This week, despite the fact that I am still participating in a Jillian's 30 day shred challenge, I decided to try Jillians Ripped in 30. (Yes, you read that right, that is in addition to what I am already doing.) I couldn't help it. I got the new dvd in the mail, and it was like a shiny new toy for a child. I had to try it that day.
The principle behind the Ripped dvd is 4 workouts about 25 minutes each, you do each level for a week and your challenge is completed in 30 days. Hence the name, Ripped in 30.
I decided to break down the review by level. First, let me tell you that Jillian gives you beginner modifications on all 4 levels, much to her chagrin. Even on the last level where she claims that there should be no beginner modifications on a level 4 she does show you how to make the moves a little easier if you are just starting out. I was extremely thankful for the modifications because there were several moves that I could not do the entire time. While I am far from a beginner Jillian takes working out to another level where you really do have to build up to being able to do all the moves. She doesn't leave room for shenanigans though, all the moves are hard, and she claims if 400 pound people on the Biggest Loser can do the moves, so can you.
Level 1: I got through level one with no real problems. It was a decent workout, but not the hardest thing I have ever done.
Level 2: I get about half way through this level when it dawns on me that level 2 of Ripped in 30, is harder than level 3 in the 30 day Shred! Now, I am really excited and curious to find out what levels 3 and 4 bring.
Level 3: This level was fun, the moves Jillian chose were not moves I have ever done before. A bear crawl, rock star sit ups, duck walk. It sounds silly but my quads were screaming by the end. I was so excited after finishing Level 3 I had to dive right into level 4.
Level 4: Jillian boasts that never before has there been a level 4. Level 4 was definitely a challenge. Even Basheera who is a gorgeous albeit beast of a woman has a hard time finishing level 4 at the advanced level.
Overall, I loved it. Jillian is true to form, she is witty, and challenging. When you want to give up she yells at you. I don't know about, you but when Jillian yells things at me like "Do you want to be skinny or not?" It makes me move! My favorite Jillian moment in the dvd was when she pretended to bite the butt of one of the girls. I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my workout stance.
Here is my overall review (out of 5 stars)
Trainer likeability: *****
Easy to Follow?: ****
Long term likeability: ****
Overall likeability: *****
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
The Incredible Edible Egg
Yesterday was one of the longest days I have had in a long time. The day was actually really great, but it was long. Thank goodness I got up early, and squeezed my workout in before the day got too hectic. I always feel better at the end of the day knowing that I have done it, and I don't need to worry about it anymore. But that is not what today is about.
Easter Weekend is upon us, and tonight we are decorating eggs. If you are anything like me and my family our celebration of Easter is always exciting. Easter is, in my opinion, the most important holiday of the year. It is the holiday we celebrate what a wonderful, amazing gift we have received from God. (Note: I did not say my favorite to celebrate, it is my second favorite to celebrate because I LOVE Christmas). At my house decorating eggs is a free for all, they do not need to be perfect, and there is not a contest, but there are usually at least three qualifications. 1. Everyone has to have an egg with their name on it. 2. Someone always makes a poop colored egg, and everyone laughs. And 3. My mom likes to make an egg that says something along the lines of "Help Let me out." She makes this egg every year, and every year it is her favorite, and every year it makes her laugh. My mom laughing is a beautiful thing, and therefore I love it!
The bad thing about decorating eggs is that then you have 2-3 dozen hard boiled eggs that you have to eat. Sometimes more. I can only take so much egg salad. I am only human.
This year I wanted to post a few healthy egg recipes for all your post Easter needs:
1. Salad. Make yourself a delicious cobb salad with fresh turkey, lettuce, tomatos, sugar snap peas and a little egg. If you don't eat meat sub in some delicious tofu, or garbanzo beans. Drizzle on a little balsamic glaze (or your favorite low calorie dressing) and enjoy.
2. Upgraded egg salad. The thing that makes egg salad so bad for you is the mayo. Skip the mayo and go with lowfat greek yogurt. Add celery, onion, mustard (for some zip), salt and pepper, and you are ready to pop that onto a slice of your favorite whole grain bread with some lettuce and fresh sliced tomato.
3. Here is a delicious recipe that I found for tuna salad stuffed tomatoes. Yum! http://www.fromargentinawithlove.typepad.com/from_argentina_with_love/2009/04/tuna-stuffed-tomatoestomates-rellenos.html
What are some of your ideas?
