Butt still hurts.

BECAUSE I FOUGHT THE JILLIAN, AND WON.  Again.  For the second day in a row.  What uuuuuuup?!!?!  It was harder today.  As predicted.  But it was more worth it in the end, if that makes ANY sense, on any level.  I was dying.  Shaking and sweating.  It was lovely.

My arms are still remotely shaky, wrists aching.  Toes angry.  You need them to grip, and after a full day of tall heels, my big toes are sore and mad.  My glutes are screaming.  With joy.  Okay, not with joy so much as the tearing and rebuilding of the muscle tissue.  Semantics.

This whole working out thing is just really great.  I can feel my muscles getting bigger and stronger.  My quads are gynormous.  I kinda want to wear a lot of leggings and/or Spandex to show them off.  Because they look GOOD.  I think this is something that I can get used to, you know?  :)  I'm totally going to have to do more than just the Jillian DVD, though.  Because, seriously.  I'm not going to be able to keep this up much longer!  ha.  Plus, the muscles get tired or used to it, or whatever.  Yadda, yadda.

Point is, feel free to encourage me.

Seriously.  Now would be good.

While I'm still proud here!!!!

Also, in other non-traditional-exercise-related news, it's juuuust about time for the gardening to start up again.  I CAN'T WAIT!  I'm so very excited.  I almost have the entire thing mapped out.  I foresee some serious digging, planting, and harvesting in my future.  WOO!!!!!  (PS - Mom, if you read this, we need to chat about lawn and garden things.  Call me!)

Whoops.  One more.  Stay tuned to a plug (one that isn't paid for or provided by the company, BTW) for a new fave website.  And some stuff about tracking food and things.  Yay, previews!

WOOOOOO!!!!!

Suck it, Jillian.

Just kidding.  I'm stoked.  I FINISHED THE DVD.  Sure, there were a couple of moves that I couldn't complete like J-Money, but I did it.  I did every move, in some way or another.  There are just things that I absolutely cannot do yet - it's time to say type it out loud - I'm out of shape!!  I needed to modify a couple of things like the chaturanga push-ups (just what it sounds like - that move, turned into a push-up) and the side planks (this move, rotated facing one direction then the next, then back to the first, etc).  A lot of it was pretty tough on my poor little wrists.  I'm not sure how they're going to feel in the morning.

But OMG if I'm not feeling amazing now!!!  Everything feels stretched.  Every muscle, my spine, my fingers, and my toes.  I didn't focus on doing the moves perfectly - I instead focused on making sure that I could feel each move in the part of my body that Jillian was saying I should feel.  I focused on making sure my neck was relaxed and I used all the muscles to do each move, instead of cheating and making it easier by not tightening all my muscles.  Core strong the whole time, slow moves, deliberate moves.

Those of you who do work out at least somewhat regularly know what this feels like.  The warm, exhausted, slightly sweaty, satisfied feeling.  They're not kidding when they say that working out releases the feel-good endorphins into the system.  It's just such a HUGE accomplishment.  I'm mad proud of myself.  I'm just so psyched that I made it all the way through the cool-down and everything.  This is how happy I am.

(please excuse the awesome camera phone picture...it was self-shooting.  It's all for you.)

Oh, and remember the last time I made it through 27+ minutes of it?  Yeah.  I was two Sun Salutations away from being done.  DANG.  I could have accomplished this forever ago.  Oh, well, right?  I've accomplished it now.  :)

Anyone out there have an awesome story of accomplishment from the week?  Or the day?

Feel free to pat me on the back.  Virtually or otherwise.  :D

It's the little things.

I did 27 minutes and three seconds of the Yoga Meltdown today.  And, having gone through 27 minutes and three seconds of this workout, I have come to some conclusions.

1. Jillian Michaels is trying to kill me.  I'm not sure what I did to her (other than being a chub, natch), but I'm really, really sorry Jillian.  I hope you can forgive me.
2. I am SERIOUSLY out of shape.  You know how you think "Meh.  I've just gotten, you know, less flexible.  I could totally still lift a small car and run a mile in 8 minutes."  NO.  No, you can't.  And Jillian, Bashira, and Maddie are here to show you that.  You're out of shape.  You cannot do those things anymore, much less perform a chataranga push-up.
3. On the same line, I have no balance.  My coworkers know this - especially the poor one who has to sit next to me, and listen as I nimbly bang into the cube walls just about every time I come out of my cube.  This is different.  This is absolutely no balance.  I have no concept of how to not fall over when I'm doing Warrior 3.  Fail Warrior 3.
4. My head sweats.  My head.  I have learned that I can tell just how much of a workout I'm getting by how much my head sweats.  Today, the sweat started at the nape of my neck and got all the way to the crown of my head.  Conversely, my fivehead (in my family, they're not foreheads - they're fiveheads because they're HUGE) is not sweaty.  Go figure.
5. I like my stretchy yoga pants.  I feel like Jack Black in Nacho Libre:  "Chancho.  When you are a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room.  It's for fun."  I *get* leggings and yoga pants in public now.  I heart my yoga pants.  NOTE:  I will not be wearing them in public.  Maybe when I go for walks with the dog (I SWEAR he just perked up when I typed "walk" - he's a "Walk" ninja!!), but no grocery shopping in these babies.  I ain't no Edina Mama (sorry if you are...)
6. There's something deep in my soul that wants to stop doing the "beginner" version of this DVD and start doing the "advanced" version.  There's a fantasy in my head where Jillian Michaels comes to my house and screams at me "I'M GONNA MAKE YOU ROCK THIS WORKOUT!!!!!"  In my fantasy, I calmly lay down my yoga mat, and Downward Dog her ass off.  Naturally, I'm already in my stretchy pants, sweat band on.  I want to beat her.  In my fantasy?  I do.  I know I can be a competitive person.  I just didn't realize that I could be THIS competitive.  I kinda like it.
7. There is still a LOT of that workout left, past 27 minutes and three seconds.  A lot.
8. I want the body of any one of the women in this video.  I really do.  I *realize* that it's never gonna happen (God did NOT Grace me with any kind of genetic pre-disposition to have any kind of a butt.  Dang.), but I want it.  Strong arms, great arses, amazing abs...someday, I could have my own version of these bodies.  That's my overall goal.

I just spent the last 15 minutes trying to find a decent pic of "Bashira" from the video, BTW.  She's ah.may.zing.  Strong, confident in her moves, and not afraid to get sweaty.  I *might* just have a lady crush.  ha.

Oh, PS - despite falling off the wagon repeatedly, I've somehow managed to lose a couple of lbs in the last couple of weeks.  Take that Metabolic Syndrome.  WOO!