P90x Round 2, Day 6 - Kenpo X, 4 mile run

P90x Round 2, Day 6 - Kenpo X, 4 mile run
Diet :
Breakfast: Raisin Bran w/ Skim Milk
Lunch: 6" Turkey Subway sandwich w/ double meat
Snack: Peanut Butter and Strawberry Protein Shake
Dinner: Red Beans and Rice w/ Sausage, Grilled Potato Salad, Caesar Salad, Hush Puppies
Unplanned Snack: None

Summary:
Today was a long day. I decided against waking up early to do my run favoring sleep instead, but I got it all done later in the afternoon. The wife and I are both doing P90x this time around in case I haven't mentioned that. She's doing the P90x "Lean" but after the first two days for the week we are on the same schedule which is nice. So today we worked out together and rocked out some Kenpo X. I love this workout. It's absolutely the best workout in the program and it really flies by and I barely feel like I'm working out.

Today was also my "long" run. I didn't know if I'd be able to get 4 miles finished because I should have been running that distance for the last 2 Saturdays but I wasn't able to get it finished. I was able to get it finished today though. It was brutally difficult and hotter than hell when I decided to run it, but I finished it. I'm not sure how I'm going to finish 5 miles next week though. I ended up sweating off about 40 gallons of sweat, but I finished it. I'm sure I'll be wrecked tomorrow.

Today was cheat meal day. We ended up going out to a local southern cooking place and there wasn't the healthiest stuff on the menu, but I ended up doing what I felt was ok. I didn't sweat it too much though because it was my cheat meal.

Anyways, I'm tired and my calves are exhausted but overall I'm doing pretty well and I'm looking forward to wrapping up week one with a good stretch.

P90x Round 2, Day 5 - Legs and Back, Ab-Ripper X

P90x Round 2, Day 5 - Legs and Back, Ab-Ripper X
Diet :
Breakfast: Raisin Bran w/ Skim Milk
Lunch: Salad with Ham, Cottage Cheese, Carrots and Celery
Snack: Granola Bar, Oranges Fruit Cup, Jello Pudding Cup
Dinner: Chicken Alfredo, Rolls, Caesar Salad, Ice Cream Sandwich
Unplanned Snack: Cup of Chicken and Rice Soup

Summary:
So I decided that Today (Friday) is going to be the day I weigh in. With Fridays and Saturdays being prime days for cheat meals I knew that Friday morning is my best chance to get consistent and good numbers.

I weighed in this morning at 239.5 which is down 6.5 pounds from last Sunday. You have to love the first week of the new fitness. You get to put up some big numbers and get that boost of momentum and positive reinforcement that you need to justify your first week of hell.

My diet might need to be adjusted slightly after the last few days. I had a feeling that I was lower than I might need to be in regards to calories, but today I was absolutely starving all day. I'd eat my meals and within 30 minutes I'd be absolutely starving. I know it led to some extra eating that I would have liked to avoid but there didn't seem like much I could do about it. I drank as much water as I could tolerate today but was still starving. We'll have to take a look at that next week.

On to workouts. Today was Legs and Back. I'm still not any closer to doing a pull-up, but it's good to keep getting 2 chances a week to work on this for the next 90 days. Legs day is really tough, it's ALOT of lunges or lunge-similar exercises. I can only take so many one legged squats and side/back/front lunges before my legs are screaming but I did the whole workout and felt really good about it afterward.

Tomorrow is supposed to be Kenpo X and a 4 mile run. I've got a busy morning already lined up so I'm not sure how it's going to work out. I know that I'm probably going to have to get up extra early and do my run before I head out for the morning and then do Kenpo later in the afternoon. We'll play it by ear.

Overall feeling really good. Just hungry all the time.

P90x Round 2, Day 4 - Yoga X, 1.25 mile run

P90x Round 2, Day 4 - Yoga X
Diet :
Breakfast: Oatmeal, Pineapple & Orange Juice
Lunch: Salad with Ham, Cottage Cheese, Carrots and Celery
Snack: Granola Bar, Mixed Fruit Cup, Jello Pudding Cup
Dinner: Garlic Shrimp with Pico de Gallo over Rice
Unplanned Snack: Potato Chips

Summary:
I believe that I owe Yoga an apology. 3 months ago on my first week back on the fitness wagon I tried this workout. That experience did not go well. I was tired and the idea of a extremely long workout didn't appeal to me much. Every muscle I had was extremely sore and I lacked the basic core strength and flexibility to complete the workout. Overall it was an atrocious failure and as a result of that failed experience I developed a hatred for that workout and never tried it again during my first round of P90x. I did other Yoga on my Yoga days, but never Yoga X again.

