Day Twentytwo: I heart Level Three!

It's funny because I had been all geared up to hate level three after someone in my 30 Day Shred Facebook group posted about how much she had enjoyed the first two levels and then totally hated the last one. I'm glad it wasn't that way for me though! Far from dreading it, I absolutely love it! The hardest one for me in this series was definitely level two, but even there, I wouldn't say that I hated it. It was just so much harder for me!

It's almost weird being this close to the end of my first 30 day shred! I am so glad I started this blog to keep me going-I know there have been many days this blog gave me the extra motivation I needed to get up and do it.

I should give my cross trainer another go tonight. It sits there and taunts me because I absolutely LOVE my cross trainer at my old gym but this one is squeaky and positioned differently, and I just can't seem to find my groove on it. I guess you can't have it all when it's free, huh? :)

Day Twenty & Twenty One: A bit of a mashup.

So here I am back from our weekend away and back on track. I did try and do my last round of Level Two last night after we got back, but it just wasn't happening. I started it twice, but my curry (the last non-diet food of the weekend) just wasn't sitting right and I got really sick and had to stop. I really, really wanted to finish out yesterday, but I also really, really didn't want to throw up. So the compromise was to leave it till today but to finish Level Two in the morning and then ramp up to Level Three in the afternoon! That worked great! AND didn't make me feel like I'd fallen quite as behind.

I love Level Three. Seriously. Level Three is definitely just as hard as the others, but something about it is just a lot more fun for me personally. It might be the yogaish parts and the jumptraining, but  whatever the case, I can already tell that this part is going to fly by! I've already even started considering doing it twice a day just because.

I think in a way it was good to be out of town this weekend, just so I could see how much I miss being away from my routine when I can't get it in. It's definitely my goal to make these circuits a natural part of my daily routine and I'm starting to feel like that's happened! Awesome!

It was also pretty interesting to see how my body reacted to eating all the foods that I've given up since January. I think it's pretty safe to say that I feel a lot better when I stick to my new diet! I was almost immediately more tired and just kinda gross when I ate all that stuff. That being said, I had really missed the full Scottish breakfast, so I was more than happy to have one even though it didn't sit as nicely as my fruit does. Every once and awhile, that sort of thing is just kind of necessary I think.

In any event, I'm really glad to be back and moving through the 30 Day Shred again! I'm leaning back towards doing the Ripped in 30 when I'm done with this program. I'd still love to do some kettlebell work, but I think I'd much rather do that with a trainer at first till I'm comfortable with it and that'll have to wait.

Day Nineteen: Making the most.

Today I had to basically pop out of bed and get moving with my workout to get it in before we have to go. I'm really looking forward to this trip out of town, but I'm still kinda bummed that I won't be doing my last Level Two work out tomorrow! Oh well, Sunday night will have to be it.

There's something to be said for absolutely knowing that you have to get your workout in first thing in the morning or losing the opportunity for the day altogether. I wish I had the motivation to do it right after waking up like that everyday!

Level Two continues to be hard for me, but not at all like it was that first day! I'm so curious as to what Level Three will bring!

Well, I don't have time for more of a post than that, so I'll talk to you guys Sunday night after I'm back in Glasgow and DONE WITH LEVEL TWO!

Have a great weekend, guys!  

Day Eighteen: Goals in sight.

I weighed in today and I'm now down eight pounds from where I started! I'm so happy with that. Even more so considering that I didn't really start calorie counting till this last week. I mean, I wasn't eating a ton different before that, but I was just going by the "It's all healthy stuff, so why bother counting the calories" method. Eating a basically vegan diet, without even the benefit of legumes, gluten, or grains, is naturally low in calorie for me BUT the loss really started happening when I started counting and added the yoga back in. Since then, I've been losing right around a pound every couple of days and I feel awesome!

