Today I completed my first attempt at 30 Day Shred, and honestly? I’m discouraged. I’m not going to start this post off complaining about how I hate Jillian Michaels, because I don’t. What I do hate is the fact that I have LET myself get so very out of shape to where a 20 minute workout felt like an outer-body experience, and not the good kind. I cannot sugar coat it. It was brutal. I thought I would die.
I wasn’t aware I would need small weights to do this workout, so I didn’t use them. However, I did find 2 huge cans of vegetables in the kitchen cabinet and used those. Must. Get. Weights.
If I had to estimate, I made it almost 10 minutes into the DVD before I felt like I was going to puke. Jillian kept saying, “No injuries allowed”, and I wasn’t about to toss my cookies all over the living room floor, so I stopped for a good 5 minutes to catch my breath and get a drink of water. I honestly felt like crying and fought back tears of frustration, which was a very surprising emotion to me to have during a workout, but there you go. I had to modify the rest of the workout because I was just too weak.
I wanted to quit so bad after I took my little break, but then my son came in, got down in the floor, and started doing the workout, too! It was a huge motivator for me, and I thought it was so precious the way he was giving me encouragement so freely. He even pulled on me while I was on the floor, trying to help me up after the ab exercises were done. Bless his sweet little heart!
It took a little bit to catch my bearings after it was over. My thighs were burning and I felt so weak I could hardly prepare supper, but this is what I had:
I added a few pineapple and peach chunks to the salad and drenched it in Red Wine Vinaigrette dressing. I grilled the steak and asparagus. Everything was delicious, except for the asparagus. It smelled funky and tasted even worse, which was quite a shock to me because I had a Caribbean Chicken dish at a restaurant on Saturday and ate every bit of asparagus on my plate. I’m not sure where I went wrong. In any case, probably not THE healthiest meal, but it sure beats the norm: Dominos Pizza or fast food chicken and hamburgers. A funny thing that happened after this workout was that I was suddenly craving water, which I’m sure is a big clue that I don’t drink near enough (I’m strictly a Diet Coke drinker). I made a huge pitcher of lemon water to chill in the refrigerator. Another funny thing is that while looking for everything I needed in our pantry to fix supper, I literally wanted to throw up looking at all of the processed crap in our kitchen cabinets.
I also talked to my husband on the phone, and he was a big encourager. He sort of has to pull me back down to Earth and remind me that even though this first workout basically kicked my hiney all over the place, I did hang in there the best I could and little by little, it will get better. I mentioned in my previous post that I get discouraged easily when I don’t see immediate results and I felt like a failure because I couldn’t hang for 20 minutes with Jillian. 20 minutes. It felt like forever.
I’ll definitely be back at it tomorrow. I may very well stay stuck at the first workout on the DVD all summer, but that’s my mini goal for now, to get this through a workout without stopping. I think it’s do-able.
Dear Mandy,
First of all… CONGRATULATIONS on taking charge of your life, and finally deciding to get healthy. I know it is not easy, but my motto is “Pinch by pinch, every inch is a cinch” – which means, do a little bit at a time…and slowly, you’ll get there. There will be a lot of humps on the way, but that’s life, right? When in life do we not face hurdles? You’ve overcome them before, so why is the arena of fitness/health any different…you can overcome ANYTHING. Anything at all, you hear me?
I’m in the same boat as you. I began doing Zumba classes twice a week at a nearby CURVES about two weeks ago. This is my 3rd week. My first Zumba class (which, mind you, is a high energy exercise that burns anywhere from 500-800 calories within an hour!) – I felt like I was having a heart attack… umm, about EIGHT TIMES! Haha, I also joked with the instructor that with the way she was going, it was she who was going to be driving me home (or to an ER, coz I was about to have a heart attack!) But i fought through it, and I emerged the victor. I was sore, I was hurt, and I was slightly embarrassed that I was so winded…but I was also proud that I stuck to it — especially when I returned for my second class later that week. In between, I continued working out….
I’m a medical graduate, and currently on the road to getting healthier myself…so I’ll share a few tips with you.
1) That soreness you feel after a work out – that’s your body breaking down your fatty muscles, and then rebuilding them as lean muscle. The product of this process if LACTIC ACID, which is what causes the fatigue and pain. There are three simple ways you can MINIMIZE the pain. (a) HYDRATE YOURSELF very thoroughly. (b) Stretch before and AFTER the work out (especially AFTER). and (c) make sure to take some protein into your system right after the work out and some Calcium (supplements are cool, but MILK is best) the next morning. Once you make that part of your routine, your body will get used to that rebuilding process.
