When I started this blog, I had decided that I was going to lose some weight. I have been very lucky in my life to always be at a naturally healthy weight. I am not too skinny (except for highschool but that doesn’t count) and not too fat, just naturally normal without really having to try too hard.
I maintained my wedding weight until I got pregnant. During my pregnancy I gained a ridiculous 50 pounds, but by my son’s first birthday I had lost it all. Breastfeeding is an awesome weight loss tool. I breastfed my son for two years, and from the time I weaned him in August of 2011 to January 2012, I gained 13 pounds. That’s crazy, right?
So in January, I decided I would try to watch my diet. And I failed. Then in February, I bought a membership to a mom’s only workout place. And I HATED it. I have never been good at working out. When exercise was in my life it was through dancing and cheerleading. I’ve never been a girl who does push ups and crunches and runs. But since I had the membership I thought I would try it out. The problem was, I could only go when my son was in school. He went to two-day a week preschool last year, so I would drop him off, drive to the work out place, do an intense workout for an hour that made me feel like I wanted to die, and then go pick up my son. Because my husband works all the time and we do not live near family, those two days a week were the only time I ever got to myself. By replacing my me time with an intense workout that I hated, I started to feel drained physically and emotionally. I came to the conclusion that I would rather be a little bit fat than lose my sanity.
So for the past four months, I have not paid attention at all to my eating or exercise habits. Then, the other day, in a moment of bad judgement, I stepped on the scale. Oh my gosh. My scale is a mean little thing.
Once more, I have decided I’m going to do something about this. I’m not trying to be super skinny like I was in high school. I’m realistic that my body will never look like it did pre-baby. But if I could just lose 10 to 15 pounds (ok, I’d really like to lose 20) and start to feel less “blah” about myself, I think I would be happy. After talking to a few friends, I decided to try the Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. It’s cheap (only $9 at Target), it’s accessible (in my livingroom), and it might help me lose weight AND maintain my sanity.
So I went to Target, bought the DVD, and prepared for my first workout.
(photo courtesy of amazon.com)
Except I was totally unprepared. The workout went down like this:
Straighten up living room by putting away all of the toddler’s stray toys. Put DVD in. Press play.
Watch the introduction where Jillian promises you will lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days! Awesome.
Start warm up. In the middle of arm windmills, hear toddler yell, “Mommy! I pooted!”
Press pause. Go wipe toddler’s bottom. Try to get toddler to put clothes back on. He refuses. Allow toddler to run around naked.
Press play.
Move on to cardio warm up jumping jacks. Realize I am not wearing the right bra for this. Hold boobs while jumping so they will not hit me in the face. Watch toddler attempt to do jumping jacks and say, “Mommy! Why are you holding your nurses?” (Yes, he calls my breasts “nurses.”)
Move on to lunges and weights. Realize I do not have weights. The toddler notices that the ladies in the video have weights and I do not. He brings me two of his blocks.
Press pause to answer the phone. It was a sales call.
Press play. Continue to push ups. The toddler thinks I am in piggy back riding position and climbs on my back. I attempt to do push ups with a 32 pound toddler on my back. I do not succeed.
When Jillian asks us to get into reverse crunch position, where you hold your legs up in the air, the toddler thinks I am in airplane position and climbs on. I fly my toddler on my legs.
The toddler kind of gets into it. He starts doing jumping jacks and kicks with me. He really likes the cross punching part.
He even becomes my personal motivator.
Jillian says, “Up and squeeze.” “Up and skeeze, Mommy!”
Jillian says, “Almost there!” “Awmost there, Mommy!”
At the lunging part, the toddler crawls back and forth between my legs.
I have trouble doing jumping jacks as he holds onto my ankles.
The pause button gets pushed a few more times for such emergencies such as looking at play dough carrots and a piece of dirt found on the floor.
Finally, it’s time for a cool down.
As I sit down and lean over to stretch, the toddler again climbs on my back.
I decide laying down is a good idea.
Jillian says something like, “Good job! You are well on your way to get shredded!”
We’ll see, Jillian, we’ll see.
*Does anyone have toddler friendly workout/weight loss tips for me? This is obviously not my area of expertise.
