I’ve been working out, right?  In an average week, I can get in 2-3 runs (or rides) and an hour or so lifting weights in the basement.  I walk to and from work as often as possible – 2.5 miles each way.  I’m not a lean, mean exercising machine, but I’m certainly leaner and meaner than I was a year ago, much less four years ago when I committed to getting into shape after three months out of commission with a broken arm.

This brings me to the 30 Day Shred, which popped up on a couple of running/fitness blogs I’ve recently started reading.  When I saw the DVD on my sister’s Amazon wish list, I thought, “huh, maybe I should try it” and considered buying myself a copy, but instead just ordered one for her for a non-Christmas present.  (I firmly believe that personal improvement-type gifts are only appropriate if explicitly requested, as otherwise you run the risk of hurt feelings despite your best intentions.)  I was pleasantly surprised, then, to receive two email confirmations from Amazon – one for her DVD, and the other letting me know that included in my purchase was a streaming copy of 30DS.  Bonus!

The concept of 30DS is pretty simple: each workout is comprised of three circuits of three minutes of strength training, two minutes of cardio, and one minute of abs work, plus a few minutes of warming up and cooling down.  There are three workouts (or levels of intensity), and you do each of them for ten days.  If you stick with the workout for 30 days, you’re almost guaranteed to lose both weight and inches – and, more importantly, you’ll have incorporated 20-30 minutes of exercise into your daily routine.

So today, while Shane did one of the harder workouts in his heavy lifting week, I did day one of 30DS.  I was prepared to feel like a total goofball, which to some extent I did, but that was in between groaning through pushups, static lunges, and various other compound lifts that totally wore me out.  Shane gave me some constructive criticism between lifts – and commented that it looked like a tough workout, which made me feel better about the “I’m doing an exercise video with 2.5# weights” thing.

I’m tired.  I’m hungry.  I’m going to try to keep this up.  With the highs back down in the 20s, it’ll be good to have indoor exercise motivation.  My sister’s also doing it, so perhaps we can keep each other shreddin’.  Here’s hoping!