• Jillian Michaels’ 30-Day Shred – we first Shredded here at the Sisterhood last April, and it was my first foray into the wonderful world of consistently working out. Before that, I was sporadic at best. Okay, I was lazy and didn’t really work out! The Shred really changed things for me, by the end of the 30-days I’d felt pain like I’d never felt before, but emerged strong and confident. That’s right, I felt STRONG! That should give all you first time Shredders some hope, because I know you are hurting so bad you can barely lift your arms to brush your teeth. In 3 weeks, those arms are going to look FABULOUS. Trust.If you’ve never Shredded before, what are you waiting for? It’s not too late to join Shredding with the Sisterhood. Just hop on over to the ‘hood, join the Shredding with the Sisterhood group and get started. All you need is a DVD player and TV, some hand weights, and the Shred can be purchased for under $10.

• EA SPORTS Active was next up on the agenda for me, as I welcomed my very own personal trainer into my home. HOLLA! If you’ve never tried a virtual fitness game, I highly recommend the EA SPORTS Active line of Personal Trainer and More Workouts. No more using the excuses of no access to a gym, or no time to go to the gym, blah blah blah, because Active brings the gym, and the personal trainer right to your living room. There’s no equipment necessary, aside from the leg strap and resistance included with Personal Trainer, although if you’re fitness level is more advanced, you might want a stronger resistance band.EA SPORTS Active Personal Trainer retails for $49.96 and More Workouts for  $36.99 are Sisterhood tested and approved, so if you’ve been wanting to jump into the world of virtual fitness, give them try.

• Running. Plain and simple. It’s easy, you can do it anywhere, and aside from a pair of running shoes, it’s FREE. If you’ve never run, or if it’s been a long time since you have, I highly recommend using a training program to help increase your distance slowly. If you get out there and try to run too far too fast, you’re going to end up a major case of shin splints, or a more serious injury, which will leave you on the sidelines for weeks if not months. Trust. Look into the Couch to 5K program, because it’s easy to follow, comprehensive, and will work you up to several mile runs in 9 short weeks. Why not go ahead and sign up for a race right now? Seriously. Having a firm goal is a great way to start off your running program, and nothing beats the feeling of crossing the finish line for the first time (or so I’ve heard!).

Those are my go-to fitness picks, so go ahead, name your poison!

But, I told myself, “If I were to win the game, well then I would HAVE to commit to it!”. The ladies had already said if you win you need to be prepared to write a guest post about the game. I decided I would just do my best IF I WON. I decided to write my comment and try my luck and I left it alone. The next day I got up and checked emails, a few favorite blogs (including this one), my bank account, Facebook, ya know just the basics.

When all of a sudden what should appear in my inbox? An email from Lisa telling me I won!!

I could hardly believe my luck. This was so exciting to me, but also very scary. Now I was committed!

I had to follow through, not get “too busy” and do the 6 week challenge. I was scared, but I was also really looking forward to yet another way to stay focused on this long journey I have been on for the past 9 months.

I replied back to Lisa with my mailing info and waited for the game to appear on my door step.from friendly Mr. UPS. Now I just had to pray it arrived “in time”.  The challenge with the Sisterhood was starting just 3 days after the games release and just a few days before I MOVED. What if I moved before it arrived? What if the game arrived after the start of the Challenge? I started stressing about all kinds of stuff.

The 20^th of November arrived and I hadn’t received my game yet, so I thought ok….well it will probably allow for “off days” I will just make them up. No problem, right? Wrong….I got sick with the FLU on Sunday, the 22^nd. I felt like death warmed over – only I had the chills and 102.7 fever.

Oh, yeah I have to start moving our family the next day -the joys I experienced that week.

Anyway, I received my game on Monday afternoon and although I knew I probably should just leave it in the box I really wanted to give it a try. Christy had already prepped us and said we could adjust the levels from Low to Medium to High, so I knew that I had an out. I decided that I would just do the “low intensity” for a little bit until I started feeling better and got moved.

