Thank you so much for all of the congrats! As you can tell, I’m excited for it all.

Yesterday I completed my first full strength training workout. I have been doing Slim in 6 as a light circuit workout, but it didn’t do too much in the weights department. For my first session, I turned to my favorite instructor – Cathe Friedrich. I have many of her DVDs, so it took a bit to decide on which one I wanted to try first.

After thinking it over I decided to err on the side of caution and picked one I remember being more basic and slow-moving. Cathe’s Push Pull workout.

Basic and slow-moving are good things when starting back with weights. I also made sure to choose much lighter weights than normal. At the end of my workout I felt as though I could have gone heavier on most everything. It made for a good workout to ease back into weights, but I can already tell I will be ready for slightly more of a challenge tomorrow. Today I hit up the treadmill for my next C25K workout – alternating 90 seconds of jogging with 2 minutes of walking. While completing the intervals, I rocked out to my new best friend: my playlist (which syncs up to the treadmill). And don’t worry…I stepped on the sides to snap this picture before ending my cool down.

I can see how working out with music is addictive. Right now, I have around 170 songs in one massive playlist. Each new song that comes on gets me all pumped up. Aerosmith revved me up this afternoon. In fact, I felt so great the temptation to do longer running intervals snuck up on me. I do feel like I could have handled it physically, but I also believe in sticking with the plan.

I am physically fit. I believe I have a strong base in fitness knowledge, especially related to topics such as strength training. I also recognize that I fall into the novice running category. Even though I feel good, I don’t want to push things too fast. Couch to 5K is a successful program for a reason. I’m not going to mess with it. I can have a hard time sticking to plans. I like switching things up and coming up with my own versions. When I know what I’m doing, I’m cool with that. I don’t know enough about my running abilities yet to do that though. So I will keep it simple and follow along. No need to jump the gun!

Question of the Evening – Do you like having a plan to follow?

I feel like breaking out like MC Hammer every afternoon when I get my workout time. Speaking of which…how crazy is this video?

Love the old dude in the headband. Pure hilarity. And Julie, I think some dude stole Ryan’s special 80s glasses. 😉

Anyways. Yes, I feel about like that when the afternoon rolls around and I get to either head here…

…or here…

I love my little home gym space. When I began working out almost a decade ago, I only worked out from the comforts of home. I slowly but surely acquired quite a few home gym essentials to provide me with more than enough for a fantastic at-home workout. Dumbbells, a long step, a high step, resistance band, medicine ball, stability ball, and a small barbell that goes up to 50 lbs in weight.

Now, I love having both options for extreme variety! This past week, and for the next couple weeks, I have been alternating going to the gym for some light cardio and completing an easy to me DVD workout at home.

It’s so funny to think back to the fact this DVD series was what got me started in the beginning. I guess it goes to show you don’t start back at square one post-pregnancy. The beginning level bored me to tears on Tuesday at just two weeks post-partum…but killed me the very first time I ever did it years ago. Pretty cool.

Today, I worked up a sweat in the intermediate level of the Slim in 6 Series.

It does leave me hankering for some Cathe or weights at the gym, but for now, it will do just fine. Especially when coupled with some Hammer Time. 😉

(excuse the blurry photo)

And a little update: I added a table under my Body After Baby page that will show what workouts I have completed over the course of each month, with links where applicable.

Question of the Evening – What DVD trainer is your favorite? –> CATHE all the way!