Review: Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred

Ah, my first review... on a work out DVD

About it:
Jillian Michaels is a trainer from the ever popular TV show 'Biggest Loser'. She's funny, witty and honest. When she has the viewer do something tough, she says so, but she's encouraging at the same time. She doesn't coddle, she empowers. She has a very clear message of 'you can do it and you had better.'

The program itself is set up in an interesting way and is more interactive than other programs I've done (all be-it, I haven't done that many). There are three seperate workouts, organized by level of difficulty, though at times that may seem subjective. Each workout is setup as three sets of intervals: strength, cardio, and ab work. The moves themselves are pretty simple, but effective and that may be what I like about it the most. All you need to do everything is yourself and some weights. I usually use hand weights, but I've used wrist weights with it too.

I don't know if the results are what they should be since I haven't really been following the program. It's a 20 minute routine you are supposed to do every day. Supposedly you move up in difficulty every ten days. I however became curious about level 2 after a week of doing level 1 every-other day. See? I'm not following the program very well. But even just doing it every-other day, and eating better, I lost 7 pounds. I then regained it, but I wasn't doing the workouts and my eating habits were in the gutter. However, I'm back on the bandwagon, so we'll see how it goes.

The DVD purchase also comes with a 30 day free trial on Jillian's website where you can get more workouts and recipes and the like. It also provides you with an evaluation on your health and determines your metabolic rate and what not, so that your nutrition plan and acitivity plan actually fit you! Not everyone is the same and we all need different things to be our most healthy. It does have one draw back. The optimum weight is set by the CDC or who-ever. I find it to be wrong. For instance at my healthiest I weigh 145lbs. That's me the way I should be. I carry alot of muscle for my frame (I'm 5'2"), but it's natural for me. I should not weigh 110lbs. I would be beyond skinny. Yuk! My brother weighs 198lbs and is quite lean, and he's 5'11", a height that supposedly should only weigh 175lbs. It's interesting (the website), but I don't really use it for anything other than snagging recipes since I'm not drawn to actually use it. Don't know why.

Overall rating: 5 stars out of 5. It's good and it's fun, even my roommate likes doing it. I got her a copy for X-mas. Go by Target, they were selling them for $10.00 this past weekend.

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