I did that first night and felt like I did ok with it. I was pretty much “toast” after doing it, but I was still running a fever and had spent the day moving some of our boxes to our new place. Who am I kidding? I was toast before I even started working out. My husband told me I was nuts! I admit I am, but I was determined to not fall too far behind. That night was challenging because there were several exercises I struggled with the remote on, and I was wasted to start with but I got through it. That was the last time I touched it till the following Monday.

Between the flu and the move I just didn’t have what it took to get the workouts done. I barely made it through the week, lol. I made it through the week and was feeling pretty good by Monday the 29^th so I got back to the workouts.  I decided I should go ahead and stay on the “low” setting since I was still getting tired early, and still trying to finish up with the move. I started working out with the game and discovered I had “missed” 3 workouts!

“Wow! How am I going to make that up?”, I wondered.

I didn’t worry about it too much, just kept working out. I really struggled with several of the exercises: like the SQUASH, those maddening lovely REVERSE CRUNCHES, and CURL-UPS.  If it takes coordination I just couldn’t master it that first week. I finally managed to get through the workouts for that first week on the low intensity, but felt like I needed to kick it up to at least “medium”. I wasn’t sweating the way I knew I needed to and I was only burning about 100 calories a night. Not going to accomplish much weight loss with only burning 100 calories.

So the 2^nd week of working out with the game I bumped it up to medium. This was better for me. I started sweating and my heart rate was up. I still struggled with “user error” on some of the games with the remote and nunchuck. During the medium setting they added “skipping” and the “girls and I” were not prepared for the impact of all that bouncing.  I’m telling you right now, protect your “girls” or they will tell you about it the next day!

I also discovered that you have to hold those controllers “just right” or it’s not going to register that you did the exercises. That, to me was the most challenging part of working out during the beginning of the second week. Toward the end of the week I felt like I was rested and ready to bump it up again to “high”.

So, I worked out over the weekend and did it on high intensity.  The weekends are supposed to be my “rest” days, but I wanted to try to catch up from when we first moved….even if it was only in my head.  I worked out on Saturday and Sunday and did pretty well. I still struggle with squash, reverse crunches, curl-ups, and skipping – not to mention the fact that now I have to skip 120 times.

That’s a lot of bounce for me!!

But while I was working out over the weekend I discovered that if you work out on a “rest day” you can make up for missed days.  I’m down to only 2 days behind now, whereas, I was missing 4 days. This is doable for me to make up. All I have to do is work out on the weekend and I’m caught up – Yeah!!

I have done 12 of the 24 scheduled workouts now. I’m feeling good about what I have accomplished with the game and I’m looking forward to finishing strong.

I love some of the new “More Workout” features; like the scrolling totals of how far I have come while doing the challenge. It logs how many miles I have run, how many calories I have burned, and all kinds of other accomplishments. The trainer encourages you, but sometimes gets annoying especially when you are doing the exercises “the right way” but you aren’t holding the remotes right.

To me the best improvement that they made with this game over the original Active is the added abdominal work.  I complain about it every time I do them, but this is my weakest area and the one area on me that I need to work the most. This makes sure I do ab work every time I work out.  I also LOVE that they incorporated the warm up and cool down segments.

Overall, the game has everything to keep me MOVING and LOSING all while having FUN….which will keep me going even when I don’t feel like it!

One last thing I want to say before ending my novel post…I would not be where I am today (down a little more than 37 pounds) without the Sisterhood. I am so glad that I found ya’ll. The support I get from everyone here keeps me going when I feel frustrated that the weight just isn’t coming off fast enough.

Thanks ladies…I love you all and can’t wait till I can get to meet some of you!

AnnG

http://ann-shesgonnablow.blogspot.com

PS- if you are participating in the More Workouts 6 Week Challenge, raise your hand and give us a shout-out.  I know everyone is extra busy during the holidays and it’s very easy to nix the exercise, but stay strong and finish through with it.  At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

It’s true! Today is the final weigh-in for our Shrink-a-Versary Extravaganza Challenge. First thing I want you to do is reach around and give yourself a pat on the back for sticking with the challenge through Thanksgiving and the beginning of the holiday season. WOW!

