Current weight: 230
Goal weight: 140
Pounds left to go: 90

Do those of you who have Wii Fit find that the balance board is accurate when weighing yourself?

I know that I really need to focus on watching my portions, the types of food/drinks I’m consuming and I definitely need to get back into my workout routine.  I am getting in what I can right now.  Hopefully we’ll start spin class back up on the weekends at the new gym in a few weeks and we’ll either do Aqua Fit class or cardio machines two days during the week.

I’m just kind of bummed that at one point I was at my lowest at 187.2 (had to add the .2 LOL) and now I’m 42.8 lbs higher. Weight can definitely come back on with a vengeance and is not easy to get back off. But I WILL make it happen!

How did you do this week?  Check in!  Stay accountable.

Day 6 and 7 were a sweaty mess as usual and I love that feeling.

Day 6-

Jillian mentions in the workout video that we should see our endurance getting better and I do.  I’m not dying as much during the cardio portions so that’s a good thing.  I have been doing a bit of jogging and leg lifts in place of the jump rope and butt kicks when my knees start to hurt.  I’m glad that I’m able to modify and still keep up with the calorie burn although I wish the calorie burn was higher during each workout!

July 6

28 minutes
239 calories burned
Max Heart Rate: 84%/158
Average Heart Rate: 71%/132

Day 7-

I loved today’s workout!  Not sure why but I just felt really good throughout the whole workout.  I’m doing much better with the bicycle crunches but I still haven’t mastered keeping my legs up the whole time.  I’ll get there!  I just keep them up a bit longer each time.  Push ups are a whole different story ha ha

July 7

28 minutes
215 calories burned
Max Heart Rate: 86%/161
Average Heart Rate: 70%/131

Have you done the 30 Day Shred?  If so, we would love to hear all about it.  If you haven’t done the 30 Day Shred do you think it might be something that would interest you?

Don’t forget you can follow along as I do the workout.  Just go to the 30 Day Shred workout video overview blog post and scroll to the end to find all the links in one place.

Have a great day,

It’s been a crazy few weeks and we didn’t end up doing a menu plan for this week.  I’m thinking we’ll have much of the usual stuff like breakfast for dinner, tuna sandwiches and soup, pasta or homemade pizza, BBQ & Buffalo chicken and not sure what else.  Oh yea veggies of course!

Kev has been preparing a lot of grilled veggies lately and they are so good, I could just eat a whole bowl of those for dinner, so tasty!

What is on your Menu Plan for the week?

Workout stats for the week of June 29-July 5, 2009

Monday-

*Walk Away the Pounds Big Burn 2 mile Intervals
Time: 31 min.
Miles: 2
Calories burned: 273

*Walk outside
Time: 20 min.

Tuesday-

Day Off

Wednesday-

*30 Day Shred workout video
Time: 28 min.
Calories burned: 247

Thursday-

*30 Day Shred workout video
Time: 28 min.
Calories burned: 240

*Walk outside
Time: 20 min

Friday-

*30 Day Shred workout video
Time: 28 min.
Calories burned: 220

Saturday-

*30 Day Shred workout video
Time: 28 min.
Calories burned: 217

Sunday-

*30 Day Shred workout video
Time: 28 min.
Calories burned: 248

How did your workouts go this week?

Day 3-

Jillian is totally committed to helping you lose weight and feel great!

July 3rd

28 minutes
220 calories burned
Max Heart Rate: 86%/161
Average Heart Rate: 68%/127

Day 4-

Breathing is very important when working out so definitely follow what Jillian tells you as far as when to inhale and exhale.  Proper breathing helps so much when you’re working out.

Day 4 is when I first started to feel bored with level 1.

July 4th

28 minutes
217 calories burned
Max Heart Rate: 86%/160
Average Heart Rate: 70%/130

Day 5-

Torn as to whether to move on to level 2 or not.  I modified the butt kicks with a bit of jogging and some of the jumping rope with leg kicks.  Had some knee pain so thought it would be best to modify with a move that does not cause any issues but still keeps my heart rate up.

