Jillian Michaels Body Revolution Day's 10 & 11

Day 10 - Cardio 1

Wednesday started with cardio 1 again. I like this workout, I feel like I've really burnt some calories afterwards. I have noticed something though. The guy in the white shorts near the back? HE CHEATS! Yes he is human too! If you watch during the kick outs with arm circles, he drops his arms, a lot. I'm a bit pleased with this, I find myself going "ha even you with the hulking muscles can't keep up with some of these crazy moves" (childish, but makes me feel better)

Day 11 - Goodbye workout 1

So a bit sad that today was the last day of workout 1. I am sure some of the moves will come back to haunt me in other workouts, probably with jumps or weights. As it was the last go at this, I tried to really keep pushing myself. I used 10 lbs for the chest flies and the second set of lateral raises. For everything else I stuck to 5 lbs. I got a bit lower on the squats and (and this is the bit I'm really chuffed with) I held my 5 lb weights throughout the entire warrior 2 pose. I did feel like I was going to die and I'm glad only Oscar was around to see the strained, painful look on my face, but I did it. And so can you, go on try it.

Food

Yesterdays dinner changed from chicken salad to chicken, mushroom & broccoli pasta. It was just to cold for salad!
I did have a couple of glasses of red wine which I should not have had. It is a habit and one I need to kick during the week. I started strong on my fitness journey and stopped completely on weekdays and that is what I want to get back to.

For tonight's dinner I am going to channel my inner Jillian (ha) and make chilli & lime salmon with her creamy cucumber salad from the fat burning meal plan served with bulgar wheat. I will post pictures tomorrow.

So I can now enjoy the rest of my day knowing I have worked out and am one step closer to achieving my goals.

Have a good day x x

Jillian Michaels Body Revolution Day's 7,8,9 & Mothers Day

Day 7 was my rest day from JMBR and concluded week 1. Progress - 2lb. Happy with that as I didn't follow the meal plan and went over on my own plan a few times.

Days 8 & 9 were back to workouts 1 & 2. I am getting better form for the moves now although some require coordination that I seem to struggle with. The twist and drop lunge in workout 1 is one of these moves, I just seem to take a few reps to be twisting the correct way and dropping the correct knee! Another one is the weighted step ups. I just seem to be out of tune with that one but I keep moving and get my knee up high so it'll all workout in the end.


Body changes
I have to say if you are considering doing Body Revolution or any Jillian Michaels DVD just DO IT! I am seeing changes in my body that I thought I would never see. Now I know this is not just 1 week of BR, I did 24 days of Jillian's 30 day shred first, but wherever you start you will see results! You know when you wave or clap in a tank top? well I used to get this jiggle under my arms that sort of made me tense my arms to stop it or try and clap using only my forearms (picture that without laughing, I dare you) Well guess what? It's gone. Yes I actually stood in front of a mirror waving and clapping to my hearts content and no jiggle! Another place I never thought I'd change is my stomach. Abs? me? never. My poor stomach has been through 3 pregnancies resulting in 3 c-sections in under 5 years, not to mention the abuse and neglect of letting go and no exercise. I have that "mummy pooch" that we all know and hate! Well, that's still there (for now, I WILL get it gone) BUT the bit of my stomach just under my bra strap is starting to develop a dent. I don't know how else to explain it only to say Jillian and the girls in her DVD have it and I never did. Now it's forming. I keep looking at it grinning like a loon saying "you go girl, you've got a dent" ha ha. These small changes are what keep me pushing, keep me turning up and pressing play so like I said DO IT and Do IT today, you will NEVER regret it.

Rest Day
Sunday was my rest day and was also mothers day. I was greeted in bed by 3 smiling little cherubs, had a cup of tea brought to me and got a voucher to help with the washing from Bailey. I also got a box of very decadent, very expensive Hotel Chocolat chocolates and a bacon roll in bed! (I did have to keep jumping up to fan the smoke alarm but hey it's the thought that counts) It was a lovely, indulgent day and the boys and Mr F couldn't have made me any happier.

This is me with my wonderful mum

Motivation

Sometimes, when I workout, I feel sluggish and like I'm not really trying hard enough. But the thing is it is my workout and I will only get out of it what I put in and that has to be 100%. So for those days when I feel like I'm not giving my all, I created this

I will hang it in the space where I workout and hopefully it will help me through those moments that I just don't feel like pushing

Food
Today I am back to porridge for breakfast, soup, rice cakes, yogurt and an apple for lunch and I am making a chicken & red grape salad for dinner.