It’s been 7 weeks, and hopefully you’ve had some great losses! If you haven’t lost much, don’t get down! This is the holiday season afterall, and any loss this time of year should be celebrated. Just don’t celebrate with sugar cookies or rum cake, m’kay? (see first paragraph. pats on back do not contain calories. neither do happy dances!)

So hop to it! Go weigh yourself, blog all about it and come back here and share your permalink. We all want to know how you did, so be sure to let us know what you total loss was for the challenge. We’ll be doling out a very special badge to our Biggest Shrinker. Also, don’t forget to give us your final tally of miles for the Globetrotting with the Sisterhood challenge. We want to see who did the most Globetrotting, and we’ll have a special badge for our winner of that as well!

With Christmas quickly approaching, holiday parties in full swing, baking, parties, and more baking happening, please don’t lose site of your goals! Whether they be to drop a few pounds, lose a little more than a few pounds, eat healthfully, or be more active, YOU CAN DO IT. It is possible to lose or maintain this time of year, you just have to set your mind to it.

And now it’s time for some bullet points!

• Our 12 Days of Weight Watchers giveaways are in full swing! Lots of amazing giveaways every.single.day, with the big prize on Christmas day!!!
• Next Wednesday will be a non-challenge weigh-in! Don’t be a slacker and let all of your hard work go to waste over the next 2 weeks. Be sure to check-in with us and let us know how you’re faring.
• Our next fantabulous challenge will begin on December 30th, and we’re working really hard here at the Sisterhood to make sure this challenge will carry you through the new year with everything you need to successfully KEEP your New Year’s resolutions!
• The 6-week EA SPORTS Active More Workouts challenge is still in full swing, and it’s never too late to join.
• We will officially begin our 1/2 marathon training with Virtual Team in Training on January 1st! If you’re still on the fence, get off already and register! You can email Kirsten for the registration forms and more information.
• If you haven’t joined the ‘hood yet, please do. You’re totally missing out. Just sayin’.
• As always, don’t forget to do some blog hopping and share the comment love with all your Sisters (and Brothers). Everyone needs extra high fives and pats on the back this time of year :)
• Have a fabulous shrinking week!!! That’s an order.

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It’s Melissa (TheDailyMel) sneaking in with a guest post today.  As you may remember, I was one of the lucky winners of the new EAS Active More Workouts fitness game for the Wii recently during the big Shrink-a-Versary Giveaway extravaganza.  Since I’ve had it for a few weeks now, Lisa asked if I would be willing to share some of my thoughts about it.

I’ll start off by saying I was/am a big fan of the original EAS Active Personal Trainer fitness game.  I completed the 30-Day Challenge when I first purchased the game when it was released earlier this year.  Even though I have subsequently purchased other Wii fitness game titles, I kept going back to Personal Trainer.  I have continued doing custom workouts and setting new goals with it.  I loved working toward earning all of the trophy achievements as I went along.  Ok, so yes I admit it, I loved all the little gold stars when I was in kindergarten, too.  What’s your point?

When I heard that More Workouts was coming out recently, I kind of had mixed emotions.  I had high hopes that More Workouts would be as good, if not better, than the original Personal Trainer.  Yet at the same time, I was nervous that perhaps it might be anotherSpeed 2.  You know, the kind of really bad sequel that never should have been made in the first place.

Well, let me reassure you, More Workouts did not disappoint!  I actually like it better than Personal Trainer!   There was a discussion last night among a few members of the Sisterhood on Twitter about which was better when someone asked which game they should purchase if they could only get one.  Of the three of us who responded, it was unanimous that More Workouts was the way to go.  The quality of More Workouts definitely leaves me hopeful that this will just be the first sequel in a long line of the EAS Active franchise of fitness games.

