Filming Slim Series Express w/Debbie Siebers -- Last Day Details

This is my last post about my trip to film Slim Series Express with Debbie Siebers and Beachbody (aka "the trip of a lifetime" -- for a video fitness enthusiast, that is!) I'll probably post later on about my QVC trip with Debbie too, but I'll wait a bit so I can balance out my blog with other things too. I haven't talked nearly enough about food lately. Can't forget that! :) I have more recipes to share, topics to discuss, progress to tell about with my periodization fitness plan, etc. Not to mention family talk. I do have fun news to share about my children too.

Day 3 -- My first plan was to go right to the studio to see the other workouts (Cardio Core and 6 Minute Abs) filmed, then meet my friend (my former boss from 17 years ago) for lunch, but I saw on our filming day that we didn't actually start filming until about 11:00 even though we got there at 8:00. So I switched plans with my friend to meet for breakfast instead. That way I'd arrive at the studio just about the time they were starting to film.

My friend picked up Jocelyn and me from the hotel and took Jocelyn to the studios (and it was kind of sad to see Jocelyn talking with the main camera guy outside as we left -- I felt like I was missing out on the fun!) But I hadn't seen my friend in years and was truly glad for the time we had together. I later found out that Jocelyn got a quick tour of Andrea Ambandos' trailer and got to see what the producer sees. Fun!

We had a super scrumptious breakfast and visited for a few hours. After seeing how nice everyone at Beachbody was to Jocelyn's friend on our Infomercial day, I asked my friend if she'd like to see how they film an exercise video.

So she came back to the studio with me, I introduced people as I saw them and she stayed for over an hour while they filmed Cardio Core. We even took pictures together, along with everyone else. It was so much easier to be watching Monica and Kali exercise than it was to be under those hot lights. (But I'll admit it was hard to keep quiet during each take too:)) -- There was a doorway onto the set that I usually stood in to watch Debbie, Kali, and Monica. Most everyone else just watched them on the TV screen a few feet from the doorway (which was fun too because you could see how Andrea was cutting from one camera angle to another). But I figured I could see that when I get the video - -I wanted to see them live!

There was also a big opening where three of the cameras were - -that's where the cue cards and any other lights crew guys were. But most of us were on the left side by the doorway. I wanted to take a picture of it all going and could have attempted it w/o a flash, but if it had accidentally flashed, I could have been in BIG trouble because it would have interrupted the take and would have made a lights guy think a light had blown. So I just watched. (Jocelyn was more daring though and got a few pictures -- yay!)

At one point, Ronni (the make-up/hair woman pictured below) had an accident that she thought may have messed up a take. Her giant make-up bag was on a shelf of the rolling cart that held the TV we watched and it wasn't up up far enough on the shelf, so it came down crashing -- make up all over the place, etc. She felt awful, but no one filming seemed to notice the sound and they kept going.

Ronni had an assistant that day -- I can't remember her name, but she really stood out. She was probably 6 feet tall, had long (extensions), bright (dyed) red hair, dressed very vibrantly and had tatoos on her shoulders that looked like she had leopard skin. She was really nice and showed me how she'd glued little jewels all over her cell phone (my daughters would love it!) Someone mentioned that Ronni uses her every time when there's a bigger crew and I later saw Ronni's and someone else's names on the credit for some other Andrea Ambandos workout dvds when I got home - - I thought that must be her.

Jocelyn had told me that morning that Shaun T (no one called him Shaun T there, though -- just Shaun) from Hip Hop Abs was going to be on the set today. I hadn't heard much about him except this this was going to be a new series for Beachbody and that he looked a lot like Will Smith. I kept watching for someone who might be him as they filmed Cardio Core. At one point, 2 black men walked in and watched a bit. During a break on the set, Debbie walked over and hugged one of them. I wondered if that might be Shaun? He didn't really look like Will Smith in any way. He dressed more formal than for fitness. But he knew Debbie and I was curious.

After the filming began again, I thought, "You're only here once -- you might as well go introduce yourself to Debbie's friend." I was just curious how she knew him. Plus it was fun meeting people there. So I walked over and started talking to him. I told him who I was, that I was in the workouts from the day before, that I was a stay at home mom in the northern part of the state, married with 6 children, etc. He told me that he was Debbie's business partner and that his name is Kerry Gordy. I asked him about their business since Debbie had mentioned she had a fitness clothes line and he explained to me that her personal training and fitness videos are just the beginning of Debbie's business -- that gets her name out there and her reputation for knowing fitness. Then they go from there. She had co-written two cookbooks -- Energy Boost

and Nutritional Makeover. He talked about some digital fitness plans or something more technicologically advanced than just a website fitness monitor -- more like something you use your cell phone for ??? I can't remember. I wasn't following him on everything, but it was fun to meet him and share worlds since mine is so vastly different in my rural neck of the redwoods. Later, when I was out to dinner with Anna, Debbie and the rest of the cast, somehow Kerry came up and the fact that I was talking to him for awhile. And Anna said, "Do you know who Kerry Gordy is?" and I didn't. She said he's the son of Barry Gordy, who is the founder of Motown. Pretty cool! So here I was introducing myself to meet another friend and he'd grown up around people like Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. I later found this article talking about when he and Debbie joined forces. Guess I didn't do my homework prior to the trip! :)

Back to finding Shaun, a little while later, I was walking through the area with sofas where you first walk into the studio and saw this big muscle-y guy. I thought, "Now that has to be Shaun!" So I asked the nearest Beachbody worker and they confirmed it was him. Now I didn't know anything about his new workouts and really had no interest in doing anything hip-hoppish. But I wanted to meet him if he was there. So I went over and started talking to him. I was immediately struck by his VIVACIOUSNESS! He is so full of life and laughter. When he talks, he laughs, he moves, he jams here and there. He's tons of fun. He laughs while he talks a lot. It's so infectious. I knew he'd be fun to work out with. I honestly wouldn't be drawn to the Hip Hop Abs workouts at all if I hadn't met Shaun. I can't even describe how much magnetism this guy has. I asked him if his workouts were doable for someone like me who hasn't been to a dance club since before hip hop even came out! And he said, "Sure!" and started telling me how he breaks it down so anyone can do it. He told me that before this project, he traveled around teaching other fitness instructors how to teach this kind of workout. He's even trained internationally (and talked about one country somewhere in the far east that treated him like a prince, waited on him, carried him, etc. -- as he laughed and laughed).

I hope it comes across in the workouts because he is SO MUCH FUN to be around.

It was really cute a little while after we talked, we were sitting around in the little lounge area of the studio and someone mentioned that I have 6 kids -- his mouth just dropped . . . and stayed dropped for a good few minutes. I just kept laughing and he shook his head like "no way" (or maybe "no one in their right mind would do that") -- I told him I was 42, then asked how old he was -- I think he said 24 or some unreal # like that for being so successful at what he does. I told him, "Oh, You're just a baby!" and he gave this big grin.

Later, Shaun and Heather (Carl Daikeler's assistant) were sitting on the sofa (shown in the bottom pic of Shaun's rehearsal below) watching his Hip Hop Abs workouts on the laptop (still in production at this point, so this was new for Shaun to see). I joined them and we watched for a bit. Looked like a ton of fun! Later I realized that I didn't have any pictures of Heather, so she and Shaun posed (of course in some crazy dancing position) for me. I later saw in one of Shaun's Hip Hop Abs workouts, that he had a move that he said was from his good friend Heather. Fun that they're close friends. Just a little trivia on Heather. She was in the test group for Slim in 6 and is in the infomercial seen at the end of many Slim Series dvds wearing a red polka dot bikini -- she's also trying on clothes in a store on that infomercial. AND her sister, Ashley, is in one of the Slim Series workouts -- I think it's Firm It Up.

Some of Shaun's cast members showed up and I got to meet a few of them too (mainly remember the Asian girl who is the modifier in all his workouts and the blonde one with lots of curly hair). They were all really nice. I got a few pictures of them rehearsing in the break room before they had to go film. There were huge Hip Hop Abs signs on the floor behind the set. The set guys said they were going to transform Debbie's set a bit to film this last Abs workout for Shaun. We left before it went up though.

