evening and when my toddler cries that triggers my baby to cry. I just felt like I needed something that was for me and something that could get some frustration out and this workout was it! I guess it also could have been the 75 mini cupcakes that I made today too :) We are going to a Valentine's Day party tomorrow and I made them for that party, but my toddler and I had a good amount today! Wow, this post gets back to dessert! I have an obsession with it. I do have to say that last night I dreamt that I went to a frozen yogurt place and was trying to set-up a birthday party there.

Here are my reflections on level one:
-The hardest circuit for me in this level was circuit one. The push-ups and then the arm raises followed by the jumping jacks and jump roping is really tough for me. My pecs are killing me after the strength moves and then my quads and calves kill during the cardio portion. The bicep curls with the static lunge and the arm raises are also killer and there are many times where I would like to stop or do the easy version of them, but I tried to do my best.
-My calves and quads seem to have gotten the hardest workout. They both still hurt after 10 days of doing the workout. I really thought that the soreness would be gone by now, but I guess not.
-I never broke a sweat. Even though I wasn't sweating I could definitely feel my heart beating faster and I could feel the workout in my muscles. I was also breathing heavier. It would have been interesting to wear my heart rate monitor to see what was going on with my body.
-The workout got easier with each passing day. I also felt like I was getting stronger. I have an ab condition (which I will talk about in a later post) from being pregnant and I could tell that it improved dramatically from day one.

Tomorrow I start on Level Two. I have done level two before and if I remember correctly it is harder than level one :( I remember after doing levels two and three and going back and doing level one, level one felt like a cake walk. I am not looking forward to the the extra work that is going to come with the workout. I am looking forward to doing new stuff. Ten days of doing the same routine and knowing exactly what Jillian says throughout the whole thing gets a little repetitive and boring. I am going to try really hard to workout in the mornings because I like working out at that time, but we will see how that goes especially since my husband has jury duty and has to report earlier than he when he goes to work.

Thanks for following me in my 30 day shred and wish me luck on level two!

Day 9: Dessert

Why oh why is it that all I thought about today when doing my workout was what I was going to have for dessert? I was trying to decide on whether or not I should have a blueberry bran muffin or a root beer float. I really want the root beer float, but I am thinking that the calories in that is probably out of this world! The muffin is only 220 calories...Dinner wasn't that many calories and that makes me want to justify the root beer float, but at the same time I know that I had a bit too many chips with salsa for a snack. What to do, what to do?

As you can see, I did my workout post dinner. We had a wall taken down between our kitchen and dining room and the contractor was getting there at 8 to start working and the living room, where I workout, is kind of in their way, so it was just better for me to workout in the evenings. It hasn't been so bad working out in the evenings, but I do like having the workouts done in the morning. Ever since I got pregnant I started having dessert after dinner and even though I have had the baby and I am working out I still want my dessert. It consumes a big portion of my thoughts for the evening :) My sweet tooth has been in overdrive. I am guessing that a big part of that is because I know that I will have to cut way down on the sweets because of the calories once I want to start eating better and lose the last of my weight.

This workout was about the same as the past few days. I can hardly believe that tomorrow will be my last day on level one! It is exciting!!!

Well, gotta go and get me some dessert! I am thinking that I will go with the blueberry bran muffin!

Day 8: Looking Forward

Today I was actually looking forward to doing my workout. Doing my workout in the morning was not an option because my husband had to report to jury duty and had to leave our house by 7:30. There was no way that we would find time for me to exercise before he had to leave. That meant that I was going to be exercising in the evening again. I was ready to start exercising after dinner, but my husband had to put son #1 to bed and then he decided that he wanted to take the Christmas lights down...Yes, we still had our lights up! Once he was done with some of things he wanted to get done it was 8:20 and I started the workout.

The workout was great! I was feeling really good doing it and there wasn't any part where I wanted to quit and I think with my good attitude about it, it made the workout go a little faster than it has been. My quads are still a bit sore and I am guessing that they are going to be sore for the whole 30 days! I can't believe that I have gone eight days straight doing this workout. I don't know if I have done that before. Only a couple more days and I get to start doing another workout. I am excited about doing another workout because I have this one memorized (even everything that Jillian says) and it will be nice to do something new.

That is really all there is for today. I am happy that I am working out and I feel like I am getting a little stronger. I am now really excited to start running again!