Well today I did Yoga X. I went in with a fresh slate and the "I'm going to give this another chance" mentality and guess what. I finished Yoga X. Not only did I finish it, but I dare say I enjoyed parts of it. It's still a bit repetitive in the first half during the "strength" portion. I don't mind the workout, but it's frustrating having to start all over from scratch for every step of the series. It's still very long and I can tell that on days where I'm not feeling 100% motivated it's going to be a chore finishing a workout that long.

I didn't get to my running this morning and instead did it tonight. It wasn't the best run and it was hot and humid so that wasn't the best situation either. I went about 1.25 miles before I had to pee so bad that it caused me to cut my run short. I was a bit disappointed but I don't have any concerns that I could have finished 2 miles.

Meals today went as planned except at lunch. I went to eat with a friend and he didn't finish the chips that came with his lunch, next thing I know I'm eating potato chips. They weren't too awful nutritionally and the bag was only 130 calories with I imagine helped me to justify eating it at the time.

I haven't run the specific numbers on my new diet, but I know they are at or lower than where I want to be. I need to keep an eye on it overall because the last two days I've gotten pretty hungry at weird times and I'm worried that's going to cause me to crack down the line.

My back is kinda sore today. I have back and legs tomorrow. I'm hoping that I don't aggravate it any more.

Overall still feeling pretty good. Thinking I might weigh in tomorrow and make Friday my weigh-in day because Friday or Saturday are usually good candidates for "cheat meals" and I don't want those to throw off my weigh-ins.

P90x Round 2, Day 3 - Shoulders and Arms, 3 mile run

P90x Round 2, Day 3 - Shoulder and Arms
Diet :
Breakfast: Sausage Sandwich, Apple Juice
Lunch: Salad with Ham, Cottage Cheese, Carrots and Celery
Snack: Granola Bar, Pineapple Fruit Cup, Jello Pudding Cup
Dinner: BBQ Chicken Breast, Broccoli and Rice
Unplanned Snack: Impulse eating of French Fries

Summary:
Got a great arm workout in today. I think I've figured out the trick to the weight workouts to keep me from skipping or shortening workouts. It's the logbook. I didn't keep the log of my workouts the first phase of P90x and I regretted it, so I made sure to get it set up this time. And so far it appears to be keeping me in line.

I can already feel it in my shoulders and upper arms and I'm sure tomorrow I'll be sluggish. Tomorrow is the worst day of the week... Yoga. P90x Yoga is the hardest most sadistic thing ever. I hate it so much and last round of P90x I skipped most of them. Can't do that this time around.

I missed Ab-Ripper today. I simply ran out of time in the morning with lifting and running and would have been late to work if I tried to shim in another 15 minutes. I'm disappointed, but I get 3 tries at it a week so hopefully I can make it up to myself.

Eating was pretty good today, but I can tell I'm burning off what I eat because I found myself eating french fries today while out playing cards and I didn't even want them. They were way to salty and not that good but I kept finding myself going back to them. I tried drinking alot of water to keep my mind off it and I'm actually still starving now which means I probably should have something to eat before going to bed, but I'm likely to just try to get to bed.

Running today went really well. Got 3 miles in which is the first time I've gotten that in the last few weeks. I'm still not sure this weekend's 4 miles is going to come very easy, but I'm going to give it my best. Right now my legs and body seem to be handling the running well, but if I'm going to try to run some distance I need to get my breathing and my mental game stronger. Those were the two areas I kept noticing today.

I haven't decided if Fri, Sat, or Sun is going to be weigh-in day. I usually try to get my weigh-in recorded before any cheat meals so the numbers look better so maybe that leads me to weigh in every Friday. But the "week" ends on Sunday so maybe that's better. We'll play it by ear.

P90x Round 2, Day 2 - Plyometrics

P90x Round 2, Day 2 - Plyometrics
Diet :
Breakfast: Sausage Sandwich, Juice
Lunch: Salad with Turkey, Cottage Cheese, Carrots and Celery
Snack: Granola Bar, Pineapple Fruit Cup, Jello Pudding Cup, 3 Orange Slices
Dinner: Pork Tenderloin, Broccoli and Cheese

Summary:
It's a day 2. Plyometrics, or as they say "Death by Jumping". This is the only workout that if I give 110% to I feel like I'm about to throw up after the first 15 minutes. I've given Kenpo X more than I could have given and never gotten ill, I've done the same with just about every other exercise at some point and plyometrics by far is capable of getting the most out of me.

