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!

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!

UGH.

So, we had a holiday day today (yay!).  Hubs and I decided to go bowling.  We played for two hours, and had some lunch in between.  It was kind of nice.  Especially when I kicked Mr. P's butt.

Speaking of butts.  Mine is SORE.  I don't know how I manage to always pull my glutes when I bowl.  Usually, it's only the left one because of my crappy bowling stance, but today it was both.  TMI?  Meh.

When we got home, I had a little project I was taking care of (finishing scanning my Nana's old photos), so I spent an hour or so doing that, then I decided to try out the Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown video for a little extra workout (you know, since I had the world's greatest bacon cheeseburger for lunch today...whoops).

As coworker A's little man says:  Ah. Mah. Gah.

I got through 7 minutes and 6 seconds of the video before I had to just stop.  I just couldn't do anymore.  Now, I have to take just a sec and make myself not look like such a lame-o weakling.  Like I said before (yesterday?), I'm not feeling 100% lately.  Plus, 2 hours of bowling made me tired.  But really, most of it is that it's a seriously rockin' workout.  I've decided that, instead of being unbelievably frustrated by the fact that I can't get through the thing, I'm just going to keep doing it until I can get all the way through it.

This could take a while.  ha...

Interesting figure I saw today...

IT WAS MINE!

Kids, I tell you what.  I was putting my hair up for my workout (kicking ass and taking names, in case you wondered...) when I glanced in the mirror.  I mean, at more than just me putting my hair up.

There's this strange thing that's showing up...I'm sort of getting a bit of a waist.  I mean, it's nothing to write about really, but for me (who's always been round) the idea of having something of a defined waist is fantastic.  These little love handles are slowly working their way off, and that's neat.  Makes it kinda worthwhile to keep eating healthfully and drag my developing booty onto that elliptical for some calorie burning.

Looking forward to the day when I can wear, you know, stuff that's made for people with actual waistlines.  I'm looking at you, adorable black dress that lives in my closet because nothing's hotter than looking like you've shoved several stuffed animals (probably bears, hippos, and dragons) into your dress.  Ooooo-wee!  Hott mama here.  ha.  ANYWAY.

For now, I'm going to pat myself on the back about this because just noticing that my lump-lumps are shifting is kind of fantastic.  A big boost.

Also, my butt is sore.  STRANGE.  But I like it.