The other day I alluded to the fact that I have been doing a home workout DVD over the last couple of months to alleviate sciatica.  This workout DVD is none other than The 30 Day Shred with Jillian Michaels and it all started because I'm nothing if not a copycat. 

Back in April when I was in so much pain with my sciatica and pretty much at my ropes end, I knew I had to do something.  But when you are in that much pain it's hard enough to contemplate walking never mind any sort of physical activity that might include say jumping jacks or lunges.  As I cruised around blogland though I kept reading post after post about all these brave souls that were working out to Jillian's newest DVD, The 30 Day Shred.  Yet what I kept noticing is that there seemed to be a common theme with them all and that was the amount of pain each of these ladies were in after working out.  I was like, what in the world would possess these I'm sure very intelligent ladies to put themselves through so much freakin' torture.  And lest you think I'm kidding, check out some of these quotes to really get a feel for what I'm talking about here.

Mrs. Flinger said:  "but LO! THE PAIN. DEAR GOD THE PAIN"

Fabulous Miss S said:  "after my first attempt at Level 1 I was in pain, dude! PAIN. My legs were burning like they haven't in years"

Big Mama said:  "there is a muscle in my upper arms that I never knew existed but is now screaming in pain and has requested abdication from the rest of my body"

A Mommy Story said:  "the first attempt left me so crumpled and sore that I couldn't even roll over in bed without wincing for nearly a week"

BooMama said:  "y’all, when those twenty minutes were over, my leg muscles were so exhausted that my very first thought was I’ll never walk normally again"

Good grief, that is not the DVD for me!  I mean seriously that's just plain crazy talk.  It certainly didn't take me long to promptly write off Miss Jillian and get back to eating my way through my delicious bag of ketchup chips...mmmm. 

I was then surprised to learn that there is even blog groups dedicated to the whole shredding process.  The first one is a group that calls themselves The Shredheads and the second one is a group of ladies wanting to look great for BlogHer 09, appropriately called Hot by BlogHer.

It wasn't long before I changed my "I ain't doing no 30 day shredding" tune.  These same ladies, and many many others, started talking about the RESULTS they were seeing.   They were even all still alive to talk about it.  Now that got my attention!  Not only could I stand to lose a few pounds but I knew that to keep my sciatica at bay I needed to keep moving....every day.  What appealed to me is that The 30 Day Shred is only 25 minutes long and involves not just cardio but strength training as well. I figured a little pain, similar to how excited I get when I hear dirt being sucked up by my vacuum, would be my indicator that the workout was actually performing some kind of miracle.  

So I jumped....feet first onto the shredding bandwagon.

And....it involved pain that was so horrible I couldn't move for days without wincing and grunting and wanting to hurt someone so they could feel even a smidgeon of the pain that had consumed my entire body.

But I too have also lived to tell about it and while I haven't lost any weight, I have lost many inches and clothes I haven't worn in quite some time now fit again.  And if you want to cop a feel of my arm you might even feel a little muscle forming where none ever use to exist.  Now that's exciting!  The best part of all is that since starting my daily regimen with Jillian I have kept the sciatica pain away and that alone is reason enough for me to continue to drag my sorry little butt out of bed every morning to workout.

Have you jumped on the shredding bandwagon yet?  Even Crabby McSlacker herself has given it a try.  If you've been thinking about it and decide you're ready, feel free to come on back to share your pain, I'll totally commiserate with you.