This is the music that got me through the last 9 months of killing it to bring myself back to life. I would not have made it through a single workout without these beats! Now that I'm finally well enough to resume my demanding cardio routines, I've busted out the ol' play list on my iPod again, and it's given me quite a trip down memory lane. Here are my favorite memorable selections from my weight-loss mission so far, in song-of-the-month fashion.
April: "Get Busy" by Sean Paul
No one brings it quite like Sean-a-Paul. This was the first song I jogged for a solid minute to. Shake. Dat. Thing.
Girl get busy, just shake that booty nonstop
When the beat drops, just keep swinging it
POUNDS LOST: 21.6
May: "Survivor" by Destiny's Child
This is kind of an obvious choice for work-out music, but I was feeling it in May while working on reclaiming endurance on the elliptical. This song is what brought me through that final intense 4-minute interval on numerous occasions.
I'm a survivor!
I'm not gon' give up!
I'm not gon' stop!
I'm gon' work harder!
POUNDS LOST: 12.8
June: "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten
Another obvious choice, but it happened to be both the message I needed AND the BPM I was running at -- well, as much as one "runs" on the elliptical -- back in June. BOOM!
And I don't really care if nobody else believes
Cuz I've still got a lot of fight left in me!
POUNDS LOST: 11.6
July: "Bailando" by Enrique Iglesias ft. a bunch of other dudes (English version)
Ahhh, July. I was so tan, so warm, got so much lighter so fast, and started getting sooooo into dancing. This was my jam of preference for all that dancin' around my apartment I did after my first shopping spree in normal-people stores while checking myself out in all those new duds. And while cooking. And while doing the dishes. And while brushing my teeth. And while walking down the street. And while sitting in my desk chair at work. And everywhere else. While doing everything. All the time.
I wanna be contigo, and live contigo,
And dance contigo, para have contigo
Una noche loca...
POUNDS LOST: 12
August: "Bang Bang" by Jessie J. ft. Nicki Minaj & Ariana Grande
Out of nowhere, this song from a full year earlier bang-banged into my headphones and made me run faster. It would sneak up in my play list and give me a sudden burst of energy. A month after making it part of my regular work-outs, it played while I finished running my spontaneous first-ever full mile straight.
See, anybody could be good to you
You need a bad girl to blow your mind!
POUNDS LOST: 10.6
September: "Love Myself" by Hailee Seinfeld
I know this song is about, er, something else, but whatever. Some double entendres start dirty and work to a cleaner second level. Good beat, right (scrubbed) lyrics, solid sweat. This shit makes me wanna fist pump fo'eva.
I love me
Gonna love myself
And I don't need anybody else!
POUNDS LOST: 7
October: "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind
The radio edited version of this song is only good. Without the killer ripple of an extended bridge, it's just another fairly monotonous song about being high on meth. In the full version, the music kind of gets a second wind in the middle of the song, and it's contagious when you start adapting your cardio to the treadmill after months of straight elliptical. As a work-out song, this version is surprisingly SPECTACULAR pavement-pounding music.
And when the plane came in,
She said she was crashin'
The velvet, it rips in the city
We tripped on the urge to feel alive
POUNDS LOST: 4.6
November: "Exes and Ohs" by Elle King
I'm afraid this is another song where my terrible dancing doesn't care about making public appearances. Holy shit, if you can't move your ass to this song, you might be half dead. It's also excellent for power walking insanely steep, never-ending hills. It's awesome to belt out, too. (Thank God I live alone.) ENERGIZE!
I get high, and I love to get low
So the hearts keep breaking, and the heads just roll
You know that's how the story goes
POUNDS LOST: 2.4
December: "Runaway Baby" by Bruno Mars
I am not ashamed to admit that I had never heard this song until a pair of dancers did a routine to it on Dancing with the Stars. Which I watched this season. No shame. Anyway, the first verse hadn't even ended before I was downloading it and putting it onto my "Move!" play list. Tonight, I did something I have never done: I jogged to it OUTSIDE. In doing so, I discovered it's my new BPM jogging speed. Mama's getting fast. :)
Run, run, run away,
Run away, baby!
POUNDS LOST: ??
And one for the road, that ALWAYS does the trick: "More" by Usher
This is my classic go-to jam that I put on to pump up my cardio when I need it most. The beat, the bad-ass lyrics, the self-assuredness I can't help but feel as soon as it starts... this is my quintessential exercise song for all of time. WOOOO!
Leave it on the floor, bring out the fire
And light it up, take it up higher
Gonna push it to the limit
Give it MORE!
It's good to be back.
**Note: I started at the end of March by dropping a crap ton of weight through only nutrition-based changes, so March work-out songs and pounds lost are not included here.