Infomercials

One of the consequences of insomnia is that I get the priviledge of catching all the annoying fitness infomercials that plague your TV during the wee hours of the morning. I confess, I’ve succumb a couple of times myself, caving in and buying fitness apparatus that ultimately disappointed me.

But then there are fitness programs…Beach Body is the king of these, churning out countless exercise videos, supplements, and gear, promising to help you lose all that extra weight for good. Hmmm. They all look so encouraging but do they really work?

A friend of a friend bought the P90X system ($140) and it actually worked wonders for him. He went from Average Joe to Really Jacked Joe in about 3 months, just like it promised. Another friend of mine swears by Turbo Jam ($72.80), where she kickboxed her way into size 4 jeans. But I’ve always failed at keeping to a program. Why? I realized it’s because I have a tendency to do too much too quickly and then burn out only after the first week (the 2nd week if I’m really determined).

Weight loss is not supposed to be a rapid thing if you’re doing it the healthy way. I’m committed to not just losing the weight, but I’m serious about achieving a healthier mindset as well. Emotional health is important for me and without it, I know I will quickly sabatoge any strides I’ve made. So I’ve been taking things slow, incorporating exercise when I can and trying not to beat myself up when I “fail” and happen to eat too much. Most of my exercise consists of walking outside and/or using the elliptical machine…and I think my body as reached a point where it’s bored.

My friend gave me a boost. She gave me her old Slim in 6 ($72) DVDs which she used before advancing to much harder workout programs. I was hesistant in accepting them. Do I really need more fitness videos that I know won’t work for me? But then I took them anyway and decided…okay, I will give it a whirl. 6 weeks. Let’s see if I can do this…So today I popped in the first video, “Start it Up” and surprisingly I survived the workout! It was only 25 min but I felt great afterwards. Now I’m a bit excited. Maybe I CAN keep to this if I make sure not to do too much too soon?

Anyway, I’d like to know if any of you have tried infomercial fitness programs and if they worked for you?