Abcentric Metamorphosis Review

Hello everyone!




Here is another promised review- Metamorphosis Abcentric days 1-90 (the starter).  I was watching it last night to prepare myself for Monday and I decided to look ahead to see what was up in my future.

For those who don't know- this is what the packaging looks like!

1. The editing is just fine, it seems.  I haven't heard about editing issues on the first 90 days anyway but I just like to make sure.  


2. Sometimes Tracy DOES do a slightly different variation of the same move when she switches legs. I don't love that, I just stick to the move she did the first time and count to 40 at my own pace (or however many reps she says to do- some moves only 10-20.)


3. Abcentric ladies: If you hate planks, brace yourself. After the first month especially! Planks on the side! Regular Planks! Planks where there shouldn't be! (Joking!) But yeah... If you are core-strength challenged like me then this looks like it will really give us a run for our money. 


4. Level 9 is the same for everyone... But it still scares me. The moves don't look devilish but from what I have heard from people who have done it... Even experienced TAMers who are in shape were hurting (in a good way) the next day. For the whole 10 days.


5. Cardio and Intro are pretty straightforward. Cardio is Tracy dancing around for 30 minutes for us to follow along and the intro is Tracy giving a little talk to you before starting.

Day 5 complete!!

Hello everyone!


I finished 5 days of Meta! Today was level 1 day 5 and I am now at 30 reps per leg. It took a longer time today because I think I'm a little tired still.  Cardio was 30 minutes of dancing on the floor. 




Speaking of cardio- I recently emailed the Tracy team because I had a question about the rebounder and if it was appropriate or not.

Hello-

I currently have both the Trampoline workout and Metamorphosis/Continuity Abcentric. 

1. I have never been able to do full on dance cardio like Tracy does on the DVD. 

2. I can do 30 minutes of the dance cardio on the floor STEP TOUCH ONLY and even with that it's pretty challenging.

3. I am overweight and very out of shape (restarting the method after a long break)

To get the most out of my cardio work, should I focus on doing the rebounder first (I can only get through about 5-10 minutes of it at the moment) or focus more on the floor cardio? I am also keeping up with my muscular structure work and eating right. (After restarting Ab Meta days 1-10 I am on day 4 and have lost 5 pounds already)

I really appreciate your help and look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks-

And the next day they replied:

Do as much of the dance cardio doing the step touch as you can on the floor and add in the mini trampoline when you need to or for a change. You're still doing to see the results doing either or both of these modification.

You're doing a great job, keep it up!! 

So for any of you who are in between if you should be doing trampoline or dancing on the floor, they PREFER us to be on the floor so if you can do this, keep with that and use the trampoline on an as-needed basis. (If you get injured, etc)

I hope you all had a great Saturday! Check back soon!

Thinking about taking an early rest day

Hello everyone!


Today was a very hectic, long Friday.  


I woke up at 6 am, worked from 8-5, came home, walked the dog, made dinner and here I am.


I am sitting here, full from dinner, trying to decide if I should take a rest day or not instead of Sunday.




All kinds of thoughts going on now-


I'm sleepy.
I'm tired.
I don't want to exercise.
If I don't exercise, I'll feel guilty.
Do I really want to do anything on Sunday?


And so on.


So here I am contemplating- man the fuck up and try to push through my workout and hope that I can finish, or be a lazy bum tonight and work out on Sunday- meaning 8 straight days without a rest.  That doesn't sound too hot either. Hm.




I will update with the result- Working out- Did I or didn't I? 




Have a good Friday night!

Ideas...

Hello everyone!




I've been thinking about making two blogs a day, to keep things more current. It's an idea I've been thinking about for a while,


From now on usually there will be multiple posts a day- two or more, depending on how the day goes. (If I find an interesting article, etc) 


So, let me ask you guys:  Is there anything you'd be interested in reading about, other than my daily progress?  Any topics you'd like to see covered?


If so, post in the comments!!!






Have a good day~

Wow. Serious workout is serious.

Hello everyone!


I had no idea how rough my workout yesterday was, until this morning especially.


I didn't sweat much doing the trampoline but I definitely felt it.  I ended up going to bed very early last night and even almost falling asleep in class!  My normal bedtime is around midnight or later, but I was out like a light at 10:30. 


This morning I have not felt so sore in a long time. My ribs, my butt, my abs, everything is sore. Not in a debilitating way but an "I got a good workout" way.  Out of curiosity, I weighed myself, no gain, no loss, but I feel a bit tighter everywhere. 




So, eating breakfast now and then going to man up and get more workouts done!