I went back and watched some more of Monica and Kali's workout with Debbie. Their last one to film was 6 Minute Abs. They had to do it four or five times to get the timing just right -- Debbie had to finish her small stretch, words, and everything within that 6 minute frame. She had planned to wear this really cute top that was a bright purple color (I'm partial to purple, if you haven't already noticed). The pants had a purple band and red band at the waist line. It was really cute. But once she lied down to stretch and see how things were going to work, it started bugging her because the pant leg would come down a lot towards her knee and show her leg. It just didn't look as sharp as the pant leg staying put. She said that her own black pants didn't do that (which I thought was pretty amazing -- I thought all pants did that). So they let her change her pants to the black ones, but now her pants didn't tie in with the cast member's tops.I can't remember if it was Monica or Kali, but one of them was wearing red to match the red on her band, but since that was gone, they had them change so that there wasn't that red standing out -- (and both changed so their tops would still match in style). If you look at the top pic of Shaun's rehearsal, there are buckets of clothes and a wardrobe rack with hanging clothes. The rack has the clothes chosen for each workout with our names on them. The buckets are extras (that they had us try on when they made the wardrobe choices). This is what they went back to for changes in Monica's and Kali's tops. If you look at the first pic in this post, Debbie has her make-up and hair done with the bright purple top and the pants with the colors on the band. But in the workout pics right here, she has on plain black pants (but no ankle showing! :))

Debbie had told us on our rehearsal day (which was the day after her rehearsal with Kali and Monica) that her abs were REALLY sore from doing that workout 4 or 5 times in a row. They did the same thing on the filming day and you could tell in the facial expressions of Kali and Monica that it was TOUGH to do those final reps. I felt bad for Monica because she was in the same position as I had been with the stretch video -- she couldn't see what Debbie was doing. Only she had to keep up with rep speed precisely. So she turned her head to the right through most of her reps, which must have been a strain. But she kept up with Debbie!

After they were finished, we talked with the crew a bit and went outside and talked with Andrea (Ambandos, the producer of these and MANY other exercise videos throughout the past decade if you missed my other post about her. I took a picture of her in front of her trailer. She gave me her business card and told me it was really great working with me. I told her it was REALLY tempting to just move down to L.A. and work with her for. She told me, "That would be great!" Every once in awhile, I look at her business card and think, "Wouldn't that be fun."

Down the hall, we saw a catered lunch set up in the big room where we filmed the infomercial (and where we'd had our catered lunch the day before). We weren't going to eat in there this time, however. It was for the crew and the Hip Hop Abs people. We might have eaten with them if they'd taken longer to film, but since they ended earlier, our dinner plans with Debbie at the end of filming got bumped up to a late lunch and we all waved good-bye and headed out to the Daily Grill restaurant.

Shaun was walking around, kind of pouting (not really, but in a fun-loving way) because he wasn't going to eat with everyone else. He was dying from hunger because he didn't want to eat before showing those abs in his video. I guess they do close-ups on his abs so he can show which ab muscle certain moves are trying to target. I doubt I'd notice a difference in "before eating" abs and "after eating" on him though. He's pretty toned. I even asked him at one point if he lifted weights too (his arms are HUGE) and he said he didn't. He must do a lot of push-ups then. I also learned (if you want to know Shaun trivia) that he LOVES fast food and likes to eat a lot of it. I've seen since his videos have come out that he has a Fast Food Survival Guide on Beachbody's website. He must truly love the stuff.

We drove over to the hotel and they told us we could freshen up if we wanted to first. Jocelyn and I were fine since we just played all morning. But Kali and Monica went up and changed. So did Debbie. They all looked a step up from the rest of us -- heels, cute tops, a bit more glitz. Monica and I just looked at each other like "oh well" and Anna said "I have to crawl on the floor with cue cards -- I have to dress like this" :). We had a really fun dinner. Anna had "Uncle Carl's" credit card and told us to feel free to order whatever we wanted. It was truly liberating because here I'd been watching what I'd been eating for those past few weeks, knowing I'd be filmed soon -- especially while down there. I could eat whatever I wanted. I toyed with the idea of ordering chicken pot pie (childhood favorite) but knew there would be dairy in it and didn't want to deal with those effects, so I ordered pasta. There were many appetizers that Debbie loved -- seafood that I had no desire to taste, but did try a few just to be a good sport.

Debbie told us about her social life, her workouts, a little of everything. We got to know Kali and Monica a bit better. And, of course, Anna is always a blast to talk to. She was fun throughout the whole trip. She'd tell stories about Beachbody -- about Tony and P90X or Chalene in Turbo Jam. It was really fun to hear all the fitness video trivia since it's been a big part of my life for over a decade. Anna is the kind of person that you feel like you've known your whole life the first time you talk to her. I could talk to her for hours and never need to stop.

It was also really great to get to know Jocelyn. I'm sure I would have had fun with Kali or Monica too, but Jocelyn and I really gelled well (is "gelled" a word? Sounds fine, looks strange!) She was in Kindergarten when I was a Senior in high school, but this many years later, it didn't seem like we had much of an age difference at all. I loved learning her mid-western ways and I think she had fun with me too. Jocelyn and I ended up sharing a room on our QVC trip, which was really fun -- like having a college roommate again. We e-mail all the time and hopefully will get to see each other again somehow.

After dinner, Debbie had to leave (her limo had arrived).She told us that it's hard to make friends like this and just have us go. We took pictures outside the restaurant then bid her farewell. I didn't know if we'd talk much again, although she said she'd see us on the Beachbody chat. I never was able to figure out how to get on the chat, but Debbie later e-mailed me and we've e-mailed off and on since. I also got to go to QVC with her and got a card from her at Christmas. It was fun to get to know her. I'd only hoped to get to talk to her for a few minutes if I were selected. It was fun to find out she was from a family of 8 children, that she had small-town roots, that she's close to my age, and that's she's as real in real life as on the screen in my family room for so many mornings.

The whole experience was more than I could have hoped for. I told my husband that it was just fun each day to be surrounded by people who loved their jobs and who loved life. They were all so friendly and wonderful.

That night, Jocelyn, Kali and I met at the hotel jacuzzi and just relaxed and relished in what we'd just experienced. Monica was out running (training for a marathon, I think), so she didn't come. But it was nice to just sit and talk, share what we'd done when we submitted our videos for the contest and to be amazed together that we had this opportunity.

The Value of Yesterday

Yesterday had more value than I could have ever imagined for one family in particular. It proved to be the last day with their husband and father. After a wonderful sunny day yesterday, we found out late last night that a friend of ours died of a heart attack. He was in his early 40s like us, a good friend of my husband's, dedicated father of 4, had just returned from a bike ride, and suffered a heart attack. That's it. That was his last day.

Here I was wondering what May 8th would bring, if it could become a memorable one and it forever will be for that family. I'll remember it too. I imagine they've relived their last words and moments spent yesterday with him. I did the same with the last few conversations I've had with him, even though weeks and months before. Those are the moments to cherish. We don't realize how important these moments are until they are no longer available.

The Value of Today

Last night, my youngest child came into our room around 3:00 a.m. He doesn't always do this, but when he does, it's crazy. We have a queen-size bed and my husband is tall, so there's not a lot of room for another person, even if he is little. Add on top of that his kicking feet aim right for my stomach, so it's pretty impossible to sleep well while he's there. After hoping it would all just go away and the slumbering will begin again, I finally got up and carried him back to bed. Thankfully, he didn't come back a little later. Still, I couldn't get back to sleep.

I thought of my 5:25 alarm setting, knowing that it was growing closer and closer. I thought a lot about what I needed to do first thing this morning (try to straighten out my oldest daughter's housing mess with college -- she got notice last night that the dorms were full and the date to apply was today :) -- I told her "welcome to the world of bureaucracy :)). I thought through what life would be like for her if she didn't get to live in the dorms -- how much farther she'd have to walk, how the students would mostly be older and not relating to her freshman experience. I thought of how she wouldn't be repeating my freshman year if she didn't live where I had. I tossed and turned and tried to turn the thoughts off. I thought of how she had AP and IBO tests all this week and didn't want to add to the stress during testing of housing problems.

Then my thoughts flipped to yesterday. What had I done yesterday? Was it a good day? As I thought it through, it seemed like a wash. I lived through the hours, but didn't feel like I was nearly as productive as I would have liked. I didn't even know what day it was -- was it May 8th? Were we past the 10th? Yes, it was late and I probably could have counted forward from Monday, which was my cousin's birthday, so I knew it was the 5th, but the point I realized is that I wasn't valuing my yesterday that much. And the more I thought about it, I wasn't sure if I had any plans to value my next day either. I was already anticipating some tiredness from sleeplessness. And if I took a nap, I'd be sure to attach some guilt for not getting something else done in that amount of time.