The workouts are still HARD though! I feel like I'm sweating even more by the end of Level Two than I was when I first started it! The combined pendulum lunges and hammer curls (?) are continuing to mess with my left knee though. I can do it fine on one side but not the other. Again, my left side is weaker. So I've basically booted those and opt to do cardio while they're finishing the side I can't do on the video instead. I'm just not willing to risk injury at all there.

I'm glad we're heading down to Giant's folks this weekend, but I'm SO BUMMED this means I'm not going to finish Level Two on Saturday but now on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to moving onto the final level.

There was a bunch of positive talk on one of my Facebook groups today about kettlebells. Anyone out there have any experience with them? I had pretty much decided to go onto Ripped in 30 after this, but now I'm thinking about working with kettlebells instead. Some of the calorie burning people were throwing out there sounded pretty amazing! Coupling that with how strong people felt core wise, it's pretty tempting. Guess I've got some Googling to do!

Day Seventeen: Closer

Wow. I'm still here, still moving! I did realise I am going to have to miss a day though. I've been trying to figure out a way to get it in on this coming Saturday (especially as it would have been the last day for level 2!) But I don't see how I'll be able to. We're going down to visit my Giant's mum and dad over the weekend and there just isn't even the space to do it in down there. We are generally pretty active when we go down to Selkirk though, so that part's good. I figure I can get it in Friday before we leave and again on Sunday when we get back, but Saturday is going to have to be a skip day. Actually, it'll be a skip day in more ways than one because I already decided back in January when I started my modification of the MS recovery diet that when we were down visiting, I would just eat what was on offer. John's mum is an absolute sweetheart and she would go out of her way to buy all the stuff for my diet, but she's got so much going that I just don't want to bother her with it. So I guess Saturday will just have to be a free for all.

But, today I'm on track in double time-eating right and working out hard. I was a ball of sweat today, but it was actually really fun! And, after my little gain the other day, I'm back down to where I was before plus a pound. Still moving and it's getting closer!

Day Sixteen: A little bit easier.

Today was another one of those days where it seemed like it was taking me forever to get up and going, but once I started everything was a bit easier. I know I keep saying this, but I am SO GLAD I added the Yoga Meltdown in before my daily shred. It has helped so much. My sore muscle in my calf isn't bothering me nearly so much now and I think it even helps with my endurance. Plus, it's all adding up as far as calorie burning goes seeing as I'm already sweating pretty good before the shred even starts! I did get a little twinge in my left knee towards the end of the shred today during the pendulum lunges and something or other. Hmmm. Can't remember the name, but the one where you lunge forward and press and then lunge backwards and press. It was only on my left side though, so I just did some leg kicks throughout the rest of that one and it didn't bother me again. Hopefully that was just a passing thing.

I have started reading through some options for what program to go into once this one is done. (YAY for being over halfway done with my first 30 Day Shred!) So far, I think I'm probably going to go through Ripped in 30. It looks like it's a ramp up in difficulty, but it also doesn't repeat exercises during each level. Plus, there's something to be said for changing routines every week as opposed to ten days. I think that would help keep me motivated to get started every day just because I get more into it the nearer I get to the end of a particular level.

So that's me today. What's everyone else doing?

Day Fifteen: A steady pace gets me through.

Day fifteen. That means I'm now not only halfway through level two of the 30 Day Shred, but I'm also halfway through the program in general. This level is creeping by-getting a little easier and then seemingly harder again, but I am still going. I am also still going on the yoga so, by the time I'm done with the shred, I've been working at it for an hour and a half. When I finish an hour and a half of solid exercise it doesn't even matter how easy or how hard it was-I feel so accomplished.

I'm starting to think a little bit on what I'll do when this practice is done. I'm really thinking of staying with Jillian Michaels just because her stuff has been working really well so far. I don't know though. I guess I'll have to think about it over the next 15 days. Any suggestions?

I also got back into my account with myfitnesspal.com I should have never let it slip, it's such an amazing resource. Anything that makes you aware and accountable of what's going in is a good thing I guess. Plus I hate putting bad numbers in there, so just knowing that I'm going to have to log it all does a bit to help me out, I think.

Until tomorrow!