Day 30 - FINISHED!!!! Success!!!!

I have finally finished the 30 day shred!  Yay!!!  I am so happy!  I consider this a success regardless of how much weight or how many inches I've lost because of the fact that I actually finished it.  Granted, it did take me 33 days instead of 30 days to do this, there were many more times when I wanted to skip working out, but toughed it out more times than not.  I am just happy to know that I completed something.
This last week was the most challenging for me.  With Halloween a little more than a week ago and lots of left over candy in this house, I have been snacking a lot.  Perhaps more than I should.  But I have tried to restrain myself and I think that I've succeeded to a certain degree, in that I haven't regressed to my previous levels.  I think that I have learned a certain degree of control.  I just have to remember to listen to the little voice in my head that I used to ignore so often.
So what is next?  Continuing to exercise, but not to the degree that I have been doing.  In other words, giving myself a day off.  I have two other Jillian Michaels DVDs (I got the triple pack on sale at Walmart), Yoga Meltdown and her Boost your Metabolism dvds, so I'm going to try those on the days when I don't feel like going to the gym.  The biggest challenge will be exercising on days that I work because I that is when I tend to try to convince myself not to.  Thank goodness for 24 hr gyms!
Well, I'll take my measurements tomorrow to see how I've done and give my final thoughts on the Shred.

Day 29 - skipped a workout

Yeah, so today should have been day 30, but I skipped out on my workout last night and I slept in instead of waking up, when my alarm went off, to exercise.  Fortunately, I did manage to do my workout this evening and I felt like I gave it more effort than I did when I did my workout in the morning.  I'm just not the most alert person in the morning.  I don't really like to speak for a while and I am pretty sluggish for at least a half an hour.  I tend to feel energized at night.  What can I say?  I'm a night owl.
Today I had one of those ah ha moments, as Oprah calls them.  I like to buy underwear, so therefore I have a lot of them (you can never have too many), but, in the past, quite a few no longer fit and were too small (became thongs when they originally weren't) for me.  I had tossed most of the small ones out, but I kept a couple old favourites.  So today I decided to wear one of the small ones, mainly because I didn't feel like wearing the ones I had in my drawer and the other ones that really fit well were in my laundry basket.  Let me just say that after a few hours I did not have the perpetual wedgie that I used to get with this pair.  Instead they provided waaay better coverage than they had a few months ago.  That is not to say that it is as full coverage as most of my newer ones, but it covers more of my butt than it had before, which makes me very happy! :)
That reminds me.  During Level 3 of the Shred, Jillian gets you to do what she calls Rockstar jumps during the third cardio circuit, and let me tell you that those are so uncomfortable if you have a jiggly butt.  It kind of reminds me of jumping up and down repeatedly with no bra on.  I almost want to grab my butt cheeks with each jump, so I never end up doing the jumps as well as I could.  I guess I'm just bootylicious;)

Day 28 - Back is so sore

Ahh the beloved time change.  I love when we fall back.  That extra hour is so precious.  Well when I came home from a night of fun and adventure I did not exercise and when I woke up this morning I was very tempted not to workout.   I even changed my alarm time so that I could sleep some more.  In the end I decided to use that half hour where I normally dilly dally to exercise.  I was all prepared to use the excuse that my back is so sore (either my bed or I'm pmsing - which might explain the snacking), but in the end I forced myself to workout and I am glad that I did.  I don't know how this week's final weigh in will go, but it will be okay because when the 30 days is up this definitely isn't the end of my exercise regime.

Day 27 - not enough sleep

Don't you hate it when you don't get enough sleep.  It is entirely my fault though.  I went to bed way too late when I knew that I'd have to wake up early.  I think that I turned off my alarm three times before finally dragging myself out of bed with just enough time to do everything I needed before going to work.  Normally I like to give myself time to slug around and gradually wake up, but this morning there was none of that.  Unfortunately I will have yet another night of limited sleep since I have to wake up much earlier than I normally would, but that couldn't be helped.  That is okay though.  I have the day off and after my appointment the rest of the day is mine to do as I see fit, which will be nice.  I plan on taking tomorrow in stride and just being happy to enjoy the outdoors, even if it is colder than usual out.  Nothing like crisp air to help put things in perspective.
As for my workout, it went as it normally does, which was well.  My snacking habits haven't been too great because everyone is bringing in their halloween candy from home because they either had extras or don't want their kids to eat it.  Don't they know that the eating habits of shift workers is bad enough as it is?  Oh the temptation.  I did have a lot less than I did the previous two days though.  Well I better head to bed if I want to wake up without bags under my eyes.  Bonsoir!

Day 26 - Damn you, Halloween candy!

