I love the convenience of being able to workout in my home, no matter what time it is or what the weather is like. Because of that, I’ve acquired a nice sized collection of workout DVDs over the years. This is a series of reviews of those DVDs…some are old, some are new, some good, some bad, some long, some short…you get the idea. If you have suggestions for other DVDs I may like, please let me know. I’d love to add to my collection. I wonder…do they make 12 step programs for people like me?

DVD Title: The Firm - Complete Aerobics & Weight Training
Running Time: 60 minutes
Required Equipment: Fanny Lifter, Sculpting Stick, 3 sets of weights, comfy shoes and a mat

I first found the Firm workouts from Weight Watchers message boards. People raved about how this system really burned a lot of fat and toned up your body fast and I have to agree. I’ve probably been doing Firm workouts off & on now for 5+ years. The concept is simply to use large and small muscle groups at the same time in order to get your heart rate up and keep it elevated. The first set I purchased was The Firm Body Sculpting System. From there I have expanded my collection to include BSS2 and other individual DVDs that the Firm has released.

There is some special equipment that is required for most Firm workouts, although it appears that they are moving away from that somewhat. First there is the Fanny Lifter. Yes, it sounds silly, but this step is awesome. It is made up of 2 parts, a six inch step and an eight inch step and when you use them both together you have a 14 inch step. Pretty genius if you ask me. They created different versions of the Fanny Lifter along the way but I have stuck with the original as that is what I found worked best for me. The only problem with that is that some more recent workouts require an incline and that is only possible with the newer steps. They also added the Sculpting Stick with the second set of videos. This is a weighted bar that has a center section that weighs four pounds and the removable ends which each weigh in at two pounds. The stick is used for stability as well as resistance. I don’t think you can purchase that specific item anymore, but I did find The Firm 3-in-1 Sculpting Stick Pro on Amazon which looks like it would be the newer model.

Okay, back to The Firm - Complete Aerobics & Weight Training. For me, this video is less about the cardio and more about the weights which is great. It is heavy on squats and upper body weights with a few lighter cardio routines mixed in and finishes up with a nice section of ab work. I definitely felt like I had a good workout when I was done…and someday soon I may even up my weights from 3, 5 and 8 pounds to 5, 8 and 10 pounds! The only complaint I might have is that some of the transitions feel rushed. If you are someone who needs time to get set up and is flustered easily by jumping in late, this probably wouldn’t be for you. If I felt like I was being rushed, I just skipped the first lift or step and caught up when I was ready, but I know that bothers some people. Otherwise, this is a staple in my collection and I highly recommend it!

Our first full day in Prague the weather didn’t look very promising but we decided to head out on foot anyway. In this photo you can see the clouds…it ended up raining almost all day! In the background is the Prague Castle.

Original Photo:

Puzzle (click to play):

I love the convenience of being able to workout in my home, no matter what time it is or what the weather is like. Because of that, I’ve acquired a nice sized collection of workout DVDs over the years. This is a series of reviews of those DVDs…some are old, some are new, some good, some bad, some long, some short…you get the idea. If you have suggestions for other DVDs I may like, please let me know. I’d love to add to my collection. I wonder…do they make 12 step programs for people like me?

DVD Title: The Firm - Cardio Dance Fusion
Required Equipment: None

I just received this DVD this week (after receiving the recommendation from my sister…thanks!) and I think it’s going to fill a void in my collection nicely! Unlike many of my other Firm DVDs (which will be reviewed in the future), this workout doesn’t require ANY extra equipment besides some comfy shoes. This dance workout is super fun, very upbeat and keeps the heart pumping. It lasts about 45 minutes including warm-up and cool-down and for me the time seemed to fly by.

There were definitely some moves in this workout that will take a couple workouts to master but I think that over all Alison did a great job of starting out each set of steps simply and slowly giving you the chance to get into the rhythm before adding difficulty. Whenever I’m looking for a good sweat without any weight lifting I will definitely go to this fun, energizing workout.

A new thing The Firm has started is a 25 minute workout on the DVD in addition to the full 45 minute one. I haven’t tried the shorter workout yet but I’ll update this post when I do.

Well, these past 6 months since getting engaged seem to have flown by and thinking about only having 2 months to go is awesome and scary at the same time! Chris & I were looking at wedding bands last night and we’re going to check out a rehearsal dinner location tomorrow night…I think we’re doing a pretty good job checking things off the list. However, we’re also pretty much ready to get this whole thing over with so we can have our normal lives back!

The past 10 days I wasn’t able to workout as much as I had been due to having a cold. And then I went out of town for the weekend and ate more food than I should have. I obviously need to get my eating under control in order to lose this weight…but it is nice to be toning up. I can tell my body is changing even though the scale hasn’t changed much. For the past 10 days I’m down 1/2 pound and I am pretty happy that it’s a negative number. Obviously I wish it was a larger negative number, but in the game of life, small changes are probably better in the long run.

