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"  With two school age kids and a demanding full-time job, I find it next to impossible to squeeze any exercise into my daily routine. When I heard, about fitness expert JJ Virgin&amp;#039;s exercise routine that promises gorgeous looking arms in 6 weeks without going to the gym, I was immediately intrigued. First I got pumped up by reading her book Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy and then got even more energized when my co-worker Charmaine Gillespie agreed to take up JJ&amp;#039;s challenge with me. Although we&amp;#039;re starting from totally different fitness points (please check her blog to see for yourselves) we&amp;#039;ll be able to compare notes and support each other. To make things even more interesting, we&amp;#039;ve both committed to blogging about our progress--an extra incentive to go through with the program! Along with the fitness routine, JJ made some diet recommendations to us. However I&amp;#039;m not ready to completely alter my eating habits just yet. Since I&amp;#039;ve successfully lost 8 pounds on the Weight Watchers program over the last four months and have at least 20 more or so to go, I&amp;#039;ve decided that whatever changes I make to my diet, I&amp;#039;ll stick to my daily points. However, within the next 6 weeks I am going to be extra vigilant about tracking what I eat, which is core to the Weight Watchers program and recommended by JJ. I&amp;#039;m also increasing my protein intake to come closer to JJ&amp;#039;s suggestions but will stay within the lower range of her fat servings to stay within my daily points. It took me a few days to get physically ready for the challenge. One evening I brought home and inflated the exercise ball. Next, I bought and lugged home some not-so-wimpy weights, a set of 8 and 10 pounders. And then we took these &amp;quot;before&amp;quot; shots of me, which made it all very real that now the pressure was definitely on. Since last Thursday, I have been weight training one day and bursting the next. At the end of my 20 to 25 minute weight lifting routine my arms were killing me and I was sweaty which reassured me that I must be on the right track. I have bursted two different ways so far. First time, I bursted by running outside as fast as I could, alternating with walks in between to catch my breath. I definitely felt the lung burn that JJ talks about in her book, which made me think I must be on the path towards teaching my body to burn fat. Yesterday morning I was getting ready to go out to burst when it started raining. Instead of postponing my workout till later, I hit the stairs in my house. Who knew that we had some 45 steps from the garage to the top floor? I have to admit I&amp;#039;d never counted them before. I bursted up the stairs 4 or 5 times and in between I walked to catch my breath. In about 7 minutes or so I was done. As you can see I have ways to go with my arms. The only good feeling I have about them right now is that, if I keep this routine up, they can only get better. In the coming weeks I hope to report on my progress and be able sport incrementally better looking arms. So make sure to come visit us again as Charmaine and I continue our quest for arms to rival Michele Obama&amp;#039;s. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a22860/the-gorgeous-arm-challenge/>