Shred Discovery

I found out last night that there's an option to turn off Jillian! That totally made my day.



I'm not nearly as sore today as I was on Tuesday. I've also decided to pick up an old Weight Watchers habit and track my food. I realized yesterday that my willpower has pretty much disappeared. I think I need as much accountability as I can get, especially with the holiday season right around the corner. I'm not interested in denying myself holiday treats, so the focus will be more on moderation. I don't think I have to worry about alcoholic beverages this year, I certainly can't drink like I used to. No peppermint schnapps in hot chocolate for me!

(And no, I'm not pregnant. Why is it that when women talk about not drinking the only assumption is that she's pregnant?)

Day One

In the interest of having somewhere to be held accountable, I'm jumping back on the Shred bandwagon. I started it again last night and I'm paying for my weeks of couch-dwelling in today's aftermath. Ouch!

Jillian is so annoying. While the shred is certainly better than nothing, it's definitely not "replacing hours of phoning it in at the gym." I'm going to pull out some old Rage CDs for tomorrow's round.

I Feel Blobby

I know I don't really have any right to complain, seeing as how I'm actually below my pre-pregnancy weight by a few pounds, but I've been feeling rather "blobby" lately. While the number on the scale isn't anything shocking, it seems that the distribution of fat on my body has been radically altered. I'm having serious butt issues.

I know that I need to do something about it. I had been running 3-4x / week for a few months, but then when it started getting dark earlier I stopped because running alone when it's dark creeps me out. I live in a stereotypical suburban subdivision, but I just feel so exposed running through the streets after sunset. Maybe I need to get over that.

I don't want to get up and exercise in the mornings, because I get up at 5:30 as it is. I don't want to exercise in the early evening, because I want to play with Baby C. After he goes to bed at 7:30, my motivation to change, get all sweaty, and then shower again before bed is pretty much non-existent, and it's just too easy to sit on the couch and spend some quality time with my husband. We don't get to do that often enough as it is.

I really need to get going, maybe tonight will be the night.

30 Day Shred Day 1

So I had every intention of starting The Shred last night, but my good buddy Stephanie came over for dinner and conversation. We ended up talking on the couch until past 9:30, by which time I'm usually in bed. After she left I still had to make bottles, lunches, and milk, and by the time that was all wrapped up it was pushing 10:30, so I decided I'd get up at 4:00 and do it in the morning. C was positive I'd change my mind when the alarm went off. I almost did, but forced myself out of bed.

Three main thoughts of the day:

1. I started out on Level 1, thinking I could just ease back into exercising. Not so much. It's either not as beginner as I thought it would be or I'm more out of shape than I thought I was. Probably a little of both. Can I tell you how much I hate push-ups? My arms feel like jello.

2. I need to get a better sports bra, but since I only have 18 days left as a dairy cow I'm not going to buy one right now. I guess that means modified jumping jacks with my arms crossed over my chest for a while. Holy cow I hope these things shrink soon.

3. This is probably an unpopular opinion, based on the huge numbers of people I see extolling her virtues, but I don't really like Jillian Michaels. I thought she was kind of annoying and tried to be too funny and clever. I've decided that I'm going to mute the DVD and use the awesome XM stations that came with DirecTV instead. I'm also going to replace my mental image of Ms. Michaels with the Real Shredder, instead.



Much more motivating.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

I'm one of the lucky ones who lost all of the extra pregnancy pounds and then some relatively quickly after having the baby. I'm sure breastfeeding had a lot to do with it, and since we're about to wrap that up I know I'll have to readjust my eating and exercise habits again. To be honest, I haven't exercised in MONTHS, outside of the walks we take around our neighborhood after work.

While I've lost the weight and the number I see on the scale every morning makes me happy, the pounds that belong on my body have redistributed themselves in a way that I'm not very happy with. Certain areas jiggle when I'd prefer them to remain static and other areas look more like cottage cheese than I'd like to admit. Either way, I'm not doing this to lose weight but to redistribute the weight that I have and maybe build up some muscle so that I don't feel like I'm going to die by the time I get to the checkout with the monster package of baby wipes.*

Since all of my (internet) friends are doing it I picked up the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD at Target last night. I was originally going to wait until I was done with the whole pumping thing (19 days!), but I'm going to start tonight, instead.


* Yes, for the most part I only use cloth wipes, but there are some diapers whose contents require a cleaning by something more easily-disposed-of. Still 100% cloth diapers, though.