Cardio 1 later this morning, can't wait for those suicides lol

Jillian Michaels Body Revolution days 5 & 6 and the weekend!

It's Saturday, yay! I love the weekends. I get to spend time with my favourite people. Even though my youngest favourite person got me up at 5am!

Workout wise I did day 5 of BR yesterday which was workout 2 again. I had to fit it in before I took the boys to school which meant a few interruptions but I just kept going. It was actually quite funny trying to break up an argument whilst doing weighted step ups! One thing I realised with this workout is I always feel I'm not doing things right. As I spend my time listening to Jillian and not watching so much, I think the team on the set must be twisting further or stepping wider or raising their leg higher BUT when actually stop and watch I realise I AM doing it right and in most cases just as well as they are! So if you are doing BR take some time to watch the other guys now and then and you will see that there is no crazy super power you're missing and you're probably doing much better than you thought!

Today we are off to my parents for lunch (such a long trek to their house next door ha ha) so I will do cardio 1 before we set off. This time I will give myself some room to complete the suicides.

My boys have made me so proud this week. First there was this from my little Jakey

Then this from my clever boy Bailey for helping the computer technicians. That is so Bailey, anything technical and he is there!

Our little Oscar is following in his brothers footsteps, he loves to run off and play with their DS or my samsung tablet and he's only 2!

I have changed the colour of my blog but will probably change it again before I am happy! My goal is to create a pretty format that I can print as a kind of family journal. Life is so short and yet full and this way I can capture those special memories and write my blog all in one place. I hope to add a lot more pictures with my shiny new Nikon digital SLR (once I learn how to use it) At the moment the pictures are from my phone.

This is the scene in my house at 6.48am on a Saturday

Lovely and peaceful right? Notice my cheeky monkey climbing on the sofa arm? 2 minutes later he tried to swipe Jake's DS, so Jake pushed him onto the floor resulting in shattered peace and lots of screaming (them and me)

I will leave it there for today as I am being bugged for the laptop by a 7 year old (he wants to play Mathletics so I will willingly relinquish it)

Jillian Michaels Body Revolution Day 4

So back to visit workout 1 today and to be honest, I wasn't really feeling it. I didn't sleep very well and felt sluggish. Still as Jillian says I turned up!

The moves in this workout are the starting blocks for some of the moves to come in the other phases. At the moment you just have to stand on 1 leg and raise 1 leg but you just know (especially if you have done any other JM DVDs) that she is gonna stick some weights in there real soon.  I find the Towel Runs a bit awkward but as long as you're moving it's OK. I could do with a little more space for that one. I had much better form during the Warrior Pose and was able to get nice and low. The plank is also improving.

I wasn't too hot and sweaty by the end of todays workout but I figure Jillian knows what she's doing. Anyway only 2 more days of workout 1 then it's over. That's why I think I will enjoy this programme because it is not too repetitive.

Food today is the usual porridge for breakfast (I was SOOO hungry when I woke up today) Soup, crispbreads, ham and olives for lunch and dinner will be the rest of the chicken con carne with cous cous. I track all my food on my fitness pal, it is a great site and you can get a lot of support and information on there.

OK, today is world book day and after much deliberation (I offered to ATTEMPT to make any character they wanted) this is what the boys chose

For  those of you who don't know Chris Ryan is an Ex Soldier and Special Armed Forces Expert!

Probably NOT what the school had in mind but there you go!

 

 

It is raining and horrible here and I have to go now and pick up my 5 year old from school, come home and then go back and get my 7 year old from football club. I don't mind that, it is all exercise and I want to encourage my boys to be fit and active in life too.

 

 

So see you tomorrow x 

Jillian Michaels Body Revolution Day 3

Wow, 26 minutes. That is all cardio one is. I am dripping sweat (sorry).I remember thinking that one short cardio DVD twice a week would not be enough but boy was I wrong!

The workout is one circuit that is repeated 3 times. You warm up with military marches amongst other moves.

There is a move Jillian calls fast feet where you basically stick your a$$ out and wiggle as fast as you can! Believe me after 1 minute this BURNS.

Another move I had heard about and was dreading is the aptly named "suicides" and yes I can see now why they are called that. I don't want to spoil it if you haven't yet started your revolution but let me give you a piece of advice, give yourself as much room as you can ACROSS the room and move all objects (and in my case small children) out of the way first!

There is no mat, weights or bands used in this workout although for the sake of my neighbours i try and do some of the more jumpy moves on my mat as we have wooden floors. Note to self BUY A NON SLIP MAT! I found myself almost "running man" right into the wall. Ouch.

