No More Trouble Zones?

It's been a long time. 

I've been conscious that I've not posted on here for some time and over the last few days a number of people have mentioned to me TheMelican has gone very quiet.

So, here I am.

I've been up to a fair bit over the past month plus, but I thought today was a good point to come back to the blog.

No, not because of the great storm in the UK and travel chaos today. Not because the clocks have changed and we're going to and coming back from work in the dark.

Nope, today I decided to finally try out my new batch of Jillian Michaels DVDs. We all know I had pretty good results from the 30 Day Shred and it's become a bit of a go-to for me when I need to give my body a shock. 

I became a bit obsessed with it - I would Tweet each day I exercised and looked at other fellow shredders and their views. This is how I came to know of the many other workout offerings Ms Michaels has made. 

The ones that caught my eye were Six Week Six Pack, Banish Fat Boost Metabolism and No More Trouble Zones. 

Tonight I decided to try No More Trouble Zones (NMTZ). If I'm honest this appealed as the cover explained there were '6 minute fixes' so I thought I could maybe just try out a few.

Once I started though I had my usual fitness fanatic head on and selected the full 40 minute workout.

Now I do 1hour/90 minute workouts in the gym and 45 minute/1 hour spinning classes. When it comes to Jillian Michaels though my only experience has been the 20/25 minute 30 Day Shred workout. 

Forty minutes seemed a long time.

So what did I think of this one? 

Split into different circuits this is hardcore.  When you're feeling tired in the warm up you know you're out of shape so I was feeling pretty nervous.

Each circuit is split in five moves split into two sets. A majority of the exercises consist of mat work, as Jillian herself says some of them are old moves but they are classics.

What I love about NMTZ is that throughout it all you can feel it all working. I dread to think how I am going to ache tomorrow...and the plan is to do it all five days of this week. 

I was absolutely dripping with sweat and at the end I felt quite nauseous and had wobbly legs!

What results I see will remain to be seen, but I'll be sure to share any progress/updates on here as I did with 30 Day Shred. 

You need your trusty weights and a mat and be prepared to burn. As usual Jillian combines moves so you're not just working on one area. So you'll work biceps and quads, triceps and butt, abs and shoulders for instance. 

Expect planks, double crunches, donkey kicks, chair squats, sumo squats and lot more and all of course with a twist.

Be warned. It burns. However, sitting in now post workout and following a dinner and shower I do overall feel better for it. Even if I do also want to go straight to bed and sleep! 

Let's see if I do manage to reach a point where I have no more trouble zones.  Well, at least slightly less troublesome anyway...

Level three of the 30 day shred

So today I tried level three. I vaguely remember looking at it and attempting parts of it once back when I first bought the DVD over a year ago.

Today I had to do it properly and get used to the fact I'll be doing it every day now for the next ten days.

When you move from level one to level two it feels a huge leap. Moving to level 3? Totally different again.

It's good in that you can see why you've done certain moves in the other two levels, to get you ready for this last level.

However some moves I just couldn't do. Even the warm up is tougher doing previous cardio moves just as a warm up! I was scared what was coming next.

How about walking planks? Yep get in plank position and then one side at a time come up from your forearm onto your hands, come down then the other side. Ouch! I found this very hard. Clearly my core needs a lot more work.

When Jillian said by now you should be starting to see a six pack I was not impressed. I've seen good results so far on paper but I'm a long way from a six pack! Granted I'm not following HER diet to be fair.

Brushing that comment aside I was met with a whole host of fun moves...

Travelling push ups

Arm row and leg raise whilst in plank

Side plank

Jumping squats

Rock star jumps

Cardio whilst holding weights (such as boxing and star jumps!)

Overall the workout itself seemed to go very quickly time wise, but the moves you had to do at the time were tough and I feel I probably missed all the full number of repetitions as I couldn't keep up. 

Hopefully as with the other levels I'll just grow stronger and get used to it. Lets hope so! 

Day 20: ten days to go!

Twenty days down, ten to go.

So how am I finding this workout plan this far down the line?

At times this week I've wanted to kill Jillian Michaels I am so tired and achey and feel I can't give anymore.  Then I complete a workout and feel great and can feel areas toning up and I worship her!

