Saundra

Weight Watchers Smart Ones Anytime Selections have been adding a greater variety in their low calorie meals. One new entry are their smart mini wraps. The wraps come in two flavors: Chicken Ranchero Smart Mini Wrap and Chicken & Mushroom Florentine Smart Mini Wrap . I have tried both flavors and I have to say while I loved the Chicken Ranchero flavor, I didn't care for the Chicken & Mushroom Florentine flavor at all. I had my boyfriend try the Chicken & Mushroom Florentine flavor and he loved it. Both flavors clock in at 4 points per serving. One serving is two mini wraps. Each box comes with 4 mini wraps. So there are two servings per package. I think the mini wraps are an excellent addition to the Smart Ones line up. 4 stars out of 5.

Jiggle Free Arms is a 30 minute workout led by Stephanie Huckabee. The workout uses the TransFIRMer and it alternates upper body exercises with aerobics for an interval style workouts. The sculpting sets are much shorter in Jiggle Free Arms than there were in Jiggle Free Buns, but then there are more of them. All 5 muscle groups are hit in some faction. The sequencing and the exercises do allow you to go heavy with this workout. Jiggle Free Arms is also a workout that gets in and gets out. Stephanie is an extremely good at cuing and she is very easy to follow. Again, you are using the TransFIRMer in a variety of position. Moving the TransFIRMer in and out of the workout space can be a workout in and of itself. I was very very please that the FIRM put this DVD out. So often you just see the industry coming out with separate lower body workouts but no upper body workouts. I swear I think for every upper body workout that is out there, there is 4 lower body workouts. 3 1/2 stars

Jiggle Free Buns is a 30 minute lower body workout led by Pam Cauthen Merriweather. It alternates cardio breaks with sculpting breaks and it is one of six workouts that features the TransFIRMer step apparatus. I really like the TransFIRMer workouts and I like Jiggle Free Buns. It is a nice get in and get out lower body workout. You can go heavy on the sculpting sets and you can jack up the intensity in the cardio segments as needed. The cardio combinations are easy to learn and there is a slight repetitive feel to them. Because the moves are so simple, you can really work the move. The TransFIRMer is used in a variety of position and while I like the TransFIRMer it is a bulky piece of equipment and it can be cumbersome to move. 3 1/2 stars out of 5

July Rotation Notes: Friday is active recovery day. This day is most stretch and/or yoga type workouts. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I will be doing two workouts a day - energy permitting. Along with being a core day, Sunday is also an outside run day of 3 miles. I am hoping for minimum humidity on those days. The sequence for the morning schedule is: Core Lower Body Upper Body Cardio (Treadmill) Total Body Stretch Cardio & Weights Evening sessions are essentially all cardio.

Okay. I have jump on the Turbo Fire bandwagon. My system arrive last week and I have previewed all of the workouts. I revise my July rotation to include the Turbo Fire workouts. Most of the Turbo Fire workouts I will be doing as evening workouts but I might changed them to morning workouts. I am still trying to decide when I will have the most energy to give the workouts my all. My July rotation starts Sunday June 27. My first Turbo workout will be an evening workout Tuesday June 29. Let the Fire Begin........

MM10 Power - Accelerate Metabolism is one of three DVDs in the Montenegro Method series and is lead by Marta Montenegro. The DVD contains 4 athletic style sports influence workouts. The workouts boast 10 exercises in 10 minutes. None of the workouts are 10 minutes. All the workouts clock in at between 12 and 14 minutes. This usually annoys me - when the makers (i.e. producers, instructor, lead) can't tell time but in the case of Marta's workouts I am going to give her the benefit of the doubt. What Marta is doing is actually giving you 10 exercises and each exercise you do for 1 minute or if you have two sides - 30 seconds per side. Accounting for all the transition between the exercises is why the workout goes longer than 10 minutes. All the workouts use weights/dumbbells except for workout 4. Workout 4 was my favorite section, followed by workout 3. The 4 workouts would make good add on workouts. I only felt I got a warm up in workouts 3 and 4. Mostly though all 4 workouts j