I understand the value of the present moment -- it's a common theme in yoga. It's a principle of Christianity -- life is a gift and we must cherish every moment in appreciation and enjoyment. But it's easy to let that all slide and just let days blend in with each other without distinction or a sense of value.

I remember when my children were little and none were in school. I craved something that would define our days. If I signed the girls up for gymnastics, at least Tuesday and Thursdays would have a distinction from Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and I actually might be able to tell one day from the next.

I just read in a past National Geographic that a woman with extreme memory capacity can draw any memory from any day since she was 11 years old. She can tell you what people wore or said, what she did, what TV show she saw and what it was about in vivid detail. The detail for her is as real in these thoughts as when I smell a shampoo I haven't used in 15 years or hear a song I haven't heard in years and the smell or song takes me back to that precise time in my life. She says she can take today and flip back to every day like it every year back for 20 years like she's flipping through a Rolodex -- seeing everything that has happened. (Not to get too far off with her, but she says this is a curse as much as a blessing. She experiences the pain and stress of those days as well as the joys over and over again. I just wanted to add that part to complete her story). But her ability made me realize that every day does have it's moments, it's flavor, it's songs, and it's meaning. I need to make each day memorable, whether I ever remember it again or not.

I need to value each day whether I'm filming an exercise video or doing laundry. I actually do enjoy doing laundry, but I doubt I'll ever take pictures or post great details about it in my blog. Who knows? Maybe I will :).

But I do know that I'll live more consciously through today. I'll feel good about what I'm doing. I will look for the value and light in each experience. I will bring any light I can to others around me. I won't waste my moments. I'll figure out the name of the day (MAY 8th today!) and celebrate it like I've been looking forward to this day for a long time. That's what I do on Christmas day or my birthday -- why not today? I feel joy just thinking about it!

Then tonight if I'm awake for hours, if I flip back through my Rolodex of memories from today, I'll smile through them. I won't be wondering what I did or if it had enough worth. I'll know it did.

Filming Slim Series Express w/Debbie Siebers -- Second Day Details

I'm excited to share the details of the actual filming day! It was pretty exciting. I was really glad that we had one stretch workout because doing two cardio/sculpt workouts would have been especially draining. I thought many times of those who filmed the Slim Series (which were either an hour or 78 minutes long). It must have been tough, tough, TOUGH! So we had it easy comparatively. Here are the details recorded not long afterwards (in a few chunks):

Day 2 -- Last Wednesday (wow, a whole week ago), Jocelyn and I were out in front of the hotel at 7:45 with no make-up (well, I did put on a little under eye concealer and a touch of mascara- - I just didn't want to scare anyone that early in the morning) and clean hair. Andrea had told us just before we left from rehearsal that we should wear our hair like we would to work out and the stylist would touch it up from there. Then she told Debbie that they'd take care of everything for her.

I wasn't sure what to do because my hair is above my shoulders now and whatever I do to get it out of my face each morning at home isn't very pretty. I pull my bangs back with a pony tail holder or with a ton of clips (often as I go and they keep falling forward). In rehearsal the day before, I used a little claw to keep my bangs back, but I have a high square forehead and was hoping not to have that look for the shoot.

I've watched the other Slim Series and the short-haired people (Judy and the lovely Ashley, whom I found out is Heather's sister) just had a headband. Again, I was worried about my forehead with the headband slicking it all back.

Anna (from Beachbody) picked us up in what she calls her "clown car" (a green VW Bug -- the new kind). It's always fun to be with Anna. She's super friendly and tells you all sorts of fun Beachbody stories. Talking with Anna is like talking with someone you've known all your life. She was dressed all cute in black and had her hair in piggy tails -- with a Blue Tooth on the ear. She looked all sleek and Star Trek-ish. :)

So we got to the studio and saw that our previous Wardrobe room was now Debbie's Dressing Room and the previous photo shoot room (that had a huge white backdrop pulled down across the floor like they have at the Picture People at the mall, but bigger) was now a gathering room with a sofa, coffee table, desk, and the wardrobe was set up in there. Nikolas was gone and Tiffany (who was quite the opposite of Nikolas -- he was from Sweden, all exotic-like and dramatic -- Tiffany wore jeans and a t-shirt, long curly hair pulled back in a pony tail, casual and sweet) was our wardrobe person. Our tops were hung up on a rack with our names on papers labeling which were who's. Debbie had the most. It was fun to see what the others were going to wear. We were all wearing black pants, but Kali got purple crop pants for the abs workout. Cute!

Jocelyn needed to find longer pants (she's 5'11") and they told her her pants were too short. I asked if I could find other pants too because I'd bought a Medium thinking they were fine, but the waist wasn't tight enough at times and it would pull down in the back a lot when I was doing the stretch video (good thing I wore them in rehearsal). So Jocelyn found some that worked for her, but they had this tie in the front, so they had to cut it and hide it any way they could. We soon discovered that Jocelyn had the same exact pants that I had (Target's Champion black boot cut), only in small, so PERFECT! I wore hers.

Debbie walked in looking lovely as could be and gave us hugs. She'd just had her make-up done. I was next.

I went in and met the new make-up/hair stylist. I told her that Debbie's hair looked great and she said that Debbie does her hair herself. I was impressed. I learned quickly that this stylist wasn't as cheerful as the one the day before. -- Someone told her that I had 6 kids and she looked shocked and said, "Do you have help?" -- I told her that my husband was home watching the kids while I was gone. And she said, "No, do YOU have help? I hope you have someone who cleans the house for you" and I told her that I didn't. She kept telling me that I needed to get some help and that it must be awful trying to do it all myself. I told her that I want my kids to learn to work and they do a lot to help out -- dishes, laundry, and vacuuming -- and she still persisted -- told me that I need more time for myself, time with my children, etc. It was pretty interesting. I'm sure having my own Alice would be nice, but we're doing just fine.

Then Jocelyn came in to talk (we all hung out at times when someone was getting make-up the day before) and the stylist told her to stand at the doorway -- that she got too claustrophobic. Then Jocelyn wanted to take a picture and the stylist said she couldn't have any flashes -- flashes gave her big headaches. (We didn't want to see how she would be if she had a headache) -- so that was interesting to watch unfold. But Jocelyn and I just grinned through it all and ended up really liking this stylist. We just saw that she wasn't afraid to say what was on her mind and that we had to be cautious around her. (You can see her covering her eyes in this pic just in case it flashed :))
I even felt like I should tell her what Monica is like -- she is really fun to be around, but has a really outgoing personality (like I don't :)). I didn't know how the stylist would respond and somehow felt this need (for whatever reason) to say something. So I said "Oh, wait until you meet Kali and Monica tomorrow" and told her a little about each of them. When I told her about Monica, she said "Well, I hope she's not like that in the morning -- I like people to be mellow in the morning -- I just can't handle too much in the morning" -- I just smiled. Like we didn't know.

The wonderful thing was that here I had these hair fears and she was able to alleviate them all. She asked how I wore my hair for workouts (I just pulled some back with a pony tail holder- - I know it looked awful) and I told her that I didn't have any ideas that would look good on camera. I told her my bangs would need to be out of my face, but I had this square forehead that I'd like to minimize. She responded, "You only can do so much with what you have to work with." I just nodded.

But then she started playing around with my hair and took clips and just pulled the front of my bangs back super tightly right under the rest of my hair that was hanging down. She used the straightener on the rest. And I loved it! I didn't have plastered back hair, my forehead was covered a bit, and I was super pleased! She did great with my make-up too. I was so happy with my make-up the night before that I was almost wanting to say, "Oh and make sure you use a bit of brown on my eyebrows because I loved how the lady did it last night" (but I knew to keep my mouth shut) and she did it just as well. It was wonderful!

(Off to make some pancakes -- be back later on!)

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Day 2 1/4 -- Before I go on with our workouts, just wanted to say that Debbie was super pleased with this make-up artist's (her name is Ronni) work too. She told Anna later on that this was the only time her make-up hasn't felt like it was melting off with sweat -- it felt great the whole time. Anna said that Ronni is the one Andrea ALWAYS uses. So she knows her stuff (and must have done Chalene's and everyone else's make-up).

