Despite my numerous wonderful qualities there is one area of my life that is sorely lacking – self-discipline. Given time I could probably produce many childhood report cards with words like “Wonderful student, needs to work on self-discipline.”

Most of my self-discipline issues come out when it’s something I don’t like to do – like exercise. I will go for spurts here and there but then the excuses start coming, etc.

When I started back to work full time about 18 months ago and went from chasing a preschooler to sitting at a desk I put on 10-13 lbs. I’m finally tired of it. (Well I shouldn’t say “finally” because really I’ve been tired of it for a long time but I guess I’m finally enough tired of it to actually do something.)

With my schedule (drop the kids off at school, go to work, eat lunch at desk, pick kids up at school, homework, dinner, kids to bed, etc) I know that realistically there is no way I’m going to go to the gym. I’m not a morning person so I’m not getting up any earlier than my current 5:30 a.m. rising time. Just ain’t happening!

So I’ve been eavesdropping on conversations re: P90X and various other programs I could do at home. I ALMOST went for P90X but I was hesitant about the time commitment – basically an hour every night, 6x a week.

Then I started hearing lots about Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. She’s the trainer from The Biggest Loser. I read reviews and finally made the purchase last weekend. My goal is to do it 6 days a week. Knowing I might get bored I also bought her two other DVD’s on trouble areas and metabolism booster.

Two days down and I love it! First, it’s only 20 minutes – no matter how busy I am, I can always do that. I also love that it’s a circuit. After the 2 minute warm-up she does 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, 1 minute of abs. Then she repeats the circuit 2 more times each time with new exercises (a few repeat). Within those sections she might do 2, 4 or 6 different actual exercises. I love this because I know that if I’m dying doing the high leg kicks that it’s almost over and it helps me hang on and finish the set!

Extra bonus is that the only equipment you need is a set of hand weights – $8 at Wal-Mart. And another bonus, the cardio isn’t aerobic dance moves; it’s simple stuff like jumping jacks, high leg kicks, jump rope (w/o the rope). I’m not the most coordinated woman ever but I can do that.

The first night when I finished I went to go downstairs to get water. I felt like those cartoons where the animal gets flattened and then “folds” down the stairs. I thought my legs were going to turn to Jell-O and I would just dissolve my way to the first floor.

But I’ve made it through 2 nights (about to do the 3rd) and while I can definitely feel it in my muscles the next day, I can function. (The DVD has 3 levels of circuits so when Level 1 starts to get easy I’ll move up.)

I’m also trying to really watch what I eat. Not starve myself or anything but try to fill up more on fruits and veggies and eat smaller portions of the other stuff. I’ve been using the Daily Plate application on LiveStrong.com to track my nutrition intake. It’s got an awesome database of products and restaurant menus that make it really easy to see what you’ve eaten.

I don’t necessarily have a specific goal weight in mind – more important is going back down a size in clothes (so I can wear all the pants/shorts in my wardrobe that have been gathering dust) and toning up.

Why blog all this? Just one more way to keep myself accountable. I’ll report back from time to time and let you know how it’s going.

Right now, I’m hungry. Going to go eat a plum. (That would be 30 calories, .18g of fat and 8g of carbs.)