Emily's week 42

Saturday - vinyasa/hatha yoga (60 minutes)
Sunday - nothing
Monday - nothing
Tuesday - vinyasa/hatha yoga (60 minutes)
Wednesday - nothing
Thursday - hatha yoga dvd (75 minutes)
Friday - No OM Zone yoga dvd (30 minutes)

I enjoyed some extended time with Thursday's dvd when my friend Pamela had my kids for a few hours. It requires focus and encourages relaxation between (and even during) poses. I didn't notice how hard it was until afterward when I wondered why I was so hungry and my muscles felt so wrung out. :)

Friday's dvd is pretty basic - fitness focused "yoga". I like it because the segments are 15 minutes (really!) and so it is much easier to convince myself to do one or two.

The past month or so has been pretty awful on a personal level, and I've fallen pretty far back into depression and eating for comfort. This week's workouts were an effort to start pulling myself out of that morass. I'm reminding myself that yoga is something I do for myself, and spending the boys' quiet time with a yoga dvd is a better use of my time than moping on the couch.

oh wow

I've totally found my new poison of choice. What do you think?  :D

-Jess

Stepping up a notch

This week is the first week in which I've actually completed 3 workouts. I realized that in addition to having difficulty working exercise time into my schedule that the monotony of doing the same routine was adding to my reluctance to get in the third workout of the week.

So, I stopped in at the library to pick up some DVD's to try. I did 5 minutes of Power Yoga: Strength with Rodney Yee before my wrists began to hurt. I switched then to Densie Austin's Blast Away the Pounds and did 2 15 minute intervals. Although I felt like I was working out with Barbie, the dvd did exercise different muscles than Shred 1. It scores a B on ease of bodily coordination and a D on cheesiniess. I'll do it again, but only until I can find something better. This week maybe I'll get around to buying the hand weights I meant to buy this week. Recommendations on weight? I've been using 26 oz cans.

Also encouraging is that we purchased a used Bike for Dan. He's been having fun getting it running and has done a couple rides. It feels good to have a partner in exercise even if we do different things at different times.

Katie J - I'm slowly doing reviews of my favorite workout DVDs on my blog, but I've only got two up so far, so here's a list of the ones I have and use:

-30 Day Shred - I think everyone knows about this one at this point

-Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism - another Jillian Michaels one; imagine taking just the cardio parts of Shred and making them into a 40 minute workout. Basically, this is hard cardio for 40 minutes - lots of jumping, plank-based moves and kickboxing.

-No More Trouble Zones - this, on the other hand, is like taking just the strength parts of Shred, and making them into a forty-minute workout. Lots of weights and also some old-school matwork.

-Personal Training with Jackie: Power Circuit Training. - This is just strength stuff, and it's more systematic than Michaels' No More Trouble Zones. I love this one. She starts with hamstrings, and proceeds through quads, glutes, chest, back, biceps, triceps, upper abs, lower abs and obliques. It just destroys your body piece by piece. It moves very quickly too, which I really like, but others might not.

Dance Off the Inches: Hip-Hop Party (Jennifer Gilardi). - This is the one I did this week. Fun, lots of cardio, kind of goofy.

Dancing with the Stars: Dance Off the Pounds. - I'm just starting this one. It's a sweatfest, and the dancing's actually stuff you might do in public, if you ever got good at it. As I recall (I haven't done it in awhile), one of the three routines took up too much floor space to do in my small living room. But I liked the other two routines (swing and jive) enough that it didn't feel like a waste of time.

Dance With Julianne, Cardio Ballroom - This is another fairly new one to me, but I really like it so far. It has a jive section that's particularly fun.

Dance Off the Inches: Fat-Burning Belly Dance - This isn't real belly dancing, it's kind of belly-dancing-inspired cardio. But it's fun.

Fwiw, I like dance DVDs because they're a good option for me when I've done a hard strength workout the day before and am too sore to lift again. Also, in all honesty, I find the dancer's bodies such great inspiration. It makes me want to be fit just so that I can move my body in such energetic and free ways. (Hee, quoth Larry the Cucumber: "Libre y suavamente!")