After we were made up, we went in and checked out the set. It matched the other Slim in 6 sets with the wooden floors and warm feeling. They gave us a "Cast Room" near the set for hanging out. Lara and a few others asked if we minded if they went in there to use their laptops or cell phones at times.

To the left of the cast room was a kitchen that had a counter full of food. A fresh fruit plate (I kept eating the strawberries and grapes -- figured it had the least chance of messing up my lipstick) and lots of other stuff -- I can't even remember what because I only remember eating the fruit. There were also cases of water bottles behind on the floor.

I wasn't sure how the water drinking would go -- if we'd get to drink a lot or not. You rarely see them drink water on Slim in 6 workouts. But Debbie does mention it.

We had our cameras handy for pics on the set and Anna told us that if we ever take pictures on the set, we have to yell "Flashing!" first because when the flash goes off, it looks just like when a light blows out. And if we don't yell "flashing," the camera guys will go around trying to find which light blew out. So we were mindful of that.

There were 4 camera guys (and other guys for lighting, climbing high shakey ladders). There was a door off the big set room that went outside where Andrea would walk in and out to her trailer (as big as a semi trailer -- seen w/Andrea posing in this pic). When she was out there, she could talk to us or Debbie and we could all hear her voice from above. Anna also wore headphones and could hear Andrea the whole time, directing which camera to switch to next.

There were a few televisions just off the set (near the Cast Room and the food) where everyone (but us) could see how we looked on the set and eventually how the take would look with the cameras switching back and forth. Everyone kept telling us that it looked really good.

I didn't really get to see what it looked like until the next day when Monica and Kali (pronounced Kaylee -- I kept saying it more like Cowli) were shooting.

One camera was to the left of me -- it came in closely from that side. There were 2 cameras straight on. One was for close-ups -- like when Debbie talks at the beginning or to zoom in on her (maybe us too?) -- the other (smaller) front camera was for wider shots. Then the camera on the right was up on this tall arm that would move all over the place. That was my favorite shot to watch because it did the spanning in from above and around. Always cool to see.

The camera guy pictured in green was behind the main front camera. He would dance along to the music the whole time. It was really fun to behold. I told him during a break that I loved that he danced while we filmed. He said he never really thought about it -- it would just happen and that some of the instructors/cast didn't like it -- it was distracting to them, but he never even realized he was doing it. I thought it was a lot of fun. The guy in tan was behind the close-up front camera and would sometimes jam along with him. Loved it. The guy in orange was behind the camera right by me and gave me comments from time to time on the breaks. I never even noticed the long-arm camera guy for a long time because he was so far removed from the actual camera. They were all super nice though. Everyone was.

Then there was a guy (not sure who he was) walking around with a regular video camera taking movies of everything. He said he was the "Behind the scenes" camera guy. Maybe they'll use that at the end of the videos or for part of the infomercial -- I'm not sure. But it was fun to see him go around and I talked to him (or his camera) a lot!

They told us to always watch the big camera in front when we were shooting. The only exception was at the very beginning when Debbie introduced us. We were supposed to look right into the camera on the side closest to us when she said our names. I remembered how stilted Lisa Kay and the others looked at the beginning of FIRM Body Sculpting System 2, and was determined not to look that frozen and awkward -- who knows if it worked.

Debbie and Anna would "mark" the moves with us before we began each block. They'd just tell us one move after another to do just a few reps of (without the weights). Debbie changed a few moves since the rehearsal. There's a move where your tilted forward and do a triceps kick-back with one arm and a rear delt with the other. She decided to add a back leg lift while doing the rear delt. I really liked that addition because it added some more lower body work.

She also took out a move after the plie' squat compound move with bringing your arms from being right out in front of you rib cage up to a W -- before we were going to pulse it and do it faster. But she thought that was too fast. So we did fast standing chest flies instead, which I also liked better.

Also, in rehearsal, Andrea was saying that she'd rather we just used 3 lb. weights the whole way through instead of using 5 lb.s at the beginning. Debbie liked the challenge -- I told them that when I first tried it all the way through w/3s, it wasn't very challenging, but when I used 5s in the first section, I was challenged from the beginning, then pre-exausted for the 3 lb. work, which I liked. I never really knew if I should be keeping my mouth shut because I wasn't there to be a fitness consultant or anything, but I definitely had my opinions.

Like when we rehearsed the Stretch video, I asked if we'd be wearing shoes (hoping that we wouldn't -- it's so awkward for me to stretch with shoes on after doing so much yoga) and Debbie said she preferred shoes because it looks better on camera. She's probably right, especially when you're used to seeing the other videos in the series with shoes. I remember it looking odd when Cathe and her crew wore socks. But it sure feels better with bare feet.

We stood in our spots and they were checking the cameras to see how we looked. I had wished I could have worn the periwinkle because it is SO my color! When Anna said, "Jocelyn needs to switch sides with Renee because she's taller, but we can't have the blue against the blue background, so switch tops too" -- I was excited! Jocelyn knew I liked that color and was happy for me too. And that foam turquoise green looked great with her blonde hair. (I don't think I have any pictures of me in the periwinkle top though -- we took all the pictures before the switch!)

They gave us little marks or pieces of brown duct tape to know where we should be standing.

We finally started filming the warm-up to Cardio Sculpt somewhere between 10:30 or 11:00 (we got there probably at 7:50). I was curious about the timing because I'd been planning to meet my former boss (from when I lived down there) for lunch the next day and decided to try to meet her for breakfast instead so I could see the next day's shoot.

Someone asked if Debbie did Mirror Cuing. She'd talked about it in rehearsal -- how people wanted that and then I don't remember actually doing it or talking about it again. I'm positive in the filming that we went right when she said "right." -- I've cued that way when teaching yoga before and it's so confusing, but I'm sure once you get used to it, it's second nature. Maybe they didn't think we'd be used to it or it's not something Debbie is comfortable with, but no one ever mentioned it again.

I felt confident that I'd remember to smile and started off looking at the right camera for my introduction, smiled through the warm-up, watched the cue cards to make sure I knew what was coming next. It comes naturally for Debbie to talk throughout (which I love) but sometimes it causes to her to miss a cue or move on the cue cards. So when that happened, I was aware of "oh no, she missed that one."

When they cut the first time, Andrea said through her speaker (amongst other things) that I needed to smile more and that I looked like I was focusing too much or was concerned -- that I needed to look like I was enjoying the workout. That surprised me because I was so sure that I'd been smiling. Then Anna told me also that I need to make sure I was smiling and one of the camera men said the same. I knew they had to be right and realized I must have been minding those cue cards too much.

So I decided to not focus on the cue cards so much because I really just needed to follow Debbie and look at the camera. I think I was afraid at first of coming in late on cues because in rehearsal, Debbie was just cuing minimally for us and I missed several. But I found in the shoot, that Debbie was cuing a little earlier and I just had to listen to what she was saying. Anna was up front counting out each move so we wouldn't go over or under with reps, and Erika (I think I told you about her -- she's the adorable one who gave us a ride to the hotel after our rehearsal) would point to the next moves on the cue cards. The rest was up to Debbie to see and us to follow.

From that point on, I smiled away and Andrea said it looked great. We had to redo the first few blocks 4 or 5 times. Debbie didn't really care if the warm-up was exactly as planned -- as long as everything got warmed up. But Andrea said that you had to have 2 takes each block that were exactly the same. So if you skip one move or insert another in one good take, the next one has to match it. That way she has 2 takes that she can interchange for editing if someone messes up or something.

The only thing I was sad to leave out was that lower body move on the kickback and rear delt. On the first take, I wanted to tell Debbie that she'd forgotten the leg lift. But I guess I figured we'd have lots of takes and she'd see it the next time on the cue card. The next take was good and she didn't do the leg lift then either. I mentioned it and then it was too late because they liked both of those takes. So when the dvds come out, I'll have to remind you all of adding that move because it's a great balance move for the core and the glute.

