Ripped in 30: Jillian Michaels

I always like to peruse the workout video sections of stores to see what's on discount and what kind of workouts I can add into my repertoire.  The last time I visited the hell of Wal-Mart to get my son's Valentine's I found the gem that was Jillian Michaels: Ripped in 30 workout video.  I was eager to start it right away, but after spending the last week and a half fairly sick and over a week without a voice, intense working out was not on my agenda.  Tonight my sister took my son to the carnival and
I had some free time.  I never know what to do with myself with free time.  I had a cheesecake in the oven, laundry and dishes going and then got excited that I would have time to get my work out in!

I have never previously attempted any Jillian Michaels (from the Biggest Loser) workout, so I can't tell you how this one measures up to any others, but I have tried many other workout DVDs and I instantly liked this one.  Just from the cover Jillian advertises to give you a progressive and effective workout in 30 days.  I loved her 3-2-1 concept.  3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs per circuit.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my zumba but it is a little lacking in the strength area, and I have been wanting to add more ideas into my at home strength training that I do in between my zumba workouts.  This workout containing all of those elements was a great all around workout!  Jillian has her workouts broken up by weeks.  For the first week you follow week one and so on through week 4.

As it was my first time attempting this workout I started out on Week 1. Jillian has you stretch out and then immediately get into 3 circuits of the 3-2-1 cycle.  I love that she is adamant about never using the same move twice.  She claims that once you finish a circuit with an exercise you will never see that exact same exercise again throughout the entire video.  I love doing and learning new at home moves!  Jillian uses two women to help you through your workout, a lower intensity and a higher intensity woman.  This way you can follow whichever one your body is comfortable with and push yourself harder as the workout goes on.  The circuits intensify as you go on and then stop end with further stretching.  I was definitely feeling it by the end and my legs are definitely going to be sore in the morning.  I also worked up a good sweat which doesn't happen easily for me.  All in all I feel like this was a great all-around workout and it only took about 20 minutes to complete it.

Equipment you will need, a workout/yoga mat if you desire,  a set of light weights and (I used 4-5lb hand weights) and then heavier weights (I will use my 10 lbs for this).  During week one you only incorporate the light weights.  As I go through more of this workout I will do a finished review on the entire program, but I was so impressed with the effectiveness and the total body target area that I wanted to share the find immediately.  Jillian has sort of a softer female drill instructor style and her workouts are effective but not at the intensity or length of something like Insanity where you just feel like it was so hard you never want to do it again.  At least that is my style I don't want to die, I want to feel it but not hate doing it. 

Jillian also offers her free 30 day meal plan that she suggests that you follow along with the program for maximum results.  Although I haven't checked it out yet, I am a chronic non-dieter who loves food and feels as though I should be able to enjoy the foods I love AND love the way my body looks.  So I work on those things concurrently.  Just eat smaller food portions :)

 Here is Jillian Michaels' website: Ripped in 30

Here you can see the Week 1 Workout that I did

Zumba Progress Month 2

Here is my second month of progression using Zumba.  Taking photos at least once a week on Fridays to show progression  I work out a minimum of 3 times a week and a maximum of 6 times a week.  I don't do any sort of special dieting, if I did I am sure that I would have a it faster results, but I am not concerned with the results I am having thus far, and I love food and zumba has been such a great time!  It makes working out so much easier to do, when you are enjoying yourself.  I encourage any one to at least give zumba a try and to find something that you enjoy doing to help you work out!  If any one needs daily workout motivation just let me know and we can motivate each other!  Enjoy. 

Where I started out:

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

2 Months

If you missed the first month of progression you can check it out at:
Zumba Progress Month 1

Zumba Progress Month 1

This is my one month of progress since starting regular workouts with Zumba at home.  I started by taking photos after 1 week of working out on a regular basis.  I am not engaging in any kind of diet behavior.  I want to prove that you can look great just by working out and not engorging yourself with food.  As you can see from my blog I cook all kinds of food and do not cut anything else.  I love food and I feel like life is too short to be enjoyed without eating what you love as long as it is not a health concern.  I may have to work a little harder at working out, but in the end I am happier eating what I like.  

