"Making the cut" in March

[Susan]

I decided to do the program from the book "Making the cut" (Jillian Michaels). My husband and I have been doing the circuits regularly as a compensation to running, but never did the whole 30-day program seriously.
Winter is long and I thought an intense month before the bike season (hopefully) starts won't do any harm ;) I will be exercising at home.

Has anybody done the whole program too? Did you get any results, did you like it? Does anybody want to join in :) ?

I will cut back on running in March and do the program as intended along with watching my diet more carefully to be fit for spring and maybe shed some more pounds. I'm curious how it will turn out.

The first day yesterday was quite hard. Despite knowing the circuits, it was harder than expected to do them twice and to pause as little as possible between exercises. Today I am quite sore :D

I'm excited about the new challenge and thought I would use this thread to post about the program regularly and share how I am doing.

[Susan]

As expected, the second day was quite hard being still sore from day 1.

I notice that while I can get along with most exercises, some are extremely hard for me without knowing why exactly. I HATE Mountain Climbers for example even though I am ok with planks and other cardio exercises but the combination... :eek: 30 seconds into the exercise (which should last 1 minute) I am always checking the watch being sure one minute has to be over.
I also don't get better at Pull-ups (chin-ups?). Could do zero a year ago, can still do zero without supporting some of my body weight with my feet.

[Susan]

No one is interested in my thread - I'll spam you anyway! :D

Today was supposed to be an off day, but I won't be at home over the weekend and therefore will have two off-days.

So I wanted to do the day 4 workout today. In the morning I was so sore that I had some difficulties sitting down in the bathroom and while walking around during the day I noticed some muscles I never knew about in my thighs. Thus I was a bit unmotivated at first and wanted to do the circuits only once, but when I got into it, I got somewhat overambitious and did them twice anyway.

Now I will lie down in front of my TV and will not move until tomorrow morning ;)

[tulip]

I think it's cool you are writing about it, like a journal. I am not familiar with the program, and anything with Jillian Michaels kinda turns me off, but if it works for you, then that's just fantastic. Just be aware of any hurts to avoid injuries that can happen from exercising very intensely all of a sudden.

[lauraelmore1033]

I tend to find Jillian Michaels annoying too, but your thread has me kind of intrigued. I might check it out. BTW, I can do exactly 0 pull ups too...

[Susan]

I should have explained the program a bit in the beginning: It's a 30-day program (including off-days). Every day includes 5 circuits that you can/should do twice. Parts of it are like a HIIT training but there are also parts where you just hold a position for a certain time or do strength exercises.
Most exercises are body-weight exercises, some require dumbbells and a Body Ball. The program is intended to be done at a gym, but I changed some of the exercises so we can do it at home (required items: Dumbbells, Body Ball, Thera Band, Aerobic step, Resistance Band, Skipping Rope).

I don't come across Jillian a lot doing the workout, I just use the 30-day plan now that I know the exercises :)

While I have been working out very regularly already, this program is quite intense. I have another 10 pounds to shed, I thought it would maybe help to change my routine. Also I hope the added strength will help me when the bike-season starts.

[Red Rock]

Susan,

Good for you for doing this. A few years ago, I picked up the book and read it. My problem was I do not belong to a gym so having access to do some of these exercises was a bit of a problem.

Now after looking at those exercises and the circuits...you go girl! If you can do those your AWSOME!! Not even thinking about this book...I went and found the fitdeck.com and I am using the bodyweight, abs, and the cross train combonation. After about a half an hour of this, I have definately had a workout and I can feel it. All of these exercises use minimal equipment, so that works for me.

I have gained like 5 pounds. I thought it was mindless eating, which I don't really do. Then my husband said that I was gaining muscle from doing all of the exercises. Muscle weighs more than fat, so I guess its a good thing?! I went for an easy bike ride the other day and I was not really even breathing, so I guess all of my efforts are paying off.

Hope this whole month goes well and you are not to sore on some days.:)

Red Rock

[Susan]

Thank you for your kind words. I think the efforts will pay off in one way or another :)

The planned 2 days off became 3, because it was too late in the evening yesterday when we came home. Today evening I will pick it up again.

[Susan]

I did Day 5 yesterday as planned. It was quite easy going after the 3 days pause.
Day 6 and 7 are supposed to be off-days, but as I had 1 more off day over the weekend, I will just take one of them today and continue with day 8 tomorrow.