The last couple of days I will admit I've found tough. My muscles are just so tight, doing exercise continuously for this long really does push you and I am feeling very stiff and tired as a result. Some days I go to the DVD and my achilles, shoulders and abs are so tight I think I'm never going to do it.

However the American trainer is right once you train your body and push it to adapt you feel better and you feel stronger about lots of things you can achieve.

It goes to show you can do workouts when you're still feeling the pain from the day before. And being 20-25 minutes in duration you finish just when you do feel like you're about to pass out! 

So this morning I had a major lie in.I have been feeling very tired this week. I did my workout DVD and boy was it tough. You know you're feeling it when the warm up is killing you!

However before doing it I needed a push and realising it was day 20 and I could measure some results I jumped on the scales and took out my tape measure.

You can see the results for yourself in the picture below. What better motivation than that?! 

Now though I'm at the next stage, well the final stage. The last 10 days. Tomorrow I need to move on to level three. I'm scared.

Scared how tough this is going to be and can I do it. Also scared how jumpy it is as my neighbours (who we know like to moan about my jumping about!) are going to react... 

It's just ten days though and if I can get even more results by final day it'll all be worth it.

Yes I ache it but I'm healthier and fitter for it overall. I've been better this week on my diet, I've had no alcohol and eaten healthy every day.

I wasn't too bad last week but did have some alcohol on both Saturday and Sunday and ate out Saturday night (I did try to pick healthier options though) and had a picnic on Sunday (although that was pretty healthy).

Let's hope this hard work and commitment continues to pay off. I need all the strength and motivation I can get to make it through level three! 

15 days in: half way there!

Today marks my fifteenth day on my workout/healthy eating plan.

I'm half way through! Only another fifteen days to go now. I'm half way through the overall workout and after doing five days of level two I'm also half way through this next level.

Which means next up is level three... Level three which I vaguely remember trying once before a long time ago. I'm kind of nervous I have to admit.

Yes it's a workout DVD, yes I could not do it, yes I can turn it off if it gets too much. Right?

Wrong. Jillian Michaels is amazing and this is why I love her workout DVD. I don't stop, I don't give up. I really listen to her when she says speed up, keep on going, squat deeper, do those jumping jacks wider, do those 'high knees' higher. 

I only allow myself a five second break as she allows and only then if I feel like I'm on the verge of an asthma attack/passing out! 

So how has it been? As you know this is the first time I've attempted to follow the plan all the way through. 

I've followed a strict healthy diet for 13 of the 15 day so far. This is because this weekend I indulged in some alcohol and ate out. Although even then I've tried to be sensible with the food.  

So far I've lost six pounds in weight and my body shape does seem to be changing.

I have good and bad days, some days I'm tired from work, some days my muscles are still aching from the day before. However, so far I have managed to stick at it every day and no matter how I've felt before or during the DVD I've felt so good on completion...if a little sweaty in this current weather! 

Now I've made it half way and I'm determined to make it through the other half. When I've been fed up from work or had plans I need to stick to this workout has helped boost my mood and fits in easily with my time.

I am just really scared now what level three has in store, particularly since the leap from level one to level two is so huge! 

So 15 days down, 15 to go! 

Shock to the system

Today is going to be day eight of thirty.

Today is Monday which means time to weigh myself.

I've had two shocks as a result of the Thirty Day Shred and my diet. I got a shock this morning when I got on the scales (and weighed myself again). 

My body has also clearly had a shock from this workout routine and eating well. 

I've seen results!

After looking at last week's figures/my starting weight, body fat and BMI so far I've managed to achieve:

Body fat down 1.1%

BMI down 0.8%

Weight down 5.2lbs

Now you can see why I stepped back on the scales!

I'm doubtful this will occur every week, but for now this is great, just the boost I need to push on and know this is doing me good and will get results. Never mind the fact I feel a lot better for it health wise (well, apart from my sore left knee this morning!) 

My next challenge will be on Thursday, when I'll need to make the move to level two...

Seven days in - the thirty day shred

It's Sunday morning and I'm set for another day of relaxing in the sunshine and working on my tan. 