Here is my current graph:

I am happy to say that I don’t have plan to eat out as much the coming 10 days. I’m going to be home more often, eating lighter meals, getting my workouts in and checking more items off the to-do list!

Friday morning I woke up earlier than I do on a normal week day in order to meet Jill at her house to depart on a fun girls weekend. We picked up her sister (then took a detour back to Jill’s because sometimes I do stupid things) and eventually made it up north to our destination around 11am.
The theme this year was a Cropping Carnival

Last weekend was my 2nd Scrapbooking Weekend in Taylor’s Falls with Jill and about 20 other ladies. In April 2009 we also went and that is where I finally got started on my China books (yes…plural) from the trip I took with my family Dec 2006-Jan 2007. Sometime last spring I finally finished up book 1 but I never did get started on book 2 until Friday afternoon. I’m very happy to report that I probably got about 80% of the book finished over the weekend! We spent a LOT of time sitting at those crafting tables slaving away but I think it was worth it. Maybe I’ll even finish the second book before I get married? Hmmm. When I got home yesterday afternoon I did tell Chris that I’m looking forward to scrapping a book for us. I created digital books for our Europe trip but I am hoping to actually scrap them some day as well.
This is the mess that we called home for the weekend!

The Astronomical Clock on the old Town Hall in Prague was so cool. We never did see the hourly show but the details in and around the building were neat.

Original Photo:

Puzzle (click to play):

Today in history will be remembered because America swore in it’s first African-American President as the 44th man to lead our country!  On top of all that, I think this guy might actually be what the country (maybe world even) needs to start turning things around.  I’m very interested in seeing what Barack Obama & Joe Biden do in the next four years! Looks like he’s ready to get to work.

Good Luck President Obama!

I must say that even with the holidays mixed in I think Chris & I have made GREAT progress on wedding to-do’s! Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty to do still…but my panic level has lowered a bit, for now at least.

Done in the past 6 weeks:
1. Centerpieces were purchased
2. Fabric was delivered to my mom for sewing
3. Invitation design complete & confirmed
4. RSVP cards printed
5. Invitations addressed & ready to go out in 2 weeks!
6. Officiant selected and ceremony draft complete
7. DJ playlist started
8. Bought the men’s ties
9. Met with my day of coordinator
10. Tasted cake & ordered some for the big day
11. Bought my wedding shoes
12. Secured someone to do my make up
13. Ordered cocktail napkins
14. Figured out we need a LOT of beer & wine
15. Met with a florist to talk about design
16. Got started on table numbers
17. ….
18. ….
The list goes on.

Upcoming things to do include
1. Pick out and order wedding bands
2. Determine where the groom’s dinner will be
3. Confirm the food order
4. Shop at Sam’s or Costco for paper goods
5. Figure out what we’re going to do for our honeymoon
6. Find Jewelry
7. Make sure I’ve got “Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue!”
8. …
9. …
This list also goes on.

I plan on highlighting some of the special parts of the wedding but I figure I’ll wait until afterward so that the details are a surprise for most people.

I don’t have colors. Wait, WE…sorry, babe…we don’t have colors. We have a theme and some colors go with that theme by default, but I don’t really think that those colors are what I wanted my bouquet made up of. So with that…I met with a florist today and we worked on defining what our “colors” are!

Thankfully I had come across a couple photos of different bouquets that I liked so that provided us with a starting point and I actually had a really good time talking about different ideas both from magazines and also putting together fresh and silk flowers that were in the shop.

At the end of our session I feel very confident that I will be getting a GORGEOUS bouquet, and also that I probably won’t even have the slightest idea of what it will look like until it is set in front of me. I trust that it will be beautiful and fun and that’s all that matters.

Heather had purchased some fresh flowers based on discussions we had last week and she let me take some of them home with me! The photo is some of the flowers I brought home & put in a vase. I don’t think it looks anything like what I’ll be carrying, but we’ll see if any of them end up in the final product!

Well, another 10 days have passed and I wish I could report that I was perfect and I lost 3 pounds. Unfortunately, I decided to have a little too much fun Friday night so my results aren’t as great as I’d like (although the fun was worth it!).

I have lost 1 pound in the past 10 days…which, technically, is what my original goal was so I’m going to be happy with it. When I think back on these days I am actually VERY happy. I ate out no less than EIGHT times over those 10 days. The fact that I’m down at all proves to me that I am making healthier choices and that my increased activity is working!

Here’s my current graph:

The next 10 days also present some challenges, but I think I’ll do okay. Next weekend I’m going out of town for a girls weekend of scrap booking and I think I’m going to bring some snacks with me because from what I remember, the food was really good but not necessarily low cal!