shred it

March 11, 2009

30 day shred: jillian means business
confession: i have to admit that i didn’t believe that it would be all that challenging. with claims of “lose 20 lbs in 30 days!”, i thought perhaps the routine would be geared toward the very overweight set, and that the exercises wouldn’t be that hard for li’l old me, runner and half-assed weightlifter that i am. plus, i had never done a workout DVD before (aside from yoga) and always felt like there was no way one could work up a sweat in your living room the way you can on a run or at the gym.

i was wrong.

i am sore today from this workout DVD! even on level 1, jillian had me doing full plank pushups to the extent where i had to drop to my knees for part of the second set. the endless lunges and side squats created an impressive amount of burn in my hamstrings and butt, and even my shoulders are a bit tender this morning.

now, i am not planning on ‘shredding’ every day, but i am going to incorporate these workouts a couple times a week just to break the monotony of actual weights in the gym. i don’t think the shred can fully replace regular strength workouts, because the weights are lighter and not every muscle group is hit, but i do think you can build strength (in particular, core and lower body) with jillian’s exercises.

today it will be back to yoga to work some of the kinks out. whew! by the way, i think jillian is kind of mean and there is also something odd about her face. it seems like the top part of it stays expressionless while the bottom half moves. excessive botox, perhaps? it’s okay, though, because her covetable abs distract you from looking at her face for too long. girl is RIPPED.

back to work!
for two days, anyway. today i have a 10 AM – 6 PM shift. this is probably the best ER shift of all, because

a) there is another resident and an attending on with you the whole time
b) it isn’t usually hideously busy — the pileup doesn’t start until towards the end
c) it is physiologic
d) going to work to start at 10 AM is quite nice.

i plan on hitting the gym and doing some reading beforehand. which means i need to get started!

—————————————————————–

3.10.09

workout: 45 minutes on the elliptical, levels 9 – 12, 5.3 “miles”. average HR 182 / max HR 194. woah! plus, level one of the shred, which was about 20 minutes of strength, a bit of cardio, and abs.

doin’ time: jillian wasn’t in charge of the only shred going on yesterday — i also hit the grater HARD to make martha’s carrot potato pancakes. i made things easier on myself by spending a chunk of free time in the afternoon chopping and dicing everything i would need for dinner (it was a very veggie-chopping-intensive meal). it might be nice to do this on a day off to prep for the next day, if i’m ever that organized.

in addition to the pancakes, i made creamy parsnip soup. seriously, i have no idea how i have lived for 28 (almost 29 . . . eek) years without an immersion blender! this thing is AMAZING. even though i expected hot soup to spatter everywhere, causing me to have to go to the UNC burn unit (at least i could go visit josh), it totally didn’t. instead, it created a super smooth and creamy soup without me having to wash the food processor and spill hot parsnips everywhere. i love.

prepwork

pancakes in the pan

all together

reading: an hour spent reading a peds in review article on the nephrotic syndrome and doing 15 PREP questions. let’s hope i can keep up this academic intensity while actually working.

1 Comment

  • Reply The Happy Runner March 10, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    Glad you liked the Shred. It is tough!

    Potato pancakes are on my meal list this week, too. I’m making them tomorrow!

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