Dance cardio didn’t interest me much today, and I ended up listening to that annoying little voice and only did a halfhearted 15 minutes. This will definitely be the area that will need the most improving, and hopefully one day I’ll triumphantly type that I did a full 30mins. But sadly, that day is not today.

Thankfully, praise the Heavens, I did kick BUTT on the transformation workout today! Not only did I feel the burn from yesterday’s workout, but I could feel the muscles stretching and pulling and getting whipped into shape! Oh, how I love that feeling. It’s so satisfying. But that annoying voice was there every step of the way. But the TAM gods were shining favorably upon me, and I came out on top! Battling through each exercise, doing full 40-count reps! Mmm, feels so good.

And again, here I sit, in a puddle of my own sweat, planning my attack on tmrw’s workout!!

I started with the 30min cardio. I’ve never been a cardio person, ever since I was a prepubescent teen spending a day and a half throwing up after jogging/walking the mile-and-a-half in gym class. Thankfully, now that I’m older, I have a little more of a can-do attitude, but I’m still no marathon runner. So needless to say, I didn’t rock out the full 30mins. I went as hard as possible for the first 10mins, but when you’re jumping and hopping, minutes feel like forever! So I’ll admit the remaining 20mins was a little off-and-on filled with spurts of energy and other less-than-enthusiastic dancing. But I’m looking on the bright side - this is a starting point that I can measure all progress against going forward!

I am, however, PROUD to say that I OWNED the transformation workout today! I definitely think that my experience with the 30-day Tracy Anderson Method helped me get through this part of the workout. In comparison to TAM, the 30-min Meta transformation workout is a much easier pill to swallow! I mean, who wouldn’t mind doing 30mins vs 2hrs!! Yes, people, I said 2 hrs (a bit of an exaggeration, but in TAM this part of the workout def took 1-1.5hrs a day). I stayed really disciplined with the arm exercises with and without the weights — didn’t lower my arms ONCE! The ab workout was pretty standard, necessary but not anything noteworthy. The leg exercises are, as usual, the highlight of the workout! I love them and hate them at the same time. It’s excruciating to do, but I know I’ll feel so hurtfully good tomorrow.

So having said all that, I sit here sipping on some coconut water dripping in my own sweat with a smile on my face for having accomplished Day 1′s mission. Now, let’s all pray that this motivation continues, and I’m back here with another update tomorrow!

But try as I might to turn a blind eye, literally, I guess it’s really time to hunker down and get DETERMINED! MOTIVATED! DRIVEN TO A MUFFINTOP-FREE ME!

I’m writing this entry before my first [real] workout in a very long time. The goal is to do the full 30mins of Tracey Anderson Metamorphosis dance cardio followed by the full 30mins transform workout. In all honesty, I can sit and watch 5 hours straight of nonsense TV, why can’t I just do 1hr of feel-good exercise? Well I’m here to tell the world, I.CAN.DO.IT! And by the world, I think I mean myself.

So here we go! Pandora – check! Dance Cardio DVD – check! Energy – check! See you on the other side of feeling good, boys and girls…

So I’m back, with a new last name and Tracy Anderson’s Metamorphosis in hand. I purchased the series a while back, but haven’t really committed to a strict regimen yet. But here I go… Metamorphosis is a 90-day program that consists of a daily 30mins cardio dance workout and a 30mins exercise workout that changes every 10 days. There’s also a diet plan that comes along with the program, but I’m not as motivated to follow it this time around. Mainly because I don’t want to eat baby food every other week. While I was super strict with the diet back on TAM, I feel well equipped to handle my food intake during Metamorphosis – cutting out salt and sugar, and really concentrating on wholesome, raw nutrient goodness.

Since I’ve dabbled with the cardio and exercise workout a few times, I knew what to expect today… and I have to say in all honesty today was a complete failure. I want to be extremely candid in these posts so that a true transformation can be seen progressively. I was only able to follow about 10-15mins of the cardio dance, and I wasn’t motivated to do the 30mins exercise at all. They say that exercise promotes energy, therefore I blame my blasé-blah attitude on the lack there-of. But who’s to say that the small amount of exercise I did today won’t make me feel AMAZING tomorrow, ready to tackle a full day of Metamorphosis??

So here’s to looking on the up and up, and getting myself back in the right frame-of-mind. Tomorrow will be a better day. I know this because it can’t be any worse than today.

Well, as promised, here are some of the meals I’ve eaten in the past few days.

