YBB Goddess in Training

Okay, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with "Goddess in Training", but that's what you'd call me now... I recently made my first purchase off an infomercial--DVD's for Yoga Booty Ballet. It took eight days for my DVD's to arrive (they were supposed to do "free express shipping", to arrive within 5-7 days, but we had President's Day in there, so I cut 'em some slack), and that was one of those things where I was watching every day for the package to arrive. I could hardly wait!

Let me back up a bit. Many of you may know, I was a HUGE fan of Jazzercise. My sister-in-law, Anne, got me into going way back when I started dating Jim, ten years ago. I was kind of off- and on-again into it until about five years ago. Then I started going regularly, and I became friends with Anita (who also went to the same Church as me, as well as growing up in my hometown and going to my same grade school and high school, though five years behind me). It was the connection I had with Anita that really got me motivated to go to Jazzercise more often. We kind of helped keep each other motivated. Jazzercise was super fun and it was the first (and only) kind of exercise I'd ever tried that I actually liked. I'm not athletic at all, but I can dance.

Well, Anita had two babies in a row and kind of tapered off going to Jazzercise. I kept going (usually at 5:45 in the morning during that last year or so) until I, myself, became pregnant. Due to the fact that I'd had a miscarriage the year before, when I started spotting after working out, I decided I shouldn't work out at all during this pregnancy. I knew I would miss "Jazz" (and I did), but I definitely had to do what was right for my baby. For probably three years, I had been babysitting at Jazzercise in return for free classes. During my pregnancy, I continued to babysit, so I could maintain my membership.

Once Donovan was born, I realized I wouldn't really have time to make it to class, working around dropping the girls off at school, feeding Donovan every 2-3 hours, eating my own meals, and picking the girls up from school. And I definitely wouldn't have time to babysit! I imagined I'd go to the babysitting room (where there were often up to 12 kids there for me to handle alone, for nearly two hours) and I'd be more concerned about taking care of my own baby than taking care of other people's kids. So I quit.

In comes Yoga Booty Ballet (YBB). I saw an infomercial one day while nursing Donovan and decided this was the answer for me. It looked like some fun dancing, good cardio, with some strength training as well. And I had to admit, the name of the workout alone had me intrigued. I explained my plight to Jim, and a week later, I had my DVD's. The package came with three DVD's (one of the DVD's has two workouts on it, as well as 'rehearsal and meditation'), a guide book (which has a great schedule of workouts, so I'm not just doing the same thing over and over again, as well as a nutrition guide), a 7-Day Diet Plan, and a "squishy ball", which is used in some of the workouts.

I had the YBB stuff for about a week before even beginning. You might think, 'If she was so excited to get this package, why did she wait a week before trying it?' Right. Well, for one thing, I had a hard time figuring out when I'd squeeze those workouts in (see comments above regarding Jazzercise). But I think part of it, too, was that I just wasn't emotionally ready yet. I knew that once I started, I'd probably want to start eating better. **I cannot 'diet' at this point, or I will lose my milk. However, I can make better choices, and I haven't been doing that as of yet.** But one day last week, I again tried on my "fat" jeans--the ones that used to be too big for me before I got pregnant. I still can't zip them up! I'm STILL wearing maternity clothes and my baby is 2 1/2 months old!

So I started YBB on Monday. It was a gentle workout, to ease me into it--just the rehearsal & meditation part plus the abs section from the 1st workout. Then Tuesday and Wednesday, I did the full workout (and, on Tuesday, the rehearsal & meditation part, too). It's TOUGH!!! Today is my day of rest--I'll get two of those for these first three weeks, and then in week 4, I'll go down to only one day of rest. Last night, I was watching the 2nd workout of the first DVD, and it's definitely going to bust my butt. The choreography doesn't look too much different from stuff I've done at Jazzercise--there are a few different little tweaks here and there--but it's pretty fast-paced, which is exciting. It'll take me a while to get it down.

I had gained about 65 pounds during my pregnancy.... YIKES! But without even trying to lose weight, I've lost 43 pounds so far. (Again, this is BEFORE I even started YBB.) That's the beauty of breastfeeding!!! Still, it's time for me to get active again, and just in the past coupld of days with those more intense workouts, I could definitely tell I was starting to crave healthier foods. That's going to be the toughest change for me, especially since I still want a high calorie intake to keep my milk supply up and rich. But I am hoping for positive changes! I'm a YBB Goddess in Training!!!