Rodney Yee's Power Yoga: Total Body Workout. My favorite yoga DVD, hands-down. Starts easy, gets harder as it goes. It's about an hour long, and, to my mind, the perfect Sunday afternoon de-stressor.

Katie J. - I also wanted to thank you for your observation about candy, and how it makes you feel. That's such a good reminder for me, because I love hard candies (like Runts and jellybeans), but they don't make me feel that great, and it's good to remember that.

Christa - you might like either of Jillian's other videos: the No More Trouble Zones or Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism, if you like the Shred. The second one does have a lot of jumping (is that "bouncy"?), but the first one doesn't. You might also like the yoga one - it does require coordination, I suppose, but it doesn't move terribly quickly, so you have time to get into the different positions. If you want something dead simple that will just get you moving, you might like one of Leslie Sansone's Walking Away the Weight videos.

Kelly, you're amazing. Hang in there. I think you're doing great to get anything more than childcare done when you're on your own with three kids. 

Katie P. - I'm glad to hear that your shoulder is getting better. Glad the tennis ball helps too! What a simple tool for such great results.

Emily - I'm curious - are you still able to do your green smoothies during your kitchen remodel? I know how much you like them (though I still think greens ought to be eaten with bacon).

Amie - is there any news on Julie? Still praying for her and her baby.

-Jess

I'm Back

I'm back after vacation. I intended to workout on vacation and even got in one workout, but when it hit 94 outside doing the Shred in an unairconditioned house inside . . . . well, it didn't happen. We've been back a week now, and I just finished my second Shred 1 of the week. My continued improvement is encouraging. There is still plenty to challenge me on Level 1. Any suggestions for a DVD with which to alternate Shred 1, keeping in mind that bouncy things like running and exercises requiring coordination are out?

Christa

not just yoga, POWER yoga. :)

Yesterday I did Rodney Yee's Power Yoga: Total Body Workout. It felt good by the end of it (it usually does), but the kids all got up from naps or quiet time before the end of it, so it wasn't quite as peaceful as usual. And I was sore from the Jackie and Jillians workouts last week, so all the stretching was more challenging then usual. Still, a nice way to start the week.  I always feel so accomplished after I do the backbends towards the end. I'm never quite sure I'm going to make it (I've cramped and tumbled in the middle of them before). It's a good thing they're towards the end, when he has you all warmed up and balanced, or I probably wouldn't make it!

Do you guys ever do a workout and think, "I'd better enjoy this, because someday my body isn't going to let me do this anymore"? I've been thinking about that recently. You enjoy this body, but its capabilities slowly declined, and how do you wean yourself off of the joys of a willing body? I've had my ability to physically do things taken away at a couple of points in my life, due to injuries and such, but in each case, I could reasonably expect them to return, and they did. But that won't be true with old age.

Though it does seem - in some completely serious sense that I don't think I really understand yet - that the hope of a new body in heaven is part of the answer. I don't think I get that yet. But I can see that it's there to get. Does that make any sense?

anyway, just wondering if anyone else has thought about this at all. It seems we're all close to what you might call our physical peak, and I can see the downhill staring me in the face.  Wheeeee!  :D

-Jess

Humor and Questions

Everyone's talk about yoga, pilates, and alternating workout types/dvds reminded me that I have a yoga and pilates dvd (Louise Solomon's Yoga & Pilates Total Body Toner--complete with Australian accent) that I bought about a month before getting pregnant the first time. So, I pulled it out this evening, and discovered that an insect had crafted a 1.5 inch long, white, filmy nest on the underside of my DVD. As you can see, it's been a while since it's been in use.

Being inexperienced in the realm of yoga or pilates, I have a few questions. If I do this DVD in the evenings will these forms of exercise energize me and keep me from sleeping? If this is a good evening option, would this DVD be a good companion to alternate with the Shred? I have both the most time and desire to exercise in the evenings, but usually when I exercise in the evening I have a difficult time falling asleep.