As far as workouts are concerned.  I do Zumba 3-5 times a week.  25-45 minute workouts.  I also like to throw in some weights with 10 pounds.  I do different arm exercises as well as lunges and squats.  I try to do sets of 10-15.  I also do a variety of isometric exercises with the abdominal area as the focus.  I will have to go into more detail at another time if anyone is interested.

My main point of this current blog is to go through my progress from week to week.  I take my progress photos on Friday evenings and so they can be great factors to affect the way I look based on what I ate or drank during that day.  During this time no alcohol has been consumed and I have also taken rest days 1-3 times a week.  

This was my very first progress photo, where I actually could see a difference right away and gave me the motivation to keep doing Zumba!

here is a side view where you can really see my problem areas in my thighs and my stomach

This is my week 2 progress photo, I could see a huge difference in my legs this week

Week 2

Week 2 showed immense change in my thighs and a slight slimming of the waist

week 2

Week 3 Progress Photos, I could see the biggest difference in my arms this week

Week 3

Week 3

Side view of week 3 showed that my thighs were getting less jiggly and my stomach was slightly slimmer

Week 3 still need a lot of work on the stomach

week 3

1 Month progress, my legs look drastically smaller here and I can see some difference in my stomach

at 1 month there is definite definition in my thighs

The thighs look immensely better from a back view

Stomach is still needing work at this point

1 Month

Zumba Fitness Core Kinect Review

As I am very new to the whole XBox-Kinect thing and also very new to the whole Zumba thing (I know WAAAY behind the times on both). I know I know I am a PC gamer through and through and haven't played on a game console since the original Nintendo and then the original Sega.  Since then it has been strictly PC for me.  I was always interested in the workout games when Wii first came out for playstation and I remember hearing that Kinect had expounded upon Wii when it came out.  Overall it just looked like quite a bit of fun.  I also was always interested in Zumba class, but even after a one year membership at the gym I found that the classes that were offered did not fit into my single mommy, bedtime for Liam schedule and so I was never able to get into it.  Also I felt like Zumba was something that I really wanted to do WITH someone.  I thought it would be a great class to take with a friend.  Alas as with everything else in San Angelo, at the time I found it quit difficult to try to get anyone to do anything outside of going out or drinking so I stuck with myself again.

Back to the topic at hand, when my boyfriend told me that he had a Kinect with his XBOX I was SO excited to try some of the workout "games" that were available.  I immediately started my search for which ones were the best and what I could find used and for cheap and also in my facebook shopping
groups.  Within a few days I was able to find someone selling a couple of Zumba Kinect "games" so I negotiated a fair price and was able to gleefully take them home.  Immediately I tried it out having no idea what I was doing.

Let me just say that I SUCK at using the kinect controls.  I am getting better at it, but I think that the placement of certain things was not the greatest in ease of use.  If you have something in the bottom right corner that you need to get your hand on (using the Kinect sensor) and then hold for a few second, it should NOT be in the bottom right corner next to something else to the right that will swipe the screen to the right, it should have been placed at the very least at the bottom center or just the center as a whole.   That is my main complaint, other than that I am slowly getting more accustomed to the way it works and getting more familiar with it.

 Get pumped up for Zumba Core!

As far as the Zumba Core disc in and of itself, I have to say that I definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in cardo, Core , Dance or Zumba workouts.  It is very fun and definitely effective.  You have many options to customize your workout to yourself.  I have tried the pre-set workouts and they are really great, I have tried going through by a song at a time to get a feel for what was available.  This evening I tried the playlist option where you get to create your own playlist and then workout to it.  I did 5 songs for tonight.  There is everything from bollywood, to hip hop to salsa to warm up types of songs, so that you can change it up or stick to one kind.  The sensors are pretty accurate in being able to distinguish your whole body and if you are doing the entire move correctly.  You get to track your progress and at the end of the workout it shows you how many calories you burned and the accuracy percentage for your technique.  You can track your progress and even have it suggest workouts based on your progress.  Definitely something worth a try that is both fun and effective :).

 For a great preview of what the Zumba actually looks like on the console

*As an added bonus and for the "game" part, as your progress is tracked you get to unlock different added bonuses to the game such as videos from the real life trainers, more songs, etc. 

Insanity Cardio Abs Review & Cookie Failure

First I will start with the Abs Review.