Will post later. You should go work out too! 




Have a great day!

Abcentric Day 2

Hello everyone!




Today is Valentine's day, so you are probably busy doing something nice with your significant other. :) 


However, I did do my workout today but I am not pleased with it. I am also honestly not pleased with yesterday's either.


I am PMSing at the moment (probably why) and I feel like today and yesterday's workouts were shitty. Just walking for cardio and only 15 reps per leg during my meta today. Yuck. Yuck yuck yucccck! I took a very short walk and my back started hurting (it hurt yesterday too but failed to mention). Ughh. 




Do any of you ladies have advice for getting that extra push when your hormones want you in bed?  Post in the comments!  I'd love any help with this!




Have a happy, lovely, Valentine's day!

New shoes!!!!

Hello everyone! 




I am contemplating working out (I probably will, Mondays I work all day and have class in the evening), in the meantime, I got my new shoes!

They look a lot like my old ones except the old ones were silver where the black is.  Still hot pink.  I am about to try them on, if they don't fit right then back to Zappos they go for a different size.




You know what? I guess I SHOULD work out, just because it's late at night doesn't mean I get to use it as an excuse. Also, tonight's workout should be pretty short- 20 reps MS and 10 minutes of step touch DC to get me back into it.   


Also, one of my readers gave me an idea, but I haven't decided if I am going to do it- it depends on how able I am to do bootcamp level 2 when I get to it. 


Will share later!




Have a good night, off to try on my shoes and hopefully get a workout in. :)

Tomorrow is the day!

Hello everyone!




I can finally get back to working out tomorrow!  So excited!  Day 1 of 30 begins tomorrow.




In the meantime.... 




Tracy was on QVC again- this time, very pregnant (I believe she is 6 months along now).







One thing I did notice which is a major change- At about the 3:55 mark, she actually addresses that she wants to help women get past our insecurities, that she does not want to try to make us into something that we're not, but to "be your best you" and that we are all beautiful, unique and she does not want to make all women the same.  A far cry from her old "Perfection/teeny tiny" speech. (Perhaps I should change the name of my blog, knowing that?) I think this is a great change, it promotes a much healthier mindset than striving for "perfect".  Maybe she was trying to say that but finally worded it in such a way that it sounds more positive.  I do remember when she was pushing teeny tiny, that she also would say 'Your teeniest, tiniest point', keyword "your". 


Again, I look forward to doing my first workout ALL WEEK.  This is gonna hurt. In a good way.




Have a good night everyone~

Lazy Sunday Again

Hello everyone-


A short post- I am still SUPER sore today, still hobbling when I walk, etc.  Therefore, I am going to again, take care of my muscles and rest.  I hope you all had a great weekend!

1/28/12- Had to take a rest.

Hello everyone!


As you may have read, yesterday I had a kick ass workout. Perhaps a little TOO kick ass, because today I have been barely able to move in any way without feeling like I got hit by a train.


Thinking about it, I came up with things I could have and SHOULD have done differently.


1. NEVER AGAIN do my cardio without my gel insoles. I took them out because they needed washing, worked out without them and I think that beat up my legs in a no-good way.  My shins were KILLING me and that's never happened with these shoes, even when I was heavier.   So, gel required!


2. Perhaps I should split my cardio into 2 30 minute sessions instead of banging out a whole mediocre hour at once. I made it through 30 minutes pretty well, but the last 30 was just sloppy and painful. 




I had to take a day off of TAM today.  I can barely get up and down the 5 steps to get into my place. There's "I had a good workout" sore and then there's "I waaay overdid it" sore. This was the latter. 


The plan- eat a lot of protein (already done, haha), stretch with the P90X stretch dvd (did it once this morning, going to do it again before bed), take some ibuprofen and hit the hay.  Tomorrow- going to try to hop back on the Tracy horse!




I hope you all had a great Saturday!

Tracy Anderson 30 Day Method- Day 1 of 30

Hello everyone!


After eons of talking about starting bootcamp, being indecisive about bootcamp, etc, I finally took the plunger and just did it!


Some of you might not know what I mean by bootcamp. That's ok, I'll explain it.


If you don't know already, Tracy came out with a book in 2010 called Tracy Anderson's 30 day method.  It works in a very similar way to Metamorphosis- change your workout every 10 days. However, there are a few differences.




1. In the 30 day method, there are NO rest days. Hence, the term "boot camp" which she uses in the book as well.


2. Unlike Meta, the book actually maps out for you how to begin your TAM journey based on your current fitness level. BIG help!