Day 7: Tired and Grumpy

Before I did my workout I was feeling tired and grumpy! I had wanted to do my workout in the afternoon when the boys were napping, but today was a nap free day :( It was about 8:30 pm and I had not had dinner and still hadn't done the workout. I really didn't want to do it because of the mood that I was in. I decided that I would just do it and get it over with and eat dinner really late.

I went into the workout thinking that I wasn't going to give it my all because I was tired and I didn't want to do the workout. I even stayed in the clothes that I was wearing for the day. Once I got past the warm-up and started on the workout I decided that I would try and not "phone it in." I can tell that the workout is getting easier for me, but I still have my moments. Two points in the workout that I always remember happen during the bicep curls with a static lunge. Jillian says the first time around that there are just a few more, but there are really a lot more than three. Then the second time around she says that there are just a couple more, but there are a lot more than that. I hate the false hope that I get from those comments. I also forget at what point she says this in the workout, so I never can quite remember when it is coming.

After the workout was done I felt good and was glad that I did it. I even think that my mood was a little bit better after it. I also had dinner, which probably helped too. I am actually still hungry so I am going to finish this up and go get seconds!

Day 6: Overindulgence

The baby was super fussy last night and I would say that we maybe got three to four hours of good solid sleep :( The baby was also up around 5 am, so that meant that we were too. I was too tired to do any exercising in the morning. We also had a contractor coming over to do some measurements and give us a quote in the morning and after he left we had to go to gymnastics class with son #1. After gymnastics I rushed home to get ready for a friend's baby shower. At the baby shower I overindulged and I ate a lot of donuts (yummy!), a bagel with cream cheese, cookies, and other little snacky stuff. It was delicious! Then for dinner we got Chinese food and I ate a bunch of that too. I think that since I was given the okay to introduce dairy back into my diet I have been trying to eat as many things that have dairy in them that I can just incase I am told that I have to take it back out of my diet. After dinner I knew that it would be time to get shredded and I was kind of dreading it because of all of the food (and a lot of it that wasn't good for me) that I had eaten for the day.

I let my food digest a little before I started the workout and then I got to it! We put our TV back up on the wall and I was excited to have that playing the workout video, but the baby was sleeping in our living room so I decided that I would just put the video on on my computer and have the volume turned on really low. I would say that I did about as good as I did yesterday. My quads and calves still hurt the most and I should probably stretch them out more than what the video has me do after the workout is done. After the workout I was feeling a little bit sick to my stomach and that was because I ate a big dinner and didn't give my body more time to digest the food. I thought that the workout went really fast, but I felt like my body responds better when it is working out in the morning. During the workout I found myself thinking about how much more I have to do. I know that I am on day six and that is huge that I have made it this far without quitting, but then I think, "I have to do this workout for the whole month of February!" When I think of it being the whole month of February it seems like a daunting task to finish. I guess that I just have to take it one day at a time. I should also mention that since I was working out in my living room during the evening I could see my reflection in our new windows and it was fun to watch me workout. I was able to see if I had the postures correct and it gave me something to look at and take my mind a little off the workout!

Tomorrow I plan on working out in the morning, but I also plan on having my husband's homemade waffles since I haven't had those in about two months! It really is a good thing that I am not doing this workout to lose weight because I would be failing with my diet!

Day 5: Feeling Good

Today I decided that I wanted to do the workout in the morning again because I felt so much better getting it done in the morning and it was something that definitely made me feel better. This time around I was going to workout in my living room because my computer was there and my son wouldn't be able to get to it.

I decided that this workout I needed to push myself a little bit harder than what I had been pushing myself. Some of my muscles were a little sore, but they are getting much better. I also decided that I would use my three pound dumbbells instead of the two pound ones that I had been using in my bedroom (this was probably more of a lazy decision on my part...didn't want to walk to my bedroom to get the smaller weights). This time around I did five full push-ups and then I did the modified ones, but I did more than what I had been able to do in the past four workouts. Of course, when I told my husband that I could only do five full ones he commented on how he did 27 full ones, show-off :)! Then when it got to the cardio section for the first circuit I told myself that even if my legs were killing me I had to push through it. The jumping jacks were killing my quads and I just wanted to stop, but I kept on going and went straight into the jump roping, where my calves were killing me. I did the set again and never did I stop to take a break!!!! That seemed like a big accomplishment for me lately. The rest of the workout went really well and my son only interrupted me once, but that was fine.

