30 Day Shred

Or, as I keep inadvertently calling it, the 30 Second Shred (wishful thinking--ha!)

I started Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred yesterday. It's a great concept: 20 minute long workouts that incorporate both weights and cardio. After doing the workout for 30 days, you're supposed to be "shredded". The 20 min long idea especially appeals to me because I just don't have a lot of free time as it is. I certainly don't want to exhaust a good portion of my free time exercising, when I could be doing such things as showering, using the bathroom and emptying diaper pails (motherhood is so awesome).

I don't have much weight to lose. I didn't gain as much with this last pregnancy as I did with my first and, with the two kids, I just don't have the time to eat anymore, so I'm eating way less than I used to. As a result, I'm only about 7 or so pounds away from my pre-pregnancy (er, pre-second-pregnancy weight, that is) weight but more than anything, I really need to tone up. Because my day-to-day activities are pretty strenuous (toddler lifting and chasing, laundry doing, house-cleaning, etc) I really don't consider myself "out of shape" so I started the workout yesterday, curious to see how awesome I would be. By the end of it I was 100% sure that I was going to do one of the following: die or throw up...or, possibly both. Turns out, I just don't have the stamina that I thought I had. Apparently, being fit in "Mommy World" isn't the same as being fit in Jillian Michaels' World. Then, about 2 hours later, I began to feel my legs getting stiff and tingly. Needless to say, I shrieked in pain first thing this morning, when I went to sit on the toilet to tinkle. My quadriceps were screaming for mercy (and they also screamed some nasty obscenities...at least I'm pretty sure it was my quads that said those ugly words).

Needless to say, I wasn't looking forward to "Shredding" (as all of the cool people call it) today but I put Jack down for a nap and did it. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it was much easier for me today. I'm shocked that my stamina had improved that dramatically in just one day, but it did. The best thing about this is that now I might not dread it as much tomorrow (or maybe I will).

I'm also probably not going to be posting before and after pics, like a lot of the other "Shred Heads" do, because I'm vain like that and also, because I don't want to be held too accountable in case I slack off in the coming weeks and ditch this workout. What you don't know about my post-pregnancy body won't hurt you.