2) Foods – I’ve been an avid “dieter” for the past 5 years. I’ve lost anywhere from 5 to 20 pounds on each diet…and I always gained them back. What I eventually realized (through my medical education) is that, no diet works long term…because it is IMPOSSIBLE to eliminate one thing , or another, from your diet forever. And when you incorporate it back into your diet…the pounds re-emerge. I’d tell you to stick to healthier foods, try BAKING or GRILLING instead of FRYING. Don’t drink diet sodas. Don’t drench your salads in dressing (those rack up calories), but instead try to enhance their flavors by adding veggies you like. Go online, and learn about PORTIONING your food. People think that because they eat two drumsticks and a breast of chicken, that that’s the portion size, but it’s not – so educate yourself on that. DO NOT eliminate fat from your diet. YOU NEED IT – without it, you will get constipated, and also, your body will begin to store fat in your mid-section because your system is searching for it in your body. Low fat, low calorie is good… NO FAT, zero calories….are not good.
3) Motivation – Words of encouragement help. Please make sure to involve your family into your transformation, and your friends too. I’ll be here to check in on your progress – but make sure to involve your friends/family. Also, I’d take words of encouragement, and write them down…put them in your work out bag, or somewhere where you see it in the morning, or when you’re about to work out. We have NO idea what profound impact words have on our subconscious – ESPECIALLY when they are POSITIVE.
BE POSITIVE. Getting healthy costs more than getting unhealthy…but in the end, it is worth FAR MORE!!!!! 🙂 You can do this, darling…so just keep going. If you ever have any questions…feel free to contact me.
Name: Hira Hasnain
Email: Enamoredsoul(at)gmail(dot)com
Twitter: @inluvwithbookz
you can do it! Just keep going no matter what. even when i still eat the things i know I shouldnt i still workout because it makes me feel better! Love yA!
I started 30 Day Shred this morning for the first time in months. I originally began back in January, but hurt my back pushing myself too hard.
The workout can be intense and toward the end of Level 1 when she says “that is fear leaving the body” I always feel emotional.
Stick with it…I’m trying as well. If you feel like you’re straining to do an exercise, don’t push too hard. It’s harder to start back if you get injured.
Good luck to you! I’ll follow your journey as well. Know you’re not the only one out there feeling overwhelmed and uneasy about getting in shape again 🙂
Thanks, Lauren! I appreciate your encouragement so much. Keep me posted on how you are doing. I am in so much pain today I don’t know if I overdid it yesterday or what. Going to give it a whirl a little later. We can do it!!
Okay, so this morning I did my Day 2…it was so hard to drag myself out of bed because I was so sore– I found those jumping jacks even more difficult and started to doubt myself going through the workout.
I finished (though, still unable to do pushups), and realized 1) that I need to keep this up and 2) it is going to be a long time until I’m fit enough to do the BBL (Brazil Butt Lift) dvds that I just purchased (hah)
I hope you’re feeling motivated today, even if sore and tired.
Sorry to butt in but keep at it, You can try using an energy booster like Hyper FX it tastes like kool aid :), also Try using power crunch bars as your snack or a Dymatize protein shake The Gourmet Vanilla tastes great and they don’t have too many calories or sugars. These all taste good and they aren’t expensive if you go trough Vita cost. We are on our second round of P90x with the Insanity abs and we still get pooped at time if we don’t eat the right carbs, quinoa is good for this and tastes good without adding anything to it 🙂 Good Luck and keep at it YOU CAN DO IT! YAY!
Hi Alyn, you are NOT butting in at all! I love comments! I would love to hear more about P90x…so many people I know are trying it. It would probably kill me at this point! ha! I definitely need to look into the products you mentioned. Are you blogging about your P90X program? I would love to read more! Thank you for cheering me on! I appreciate it! 🙂
🙂 At first I thought P90x would be too much for me but honestly if you follow it(the nutritional part, I don’t use the shakes or recovery stuff)and pace yourself you should do great! It comes with a schedule and all, I replaced the recovery drink with a protein shake and add a teaspoon of L-Glutamine and that’s your recovery drink it’s cost effective and has he same function. I will blog on it as soon as we are done with session 2, but for now it’s not in the works. Try and get a partner to do it with you too so they can push you. My hubby helps a lot because he took a course on personal training. Keep Rocking it take before pics and after the first session and don’t compare your weight it will fluctuate because muscle weighs more than fat.
Yes! Hang in there! And don’t let how sore you will be tomorrow stop you! Keep telling yourself that the soreness will get better as you work it out.
Also…a trainer once told me that when you’re sore after a workout, that’s your muscles STILL working and burning calories after you’re done working out. So, it’s kinda like free calorie burn? Yes please!
And DO NOT move on to workout 2 until you’ve completed AT LEAST 30 days of workout 1. Just sayin!
And…if you’re buying weights, get 2 lb weights…it is killer starting with 5 lbs.
Thanks Jenni! I love the free calorie burn concept! I’ll take it! Haha! I’m about to go see if I can find some weights. Will definitely get the 2 pounders. Thanks so much for your continued support!