my morning bliss & keeping house

 

That title is like an oxymoron.  Housekeeping and bliss in the same sentence is just wrong.  Two separate thoughts, don’t worry.

My morning bliss…  does anyone else keep a bowl or shaker filled with a cinnamon + sugar mixture for sprinkling on heavily buttered toast?  C’mon, I can’t be the only sugar feign out there.  Well I having been using it for something else lately…

I leave out about a teaspoon of sugar from what I usually add to my coffee, then add that skipped teaspoon in using the cinnamon sugar mixture!  It leaves some little floaters in the coffee, but it is oh, so good!

Maybe it will be enough to get me out of bed early.  HAHAHAHA I’m so funny.

 

Okay, so keeping house… I posted way back when [in March] about committing to the 30 Day Shred, for a whole month, and shared my “before” weight and body fat % numbers with you.  Then I left you out there in la-la land wondering how it went.  Well I have a mixed review... 

After doing the 30 Day Shred workout video 4 days a week [and indoor soccer 2 days a week]…

weight before:  153.8;  

weight after: 153.4

body fat percentage before: 32.8

body fat percentage after: 34.2

Even though the numbers don’t show it, I was super happy with the workout…

Pros:

Toning.  The workout focuses on strengthening and cardio and I definitely noticed some muscle definition where there hadn’t been any in some time.  For me that was the arms and shoulders and my collar bones have reappeared!  Sometimes when running or working out a lot my quads get too big – I didn’t have that problem with this workout; it is the “long and lean” type of strengthening. 

Cardio.  There is no way the average person could go through the workout and not feel like they just threw down a couple hundred calories.  At the same time, she keeps the pace so that it is doable.

Levels 1, 2, &3.  It is nice to be able to move through the levels as you get more fit, or to choose up or down from your usual level on an off day or when you are feeling particularly motivated.  I started on level one for about a week and was up to level 3 for the last week. 

Cons:

My weight didn’t go down much.  Probably because I gained muscle and lost fat (and fat weighs more than muscle), so that is okay with me.  I saw results so I won’t stress about the numbers.

My body fat % [supposedly] went up.  I measured it using a bathroom scale which my collegiate athlete sister-in-law tells me is pretty much bogus anyway. 

My final synopsis is that this is a really great workout to shed calories and get toned.  My downfall was in that I didn’t limit my food intake enough.  After completing the challenge, I took a couple weeks off from working out at all, and concentrating on limiting my eating, and I lost about 4 pounds.  If you are looking for a good workout to do at home, I highly recommend any of these in conjunction with a healthy diet, listed easy to difficult, 30 Day Shred (3 levels), No More Trouble Zones (more strengthening focused), Banish Fat and Boost Your Metabolism (more cardio focused).  I am in no way compensated for this review.

 

That’s all I got for today.  I have so many odds and ends to finish around here, so I can share projects with you!  I have been trying to be more organized, and made myself a list of my weekly goals!  So far I have only completed 3 of 12!  Back to work!