Day 1 - Shred

Ugh that was horrible.

Today I undertook the DVD for the first time, and it did hurt. I sweated so much I and to go and stand in the rain afterwards. I'm still alive though, so able (just) to type this blog entry...

What can I tell you about the DVD? Well, although it bills itself as a 20-minute-ish workout it actually takes just over 27 mins including warm up and cool down.

Starting with the warmup (jumping jacks are exhausting enough) it runs through three circuits, each of:

* 3 minutes strength
* 2 minutes cardio
* 1 minute abs

The DVD has three levels (I'm on the first, of course), and there are two fairly muscular ladies behind Jillian Michaels, Anita who does the 'easier' movements (snort) and Natalie who does the full booty-in-your face versions. Guess which one I'm following?

The first circuit I found the worst - I don't know whether that was because I was cold to it, or because it is purposely frontloaded to get through the worst earliest, but the cardio (jumping jacks and skipping) exhausted me.

For strength items you need weights. I found that I had car-booted mine in the summer, so instead I filled two old baby bottles to the brim with water. Instead of a gym mat I used my baby changing mat. I am the epitome of a mummy trying to lose her baby weight!

I found the arms items easiest - basically lifts and stretches. I'm guessing though as my youngest weighs just over a stone and my eldest almost twice that I'm used to lugging weights about.

Surprisingly, my stress areas during the workout were my knees. I must compensate for them a lot because by focussing on them it showed me how weak they are.

My hefty muscular thighs lived up to the job of course, though overall I was quite shaky after the circuits finished.

So how did I do? Did I manage to follow everything? Pretty much. Sometimes I couldn't even do Anita's version - the press-ups were a prime example of this - not because of strain on my arms, but on my knees - so I had to modify those further.

The cooldown I thought was poor. To cooldown you need to be able to assume a sitting position my legs simply won't tolerate (straight out in a V in front of you) as I have very tight calf muscles form years of wearing heels. Instead I modified the leg position to a diamond shape and completed the other stretches that way. I am incredibly inflexible though... (all my friends will be nodding in agreement at that statement).

So overall, it wasn't awful. It was hard, not least because my youngest kept tossing and turning in his nap, meaning I'd have to rush to settle him.

For the rest of the day I concentrated on staying loose if possible, mindful of the poor cooldown. So I moved about as much as I could, and as the day was sunny, broke my eldest out of baby-jail for a walk round the park. Bliss. I could do this again...


In other news:

I may be bored of chicken. Hmm. This could present a massive problem for my diet. Other low-calorie sandwich options please!