Boo Bear, My Tiny Personal Trainer

A few days before the Plus Size Bloggers competition began, a twitter party was held. Two workout DVDs were given out as door prizes, and I was lucky enough to win one. Actually, I was the first winner picked, so I got to choose one of the videos, which was lucky because I already tried the other one.

While I enjoyed the Biggest Loser DVD, and it was definitely effective, it's also not so easy to do with two very small children at home without someone else home to watch them. The moves are big and hard hitting, and my girls tend to like to get right up beside me while I'm following a workout DVD for some reason. I tried doing it while they were asleep, and lucky me, I'm apparently still heavy enough to sound like a herd of elephants stomping and kicking around. I kept waking them up a few minutes in, and Hubby doesn't get home until late most days.

I've learned the hard way, exercising past 6 p.m. is guaranteed to keep me awake until midnight or later.

I wasn't exactly hopeful when I popped in Walk Away the Pounds Express. Sure walking two miles three to six days a week kept my weight in check throughout high school and college, but I've been busting my rear for years now with very little result. How much could walking in place do?

I gave it a test run using the two mile brisk walk while Mom had the girls on Friday. I wasn't very happy with the impact of the video, but it seemed easy and tame enough that I might be able to get away with using it while the girls were up and about. So, I decided to add my ankle weights to the equation, and see if it improved the workout for me any.

So, the next day, I strapped on my two pound ankle weights and gave the one mile walk a try. Boo Bear and Sneak came in to see what I was doing. Before I knew it Boo Bear was standing a couple feet away following along, and actually keeping up, while Sneak marched in circles around us. Because we never moved more than one large step in any direction, this didn't cause a problem. With the weights on, I started feeling a burn by the end of the video, which made me a lot happier with the workout.

Apparently Boo enjoyed the workout and has decided she is now my pint sized trainer. Each morning about 8:30 or 9, I hear her saying, "You gots to do your workout, Mama." And you better believe she'll repeat the statement every five minutes until I start the DVD! So I'm currently doing the one mile walk once in the morning and once in the afternoon, with ankle weights, and then following that up with some upper body and core strength training on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And I do the two mile walk at least once, twice if I need an energy boost, on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

The only drawback? I now continually have the songs used in the video stuck in my head. They're not bad, but any song gets annoying after four or five days straight.

* Neither company has contacted me. I simply feel obligated to put up a link if I mention a product in the blog.