Back on Track!

So I decided to restart the whole 30 day shred. I start level 3 tomorrow! Today is my day off since it is Sunday and I am already scared for tomorrow. Ha ha! I watch level three last week after my level 2 workout while chugging tons of water:)  Boy does it look tough! I just wanted to fall over watching them doing jumping jacks and tons of the other "regular" exercises all while holding the weights! I have been trying to figure out if they are using 3 or 5lb weights. I looked it up and they are using 5lbs but they are also uber fit. I have been using my 5lb weights since day one and I have been pretty much been able to do all the exercises so far. In level 1 there was this one set towards the end that got me every time. I could do the first set fine but the second set I would have to put them down halfway through. I got stronger and stronger every day until I could hold them the whole time. Yay for progress! I have been taking my measurements every 10 days and yesterday I took them again to compare to after 10 days of level 1. And I lost about 1" everywhere! Ya buddy!

So I started that above bit last night and now I can say that I did level 3 today and I am still alive. Ha ha it actually wasn't near as bad as I thought is was going to be. The part in the end where you hold the weights the whole time wasn't even that bad! Yay my muscles must be getting stronger! The very last ab workout was really tough though. Not tiring but the actual pose was really hard to hold. I am going to have Jeremy watch that section of the workout tonight and then have him watch me do it to see what I am doing wrong. But other than that it was great! I didn't feel near as tired as when I finish level 2 though but I am guessing that is because today is only day 1 and it usually get harder and harder each day because you get the hang of how the move is supposed to feel and then you can push yourself harder to do the more advanced moves. Oh ya! I also did some of the modified moves for the exercises that really strain the knees and I had no knee pain afterwards! I just realized that I didn't mention the knee pain before. Ever since I started level 1 my knee pain has been getting worse and worse. It never hurts during the actual workout but afterwards and the rest of the day it starts to get painful. At first I just shrugged it off and I just thought that my knees need to get stronger but the other night the pain kept waking me up. Lame sauce! I really don't want to stop doing the workouts because I am totally on a roll. The first time I started the program I had to stop due to injuries and now since I started it all over again I have done it every single day except Sundays. So I did some research online last night and a lot of people say that is a very common problem that people have with the 30 day shred. Oh also a side note, I do all the workouts with bare feet. When I started the program the very first time I would get major arch pain. I went to Fairhaven Runners and Walkers last year and they helped me get really good shoes after I was having lots of arch pain from doing Zumba. When I went to Zumba, the pain and decreased significantly but when I started the 30 day shred it felt really bad again. I did read that a bunch of people do it bare foot as well. I thought that maybe using no shoes was also causing problems but today I just stuck with Anita for some of the moves and it went great! I am planning to do some knee strengthening exercises on the side to hopefully help as well. I don't know if doing hair factors in as well since I am standing a lot in one place and on a hard surface. Hmm, anybody reading this let me know what you think!