1. Ate an enormous red velvet cake.
2. Took a road trip with my mom.
3. Played with my dog on the beach.
4. Slept in four days in a row.
5. Opened awesome presents from my kids.

Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.

My dad has had cancer twice – breast cancer and bone cancer. My family knows what it’s like to go through the fear and the waiting and everything connected with it. An estimated 3,000 people (women AND men) will be diagnosed with breast cancer in South Carolina alone this year, and many of them will not be cured.

I want to do my part by participating in the Walk For Life again this year. The Palmetto Health Breast Center saves lives everyday, and I want to support that. If you want to support it, too, please consider donating to the Walk For Life/5K Race for Life through the link below – all proceeds will go to PHBC.

I did the Shred over 34 days (30 days of workouts with 4 days off due to scheduling). I also continued my regular 30-minute workouts at Curves three days a week and ate an average of 1400 calories per day.

Since I don’t have a workout buddy for this experience, I thought I would blog my daily reflections about good old Jillian, and her kick-butt workouts, and the emotional roller coaster than ensued. Enjoy.

Day 01: Sweet baby Jesus, where’s the Tylenol…
Day 02: I can do five girly push-ups. Yay me.
Day 03: Jillian Michaels is the devil.
Day 04: Thirty girly push-ups! Miracles do happen.
Day 05: Crunches are hard when your cat wants to sit on your stomach.
Day 06: Vacation weight totally gone. God bless you, Jillian Michaels.
Day 07: Definitely less endurance when working out at 11pm.
Day 08: Jumping jacks are hard when you have to pee.
Day 09: Took a peek at Level 2… terrifying.
Day 10: Farewell, Level 1… I’ll miss you.
Day 11: That’s gonna hurt tomorrow.
Day 12: Really starting to see a difference!
Day 13: I can actually do the walk-out push-ups!
Day 14: I really hate plank exercises.
Day 15: Halfway through! Quite proud of myself.
Day 16: I’m actually getting better at plank exercises!
Day 17: Tired of Level 2 and ready to try Level 3…
Day 18: My toes hurt. Not sure how that happened.
Day 19: I don’t even want to peek at Level 3 now…
Day 20: Feeling a million times stronger than I did on Day 1.
Day 21: I can get approximately 1 inch off the ground in the Superman pose.
Day 22: Traveling push-ups are my new least favorite.
Day 23: Either Level 3 is the easiest level, or I’m getting much better at this…
Day 24: Benefit of doing this late at night? I sleep like a rock.
Day 25: I will never again do this on a full stomach.
Day 26: I will be very glad to be done with Jillian Michaels.
Day 27: I will never, ever be able to do rock star jumps.
Day 28: I’m going to ignore the shooting pains in my wrist.
Day 29: So close to the end…
Day 30: I DID IT!!!

Pounds lost: 6.2
Inches lost: 11.5

Final thoughts: While the 30 Day Shred was incredibly difficult and pushed me to my limits, it was totally worth it. Not only did I lose pounds and inches, I gained so much strength and confidence. I’ll definitely be doing the Shred again!

01. Enjoyed a four-day weekend.
02. Had a party with my students.
03. Had a family dinner at Kovachi’s.
04. Bought myself a new purse. And new shampoo.
05. Played with the iPad my parents bought me.
06. Enjoyed the gorgeous weather with the windows open.
07. Ate the biggest piece of red velvet cake EVER.
08. Watched the Ellen show for hours on end, thanks to DVR.
09. Slept in very late four days in a row.
10. Got a billion lovely birthday wishes from friends and family.

The big 2-9 has finally arrived.