"Making the cut" in March

[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.

[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*"

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.