Easter Weekend is upon us, and tonight we are decorating eggs. If you are anything like me and my family our celebration of Easter is always exciting. Easter is, in my opinion, the most important holiday of the year. It is the holiday we celebrate what a wonderful, amazing gift we have received from God. (Note: I did not say my favorite to celebrate, it is my second favorite to celebrate because I LOVE Christmas). At my house decorating eggs is a free for all, they do not need to be perfect, and there is not a contest, but there are usually at least three qualifications. 1. Everyone has to have an egg with their name on it. 2. Someone always makes a poop colored egg, and everyone laughs. And 3. My mom likes to make an egg that says something along the lines of "Help Let me out." She makes this egg every year, and every year it is her favorite, and every year it makes her laugh. My mom laughing is a beautiful thing, and therefore I love it!
The bad thing about decorating eggs is that then you have 2-3 dozen hard boiled eggs that you have to eat. Sometimes more. I can only take so much egg salad. I am only human.
This year I wanted to post a few healthy egg recipes for all your post Easter needs:
1. Salad. Make yourself a delicious cobb salad with fresh turkey, lettuce, tomatos, sugar snap peas and a little egg. If you don't eat meat sub in some delicious tofu, or garbanzo beans. Drizzle on a little balsamic glaze (or your favorite low calorie dressing) and enjoy.
2. Upgraded egg salad. The thing that makes egg salad so bad for you is the mayo. Skip the mayo and go with lowfat greek yogurt. Add celery, onion, mustard (for some zip), salt and pepper, and you are ready to pop that onto a slice of your favorite whole grain bread with some lettuce and fresh sliced tomato.
3. Here is a delicious recipe that I found for tuna salad stuffed tomatoes. Yum! http://www.fromargentinawithlove.typepad.com/from_argentina_with_love/2009/04/tuna-stuffed-tomatoestomates-rellenos.html
What are some of your ideas?
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
What you eat counts
I seem to have multiple conversations with my friends lately about what workouts are going to yield the most results. What workouts are going to help you to lose weight the fastest. The short answer is this: None of them. I am not saying that the calorie burn will be the same for yoga as it is for circuit training. That would be ludicrous. There is nothing better than diving into a sweat-inducing, butt-kicking workout. You will feel better, stronger. Your mood will lift, and hopefully your butt will too!
Almost every article I read however, tells me that weight loss is about 80/20. 80 percent what you eat, and 20 percent how active you are. I am using that statistic somewhat lightly, there is not a black and white. I have read 85/15, 90/10, and even 70/30. The reason that there is not an exact clear cut answer is because we do not all fit into one mold. But regardless of which statistic you are, 90/10 or 70/30, the point is staying at a healthy weight, or losing weight is mostly about what you put into your body.
Think about it. It will take me approximately 2 minutes to eat 3 Samoas (my favorite girl scout cookie). That is 210 calories. It would then take me an hour of yoga, 30 minutes of cardio, or 25 minutes of circuit training to then burn off those 3 cookies. See how much damage 2 minutes can do?
On top of those astonishing numbers working out makes you hungry, especially when you first start working out. I have a very dear friend, who has really started to turn her life around, and her biggest problem was that if she did a really great workout... she was starving for the rest of the day. There is no cushy answer to this problem. I told her, and I will tell you now. You have to suck it up. Change is not always comfortable, but it is good.
Bottom line: Put the fork down. And, no sorry but you cannot do an amazingly hard workout and then assume you can eat whatever you want for the rest of the day.
Almost every article I read however, tells me that weight loss is about 80/20. 80 percent what you eat, and 20 percent how active you are. I am using that statistic somewhat lightly, there is not a black and white. I have read 85/15, 90/10, and even 70/30. The reason that there is not an exact clear cut answer is because we do not all fit into one mold. But regardless of which statistic you are, 90/10 or 70/30, the point is staying at a healthy weight, or losing weight is mostly about what you put into your body.
Think about it. It will take me approximately 2 minutes to eat 3 Samoas (my favorite girl scout cookie). That is 210 calories. It would then take me an hour of yoga, 30 minutes of cardio, or 25 minutes of circuit training to then burn off those 3 cookies. See how much damage 2 minutes can do?
On top of those astonishing numbers working out makes you hungry, especially when you first start working out. I have a very dear friend, who has really started to turn her life around, and her biggest problem was that if she did a really great workout... she was starving for the rest of the day. There is no cushy answer to this problem. I told her, and I will tell you now. You have to suck it up. Change is not always comfortable, but it is good.