3. You get a lot of background information, tips/tricks, etc in the book that you do not in Meta.




In short, I believe starting out with the book and THEN heading to meta would be a good choice for most people.  There is a lot more instruction with the movements, and you build up strength enough for the next level. It also makes the dance cardio a lot less intimidating, especially for beginners. 




Now then. How did my first day go?


I did my MS work 20 reps each move (every 1st day of a level you are only supposed to do 20) and I did 60 minutes of step touch cardio.  Mind you, you do not have to do this much. I did it because a) I am technically NOT a beginner with this stuff and b) I just felt up to it.  Remember, never go over an hour with your DC. Tracy says that both in the book and in Meta cardio. 




That wasn't the only movement I did today!  I have started taking my puppy out for 2 one-hour long walks a day to tire his butt out and so he gets the exercise a mini poodle needs. (They need at least an hour a day but he has pent up puppy energy he's gotta let go of) 


So yeah... I did quite a bit today.  I also took my weight and measurements.  I prefer to wait until 10 days have passed so I can give you a before and after(ish). 


Vlog should be up soon.  I am not sure if I have the energy to do it tonight, I think I might do them with a delay, like do yesterday's vlog today, etc.  Right now I honestly feel like nosediving into bed.




I hope you guys had a great Friday- and let's work for a productive weekend- at least workout wise!

More random thoughts, and some Tracy news!

Hello everyone!

No actual workouts today, aside from me walking for about 2 hours running errands.  The boot camp starts on Friday so that I can take a rest day on the Sunday after ending it, then starting Meta on a Monday.  I made some more copies of my workout tracker, pics to come as well as my first video blog!  I warn  you- it probably won't be very pretty, but I said it was going to happen so I have to make it so.  Also preparing for another video project- a surprise for later! 

Today, the Tracy team put up some more pics of Continuity filming with Stacey and Maria.  

To be honest, this pic has me saying WTF for a couple reasons:

1. Are they going to be working out in these bikinis??

2. Maria's shoes (she's on the left) look more like they should be worn with pants rather than a bikini. 

Stacey again in pants actually sent to them by a fan, I heard!  They say to look for the pants in Continuity 2.  I think they're cute and I also like the sneakers. 

So, how is our pregnant Teeny Tiny Boss doing?  See for yourself!

This is Tracy filming month 4 of her upcoming Pregnancy Workouts. Not post-pregnancy, but DURING.  I think her baby bump is cute, she is probably more than 4 months along herself, but the workouts are still being filmed.  

Hungry for more cardio?  According to Tracy's twitter, (GoTracy) they're working on getting that out to us too.

 

@Aventuramami Its coming! I just finished an entire collection of new dances!xo

@Aventuramami And the amazing Stacey and Maria are filming the dances FYI don't worry you don't have to work it with my pregnant butt!x

On a last note, lately I have been more active in the Metamorphosis Community on her site (you have to have purchased Meta to get in), and there really are a lot of good people there.  For example, I even found people who are in MY situation with having to lose over 50 pounds, and they are a bunch of very supportive ladies.  So, if you have access and don't use it, I recommend you do. :)  They are the reason I wanted to give meta another go AFTER bootcamp, I heard some great success stories there that really inspired me.

Have a great day and rest of the week! 

Lazy Sunday

Hello everyone!




Quick post again, took another day off today (feeling a little better than yesterday at least) to get some major cleaning done and to prepare for school coming up in the next week.  Thankfully, my classes are in the evenings so that I have more time in the day to get my workout done beforehand, come home from class and just rest for the remainder of the night.  Also, my classes are only twice a week.   Taking a light load this semester because I am *finally* preparing for admission into my nursing program at school.  I missed the deadline for last semester by JUST a little bit. So, I am really hoping this time does it. If not, keep on trying. (Very competitive, unfortunately)




Also- (I forget if I posted about this before)  I have been weighing in on my wii fit, and sadly, I gained some weight (yesterday was horrendous on the dieting level).  


I still have not forgotten about the video blogs.  I am still working out technical issues, and if I am lucky, tomorrow I will at least have something recorded for editing. 




I hope you all had a  great weekend. Let's hope this week is a good one! Boot camp for me, how about you?

Vlogs FINALLY COMING!

Hello everyone!




I am finally getting my webcam delivered tomorrow- meaning I will start making vlogs ASAP!


If you haven't already, please subscribe to my youtube channel, teenytinyquest.


That's it for today, I can't wait to start filming!




Have a great day!

Tried Zumba...

Hello everyone!!!!




Well, remember the Zumba DVDs I borrowed? Turns out, I gave it a shot today and I have um... Mixed feelings about it.


