The November Shred Thread: all Jillian Michaels devotees welcome!

[ImogenQuy]

It's cold, it's dark, but that's not going to stop us pounding on through Jillian's many evil exercise programmes however much some of us may hate them. The goal is to be in shape and looking fabulous at this year's Christmas parties! Come on, you know you want to...

I've done complete Shred quite a few times since January.
now I dip in and out a as I go to classes 4 times a week and try and do long walks a few times a week as well, but Shred great for a quick but effective workout.

When I started I was unfit and probably a stone overweight.
now have lost 2.5 stone and fitter than I ve ever been , with defined and toned upper arms and legs.

I cannot believe It really
I've become one of y Jose people who actually enjoy exercise

Heartily recommend The Shred though as it got me started and I saw results.

Killer Abs L3D6 done. Ouch. yadah, it's a bit longer than the Shred - 30 minutes, though, not 40. I reckon 30 is my outer limit. Because I've been alternating with the Shred it's been just about do-able: on mornings when I'm really pushed for time I Shred.

Elphaba, you may possibly have seen Kick Box Fast Fix: there's a room full of beautiful, fit teenagers / twentysomethings in that. I bought it a little while ago and I'm undecided about it as I think the room full of people (not all of whom are doing the moves right) is really distracting.

Congratulations on the weight loss and improved fitness, Georgina. I wish I could say I enjoyed exercise: I've been plodding on through my JM routines with grim determination, because I can see the value in being fit and I do look better, but it's not fun.

Doing an evening shred I stead of a morning one today.

Out of curiosity, when do people tend to prefer to workout? Morning or evening?

When do I prefer to workout? Mid-morning. When do I actually get to workout? About 8 or 8:30pm once the DCs are asleep. Not ideal, but I suppose it's better than not doing it at all. No way could I get up early to do it. Quite apart from DS2 feeding 5-6 times a night, then being up for the day at 6:15ish, DS1 decided to be awake and wailing for me every half an hour from about 4am this morning DH went into him each time, but it's kind of impossible to sleep when you've got, 'MUUUU-MEEEEEE!' being shrieked down the baby monitor.

Someone asked upthread about dieting and weight loss? Not really. I'm EBFing so, much as I'd like to turn the 750 calories a day I'm burning by being parked on my arse to my favour, the lure of carbs is unspeakable. I'm trying not to have junk in the house because I will just inhale it, but cake is just so, so hard to refuse when BFing. I would dearly love to lose this post-pregnancy 'layer' I'm wearing, though. I've also got a bit of a tummy, and I've never in my life carried any extra weight there so that has to go

Based on DeliciousIrony's report of Jillian recommending shred, shred, cardio, shred, shred, cardio, rest, I did 40 mins of cardio tonight. Dying slightly.

Hi I've been doing the 30 day shred since January and I've managed to lose three stone . Haven't done it for a couple of months due to illness and family life . I started again yesterday and l was good but today I feel like I've been run over by a bus . I'm going to try and do it at least 4 days during the week until Christmas I would like to lose another half stone before Christmas good luck ladies

30DS L3D7 done.

Gingerbreadpixie, if it's a matter of actual preference I prefer not to work out at all . I find if I don't do it first thing in the morning, before getting myself ready for work and DS ready for school, it doesn't happen. But I can only do that because my child now sleeps reliably through the night: the sleep was too precious when he was a baby and for quite some time after!

I started trying to do the 5:2 diet alongside the Shred at the beginning of October, but fell off the wagon for various reasons and I'm accepting I won't get back on it till after Christmas now.

Well, that suddenly turned into 11 days off, so I have started week 7 again. It hurt. At least I haven't just stopped.

Body Rev, week 7, workout 7 first time done.

I would prefer to not workout at all, but if I dont I descend into middle aged spread hugeness. I have to get it done by 10am or it doesn't happen. I have to get up and put my PE kit on straight away. Any sniff of dressing gown or normal clothes and it doesn't happen. My motivation is shocking.

I was wondering where you were yesterday morning Gingerbreadpixie :)

I did day 3 yesterday and day 4 today. Amazed at how much more resilient and flexible I'm getting just after 4 days!!!

Just done 30DS level 2 for the first time owww! Mind you did the warm up twice as DD switched it off at that point, must hide remote better!

