It's About Time

A few weeks ago, I found myself vegging out on the couch, eating a pint of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked and watching The Biggest Loser. Ironic, huh? Keep in mind, this was a pretty regular thing for me, the only variance was that sometimes I might have a brownie or a cookie instead of ice cream. Anyways, it was a couple weeks before my birthday, so call it a pre-midlife crisis, but I felt terrible about myself and the very next day I went and ordered a fitness DVD from Amazon. It came a few days later and I tried it out and, believe it or not, I have kept up with it for almost a month now!

Until a few weeks ago, I had not worked out in over 2 years! Seriously, 2 years! I go on several fast walks each week pushing a 70+ pound stroller, so that might be considered some form of exercise, but I have not been to a gym or done any kind of formal exercise in over 2 years. The last time I did was about a week before I found out I was pregnant and I got so nauseous and exhausted that I was sure I was coming down with the flu so I decided to hold off on working out until I was feeling better (which never happened of course).

And then after the pregnancy, I just kind of shrugged and thought, what's the point? I have stretch marks so I'll never wear a bikini ever again, I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight, my clothes fit fine, good enough right? So why bother working out? Plus, I'm a mother of twin toddlers, how would I EVER find the time???

But for some reason a few weeks ago, I was finally motivated to try something. I may be back at my pre-pregnancy weight, but I would still like to tone up and replace some extra fat with muscle. I definitely have the dreaded "mommy-pooch" of extra skin around my middle, but I'm hoping that if I tone up and build core muscle, that at least it won't be as noticeable.

So that's where Bob Harper comes in. I wanted an exercise routine I could do from home while the boys nap and I didn't want it to be too intense or else I knew I'd never stick with it. I started out looking at some of the most well-known workouts, like Jillian's 30 Day Shred or P90X (or whatever it's called), but let's face it, I would have died if I'd attempted either of those at this point. Waaayyy too intense for me! Then I spotted Bob's pretty face on the cover of The Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga. I read some reviews and it sounded perfect so I used a few Swagbucks and got it for free! (I just love Swagbucks, but that's a whole different post!)

So far, I love it! The first time I was so sore I had to wait a few days before I tried it again but I took that as a good sign. It's not intense at all, just a lot of slow moves but they're still hard - for me at least! My arms and legs are shaking during the last few moves because they're so tired by that point! And I'm not gonna lie, my favorite part is at the very end where we do the corpse pose which, as the name suggests, is where you completely relax and lie on the floor like a dead body. Well, that and when Bob says reassuringly "You did it!" Anyways, there are 3 different levels, I'm still on Level 1, but I'm going to move on to Level 2 next week. We'll see how that goes...

The best part is that it's only 30-40 minutes (depending on which workout you choose) so it doesn't take up all of nap time and I can still gets lots of other things done before they wake up. So, 3-4 days a week, as soon as the boys go down for a nap, I just do the video for 30 minutes, take a super quick shower and still have at least an hour before they wake up to clean or do some 'internet errands.'

I'm already seeing some results too, not on my waistline unfortunately, but I definitely feel stronger lately and I have more energy too. It's also helping me to remember to drink more water which makes a world of difference. I feel so much better when I drink lots of water, I don't eat as much, I'm not drinking empty calories, and I swear it gives me more energy.

Anyways, I'm glad I've found a workout that is easy for me to stick with but I'm still afraid I'll start slacking off so that's why I'm publicly writing about it. Hopefully this will help motivate me to keep on with it! Even if I don't lose any inches off my waist, (and I'm not especially hopeful about this since it's all skin and not really extra fat) there's still something to be said for getting back in shape, right? And I'm sure I can count on Bob to whip me into shape!