Bottom line: Put the fork down. And, no sorry but you cannot do an amazingly hard workout and then assume you can eat whatever you want for the rest of the day.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Question 1
One of the questions that I am asked a lot by my friends and loved ones is.... What workout is the best? Or what workout is going to get me the results I want? Where do I start when choosing a workout? Ok, so that is three questions, but I think I can answer them all today.
Try anything, try biking, running, dvds, the elliptical, the arc trainer, playing outside. The worst thing you can do is try nothing. When you are just starting out working out is going to be hard. No one ever said that working out is going to be easy. Sitting is easy, working out is challenging. In my opinion, it is challenging in a good way.
You have to be willing to put in the effort, sweat, embarrass yourself, and go so far out of you comfort zone that you are making a change. As Jillian Michaels would say "You can't phone it in." It is so true, you cannot phone it in. You want results you have to put the work in.
There I was sweating into the carpet holding two eight pound dumbbells over my head I was holding myself in a squat that I had been holding for what felt like 5 straight minutes. My quads are shaking, my arms are shaking, and my head is screaming at me that I cannot do it anymore, I will not make it through the next set. I glance up at the tv to give Bob (Bob Harper from the Biggest Loser. I was doing his new cardio workout) a dirty look. As I am looking up he so graciously reminds me that I have been surrounded by lies. "what is a ten minute workout?" he challenges, "That is not going to get you the results you want. A ten minute workout is a warmup." Forgive me because I did paraphrase him, but it really struck a cord. I stopped giving him a dirty look and tried to focus. So when Bob told me to take my shaking, sweating over worked legs and jump in that squat. I did.
My conclusion: (ok let's pull a statistic out of my butt here) 90% of working out is sticking with it. If you don't pick a workout you love you will never stick with it. If you don't stick with it, you won't get results. Simple enough.
Here are my guidelines for finding a workout and doing you love:
1. Try, try, try. There is no harm in trying a lot of different workouts until you find a few you like. Be prepared to feel foolish until you learn the new skills you need.
2. Pick a trainer who can motivate you even on your bad days.
3. Just get up off the couch, and do it.
Try anything, try biking, running, dvds, the elliptical, the arc trainer, playing outside. The worst thing you can do is try nothing. When you are just starting out working out is going to be hard. No one ever said that working out is going to be easy. Sitting is easy, working out is challenging. In my opinion, it is challenging in a good way.
You have to be willing to put in the effort, sweat, embarrass yourself, and go so far out of you comfort zone that you are making a change. As Jillian Michaels would say "You can't phone it in." It is so true, you cannot phone it in. You want results you have to put the work in.
There I was sweating into the carpet holding two eight pound dumbbells over my head I was holding myself in a squat that I had been holding for what felt like 5 straight minutes. My quads are shaking, my arms are shaking, and my head is screaming at me that I cannot do it anymore, I will not make it through the next set. I glance up at the tv to give Bob (Bob Harper from the Biggest Loser. I was doing his new cardio workout) a dirty look. As I am looking up he so graciously reminds me that I have been surrounded by lies. "what is a ten minute workout?" he challenges, "That is not going to get you the results you want. A ten minute workout is a warmup." Forgive me because I did paraphrase him, but it really struck a cord. I stopped giving him a dirty look and tried to focus. So when Bob told me to take my shaking, sweating over worked legs and jump in that squat. I did.
My conclusion: (ok let's pull a statistic out of my butt here) 90% of working out is sticking with it. If you don't pick a workout you love you will never stick with it. If you don't stick with it, you won't get results. Simple enough.
Here are my guidelines for finding a workout and doing you love:
1. Try, try, try. There is no harm in trying a lot of different workouts until you find a few you like. Be prepared to feel foolish until you learn the new skills you need.
2. Pick a trainer who can motivate you even on your bad days.
3. Just get up off the couch, and do it.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
The Workout DVDaholics guide to well everything....
I have to admit that I am workoutDVDaholic. I will try anything once, and I mean anything. I don't think there is one workout dvd that I have had in my hands and not tried. I also make use of the free workouts that come "on demand" whenever I feel like mixing things up. I devour anything fitness and health related I can get my hands on. I read Self, shape and fitness from cover to cover every month. I keep a running list of new workout DVDs I want to try, and new exercise equipment that I would love to own. I know how many calories are in most foods, and what the benefits of their certain nutrients are. It sounds like an obsession I know, but really it is a hobby that I absolutely love. Working out is my stress reliever, it gives me energy, resets my mood, and gives me a great start to the day.
