Month: August 2009

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The Contenders

As promised, I have narrowed my fitness regimen choices down from the thousands out in cyberspace to just a few. Let me know which one you think I should take!

#1: 30-day Shred

The Jillian Michaels 30-day Shred exercise regimen first got on my radar through one of my college roommates, Christine, who lives and blogs in Boston. Her “after” pictures in a bikini radiate so much confidence that I couldn’t help but check out the program she used. Turns out she followed along with the Shredheads as they worked out with Jillian for 30 days back in March.

Imagine my surprise when my friend Amy recommended the same program in her comments to my last post!

PRICE: free but limited (on Comcast On Demand) to about $8 for the DVD on Amazon.

PROS: recommended by friends

CONS: This DVD boasts that you can lose 20 pounds in 30 days. Is that healthy? Or is that just hyperbole?

#2: Bowflex 6-week Challenge

I’m kind of already doing this challenge, except for the cardio part. I mean, heck, we’ve got a Bowflex, so there’s no doubt I’ll be using it. The question is, will I be able to figure out how to do all these exercises correctly? As I mentioned in my last post, the pictures and explanations in the little booklet Bowflex provided has been little to no help, and I feel like I’m flying blind.

There are some solutions to my information problems, but those solutions cost money. FitnessBliss has a fitness software solution to track and suggest different routines specific to the Bowflex ($15). There is also a “must have” book about the Bowflex called The Bowflex Body Plan by Dr. Ellington Darden ($13 used on Amazon).

PROS: I don’t have to change much of what I’m already doing, except add cardio.

CONS: It’s still a pretty DIY solution, and I’m a busy person. I’d prefer to have someone tell me exactly what to do and when.

COST: $15 FitnessBliss software + $13 book = $28.

#3: 12-week Body-for-LIFE Challenge

The Body-for-LIFE Challenge runs on the principles of eating right & exercising properly, and if you join the challenge (which starts Sep. 1 — the same time I was thinking of starting!), they provide you with exercises to do and meal planning suggestions.

PROS: Cash prizes! $25,000 for Grand Master Champion & $10,000 for Category Champions.

CONS: Still a little DIY, but not as much as the Bowflex Plan. And, let’s face it, anything I do will have to be customized to my own personal workout style.

COST: Free (unless I want to purchase any of the numerous EAS products they have on their website — for which I would be reimbursed, naturally, if I win. Hey, they’ve gotta make money somehow).

I’ve got a pretty good idea what I’m going to do now, but I’d love to hear what you think, either in the poll below or in the comments section.

Let me know what you think!

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Getting Fit

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that Ray got us a Bowflex this summer, and ever since it arrived, I’ve been struggling with the idea that although I do want to get fit, I’m inherently lazy. So far, we’ve been good at keeping each other on track, but it’s only been a few weeks, and I’m worried about what might happen in another couple weeks when I start getting busy again.

I mean, it’s not that I don’t want to lose weight and tone up a little; it’s just that I really dislike exercise, and there’s honestly not a single sport (other than horseback riding, which is an expensive prospect, to say the least) that I enjoy enough to do every day or so. I’ve joined gyms before, but, like many people, have ended up canceling my membership because I simply didn’t go often enough and was wasting money.

Anyway, now we have this Bowflex, and I’ve been exercising on it every other day, but I feel like I might not be working out all the right muscles (the Bowflex Classic doesn’t have a whole lot of leg exercises) and the instruction manual that came with this contraption has pictures of some of the exercises, but not all of them. How am I supposed to do the right exercises if I don’t know how to set up the machine or how to do it “right?”

I figured there would be plenty of videos on YouTube about different Bowflex exercises — and there are some, just not a whole lot — but again, most of them are for the arms, and most of them are beefy guys trying to show off how much weight they can press.

I’m also concerned about the fact that I have no cardio training in my exercise regimen at the moment, and while strength training is good, I’m likely to burn calories more quickly through cardio. I don’t really walk anywhere (remember I live in NJ, where the car is king), and I’m not a very good biker (I get freaked out in traffic), so most likely what I would need is something I could do in the house in conjunction with the Bowflex training.

I think I need a plan for myself, and some sort of goal to motivate me. There are thousands of online fitness challenges out there, from the President’s Challenge (seems a little vague to me) to the Couch to 5K plan (I’m not really that interested in running unless chased, honestly), so I did some research and narrowed it down to several contenders. I’ll need your help to decide which one to try, though…more details to come in the next post.