July 5th

28 minutes
248 calories
Max Heart Rate: 86%/160
Average Heart Rate: 72%/135

I’m feeling good so far with the workout.  I think it’s really smart for me to switch back and forth on the weight sizes and I’m doing much better with the various crunching exercises.  The hardest for me are the bicycles, can’t keep my legs up off the ground for too long but I’ll get there.

What are your thoughts about me moving on to level 2?  Or should I stick it out for 5 more days?

So undecided!

Happy Shredding,

PS.  Price on the 30 Day Shred dvd at Amazon went down AGAIN.  Grab it while you can!

P.S.S. Here is my 30 Day Shred workout video overview.  I’ll be adding links to the overview for each post I do throughout the workout so you can find it all in one place.

Bringing your workout indoors is a great way to stay active when it’s too hot outside. There are no excuses not to get in your daily exercise when it comes to the weather.  You can achieve similar results as you would outdoors only with different scenery.

In home walking, Wii/Wii Fit, exercise bike, treadmill, elliptical, workout DVD’s, stair climbing, jump rope, mini trampoline and going to the gym are only a few of the type of indoor workouts you can do.  There are even workouts on cable TV and you can check out Exercise TV and do workouts from your computer.

I enjoy various outdoor exercises but I really enjoy indoor workouts. Working out at home is top on my list but I like going to the gym and attending various classes and using the equipment there.

When you’re outdoors in the heat, you need to be cautious not to overdo it.  If you absolutely must exercise outdoors in the heat please make sure you take precautions.  Here are a few quick tips:

*Stay hydrated
*Wear light clothing
*Workout in the early morning hours or later in the evening when the sun goes down
*Wear sunscreen
*Exercise in water (pool, ocean, whatever your fancy!)

I’m not saying NOT to exercise outdoors, I’m just providing an alternative idea for when the heat is too much to handle.  It’s fantastic that no matter what the weather condition, you have a place to workout.

Do you prefer indoor workouts or would you rather brave the heat and exercise outdoors?

Have a great weekend,

Here are my stats:

July 2, 2009

28 minutes
240 calories burned
Max Heart Rate: 87%/162
Average Heart Rate: 72%/135

I woke up this morning feeling it in my arms and a tiny bit in the knees but it’s very little knee pain, nothing a little ice can’t take care of right?

Here’s a little more info about the 30 Day Shred workout.  In addition to warm up and cool down are the 3 circuits.  The circuits are fun but tiring!  In each circuit you are doing the moves multiple times and Jillian does not cut you any slack so there is hardly any time to breath HA

Circuit 1:

Push ups, Squat & Press, Jump Rope, Crunches, Reverse Crunches

Circuit 2:

Dumbbell Row, Lunges & Biceps, Butt kicks, Punches, Crunches

Circuit 3:

Chest Fly,  Side lunge w/anterior raises, Jumping Jacks, Butt kicks, Punches, Bicycles

So that’s a bit of a circuit overview.  I’m not very good at lunges due to bad knees but also balance. I can’t seem to stay standing but I’m bound to master them along with push ups. Today I used the Perfect Pushup’s that mom bought me a while back and it’s so much easier on my wrists to use those to do push ups.

I can’t seem to fast forward through Jillian’s video welcome and intro.  It would be great to be able to skip ahead and just start the workout instead of having to listen to that every time.

Beside the fact that I’m really struggling with the shin pain during the workout, today was another good 30 Day Shred workout.

If at anytime you care to join me, don’t forget to pick up yourself a copy of the 30 Day Shred from Amazon.  I noticed the price went down from yesterday!  $7.99 is today’s great deal, wonder how long that one will last.

Make it a great day,

P.S. Here is my overview of Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred.

30 Day Shred
Day 1-Level 1

July 1st, 2009

28 minutes
247 calories burned
Max Heart Rate: 87%/162
Average Heart Rate: 73%/136

This was my first day doing the 30 Day Shred.  Of course I started with level 1 and as of right now, I plan on doing level 1 for 10 days. I was really nervous about doing any type of lunges throughout this workout because my knees are so bad but I was able to modify some of the moves by following Anita in the video and just did my best.  During the workout, my shins hurt like crazy doing the butt kicks so that was the only thing that annoyed me.  So far I have no knee pain or any other pain so that’s a plus.  The three 6 minute circuits were great but were challenging because I was up then down on the mat, rinse and repeat plenty of times.

