Sweat & Sparkle

Body Beast and Supreme 90 Day

I am trying to test drive as many of the Beachbody workouts on my 30-day free trial as humanly possible, so I can decide if it is worth paying for after the free trial ends. Last night I worked my legs with Supreme 90 Day (not a Beachbody workout, just a DVD set I already had), then I added on a 40 minute Body Beast workout called Build: Shoulders.

Body Beast is led by Sagi Kalev, who I never heard of, and two other guys join him for the shoulders workout:

The workout consists of sets of 15, 12, and 8 reps for each exercise, increasing weight with each set. Exercises are typical shoulder moves like presses, lateral raises, upright rows, etc. He talks a lot about getting big shoulders, and getting huge, and basically brags about the size of his own muscles, but I could easily tune it out and focus on my workout. I won’t hold it against him that he has no apparent self-esteem issues!

The workout ends with a few ab moves, then a stretch. All in all, I really liked it, and I want to try the legs workout next.

I thought after a 40 minute workout of nothing but shoulders, I’d be crazy sore today, but I’m not. I always worry if I’m not sore, then I didn’t get a good workout, so that concerns me. Sometimes I am not sore until 2 days later, so maybe I will be feeling it tomorrow.

My legs, however, are a different story. The 35-minute Supreme 90 Day Legs workout left me hobbling today. My hamstrings and butt are quite sore. I had picked up the Supreme 90 Day DVD set for maybe $20 back when it first came out, and it’s been discontinued. It has many workouts in it, from cardio to legs to upper body to full body. There’s not a lot of chit-chat or trying to make corny jokes, like some other workout sets (I’m talking to you, P90X), and the workouts move quickly, which I like.

On tap for tonight: I’m going to try another Insanity workout and see if I like it any better than the first one I tried.

Insanity

I have an endearing habit of trying new workout DVD’s, going gung ho for a few days, then letting them sit and collect dust on the shelf of other orphaned workout DVD’s. I tend to keep returning to my tried and true comfort-zone favorites after these brief flings.

Yesterday I signed up for a free 30-day trial of Beachbody on Demand, and one of the workout series I can try is Insanity. That’s the one with the funny, goofy guy, Shaun T, from Hip Hop Abs, except he’s quite serious in the Insanity workouts. Check out this “I mean business” gaze:

My reaction to workouts like Insanity is mostly a puzzled “Why would I want to do that?” The infomercials show people leaping around, contorting their bodies, grimacing, looking to be in various stages of torture. But a wild idea entered my crazy little head last night: why not try an Insanity workout?

So I did. I started with the 40-minute Plyometrics Cardio Circuit. I was surprised that I kept up as well as I did. I had to take breaks, sure, but not nearly as many as I expected. Until we got to a circuit full of mountain climbers. God, I hate mountain climbers. I hate any move that turns my head upside down. Why? Who knows, I just can’t tolerate it. I get grumpy. My nose starts running. I took more breaks during that circuit because I was starting to catch an attitude with our good friend Shaun T, wondering what his damn problem was with all these freaking mountain climbers.

My verdict? I didn’t care for it, but I will try a few of the other workouts listed under Insanity, see if any of them are mountain-climber free. I doubt it. He’s also quite fond of jumping jacks, and I will do those, but not without a heaving sigh of impatience and an exaggerated eye roll.

I want to increase the intensity of my workouts, but I also still want my workouts to be fun. The mechanical, drill-based, circuit-repeating format of this workout just didn’t light me on fire. I love Shaun T, so I will try a few more Insanity workouts during my free trial and see if any of the others are more my speed.

Curse You, Chocolates

Have you ever seen this seductive temptress, beckoning you closer with its beguiling, enchanting ways?

If you do, RUN. It is armed, and it is very dangerous! Do not attempt to speak to it. Do not attempt to reason with it. It is a battle you cannot win. At least, I couldn’t.