So I've been snacking again on Halloween candy and boy, oh boy, is it dangerous.  I really need to stop.  I think it'll be easier now that my days off are over.  I should pack my lunch for tomorrow after this.  I made a pasta and spinach bake.  There was recipe in this magazine that my sister bought so I thought that I'd try it out.  It is pretty good, but the old me would normally prefer more cheese since cheese, especially old cheddar, is an old love.
As for my workout, it is complete.  Another sweaty and fulfilling day.  Travelling pushups and planks nearly knock me out every time.

Day 25 - oh the Halloween candy

With Halloween having been this past Sunday a lot of the Halloween candy has gone on sale.  Can you say temptation?  I have been snacking on it most of the day, which is sooo bad.  That old saying of Lays "betcha can't eat just one" totally applies to me with twix or snickers bars.  Oh so delicious and oh so bad.  I think with it being small it is even worse because you can kind of trick yourself into thinking, oh I only had three and that isn't even one Twix/Snickers bar.  *sigh*

In other news, I took a nap this evening....completely unintentionally.  My friend sent me a text message around 9pm and I didn't realize that I had even fallen asleep.  I was so tempted to go back to sleep and I probably would have if we hadn't been talking for so long.  There was also the temptation to skip my workout tonight.  Today the temptation was stronger than usual, I blame the Halloween candy.  Fortunately I toughed it out and forced myself to workout.  In the end I'm glad that I did.   Five more days of the 30 days shred.  I think that I'm going to start planning my workout schedule because I need routine.  If I don't I'll fall off the bandwagon.  I think the worse part is when you have workout out so hard, spend hours of training, grimacing, sweating and suffering and then you gain it all back or more.  That has happened to me a few times and it was never a pleasant feeling.  Back then, it signalled the end of my once great metabolism. Now, it means the beginning of living healthier.  I want to be one of those 90 year olds who is still mobile and who has their wits about them.  That'd be nice.

Day 24 - Still going strong

Just finished working out at Level 3 and it was great!  Worked up a sweat, suffered through some of the exercises, but all in all I am happy that I completed it.  I have been to walmart a few times to see if I could pick up another water bottle similar to the one I got there a few months ago and they don't carry it anymore.  It really sucks because the loop part broke off on my old one and I love that bottle.  I guess that is why they don't carry it anymore.  I really need to start drinking more fluids.  I have noticed how bad it is getting because my eczema (self diagnosed) is back with a vengeance.  It doesn't help that where I work is also crazy dry, but I am not helping the situation by the low amount of fluids I am taking in.  So I think I'll make a conscious effort to fill up my old water bottle, which happens to hold a lot of water, and try to drink it all by the end of each day.  I guess I'll be running to the washroom a lot, but it'll also help flush out my system and clear up my eczema.

It's Holly

In other news, I think that I am actually going to take a little more care and effort in getting dressed and fixing myself up these days.  I don't think that I'm ready to make it to the stage of wearing makeup (I never wear any, so when I do even if it is only eyeliner, I feel overdone), but I've been trying to make myself look more presentable.  My uniform of choice tends to be jeans, tshirt with a hoodie.  Oh so comfortable.  Not much to think about in terms of what to wear.  So I plan on making some small steps, step one getting rid of stuff that I don't/won't wear.  I guess there is a closet that I need to clean out.

Checking In - making some progress

Checking in.....
As promised, although somewhat delayed, here are my measurements for today:


waist: Oct 15/10 - 33.5 inches; Now: 30 inches
hips: Oct 15/10 - 42 inches; Now:  41 inches
thighs: Oct 15/10 - 25 inches; Now: 23.5 inches
chest: Oct 15/10 - 35.5 inches; Now: 34 inches
arms: Oct 15/10 - 10.5 inches; Now: 10 inches
weight: Oct 23/10 - 155.2 lbs; Now: 152.8 lbs


Yay!  All that suffering through levels 2 and 3 is paying off.  This is motivating to keep going.  I think that I'll do Level 3 again tonight.

Day 23 - Level 3, take 2!

TheCulinaryGeek

So I decided to try level 3 again today and while it was a crazy workout, I feel like I can do it again and get something out of it, unlike my first attempt.  So here I am sweaty, but pleased:)  Today I didn't put as much of an effort into eating as healthy as I normally do because...well it was Halloween yesterday and I have nieces and nephews.  So guess who got to enjoy some of their candy.  Yeah, that's right I had more than a couple.  I didn't quite binge, what I had may amount to about a chocolate bar and a half, but I did have that familiar feeling of being close to inhaling everything in sight.  Fortunately I managed to restrain myself a little.  Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow I'll actually remember to take my measurements in time for check in.  Till then I guess.

Day 22- Delayed post

I forgot to post that yes, I did do my workout last night, but I opted to go back to Level 2 because I felt like I was working harder.  I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to do Level 3 tonight or Level 2.  Maybe I'll try to alternate between the different days because afterall, I only have eight more to go before I've hit the 30 days.