How do I feel? Shredded.
Remember in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when Ferris calls Cameron on the phone and asks, “How do you feel?” and Cameron replies, “Shredded,” right?
Yeah. When Jillian Michaels says, at the end of Level One of the 30 Day Shred, “You are well on your way to being shredded,” what she doesn’t realize is that by that point, the vast majority of us are already feeling quite shredded, thank you very much.
That is one helluva workout. Especially when done with a toddler hanging onto your foot or sprawled on your chest like a twenty pound medicine ball.
Seriously, if the Shred takes it out of me, and I’m fairly accustomed to kicking my own ass on a regular basis, I can only imagine how my fellow Shredheads who aren’t currently in shape are faring. Hang in there, my friends.
Check out this post on ProBlogger about integrating exercise with blogging. None of it replaces actual exercise, but these suggestions are better than just sitting on your ass.
Reading through the Shredhead posts, I realized that while I went above and beyond by posting photos, I missed some of the basic requirements of my Shredhead profile. So here we go.
Code Name: mothergoosemouse (I don’t work at the Pentagon any longer, so there’s no need to hide.)
Tag Line: Just Tri Me!
Weight: 134 (on March 2)
Goal: To augment my triathlon training.
Diet Plan: Huh. Let me get back to you on that.
Rules: Exercise every day. Do not respond to every hunger cue with food.
Shred Plan: Level One for the first two weeks, moving up to Level Two for the rest of the month. Five pound hand weights, plus occasional use of toddler as medicine ball. Five times a week (weekdays), with long distance cardio on weekends.
Since I’ve been shredding for a week now – well, five out of seven days – have I noticed a difference? Well, yes and no.
I’m now following the advanced version of the moves at least 75% of the time. The cardio and abs segments are significantly easier than they were at first. The strength segments are getting easier, but I’m still doing modified push-ups.
Maybe if I lose some more weight, it will be easier to push myself up, yes?
I’ve also dropped two and a half pounds and increased my VO2 max. Now, I can’t attribute those gains (or rather, loss and gain) solely to the Shred, but that doesn’t matter – I’ll take it.
Unfortunately, I had to ice my right shin on Sunday after running and again yesterday after shredding. I’ve got a history of stress fractures, so that’s not surprising. But still, it may mean I need to take it easy on the higher-impact segments.
But overall, I really dig the Shred. Jillian is a bad ass, and her commentary isn’t at all annoying – something that really surprised me. In fact, I want to go out for a beer with Jillian.
Hear that, Jillian? If you’re ever in the Denver area, let’s go get some Fat Tire. I’m dead serious.
——————————
A little clarification on the Individual Ready Reserves and commentary on Lisa Pagan (how much do I love her last name?) over at The Parental is Political.
Still marveling over comments from yesterday’s post on divorce. I’m learning so much. Thank you for sharing your stories.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I’m with you re cardio and abs getting easier, but strength not so much!
mayberrys last blog post..Spells R-E-L-I-E-F
March 10th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Ugh, the way people talk about this Shred program, it really makes me think that when you finish it, you should get a medal of honor for surviving life-threatening battle. Ugh. I’m interested to see how everything turns out for people because *shudder*
Sarah @ BecomingSarah.coms last blog post..The exploitation of Sebastian.
March 10th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
My problem is the opposite. My strength is pretty good (guess that may be the benefit of carrying around extra weight to start with), but the cardio is kicking my butt. I don’t even want to get into how I feel about the abs.
My knees are starting to bug me. Time to get new shoes since I’m obviously committed (or committable)
Amelia Sprouts last blog post..Starting the addicts young