Ripped in 30: Week 1

Pre-work out: I’ve done it… I’ve lost 10 lbs, but somehow I feel like the last 8 that I want to lose aren’t going anywhere and despite my desire to see the number on the scale lower, I need to try something else. I’ve been good and have kept off the 10 lbs that I’ve lost for the last two weeks, but I’m not getting anywhere… so it’s time to amp things up. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred video, as well as reading a lot of positive reviews on it. I set out to the store to get myself a copy of it (it’s super cheap) and that’s when I saw her new video out that is called Ripped in 30. I googled it, read reviews about it, and found out that it’s supposed to be even better than her 30 Day Shred. It’s very similar to the 30 Day Shred, although it’s four different workouts. You start on level 1, do that for a week, move up to level 2, another week, and so on and so forth.

I’ve gotten to the point where now I don’t care about the weight (mostly), lets move on to the toning. Need to get this body bikini ready and I have just about 30 days until it truly gets warm for the summer. Just enough time, right?!

I’ve taken some ‘before’ measurements and pictures and if I'm brave enough, maybe I’ll post them and some ‘after’ measurements and pictures at the end of the 30 days. It’s a good way to keep myself motivated to see some results! (But only if I make some progress, hehe.) I’ll also be keeping track of my results and feelings each day after I do the workout and posting them at the end of the week.

Wish me luck!!! I’m SO ready!

Day 1: OMG! That was pretty close to brutal! I made it through the 20 minutes (plus a few minutes warm up and cool down), but I admit that I had to stop twice to catch my breath and take a drink of water. I also had to use some of the modified exercises to make it through. Let me tell you though, I was sweating at the end and SO out of breath! My thighs and abs are killing me and walking down to the basement was near impossible. I’m anticipating being pretty sore in the morning, but I have to say that I really enjoyed the workout. It was hard, especially for someone so out of shape as me, but I liked the overall tone of it. Bring on day 2!

And even better… I wanted some chocolate before my workout and told myself to not eat it, workout and then I wouldn’t want it… it worked! Although I’d still like a taste of that chocolate bunny sitting in the kitchen, I don’t want to undo my hard work tonight!

Day 2: I got up early this morning (too early for a Saturday) and did my workout after eating breakfast. It was pretty much just as hard as yesterday, maybe a little more since I was already sore from last night’s workout. Once again I had to stop a few times to catch my breath and take a few drinks and almost gave up. But I kept telling myself that it was only 20 minutes, I can do that! She does push-ups as one of the first work out and I hate those and sit-ups as one of the last ones and I hate those too, but I pushed through. Going up and down the stairs is still VERY painful and I feel it in my arms more today since I used small cans of spaghetti sauce as my light weights for the arm exercises (the lightest hand weights I have are 5 lbs and that’s WAY too much for me right now).

Day 3: I felt more sore waking up this morning than I did yesterday and thought my workout would be harder than the second day. It wasn’t any worse than the first or second day, but it wasn’t any better yet. I still had to stop three different times, usually during the two minute cardio parts to catch my breath and take a drink and about halfway through the second set I was ready to quit. But I kept telling myself to push through it and that it was only another couple of minutes until the end and I did. I’m not seeing any results yet, but it’s only the third day and I’m not expecting to. As sore as I am, I feel good as well because I know I’m doing something to become more healthy!

Day 4: I couldn’t get myself to get up at 5:45am this morning (the time that I would have had to get up in order to get my workout in and have time to get ready before having to leave), so I did my workout tonight. I definitely wasn’t as sore as the last few days which I think is good, right?! Still got pretty sweaty, only had to stop one time, and feel like it was a little bit easier. And then I did 15 minutes on my elliptical machine afterwards as well.

Day 5: Definitely not very sore this morning. I’m hoping that it’s my body getting used to working out and not because I haven’t been working out as hard because I feel like I have been working out pretty hard. Still sweating my booty off and only had to stop once again today. Working out sucks though, it’s a lot of work, lol! I’m so ready to be done with the 30 days, but I’m willing to keep going. I did another 15 minutes on the elliptical today too.

Day 6: I got my butt out of bed early (7:00am) this morning, worked my butt off on my last day of Week 1, had sweat dripping down my face, and hit up the elliptical for 15 minutes afterwards.

Day 7: Jillian suggests working out 5-6 days a week and ALWAYS ALWAYS taking at least one day off, so I’m going to do six days of each level and take the seventh off before moving onto the next one. I thought maybe I’d push through and do all 30 days straight, but it’s probably not good for your body so I won’t. Ready for my ‘day off’ tomorrow!

Overall Impression of Week 1: I made it through! I didn’t think that I would keep it up. I hate working out and I know why so many people don’t follow through. I’m going to try my best to keep plugging along with it. Jay showed me some of the P90X workouts last night and there is no way that I would be able to do them right now, so it’s probably a good thing that I’m starting out with Jillian and maybe I’ll work my way up to some of those workouts. Week 1 definitely kicked my butt, but it also made me feel good about myself so I’m going to stick with it and start Week 2 on Friday! Yeah!

CIAO! LOVE ME!