I used 4lb hand weights but I might switch to lighter ones every other day but we’ll see.  I used a mat even though I’m doing the workout on carpet and you don’t want to forget to have a water bottle and towel too.  I’m using a heart rate monitor so I can keep track of how many calories I burn and so I can keep a log of my max and average heart rate as well.

I love one of Jillian’s quotes in the video, “If you want results they’re not coming for free”

There are quite a bit of jumping jacks in this first level and Jillian cuts you no slack because as she says she has 400 lb people that can do them so there is no modifying, no excuses.  I love jumping jacks! Just make sure to breathe and you’ll do fine.

I weighed in and took my measurements today so here are the stats for that.  Yep, I’m putting it all out there. Yikes!  I’m not happy that I have gained back weight and inches over the past few years but I’m bound and determined to meet my goals so no looking back.

Weight= 224

Chest= 45 inches
Waist= 45.5 inches
Hips= 48.5 inches
Thighs= Left- 27.5 Right- 27.5
Biceps= Left- 14 Right- 14

(hopefully I measured correctly!)

I will re-measure again at the end of the 30 days but you can keep up with any weight loss at my Weekly Weigh In’s.  And here you can read my overview of Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred.

Make it a great day,

As many of you know, Jillian Michaels is one of the trainers from The Biggest Loser TV show.  I really enjoy her training style on the hit show so I knew this workout was definitely something I wanted to try.  I noticed that the 30 Day Shred was a very popular topic a few months ago in the blogosphere and everyone seemed to be doing the workout.  I decided to buy it due to the rave reviews I found online.  Many of those people that said they did the workout mentioned losing a fair amount of weight and inches so that got me really quite excited.   I am definitely hoping to lose both!  I will be doing other workouts in addition to the 30 Day Shred so I can’t really base my numbers on the 30 Day Shred alone.

There are 3 levels to this workout video (10 days at each level) and each workout is approximately 20 minutes  in length.  The circuit is divided into 3 minutes of strength moves, 2 minutes cardio and 1 minute abs.  The 3-2-1 formula is supposed to be effective at getting the fat off and building lean muscle.

When I first received the DVD, I wanted to see what it was all about so I watched the intro and a bit of each of the levels.  My initial opinion was that is seemed simple enough because it’s moves I have done before but it still looked like a good workout (notice I didn’t say easy!)

I like the fact that in the video they demonstrate different options like making a modified version of various moves possible and I really like that Jillian gives good instruction on proper form for the moves.  It seems like the workout is geared more towards women but I’m sure men could benefit from the 30 Day Shred as well.  The biggest thing I question if it’s really OK to do this workout for a full 30 Days in a row without giving your body a break.  I plan on listening to my body no matter what!

The only items you’ll need during the 30 Day Shred workout are hand weights and a mat if you’re using a hard surface.  Pretty simple!

I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of results I get from this workout.  And accomplishing something for 30 days straight will feel great too.

Have you done the 30 Day Shred? Please feel free to share your experience.

If you would like to get started too, you can purchase Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred through Amazon.

I’ll be posting a 30 Day Shred case study so be on the lookout as I take you through my experience of this workout video.  At the end of the 30 days, I will write a full review of the 30 Day Shred workout as well.

Let’s SHRED!

Follow my 30 Day Shred journey:

Day 1 Level 1

Day 2 Level 1

Days 3-5 Level 1

Days 6-7 Level 1

OK, off to take measurements to track while doing the 30 Day Shred.

Stats for the week:

Current weight: 224 (looks like a 6 lb loss but not sure if that’s accurate since it was on the Wii Fit board last week and scale this week)
Goal weight: 140
Pounds left to go: 84

How did you do this week?  Check in!  Stay accountable.