30 Day Shred: The End

So on Friday I did my last work out to complete my thirty days of shredding, and I wanted to review it with you. I do have before and after photos butttttt I'd rather not paste half-naked photos on the internet surprisingly! but what I do have are lots of words.

The DVD and workout:
Loved it. Love it on day three, loved it on day thirty. I love that there are 3 parts to each of 3 circuits. I'm one of these who sometimes cannot be bothered, so the fact I can work out in my head that I'm on my second circuit abs section, I know that I only have three things left to do. As I said before as well I love the variety of moves, I can't pretend I loved all of them (thrust squats are NOT my cup of tea), but you do them for a minute and a half max, and I can definitely get through that. Best work out I've done in a long while (bar a good run).

Weight:
I lost about 5 pounds in total, but I have gained so much more muscle, so I reckon I must have lost a bit more and then put it back on as muscle. I'm fine with this, I wasn't aiming to lose weight in the first place, I wanted to be more toned and stronger. Another thing that I find about exercising is that your boobs always decrease in size, that's the first part to go (for me anyways), but doing these exercises I'd actually have to say that mine have grown (lots of push ups)! and that they are better now than they were before, ha.

Strength:
My arms are 100% stronger. I can see muscle and most importantly, when I bring my food shop in from the car and up three flights of stairs I no longer feel like my arms are going to fall off/I'll die. My leg muscles have gotten bigger and stronger which I'm not thatttttt pleased about, because I wanted my thighs to stop touching, not touch even more haha. But again, I always walk up stairs two at a time, and it's just a lot easier now.

Tone:
This is where I have seen the most difference. My arms look a lot better, my butt is INCREDIBLE in skinny jeans/my old grad dress. I don't have a six pack (surprisingly) but I am pleased that my love handles have gone down (and I only just realised that taking these before and after photo's because the swim suit isn't cutting in at all. And that was another big goal of mine, because I couldn't think of any exercises that would sort that bit! On a side note, my hip bones are a lot more prominent now and I'm not sure how I feel about that. In a ridiculous way, my knees look a lot better too, ha! I have never had knee issues before but I noticed it whilst I was working out, and liked it. I didn't think there was that much difference to my stomach area because it's the area I hate the most, but looking at the photo's there is actually, so I'm pleased about that.

Recommendations:
I really urge you do it. It's nice to have that challenge, it gets you up everyday, it's 20 (27 in my opinion) minutes out of your day so it's easier to fit in than you think. It helps you sleep better and gives you more energy.
If you are enticed, I would also really recommend that you look up a food plan from Jillian Michael's too (I'm not saying pay for it, but study how she puts the plan together and try and make variations of the dishes guessing her ingredients) because I did it still eating how I normally do, and I reckon if I followed the diet plan too I'd be a different girl today.

Conclusions:
I'm so glad I did it. I think I'm going to keep the DVD in my disc drive and still aim to do it about three times a week, because it's good fun and I need something quick else I lose interest.

If you are considering it, here is a youtube video of her level 1 circuit so you can see how much variety there is and how well she pushes you. I feel like Jillian and I are best friends right now, hanging out together for 30 days straight.

Let me know if you start it! I'd love to discuss it with you.