Shred Days 14-16: Halfway There!

Warning: this post will likely get a little goopy, so if you're not in the mood for sweet sentiments, keep it moving.

If it weren't for Bryan, I would have gone two days straight without working out. I know that doesn't sound like the end of the world, but staying on track with this is very important to me and losing momentum feels dangerous.

Day 14 went okay (Level 2 is still waaay hard) but the next day I just couldn't find the motivation. There was no injury or scheduling problem. It was, as my Mom would have put it, "a case of the Sorries." A BIG case. My inner brat took over, and I got tired of having something else to do everyday.

Yesterday was Day 16, and it was dangerously close to becoming my first second day skip. I have a friend in the hospital who wasn't doing well (he's improved some since then) and when bad things happen, I often give in to the Sorries. While I was walking around rationalizing a second consecutive off-day, Bryan said, "You're my hero." Well, what are you going to do after that? So, I laced up my shoes and got to it.

The boys came downstairs in the middle of my workout, and Bryan made a pretty convincing show of admiring my muscles. That was very sweet and helped me remember why I'm doing this. Then, Jackson did some clapping and stretched out across my body during crunches and "helped" me keep my abs tight. That was just funny and distracting, and also helped a lot. When I was done, Bryan did the workout so I had someone to be tired with.

I want to sincerely thank my boys for their support, in this, and everything else I do. You guys rock!

Shred Days 12 & 13: All's Well that Ends Well

Jackson, who's in a mimicking stage, did a perfect recreation of what I looked like telling Bryan about my recent weigh-in:

All this work just to lose a half pound!

I was devastated last night after seeing the scale, even knowing that heavy muscle is better than lighter fat. I only weighed because I was feeling so confident that I'd lost a few pounds. But I did the workout anyway.

Things all turned around though this morning when I did three things I haven't done in almost two years:

1. wore a pair of pre-pregnancy sized pants,

2. tucked my top into those pants, and

3. used the pre-pregnancy notch in my belt.

In light of those three details, who cares about that silly scale! I'm wearing clothes I couldn't wear before I started this, so there must be substantial muscle skewing the numbers.

I'm not weighing again until April 20th, when my 30 days of Shredding are complete. Hopefully by then I'll be so hot I won't care what number the scale throws at me. Since Bryan's already Shredded today, I've got some catching up to do.

So, I'll leave you with wishes for a happy and blessed Easter. We're having a great one here, just look at how smiley we are:

Shred Days 9,10 & 11

Day nine went fine - hey, that rhymed.

Unfortunately, Day 10 didn't happen. It was a crazy grocery shopping/ furniture shopping/ Jackson teething day that just didn't leave much room for the workout. So, you know what I did? I was totally kind to myself and didn't beat myself up about it! I just decided I'd done my best and that was that.

Yesterday was Day 11, and I did Level 2. To be honest I did 2/3 of Level 2, since that's when Jackson woke up screaming with his painful little teeth. He even had a tiny bit of a fever, but he's doing fine.

Level 2 is CRAZY. I did feel that Level 1 prepared me for it, to some extent. There's no way I could have started at Level 2. The moves themselves aren't at all complicated, they're just very full-body and high-impact. They seem a little military to me - nothing "dancy" about it, just packing a lot of intensity into 20 minutes. As yesterday proved, I need to get a good calorie burn as quickly as possible before the baby wakes up.

Hopefully today I'll get the whole Level 2 workout in, or at least all I can physically manage. While it's more challenging, it's really good to have new moves. Less boredom and more results are good things! I just have to stay motivated to do the work. Feel free to help me out with that if you want to, umm, you know, comment or anything.

It's finally Spring here! Check out one of my daffodil beds:

I'm so excited about my flowers. They are such a blessing after the long, icy winter. If the people who planted them were here, I'd hug them.

You didn't think I'd forgotten the Jackson photo, did you?