On the second song, Andrea decided to change the music. Debbie had picked the music and Andrea said, "Debbie, I know you chose this, but we need to find another one" -- it was almost big band sounding and Andrea thought it was too much so. It was cute, but the one Andrea quickly found did fit the workout a lot better. Debbie even agreed. And it's no Turbo Jam music by any means. In fact I talked with Anna about music and I guess it's really expensive to have any known music with words. They have to buy the exact minutes that they're going to use and get approval by all those who have ownership in that song (sometimes she says it's as much as a dozen) and if one says "no," -- they can't use it. So I think that's why most workout music is more bland. It's just too expensive. Anna said that Chalene is very into her music, so they have a bigger budget for it. Chalene also has a bigger cast for that party feel. So Chalene brought some new ways to Beachbody. Unfortunately, they just can't afford to do that with all of their workouts. I ended up liking this music, but probably in the way that I like Rob Glick's Amazing Step Styles music -- you get to doing it a lot and it sticks with you.

Anna kept saying we were doing great because we got some blocks done in 2 or 3 takes. Every time we would break after a block, Ronni and Tiffany (the wardrobe girl, in this pic) would come out and blot our faces for sweat, add make-up, fix our hair, or fix our clothes. Tiffany had this tool belt with a lint roller, scissors, needle & thread -- whatever she might need. She lint rolled our pants all the time so they'd stay all black. It felt like this wonderful massage -- I kept thanking her! Tiffany also gave us water bottles as soon as we'd break. They had our initials on it with a straw (we each had a different colored straw). We were supposed to use the straw so it wouldn't spill on us or mess up our make-up.

The lights were so hot -- mostly when you stood in one spot -- it felt like they were sucking the life out of you once we were warmed up. I got to the point that I was drinking a full water bottle at each break. They brought a huge silver tube (think dryer hose only much bigger -- maybe 2 feet in diameter) down the hall and around the corner from the giant room we had our interviews in to bring in air conditioning. We'd just stand there and would let the cool air go up our legs and refresh us.

One time I squatted down to let the air get on my face and Ronni said "What are you doing? Your hair looked perfect and now I have to brush it again!" -- Guess I messed it up, but it felt great and we had something to laugh about afterwards.

When we got to the last few weight and band segments, we had to do those blocks several times. My triceps were fried with the triceps pulses. When we got to the band triceps work, I gave myself plenty of band and soon found out that it was way too much. I was going back and forth between "Should I just pretend that I have the right amount?" or "Should I just stop the move, adjust my step on the band and continue?" -- I went with something in between -- trying to move my feet and trying to deal with my arms flying up with no effort whatsoever. Afterwards, Anna just laughed because she noticed my flemsy band. Hopefully they won't show that one.

I had another time when the band was securely under one foot (maybe for biceps curls) but the other foot was barely standing on the band beneath my left big toe. I kept hoping the band would snap up to my face and kept trying to wriggle that foot. So funny!

I could never really see Jocelyn out of the corner of my eye. We both pretty much watched Debbie and then would talk in between. She said she was struggling with her contacts because they were moving on the jogging moves and her eyes were getting red and she was getting frustrated. But eventually, we did mostly strength moves, so she was fine.

They kept mentioning how I wasn't sweating as much as Debbie and Jocelyn. They had to dab my forehead after maybe block 3 or so, but that's it. Debbie and Jocelyn were sweating beneath their bra line too. I'd done that in rehearsal (and noticably so since I was wearing a black cotton-y top) but that morning, I'd decided to put deodorant at my bra line (had heard that obese people do that under all their folds) and it really paid off. I didn't sweat there at all! What they'd do to remedy it for Debbie and Jocelyn was put paper towels there at each break.

Anna mentioned at one point that when Kathy Smith filmed Project You with them, she asked for another top when hers got sweaty. Anna told her they only had one top. Kathy was fine with that, but I guess was used to the way they did it in her other productions -- they had several of the same tops all ready to change if one would get wet with sweat. I loved hearing tid bits like this!

I should go work out before everyone is up. I decided to let the house warm up before I exercised today. I'll continue on with the Stretch video shoot when I'm back from our Thanksgiving trip. I'll also work on getting all the pictures up on a website after the weekend.

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Hi everyone -- Sorry it's taken me MONTHS to get back to finishing my tale about my Beachbody trip, but I'm here (with only 10 minutes before I have to go pick up kids from school, but that's how I do things some times -- I have to do it while I'm thinking about it or I'll never get to it).

I think I left off right after we filmed the Cardio/Sculpt workout. That was the HUGEST relief to finally finish that workout, then we took a break for lunch. There was a buffet of snack foods nearby the set to eat from during the filming, but I only ate fruit partially for energy, but also to just have things that would give me more hydration (and not mess up my lipstick).

So we went into the huge room where we'd filmed the infomercial the day before and there were tables set up and lots of yummy food some restaurant had catered. Jocelyn was in for an adventure because her small-town mid-west life had never shown her cous-cous and more middle Eastern foods. I filled up my plate quickly and was one of the first to sit down thinking I'd probably be chatting with Jocelyn during lunch. But Debbie came and sat right next to me -- Anna came and sat on the other side -- Jocelyn, Erika (Anna's asst.) and many others. It was a lot of fun. It was fun the first time we ate sandwiches with Debbie the day before after rehearsal, but getting to sit and talk and ask anything I wanted was really fun. That's when I learned a lot about Debbie's family, her workout regime, and all that.

It was Anna's 41st birthday (she looks about 30), so they brought in a cake and we all sang. Of course I watched to see if Debbie would take any cake and she did. I didn't because I don't handle sugar well. But Debbie said that she's gotten to the point where she can eat a little if she wants, but never really wants much. She really didn't take more than a few bites.

After lunch, we went back in to film the stretch video. We knew we were in for the home stretch at this point because rehearsing the stretch one the day before was just pure pleasure. The lights wouldn't kill us, we wouldn't need water like we'd just ran a race -- we wouldn't mess up as much and wouldn't need as many takes. So we were excited.

We didn't really think anything like "Oh no, I just ate and shouldn't have because I have to look good on camera" -- we were just happy to have the break. The next day (more details on that later on) when the caterer came, everyone went in to eat and Shaun T didn't eat because he knew he had to show his abs for that Last Minute Abs filming and he was SO hungry! But I'm sure it didn't take them that long to film it and he was able to eat what was left later on -- but that kind of thought didn't cross my mind (and I had no abs to show).

Oh, I have to run to get the kids. Hope I can get back on and finish up here later.........

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Guess I'll continue on with that Day 2 (boy can I fit a lot of details into one day, huh? But it's certainly one memorable day -- how many times in my life will I get to do that?)

Day 2 -- Stretch Video -- If I repeat anything I've said before, I apologize -- The first thing I remember is that we changed clothes. I got to wear this top in Berry (Medium btw) -- loved it! We wore the same black pants and silver shoes. Debbie wore black pants too and an aqua/black wave top. She had her microphone pack near her back, but talked about having to change that when we did the back-lying stretches. On that break, she switched the pack to her side away from the camera, then back to her back for the final sitting stretches.

The set guys (who were also the lights and camera guys) put out our mats on the floor and it was neat to see how they got it all lined up. They actually had lines that showed up on the floor all parallel on the TV screen to show if it was aligned properly or not. I saw that my mat was up a little bit from the floor (the tape was showing from the front) and I mentioned it to the camera guy. I instinctively went over to fix it and he said, "No, don't touch it -- I'll do it" and I remembered that they were professionals and I wasn't a mom responsible for doing everything. I was supposed to do my job and let them do theirs. So I kind of explained that to him (always have to talk) and went on my merry way.

There was another camera man there who was holding a portable (but big) camera, walking around filming everything. I kept talking to him, trying to find out what he was doing. Someone later said that they'd probably put together some on-the-set footage of us for a bonus feature or something. So that will be fun to see if they do.

I got a little nervous when I realized that I was on the left side behind Debbie facing the left because I wouldn't be able to see her at all when we were lying down. I'd have to rely completely on what she said. And I don't hear very well. I lost most of my hearing in my right ear about 7 years ago and it especially affects my ability to hear conversations very well without them speaking clearly or without me seeing their lips. Anyway, so that was a concern, but I figured I'd be fine.

On the first take, we did this stretch where you lift your leg for a bit, then let it fall to the ground and then lift it up one more time for a deeper stretch. On the second take, Debbie instructed us to do that on the first side, but on the second side, I didn't hear her say for us to lift that leg up again. They'd said before to follow her cues instead of reading the cards or doing what we'd done before -- always to follow her. So I didn't lift the leg again and couldn't tell if she did.