Poached salmon egg white omelet

Chix and spinach salad w/ dried cranberries and a dijon vinaigrette

Chix and vegetables in a soy vinaigrette

Can’t WAIT for tomorrow’s berry compote breakfast. yummmm.

Today was another good day – great food and good mat exercise workout. There is some bad news, though. Turns out that “calves tight” feeling I had this morning turned into a nasty inability to do my cardio today. My left calf is really tight and I can barely walk. I’ve tried to massage and stretch it out, but nothing loosened the muscle. Right now I’m just hoping I can tackle some cardio first thing tomorrow morning. I tried to do the dance tonight and the pain was too intense, so I had to skip. Boo, I know. But I’m going to remain optimistic and hope that a good night’s sleep will heal my sore calf muscles. It’s funny – I feel like the muscles are “re-knitting” themselves, like Tracy says in her book!

So I also promised my measurements. I think I’m going to withhold that information until Day 30. I’m not quite seeing inches melt off my body, but I can see a transformation slowly taking place. I’ll keep my result updates to the poundage loss for now.

Last thought for today – I feel like I’ve become a walking advertisement for TAM, and it’s not a bad thing! I’m talking TAM with everyone I know, and it’s because I really believe in it! It’s also becoming a really great motivator because I want to show my friends that it’s doable and that the results are REAL! I hope everyone out there doing TAM feels the same way, because it’s an amazing tool for women! I’m learning so much about myself and my abilities, too!! WooHoo~~~~

Until we meet again tomorrow…

So this morning marks the beginning of day 13 of TAM, and I am in seriously GOOD pain! Calves are tight, upper arms are a-tinglin’ and when I laugh it sounds like this, “ha.ha…ow… haha… ow.”

So if you’re doing the math and thinking that something doesn’t add up in my days, you, my friend, are absolutely right! I should really be on day 17, but I fell down a slippery slope of laziness and temptation!!! It all started on NYE…

BUT! I’m glad to say that after a wknd (horrible) hiatus, I tackled TAM first thing Monday morning, and thankfully those 5lbs I’d gained back over the few days of indulgence melted right off by Wednesday afternoon! Miraculous!

So what’s been going on these past few days of TAM? I moved from sequence 1 to sequence 2 in the mat exercises. Towards the end of sequence 1, I was getting bored with the 16 exercises and it was really hard for me to focus and concentrate on performing really well. Word to the wise: DO NOT SKIMP DURING EXERCISES!! It’s a complete compounding affect! What you do in the first sequence will definitely prepare you to succeed in the second! And if you start compromising, it does you NO good going into the second part (and I’m assuming into the last 10-day stretch, too)! But now that I’m doing the second part (sequence 2), it’s new and fresh and really challenging in the best way possible! There’s nothing better than powering through a mat exercise workout and feeling AMAZING afterwards!

This part of the workout has me using a sturdy chair, doing crazy crunches (i feel like it’s a million!), and these horrible killer push-up things that feel so bad while doing them, but so good when they’re done! Today will be the 3rd day of doing the second sequence, and I’m looking forward to upping my reps. I’m going slow and steady because I found once I reached 60 reps, I plateu’d and lost a lot of interest. Adding ankle weights didn’t really seem like a good option for me because I was still struggling to get up to 60 reps through all the leg-related exercises, but very disinterested in the crunches and arm exercises. We’ll see what happens right around the 6th or 7th day of this sequence. Hopefully I can stay just as motivated and energized!

Cardio is another whole monster in and of itself. I, for one, HATE cardio of any kind, so I’m still kind of struggling to get through 40mins (30mins jumping and full throttle and 10mins of stepping through). But I acknowledge and accept that this is a personal battle that I have to WIN! And I will, gosh so help me, WIN!!! Stay tuned in the next few posts for an improvement on the cardio dance because I’m determined to kick @$$ for a full 40mins by Sunday! Sidenote: I’ve changed my channel on Pandora to Lady Gaga and it’s been matching with the instructional video a lot better. Rock on!!

And lastly, THE FOOD!!! My favorite PART! I will update this post a little later today with pictures of some of the food from the past couple of days. It’s been pretty good.

