The Important Role of Exercise During the Turn Over A New Leaf 30 Day Fitness Challenge

Good Morning My New Leaves!

This isn’t THE post for the day, but this morning I received an email from a good friend, who is also participating in the 30 Day Challenge. The email exchange made me think of a few things that I wanted to share with you all.

I wanted to address a few key issues for those of you who will be using my 45 Minute Workout DVD during the challenge*. You already know my exercise related resume, so I won’t bore you again. I do, however, want to give you a brief history of how the exercises in the DVD came into existence.

I began teaching lunchtime exercise classes (at my other job) in the autumn of 1995. I taught three 1 hour classes on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays for about 10 years. In 2006, my work schedule changed and I had to drop one of the weekly classes.  In the spring of 2008, a year and a half after my husband and I created Brendita’s Body Works, LLC, I discovered that I no longer had the passion or desire to teach my lunchtime classes.  I was so excited about our new business venture, it was very tough for me to drum up the enthusiasm needed to teach my class.

I had developed quite a following of loyal students, all of whom gave up their lunch break two or three times a week to come and sweat with me. In 2003, I suffered two serious back injuries: The first was in June and the next was in October. I was bed ridden for nearly three months. When I was well enough to return to work and finally to teaching, my students asked me to film my workout, so they could “attend” my class on days when I was not able to teach in person.  We filmed two separate workouts.  Some of my former students still do my video taped workout, once or twice a week.

The 45 minute DVD workout was originally intended for my former lunchtime students, because they’d been exercising to the same 2 workouts for five years. So, I began making plans to film another workout.

I asked a dear friend of mine, Derrick Roberts**, if he could recommend a photographer. Derrick owns and operates a highly successful production company appropriately named “Derrick Roberts Production”.  He kindly offered the services of his company and one of his best photographers, Paulio Shakespear. The whole concept of filming the workout in our living room was Derrick’s idea. He said it would be an excellent way to convey the fact that the workout could be done in the comfort of one’s home, without any equipment. Brilliant!

The morning of filming arrived and Paulio came to our house with his film crew (him and his lovely wife) along with all of their equipment. To ensure clear, crisp sound, we had to close all the windows, turn off all the ceiling fans AND the air conditioning. It was July and it was HOT! One of the lights Paulio brought along had a 700 watt bulb! Up until that moment, I had no idea that 700 watt bulbs existed! You can probably imagine the amount of heat a light bulb of that much wattage generates. In my minds eye, I had envisioned us filming the 45 minute workout in an hour, give or take a few minutes. After everything ready, lights in place, music cued, mini microphone and power pack attached, we started filming.

Twenty minutes in, one of our three cats, Pasha, walked in front of me and decided he wanted to be part of the DVD. We didn’t think that would be a good idea, so I carried him downstairs and asked my son, Johnny, to keep an eye on him. 30 minutes into the re-take, yet another one of our cats, Mugsy, decided to come to the living room and sing along with the music. I yelled “cut”, Paulio stopped filming, but good old Mugsy kept right on singing. I knew that our third cat, Ramekin, would be the next one to make a cameo appearance, so I decided it would be best if we put all three cats in home office, with Johnny and a closed door.

We began filming, from the beginning, for a third time. We were able to get about 25 minutes on film and then the batteries in my microphone pack ran out.  We replaced them, started from the beginning again and thank goodness, the fourth and final attempt was successful! The next day, having done nearly my entire workout 4 times, back to back, I was UNIMAGINABLY sore… and happy to have finally completed the DVD.  Derrick’s staff worked its magic with the two plus hours of footage and Cas created all of the graphics. I am, as you know, was very pleased with the end result. I certainly hope you will be pleased, too!

If you find that the workout is too difficult to do in its entirety, just do what you can. If you can’t do the whole workout, you MUST make sure that you do the warm up and cool down. If you’re a beginner, push yourself as much as you can: Do as many of the exercises as possible and after about 2 weeks, I am quite confident, you will be able to do the entire DVD. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I will also going to give you a series of exercises to do for the days in between your DVD workouts. A little later today, I will post your grocery shopping list, food preparation tips and a blueprint for your meals.

I hope that you will ALL take a “Before” picture of yourselves today or tomorrow. You don’t have to post it, but I’d like for you to have it for yourself. At the end of the challenge, I hope that some, if not all of you will decide to share your photos with the rest of the Turn Over A New Leaf 30 Day Fitness Challenge participants.

I must go and finish our grocery list!

Kindest regards,

Brendita

* The Goal of the 30 Day Challenge is to get everyone on (or back on) the road to a fit and healthy lifestyle. You do NOT have to use my workout DVD to participate in the challenge: If you already have an exercise regimen that works for you, by all means use it!  Kindly note, I have designed this challenge with the idea that you will be doing an aerobic and strength training workout three days a week. If you will not be using my DVD, please make sure that your workout includes a proper warm up followed by an aerobic workout (that will keep your heart beating within its target range for a minimum of 20 minutes), resistance exercises and cool down stretches.

**For more information about Derrick Roberts Productions, please visit his website: http://www.derrickrobertsproductions.com/

You can read an article about his wonderful company by visiting this website: http://www.dcsocialite.com/derrick-roberts-productions