They cut at the end of the take and Andrea mentioned that I didn't lift my leg the second time. I said that Debbie didn't cue it and I just thought she'd forgotten. Debbie said that we were supposed to do it and that she did cue it. So I wondered if I just didn't hear it (which would have been odd because she was speaking loudly enough). Jocelyn told me afterwards that it wasn't cued, but she could see on her side what Debbie was doing and just followed along. Oh well.

So from that point, I really made sure I was listening and wondered if in doubt if I should turn my head back to look. But it was all fine from there. I really loved it. The music was soothing. The moves felt wonderful.

I did feel kind of silly though because at the beginning Debbie says to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. I'm so used to nose breathing from all the yoga that I do that it would have been more comfortable for me to just breathe through my nose. But I knew I should follow Debbie's instructions, so I did. It was deep breathing, so I really blew out my mouth each time.

About 1/3 or 1/2 way through, the camera guy on my side told me not to pucker so much when I breathe out and Anna told me that it looked like I was trying too hard. I asked her I looked like a fish and she laughed and said I did. So I tried to relax my lips after that. And hopefully it doesn't look too bad before that. But we all know that when you do a stretch video, you rarely look at the screen anyway. So maybe I'm safe with no one noticing.

The stretch workout was 30 minutes too, but we had longer takes and it was much easier to get it right than on the Cardio Sculpt one. It was really wonderful and soothing.

Oh, one funny thing I learned was how to keep my hair looking right while stretching. We did that neck stretch where you put your hand on the opposite side of your head to pull it over. And on the break, Ronni told me that I shouldn't pull my head so hard because it was messing up my hair -- I should just barely touch my head and barely pull so my hair would stay the same. I never would have thought of that.

Also, whenever there was a break, the wardrobe girl would come and get lint off of us from lying down -- it was amazing how fast it would collect. I wonder how much of it would really show up on the screen. Maybe little differences are noticeable though.

Afterwards, we all celebrated that we'd done it! Andrea told us many times that we did such a great job -- that she was so impressed with how quickly we did it -- that when she works with professional background exercisers, it doesn't move as smoothly. So that was fun to hear. Anna kept saying, "Didn't we pick the best?"

Anna gave us a ride back to our hotel (just several blocks down the same street) and Jocelyn and I planned to go out to eat a little while after relaxing in our rooms. As soon as I got in my room, I knew I just wanted to turn in for the night (it was probably 5:00 or 6:00). Within a 1/2 hour, she called and said the same. She was just too exhausted to do anything. So I took a hot bath, washed off all that make-up, realized I'd worn home (well to the hotel) their shoes and socks. And I still had on Jocelyn's pants. It was amazing how drained I was. The workout was a challenge to do over and over, but I really think it was the lights that drained us of our energy. We drank water bottles over and over and over on every break. Every time I'd finish a water bottle, they'd put my straw in a new one, ready to go. I probably went through a dozen of them.

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Something funny to add here at the end -- when the dvds came out, I thought it quite ironic that here I battled mentally whether to just breathe in and out with my nose on the stretch workout as I was used to in yoga or to follow Debbie's instructions precisely. In the actual workout, the part where Debbie asked them to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth was edited out! So I could have avoided that whole fish face breathing that I was so uncomfortably doing and done just fine :). I'm sure no one else even thought about it though.

Filming Slim Series Express w/Debbie Siebers -- First Day Details

Wow, this post has taken some time to compose! I wrote the details about the first day with Beachbody on 3 separate posts at VF. So it took me awhile to gather it up and get the copying and pasting to cooperate here on the blog, but it's very much worth it. So fun to relive it and to be able to share with accompanying photos. I know I'm repeating the rehearsal photo from another post, but I thought it needed a picture to spark up all the solid words going there for awhile. The top photo isn't the best quality because there were lights behind me, but I love that one. It gives a feel for what the star treatment was like -- Nikolas (the wardrobe guy) was pinning the thighs of my jeans back because they realized after a few shots that if the pants aren't skin tight, they make my thighs look bigger than they really are -- see what you learn that you wouldn't normally think of at home? :) As for the photo shoot photos, they actually sent me a CD with close to 50 shots. The others who wore bikinis had even more. I'm only sharing a few here (a big "phew" on your part, huh? :)) Okay, here's the play by play:

Day 1 -- You know that my flight got cancelled that first night. Beachbody was SOOOOOOOOOO good to me. I called Anna's cell from the airport and she assured me that it was fine if I was late to rehearsal -- she'd arrange for the Limo service to pick me up that next morning, if my flight change cost more, that was fine, etc. So I felt relief from their end. I didn't know if the weather would hold out from our end, but I prayed HARD (and slept very little -- just 3 hours).

But the flight took off. I actually teared up as I boarded the plane. I knew that no one else realized the magnatude of this flight actually going out for me, but it meant an amazing opportunity for me. I was able to sleep off and on. I couldn't really tell that I was sleeping, but I felt much better (the sleepy zombie headache was gone the last hour), so I knew I'd be okay for the rehearsal.

I'll fast-forward past the Limo ride (which was fabulous -- I felt like a princess and the driver was so much fun). It was funny because we were both expecting some huge old dance studio building and he actually drove around the block and was about to call the Limo service to see if they got the street number wrong. But we came to the corner and the dance studio (Madonna Grimes') was upstairs in a little strip mall. He helped take the luggage up, we said our goodbyes and I was thinking I'd get to talk, play a bit getting to know Debbie and meet Jocelyn. But the air was thick and they were trying to make wardrobe decisions and wanted to get that all figured out.

So Anna introduced me to people -- they all came and told me their names and what they did (which all flew by me). But Debbie was near the door when I walked in and was first to come hug me and welcome me. I could tell that it wasn't a relaxed mood and that I couldn't spend too much time gabbing though. Anna gave me some breakfast she'd ordered -- I gobbled a few bites, then they had me try on the tops (which I already told you a bit about). Once we got the tops figured out, we started on the workouts.

Debbie did what they call "Marking it" which was quickly showing us the order of the moves to make sure we remembered. She came back and corrected some form and I thought "This is soooo cool" yet I was trying to pay attention.

When we actually started rehearsing, I was hoping that I wasn't letting her down when my form wasn't like hers. I'd bend over too much or not enough. I'd bend in different ways than Debbie's style sometimes without realizing it. Sometimes as soon as I changed to how Debbie would show me, I'd immediately feel it target the muscle. That reminded me that I was with a pro.

But Debbie was so sweet about it -- she told us both during a break that she hoped we didn't feel like she was picking on us when she corrected us -- she just wanted to make sure we got it. It was such a relief once we got to the Stretch workout. It was quite heavenly. The song was peaceful and the pressure was off because I'm so comfortable with flexibility work. Anna was saying, "Boy you ARE flexible" -- I wasn't trying to show anyone up, but I've always been pretty flexible and all the yoga I do probably helps too.

After we finished the stretch video, they brought in sandwiches for lunch. Most of the women stayed in the main studio, but somehow, Debbie, Anna, Jocelyn and I ended up in the little break room and got to just sit and talk. That was really fun for me (and I'm sure for Jocelyn too). Jocelyn and I had been e-mailing the past week and didn't really get to talk at all during the rehearsal. We got a chance to talk a bit more and to hear Debbie talk (Yay!)

I know I wrote about that in my hotel post, but that was relaxing and wonderful. And I got to see an instructor eat. You know how you wonder what they eat and if they eat much and all that. Debbie ordered a sandwich (maybe turkey or chicken? I can't remember -- a bunch of them ordered turkey -- I ordered the veggie one on wheat and the avocado was oozing all over the place) and ate up just like the rest of us.

Erika (who works with Anna and is THE cutest thing on EARTH! I'll post her pic later on.) She about died when I asked to take a picture with her -- she's so tiny that I'm sure size 0s swim on here -- she looks like she's about 16 or 17, but she dresses pretty stylish -- and she's either 26 or 28 -- I'll have to ask Jocelyn -- that's the thing about Beachbody people -- they all look so much younger than they are. I thought Anna was maybe 27 and she had her 41st birthday on Wednesday!) -- anyway, Erika took us from the studio to our hotel. It was fun to talk with her, learn about her marriage and how she loves L.A.

