Back in the Saddle

Okay, I'm pretty much recovered from dengue. Information online says I'll be weak for another week or two, which I can attest to, but I'm so much better. I've been out of the fever/body pain stage for about a week now.

So today I started Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I'm doing it with a friend.

It is hard. I liked it though.

Doing level one, at this point I didn't do everything I'd liked. I'm using liter water bottles as my weights (so 1 kilogram each) and I had to set them down and just lift my arms up for one of the squat thrust circuits. I also pretty much collapsed during the second push-up thing, my arms hurt, but I did some of them, but probably only half I was supposed to for that thirty seconds. And for one of the "jump ropes" (you mime having a jump rope, you don't really have one) I ended up walking in place instead because I felt like if I jumped I'd fall over. Haha. Otherwise I did it, doing the beginner modifications, though I did have to catch my breath three times (she says you can stop to catch your breath, but for no more than five seconds.. I made sure I got back to it before five seconds was up.)

I had the challenge of my wild kittens thinking me doing this was FANTASTIC! They thought it was a fun game. I don't have a mat, and my floor is marble, so I had laid down three couch cushions to do the floor stuff on... every time I returned to it (you get up and down a lot) one of the kittens (**coughPrincesscough**) had broken up them so they were scattered and I had to put them back together. Apparently couch cushions on the floor is FUN! Also, she kept running up my leg, leaping up and "tagging" me (with her claws retracted, so it didn't hurt) and then dashing away. She was obviously thinking my exercise was me zooming around in play and wanted to join in the fun. It was cute, but a little distracting.

I was panting and covered in sweat by the end. I hadn't eaten right before (I'd eaten two hours earlier,  but only a cup of cornflakes with a cup of milk, so not like a huge meal where it'd still be in my stomach) and that was probably a mistake. I also didn't eat right afterwards, since I was overheated... nor did I prepare my food. I was planning on having a bean burger with a baked potato, and I hadn't made them (I had the raw patty ready to cook, but I hadn't cooked it yet.) So when like fifteen minutes after the program I got shakey, it was another ten or fifteen minutes before I was able to eat, and by then I was extremely weak and wobbly.

Most likely that's compounded from the dengue, but for other people thinking of attempting the Shred I'd say either eat something small right before hand (I've read and found from my days doing the C25K that a banana is a perfect pre-workout snack) or have your food prepared and ready to go before you start the workout so if you need to eat fast for recovery afterwards, the second your body tells you that you can eat, you can eat. (Like most people I can't eat right after a workout, but as soon as my body had cooled down enough it was like I need fuel!)

Five ten minutes after eating though, the wobbliness went away and I felt great. I still feel good... though a bit wiped out.

I'm doing the 30 Day Shred now because my friend Lydia is coming in November (yay!) and I want to look great since she hasn't seen me in almost a year, since I moved to India. I moved here at the end of last November, and she'll be here mid-November, so really, it's like a year... and I've already lost 40 pounds! I'm hoping with the shred and watching my calories to lose another ten before she gets here, so I can be an impressive 50 pounds lighter... and toned! I figured starting the shred on October 1st not only gives me all of October, but gives me the first two weeks of November if I get sidetracked (like if I get a cold or something) or also so if after I finish the shred I look at my body and say "everything looks great but *this* area" I can have a couple weeks to tweak... I'm excited to get to reveal the changes in my body to the very first person to see me who knew me in the US when I left!