In the video Jillian says that you should start to notice a difference in how you feel around days 5-7 compared to the first days and I believe that she is right. I definitely felt much stronger today than what I had felt in the past. I was also using two pounds more in weights and it didn't feel like there was any difference. I know that in a couple more days this workout will seem like a breeze, well I am hoping it will.

Okay, that is it for now because I am about to fall asleep here typing this. No sleep=a very tired Heather!

Day 4: Interruptions

Last night I had a wonderful night out with some of my mom friends and I didn't have the extra time to blog about my experience for day four on that day. Hopefully, I can remember what happened!

I had decided to do the workout in the morning because I had to leave early that evening for book club with some of my mom friends. Soon after I got up I started the workout. I decided to continue with the workout in my bedroom because my computer was already set-up there and it was just easier to do it there. I started my workout and son #1 comes in the bedroom and he starts doing the warm-up with me. We have to swing our arms out and then bring them in and across our body (don't know what this would be called) and he was trying to do that. Then we had to do windmills with our arms. My son started doing those and then he sat down and said, "Easier to do on the ground." It was super cute watching him try to mimic me. After the warm-up he decided that he had had enough of that and left the room.

I started on the workout and I didn't go all out. I kind of followed the lady who does the beginners' moves. My quads and calves are still really sore and I just didn't feel up to pushing myself really hard. I didn't even attempt to do a full push-up and just did the modified ones and about as many as I normally do. I did feel better than what I had been feeling when I was working out and I think that it is because 1) It is day four and I am getting stronger and 2) My son interrupted my workout so much that I got to take lots of little breaks!

After my son left the room he went and got his toy car and brought it into the bedroom. This toy car is one that he sits in and moves by moving his feet (like a Flintstones car). Getting into my bedroom requires one to lift the car up and over part of our bed because some of the furniture was moved close together from when we got our new door put in. When he wanted the car over that part he would start whining and get louder and louder! I would have to stop and move it and then start the workout again (and no, he can't lift the car on his own!). Then when he got the car into our room he would proceed to drive it into me or move it right by me to make working out harder. When he wasn't doing that he was reaching up to my computer, on the dresser, and was pressing either the mouse pad or the space bar, which would cause the video to stop, jump ahead, or go backwards and I would have to fix it. It was a little annoying that I couldn't just do the video from start to finish without interruptions, but I secretly liked the breaks!!!

After the workout I felt really good and I was happy that I could do it in the morning. I feel a lot more motivated to get the workout done in the morning versus the evening.

Day 3: Lazy Is My Name

Once again I had decided to do the workout in the evening. We had somewhere to be at 9 am and I didn't think that I could get a workout in before being ready to leave. Since I am still sore everywhere, Christopher thought that it was a good idea to give my muscles more of a rest and do the workout in the evening, which was smart thinking on his part!

While Christopher was putting son #1 (N) down to sleep I was holding son #2 (A). Whenever you are holding A and he falls asleep he stays asleep as long as you are holding him. As soon as you put him down on the couch, his bed, our bed, or anywhere he wakes up! It is really frustrating and my back ends up killing me from holding him so much. I know that I should just put him down and let him cry it out some, but he still seems too small for me to do that to him. Anyway, my back was killing me so I decided to lay down on the couch with him (he stays asleep as long as you are with him). Since I couldn't read in the position that we were in and I couldn't watch anything because our TV is still down from our living room being painted I decided that I would take a little snooze with A. It was nice. Then Christopher came into the room and I woke up and told him that I needed to do "The Shred," but that I didn't want to do it. I was so comfortable on the couch holding my sleeping baby. Christopher encouraged me to go do the workout and I went and did it because I knew I couldn't give up on day three.

Since I was feeling lazy I didn't want to change clothes to workout, so I worked out in my jeans and turtleneck shirt that I was wearing. I did change into a workout bra because I don't have a lot of breastfeeding bras and I didn't want to get one all sweaty. I went into the workout telling myself that I am going to follow the lady that does all of the modified stuff and make the workout a little easier for me. I know that I shouldn't have been this way, but I was feeling really lazy. I felt like the workout was the same as yesterday. It was hard in the first section and then got easier. I had to stop and shake out my legs when doing the first set of cardio of jumping jacks and jump rope. I realized that with all of the jumping I should have gone to the bathroom beforehand because I had to really pee! After having a couple of kids I know that my bladder control probably isn't the best out there (need to practice my kegels!).

