I finished the 30 Day Shred on Thursday after maintaining a month and change of three days shredding, one day running with only one day off – three days off total so far this year!  I think it’s safe to say that 30DS helped me achieve one of my goals: to establish a solid workout routine.  I shredded when I was hung over.  I shredded when I was sore.  I shredded when I was sick, and I shredded early in the morning when I was going out of town.  And now I’m something approximating shredded:

I’m bummed that I didn’t take before pictures, as this is one of those instances where a picture really is worth 1,000 words – or at least 1,000 quantitative measurements. After the initial weight loss, the scale barely budged for me. Now, part of that is due to the excess of fondue, steaks, and cocktails I indulged in this month – but part of it is also the fact that muscle weighs more than fat. And I can definitely see better muscle definition all over.

More important than the muscle definition, though, is the fact that 30DS helped me kick up my endurance in all kinds of crazy ways. Two weeks ago, I logged the longest run I’ve ever done. On my next to last day of shredding, I wasn’t tired when I finished the L3 workout, so I fast forwarded through the intro and then did L1. By the end of my double shred, I was exhausted, but I was also beaming as I did my jumping jacks, so happy with the progress I’ve made, with how much stronger I am than a month ago.

I feel great. I feel strong. I feel like I maybe even look great and strong. The challenge now is to keep it up – to figure out how to sustain this degree of activity and fitness now that I’m done with the 30DS challenge. My plan for now is to alternate running and shredding until I figure out what I’m doing next – maybe Jillian’s Shred It with Weights if I can find kettlebells? Either way, I’ve made significant progress, and I feel great about that.