Welcome to the newest edition of Carol's Corner. Have a seat, put up your feet, grab your favorite drink and stay awhile. I hope everyone is having a good week. I was in Pa. visiting one of my daughters and my three grandchildren, which is one of the reasons for being so long between posts. My youngest granddaughter Caitrin is turning 5 in a few days so we had an early birthday celebration while we were there. Gonna have to show you one the pictures we took of her daily. She is just the cutest.

Absolutely adore the dress I'm wearing in today's picture. Got it in Marshall's for just $24.95,(a fraction of what it would be somewhere else). You gotta know by now how much I love dresses. And the topper I already owned went perfectly. Everything about this dress is perfection and the color's are dreamy. Diane Panda Sabbath had the perfect name which is,”Heavenly Flowers”.

The three piece jewelry set you see me wearing is one of my creations and it was just perfection with this ensemble. And the polka dotted FitBit Band is a great shade to coordinate with the rest of the accessories. My white ring was also a good match.

 

 

For my clasp cover I opted for two of the smaller whitish see through ones.

 

 

 

I decided to go with this pretty watch that has some pizzazz. Best part was that I got it at Walmart, for if I remember correctly, $12.95. Can't go wrong with that.

Before I move on to the meat of this issue, I just have to show you a picture of my adorable granddaughter Caitrin.

 

This is her, the first full day we were there. She had to change into a skirt after nursery school cause Nana was wearing a skirt. She, just like Nana loves her accessories. She has a bracelet on too, but you can't see it in this picture and boy, does that girl love her sunglasses. This five year old has it going on.

So we're going to talk exercise and I will also be reviewing a new DVD I just received.

I'm officially back in action, full steam ahead. Since I'm consistently logging way above 10,000 steps for this past week, I reset my step goal back to 10,000 steps and I have had at times upwards of 20,000 steps and anywhere from 5-10 miles of workouts per day. My foot seems to be bearing up pretty well. The swelling seems much better and the pain while not fully gone is better. I'm actually wearing some of my cute flats and tonight danced in one pair of them for 2-3 hours. If you haven't gone with an exercise tracker yet, I urge you to consider one. It can really push you to be more active, which in turn will help you with your weight goals, keep many health problems at bay, and just help your overall fitness level. I see no downside to that. I started a FitBit challenge that started in a different time zone on Thursday, so when I started that day's workouts at midnight only two of my five miles counted toward the challenge, and to make it even more difficult we were leaving Pa. to come home, and between the heavy traffic in places and stopping for lunch and bathroom breaks, we were the better part of 6 hours traveling back home. I'm thinking how can I ever catch up? So on our way home I decided to get creative. After lunch at this really cool diner we sometimes stop at, I took matters into my own hands. I decided I was going to get in some walking. I walked around and around the parking lot to the diner for between 10-15 minutest at a fairly brisk pace. Then at the next bathroom break I did the same thing. And at the rest area when we arrived back in NY State I did the same thing again. Then when we arrived home, I logged in quite a few steps putting everything away from our trip. It involved quite a few trips back and forth between upstairs and downstairs. The challenge ended at 1 AM in our time zone, so around 11:30 I began working out. This added both numbers for that day, but also started me on the next day's stats. When 1 AM arrived it showed me leading the challenge by less than a 1,000 steps. Until everyone synched their trackers I wasn't sure if I was actually the winner, but my numbers held up. I ended up with 21,393 steps for the challenge, 20,383,steps for the day and a mammoth amount of active minutes at 131, all because I decided to come up with a way to fit in working out while on the road. And at my daughter's I worked out every day I was there, one day outdoors for 2.9 miles and the rest of my workouts inside with various DVD'S I brought with me. When you leave home figure out all the ways you can keep up your exercise regimen. And I actually lost weight while I was gone. I am finally back on track there too,and have lost approximately 9 pounds and am at my lowest in months. Have around 13.8 pounds to go to get back to my fighting weight as I like to call it. Find ways to challenge yourself. It will pay big dividends in the long term.

So now I am going to give you a review of my newest workout video. I haven't done every section yet but watched it all last night.

 

 

I'm starting to use a number of Jessica Smith workouts in addition to my Leslie ones. It pays to change up your workouts and also to have variety. We need to keep our body guessing. This is her newest release, “Walk on, 6 Mile Mix-Slim Down & Tone Up With Every Step!

 

This is a customizable walking plan which can be used in many different ways. For some miles you need a resistance band or like me if you have the Miracle Miles set by Leslie I use the miracle mile band. Earlier I had one break and they sent me a new one. Where the first one broke I cut it and now use the shorter ones for upper body segments and the longer one for lower body. Use whatever works best for you. Resistance bands come in various resistances and can be purchased in many different places. So let's break down the segments and what's available to you. There is a warm up of five minutes, a five minute cool down and also a five minute stretch. It suggests you might even want to use the warm up before an outdoor walk. The stretching segment uses a sturdy high back chair. Three of the miles use the resistance band and the others do not, and one of those uses them in a floor segment. I would suggest alternating toning work one day and cardio another or a little of each, whatever works best for you. I would not suggest you try to do the whole thing at once, because it is a very challenging workout. As always you choose to follow her mom's lower impact moves or her friends higher intensity moves.

So here's what each mile consists of.

MILE 1: This is called “The Steady Burn” and is 15 minutes in duration. This is a strong and steady brisk mile to build up your endurance while you burn calories.

MILE 2: This is a 15 minute “Upper Body Sculpt” using the resistance band while walking in a multi tasking mile.

MILE 3: This is the “Lower Body Toner”, also 15 minutes using the resistance band and a mat or towel for a brief floor toning segment at the end. This segment is to tone and tighten everything below the belt, with a lower body focused walk.

MILE 4: This is called the ” Cardio Interval Abs” segment , also 15 minutes in duration.Blast off fat faster with a combo of belly fat interval training and targeted standing ab moves during this mega mile.

MILE 5: This is dubbed the ” Total Body Tune Up”, 15 minutes in length, done with the resistance band. Rev up your metabolism to burn calories around the clock with this strong, total body sculpting walk.

MILE 6: This is the ” Speed Walk”, 12 minutes in duration. This is a shorter fast paced mile designed to help improve your fitness level and boost your burn in less time.

So there you have it; a very versatile set of miles that you can mix and match any way you need to, on any given day. If you purchase this, prepare to be challenged in a good way.

I hope you've enjoyed this edition of Carol's Corner and found it motivating to get you out of your workout comfort zone. You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain. Isn't that a play on words? Lose the weight and gain in your level of physical fitness. So get out there and get moving. You won't regret it for a minute. I know I don't. Till next time, God Bless.