30 Day Shred: Part 2

Well, I made it to Day 20 albeit a little late. I missed a couple of days in the middle and had to make up for them pushing back my days. I did walk those two days, so it wasn't like I didn't exercise, but it still wasn't the same.

After measuring, the results were pretty disappointing to say the least. Everything stayed the same except for my hips. I lost another half inch there bringing my totals to a loss of two pounds and five inches overall.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still glad I lost what I did, but after the first 10 days went so well, I was really disappointed that my body remained unchanged in terms of measurements.

BUT... I do notice that my arms, legs, and abs are more toned. Perhaps I should have been measuring my biceps and thighs as well... *shrug* I feel stronger, and that's important because after my first day of Level 3, I know I still have a ways to go.

Jillian increases the plyometrics (jumps) in Level 3, and they are intense. We'll see if I make it these last 10 days, lol.

Here's crossing fingers that I lose some more inches and pounds :)

Week 16: How do you get from point A to B?

This week's theme centered around transportation and, although I have not looked through everyone's submissions, there was a lot of variety among the group. Living in rural Ohio, my mode of transportation is my car.

Meet Vapor, a 2010 Toyota Corolla S. I love my car, especially its vibrant colors, which is what I chose to showcase this week. That and my hibiscus flower I picked up on a vacation to Florida.

I did not put a lot of creative thinking into this week's theme, so I'll have to make up for it next week which could be difficult since the theme is "Coffee." I literally have no ideas at this point...
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For those of you curious about my workout: I skipped a couple of days in the last 10, so I have to make those up. Look for a post on Wednesday(ish) about my progress!

Week 15: Paper Airplane

When I initially read the topic for this week, I wasn't very excited. I'm finding I dislike the topics that are a specific theme because the photos tend to look the same. But then I guess that's the point of the project, right? So, after I stepped back and thought of more conceptual ideas, I got excited.

I had a few different ideas. The first was to recreate a scene from my childhood. At the babysitter's house, us kids would make what seemed like hundreds of paper airplanes. Then we would rearrange the furniture into two "camps," and then we would "bomb" each other with our planes. We got detailed, too. Each camp had a symbol and the planes where decorated as such.

But I knew that would be too labor-intensive, and I had a lot of extra work this week, so it just wasn't going to work out.

Then I thought instead of making the paper airplane the focus of my photo, I would do the opposite; I would hide it. Thus came about the I Spy influence. I loved those books as a kid. So, I gathered nearly every white thing I could find in my house and set it up. I made four paper cranes to throw off the viewers of the picture, and one small paper airplane.

I think the photo turned out well. It was a challenge arranging everything to be in the photo, and I realized after I had published that you can't really see the eggs in the bowl. Oh well.

Can you spot the paper airplane?

30 Day Shred: Part 1

Ok, so I'm a few days behind on this post as I'm now four days into the second level. I have excellent news to report - I am seeing results!

If you missed my first post, I started Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD. I took measurements and photos prior to starting, after days 5 and 10, and I will take them after days 20 and 30.

Since I was unsure how hard the DVD was going to be, I chose to not use weights for the first five days. I have wimpy arms... always have... so I thought that would be best. I still managed to get a major workout on my arms as level one includes push-ups. Starting on Day Six, I started using 5-pound weights. Too heavy. So now I'm using 3-pound weights. They are perfect for me. I still feel the burn but my arms don't feel like they're going to fall off.

Now for the moment you've been waiting for - the results:

Week 14: Think Small

I'll be honest: This was the first week that I really did not care about this photography project.

I think there are a couple of reasons why. The first is that I didn't think I had the proper equipment to really get a stellar photo for this theme. "Think Small" told me I would do best with a macro lens, which I don't have... a side-effect of not having much money, I suppose.

I also could not come up with any ideas on what I wanted to photograph. I had taken photos of plants and butterflies, but I thought those would be boring and that everyone would submit something along those lines. Maybe I would have been better off submitting it anyways.

Plus, this week I was pretty distracted. I actually got to see my husband for most of the days this week, and I had started my workouts (see below). On top of that, I was busy baking cupcakes and cookies for Easter.

So, in a hurry, I snapped a photo of some jelly beans that were lying on the counter in my kitchen and submitted it. Meh.

This week is "Paper Airplane" and our photos must include a paper airplane in it. I have some ideas already that I'm pretty excited about. Hopefully I can execute :)

Getting Fit for Vacation

So, here's my first non-photography-related post. To make a long story short, I'm starting a new workout video - Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred. This came about for several reasons, actually.

First, I got it at a super-cheap price, something like $3 shipped through a website online that was running a special. Most of the reviews were favorable and I was looking for something... anything... to get me motivated to run again. (Ironically, photography has kind of been a de-motivator.) So, I figured "What the heck?"

Second, Husband and I booked our vacation. Since the IRS is mean, Rome isn't going to happen this year *sad face*, so we decided we would switch our 5-year anniversary vacation (back to Grand Cayman) with Rome. It kind of worked out because we got an amazing deal on everything - flight, room, and car. BUT since it is the Caribbean, I need to tone up.

Last, doctors have come out with new study results that show that the current way to measure BMI is flawed, and actually a much larger percentage of people should be considered "obese" instead of "overweight." You can read it here.

Now, I'm not "overweight" by any standards. I'm more looking to tone than drop pounds, although 10 pounds would be nice. I'm the same size that I was when I was married three years ago, which is probably more than most people can say. However, according to these new calculations, the definition of "obese" would drop from a BMI of 30 to a BMI of 24. That makes me closer than what I'm comfortable with.

I started the workout on Tuesday, so I have three days in. The first day (as always) was hard. Really hard. That's mostly because of the push-ups, which is something I've always struggled with. I wasn't blessed with upper body strength, haha. The past couple of days have seemed easier, though.

I'm not going to get into details, but I did a pre-workout weigh-in on the first day and took measurements and snapped some photos. I plan on doing weigh-ins on days 5, 10, 20, and 30. I'll share my progress and reviews as I go along. :)

Week 13: New Beginnings

With the recent warm weather, all of the plants have exploded. It's beautiful walking along the canal again.

The theme this week was "New Beginnings" and we were encouraged to Think Spring!

I didn't actually take this photograph this past week; I took it the week before, but I still had the theme in mind when I did.

The neighbor girl strung these plastic Easter eggs from the tree, and with the blooming buds and sunshine, the eggs popped with color. This picture makes me happy just looking at it. :)

This week, we are supposed to "Think Small." I really wish I had a macro lens for this theme, so I will have to test my creativity. I've already snapped photos of small flowers and butterflies. We'll see what else I notice this week.

In other news, Husband and I booked our summer vacation! Grand Cayman, here we come!

Here are some other Spring-related photos I took this week: