No, I didn't melt. But that's a good thing.

Good morning! I'm just gonna dive right in. First off, more new DVD feedback. Today's weapon of choice?



Yoga, JM style. Now, I'm probably the last person that should be reviewing a yoga DVD because I'm still a novice and, despite my best intentions, am quite sporadic in my practice. HOWEVER, I think it's safe to say that this isn't your typical yoga workout.

My previous experience with yoga rests on the Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga DVD (only made it through levels 1 and 2; still haven't tried level 3) and Baron Baptiste: Journey into Power Level 1 (which I actually grew to love last time I did it; need to make time for it again soon!).

So, after having done those yoga workouts, Jillian's was different, but not in a bad way. There are two 30 minute workouts and today I just stuck with level one. To be honest, I was pretty terrified because I didn't know what to expect. I thought it was going to be this hardcore burn session, set to industrial music or something. But it wasn't that bad at all.

Basically, Jillian sets you up with standard yoga moves (sun saltuations, downward dog, crescent, warrior 2 &3, etc.), but adds movement so you can perform reps of the move and then hold the move in place for 15 seconds. For example, when she takes you into warrior 2, she has you repeatedly bend and straighten your front leg so you get a little burn going and then you hold for 15 seconds with the front leg bent. She also has you do this with push-ups and side planks.

As typical with JM workouts, she has 2 helpers; one to show beginner moves and the other busting out advanced moves.

The thing I loved most about this DVD? The pace! That 30 minutes just flies by. She purposely moves through each interval quickly so you can benefit from a higher heart rate.

So how did I do? Well, not that great, haha. Since it's easily been a month (or more) since my last yoga session, my form and balance were pretty crap. I've never performed warrior 3 before, so I was getting really frustrated that I couldn't hold myself up and was grasping for the top of the TV to keep from falling. Pretty pathetic, but it only made me want to do the DVD more so I could increase my balance and benefit from body weight training.

Although I appreciated the fast pace of the workout itself, I do wish the cooldown stretch was longer and more relaxing, like the one on the Biggest Loser yoga DVD. Her stretches were definitely effective (I didn't realize how stiff and tense I had gotten over the past few days from my other workouts), but it would've been nice to hold them longer and focus on deep breathing. Yes, I can do that on my own after the DVD is over, but I like it when longer cooldown stretches are included. Ah well.

During the cooldown, Jillian starts to talk about how it's not about being perfect, it's just about practice. That really resonated with me. Obviously, such a statement can be applied to my life in various ways, but when applying it specifically to yoga, I really need to repeat it in my head. If I'm more patient with myself and don't get so frustrated when my form isn't perfect, my yoga sessions won't be so sporadic.

Overall? Another favorite, yet unique addition to my JM collection. She has motivated me, once again, to pursue this workout with more regularity. I'm also motivated to start doing my other yoga DVDs more often too. I think my goal between now and the end of the year is to be able to conquer level 2 of Jillian's DVD and level 3 of the Biggest Loser DVD. It's totally do-able!

Ok, on to food pics. Once again, I took all of my breakfast, lunch and snack pics this morning to save time. I'll try and do that from now on.

Breakfast:



A 3-minute oatmeal cookie & a hard-boiled egg. Thanks to Christie at Honoring Health and her Zucchini Bread Oatmeal, I decided to use up the last of our zucchini in an oatmeal cookie. Yuuuum! Totally loved it. It was like eating a pice of zucchini bread for breakfast. I tried to squeeze out as much excess liquid as I could from the zucchini, but it still made things pretty moist. Before adding the zucchini to the mix, I sprinkled it with splenda and cinnamon. I added about an extra tablespoon of oats, but perhaps more flour would've been better. The taste was awesome though. And I'm still kicking myself for not adding dried cranberries because I think that would've brought it all together. Oh well. Next time. And there will be a next time because I love zucchini and am all for adding it to my breakfast now!

Morning snack:



Good ol' banana and strawberries.

Lunch:



Leftover slice of spinach mushroom pizza (ended up having once slice last night and gave the rest to Doug; I'm officially over pizza this week!) with a spaghetti squash salad. Last night I hacked open a spaghetti squash that I bought a while back and stuck it in the microwave. I was hungry all day yesterday, so to keep from filling up on crap, I went for the squash because it never fails to fill me up.

There's still a ton leftover, so today I took some romaine salad mix and slapped some squash on top (when I cooked it last night, I added: olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic & onion powder) and sprinkled it with fat-free feta for extra protein. Soooo looking forward to this meal!

Afternoon snack:



Pear and some string cheese.

For dinner, I'm planning on trying some Fiesta Flapjacks from Kath at KERF. I've actually been wanting to try the Kodiak Cakes mix for a couple of months now, so I was super-stoked when a) I saw that King Sooper's sold it and b) I saw this recipe a couple of days ago! Some things are just meant to be. I'll let you know how they turn out!