Mmmm .... over all not bad. I enjoyed 20 minutes of Reach Further . 10 minutes I didn't care for or rather I didn't like it as much as the other segments. This workout is part of Tracie Long Fitness focus series and Tracie states it is the 4th workout in the series - which I guess really only means something if you happen to own all 4 workouts. Reach Further, like all the Focus workouts are broken down into three chapters. Chapter 1, I would label as flowing yoga. It moves at a brisk space and you are getting in and out moves quickly. Surprisingly this was one of the sections I enjoyed. I usually don't care for this type of yoga. Chapter 2 is core/ab work. About 1/2 of this section is plank work and the other half is traditional ab work. This was my least favorite section - not because it isn't challenging, more because I felt it out of place in this workout. This would be a good section to add on an ab/core day. Chapter 3 I would say is about balance and stabili

The FIRM Core Solution is an abdominal and core workout that features 3 ten minute workouts led by FIRM instructor Alison Davis. The first section is standing abs, the second section is functional abs, and the third is traditional ab work. I did all three sections back to back and really enjoyed the workout. My favorite is probably standing abs. I like the lengthening and strengthening of the moves in the workout. The workout also had exercises to work the shoulder for a more define look and for an increase perception of a smaller waistline. The functional section contain lots of plank, balance and stabilization work; and the traditional routine contain a tough set of oblique work. Alison moves through the three workouts quickly and efficiently. I felt the workouts were sufficiently challenging without killing you. All three workouts feature the use of weights/dumbbells for added resistance. The set is my least favorite of the FIRM sets. Very blah, drab and uninspiring. 4 stars o

Do you want to take a dance class? If so Dancer's Body Workout is the workout for you. Patricia Moreno is so excellent in her teaching and instruction and she is very easy to follow. Like Dance for Weight Loss, I wouldn't expect to consistently have your heart rate up because there is a lot of stopping and watching as you are learning the moves. But I could definitely tell I was working out when I was doing the move full out and trying to hit all the positions that Patricia and the cast were hitting. Dancing with you whole body requires a lot and my muscle started fatiguing if I was repeatedly doing a move that I was not use to doing. I felt I was truly in a dance class with the DVD. The music in Dancer's Body was slightly better than Dance for Weight Loss. 3 1/2 stars out of 5

The FIRM FIRM Abs contain three 10 minute abdominal and core workouts. The workout uses the fanny lifter and the sculpting stick as a prop and for resistance. The three workouts are lead by Nancy Tucker. Nancy takes you through a series of crunches, planks, stabilization and stretching exercises. The workouts get progressively more advance as you move from one 10 minute workout to the next. Even so, I would rate any of the three as advance abs workouts. I consider them to be low to medium intermediate workouts. The sculpting stick that is used in this workout is the blue and purple one with the twigs. Often the twigs are removed and the center portion is used in various positions to include using the stick behind the knees, holding against the chest or behind the head. Nancy does a terrific job in leading the workouts. 3 stars out of 5

Maximum Intensity Strength is a Cathe Total Body Workout that can be found on the Power Hour Plus DVD. It clocks in at a whopping 75minutes. In the intro, Cathe states that MIS is a strength and endurance muscular workout. I do like this workout. I don't do it very often because of the time. The DVD that this workout comes on is very well chaptered and each exercise in this workout has its own chapter point. You can click to the left for a larger view of the exercise worksheet. The exercises are very traditional and on average you are doing two sets of every exercise. Equipment used: Step, Barbell, Dumbbells, Barbell Pad, Push up bars. 4 stars

Dance for Weightloss is one of those workouts that I have had for ages and just never got around to doing. There was always some other dance workout that I would rather do, plus I have to be in the right mind set to learn a dance routine. Well learning this dance routine was very easy because of Patricia Moreno's outstanding instruction. Seriously, when it comes to truly instructing on how something is to be done, Patricia is in a class by herself; and I give her A++ marks. The problem with truly instructing effectively is it takes time to do it right. That time translates into you are constantly stopping as you try to learn the moves. Now this actually did not bother me. I am mentioning it because if you are looking for a cardio dance workout that is really going to get your heart rate up for an extended period, this is not the workout for you. If you like to dance, enjoying learning routines and putting combinations together and you just want to move your body, you may like t

The FIRM's Ab Sculpt is a 25 minute abdominal and lower back workout led by Lisa Kay. This is actually quite a pleasant workout. Lisa takes you through a series of breathing exercises. She then warms you up before taking you down to the mat to work the lower, upper and oblique abdominal muscles. Lisa includes a series of stabilization exercises for the core, as well as stretching exercises to stretch the muscles you just worked. This is not a killer ab workout but it is sufficiently intense so that you know you are working out. This workout uses the Fanny Lifter as a prop. 3 stars.

