Holidays, what holidays? Its the August Shred thread!

[ImogenQuy]

All welcome for mutual support while gritting our teeth and getting through any of Jillian's horrendous delightful programmes.

I'm place marking for tomorrow, when I'm going to start the One Week Shred.

Welcome penny. My top tips are:

1. It might seem like it will never get better, but somewhere around D4 or D5 it does - hang on in there.

1. Take a 'before' photo now so that you can see the difference it has made once you get to the end (and maybe some measurements: waist, hips, etc.)

1. Have at least one (and possibly two) rest days per week.

1. If your calves really hurt during level 1, then do butt kicks in circuit 1 cardio, and jump rope in circuit 2 cardio - I find swapping the order of these moves really helps.

1. I do 10 days at each level, so it takes me more than 30 days to complete 30DS because of my rest days.

1. 500ml plastic bottles make perfectly good weights when you are starting out. Fill them with water for 0.5kg - add sand to make them heavier.

1. I find posting here helps me stay motivated. I also record my exercise using MFP (which allows you to estimate how many calories you've burned - I put 30DS down as 20 min circuits).

I've had pretty good results - my 'before' and 'after' photos are somewhere on the first couple of pages of this thread. I also lost half a stone doing 30DS the first time through (without dieting). I'm almost at the end of my second time through 30DS - I may add a second lot of 'before' and 'after' photos when I get there.

No shred for me last night and tonight. Poorly child & dh working late
"See" you all when I'm back from hols
(Have decided not to take my jillian DVD & weights with me as I'd like to spend time with dh. I will be back with a vengeance on the 23rd).
Good luck penny et al.

Thanks for the detailed reply Oubliette! I was just thinking today I should take before and after snaps, can't say I'm looking forward to the before one but hopefully it's worth it! A half stone is brilliant, I would be really pleased with that. I will aim to post updates as I go along. Sort of looking forward to doing it now!

Tonight I did 30DS L3D9 (so I'm now only one day away from 60 days). I then attempted Ri30 L2D1. Oh. my. God. I don't think I have the coordination to do some of the moves! I suppose I'll get better with practice...

1WS cardio has just nearly killed me . One armed burpees?! I can see me modifying that move next time! Plus it's humid here today so very sweaty! Will stick with this DVD for a while though as am hoping it will get better!
Penny Welcome. Oubliette has said it all really in terms of tips. I started the 30DS in January and was doing the workouts 3-4 days a week so it took me until around March to do the whole 30 days. I don't do dieting or self-denial though so was basically eating normally throughout, though I cut out all alcohol. Went down a dress size which I maintained by then switching to longer JM workouts such as Kickbox Fast Fix, No More Trouble Zones and Burn Fat Boost Metabolism from then on. (I have not worked out for a few weeks due to holiday hence why am rebooting my routine with 1WS!). HTH

Well I got up this morning and did d2 L1. I really felt the burn! But I'm happy I did it. I took my pictures this morning, I can really see my problem areas (tummy, thighs!) and the muffin top is clear to see!! Going to keep going, this thread is helping me.

I finished off the week with 30DS L3D10 and 6W6P L1D11.

I've just completed my 2nd set of 30 days for 30DS, so I thought I'd share some photos (Before = 2 June, During = 17 July, After = today)

Oh, and my weight on the days the photos were taken was: 8st 11, 8 st 4, and 8st 2. So I've lost a little over half a stone too.

I have been doubling up on circuits for a while too, so I can't claim it is all down to 30DS (I've been doing 6W6P & Ri30 too).

Evening all
L2 D5 of 30 DS done. Nothing doing yesterday as DP had enormous and long winded argument with his parents, at our house, over about 3 hrs. They wouldn't leave, and I couldn't put DD in front of peppa pig, which is my usual exercise strategy!

Sorry to hear work is rubbish again Raspberry. With those killer biceps and doing 4 kg weights I should just take matters into your own hands and simply deck whomever is causing problems in the workplace! Thanks for your suggestion of Ballet Beautiful on hols..however I may ignore it!

PS welcome Pennylane. Excellent advice from Oubliette. The only thing I would add is that I find it harder to get motivated to do a session if I've skipped it for a few days.Certainly take rest days, but make sure if you miss a couple of days you get back on it ASAP. Otherwise they become weeks...months...years...(perhaps just me?)

Impressive photos Oubliette. You've actually inspired me to move away from the salted caramel ice cream I was thinking of releasing from the freezer. Thanks for that. However, I did note that you seem to have changed colour a few times in the last month? Are you overdoing it?