Having taken a break from Insanity for awhile after it kicked my butt a few times (Insanity Plyometrics Review), I wanted to start back in to things a little slower, so I chose a 20 minute workout.  This happened to the be the Cardio Abs workout.  Having done a couple of the Insanity workouts before I was mentally prepared.

I'm not going to say that it was a bad workout, because it definitely did work my abs.  I felt that it was a little weak in comparison to the other things that I have come to expect from Insanity.  My Belly Pilates totally kicked that workouts butt!  See Belly Pilates Review

The workout starts with a warmup as they all do with Shaun T.  The most intense part would be the jump leg curl ins, which is very high impact on the body if you have back or knee issues, but you can definitely feel it.  About 3/4s of the exercise is spent on the mat.  I am not saying that this is a bad way to work your core, because I think you can reach your core splendidly this way.  I am not really sure how you can call it cardio given the slow pace and a lot of movements involving planking.  Once the mat came out I didn't feel like my heart rate really stayed up.

Overall I call this a nice, slower paced workout in terms of insanity.  It is definitely a core workout, but I would hesitate to classify it as full cardio.  There is some cardio in it, especially in the beginning.  If you haev never tried Insanity before, I would suggest it as a nice "easing into it" exercise, as the fit test can make you feel like you suck and shouldn't even start, and the Plyometrics leaves you in so much pain you never want to go back. 

*As I could not find any actual Shaun T previews, here is an exercise class a workout facility doing the workout, if you want to get a feel for what the workout is. 

COOKIE FAILURE
Now back to the failed cookies.  If you read my blog last night about Liam's being fully potty trained, he still does want his cookie now and again after he goes potty and washes hands.  not always, but when he does there better be a cookie, needless to say we ran out of cookies this morning and he was LESS than impressed.  So I figured we could just makes some (did I mention that we need to go grocery shopping).  My recipe ended up with so much improvisation that it was a big mess.  However after tweaking with ingredients and adding some more stuff (mostly flour) I was able to make the second batch that came out of the oven more than a big mess, and actually suitable for the cookie container on the window sill.  I can show you the photos, but I won't give you the actual recipe because it did NOT work for me.  here are the 3 main reasons why it did NOT work. 

1. When making cookies you should ALWAYS use unsalted butter.  I only had 3 TBsp left and substituted margarine the rest of the way and this made the cookies not stick together as well and greasy
2. I know when I move I will find a thousand containers of baking soda as I see it all the time.  However some magical entity steals my baking soda when I go to make cookies which left me instead with 2 separate containers of baking powder.  this usually makes your cookies not rise as well and they stay flat and spread out.
3. I was trying to half a recipe that I was only half following anyway...  So it was a mess I can admit I had a cooking failure today haha

Needless to say I did get a GOOD dozen chocolate chip heath cookies that are a little flatter than they should be and also a big spread out cookie sheet of cookie mess, all tasted amazing, and I am saving and eating off of the scraped off flat spread out greasy cookie mess because I suck at presentation anyway and taste is definitely high for this mess :)

*Even though i am the improvisation queen, some things CANNOT be improvised, and when you improvise TOO much you end up with something else ENTIRELY :)  Have a great Saturday night.

Cookie Dough

Failed batch

Better Batch :)

10 Minute Hip Hop Dance Mix Workout

Tonight I wanted to do a lighter workout, so I brought out an old hilarious workout DVD that I had gotten a few years ago.  Trying to get Mychal to do it with me was pretty hilarious.  About halfway through the second workout he completely quit on me and said that it was just too girly for him to do haha.  This is a part of a line of 10 minute solution workout videos. 


The best way that I can describe this workout is: White girl Cheerleader Hip Hop Aerobics. 

This DVD features 5 10 minute workouts. 

Hip Hop Basics: This was designed to focus on your core, but the moves are more simplistic than the rest of the DVD, she throws you into the entire workout fairly quickly.

Fat Burning Funk: This uses "stylized and funky" dance move to amplify fat burning. 

Edgy Grooves: Designed to slim your body.  There are a lot more complicated moves in this workout and you may want to have at least a little bit of coordination to do this one.

Body Re-Mix: Hot moves to help you dance your way to a better body.  I think this one is pretty fun

Cardio Street Heat: Uses more "beat boy" inspired moves and ups the difficulty of the coordination in tying together all of the moves.  It will leave you laughing and having a good time though.

