Next Stop: Our House

I know it’s been written about before, but I neglected to follow the crowd when everyone hyped up Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred a few years ago. I bought the DVD and even attempted to love it, but I just wasn’t feeling it back then. But after 3 moves (and finally a permanent one with plenty of space for indoor workouts) I stumbled across the dusty DVD that I never committed to. I started on Halloween, which was a Monday, and have kept at it all month. Here is what I’ve learned in the past 2 weeks in a nutshell:

• Jillian Michaels (and I say this with love) is a crazy bitch. Usually, an at home workout loses my attention and I tend to slack or just turn it off and go for a run. But with Jillian? No. It’s like she can see me. It’s as if she’s there, starting at me, yelling at me, judging me, and if I stop she will come through the TV and wring my damn neck. Yes, she’s that bad ass. Lesson learned: Choose am at-home workout you know you can stick with. The scarier the trainer, the better.
• 20 minutes is attainable in the morning. It’s only 20 minutes. Yes, it’s hard (um, squat thrusts, mountain climbers, plank jumping jacks …who does those things?) Yes it takes dedication, but it’s worth it. And to be perfectly honest, I get halfway through the workout before I even realize what I just put myself through. Lesson learned: Get your ass up and do it. Seriously.

• Do what you can. I’ve tried doing this DVD twice before and failed. Mostly because I thought I should have been able to handle more than I could. I gave up out of disgust for myself and I let the discouragement get to me. If you feel overwhelmed, drop your weight, or lose the weight all together. My 5 pound weights were too heavy for some of the moves in the beginning so I used the soup cans below. It made the moves easier to handle and I didn’t feel like I was losing out on anything. Lesson learned: Don’t give up. Just adjust.

• Take the weekend off. Let’s be honest; life happens. I know myself and I know my body. By the time Friday rolls around, I’m tired and the last thing I want to do on Saturday morning is look at Jillian’s face (no offense) and then go for a long run. So I just choose the long run and leave Jillian on the shelf until Monday. And once I’m done with racing season, I will probably lose the long run too for a while. Lesson learned: Rest or else you’ll hate life. Period.

I will give you an update at the end of my 30 days with Jillian (because I know you’re SO excited.) My feelings might be different than the others’ that you’ve read in the past. I figured halfway through would be a good time to tell you that I’ve already noticed a difference in the way my pants fit, and a co-worker told me I look great today. And with Thanksgiving starting tomorrow (our company is having a Thanksgiving feast) I know I won’t regret my morning torture.

Have you jumped on the Jillian Michaels bandwagon?