The Ultimate Universal 30-minute Workout

I have to confess that I have a secret addiction that I've recently just become aware of. Not too long ago did I ask my sister, who was visiting, to help me clean up my apartment by sorting my DVD collection and it was her that pointed it out to me - that I have an addiction. I guess I never realized just how many fitness DVDs (and VHS tapes) I actually owned. Buying a workout DVD is like one of those little addictive habits we all have and may not notice until something happens and we realize what we've actually done. For me, buying "just one more DVD" is like a gamer playing a video game and promising to play for just "5 more minutes" or "one more level". The gamer finds themselves still playing as the sun is rising again and for me, I'm oblivious to why I'm running out of shelf space.

My latest guilty pleasure, yet another new workout DVD, is to be used specifically with my stability ball. And like I always say, this one was going to be IT - I'm going to get a full body workout with this DVD with the stability ball that's still airless and folded in my closet. But this was going to be IT. It's going to work just like the 3 DVD box set I bought a month ago focusing on total body sculpting. This was going to be IT like the pilates and yoga DVD I bought so I could be long and lean (or so they say). And this was going to be IT like the core strengthening DVD and the lower body work DVD and the kickboxing DVDs and the multiple cardio DVDs. Yet I still continue to always be in a state of trying to lose the same 10-15lbs.

As I sit and look at my collection, I realize that I've totally been lying to myself by trying to make myself feel good thinking I'm creating a "variety" of workouts to stay motivated. I mean, we've all heard it a million times how you need to change up your workouts so you don't get bored. Regardless of how I workout on a given day, I love the endorphins from a good workout, the feeling as if I've accomplished something and the feel of a nice cool shower after an intense session. I just don't like the amount of time it takes to finally contour and shape my body - months and months of many hours of sweating, walking and running up and down the same street, repetitive motions on the elliptical and listening to the same songs on my Pandora radio and biggest sin of denying myself brownies.

If we can get a universal remote to work pretty much all the gadgets we own, from our TV sets to the cat's litter box (which I'm sure a remote like that has to exist somewhere) ideally I wish there was one supreme ultimate universal 30-minute workout that did it all. From cardio, to total body sculpting, flexibility, toning, personal training, you name it, etc, etc. Maybe I'm asking for too much but a lot can be done in 30-minutes. If you can create something new out of nothing, like an Ikea desk from pieces of wood or cook a full ­meal like Rachel Ray in 30-minutes, why can't I transform my body in one 30-minute session? Maybe I'm just unaware of some magical fitness program that exists in the world. Maybe it hasn't been discovered yet where when a series of physical actions are performed for 30-minutes that I will shed at least a pound every time I did it. A universal 30-minute workout, that when done 30 times, you would lose 30 lbs - put that on DVD, I'd buy it. I think that that would be a more efficient way of losing weight but then again the fitness DVD industry would be out of business. They'd have no one to collect all their various workout sessions selling them on the hopes that their video, this time, would be THE last workout DVD they would buy. For now, as I wait for this Ultimate Universal workout to be discovered I'll just continue to make tough daily decisions - which one of my many fitness DVDs am I in the mood for today?