Jillian is on top form in this DVD and it is quite entertaining, which is good as we do this one for a month. She gets Omar and Natalie showing some funky alternative moves and gets Mimi up front doing a dancing speed bag.

All in all a good cardio workout and the time does indeed fly by.

So today's food: Well yesterday I stuck to my plan and ended at about 1300 calories.

Breakfast today: Same old porridge made with 50g oats, 100ml skimmed milk and topped up with water then microwaved. Now porridge is not my favourite breakfast BUT it fills me up and more importantly fuels my workout. A HUGE bowl is only 220 calories. This is my bowl today

Lunch: this will be the usual soup, crisp bread or rice cakes and an apple. For a switch up today I am not having the yogurt and instead having a boiled egg with a tbsp of extra light mayo. This is because the yogurts I usually buy are lower calorie than the ones I have now so I am looking to keep my lunch calories about the same. Also the egg has more protein for my recovery.

Dinner tonight: I am making spicy salsa chickpea cous cous (& roast leeks and sprouts again from the freezer) I hate to waste any food so am always freezing portions to use another day. This also saves time and with 3 boys hungry after school this is a bonus

Do you plan your meals for the week? I do. It helps keep me on track and also saves money. I have a planner on the fridge so I can just look and see what I need to get out for today. The boys have slightly different meals some days due to their ages but I try to always get them to try new foods when we have them. This is my food planner

So back to workout 1 tomorow and it's world book day so I have to go come up with some creations for the older boys to be book characters.

Until then :)

Jillian Michaels Body Revolution Day Two

Whe I woke up this morning my quads were sore from yesterdays workout. Also under my armpits? who knows, but I like that kind of sore it means I worked out, hard. Today was workout 2 and another good one. We focused on triceps and hamstrings today with a bit of abs thrown in.

Workout 2 introduces us to the resistance band. Now if you purchase your body revolution brand new, it will come with the band you need. I, however, got mine from ebay and had to purchase resistance bands seperately. I got a set of 3, easy, medium and hard. Today I started with easy. Here is my little workout buddy showing it off for me ======>>>>>

It takes a bit of jiggling to get it wrapped around your feet as required but I will get quicker at that with time. I may have a little play with it before my next workout 2. I don't advise standing on the band and seeing how high you can stretch it, IF you don't have your feet securely on the bottom. The result of this is a very red, angry looking chin and a lot of pain! Even now, half an hour later, I feel as though my chin has sunburn lol. I only hope it goes down before the school run!



My Food yesterday went well until dinner time, when the chicken con carne got relegated in favour of left over takeaway pizza and wine! oops! Oh well this is a lifestyle and sometimes in life plans change. Today will be the same as I planned yesterday and I WILL stick to it. If I report tomorrow that I didn't, you have permission to kick my butt!

I was thinking last night about my hopes for Body Revolution. Realistically I would like to lose 14lb of the 28 I have left until I reach my current goal and drop from a loose UK 16 / tight 14 to a tight UK 12 and a loose 14. Ideally I would like to lose 28 lb and be a size 12 but I am not setting unrealistic goals.

I will continue to push myself to do the work and eat better and work towards my goals.

Until tomorrow :)

Jillian Michaels Body Revolution Day One

Workout 1 of phase 1 week 1 complete. I LOVED IT! It was hard but not too hard. I know I'm going to feel it tomorrow though. My arms are quivering slightly and my quads are burning.

I used these weights

Well the middle set anyway. They are 5lb. The bottom set are 10lb and I hope I can use those for some of the moves soon.

It is such a nice set up in the DVD where there is a group of people and Jillian gets different people to demonstrate the modifications, so there is always an easier (or harder) option. I can tell I'm going to love this programme.

Today's food

Breakfast was porridge with skimmed milk and a cup of tea

Lunch is a mug of this homemade chicken and vegetable soup, with rice cakes, yogurt and an apple

Dinner will be chicken con carne made in the slow cooker, probably served with some leeks and brussel sprouts that I roasted and froze the other day

 

 

I am not following Jillian's meal plan but will be aiming for around 1400 calories on weekdays with a little extra on weekends. I also walk an hour a day on the school run and run around after my 2 year old who is home with me.

I am looking forward to workout 2 tomorrow and I love that you change the workouts each day as I found myself getting bored during the 30 day shred. Oh that reminds me, I finished the shred only completing 4 days of level 3 and 10 days each of levels 1&2. I was eager to get my body revolution started!

Until tomorrow :)