We had an hour in our hotels to shower and be ready to be picked up by Anna ready with clean hair and face for our photo shoot and infomercial interviews. I had some anxiety about that because I'd talked to the wardrobe guy (Nikolas -- I loved him) before I left home and he told me I was supposed to bring street clothes, workout clothes, and a bikini. I don't do bikinis! It's not a body image thing. It's a modest thing. So I was worried. But I talked to Anna and she said just to let them know and they'd be fine with it. I had to talk to a few people, but I got by without the bikini shoot. They'd have to spend too much time touching up my bruised up legs anyway (I'm such a clutz!) Actually, I think Beachbody has a no-touch-up policy. So I'd be the blotched up girl.

I'll have to continue later on. Time to change a Pull-Up and get my older daughters to a dance. Tell me if you get too tired of hearing so much. But you did say "Details" and there are other threads to switch to, huh?

Looks like I left off with being at the hotel before we left for the Infomercial shoot and interview. Fun stuff.

Day 1 1/2 -- Jocelyn and I were picked up from the hotel (I took this pic of us out front) by a really fun guy named Marc from Cort Howell productions (who makes all the BB infomercials -- That's actually the name of the main guy, Cort and I recognized him from one of the Slim in 6 infomercials -- the one that plays after the SS workouts. He has short light hair and is on there with his wife, who has really dark hair and had a poochy stomach before and was really toned and tight afterwards -- they thought it was fun that I remembered he was on there. I don't know if they realize how many times I've done these workouts). What was neat was that Jocelyn had an on-line friend (from a mom's group) meet her from San Diego -- her friend was planning to hang out at the hotel until we were done and then they'd get together for dinner. But Marc invited her to come along with us. So she got to see all that went on at the studio. The BB and CH staff were so open to things like that. The make-up artist even did Jocelyn's make-up later on so she'd feel all dressed up when they went out to dinner. So sweet!

When we arrived at the studio, the first thing I saw was this most FIT woman literally glowing in her photo shoot. I almost shrunk and realized what kind of company I was in. This was my introduction to Monica -- who is the cast member who is an elementary school principal. I can't remember how much weight she's lost -- maybe 50 pounds? But it's changed her life and now she runs marathons. She looks so great.

Jocelyn and I went into this little room, which was our Wardrobe room. I quickly discovered that not only did we get dressed in front of each other, but also with Nikolas (the wardrobe guy) and Heather (from BB) and whomever else might be in there. Oh well. I had to get used to that quickly. Nikolas asked us what street clothes we'd brought. I showed him all these new shirts I'd bought. He looked at a few, said "Nice!" and then chose none of them. He let me wear my jeans and shoes, but w/Heather's okay, chose a peach colored sweater for me.

They weren't ready for me to be photographed yet (I was the last at everything), so I slipped in the back of the Infomercial Interview room, which was as big as a basketball court. The room was huge, but they had lights all around the middle of it with a green backdrop so they could put whatever background in the final presentation. This was the first time I saw Kali. She looked so pretty on camera -- she glowed and looked a lot like Carrie Underwood. (When I actually met her later on, she didn't look as much like Carrie, but I told her she did on film and she said "Oh good, maybe she'll send me some money for tuition" -- she's going to med school.

So I got to see what the interview process was like. Cort was sitting at a table, approving cuts or giving ideas for further questions. I was sitting with Lara (whom I didn't realize was Lara Ross -- and she was explaining things or people to me off and on). Phil, the director, was standing just to the right of the camera. He had a binder with pages of our information on it. So he could read about us and ask questions. Kali would answer each question (like "How has Slim in 6 changed your life?") repeating the question so someone would know what the question was without hearing it. She would answer "Since I started doing Slim in 6, . . . " then she'd fill in the answer. It was really fun to watch.

Next they called me in for make-up and hair styling. This was very, very fun for me. I came with no make-up or hair style and walked out looking better than I've ever felt I looked. She did wonders! It was so fun to see the transformation. She put a little brown on my eye brows, for example, and all of the sudden, my eyes opened up so bright and full. And when she put the lip color on (no lip stick -- just the brush and creamy stuff), my whole face came together.

She had fun adding volume and style to my hair. No one's every done my hair like she did before and somehow it looked sophisticated, but not too old. I really loved it. So I walked around from that point feeling so classy. It was great.

Kali came up to the little make-up room while I was there and needed some touch-up for her photo. She was in her bikini -- an orange bikini. She looked so great, yet felt a little self-conscious walking around everyone with a bikini and high heels. There were always people everywhere.

She finished up, then I watched Jocelyn get her street clothes pictures taken.. The photographer took tons of pictures just like you see with super models on TV. I saw some of Monica's pictures on the computer and they looked amazing.

Next I got my turn. I wish I remembered the photographer's name because I liked him so much. He grew up in a family of 6 children, so he liked talking to me about my family. He would tell me how to place my feet and give little tips, then would tell me to stand still for a few shots, then to move on my own from there. I never knew if I was doing what would look good, but just kept trying different things. At one point, he told me to throw up my hands like I was celebrating and I did. And he said, "You're the first one who got that pose right!" -- I felt so good. But then when he said to do it a few more times, I wondered if I'd mess up the second or third times.

When he had me do the straight on shots, he said my pant legs needed to be tighter because the room in my pants made my legs look bigger than they really were. So Nikolas came in and took clothes pins to pull the jeans back so they'd fit tighter. So fun to be "worked on."

After that, I was back in the wardrobe room (which became Debbie's dressing room on the film days) to figure out what to wear for my workout photos. By some small miracle, Nikolas and Heather liked what I brought and I got to wear my new pink top I bought at Target! (I love it and hadn't worn it yet).

The workout photos were fun to pose for. He had me stand for many, then had me do action shots, leaping and stuff. Who KNOWS what those will look like, but it was fun to do. He said, "Do some move from the video" and my mind went blank. I'm thinking of plie's and arm motions and I knew that wouldn't look good. The only thing I could think of was punches. So I did punches for awhile.

When I got done, Jocelyn was walking through in her bikini and heels. It was so funny because a lot of people were gathered in this room with a couch near the front door. And Marc (who drove us there) had blushed earlier when Kali was in her bikini. This time he just turned around when Jocelyn was talking to everyone. When she walked out, he said, "I'm sorry, but I just can't talk to a woman in a bikini." Very cute.

Then it was interview time. I really wanted to see Jocelyn's interview, but by the time I got dressed back in street clothes, the door was shut. I asked if I could open it and everyone said "No" like it was a really big no-no during the shoot. I could understand, but I really wanted to be in there. So I hung out with the make-up artist and a few of the BB people (I think it was Lara and a few others).

** My daughter is waking up (just had her surgery) -- I'll be back later.


Day 1 3/4 (I promise -- I'll come to the end eventually!)

At one point, they took a break on Jocelyn's interview and I got to walk in and watch. She'd been nervous beforehand and she did just great. But when she was done, she told me it was hard (and I thought "Don't tell me that -- I wasn't scared!") -- but I figured it would be okay. At the end of her interview, Cort came and asked her some questions. That was fun to see because he didn't talk as much as some of the others, so it was nice to get to see a bit more of what he was like.

Then it was my turn. I walked out to the center of the lights and camera and they had me put my feet near these padded blocks. They looked through the camera and said my sweater (from the photo shoot) wouldn't work. I thought the color was too pale, but they said the lines on my sweater caused some digital lines on camera.

So I was sent back to Wardrobe to find a new shirt. I was hoping to get something that wasn't sleeveless, but Heather insisted they needed to see my arms -- since she was so nice about the bikini, I just left it there). They chose this pink shirt that was pretty low cut. So I asked if we could layer something under it. But Niklas (the pro that he is) found another shirt that was similar in color and fabric and cut a big chunk out of it. He taped and pinned the fabric onto me and my shirt, but I could see the pin. She he whipped out a needle and thread and quickly sewed it in.

I ran back to the interview room and met Phil. He told me to answer the questions like the preface of his question in a complete sentence, then asked me how many children I have. I told him "6" and he said, "No, you say, "I have 6 children" -- and I saw we were playing a little game.

So he asked a few test questions to see if I had the system down, then the interview began. But I told him I had a question first. Everyone was talking about Slim in 6 and I told him that I mostly did the Slim Series for my results and only did a few of the Slim in 6s (Keep It Up, Slim & Limber, and Slim & 6-pack). So I wondered if I should say "Slim Series" instead. He asked Cort and he said that all of those workouts are under the brand name "Slim in 6" so I should just group them under that. So I did. Once I slipped and said "Slim Series" at the end and they caught is, but let it go. I guess maybe most of the customers wouldn't know exactly what the SS was.

