30 Day Shred... anyone want to join me?

[toastedbeagle]

I started in Feb and managed 25 days or so but got a stinking cold and my whole health kick went down the drain. Think 8lbs heavier now

I started yesterday with Day 1 Level 1 and determined to keep up with it.

I've also started playing tennis again and I'm determined that by my hols in 7 weeks I will be fitting back in my size 12 clothes.

Anyone want to join in with some daily motivation?

L1 D5!

Level 2 Day 9. Kept having to pause to drink as there is no time in between exercises.
It's so hot. I looked in the mirror just afterwards. Not a pretty sight!

L1 D6... noon on the hottest day of the year is not a good time to have done it!

However, the cold shower after was the Best Thing Ever.

Just about to have my 2nd cold shower of the day.
I finished work early and had to mow the grass in south facing garden with no shade before the inevitable storm....

I have decided I am cultivating a meadow in my garden. Purely for the crasshoppers and butterflies and stuff, not because I'm lazy or anything...

I've done l1d2. I was explaining it to my oh who asked how you get 30 days out of 3 sets of 7... I'm flummoxed too now! Anyway, much easier second time around. I find I can disconnect as I know what's coming and the 30 seconds star jumps pass more easily. I know what's in levels 2 and 3 though and I know that's going to be tough so I'm coasting for the moment! Thanks to the thread for inspiring me to take this up!

3 levels at 10 days each.

Yes, thanks SD, OH said the same. I had "week" stuck in my mind.

Level 2 day 10 complete. Moving up to Level 3 tomorrow.
Meadow sounds pretty. Not so sure about the uncouth insects it will host (crass hoppers )

What with the shagging foxes, it really is crass...

L1 D7

On to L2 I guess. Although I find the skater things a challenge to find the space for. I will have to move stuff around.

Ooh, a Shred-thread. I'm on Day 17 - started on 1st June but have had a few (ahem, five) rest days. The heat hasn't helped!

Bit gutted as only lost 1lb so far, but glad I've found you guys for motivation purposes. Keep Shredding!

Level 3 day 1. Some of the moves are definitely L3 but others I find quite easy e.g. Superman.
Rest day for me tomorrow.
I certainly wasn't anticipating this heat when I committed to this. But it is good preparation as I will be hiking in Provence this summer.

I remember lying on the floor like a dead fish trying to do Superman the first time I did Shred :o

L1 D8

Having remembered it's 10 days of each, not 7. Even though I said 10 earlier! Dare I say it seemed easy...? Maybe because it's far cooler!

Possibly but also I expect your body is ready to move up a level.

Yesterday was a killer though! Odd.

L2 D8 done! Still following Anita because jumpy-planks are ridiculous.

Does anyone know what weights are recommended with 30DS? I've never managed to figure it out so am sticking with 2kg handweights (and they kill me on the squat+arm raise move near the end).

I've found it a lot easier overall since muting the DVD and chucking on some good tunes. As much as I love Jillian, I could parrot her lines in my bloody sleep.

Marking my place, going to start on Monday as I've got six weeks till my holiday and need to shift a few pounds and tone up. For the last year I've been doing Emily Skye's weightlifting programme on and off which has been great but I think I need to do more cardio to shift some fat. Hopefully the weightlifting will enable me to use much heavier weights with the shred compared to the last time I did it.

Ironorchid I mostly use 2 kg but drop to 1kg for those hideous V raises and use heavier weights for some of the easier exercises such as dumbell cleans.
I think it's important to get the form right so for people new to this kind of exercise I would say don't worry if you can only manage 500g or 1kg at first, you'll soon get stronger if you keep at it.

When I first started, I used cans of baked beans for the "anterior raises with a side lunge" in L1 (and some of the other exercises that used similar miscles)! I adjusted what weights I used according to how easy I found the exercise.

It's raining here today so I've finally taken the time out to rtft.

I'm going to copy a pp's idea to mute GIllian and play my own music.
I like the pp's idea of doing it on week days and having weekends off, but this is an idea for the future, not now.

I'm hoping this will kickstart a return to a little routine exercise for me. Last time/first time, once I'd completed the shred, I listed all the moves from all three levels that I enjoyed and would do my own routine for 25 minutes. I lost this habit when I hurt myself and was out of commission for 14 months. I've been well for months now but seemed to forget that I could return to exercise and this thread reminded me!

I forgot how much this work out makes me sweat but on the plus side, I'm only L1d5 today and am already feeling stronger.

As a weird final note, how many of you have taken the before pics? I was scrolling through my phone last night for some pics to send to my mum and these popped up (front and side pics) and surprised me! I'm not used to having pics of myself in my pants, I chose nude undies, urgh!

I have the DVD and you can play without the commentary but I have never tried. The thing is with muting, if you are doing plank moves how do you know when to change? Maybe the problem is our living room is wider than it is deep so I am sideways on for all the abs and plank moves.
I have not bothered with before and after pics.
Nude underwear definitely looks better covered up!
Can feel level 3 in my thighs today.

L2 D9 done! Thanks for the advice clearsomespace and soupdragon - I used 2kgs up until the last strength section then dropped to 1kg for the dreaded V raises. There was a lot less swearing

I do my planks horizontal to the TV and cast the odd side-eye until I see the gang have moved, if that makes sense.

I have some before photos on my phone. Had brief panic about accidently posting them on FB when they automatically popped up as suggested pics on my feed - luckily newer, wholesome pics of birds and gardening shizz have shunted them (whew!).

Last day of L2 tomorrow (whee!confetti!balloons!).

This is the first time I've taken photos. I uploaded them to a private web album and deleted them from my phone!

I threw my hat in the ring at the beginning of the thread but then failed to deliver. I'm in for real now. L1 D4 complete. Glad to see I have a little muscle memory from when I did Shred before xmas. So far I'm mainly with Anita with a little bit of Natalie thrown in.

Onwards!