iTrain.com...

I'm tired of working on real stuff (though today, I did tons of real stuff: edits of internship essays 1 and 2, AND my first draft of essay 3! Woot! Of course, all essays are still 200 words too long, but I'll deal with that later. Also, if you don't really know what I'm talking about, consider yourself blessed), and owe you all a post about something other than butter, so now, for something completely different, allow me to tell you about an awesome website, iTrain.com.

I don't remember how I discovered iTrain, though I wish I could give credit where it's due. I do know that I found it when I was on my uber-diligent healthy lifestyle/weight loss kick in the months leading up to my wedding in 2007 (*sigh* those were the days!). Anyway, iTrain provides tons of downloads (300+) that you can buy, download, put on your iPod (or other mp3 device) and listen to/follow as you sweat yourself healthy! Back when I was trying it out, the company was pretty new, and their website was a little janky, so they ended up charging me about 6 times for my 3 month membership, which I fussed so much about that they gave me tons of free download credits that were supposed to expire but never did and ended up (accidentally, I think) refunding all the charges and never charging me anything, ha! It turns out I got lucky, because over the past two years, the price for individual workouts has soared to an average of $10/workout, which is kind of insane, but the workouts are really good, so...I still recommend giving it a try if you're looking for a new workout technique to try, especially if you use the gym alot.

My favorite workouts are the iTread and iClimb workouts, which give you awesome music and really good routines for the treadmill and elliptical machine. They also give you a lot of motivation to push through the horrible pain (can you tell how much I despise working out?), and make the workout a lot harder than it would be if you just walked/jogged while you watched TV (ahem, not that I would ever do that, of course :p ) There are downloads for every kind of workout imaginable: iRow, iStretch (which goes through yoga and pilates moves), iSculpt (both Traditional, which is more calisthenic-type stuff, squats, lunges, push ups, etc., and light weights, and Ballet, which I've never tried, but is probably awesome), iCycle, iStrength (weight training) and various packages that are tailored to specific goals. Each different type of workout usually has options for working out home or at a gym. In short, it's pretty much a go to place for kicking your workouts up a notch, without paying for a trainer or buying the Wii Fit :o).

It's serendipitous that I joined a gym last month, and remembered that I had a library of iTrain workouts, since I'm now learning the joys of cooking meals require two sticks of butter, so hopefully it'll all balance out!