In fact, two of the other women in the cast had only done the initial Slim in 6 set and hadn't tried the SS (Debbie was a little amazed at that -- now they're going to try the SS).

So Phil and I chatted for awhile. And at one point (I think when he asked how Debbie's workout were different than others -- why they worked better than my other workouts), I told him that on the way there (on the plane), I decided to count how many videos I've done (because I thought it was probably over a hundred and if I talked about that, I wanted to not overexaggerate), and I got up to 291! I told him that after I had my last baby, I was doing all these advanced workouts and wasn't losing weight at all. It wasn't until I tried Debbie's that I was able to quickly lose inches and break that plateau. (and did rotations a few more times after that, breaking plateaus both those times too).

When I mentioned the 291 videos, his jaw dropped like crazy. He stopped me afterwards and just said "You mean you've done 291 videos!" and was just floored. We talked about it for awhile, then Cort said that if I use an exact number like that, people may think I made it up, so he said just to say "over 200" -- I asked "Can I say 'almost 300?'" and he said just to say "over 200" -- I guess he thought people might think almost 300 was made up too. He must not spend a lot of time on VF, huh? We'd understand it, no problem. But maybe the common man wouldn't.

So it was a fun process. I could have gone on and on, but they ran out of tape, and since I was the last one, they just decided to stop there. Phil took me aside afterwards and told me that he's participated in Slim in 6 interviews before and the 3 that day, but it wasn't until my interview that he's been interested in trying them for himself. He told me about some weight he's been wanting to lose and after hearing what I've had to say, he wants to do them too. I told him that my main passion for wanting to come was to be able to let women who are getting older like I am, and are thinking they just can't lose weight anymore, know that there is a method that can break through those plateaus. And he said, "Well, you just told me and it worked -- thank you." It was pretty cool.

There was a man on the infomercial set (the sound man) who looked so much like an actor in a scripture movie my kids love to watch that I was dying to know if it was him. I kept studying him to try to figure out if it was him or not. I finally just went up and asked him if he'd done any acting before -- he said only in plays when he was a kid. :) I explained why I'd asked and told him I had to know because my kids would enjoy knowing had it been that actor. Then we joked about me taking a picture anyway and just pretending like he was the actor since he looked so much like him. Of course, we did it. :)

When I was finished, most everyone was gone and Marc gave me a ride back to the hotel. I'd only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before and was very ready for bed. The hotel had several huge down pillows, a down comforter, etc. -- I quickly called my husband, then went to sleep by 8:30.

The switched our schedule so we were filming on W (tomorrow!) instead of Th, so I knew I needed my sleep. What a day!

Meeting Shaun T & Andrea Ambandos // Filming Slim Series Express w/Debbie Siebers -- Next Day Report

I need to continue on with my story about filming the workouts with Debbie and Beachbody. I hope this all makes sense to you as I copy and paste my posts to Video Fitness from right after the trip. This was a quick one, believe it or not by the length :). Later I think I broke them down by the days there and wrote in more detail. Enjoy! (I know I am enjoying going back down memory lane -- especially seeing the pictures again!)

I'm Back!!!!!!!!! It was SO UNBELIEVABLY fun -- I hope I can give you even a FRACTION of the fun and excitement of being there. I flew in just 2 hours ago and am downloading the pictures right now. Debbie is sooooooooooooo friendly and non-bothered by us taking pictures with her. We'd taken so many and last night after dinner when Kali asked if she could get another picture with us in street clothes, Debbie said, "Take as many pictures as you want" -- so we all took out our pictures and took many more.

I'm trying to get one of me and Debbie on right now from the set. I'll have to figure out the best way to show these to you because it's going to take a while to compress them all, transfer them to my cox.net website for a URL and all that. But I'll be sure to do one now so you can see the set.

I ended up LOVING the set. It was all warm feeling and on camera looked even better -- kind of matched her other set and feel in many ways.

And when you see this picture, I'm wearing the turquoisish shirt, which wasn't my favorite color, but Jocelyn said it made my green eyes really show up, but then last minute before shooting, Andrea said that Jocelyn needed to be on the left because she's taller and the periwinkle top (my FAVORITE color) couldn't be on the left because it was too close to the blue on the wall, so we got to switch and I wore the periwinkle -- woo hoo! (In the stretch, we both wore a really pretty raspberry pink though)

Oh, and Andrea was THE Andrea Ambandos, if you can believe it. I'd talked to her and had rehearsed with her for 2 days and then yesterday morning while getting ready in the hotel, it hit me like a ton of bricks, "Maybe she's the mysterious Andrea Ambandos" (I've always wondered who she was -- she's on the credits of almost all of my videos). So when I got to the studio the next day, I asked "Is Andrea's last name 'Ambandos'?" and they said she was. So I just about flipped out. Someone told her what we were talking about and she just laughed.

THEN, she said, "Do you know about that website called 'Video Fitness?'" (And I was saying "YES, I'm on there ALL the time!") and she said her friend sent her a link from a thread on here asking who Andrea Ambandos was and she laughed saying that one person answered that she was just a fictitious name like Betty Crocker, then someone else said, "No, because I saw her on a Turbo Jam when Chalene "Jammed" her" and she thought that was all really funny.

So I said, "Well, I'll get a picture of us together and show them 'Here she is!'" and she said okay, then said something else, left and said we they were going to start shooting in just a minute. (It was really cool to watch her in action -- She'd go outside the set to a huge trailer -- I got a picture of her in front of the trailer too -- and it was like a full TV / Movie studio like you see on TV with tons of buttons and TVs everywhere and she'd direct which camera to switch to as they went and then on the "Cuts" she'd talk to us through a little speaker -- some called her "the voice of God" -- she was very helpful and very smart.

Anyway, so later on, I talked with her again and asked to get the picture and she was super willing. I wondered what had happened before, but thought maybe the timing was just wrong. But then last night at dinner, Anna said "Were you the one who got Andrea to put on make-up?" and then said that they'd NEVER seen Andrea in make-up before. But after I asked her for a picture, she went and had the make-up artist put make-up on her. Too fun!

As for the wardrobe -- we didn't end up keeping anything. But I'm fine with that because I didn't end up spending much of my food money and I'm going to use it to order the shoes and the periwinkle top I wore. The tops were by Couture Wear and I just LOVED the fabric and the feel of them. I'm thinking that's Janis Saffel's company -- her's has the Couture name in it -- if it's the same, then she has some REALLY good quality exercise wear. (Edited to add -- It's actually called Fit Couture and it isn't Janis's company, but after I posted this, the owner of Fit Couture contacted me and offered me a free top -- one that I wore on the set! I've bought many items from them since and just love their clothing. I'd buy more if I could!) Back to my previous post:

Also, by filming day, I stopped worrying a single bit about my size and felt like I fit in just fine. I think once you get all dressed up, they do the make-up and hair, you feel like a million bucks and everyone treated me like I was wonderful. EVERYONE at BB and the Infomercial people (Cort Howell) and Andrea's group were so much fun to be around. I took pictures like crazy because I felt like I was leaving all these friends I'd just made. (And they all said to come visit the BB offices when I come down again and all that because we just didn't have enough time to do that.)

Also, just wanted to add that the post I wrote at the hotel (plus one short e-mail to my daughters and one short one to my dh) cost $25!!!! -- Can you believe it? But it was fun to share while there.

I'll write more later. I need to stop ignoring my kids. But I'll find a way to post at least one pic before I get off.

Oh, and I got to meet Shaun from Hip Hop Abs yesterday. He is SO much fun. Once I talked with him, I was convinced to buy his workouts (plus Anna lost 5 inches in her waist being the 120 day test group). Oh, and then he and his background girls rehearsed for their Emergency Abs (they later called it Last Minute Abs) workout (they had to re-film it after us) and whoa! can he move! He was even moving and groovin' when he was talking to me. Then I asked if he'd think I was weird if I asked for a picture of us and he put his arms around me more than my prom date did! I said "No, don't do that -- my husband is going to see these!" then he laughed and squeezed me even tighter -- so I got 2 good pictures. I'll see if I can get one of those on here now too. And one more thing -- they think these will be released early next year, but not by New Year's -- hopefully in February. Shaun's should be released in December though (and I got to watch one of his workouts on Heather's laptop as she was making some editing decisions -- she's Carl's right-hand woman -- here I was sitting on the couch with her and Shaun watching together -- so great!)