When I was done it felt good. The time also seemed to go by fast for me and I was telling myself that I shouldn't find excuses to get out of something that only takes 25-30 minutes out of my day. I am looking forward to when my muscles aren't as sore as they are now and it makes the workout a little more enjoyable!

There are a couple of things that I have to mention before I end this post. The first is that when we are doing the bicep curl with static lunge the lady (I forget her name), that is demonstrating the advanced moves, at one point isn't doing the lunge and it cracks me up that they would leave that in the video and not edit it out or redo that part. There is even a part later on when Jillian says, "they don't even cheat when I'm not looking." I don't blame the lady though because I can't imagine how tired she must be from doing tons of takes for the video!

Secondly, I don't know how the really overweight people on the Biggest Loser do it. I watch that show and I am amazed at what those people can do. It seems like I should be able to crank through this stuff without a problem, but I do have problems. I am just very happy that I don't have Jillian working out with me in person because she would kill me! Her video looks so much easier than what she has the contestants do on the show...I guess I wouldn't mind having her as my personal trainer because I am sure that I would get some amazing results :)

Okay, I am off to have some soy ice-cream because I deserved it!

Day 2: Soreness

First, I have to say that I am so excited that I have four followers!!!! You guys rock for following my blog!

Last night I was beginning to feel the soreness coming on and I figured that in the morning I would be even sorer. I woke up and my muscles ached. I just felt like one complete ball of soreness. I think that my pec muscles "hurt" the most, but I ached everywhere. At least the soreness meant that I did work out my muscles! It was funny because throughout the day I would move a certain way and it would hurt and in my mind I would think, "Why does this hurt?" Then it would register a couple seconds later that it was from the exercising.

Even though I was sore I was still going to do the workout today. I had decided not to do it in the morning because I had a playdate that I was going to at 9. I figured that I needed the morning hours to eat, shower, and get ready before I was supposed to leave. Then right as I was grabbing my phone and keys to leave I see that I have a text message that the playdate was canceled :(. This sucked because getting my baby into the car seat woke him up and had I not moved him he would have been sleeping and I could have worked out in the morning. I figured that I would work out later in the afternoon once my sister-in-law came over to help me out with the kids. I figured that when my oldest one was napping I would workout and if my baby needed anything my sister-in-law could help. Well, that didn't work out. My baby was being a little fussy and I knew that he needed some sleep, so I laid down next to him to nurse and we both fell asleep! The little nap was something that I needed though. By this time I am kind of talking myself out of working out! But, I kept thinking that I can't do this on day two! I decided that once we were done with dinner and putting the kids to bed I would do the workout...

And I DID do the workout! I started around 8:30 pm. Yesterday I had three pound weights, but since our living room is all taped off I don't know where they put those weights and I didn't feel like looking for them so I used my two pound weights (dumbbells). I also figured that my arms could use a little rest and the two pound weights would be easier for them. This time I didn't get winded during the warm-up, yay! Then it was onto the push-ups! Those are killers! Just doing push-ups is a great workout. I did the same as yesterday (5 regular and the rest on my knees) and my arms were killing me. Then when I got to the jumping jacks and jump rope section my arms and legs were throbbing and my mind was saying, "Quit! Stop! This hurts!" I did take a couple seconds for a break, but then I kept on trucking. I felt that the the rest of the video went well. When I am doing this workout I notice that I am looking forward to the ab section. This is by far the easiest and feels like a little rest period for me. I know that I am not resting though because my stomach muscles were sore this morning. During the whole workout I was also contemplating what I was going to have for dessert. Would I have a cookie or soy ice-cream? My rationale was that I was working off some calories so I could have a dessert that I probably would have had even if I didn't work out. When I was done with the workout I decided against the cookie and ice-cream and had a small glass of orange juice.

I felt pretty good after this workout and I didn't feel sick, which is a huge plus for me! It already feels like it is getting a little bit easier, but that could also be from using smaller weights. I know that in a few days this will all be much easier than it is now. I still don't have the energy high that comes with working out because I feel like I could fall asleep right now!

Oh, I almost forgot this part. My living room had texture put on the walls (to match our other walls) and the smell was horrible! It gives me a headache to be in that room, so there was no choice but for me to workout in my bedroom. In my bedroom I have some mirrors on the wall and I found myself looking at me while I was working out. I wanted to see if I was doing the moves correctly, but I think that I was mostly looking at my belly jiggling away! I don't mind that it jiggles now because I did just give birth to my second baby three and a half months ago!