Monday: Total Body Cardio - the name speaks for itself. When I first started this exercise I thought I was going to die in the first minute. Yes, you read that right. The. First. Minute. You see, there is an exercise called a "surrender." Believe me when I will tell you that you will surrender to whatever power you believe in before you finish this exercise. If you try this workout, I encourage you to just push through it (rather than completely surrender and quit)! A surrender goes like this: You begin in a standing position. Drop your right knee to the ground, drop your left knee to the ground. Stand up using your right knee (no hands!), come to a full stand by bringing your left knee up. Repeat this for 60 seconds. It may not sound difficult, but trust me when I tell you that you may find yourself making noises you didn't know your body had potential to make. In addition to the surrenders, this workout has something "neat" that involves lying on your back holding your leg up with the toes turned outward (like frog legs really) and then doing crunches. It truly is mortifying when people happen to walk in and see you...this I learned the hard way when I tried to work out in the living room one day. No one was home...but then they got home, and here I was looking like a very damaged frog trying to do my stomach crunches. You live, you learn I guess.
Tuesday: Upper Body Fix - This workout involves using heavy and light weights. YOU determine the weights that you start with. All the instructor asks is that you don't stick to light weights once it gets "easy" for you. Continue to push yourself through the workouts. Now, although some people may consider the upper body to include the abdomen, I myself kind of think of the abdomen as "middle body." Unfortunately for me, Beachbody considers the abs to be a part of the upper body (and every other stinking part of the body, because they work them in every workout)! Circle crunches and scissor twists are the bastards of this workout. I am happy to report to you that I can feel my workout for a couple days after, which means I'm doing them correctly.
Wednesday: Lower Body Fix - Again, using weights, there are all kinds of exercises to help strengthen your lower body. Surprise, this means your abs too!
Thursday: Pilates - I looked forward to Pilates on the first week of my workout. I had this image of what Pilates was like before I started. Deep breathing, lengthening of muscles, peace, quiet, and relaxation. I. Couldn't. Have. Been. More. Mistaken. Yikes. Don't get me wrong, Pilates does incorporate all of those things. My mistake was thinking it was going to be easy. Pilates has taught me a new appreciation for holding my body in somewhat strange positions, trying to control my breathing by breathing shallowly (and loudly) all the while hoping that no one in any other room of my house can hear me and thinks I'm having an asthma attack.
Friday: Cardio Fix - I have to say, honestly, that there is not any one thing that comes to mind to describe this workout. It is a lot of moving around, heavy breathing, and I know my body is working. Sorry to say there isn't anything too comical to share with this particular workout.
Saturday: Dirty 30 -- This workout lives up to its name. I have to say, each of these workouts really make me sweat. I start each night in the basement with my yoga mat out, my weights, my water, my towel. The window is closed. I mean, it's October in Wisconsin, of course the window is closed. By the time I'm done with my warm-up, I'm so warm that I open the window. And that cool, pleasant breeze washes over my skin. And five minutes later I find myself wishing we had a thousand windows. Probably my least favorite exercise in this particular workout involves doing a side plank --think laying on your side, forearm on the ground. You lift your body up so that your toes (or in my case your knees) are supporting you and the rest of your body is off the ground. Then, you repeatedly lift your upper leg and bring it down. With controlled movement. Without wiggling your torso. And continuing to breathe. It looks something like this (but please, don't for even one second think that I have my other arm in the air):
Sunday: Yoga - My favorite workout day. Nothing like active recovery to let everything stretch out and feel better. I have very little complaints about this workout, it is so relaxing and I feel awesome when I'm done. I suppose I'm glad that no one ever walks in as I'm doing one of the many downward dog poses...having my butt sticking in the air is not the most self-confidence-boosting position, but oh well.
I'm happy to report that on my last weigh-in, I was down ten pounds from my last doctor visit. I'm not sure where exactly this puts me with my goal to lose 25 lbs, because I had been down closer to where I am now when I started the last frozen embryo cycle. Unfortunately, preparing your body for pregnancy and that period of waiting to find out if you're pregnant tend to take a toll on healthy eating and one's body. So, I'm either 15lbs from my goal or I'm 23 lbs from my goal. Either way, I'm making progress one day at a time!