I think the apparent colour changing is down to a combination of different lighting levels and crap photography (my leggings seem to change colour too - I'm wearing the same pair in all the photos)! I hope I'm not overdoing it - in any case I'll be taking a break for a couple of weeks soon as I'm going on holiday next Tuesday.

Thanks Oubliette great before and afters. Am so stiff today, but will do it. I then have a friend staying for 3 nights, so will rest Sunday/ Monday (but go for a walk or swim) then back on it Tuesday

Thanks for the support, CP! I wish I could look for another job, but I am trying to move house.

I did level one of the Shred today, because I wanted to ease myself in after a week off. I used 6kg on the chest flies. Proud!

It's a good workout all round, the Shred. A lot of her others get a bit faddy (if more fun), so it is nice to get back to basics.

Well done everyone else. Think about the bathing suit shopping

Shred L2D2. It is about a week since I did D1 but somehow I didn't find it too hard today. Impressive abs, Oubliette.

Today I did Ri30 L2D2 (not feeling the love for this yet) and 6W6P L1D12 (which I quite enjoy). I didn't manage to fit in a 3rd circuit - I might consider doing one later but probably won't get round to it

Well, three-day fail from me here - missed Friday because DS had a nightmare and climbed into my bed in the early hours, and then had a house full of visitors all weekend so no chance of squeezing in any JM to catch up. Now I need a weekend off to recover...

KB lower body workout done (4th time). A good thing about this one is that if you're having a day with sore knees, the modifications of the jumping moves take the jumps out so you can keep it quite low impact.

PS Wow to MsRaspberry on the 6 kg chest flies! I don't even own any 6 kg weights...

Hello. Shred l2 D6 done. Did plank jacks for the first time! Yay.
Weekend was a fail for me - BBQ at other end of the country (almost) on Saturday, and Sunday I felt iffy. But I didn't drink (except a v scant half glass of wine) so quite pleased. How is the stiffness Penny?

Ri30 L2D3 & 6W6P L1D13.

I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of the moves for L2 of Ri30 - it didn't seem so bad this evening.

KB core workout (4th time). The co-ordination is marginally better than it was but I'm still flailing around when the people on the screen are flowing smoothly from one move to the next. Managed to do all the cardio intervals properly, though, which is usually my downfall (on that theme, yay to plank jacks, CheshirePanda!).

Oubliette, kudos for L2 of RI30 - that workout is my nemesis. I will know JM has got me properly fit and strong when I can do the plank cardio circuit properly without stopping and without feeling I'm going to die by the end of it.

Restarted 5:2 yesterday so reacquainted myself with 30DS today. Really cross with myself for letting my fitness go but have only myself to blame. Took the plunge and bought a DVD compilation as watching via youtube on my little netbook made some of the moves really difficult to see. Nice not to have to suffer all those ad boxes which kept popping up every couple of minutes too. So I have 30DS, NMTZ, 6W6P and BFBM - plenty to work up to.

So back to basics and L1D1 30DS done. Combination of 1kg and .6kg weights. Plan is to continue every day until at least Saturday by which time my legs should have stopped feeling like jelly.

KB upper body workout done, 4th time. This was one of those days when everything was a struggle and I really phoned in a couple of the cardio intervals. I also had to go out and spray the neighbour's cat with water half way through to stop it mugging my cat, which didn't do anything for my focus.

Glad you're back, grannygrotts. Of those DVDs I haven't tried 6W6P and BFBM but really like NMTZ - I was going to move on to it next week.

KB lower body workout done, 4th time. Not a good day: I came off my bike yesterday (not fast - I was turning off the road and into the park and only doing about 5 miles an hour) and although I didn't do any damage I seem to be a bit generally feeble this morning. Skipped the cardio and did the low impact modifiers in the strength circuits.

Has everyone left because of the hackers? I was on the list but under a different name, and I only use this one for exercise threads.

did 10 days of 30DS L1, then tried L2 last night - god it was awful! My wrists can't support me in a plank, and ALL the exercises seem to be plank based. Persevere, or try something else? I was probably managing half of Anita's workout

Ouch to falling off the bike Imogen must have been a bit of a shock. Hopefully it's just a bit of jarring.

Did my 30DS D2 L1 yesterday and although I was quite achey it was no harder than Tuesday's D1 start, which was a bit of a relief. Will do D3 later on this evening.

MyVision I did once get as far as L2 and the first day came as a big shock to me too! D2 was better and by D3 I'd got the hang of the moves and I was able to follow Anita all the way. I'd say persevere with it for now and modify where you need to. Good luck!