However before I got to have a refreshing shower and get into my bikini I had something I had to do first. My workout DVD.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm trying to complete my Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred workout DVD. In this, the American personal trainer claims you can lose up to 20lbs in weight (if you follow the workout DVD and her recommended food plan).

I'm not following Michaels' diet as it seems to pretty much reflect a healthy diet, something which I'm trying to follow myself so don't want to go down any fad shortcut diet routes. 

The idea of this plan is to get me back on track and not get a quick fox solution which sees me then putting everything back on within weeks!

Anyway, I'll get back to the point. How is it going? 

I'm now seven days in. I have done the workout on level one for seven days straight and I've eaten healthily (including no booze) for seven days now.

Today I'm off to a BBQ at my parents but  I'm having salad with my meat anyway and not drinking alcohol so it's not really going to be that much off 'plan'. 

So far I've found I need to learn some patience and not expect results too quickly and I will try remember this at weigh in. Something else I'm debating whether to stick to my usual Monday morning weigh in or to for the sake of this plan weigh myself every ten days (as I complete each level).

I'm finding the DVD is becoming a habit now and not so much a chore to do and as I'm used to the level one workout I'm finding it feels like I'm completing it so much more quickly. 

I do ache though. Right now it's my achilles and my shoulders in the main. From prior experience I know it's going to be my abs that burn when I move onto level two.

I'm finding once I start doing the workout most of my aches I forget about and I can complete it. I'm interested to see if I'll feel the same come level two though.

Right now I guess you could say it's going well. I'm a tad achey, but that's good because to me it signifies hard work and I seem to be sticking to my healthy eating too and feeling so much better for it.

I feel so much more alert for the increased water intake, but the constant visits to the bathroom at night are pretty annoying (4 times the other night waking me up!) 

It is helping knowing my boyfriend is eating healthy and doing Insanity too I must admit. 

For now I'll keep at it and keep you posted! 

I'm spinning around

I'm sitting on the sofa in my PJs relaxing and resting after my earlier antics. Tonight, as part of my latest idea to try new things, I took part in a spinning class.

It's madness, I've belonged to my gym for over six years, with an enviable membership rate and classes are included. Tonight was the first time I've ever done a class!

As you know I've recently got back into horse riding as a hobby and decided to try new things and stop worrying. I've considered spinning before, but been unsure if it would be too tough, could I keep up?

In order to give me a bit of a confidence boost my man got dragged along. I was feeling pretty confident until a colleague (who used to be in fitness) told me it was hard to keep up with the instructor when she was training to teach it, my boyfriend reminded me to tell them I'm asthmatic and I woke with aching muscles from last night's workout DVD session.

Regardless, off we went into the spinning studio upstairs in our gym, armed with a towel, water and of course my asthma pump. I timidly approached our instructor and let her know we were new. She was lovely, coming over to show us how the bikes worked and what position to get in. In addition she advised to take it at our own pace for our first time and sit down when we needed.

After a short while we began. This workout works you hard. Even the initial warm ups had me pretty breathless. I took our instructor's advice and turned the resistance dial up to suit me and not quite to the level advised at all times.

I thought I'd be nervous about certain elements, such as standing up on the bikes, but was pleased to find I actually felt rather safe and secure on the machine.

I've seen other people come out of the spinning studios before and they are always dripping with sweat. I knew it was going to be hard.

Only part way in I was dripping with sweat, my hands at times couldn't grip the handlebars they were so soaked and I my heart was pumping so hard I thought it might burst through my chest.

We pedalled super fast, pushed through as we made the resistance really high, we stood and pedalled, did push up arms and pedalled, leaned down and pedalled, did ab work and lots more.

Forty five minutes of very hard work, where I know I eased a tad before the end as I was starting to feel so nauseous. Admittedly I did sit down a couple of times and didn't crank up my resistance quite as high, but for my first time I was pretty pleased with myself.

Going once with my man has also given me the confidence to know I could go on my own and that others in the class are not judgemental monsters!

So there you go, a second new experience and I survived. Let's see how I feel in the morning.

