A Matter of Choice

A couple of years ago I saw a friend on facebook had started following a yoga program on YouTube by Yoga With Adriene . Back in 2008 I used to go to Pilates classes weekly which I enjoyed and continued going to until I was about 7 months pregnant, I'd never managed to find any Pilates videos I liked online and as  I surmised that Yoga would be pretty similar so thought I'd give it a go too. I like a program to follow, exact instructions if you like, I think it's why I've got on so well with Slimming World over the years so I was full of optimism as I started 30 Days of Yoga. I can't remember how many days I did,  maybe 3? I wanted to get fit and I had probably at least a couple of stone I wanted to lose and when I sat on the mat closing my eyes and holding my hands together over my heart I couldn't help but think 'I haven't got time for this s**t)   Meditation has never held any interest for me, my mind would wander too much and I'd be impatie...

Just over two weeks ago I started the 30 Day Shred, I was a little nervous as I'd heard lots about it and it sounded very hard, but I was also excited as I'd also heard of the results people had achieved doing it.  The first day was hard, harder than any workout DVD I've done before and I regularly used to do the Ministry Of Sound workouts, although I always took the easy option on them and probably never pushed myself as hard as I could have done.  I made the decision when I started the Shred to push as hard as I could after seeing a quote online related to it 'Unless you puke, faint or die, Keep Going' And I did, I could hardly breathe during Day 1, Day 2 was the same with the added muscle aches gained on Day 1 but by Day 5 it was a lot easier, note I said 'easier' not easy! ! I had been worried as I always have been whilst exercising about my knees which I've had problems with or years but as the days progressed they actually felt better than ...

At the beginning of the year I announced that I had th e mad idea to try and do the '30 day shred'. It sounded terrifying so I thought I'd work up to it and do the 6 week challenge on EA Sports on the Wii. However, a week into it and I realised it's a bit rubbish so I thought I'd just go for it! So on Saturday I dug out my exercise mat and tins of beans (as weights!) and did Day 1. It was bloody hard work, and I did think I was going to die but I figured it was only 20 minutes so I just powered through whilst swearing and moaning (in my head as I didn't have the breath or energy to do it out loud!) The push ups were the probably the hardest, well those and the jumping jacks, oh and the last section of abs. I could feel like I'd worked out afterwards but was pleasantly surprised the next day, although I did ache I had been expecting to be unable to move. Day 2 was harder as it was the same as Day 1 with the addition of aching muscles. Day 3 was about t...