Christy gave a great rundown of how the game is set up & works in her review on Saturday.  If you haven’t already read her review, you should check it out.  I couldn’t say it any better than she, so instead of rehashing all that type of stuff again, I’m going to talk about a couple of improvements in the More Workouts title that I’m happy to see.

• Warm-Up & Cool-Down – I’m so happy to see this feature has been added in More Workouts.  In my opinion, that was the biggest gap in the original Personal Trainer title.  While it’s easy to view this as a “game” since it’s on the Wii, it really is a good workout if you really put your all into it.  Because of that fact, it really is important to warm-up and cool-down after doing one of these workouts.  Now, that having been said, it would be nice if the warm-up & cool-down routines were varied.  I get the same routine with each workout, so it could easily get a bit monotonous over time.
• Better Movement Recognition – In Personal Trainer, there are some strength training movements that just never seem to be recognized by the Wiimote and nunchuck for me.  I finally figured out that if I wiggled them a bit when finishing the movement that the system would then recognize them.  I’ve not had this issue with More Workouts, even when doing similar activities.
• Bob Greene’s The Best Life Diet Nutrition Booklet – Ok, so this wasn’t really something that I needed personally as I have … *ahem* … several diet/nutrition books already.  I do think it’s cool they are including it though for those who might not have the complete Library of Congress diet/nutrition section in their home.  *whistles innocently*  It also includes a section in the back of the booklet with meal plan ideas and a few recipes, so that’s nice.

Now, for the fun part … the workouts! (Ack! Did I just say workouts were … fun?!)  I will start off by admitting that I decided not to start the new 6-week challenge after receiving my game.  I realized that my upcoming vacation (2 more sleeps!) was going to fall right in the middle of it, so I decided to wait and start the challenge when I get back home instead.  In the meantime, I’ve been doing some of the pre-set workouts as well as creating my own custom routines.  Here are some of my favorite activities thus far:

• Cardio Boxing!! – I loved the boxing in the original Personal Trainer, but it’s even better in More Workouts!  Instead of just having targets, there is now an actual sparring partner which makes it more like working out with a trainer.  There are even duck & dodge moves incorporated now along with all the jabs and hooks.  *LOVE*
• Squash – Ok, I could easily see myself becoming addicted to the squash.  Every time I play it, I keep trying to set a new record for consecutive hits without a miss.  LOL
• Step Aerobics – While this isn’t necessarily my favorite game, per se, it really is a good workout.  I wanted to point it out specifically because it is LIGHT YEARS better than the step stuff in the Wii Fit title.  Doing a step workout in More Workouts is like doing an actual step class or DVD.  You can actually do full 30 minute step workouts with this title.  I think it might actually motivate me to buy one of the step riser accessories for my balance board now!

All in all, I give the new More Workouts a major two thumbs up!  If you have a Wii, this is definitely a title worth having.  There’s actually still time to win a free copy, too!  For more details, be sure to follow  @Active_Girl on Twitter and also become a fan of EA SPORTS Active on Facebook.  Kathryn (a.k.a. @Active_Girl) is giving away 2 copies a day through December 16th as part of their “10 Days of #easactive” on Twitter.

Well, that’s it from my Wii little corner of the world. ;-)

Thanks!

Melissa
Blog:  http://www.melgetsfit.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/TheDailyMel
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheDailyMel

More Workouts is the newest fitness game from EA SPORTS Active. Like Personal Trainer, More Workouts guides you through pre-set workouts, just like a personal trainer would in the gym. The beauty is you don’t have to pay personal trainer prices and you can get an amazing workout without ever taking off your pajamas or leaving your living room (although I do recommend a sports bra for the girls!). Perfect, no?

New to More Workouts is a warm up and cool down station, abdominal exercises (that will make you want to cry they’re so good), and 35 new fitness activities including squash (fun!), step aerobics (so much better than the dance moves in Personal Trainer, yo!), and paddle surfing. Like Personal Trainer, you can choose a pre-set workout, build your own workout, or take part in the 6-Week Challenge. You can also choose the intensity you want: Low, Medium, or High (<—that’s me! All the way :). No matter your fitness level, you will find a workout that will get your heart will be pumping and your muscles burning!

