Friday and the 30 Day Shred

It's FRIDAY! And everyone's excited about it. But I'm more excited than the average person - because today is my last day of work before I go on days off and I'm going HOME on Sunday to celebrate four wonderful years with Mr. Boyfriend.. You couldn't wipe the smile off of my face today!

While I've been doing an awesome job of clean eating this week - my enthusiasm for the gym is not 100% there. Yesterday there was a lot of snow on the ground and I didn't want to drive into town so I did some at home workouts. I did level 1, 2, and 3 of Cardio Max DVD (I've never done Level 3 before, and it was surprisingly the easiest level!) And then did Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. 

I've tried the 30 Day Shred before. A friend told me about it when I was in college and battling between the healthy-me and the lazy-me. I looked up Level 1 on YouTube and tried it out in the living room of my old apartment. It was tough. I remember I couldn't even make it through the whole 20 minutes. I was out of breath, I was frustrated, and I was pissed that I couldn't keep up. 

Until now, that is. I did the same level yesterday after the Cardio Max workout and was it challenging? Yes. Did I kick Level 1's ass? You know I did. And I felt great afterwards. I even did all the push ups with the girls in the video. Last time I tried this, I could NOT do a push up. At all. It's amazing what a half of a year of exercising can do...

30 Day Shred is awesome, by the way. Jillian Michael's has this little formula that she talks about (non-stop) in the video. Each circuit is 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs. The whole level is 20 minutes long which includes a 2 minute warm up, 3 different 6 minute circuits, and then a 2 minute cool down. It's very manageable and time efficient. 

The only thing I didn't like about 30 Day Shred was the long introduction that you CAN'T skip. After the first time you've seen the video, you know the introduction by heart. And when you're ready to sweat and get some work done, it's annoying to have to listen to her whole schpeal (?) first.

I added some new tunes to my running playlist. I cannot wait to be back in North Carolina and get some runs in! Here's my new stuff:

• Club Can't Handle Me - Flo Rida
• Anything Could Happen - Ellie Goulding
• Let's Go - Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo

Happy Friday everyone! 

Make sure to give yourself a high five today, because you are awesome.