Right now I am very sleepy and full up after a brief visit to Nandos for a post workout feeding. Now to think of the next thing I'm going to brave and try out...

Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred

“No resting”. “I want you gargling your heart”. “I want you to feel like you’re going to die” are not typical phrases people would traditionally pay to listen to. However, if you decide to take on Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred Workout DVD this is exactly the sort of message you can expect to hear.

I’m now on day 8 of the plan – I skipped a day on Saturday since my calves were so tight and I knew I was horse riding the next day for the first time in about 17 years so I thought I better give myself a fair chance to actually get on the horse!

Whether you should take a break or not seems to be a bit of a debate online between fellow fitness followers with some arguing you should do 3 days on, 2 days of cardio and repeat, whilst others have stuck to it for a whole trail of days in a row. Me, I am going to try and follow a pattern of 5 days on and 1 day rest, unless I feel fine on the sixth day and then I’ll carry on.

The way the plan works is based over three levels and each level has Jillian and her two ‘helpers’ - one who is for beginners and the other for more advanced/fitter participants. At around 20 minute per workout you are probably thinking I’m a bit of a wuss finding this tough. Believe me these are a hard and long 20 minutes.

Jillian works on the 3-2-1 plan (she created this I believe), whereby you do 3 minutes strength, 2 minutes cardio, 1 minute abs. In addition, she likes you to work big muscles along with smaller ones to allow for the greatest fat burn possible. The types of exercises include jumping jacks, jump rope, bicycle crunches, butt kicks and strength moves which work combinations of chest and abs, biceps and calves, thighs and shoulders and so on. Oh and you get a brief cool down at the end.

When I last started this workout when I first bought it back in January I used soup tins for weights but I’ve since bought small light weights and for comfort I’d recommend using a mat for the floor work. I find in each workout I don’t have a chance to stop for water as no breaks are allowed (only 5 seconds if you’re really struggling) and I am dripping with sweat by the end.

At the moment I’m still on Level One – the idea being you move up a level as and when you feel ready. My logic is 10 days on each level. In the past when I’ve done the workouts just as part of exercise I’ve been on level one for a bit and then mostly followed level two, with one go at level three! Now as I reached sessions 7 and 8 I found my body has pretty much adapted to the first level and I’m thinking it may be time to move on. However, I’m going to try and follow my planned structure and do 2 more sessions on this first level just in case.

I’ve tried a few workout DVDs over the years – like most females I’d imagine – and I have to say I really like the style of this one. Things like the 10 Minute Solution workouts I find the trainers too ‘American’ and ‘cheesy’ in their approach. I really enjoy the Pump It Up Ministry of Sound DVD I’ve had for years, but don’t find it has major results.

However, Biggest Loser USA’s trainer Michaels has a good style, of course the odd cheesy line creeps in there “You strong. You can do anything”. In the main though this trainer has a good approach I think and her tough ways do push me on despite the fact it’s just a voice on a DVD at the end of the day.

I’ll keep you updated as I progress with the sessions and when I move up a level. Funnily enough when I do the workout my aches and pains from horse riding (I can only now just about sit down comfortably) fade somewhat.

The problem I’m having now is when I sit down and rest and then get back up again, I feel like I have a heavy medicine ball between my legs stopping them moving properly or meeting together! The result is me waddling a tad duck-like along the road until the pain eases. Not a great look.

As the week progresses I hope the pain will subside and I’ve decided to carry on with the 30 Day Shred regardless for now. Only issue is just as the pain goes, I’ve got my next riding lesson on Sunday so it’s probably going to come right on back again…

Treadmill tunes

Something happened to me today. I woke up and then spent an hour reading in bed, before falling back to sleep. As a result I felt quite lethargic when it came to getting up and must admit I was expecting to find today's gym workout pretty hard going.

We didn't get to the gym until midday, which in a way was nice as it wasn't too busy. I'd only had one weetabix and a cup of coffee (I normally have two before the gym, but there was only one left).

So we set out on the treadmill, on day 13 now of this healthy eating/exercise. My boyfriend informed me he was going for 40 minutes or so on there, but I expected to do around 20 minutes or so.