I know you may be skeptical, and believe me, I was too. I mean, how can a Wii game be an effective workout? How can a game tone my muscles and get my heart pumping? The people at EA SPORTS Active have made it happen, and let me tell you, it’s amazing. The scenery is soothing, the music is pumping, the instruction is thorough, and the workout is REAL. I know because I saw real results with Personal Trainer, and I’m seeing and feeling real results with More Workouts.

If you want to read more about EA SPORTS Active’s offerings click here!

Because I am an EA SPORTS Active 6-Week Challenger, you can also check-up on my progress here. Just don’t laugh at my vlogs, mkay? While you’re there, be sure to check out the other 11 totally rad challengers as well!

If you’d like to follow along with the Sisterhood’s progress with the More Workouts 6-Week Challenge, you can check out our group in the ‘hood! We’re having a blast shrinking with More Workouts!

The 10 Days of Active!
If you don’t already own EA SPORTS Active More Workouts, starting Monday you’ll have a chance to win a copy! For more details, be sure to follow @Active_Girl on Twitter and also become a fan of EA SPORTS Active on Facebook. @Active_Girl, aka Kathryn, will be giving away 2 copies a day for 10 days.

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Disclosure: The writers at the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans were given copies of EA SPORTS Active Personal Trainer and More Workouts to review. We were not compensated for our reviews.

Keep in mind that our current challenge, the Shrink-a-Versary Extravaganza Challenge, doesn’t end until December 16th. We also have 2 fitness challenges going right now: the Globetrotting with the Sisterhood challenge and the EA SPORTS Active 6-week Active for Life challenge.

I would like to take a moment to thank each and every one of our prize sponsors. Without them, the last month’s Shrink-a-Versary certainly wouldn’t have been as exciting as it was!

• Gock’s Frocks
• Proctor & Gamble
• BornFit
• Moving Comfort
• KOR
• One More Mile
• Kellogg’s
• EA SPORTS Active
• RoadID
• Run U Mother
• Hungry Girl
• J & Ds Foods
• Steph Enos
• Simply Salads Cookbook
• Weight Watchers
• Desperately Seeking WordPress
• Melt It Off
• The Healthy Pantry

For a complete list of our giveaways, click here. You’ll find links to all these fine companies (and more) there!

Last week, Heather described my trek to the scale so perfectly in her weigh-in post that I laughed out loud as I took every step in the perfect way in which she described. Something about heading to the scale, looking at the numbers with our “scrunched up eyes”, naked and after having already peed (because we all know that adds about 5 more pounds…oh wait, I think I added the pee part. But still.)

That’s me. I’m a first-thing-in-the-morning weigher. Every Wednesday morning. Just like today.

So hop to it, sisters! Take the trek to the scale, or if you want to, skip to the lou (or loo) and whistle on over to the scale, look down at the number, go post about it, and leave the link right here in the comments below. Or if you don’t have a blog, weigh in right here in the comments.

Then don’t forget to visit everyone and leave a little comment love because if there is any weekend that we’re all going to need the extra support and motivation, it’s this one!

And don’t forget to add how many miles you logged this past week and/or how you’ve done on the More Workouts challenge and what you are thankful for this Thanksgiving eve. OK you don’t have to add the “thankful” part, but why not? We’re among sisters, here and you’ve all become my “virtual” family.

And this year, I’m thankful for the Sisterhood. I’m thankful for this freakin amazing year. God, I’m so darned thankful for being able to run around with my babies. Finally!! I’m thankful that I found inspiration and motivation to change my life through all of you. You are all SO AMAZING with your 5ks and half-marathons and never-ending motivation and support!!! I just love you.

So let the love-fest continue in the comments below. Go on, do tell…how did you do this week?