Jillian - 1, Me - 0

I consider myself an avid gym-goer.  I go to the gym anywhere from 4-7 days a week (average about 5-6).  I don't feel like I am completely out of shape, but I definitely could stand to shape up and lose a few.  My problem is that at the gym I usually stick to cardio workouts for 40-50 minutes and maybe 5-10 minutes of strength training.  Hubs and I get there at about 6:00AM so we don't have too much leeway in how long we're there, unless we get up earlier and that's not happening.  We used to get there more like 6:15 and I've already pushed us 15 minutes earlier (to a 5:30AM wake-up call) and that's pushing it (for both of us).  We don't go to the gym in the evening because it is just packed to the max then.  You can barely get a cardio machine or a mat or anything and it makes me have panic attacks, I swear.  We don't go to a fancy gym, $99/yr is a steal, so no classes or anything.  I can't justify our work gyms because we wouldn't be able to go together, crappy weekend hours and one of us would have to go home to let out Miss Maya.

All that said, the hubs thinks I need to get in some more weight/strength training and I'll see better results.  I agree but I have trouble doing it on my own, so I bit the bullet and bought Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred.



I'd heard about it while I was planning my wedding and reading Weddingbee (which I still read today!), but I didn't try it then.  My sister and I stopped at Target on Saturday and I bought the 30-Day Shred and she decided we should also get No More Trouble Zones for a mix-up in the workout.

Yesterday I did Level 1 and let me tell you, it kicked my butt.  I thought it was a great overall workout (though I may need to do some more abs on my own to see desired results).  I was sweating immediately and I do not sweat much when I workout indoors.  I think the biggest help with this is that someone is telling me what to do, I'm just not aimlessly walking around the gym figuring out which machine to do next.   It doesn't help that I did get in a pretty decent arm workout the day before at the gym, but wow am I hurting.  By last night I was so sore I could barely walk up the stairs  And this morning, we went to the gym and it was torture to get on that cardio machine!!

I'm planning to add this in to my workout every other day (with cardio most days as well) and hopefully I'll see some muscle toning.  I'm guessing after 10-12 days I'll try Level 2.  Maybe, sometime I'll work in the other DVD as well, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.  I'm really just hoping that I'm not the only one who visits the gym regularly (mostly cardio) and has experienced this.  I have a friend who's going to start P90x this week.  We'll see how he makes out and then maybe I'll give that a try too.

Jillian may have one this time, but I'm not giving up yet!!

BTW, I loved watching the Olympics but I'm glad they're over and we can get back to regular TV this week.  Jillian will be on The Biggest Loser tomorrow night, and I'm looking forward to watching it.  This is the first season I've watched so it's still interesting to me, but I wonder if the 'novelty' will wear off and I'll watch again next season?