As we all know, weekends are usually good for sleeping in and not having to worry about an alarm waking us up.  But for me and my husband, we had plans to take my car to the dealership to get looked at.  So, we ended up waking up at 6am!  That’s even before I usually wake up to go to work!  Needless to say, we ended up out of the house by 8am.  Since we planned to wait there for a while, we had a small egg, cheese and bacon breakfast sandwich and just chatted away until my car was ready.  It was still early, so we also went to Target, then lunch at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants.  All of that done by 1pm!

We had a BBQ to attend later on, so before that, we just hung out at my parents’ house and took naps.  The BBQ we went to made us completely stuffed, but I had to also get my yogurt fix!  Once we got home, I wanted to do my workout, which was Level 1 of Jillian’s 30 Day Shred.  So I ended up doing it, and then my husband decided to work out with me!  He found it really difficult, since he doesn’t work out regularly.  I think maybe I’m having an influence on him!  I kept on encouraging him to keep going, and to think about how short of time the workout circuits were as we were doing it.  I didn’t even realize that they are essentially short circuits!  I guess that is a good way to think of it when it seems like it’s getting super difficult.

Tomorrow is Father’s Day and because I’m probably going to be out spending time with my family, I won’t be working out tomorrow, even though Day 5 is a workout day.  I’m going to trade my Day Off (which is on Day 7) for tomorrow.  On Monday, I’m going to attend a Zumba class!  I’m super excited.  I will consider that my Day 6 workout.  Day 7 will resume back to Jillian Michaels’ workouts.  So, with that said, I’m going to get some rest, and enjoy the day tomorrow. 

I was pretty much dreading today’s workout because I knew that it was going to be A LOT of work.  But as all workouts are, they are work.  It’s work that I’m not used to doing on a daily basis.  My body feels sore, and for the past 2 days, I’ve felt like a sore mess.  Maybe it’s actually working?  Maybe!  After work I headed over to Target to buy Jillian Michaels’ No More Trouble Zones DVD, 2 – 2 lbs dumbells and a new sports bra.  I don’t know what it is but I like working out in a sports bra.  It makes me feel a bit more motivated because I can see my gross muffin top.  Sorry, TMI, I know, haha.  Just had to put it out there.  Gotta be comfortable right?

Anyway, the No More Trouble Zones workout is twice as long as the 30 Day Shred workout, and a crazy intense workout.  The workout consists of a 5 minute warm up, followed by 6 circuits, totalling 40 minutes, ending with a cool down.  The 6 circuits target different areas.  Jillian’s workouts are really efficient because she stresses the fact that you can’t just work arms and expect to see results.  You need to combine it with something else.  So doing a squat exercise with the combination of working out your arms helps burn more fat.  Some of the circuits were killer to me because my knees aren’t so great, but I got through it using a couch pillow for cushion.  At least I got through the entire workout right?  By the way, here’s The 30 Day Slimdown with Jillian Michaels’ Plan if you decide you want to challenge yourself too!

If you didn’t think I wasn’t more obsessed with Jillian, I am also a member of her website, JillianMichaels.com.  Today’s email was really inspiring, and was about having the right attitude to reach my weight loss goals.  In the email she mentions this:

Having the right attitude is so important because thought is behavior. The power of the mind is total — the way you think about yourself manifests as your reality. We all know how easily negative thoughts can lead to lack of confidence, hopelessness, and depression. You’ve heard about self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Well, if you tell yourself that you’ll always be fat or you’ll never find happiness, chances are you’ll end up fat and unhappy. Hey, it makes sense.

I totally agree.  I think one of the reasons why I’ve been kind of yo-yo-ing is because I just didn’t have the right attitude towards it.  I am definitely working on having a positive attitude in all facets of my life — although it is definitely a challenge for me.  But I think it not only works for fitness goals, it works for any goal, even if it’s not related to fitness or health.

Today was Day 2 of my 30 Day Shred challenge, and I thought I was going to skip today’s workout!  The strangest thing happened when I opened my car door:  it made some weird scratching noise.  I went and looked and found a small scratch.  Apparently, the design of the door is flawed, and the odd thing is that this was the first time this was happening!  I don’t understand it, and concerned that this will be happening from here on out.  I was (and still am) really bummed about it, since I’ve been really careful with my car.  It’s my first brand spankin’ new car ever and I really am passionate about taking care of it.  So I have to figure out what to do.

I got home, and found my husband cooking dinner, which made me very happy because it was totally unexpected!  I am usually the cook.  As much as I wanted to eat, I knew I had to work out first, so I took my laptop out, popped Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred DVD in and did level 1.   I got through it, and achieved my fitness goal.  Dinner was grilled chicken with brown rice, and teriyaki sauce.  It was delish.  My body is definitely sore, but I feel good that I got a good workout in.

Tomorrow is Friday and Day 3 is Jillian’s No More Trouble Zones DVD, which I do not have, so I will need to pick that up on the way home.  It’s 40 minutes and I remember doing this workout (when I had Exercise TV on demand) a long time ago.  It was super hard!  But I am determined to get through it!

Basically, even though life is stressful, and things happen beyond control, it’s always important to stick to something.  I’m pretty notorious for starting something and then abandon it later.  But as we all know, without change, you’ll never see any progress!

For the past week, I’ve been thinking about how I can get back into shape. On Monday, I rushed home and decided to swim in the pool, and it was a really great, but a difficult workout! I felt really out of breath and I wondered why I was feeling this way. Obviously, it’s because for a long time, I haven’t been working out. The last time I worked out was probably before my wedding back in February! Anyway, I had planned to swim today, but because I had to go grocery shopping, I ended up not going.

Instead, I let Jillian Michaels kick my ass. Yep, I did Level 1 of the 30 Day Shred workout. In the past, I remember doing this workout and leveling up, but this time, I was struggling! I realized that all that time not working out wasn’t doing anything good for me – my clothes feel more snug (I like to think they just shrank in the wash) and I just feel so blah. This workout really made me realize, what if I did this for 30 days? Will I see a difference?

So, I decided to REALLY follow this workout plan, and I have my before pictures for you all to see. I don’t look flattering at all, and you can see that I’m not very skinny, and I am definitely NOT fit at all!  I’m about 5 feet tall, and I haven’t weighed myself at all, so I have no idea how much I weigh.  My goal is to lose the belly fat, and lose about 3 inches from my waist (from a 29 to a 26).

Motivation is definitely key, and I realize this.  So any motivation is definitely welcomed.  If you’re on a mission or quest to get to a specific goal, I’d really love to read about it too. 

So to summarize my workout goal for last week, it wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t that great either.  I felt pretty exhausted all week because of a very hectic work week.  I was able to workout two out of the three days I wanted to, and during both times, I just didn’t feel too great.  I either worked out too hard because I felt nauseous after wards or I am just really out of shape! This week, I will do my 3 workout week again and see if I do better!

By the way, Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred is a great workout, and I recommend that workout if you want to feel like you’re kicking some serious butt.  I recently found this great blog about fellow 30 Day Shredders like me, called Shredheads and it’s a great resource.

I could definitely learn from this post, “Sticking With Your Workout Routine!” Hopefully I’ll have better luck this week.