Falling in Love with Jillian Michaels

I've just finished day 2 on level 1 of the 30 Day Shred, and I'm officially in love.  Of course, it's not your typical butterflies-in-the-tummy love.  It's painful, sweaty, and accompanied by a lot of panting and grunting on my part, but it's love nonetheless haha.

There are a lot of reasons I'm loving the 30 Day Shred.

1. The music.  It's upbeat, is perfectly timed with the exercises, and changes depending if you're warming up/working out/cooling down.  I have to say that at the end of the circuit when I hear that music change to cool down music my heart literally skips a beat.  Although it may just be giving out from all the intensity.  Hmm.
2. Jillian's pep talks.  There are certain things she says during level 1 that really strike me.  Like when she talks about how we've been told to just take the stairs or some such wimpiness and she says "That's a message of lethargy" that doesn't help us at all and that we CAN work out and work out hard.  How true.  I know I definitely didn't realize how strong I actually am until I started doing this.  I also like near the end when she's telling you to just keep going and don't quit and she says "I want you floating off the ground right now.  This is easy.  Nothin you can't do".   At that point I actually yell out "EASY" and "NOTHIN I CAN'T DO" because I feel like I'm about to die but I KNOW that I am so awesome I can keep going.  Jillian makes me believe in myself, and I love that.  
3. Insta-progress.  I know I'm only on day 2, but even just from yesterday morning I'm already seeing a huge improvement in myself.  I love that each day is an opportunity to see improvement.  My issue with weight loss has always been that results don't come fast enough for me to stay encouraged.   But when I know that each day I'll finish the circuit a little faster and a little stronger than the day before, it really makes me want to do it again the next day to see how much better I'm getting.  And since right now I can only use the weights half the time (probably because I'm starting with 5 lbs because I don't have 3 lb weights) and have to pause every minute or so to catch my breath and drink some water AND I'm only on level 1, I've got a long way to go.  There's a lot of improvement in my daily future, and I LOVE that.  
4. It's 30ish minutes of really spectacular me time.  And it's probably the best way to spend my me time that I've ever found.  I love making myself feel AWESOME.

So yesterday The Shred took me 39 minutes and I burned around 470 calories.
Today The Shred took me 32 minutes (although I forgot to unpause my HRM for about five minutes there, so really it probably took me about 37) and I burned 406 calories (but with the five minutes of very intense activity unaccounted for, it was probably more like 456).

So, my time has already improved!  I wasn't working quite so hard today because I did drop the weights for half the sets and I was focusing on proper form in the leg exercises so as not to hurt my already tender knees.  But that's okay!  400+ calories gone in under 40 minutes is still hella impressive.  I know I'm impressed with myself.

But now I have to take the fastest shower ever and get my ass to work on time, so I shall update tomorrow with The Shred day 3!  Adios amigas!