It is a fun workout, and fairly low impact. Low impact actually literally means to always have one foot on the ground, it has nothing to do with intensity.  However, despite the low impact, the leg movements involve a lot of twisting of my legs which my knees really did not like!


So now I sit here, with sore knee joints, which did NOT happen when I did Tracy dance. Even though that involves jumping all over like a fairy on catnip, I never had knee issues (probably because of the shoes, but I used the SAME shoes on Zumba!).


I guess I will try Zumba again tomorrow, just to see if today was just a fluke or if my  knees really aren't into it.  If that's the case I will just stick with TAM dancing.


Any Zumba-doing readers- any tips for the knees to not hurt so much? Have any of you experienced this yourself? Tell me about it!




I hope you all had a great day- the weekend is almost here!

1/1/12

Hello everyone!!!!




I hope everyone had a fun New Year's Eve!  I was less than good dietwise.  I ended up having some cheese pizza to ring in the new year.




New Year's Day-  Today I just kind of relaxed and didn't do much, and indulged a little again.  This time I had some Burger King. (I know, I know.)  I took my "before" weight and measurements and was pleasantly surprised when I compared these befores to other befores.  It seems I lost a couple inches in the bust and waist. Not bad.


Also I did do SOME physical movement. I did what I will be doing every Sunday- X Stretch from P90X which is an hour long of stretches. And boy did it feel good.  


Tomorrow I will start my Abcentric meta along with  better eating. :)




Happy New Year!!!

I got a Kinect!

Hello everyone!!!


Some of you may have heard of a new accessory you can get for the Xbox 360- the Kinect.  I ended up getting one for a late Christmas gift!


What it does is connects to your TVand like the Nintendo Wii you use your movement to control the games.   Except the Kinect has no remotes, it scans your body and you use your arms and legs themselves.


Additionally (and why I mention it in this blog) it can be a good workout tool.


I also got a game with it called Fighters Uncaged.  It's what it sounds like- a fighting game for the Kinect. 







Yes, you actually do have to punch and kick. And it's harder than it looks. The one bad thing about this game is that the controls are not as responsive as I'd like but trying to do the moves also gives you a workout in itself.


Another game I really want to try- Dance Central 2


Here's a clip of someone actually playing it





I like that you actually have to dance, with  your arms and legs.   I think this will be my next game, I think it would be a fun addition to doing Meta (which I took off today, really wasn't feeling good but I will do it tomorrow) .


Do any of you have Kinect? Do you have any games you'd like to try?

Working on my first video

Hello!!




I am working on my first and possibly second video for my channel, one I want to be more of an introduction to myself and the method, the other more about the particular workout I want to start.  I have to do some beautifying to myself first (my eyebrows are a MESS). 


My ankle is still not up to snuff to start bootcamp so today I will do the webisodes and skip any leg moves that involve using my ankle.  I really do not want to start boot camp until I can do cardio without worrying that I'll bust it again. It SHOULD be healed by Sunday or Monday. Better safe than sorry!


As a reminder my channel is teenytinyquest (and twitter the same username). Subscribe and get updates from me there too!


Alright, off to do my workout. Have a great day!

Bad News...

Hello Everyone.




I have some terrible news.  Unfortunately, I am out of commission from working out AGAIN.  Why?  I fell and busted my ankle.  The same ankle I busted not long ago is causing me trouble again.  No cool story associated with it either. I was walking back inside from taking the dog out and BOOM. Down I go. I must have misstepped or something, the only good thing is I fell at home and not outside somewhere.


I will keep blogging with updates, articles, and any Tracy news I come across. Bear with me and I will be getting back to working out soon.


I hope you guys have a better Sunday than I did. 

Abcentric Day 16

Hello everyone-


Day 6 of Level 2 was NOT my best.  It also happened to be the 2nd day of my monthly friend, which for me is almost ALWAYS the worst (and the 3rd day too sometimes). I feel SUPER bloated, like a water balloon with arms, legs and a head.  My weight SKYROCKETED and I look like I did NO exercise this whole time.  I also feel very crampy, clumsy and weak.


However, I at least should get some points for effort.


I did my MS work- got through the arms and abs but had to reduce leg reps to 20. Still sweating like a horse. I felt like there were huge blocks of cement tied to my legs. Horrible.  Due to dizziness, weakness, and clumsiness (for my safety and the safety of the objects in my place) I decided to sit out cardio this time. Will try again after a good night's rest.


I hope you guys had a better workout than I did today. Oh well. It happens. We all have ups and downs, right?


Have a great day!