30 days of shredication

"I love this. Really, I do. Really. I'm not lying. Nope, not at all."

SIGH.

13. Actually do that damn 30 day shred for 30 days straight.  - In progress...

Alright, so let's talk about working out.  I really do enjoy working out, for the most part.  There are plenty of things I enjoy doing that require physical activity.  I love dance.  I love aerobic classes.  I love the elliptical.  I have days when I really enjoy weight training.  I love running.  No, I don't, that's actually a total lie, I hate running.  But whatever.  Point is, for the most part I enjoy working out.

And I like going to the gym!

Problem is, there's just never enough hours in the day to go consistently.  Between working full time, carting around a three year old, and our hectic insane schedule of activities, my gym time is really limited.

And sometimes, I like to sleep.  You know, on occasion.

So while there are several opportunities to make it to the gym each week, I usually go twice a week.  Sometimes once a week.  Sometimes I skip a week. Shhh, don't tell.

When I was making up this list, I decided to put this absolute *gem* of a task on there.  To actually DO the 30 Day Shred for 30 days.  The 30 Day Shred is a video put out by the Biggest Loser's resident ass-kicker, Jillian Michaels.  You obviously don't HAVE to do it for 30 days, it's really just like any other workout video, but a 30 day committment is kind of the point.  A few years back a few of my friends were talking about it, so I ordered it from Amazon when it was on sale and figured I'd give it a whirl.  I don't really like home workout videos, but I admit, I did kinda like this one.

As my in-the-gym time has become scarcer and scarcer I wanted to try to see if I could meet Jillian's challenge.    

Here are the 30 Day Shred's stats:

• There are three levels of workouts
• Jillian combines three minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio, 1 minute of abs, rinse and repeat several times
• The entire thing is under 30 minutes (27 minutes, 44 seconds to be exact, but who's counting?)
• The content really isn't THAT hard, it's just that you don't stop.  Ever.
• There are two options, a "beginner" level and an "advanced" level.  Beginners should follow green-sports-bra-Anita.  Advanced Shredders follow red-gym-shorts-Natalie.

I've started and stopped this task several times over the past nine months...eventually missing a day, or just blatently skipping to be a rebel.  Finally with only 2 months until my 30 birthday, it's do or die time.

Day one was last Sunday.  I survived.  In fact Sunday, Monday and Tuesday all went off without a hitch.

Until Wednesday when my DVD player didn't want to work.  Tried several times, and nothing.  Kept saying, "bad disc."

You won't take me down that easy, DVD!

So I popped the DVD into my computer...and it just spun...and spun...and spun.  But wouldn't play.

Seriously, what the eff, DVD?  Like, I really don't WANT to be doing this anyway, and now you're practically HANDING me my excuse not to do it!!

I won't be taken down that easily.  I've already finished THREE STRAIGHT DAYS (that's 10%!) of my 30 days, and I didn't do those workouts for nothing.  I pulled out the big guns.  I YouTubed.

And while I don't recommend doing the 30 Day Shred on YouTube, I was able to do it.  In several installments.

TAKE THAT!!!

The next day my DVD player worked just fine.  Seriously, what the hell?  Like it forgot the incidents of the day before and how it rejected both my DVD player AND my computer. I think my DVD was just trying to test my committment.

So here we are.  As of yesterday Day 8 is complete.

Are we having fun, yet?  Anyone?  Anyone?