Jillian Michaels...

...is the devil. Not really, but right now I feel that way. As part of my "get healthy" New Year's resolution, I bought three new workout videos. I love workout videos because I can do a workout without leaving my living room and with no one around watching me. In reality, people at gyms probably aren't watching other people, but in my head, everyone standing behind me is watching me suck at working out.

One of the videos I got is Jillian Michaels' Ripped in 30. It was appealing to me because I would like to be ripped in 30 days.

It's awesome because it's only 24 minutes per workout, so you think, "Oh, 24 minutes? I can do that no problem." Then you start doing it and you're five minutes in and completely out of breath.

The video has 4 workouts. Each workout corresponds with whatever week you are on in your 30 days.  So far I have only done the Week 1 video because I just started on January 1. I was super sore on the 2nd but I still pushed through and did the second day of the week's workout. Today while I was hobbling around at work (standing/walking for 8 hours when you're super sore from two days of working out is torturous), I kept dreading the workout I was going to put myself through after I got home. Luckily, Jillian recommends working out 5 to 6 times per week and giving yourself at least one day of rest, so today is my day of rest for the week.

So far, I really like the video. I was thinking that if I haven't mastered the Week 1 video by the end of the week, I might continue it for next week and just use each week's workout for two weeks instead of one. I'll be ripped in 60 days instead of 30, but that's still before swimsuit season, so I'm happy with that goal.  Jillian is a really good instructor and she's just as motivating in her videos as she is when I watch The Biggest Loser, but not quite as terrifying. She explains things well and I love that she has two other women doing the video with her, one of them demonstrating a modified version and the other demonstrating the "badass" version (as Jillian says).

Hopefully I'll make it through the next 30 to 60 days alive and I'll be able to give more feedback with each new workout on the video!