Much of today was spent debating whether or not today would be my designated “day off” that is planned in the 10 Minute Trainer guide. The past couple days have been stressful, and a nap was sounding so much more appealing than getting into work out clothes and repeating different exercises for thirty minutes. Finally I decided I would just do the one ten minute work out and see how I feel. It’s getting started that is the hard part. Starting out with total body, I was a lot more comfortable using the bands, so I was able to get more out of this time than when I had first done total body. Breaking a sweat after four or five minutes, I decided to do all three suggested for day four. It’s only day four, and though it has not become easy, it is easier to follow the work outs and transition quicker now that I am more familiar with all of the moves, and now, I am getting more out of my work outs.

Tony always talks about how every move is designed to work the whole body, and that no muscle or body part is ignored. When I do work out on my own, I think I only work two or three muscles at the most. I am excited to results throughout my body. I always neglect to do my arms, and after completing total body I could immediately feel how much I worked them. 

With the weekend up coming up, I think I’ll save my day off.

I went to my new job today. I start Oct 10th, but I had to go in to do paperwork and be fingerprinted. I am so excited. I can’t wait to start!!! I go to school first for 2 months and then take my state exams for CNA. Once I pass it’s all smooth sailing from there.

Once I got back from that I wacked out my workout. On the ticket for today was total body, lower body, and cardio. My dog and cat kept chasing each other around the house during my workout. I don’t know what got into them  but they were running in and out of my feet and everything! I had to pause my workout twice just to yell at them and get them to simmer down. They are almost as bad as a bunch of kids. Speaking of kids, no call from the school nurse today YAY! I took extra notice today to ensure my form was really smooth and I was using the appropriate band weight and all. I want to get the most out of these workouts. In order to do that you have to pay attention to these key areas. It is better to do 8 clean reps or 45 secs of smooth cardio work, than to rush through everything and not get the most out of this program. It really sucked having to do cardio as my wrap up workout. By the end of lower body I was already feeling the heat and definately didn’t feel like running in circles or doing tires. But I sucked it up and pushed that big play button. Which in the end actuualy makes the reward taste better because you know you pushed yourself.

We decided to switch the P90X off days today. Usually, when doing P90X, today would be Core Synergistics of the “Rest Week”. But our son has been feeling the strain of lack of one on one time at night. We devote a lot of time and effort to both of these programs and these blogs. That’s why we’re glad you guys actually read them and respond. We’re not the only ones putting in here, our kids do too. So anyways, our son was upset because we haven’t spent much time with him at night as of late. So instead of working out will use today as our off day and watch a movie with our son. So good night to you all and we’ll see you tomorrow for another fantastic day!

What a wonderful day! You wouldn’t know it by the way it started out. It was rainy and dreary outside. Really felt like fall. But by early afternoon the sun was out and it was hot. We decided to take the kids to the local aple orchard (this is a family traidtion) to do our yearly round up of apples. We had such a great time. We rode of the hay wagon out to the trees and icked for about 1/2 hour. After we loaded up our van we went to visit the honey house that they had. The kids and I tried real honeycomb. It was delicious!!! All in all a fantastic day spent together as a family. Tomorrow we will start on another tradition. Every year after we “harvest” the apples we come home and make aplebread, applesauce, dehydrated apple slices………we basically go apple nuts! We find these things are great to give as gifts during the holidays. Poeple really appreciate homemade things.

Before we left for the day I did my workout. Started off with a nice round of yoga. Great way to wake up and start the day. PS-I don’t recommend working out on an empty stomach. I find that you will tire more quickly and not perform at your best. Your body needs the energy, so eat a god breakfast and wait about an hour or two. After yoga I did the total body and cardio circuits. I am really starting to show a lot of progress as far as being able to keep up and do a maximum amount of reps. I have a lot of energy and am not as sore as when I first started the program. Now it is more or less an itch to take it to the next level with the advanced program.

Well gang, sorry to cut you guys short today. I’m gonna go spend the rest of this glorious day with my family. If you’ve been on the fence with Tony Horton’s 10 Minute Trainer, all I can say is give it a try, you won’t regret the decision. I will see you all tomorrow!!!

10 Minute Trainer Week 2

Hey everyone just posted up my week 2 pictures. Let me know if you have any questions for me I’d be glad to help, and if you want more info on the program see this link: Tony Horton 10 Minute Trainer

Today was a busy day. The kids start school on Thursday so I’ve been running around getting all the last minute things done (snacks, haircuts, physicals). On top of that it was house cleaning day. I have 2 under the age of 10 and a golden retriever. My house gets nasty after a few days with all the dog fur and smucker’s fingerprints, so I tend to do a full cleaning once a week. This generally takes about 3 hours. So needless to say……I was tired before I even started my workout today! Thus the reason for only 20 minutes.

The Yoga was a much needed treat. I look forward to doing it now, like a “break” from the ordinary. I am definately getting more flexible in my hamstrings. It still burns like hell when I stretch them though. The pidgeon stretch is my favorite, and you guys can see a demo of it in my recap video that should be up by Wednesday or so. I also did lower body today. Man that thing still whoops my thighs! They are shaking and quaking as we speak. But I am able to do things a little longer this week. I have also started trying to test/push myself. When I feel like I’ve reached my limit I take a teeny break and then I try to squeek out 2 or 3 more. Only do as much as you think your body can handle. Better to have 10 with great form and really work your body, than have 30 that are rushed and hurt yourself. I am back on track now with my eating. Like I said, this weekend was a little iffy here and there. But I started off today right with a portein shake (recipe in the nutrition guide). These are not your average gross shakes. They have you add things like berries or bananas, and the protein powder is chocolate or vanilla flvored. So I have no problem waking up to a chocolate strawberry shake for breakfast.

I look forward to the next few weeks with you guys and I hope you are enjoying the blogs, pics, and videos. Tomorrow will be an off day, but I will still check in. Check out the website If you want more info on the 10 Minute Trainer 

Ok….I am officialy eating humble pie! I started my 90 days of workout commitment today and boy was I wrong! I began my day with a healthy breakfast, one I got from the 10 Minute Meal Guide, 1/2 a cantelope with 1/2 a cup lowfat cottage cheese with 1/3 cup high fiber cereal. I must say it was really good! I wasn’t hungry at all after. In fact I found myself quite full…….to the point of bursting! After that I did my dishes and got my kids ready. Now that my “mommy chores” were done it was time for the true test. Being a former gymnist, I had my doubts about what I could possibly achieve in 10 small minutes. So I decided instead of 10 minutes I would do 20 today (10 Minute Trainer allows you to customize your workouts based on what you think you can achieve). So Day 1 on my workout calender was the 10 minute cardio workout. Let me tell you I was sweating after 2 minutes, and that was without the cardio band! I was breathing heavy and having to push myself come the last 2 minutes. I stopped with 30 seconds to go and got a drink and then finished strong the last 10 secs.

The finishing move is definately the hardest thing I have ever done! It’s called “hop squat back run forward”. You start in squatting position and hop backwards 4 times then run forward like you are running through tires…..then do it all over again for a minute! 10 Minute Trainer is intense! I could not believe this was just the cardio portion of my day. My all knowing self decided to add the lower body workout to my routine today as well. I had another 10 minutes of shaking buns and thighs. My muscles are still twitching from the exercises. I loved it all though! Day 1 lesson learned:: You are not as great as you think you are! I am definately looking forward to tomorrow’s workout……..I don’t think I’ll be doing any more than 20 minutes for a  while though LOL!