Shred results - 8 days in

So, as you know, I am doing the Jillian Michaels 30-day shred. Yesterday was day 8, and I decided to take some measurements and see if there were any changes. I wasn't expecting anything too drastic, since my weight has stayed exactly the same. Obviously, something is happening, though, because I lost 5.25" inches in 6 days (I first measured myself on day 2, before doing the workout, so I was only one workout in)!

Here are the stats:

 Day 2                                Day 8

Bust 34.5"                          34"
Hips 34.5"                           34.25"
Waist 28.75"                       26.75"
Belly 34"                             32.5"
Thighs 20"                           19"
Calf 11.75"                        12.5"
Arms (normal) 10"               9.5"
Arms (flexed) 10"                9.75"

Total inches lost so far: 5.25"... 3.5" of those were in my waist and belly! Um, and let's just say I hope my calves stop their monster growth.

I don't look like this yet...

But I will someday, right? Ok probably not, but I know I will look like the best version of myself that I can be if I just keep at it.

April 11 is my last day of the shred. I think I'll be starting with the personal trainer at our gym on Wednesday, April 13. Wish me luck, I am going to need it!

Side by side comparison...

As a continuation of my last post, here are some side by side comparisons of the "before" pictures and what I look like now.






My mind = blown.

See for yourself what a difference 10 pounds makes. Plus, thoughts on Day 5 of 30 day shred.

I was looking through some pictures last night, and WOW. I can definitely see the change in myself now. Can you?

This was me in October or November of 2010.

In this first picture I am even wearing spanx... I had to wear them every day just to be able to get my pants on. It still wasn't doing me a whole lot of favors:

I remember how I felt that day, how uncomfortable I was in my own skin ALL THE TIME then. This is not the body I wanted to live in.

These were taken around the same time. I thought the slightly flowy top was masking my problem - I was wrong:

I had no waist whatsoever. And be sure to note how round my face was, too. Do you see a difference from those pictures to these?

And Glory Hallelujah my face is slimming down, too. This picture was taken just last night.

I am so proud of myself. I still have some work to do, but being able to look at these pictures all together and SEEING the changes is motivating me even more. Hopefully you can see them, too, and I'm not just being delusional.

In other news, yesterday was day 5 for me of the 30 day shred. There are some parts that still put a hurtin' on me, but overall I can feel myself getting stronger and having more endurance. At some points I yell at Jillian to stop talking so we can just get on to the next move. I'm not doing this just to hear you talk at me, Jillian, I want to move! At other points, like when I have to do these side lunge barbell raises and I'm on the 25th one or so, I have to tell her through gasping breaths that she is an evil, evil scorpion woman. But overall, I am loving it so far... in 5 days my waist has went from 28.75" to 27.5". That's no one time measuring fluke either. I measured it on Day 4 and also again this morning (which will be day six) and both times it showed me an inch and a quarter lost!

Double workouts this weekend - hitting the gym and also doing the shred at home.

Have a wonderful weekend!

What a long, strange weekend it's been! BATHROOM: Before and After

Well, my weekend is still going on! I had Friday and today off - originally we were going to go to Ohio this weekend to get my stuff out of storage, but since it was all delivered last weekend, I decided to keep the long weekend and use it to get some projects done around the house. We didn't get as much done as I would have liked - the Bip keeps getting called away to jobs (which is a good thing!), and I have been sick off and on with a throat/cold/fever thing. Friday I couldn't even get off of the couch. Saturday I felt fine - we went on a garden tour, ran some errands, painted the bathroom - then I got sick again around 9pm. Yesterday  I was sick until afternoon, then I somehow got a burst of energy, finished the bathroom and cleaned the house like a madwoman. No idea where all that energy came from, but it was insane, and I wish I felt like that all the time, you know?

Today Josh is working two jobs, and I had planned on painting some heavy pieces of furniture I can't move outside without him. And I'm also feeling kind of crappy again. So I think I'm going to catch up on some reading, enjoy my clean house, and go through some  summer clothes I found in the garage.

I have lots of photos to share from this weekend, but I am going to devote this post to the bathroom.

The bathroom had it's good points...ok, only one - the clawfoot tub. The sink and medicine cabinet were horrendous, the flooring makes me physically ill.... in short, it had the potential to be a BEAUTIFUL bathroom, but it just wasn't.

In time, we plan to add some beadboard, change the sink to something like this:

and change the flooring - if the original hardwood is still intact under everything, I'd love to use it, otherwise, we're tiling. But those things may be a year or so off, so in the meantime we had to figure out how to make it pretty and lovely for NOW.

 I'm happy to say, the total was very low:

Paint: $35
Medicine Cabinet (Target): $60
Drawer Pulls (Anthropologie): $16
Rug (Target): $20

Total: $131

Here are the hideous befores...

And here are the glorious afters.... between my Bissell Flip-It (fresh from storage) and our Shark Steam Mop, I was able to get the nasty vinyl floor looking better than it ever has. We painted the walls "Love-In-A-Mist" (a Martha Stewart color), I painted the sink cabinet white and added new knobs, we added a new medicine cabinet, hung up a couple of things, put down a new rug and put out some fresh white towels and we can't get over how beautiful it looks! This will definitely tide us over for a while. Not too shabby, huh?

We would have loved to change out the towel bars, too, but we couldn't find all the pieces of the style we wanted to use. Maybe soon. Also need to change outlet and light switch covers, but for now, it's ok.