I feel like there may be some people who are misconstruing what I want to say here. Iwant am going to clarify. I am not obsessed with my weight, or being too thin. I have had times in my life where I did have some extra weight to lose (I gained way too much weight during my second pregnancy and it took a year of struggling to get it off.) but really now working out for me is something I enjoy. I am perfectly happy with myself, and my body the way it is. I just want to live a long and healthy life, and I believe that working out is part of that.
Where does all this come from? It started when I was little. My mom was an avid exerciser and I grew up doing Jane Fonda in my Daffy duck leotard and leg warmers in the living room with her. In my family we are what I like to call "healthy sweaters." A topic that I will touch on later. To this day I love working out with a partner or a friend. The conversation, and the camaraderie makes the workout so much fun, and sometimes even more rewarding.
I was told a long time ago that I am person who needs variety, I need flavor, spice, and excitement. For example, I do not like Hershey bars. I never have. I find them to be sad, drab little excuses for chocolate with very little taste and poor melting quality. If I am going to eat plain chocolate with nothing in it I will go for the good stuff godiva, lindt or even dove. More than likely though I will indulge in something with a little flavor, mint or caramel or peanuts. Why eat a Hershey bar when you can have a Twix, or York Peppermint Patty? (Sorry this was a little off the subject, but the tangent in my head fit my need for variety in workouts to my need to variety in life.)
I think this need for variety is why I have never joined a gym. I would love to take the classes, but they are expensive, and most of the workout stuff I have at home I have asked for for birthdays or Christmas, thus keeping my cost down. And also, I really hate the thought of say going on the elliptical everyday for an hour. I would love to do it once in awhile, but I couldn't everyday.
What is the point of all this? Why am I sharing the back story of all this stuff? I am asked questions all the time by my friends, and family about fitness and health related stuff. Through those questions I have discovered that I have something to say. I have pearls of wisdom itching to come out. My advice is well researched, although not expert advice, and I am ok with that. I also have this blog where I am allowed to share whatever I want, and I think I feel a string of blogs coming.
So, what are your questions? I will do my best to answer them, and research them. Want to know if a workout dvd is good? I will try it for you and review it. Need to know why cherries are good for you? I have the answer and if I don't then I will figure it out. :)
I feel like there may be some people who are misconstruing what I want to say here. I
Where does all this come from? It started when I was little. My mom was an avid exerciser and I grew up doing Jane Fonda in my Daffy duck leotard and leg warmers in the living room with her. In my family we are what I like to call "healthy sweaters." A topic that I will touch on later. To this day I love working out with a partner or a friend. The conversation, and the camaraderie makes the workout so much fun, and sometimes even more rewarding.
I was told a long time ago that I am person who needs variety, I need flavor, spice, and excitement. For example, I do not like Hershey bars. I never have. I find them to be sad, drab little excuses for chocolate with very little taste and poor melting quality. If I am going to eat plain chocolate with nothing in it I will go for the good stuff godiva, lindt or even dove. More than likely though I will indulge in something with a little flavor, mint or caramel or peanuts. Why eat a Hershey bar when you can have a Twix, or York Peppermint Patty? (Sorry this was a little off the subject, but the tangent in my head fit my need for variety in workouts to my need to variety in life.)
I think this need for variety is why I have never joined a gym. I would love to take the classes, but they are expensive, and most of the workout stuff I have at home I have asked for for birthdays or Christmas, thus keeping my cost down. And also, I really hate the thought of say going on the elliptical everyday for an hour. I would love to do it once in awhile, but I couldn't everyday.
What is the point of all this? Why am I sharing the back story of all this stuff? I am asked questions all the time by my friends, and family about fitness and health related stuff. Through those questions I have discovered that I have something to say. I have pearls of wisdom itching to come out. My advice is well researched, although not expert advice, and I am ok with that. I also have this blog where I am allowed to share whatever I want, and I think I feel a string of blogs coming.
So, what are your questions? I will do my best to answer them, and research them. Want to know if a workout dvd is good? I will try it for you and review it. Need to know why cherries are good for you? I have the answer and if I don't then I will figure it out. :)
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