Anyways, as I said something happened to me. After a five minute warm up walk I then went into a run. Around ten minutes into the running I felt my triband starting to hurt and I was tiring (I normally only do about 15 minutes running). However, I decided to push on with it and managed a 20 minute run - thanks to The Saturdays, Maroon 5 and Rihanna!

I then went for a brisk steep hill walk and rather than feeling tired out I actually felt another bit of energy coming back. So I switched on the Foo's Pretender and managed to do more running and at a faster speed. I felt great.

I therefore ended up with a 45 minute session on the treadmill, then moved on to the bike. Again I seemed to get a huge burst of energy return, which increased once I had some garage tunes playing in my ears. After 20 minutes I did a brief 5 minutes on the rower but again managed to push myself harder and faster there too.

The power of music in exercise truly is amazing. I've had this before though and at one point found a couple of new Take That songs made me run faster (odd I know!)

However, I have never had such bursts of energy like I did today. I don't know am I just getting fitter, did that extra bit of sleep help me out or was it just a new selection of music? I'm back in the gym again tomorrow, so we shall see.

The weird thing is that I'm also always starving after a gym session, today though I didn't feel hungry. I've had a low fat soup and ryvitas and don't get me wrong it was nice, but I still didn't feel that hungry or that I needed it.

I really don't know what's come over me. Fingers crossed I'm getting fitter and getting used to eating less. Either that or music is even more powerful than I thought and helps curb your appetite too!!

Ab-solute agony

Day number 11 of my healthy eating and exercise and noticing I've been quite grumpy this week. Trying to work out if it's down to less caffeine and my much loved wine (and of course food), or if in actual fact my annoyance is just quite simply justified!

I couldn't believe it this morning when I woke up to find my abs are still hurting! Let me just rewind for you. On Monday evening after work I decided to try a new workout DVD I'd bought. This was one of the 10 Minute Solutions series and aimed to 'blast' your 'belly fat'. You can do as many or as little of the 5 or 6 ten minute exercise sections. I went for four of them, one of which involved Pilates moves. Bad idea, clearly pilates=pain (well if you're unfit like me!)

I woke the next morning with slightly aching abs, but nothing too noticeable. The fact I couldn't do a lot of the moves may well have been a reason for this...

Tuesday though, Tuesday was when I dared to put on the Jillian Michaels DVD, this one is scaringly called '30 day shred'. Perhaps I should have been warned off by the title.

Anyways this one will make you laugh, each workout is just 20 mins. I know, I know you're thinking exactly how unfit am I at this point?? It works you so hard it is unreal - you don't stop and have to jump from one thing to the next in interval training. In the workout you combine cardio, strength and abs.

I finished my workout (level 1 I should add!) and felt great. I was dripping with sweat, I was shattered, but I knew I'd worked hard and it was good for me.

That is until I went to bed. Now if my neighbours don't think me and my boyfriend aren't weird enough with our fancy dress costumes (we've had to go to a lot of dress up parties), the noises when we were doing Boxercise last week and the sounds I was making being forced to hold planks for that bit longer... Well, then they got treated to a mix of me whining in pain in bed when I found I couldn't sit up as my abs were so sore, combined with me painfully laughing. (Once my boyfriend realised it even hurt when I laughed, there was no stopping trying to make me giggle).

So on Wednesday I woke up and could just about get out of bed. Sneezing and my usual 'a-choo' was followed immediately by 'ow'. I was in agony. I worked through the day and at some point managed to stop whining about my pain. Then I left to go home.

I'd already decided a calm short Wii Fit session was in order with the state I was in. However on missing my bus, I soon had some additional unexpected exercise as I decided to walk home (the bus come every 15 minutes and wasn't even showing on the display, plus it's notoriously late so goodness knows when it would have turned up).

I set off for home, a nice 20 minute walk. So much fun when you miss the bus and end up having to power walk home whilst dying for a wee, having a stomach ache and extremely painful abs!

After learning my lesson and doing Wii Fit when I eventually got in last night I felt a bit better, although cannot believe there is still a dull ache there.

You know what I'm off to do tonight then? Yes you guessed it, the Jillian Michaels workout. No pain no gain eh?