Power Hour is not my favorite Cathe total body workout. The only time I put this workout into the rotation is when I want some variety or my rotation needs an extra total body workout. This time around, I put this workout first up in the rotation because when I leave it towards the end, I usually end up substituting it for something else. I think one of the reasons I don't care for the workout is because of the warm up. I feel the warm up isn't a warm up because Cathe uses weights during the warm up song and goes right in to doing sculpting moves. Once you get pass the warm up, it's basically an okay workout with traditional sculpting moves. The only other section that bugged me was Song 7 Biceps. Cathe does one exercise for this whole section - barbell curl. I thought she could have added more variety here - like concentration curls, hammer curls - something. This is an endurance workout, so lots and lots of reps were performed per exercise. I don't think this is

Well, I decided to try something new. I picked up two boxes of Emerald Trail Mix, one Tropical Blend, the other Breakfast Blend from Wal-Mart. What caught my eye was the subtitle Breakfast Blend. I thought that if this was edible it would be a good breakfast substitute for me and it would be something I could take on the go. Well these were edible and other than the Styrofoam looking pieces overall they are not a bad item. Both the Tropical Blend and the Breakfast Blend are made up with a variety of fruit, nuts and granola chunks. My major issue with this product is that one bag is 2 servings. These bags are not that big and when spread out on a paper plate, the contents look puny. The Tropical Blend contains 130 calories and 7 grams of fat per serving. So if you eat the whole bag that is approximately 260 calories and 14 grams of fat. The Breakfast Blend contains 120 calories and 4.5 grams of fat per serving. The bags that I bought are a little less that 2 ounce bags.

Please click on the image for a larger view. Rotation notes: Sunday is an outdoor run and ab/core work. Monday is kickboxing. Tuesday 1st 4 weeks - Total Body Weights, Tuesday 2nd 4 weeks - Upper Body Weights, Wednesday is Treadmill Cardio Coach, Thursday 1st 4 weeks Cardio Sculpt, Thursday 2nd 4 weeks sculpting, Friday is yoga/stretch and Saturday is functional fitness.

Please click on the image for a larger view. Rotation Notes: Evening workouts only 4 per week. Monday 1st 4 weeks dance, Monday 2 nd 4 weeks Lower Body, Tuesday is step, Wednesday is Dance and Thursday is HiiT .

Hardcore Kickbox Circuit is a 55 minute workout featuring Guillermo Gomez and Janis Saffell. It alternates cardio kickboxing sets with sculpting sets. Some of the sculpting sets use light weights. Guillermo and Janis alternates with each leading a full circuit. There are a total of 4 circuits (kickboxing and sculpting). The music is full of high energy. Both Guillermo and Janis cue well. There is a lot of counting down throughout the workout. The moves and combinations are easy to learn, but intricate enough to make it interesting. Both Janis and Guillermo repeat the moves on both the left and right side. I keep forgetting how much I really like this workout and I don't do it often enough. Janis and Guillermo's form is outstanding. You can tell that they really train this stuff. Equipment Used: weights, boxing grips 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Kickbox Kaliente is a 30 minute workout featuring Billy Kirby. It features Latin techno music and is supposedly a combination of Latin dance and kickboxing. With the exception of the cool down there was very little Latin dancing going on. This workout was unique. When I first started it, I was thinking "What the heck was I thinking buying this?!" By the end of the workout, I thought it was salvageable. Billy does a lot of posing. I mean he literally stops in the middle of the exercise and flexes his biceps or points to camera. Now, there is a whole cast behind him that is still exercising but when the camera is tight in on him, you can't see the other exercisers, so when he stops to pose and does his "Come on, keep it moving" verbiage, I am thinking, "Well, you need to keep it moving too". The moves are very basic kickboxing moves. The combinations are easy to follow. Billy does a lot of counting and he doesn't mirror cue. What Billy does