The workouts are done by Kristen Jacobs who is a National Exercise and Strength Training Association Certified person trainer.  She has spent more than 20 years in dance.  She has a perky Cheerleader vibe in her directions and precise movements. 

My overall recommendation on this workout is that each 10 minute segment feels like you are trying to cram a lot into the time.  The 10 minutes really do rush by however and you don't feel like you have worked out for that long.  It does leave you feeling like you could have had more time to workout.  Overall the moves can be effective but I feel like you need to be doing them for longer.  It is very dancing but definitely has a Cheerleader feel in a lot of the arm movements and especially on Cardio Street Heat.  I was dying laughing at the "Jiggy Jiggy" move when she has an arm throw movement that was reminiscent of Popeye the Sailor Man.  I always ended up laughing so hard at the though that I had to catch back up to where we were.  I felt that although time flies by while having fun, you definitely don't get an intense workout targeting any specific body parts.  It IS an effective cardio workout however, and if you are wanting to workout for a lighter day it is a great pick.  My favorite thing about this workout is the ability to Create a custom workout for yourself by selecting any or all of the workouts in whatever order you prefer and even multiple times.  I wish that more videos would do this, because you can change it up and set it for 10 minute increments to fit in to whatever time schedule you are dealing with.  Don't discount this one, it still has it's uses. 

Insanity Plyometrics Review

This evening I finally broke down and tried out Insanity.  I decided to do the first workout DVD which was the Plyometrics cardio circuit workout.  I am not a fan of intense workouts but I wanted to give it a try.  The DVD first starts out with a pretty fast paced warm up.  I was already feeling it in my calves before the warm up portion was even over.  The disc then goes into a stretching before the circuit begins using a lot of yoga based stretches.  The circuit starts out at about a jog pace and begins to speed up immensely right away.  After each circuit (about 5 minutes to get through the circuit) and then there is aw ater break.  It is a definite good exercise, and I can admit that I didn't make it through the entire 40 minutes.  I stopped at about the 25 minute mark.  I didn't want to be unable to walk tomorrow or in too much pain to ever do the workout again.  I can definitely see that it works and is a good workout if you are serious about getting into shape and losing weight.  It gets you sweating and working out you entire body.  I will have to check out some of the other discs and let you know what my take is on it.  So far I am already sore and will be hating life in the morning.  If you are serious about getting into shape I would definitely check this out.  It usually runs for a bit more than $100 but Amazon is selling used copies starting at $44.

 Here is a preview of what you are in for :)

Here are some good reference websites to check out if you are interested

Insanity Workout Program

Beach Body Insanity Site

Insanity for Sale on Amazon

Belly Pilates

Belly Pilates with Rania Review

I bought the DVD Belly Pilates with Rania a few years ago.  I have done it many times in the past but I am always in so much pain from sore muscles afterwards that I am no good at sticking with it.  Let me give you some background on the video:  Belly Pilates is a workout designed by revered Belly Dance fitness instructor Rania Bossonis and created in 2008.  In it she combines Belly Dancing & Pilates to do a lot of flowy and isometric moves.  Rania has many other Belly Dance inspired workouts that I will check out in the future to include Belly Abs, Belly Yoga, Belly Dance Fitness, & Belly Dance Fat Burning.  You can buy it on Amazon new for about $7 or used for less than $2.  It is a great workout to get many muscles in the legs, shoulders and abs.  I would suggest a lot of stretching afterwards.

Mychal and I have been working out in the evenings at home and we take turns deciding what we do.  So I challenged him to my belly pilates DVD.  Let's just say that I don't think he was expecting it to be as hard core as it was, and I spent more time giggling at his groans of movements than working out.  He claims to already be sore and is dreading how he will feel when he wakes up in the morning.

If you want to check out any samples of these video just look up Rania & Belly and all kinds of workout videos associated with her come up int he results.  I perused through a few but couldn't find one from Belly Pilates, it seems to be one of her first videos created and she seems to have gotten better production and helpers in the background since she first started.  I would definitely recommend Belly Pilates, as it is only about a half hour workout and then you are done.  It looks like the rest of her videos would be great as well.  Enjoy toning those abs, and feeling the burn in the morning :)