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!)

----------

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.

----------

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.........

----------

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.

----------

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.