It's funny though, because it starts out easy. I little squat jump, some heisman, a bit of this, a bit of that. And next thing you know you're dog tired and sweating like crazy and can barely pick your feet off the ground let alone rock out the "rockstar hops".

Feeling pretty good so far. Definately not like the first round where I couldn't even straighten out my arms after Day 1. I can definately tell the difference between using the bands for my back workouts and going back to the pull-up bar. Granted I'm still no where close to being able to do a pull-up but I can tell that I got a heck of a back workout and I think long-term this will get me closer to being able to do pullups than the bands could.

Meals are going ok so far. I went out to eat with a recruiter friend of mine today and while he would have picked up lunch without issue, I ate what I brought. I hope I can keep up that resolve for a long time, but to be honest I think it depends on what the scale says on Sunday. If I do perfect eating all week and do my best on the workouts and running and the scale barely moves I can't imagine I'll be as motivated to keep it going strong. But I'll try my best to keep it up for the first 30 days and then re-evaluate if needed.

Running went well today. Got 2 miles in without much issue. I can tell that as I increase my runs on the weekdays I'm going to have to solve the eating before running issue. While my run didn't have any issues I could definately tell that I had less in the tank than I usually do in the afternoons. The problem is with doing P90x and then running I'm not sure where that leaves eating. I might have to get workout gels or something and eat them after I finish working out while I'm getting my running shoes on and whatnot. That'll only give me 5-10 minutes between working out and running to get some more energy. But maybe that'll be enough.

Anyways, Shoulders and Arms tomorrow. I need to get than in and run 3 miles and still somehow find out a way to get Ab-Ripper done. It was so much easier skipping Ab-Ripper most of the time in Round 1. I wish I hadn't made the goal of not skipping Ab-Ripper during this round.

P90x Round 2 - Day 1 - Chest and Back, Ab-Ripper X

P90x Round 2, Day 1 - Chest and Back, Ab-Ripper X
Diet :
Breakfast: Oatmeal, Juice
Lunch: Salad with Turkey, Cottage Cheese, Carrots and Celery
Snack: Granola Bar, Fruit Cup, Jello Pudding Cup
Dinner: Chicken, Rice, Dinner Roll

Summary:
Round 2 of P90x has begun. I know that there is alot ahead of me having gone through this before but I'm optimistic that this time I can achieve what I wanted to during the first round. My weight during the first round got got down to as low as 242.5 and I started today at 246. I have overhauled my eating habits and I really hope that I stay motivated enough to keep eating healthy and workout out at 100% for the next 90 days.

I have a few goals for the second round of P90x. I want to eat healthy every week, with only having 1 cheat meal every week. I want to do all my Ab-Ripper workouts to the best of my ability. I want to not skip a single Yoga workout. I want to do X Stretch every Sunday and not just "rest".

I believe if I can stick to the goals above, I'll get everything I want and more out of the next 90 days.

During this phase I will also be running and training for a marathon later this fall. I hopefully will be able to balance both of these out. I don't want to burn out or run out of energy so we'll play it by ear.

We'll see where it goes from here. Day 1 was a success so far.

P90x Round 1 Wrap-UP

So the last part of my P90x journey didn't end as well as I would have hoped it would have. For the first 2 phases of P90x I was a rock, I didn't miss any workouts and I felt really good. Then a few different things happened and between injuries and apathy my last 30 days were terrible.

But from what I have been able get out of the program. P90x works. My core strength is much better than what I started off with.

But it's not a miracle program. It's a lot of blood and sweat and you can only get out what you put into it. It's asks alot, but it gives back alot too. The infomercial shows you the absolutely best cases that they can muster, but it's not fake. There are some programs like the thighmaster that say use this for 30 days and you'll look like this 6-packed model. That's a load of crap. But with P90x the basics are there. The eating plan, the viscious workouts, the structured program. The basics are all there. I can't say that you will end up like the television commercial, but if you give 100% to the program, the program will not fail you.

However, I didn't give it 100% for the first 60 days. I gave it 85% of the fitness front, but unfortunately I only gave it 60% in the eating. And I really believe that is what prevented me from losing the weight that I wanted to lose.

Overall the program works. Hopefully this next round that I am about to start I will be able to build off the success from my first round and achieve everything I hope for.