Day Five: Halfway through level one!

Today I felt like I really reached my first good foothold. Not only am I officially halfway through level one, but I was able to get out of bed and into my workout within 10 minutes! It's a great way to wake up and I felt great doing it. My strength and endurance had a noticeable increase today as well-even over yesterday, which was a step up all on its own. Sitting here now, I can really feel the muscles in my abs, although they're not really sore per say. It's all forward momentum!

Today is the type of day I need to hold onto on the days I really just want to lay down and veg out.

It's funny how exercise really builds on itself. On the days you feel an increase in strength and endurance, it really makes you want to keep adding to the workout. I think this means today is the day to add some of the yoga back in. I'm tempted to go over the Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown tape as opposed to my regular slower stuff with Jason Crandell just because I know the calorie burn is so much higher with the aerobic version and I feel strong enough to really enjoy it just now.

In any event, I'm still going strong! Thanks so much for helping me keep going! This helps me more than you know!

  

Day Four: Getting stronger.

Well, I'll admit, the gumption to get up and do this in the morning is still really lacking. I am so relying on this blog to get me past it and push play. What is it they say about how long it takes to create a habit? It seems like it's something like 30 days of repetition-possibly longer. Ha. By that standard, it will be habit right when I finish this program. Oh well. The upside is, I plan to move onto another one when this one is done anyway, so I guess that's okay.

As far as current progress goes, I am getting stronger. My muscles are much less sore today and I can go a bit deeper into a lot of the moves. I feel like my form is probably improving too. I always have a problem with the moves where they say "don't let the knee go over the toe". I have this problem in yoga too. For some reason, I don't seem to have a good internal indicator of when to stop-or how far to go-and I know it looks like it's going over the toe from my perspective before it actually is. A few years back I lived in a house that had a mirror wall in the room I did yoga in. (It also had a nice big kitchen and, not only a washing machine, but a tumble dryer! Two things I miss so much living in this particular flat in Glasgow!) Anyway, exercising in front of the mirror was the only time I felt like I was getting those lunge-type moves just right. But most of the moves feel like they're getting better and deeper anyway. I wonder if I'll feel like I've 'mastered' level one by the time the first 10 days are up and it's time to move onto level two.

I started moving my breakfast until after the morning workout though, and I do think I like that part better. Before I was eating first, letting it settle a bit, and then going into it. Not only does this feel a bit more natural-possibly a hold over from the yoga days-but I'm hoping it will help with the motivation as well. No bowl of fruit until after your morning date with Jillian, Self!

Any motivation tips would be much appreciated. I so don't want to slip up this time!