I am aiming to do 5-6 days a week with Tuesdays off as I do a fit step class then and there is no way my arms would take both! Have also started my fitness pal again

Elphaba BF is great isn't it but totally understand the carb craving, DH just didn't get that I needed to inhale whole bars of chocolate just to survive!

Level 2 is quite a jump from Level 1, but you certainly feel like you've had a good work out afterwards :)

Congrats on the weight loss Heleng - was that just through the shred? Hope things are looking up a bit for you now.

30DS L3D23 done today :) I did no shredding yesterday, went for a two hour walk instead as there was a rare bit of sunshine. Received my Ripped in 30 today as well, quite looking forward to starting that afte the Shred.

@irony I've just been eating better and doing the shred . I have cheated a bit though I only do level one I aren't brave enough to go to two lol . I just do level one 4 times a week 5 if I'm really good

Didn't do anything tonight on account of a cracking head and a clingy, teething toddler. Got my babywearing exercise class tomorrow so I probably won't Shred again until Saturday IF I can find the energy. I hope I can because, while Saturday's are a whirlwind of exhausting family activities, none of them are particularly calorie-burning and cake or chips or both usually feature at some point. Give me a kick up the bum on Saturday everyone!

Killer Abs L3 D7. It hurts. One more week to go and I can switch to something else!

How's the knee, Lambzig? Well done for getting back on it.

I cannot believe I put an apostrophe in 'Saturdays' in my previous post I think it was actually autocorrect, but still. It does my pedant crown no good

30DS L1 D5 done :)

Got a busy weekend ahead so not sure if I'll manage to fit in a workout.

What I noticed is how much better I feel mentally after working out. I've had a very tough week, my dog is extremely poorly and we might have to put him to sleep so I've been feeling quite depressed but the workouts have really helped with my mood :)

for your dog. Though he'd probably prefer a (that's some sort of marrowbone thing, obv).

Ri30 L3 D 4 done - will go onto L4 next week. I decided that one of the things that was disagreeing with my back was rather un-obvious - the duck walk and squat jacks where you're supposed to have your hands up to your ears. Something about that position - partly bent over with arms up - just doesn't feel right. So yesterday and today I subbed the duckwalk with surrenders and did the squat jacks with the usual arm movement - that seemed to be much better. And also modified some of the leg-raising abs moves a bit (pike crunch no way).

Oh, and another modification - I couldn't maintain the 'ab hold' because it was too much wrist strain, so I did that using some hex dumbells as 'handles' to straighten the wrists, that worked well.

30DS L1D5 done today.

I took a rest day on Thursday due to a mad rush to get DS to childminder before work followed by a late shift. I think the rest day did my knees some good, as they've been a bit twingey.

Yep, definitely prefer morning workout. Just so it's not looming over me all day!

30DS L3D24 done. I don't seem to be sticking to my plan very well, I have done precisely no exercise for the last two days...but plenty of wine, crisps and peanut butter have been consumed

Weekends are my rest days from JM, but I did quite a lot of gardening this afternoon - crouching/kneeling/sitting in odd positions. I used to get a weird problem in one of my hips when I tried to get up after sitting on the ground, but it doesn't seem to happen now - and getting back up off the floor is nae problemo nowadays! My DH was struggling a bit the other day after turning on the fire, he's always taken his leg strength for granted but having demonstrated 'surrenders' to him he's now asked me to show him some lower body moves.

30DS L1D3 done. I piked last night out of sheer can't-be-arsedness but got back on the wagon tonight. It always surprises me how much better you feel in such a short space of time after getting back to exercise after a long, long, long break. I'm blitzing those jacks now and did the dumbbell rows with a couple of 5kg weights tonight. (I do the rest with 2kg.)

I did a reluctant 30DS L1D6 today. I was really sluggish and it felt like my endurance had taken a few steps backwards. I don't know why! Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for it. Oh and AF turned up a few hours afterwards. Could have been that.

Hopefully I'll feel more like it tomorrow.

Killer Abs L3 D8 done. It's pouring with rain, my motivation is through the floor and I've got to go to work in a few minutes. Someone tell me why I'm bothering?

Errol, I can't keep my hands up by my ears in those moves without it hurting my back - I ended up modifying them when I did RI30.

Fullsteamahead. Your poor dog.

30DS L1D7 done. Again a bit sluggish but I picked up at the end.

Fullsteam - hope you're ok?