Personal realizations of food from TAM:
* i do NOT like papaya
* i can eat salt-free and not miss it!
* honeydew and grape salad? A-MA-ZING! looks beautiful and tastes great!
* sweet tooth is amply satisfied by all of the diff fruits and the occasional chocolate puddings  
* TAM’s oil-free salad dressings are delicious-o!
* Chix is NOT boring

So in a little bit I will be posting pics of food (for your viewing pleasure) and also my measurements! I have to call the bridal shop to get my original inches, and my hubby-to-be gave me body tape, so I can at least track those disappearing (*fingers-crossed*) inches! Also, I’m down from ~141lbs to 135lbs!!! thank you thank you, I can hear you all clapping out there.

(Random random sidenote – the best thing that gets me through writing this blog is some country hits playing in the background! Wrapping up to Eric Church – “Smoke a Little Smoke”)

So the holidays have come and gone, and man were they good this year! Good times, good company, great gifts, … and some serious DISCIPLINE! Well, at least in the food realm of things. Exercising was a little spotty, but I really kept up with the food portion of TAM! I even packed a spinach salad to take home to eat during Christmas dinner, so while everyone was chomping on mashed potatoes, steak/burgers/sausages (my fam did things a little different this year), and all the fixins, I devoured my spinach salad w/ chestnuts, some grilled chicken and a balsamic/dijon dressing. I even bypassed all the desserts! Well, all for one small bite of the fiance’s slice of pie (man, was it good!).

mom’s Christmas plate…

my Christmas plate.

So where have I been these past few days, you ask? I’ve been snowed in and getting back into the swing of things! Christmas kind of threw a monkey wrench into my workout plans, and the past few days I’ve only been to do either cardio or mat exercises. BUT, today I finally got back and did both! Man, do I feel good, but it was hard for me to get through it all. Granted, the reps are up, form is good, and I jumped and danced my way through 30mins of cardio… I just have to modify my attitude! It needs to be more positive and motivated!

The hardest part of these workouts is STARTING. And then, during the mat exercises now that I’m up to about 60 reps per exercise, I’m struggling to complete the whole 1.5hr without getting up and wanting to quit. Today, I hung up my wedding veil to get motivated! It definitely got me through, but I can’t let the temptation to cheat get the best of me! I have to be my own cheerleader!

I’m going to weigh myself tomorrow, and shortly I’ll be taking some measurements. I have a good feeling that I’ve lost at least 1 or 2 inches! I’ll let you all know how that goes because, well, we’re in this together – me and you, blog world!

So I blogged yesterday that I woke up feeling a little woozy. I think that was the direct result of doing my cardio workout at about 9PM the night before. Yesterday, unfortunately with prep for today’s festivities and holiday, I was only able to squeeze in 1.5hrs of my mat exercises, but I made it a good one! The best part is, I’m starting to really feel and (kind of) see the beginnings of a little bicep muscle! Could it be?? Might it be the beginnings of, dare I say, TONED ARMS?!?! *gasp* I have always had a complex about my upper arms, but if after the 30-days I have sleek and sexy arms, I think I’ll just cry!

So, seeing as today’s Christmas, and I’m going to stick to my diet STRICTLY, I think I’m only going to have time to do a fierce cardio workout and will have to leave my mat exercises for tomorrow. I know I know, Tracy says not to start making excuses, BUT, this blog is surely a powerful thing! I don’t want to disappoint, so you can rest assure that I will for darn sure be back at it full force tomorrow. And besides, isn’t STARTING the TAM before the holidays miracle enough?

To all of you out there celebrating the holiday, I wish you a very merry and bright one!

I finished my workout late last night, and again had little energy to type up a brief recap so here I am today, mid-Day 4, still going strong!

Yesterday was tough, but rewarding. The food wasn’t my fav (steamed turkey and wilted spinach for bfast?? salmon salad… a lot of cold food), but it was filling enough. Biggest accomplishment? – I met with some friends at a bakery cafe for 2.5hrs surrounded by ALL of the temptations of holiday baked goods and deliciously alluring smells, and I stayed strong and didn’t have a single bite of ANYTHING! There were pastries strewn across our table, and I didn’t reach for a single one! Now if that’s not willpower, I don’t know what is! And I’ve become a walking advocate of TAM. Everywhere I go I find myself telling people that I’m doing this – partly because I don’t want ppl to think I’m starving myself b/c I’m surely eating plenty within the walls of my own home, but also partly because I feel the more ppl I tell, the more I’ll be motivated to keep at it for results. I can’t wait for Day 30 to roll around to post pics and say, “Hey friends and naysayers! I DID IT!!”