For some inexplicable reason, when I stopped at Walmart to pick up kitty litter during my lunch break yesterday, I also decided to grab a bag of these wily Riesen chocolate-covered caramels. Why? The devil made me do it! No, okay, seriously, I can keep caramels in our candy dish at home, and I honestly eat one or two, and I stop and forget all about them. I learned that I cannot do this at work. Maybe it’s because the bag was sitting on my desk, where I couldn’t ignore it. Maybe I was bored and just looking for something to munch on. Or maybe just the stress and aggravation of being at work kicked my munchies into overdrive.

I’ll just have two, then put the bag away. That’s what I told myself. I even believed it at the time. Then I weaseled another one out of the bag. Then another….then another…yep, one more….you get the picture. Let’s just say there were no caramels left to worry about putting into our candy dish at home!

I felt slightly sick. No wonder, right? Luckily the bags are small and don’t hold much, but I wanted to be honest and log it on my food diary. Whoa! Over 300 calories in just chocolate-covered, delectable, chewy, caramel-y goodness…no, I mean, empty and nutrition-less calories! Yes, that’s what I meant to say.

I was very disappointed in myself. Why did I buy the damn things to start with? Ugh. Well, lesson learned. I won’t keep sweet snacks at work or at home, since I am a quivering, spineless pushover with them.

My penance was a 50-minute step aerobics workout after workout. Hopefully that burned off some of those extra calories!

Bye Bye, 200’s!

This past week, I added more running workouts and cracked open my Get Ripped strength training DVD’s. I must have done something right: I weighed in on Saturday for a 4 pound loss! I was surprised. I know my weight loss will slow down soon, but for now, I will gladly take it and be quite happy about it.

Better yet, I weighed in at 198.4. What’s the significance of that? Well, you may have noticed that I am no longer over 200 pounds. If you didn’t notice, then let me repeat that: I am no longer over 200 pounds! I have not been under 200 pounds in over a year.

Last year for my birthday, my fiance got me a beautiful white top with a floral print (sounds old-lady-ish, but truly, it’s not). It has fluttery sleeves and even some sparkle to it. It has sat, folded neatly, on my closet shelf for nearly a year because it didn’t fit. This past weekend, I wore it when my fiance, the kids, and I went out to dinner. I felt like a superstar. It was amazing to finally be able to wear it.

It might be wishful thinking, but I swore, as I was getting ready for work this morning, that my face looks slimmer. No one has said anything yet about my weight loss, but I fully intend for it to be hard not to notice very soon!

Weigh In: Down 4 Pounds!

Last week, I was disappointed that I lost only one pound. Yeah, yeah, I know you’re not supposed to say “only one pound”, that every loss is a good loss, blah blah. That’s a nice thought, and of course it’s better than a gain, but after a full week of watching what I eat and forcing myself to exercise, I get a bit ticked if all I have to show for it is one lousy pound.

So I decided to do all I could do to have a better weigh-in. I pulled out workout DVD’s I haven’t done in a while because they are kind of tough. I got back to running, after taking a short break after reaching my Viking Challenge goal. I was super strict with logging my food.

Did it pay off? Well, I stepped onto the scale this past Saturday to a 4 pound loss! Now that’s more like it!

I have lost a total of 15 pounds now. My fiance lost 2 pounds this past week, and he has lost a total of 13 pounds. He was joking around about losing more than me this week so he can be ahead again.

It’s been so much better doing this with him instead of on my own. We encourage each other and whine to each other about being hungry and wanting a soda. He goes for walks with me every now and then too but hates working out even more than I do. We brag about our pants getting baggy.

The kids are excited about it too. I heard one of them ask my fiance how his weight loss is going, and they check my workout log on the fridge and how many stars I have on the calendar (one star for each day that I work out).

I still have a long way to go, over 60 pounds. That feels overwhelming, so I will just keep focusing on my goal of losing 2 pounds this week!