I felt lazy today when I came home and was happy that I didn't have to work out today, but now I am actually feeling bad about it and asking myself if I should at least do a little bit of spinning. :D

[Susan]

Today was the first day above freezing outside since a very long time and so we decided to go for a run instead of doing the day 8 workout.

[Susan]

Day 8 was a hell of a workout, my thighs are still burning from all the jump-squat/lunge/leg extensions craziness.

[Susan]

Day 9 wasn't as bad as Day 8, but the exercises are split into exercises that work more of the "front" side of the body on one Day and of the "back" side of the body on the other day. And I don't like to do the back side very much, maybe I'm weaker in my back ;)

Day 10 was supposed to be an off day, but today was the first day warm enough for a bike ride, so I went for a longer ride in the morning.

It would have been such a nice sunny spring day. Sadly I had an argument with a neighbour before the ride. When I had taken my bike out of the door, I had to go back to lock up the door. Since my husband wasn't with me I didn't know how to do it other than leaning my handlebar slightly to the outside wall of the house for the 10 seconds I needed to lock the door. Of course in those 10 seconds the couple that lives above me came home and seeing my bike leaning there he freaked out completely and got right into my face - literally, I thought he would slap me.
I know that you shouldn't lean a bike to the wall but I was very careful not to damage anything (the bike touched the wall barely in one point with the freshly cleaned handlebar) as I am always careful with everything belonging to the house AND, most of all, I think it was such a minor cause and he really freaked out completely, calling me dumb and "too dumb to even talk to him", I thought more than one time that he was going to slap me, coming closer and closer until he screamed into my face like a drill sergeant and screaming how he would report me and how he would have to pay because I would damage the house, the whole time pointing to a graffity somebody had sprayed there some weeks ago, as if it was my fault it was there...

I reacted as cool as possible saying that I never had any issues with neighbours over the last 10 years I lived here and that I couldn't understand that he overreacted that much.
His wife apologized to me again and again saying that she didn't know what was going on with him and tried to pull him away from me. I had always known her as friendly old lady and done some small talk if we met each other on the stairs.

I was so upset because of the whole thing, I couldn't enjoy the ride at all, but at the same time I was SO angry that I did ride a new PB on this tour, obviously the anger made me push hard.
I still don't really know what to think about what happened, I don't like this situation at all and I can't really avoid the couple living in the same house.

Sorry that was way offtopic. :confused:

[Susan]

Today was Day 15 of the program. I wouldn't have believed this before, but I do notice a real difference looking at my body. Everything is more toned, my legs and arms feel firm, I had some people telling me I was looking "slim" (I don't... but I look slimmer ;)) and I can even see my Abs a little bit - I couldn't see them EVER in my grown up life.
I'm really excited about that.

Todays workout was still hard and I have the feeling that i did part of it half-assed because I couldn't push myself enough.

I'm looking forward to the second half of the program and the changes it may cause.

[Tri Girl]

great job, Susan!! Sounds like it's really paying off!!! I'm impressed (and what the heck was wrong with your neighbor- that would have messed up my cycling mojo for sure).

Keep it up- I like reading about your progress!

[Susan]

Hey Tri Girl :) thank you for commenting, I felt so lonely in this thread :)

It gets warmer outside... on the weekend, I didn't do the scheduled workout but went for a long bike ride with dh and 2 of his friends.
A little less than a year ago, weighting about 20 or 30 pounds more, these guys always dropped me on that 1 hour ascent and I had a hard time going up there. This time I dropped them all and had to wait for them several times.
DH said to me "you know, we guys use those small flats to recover - do you want to demotivate us by going even faster there?"... I told him "I do this, too *evilgrin*" :D

They paid me back on the downhill part, I'm such a wimp going downhill, that I even chicken out of the chicken ways...

Nevertheless it felt so good having that direct comparison to last year... I feel like I have become 10 years younger in this year :)
It seemed to me that I can push myself so much harder now, and I think that workout has helped me a lot to do this.

[tulip]

This is a great progress report, Susan. I'm glad you are finding the program useful and effective. You might change my mind about Jillian Michaels yet!

Sorry about your neighbors. Sounds slightly dangerous, actually. I hope you don't run into them again.