So back to the workouts… I did the muscle design mat exercises. They’re getting a bit easier. The crunch exercises are killing my abs, but I fought through it and hit my daily rep goals! *yAy* And I feel like my form is getting tighter and my “performance” is more spot-on. For those of you who want to or are starting out, no matter how confident you feel following the book layout for the exercises, def pop in the DVD and use it as a complement just to reinforce your form. I didn’t use the DVD on Day 2, and yesterday I realized while doing it WITH the DVD that I’d been skimping in some of the exercises. Which made it all the more harder, but satisfying at the same time. Upping the reps caused a much longer workout than I’d anticipated, but I think it’s because I’m still doing a lot of resting between reps and exercises. Instead of being discouraged, though, I’m going to be ENCOURAGED by the possible future of shorter rests and a shorter workout time! Woohoo! Progress can be such an amazing motivator.

Now for the cardio dance. Again, that 2.5 hrs at the cafe caused a serious setback in my day and I ended up eating dinner at 8 PM. I digested for an hour and popped in the DVD and blasted my technotronic tunes. My goal wasn’t to half-@$$ my way through 30mins, but to do a SOLID 20 minutes of dance sequences…and (I’m going to shout it from the rooftops) SUCCESS!!!! Not only did I feel GREAT afterwards, I felt accomplished.

So this Christmas Eve is now devoted to finishing up wrapping, writing cards, and tackling some more TAM! I woke up a little woozy – probably my body getting used to the “cleanse” it’s experiencing (it’s not used to this lack of bi-daily chix wing intake!), but I tossed together my cup of blackberries, strawberries and pomegranate seeds and devoured the delicious “berry compote.” I just had some homemade chix soup and am going to hit the mat for some TAM in a bit.

Here we go! Holidays or not, I’m stickin’ with TAM! I mean, seriously, I’ve got my audience cheering me on, right? *crickets crickets* Well, that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself. *wink

I started my day with the veggie omelet wrap, and boy was I pleasantly surprised at its tastiness! Who knew egg whites, puree’d veggies and some quinoa with no salt could taste so good and be so filling. Between anticipating the next meal and the next workout, my day passed like a flash. I’m not sure how all the other TAM followers out there plan their days, but I choose to split up my mat exercises and dance cardio. I think if I tried to bang it out in one-fell-swoop I’d fall back in a pool of sweat and be paralyzed for the rest of the day. I’m hoping, though, by next week I’ll be able to muster through it all in a continuous 2hr workout. That is, if these aches and pains I’m feeling subside.

Let me tell you a little something about these little mat exercises TAM’s got me doing. Well, truth be told, they’re not so little! These 16 exercises I’m grueling through have got me sweating, huffing and puffing, and achin’ all over! Thanks to my trusty post-its (didn’t want to graffiti my book in hopes of sharing it with friends pending my results), I’m writing down the # of reps per exercise in hopes of getting up to the recommended 60/day. It’s like the angel and the devil all rolled into one – it’s good b/c I can see my progress, but it’s bad b/c it’s taunting me to push myself for those extra reps. So, as of today, I’m right around 30 to 40 reps depending on the exercises. I’m getting there, right? RIGHT!

Of course, there’s a but, a BIG but… But then, right around 45mins in I’m on exercise #10 and my focus starts to waiver and I get the shakes … the email shakes, that is. Tracy specifically asks when doing her method that you break from the world and focus ONLY on the exercises at hand. That means no phones, no emails, and no distractions. And man oh man is it hard. Thankfully, I’m experiencing this strange feeling of accountability with this blogging thang. It has me thinking, “if you want to blog about it, you better dayam well be doing it by the book! NO CHEATING!” So I reach deep inside and find my patience, focus and DETERMINATION! So I looked at my blackberry once… Nothing on there I couldn’t have let wait for another 20mins, so tmrw, I’ll be focused and determined NOT to look!

Same waivering focus happened during the dance cardio. I only did 30mins today, but I had to really dig deep to get through even that much! My body just felt worn down. Oh, and anyone else out there find that the last couple mins of the dance sequences are a little choppy? I’m just glad I didn’t fall flat on my face! My friend, Janelle, assures me that I’ll get the hang of it. She also advised I use my own music to go hand-in-hand w/ the dvd — now THIS was a great tip! I’m no techno lover, but I created a “Technotronic channel” on Pandora and it’s P-E-R-F-E-C-T for grooving through this workout. Now if I could only get my coordination in check…

Needless to say, I’m tuckered out. Time for some good rest and tmrw I’ll be at it all over again. And to be honest? I can’t wait!