I have lost 10 pounds and this is how I did it…

So the title sounds a bit like one of those ads for some sort of miracle weight loss secret. The ones that pop up in google ads and now on Facebook too.

This is SO. NOT. THAT.

Let me back up. Sometime in the spring I decided enough was enough. I wasn’t happy with the way my body was after having two kids and I was ready to do something about it. Something about style blogging and comparing yourself to skinny 20somethings got me motivated.

Here is the thing it was less about the baby weight and more about the lazy weight.

In neither of my pregnancies did I gain more than 30 pounds and lost all of it without alot of effort. Breastfeeding is a pretty awesome diet.

Still after leaving university, sitting at a desk all day and not putting alot of emphasis on physical fitness here I am. Spending nap time blogging and going for walks at the pace of a 4 year old doesn’t help either.

So the first thing I did was GET MOVING.

I didn’t try to do anything drastic, just started going to Goodlife and getting on the treadmill. Endorphins are a great high. When I slacked off I really noticed. I was grumpier and shlumpier.

I did that for the first month. Just made sure I went to the gym. It was more about making new habits at this point than losing weight.

The next phase was to up the ante.

My husband golfs alot in the summer and taking two kids with me to the gym wasn’t that appealing so I had to figure out a way to mantain the whole working out thing on the regular in a new way.

So I started the Jillian Michaels Body Revolution series of workouts. I had seen success with her workouts before. I did the 30 day shred last summer and had lost about 10 pounds before I quit and gained it all back over the holiday season.

What I like about Jillian Michaels workouts is that they are only 30 minutes everyday. Makes it easy to see your way through to the end and build good habits.

If you are wondering what the difference between the 30 day Shred workout and the new Body Revolution workout I can tell you that there are 2 distinct differences.

First the Body Revolution series goes for 90 days so it is obviously longer. Alot of the concepts are the same. Working out big muscles and small muscles, lower and upper body at the same time. This allows you to cut your workout time down quite a bit.

Body Revolution eases you in a bit more in the begining too. If you are somewhat fit to begin with you might want to skip weeks 1 & 2. Still they get you used to the system and makes you realize you can handle 30 minutes of anything and you are less likely to give up in later sessions.

The second major difference is that in the 30 day Shred you do the same exercise every day for 1 week at a time. Whereas Body Revolution has a day for working out front of the body, a day for back of the body and a day for cardio. And you do these 3 workouts for 2 weeks before switching to the next set of workouts.

So does Jillian Michaels Body Revolution work? For me, yes.

My arms are obviously toned by workout 5 and 6 and I am down 10 lbs.

Now I will say that while I was at the cottage I wasn’t doing these workouts so I had alot of start and stops over the summer. But I expect I will be down even more by the time I complete the full 90 days.

Also there is a fairly strict 1200 calorie diet that goes with this workout system. I decided to track what I ate instead of really restricting myself that much. So I used the Lose It app on my phone and tracked what I was eating. Cutting out alot of juice and late night snacking. Eating more salads instead of oven fries.

So I am on my way. I am not going to stop being a “curvier” style blogger any time soon. In fact even if I lose 20 more pounds I will still be curvier than most bloggers out there.

But I am doing this more for how I feel and sure how I look too, but for myself rather than for what others perceive of me. And I find that I am generally happier. I like taking this time out every day to jump around do push ups and jumping jacks. It is like recess and gym class rolled into one.

And did I mention the endorphins?