[kjay]

You've got me intrigued, too. It's always great to hear from someone who has seen significant results in a relatively short time. I've been reading some of the book reviews on Amazon and there are many success stories. I'm 67 years old, so am not sure I should "go all out" with such exercises, but the book sounds very thorough and detailed about supplements and other subjects, too. I'm getting ready (spinning and weights) for a bike trip in Mallorca so any tips I can pick up from this book also should help. Thanks for your updates here. I really enjoy reading them.

[Susan]

Tulip, I think my neighbour hides away... gladly haven't met him since. His wife apologized when we met some days after.

Kjay, the book has a meal plan and a supplement part too, that's true. There is a meal plan including recipes for "slow", "balanced" and "fast" oxidizers, which is questionable... but the meals are quite good suggestions, if you need some ideas for cooking. Some of the suggested foods or brands I can't get where I live. I have read her book "Master your metabolism" too and the eating habits she suggests there seem even more reasonable (and also doable in regards of things I can buy) to me. Still, if you stick to the rules of eating a healthy balanced diet with a lot of vegetables, and try to go organic where possible, I guess there's nothing very new to her suggestions.

Personally I don't follow her meal plan. Since I changed my diet to lose weight I don't have much that would have to be changed really. I try to eat the right things and don't care about diets or meal plans. Out of curiosity I tried to track my calories on Livestrong for 2 weeks. By eating my normal diet when I am hungry I hit the calorie goal (for losing 1 pound per week) pretty much exactly (but I don't lose 1 pound per week - it's more 1 pound in 2 weeks. I still take it). So I stopped tracking, it felt like a fix to sth that's not broken. I feared to get obsessed by those numbers ;)

I don't care much for supplements to be honest. I take a Multivitamin if I don't forget about it... It's not that I think that those are a bad idea altogether, but from my understanding, you would have to see a doctor to find out what deficiencies you have before starting to supplement something you may not need? I would fear to throw something out of balance by supplementing by my own.

[jordanpattern]

I haven't done any Jillian Michaels stuff, but I'm finishing up P90X right now, and I have LOVED it. I've always been small and skinny and weak, and for the first time in my life, I feel strong! I can do 25 "man style" push ups! That's a 2500% increase!

So, count me in as an at-home dvd workout devotee.

[Susan]

I should be through the program by now, but the last 2 weeks we had nice spring weather that almost felt like an early summer and of course I had to go and ride my bike almost every day and was too tired to do the workouts after the rides.
Now I have still some days "Making the cut" left and I guess I won't get the same results as doing the whole 30-day program at a stretch.

(But I had a lot of bike-fun ;))

[redrhodie]

Good job! You get extra points for being flexible. ;) You never know when the next good ride day will be. I bet your results will still be good. It's not like you took time off the program to eat bonbons.

[Susan]

Finally I am through the "30 day" program, but obviously it really took me 1 and a half month.

I still don't have a sixpack :D but I can see a lot of definition in my muscles that wasn't there before, I can see my leg, shoulder an arm muscles and even some definition on my belly which really is an achievement for me because I tend to look flabby despite doing a lot of sport.
I haven't weighted myself in yet (have to visit my parents to use their scale first :)) but I don't think I managed to lose those last 10 pounds I wanted to.

The exercises definitely made me stronger, I can do quite a lot of pushups or burpees or other nasty stuff without much effort and I can even manage to do some pullups with a little cheating.
The intervals that last 1 or 2 minutes (for example step plyos or mountain climbers) were unbearable in the beginning and I can deal with them now.
I also notice that I can achieve better form in some exercises that I had to do with a little cheating in the beginning (like lunges/chair pose/one legged squats).
I really notice this difference in strength while climbing on my bike.

Generally I enjoy biking and running more that this kind of circle/weight-training, but still I decided to continue to do those exercises on a regular basis, because I really can see results that I don't get from my usual workouts.
It was also perfectly doable at home after changing or swapping some of the exercises - so its a good alternative if the weather is bad or I don't feel like going outside in the evening.

So I'm quite happy with the outcome of this program so far!

[Susan]

A small update: As expected, I didn't lose those 10 pounds, but I lost 6 and I'll take it :)

[Tri Girl]

A small update: As expected, I didn't lose those 10 pounds, but I lost 6 and I'll take it :)

great job!!!!:D