Friday, February 29, 2008

p90x - Day 12 - Legs and Back

This workout wiped me out, but I love it. I love the leg work...so many different types of lunges and squats and balance moves all mixed together. I like the fact that the leg exercises are different in the 2nd round.

I think I'm making progress with pullups as well, but it's hard to tell because I'm using a chair for assistance. I sure do get tired when I do it.

Ab Ripper X went well today too, some exercises I went all the way up to 25 reps, some only 10. Overall it felt better than the last time.

Today was really a day where I lacked motivation. I don't know if that's because of the timing...12 days in... the novelty is wearing off maybe? Or could it be because I have 3 days of night shift coming up and that's never fun.

My diet has been OK, I'm not overeating, but probably not getting a good variety in. I havn't grocery shopped this week.

But I do feel like the fat/skin on my abdomen is getting looser & flatter, flat being a relative word as you can tell by the photos.

All in all, another day down. Keep on pressing play.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

p90x - Day 11 - Yoga

Well I got through the whole Yoga workout this time, it's LONG.

I enjoyed the first half much more because I knew the sequence and appreicated it's progression from sun salutes to warrior one, warrior two, reverse warrior, etc. I figured out that each pose is just the final pose in a sequence that contains all the previous poses. I don't know if that is typical in yoga, but it made it very meditative.

I had a little trouble with the second half, which I didn't get to last week. It was nice to see Tony struggle a bit with the balance too. Mabye it was an act, but he's such a showoff in everything else, that I don't think it was.

The final stretching felt really, really good. I'm still tight in the hamstrings, but getting better. I'm especially noticing the improvemtn in flexibility of muscles that attach to my pelvis...hamstrings, quadratus lumborum, obliques, etc.

I am still sore from the plyometrics 2 days ago, and just starting to get sore in the arms from yesterday's workout.

My abs are feeling better and better each day and I look forward to continued improvement.

Oh, and I'm missing another 1/2" from my chest, waist and hips! ;)

p90x - Recipe - Dill Poached Fish with Shallots and Apricot Jam


Here is a p90x style recipe that I whipped up last night after my workout. Wow, was it excellent. Feel free to modify as needed. (image is not of following recipe)

Name: Poached Fish with Shallots & Dill

Stats: Serves 1
Protein: 2
Condiment: 1
Veg: 1

Ingredients:
6 oz fish fillet (I used flounder)
2 shallots
1 clove garlic
2 tbs apricot preserves (no sugar added)
vegetable or chicken broth (about 1/4 cup)
1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves

Instructions:
Dice 1 or 2 shallots and 1 or 2 cloves of garlic. Saute in a pan sprayed with cooking spray until they begin to get clear. Pour in a few tablespoons of organic chicken or vegetable broth if the pan begins to get too dry.

With a spatula, gather the shallots in the center of the pan in a flat layer. Place sprigs of dill over the bed of shallots. Place your fish fillet over top of this. Layer the top of the fish with a two tablespoons of apricot jam (no sugar added), and place additional dill over this.

Pour in additional broth, enough to allow the fish to poach without drying out.

Place a glass lid on the pan and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until the fish is done.

Gently remove the fish fillet and place on a plate. While the shallots & garlic are still in the pan, add 1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves to the pan. Pour in additional broth if needed. Stir just long enough to wilt the leaves, then remove from heat and place the spinach & shallot mixture on your serving plate. Transfer the fish on top of the bed of spinach.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

p90x - Day 10 Shoulders & Arms

This was a nice workout. Since starting tri training, i havn't done any isolated bicep or tricep work, and in the long run, probably won't continue, but the workout feels good. Compared to last week, I was using heavier dumbells, doing more reps and hurting more. The last exercise, the side lying tricep raise was SO MUCH EASIER than last week! I did twice as many as last week.

Ab Ripper X rocked today. Nearly 20 reps of MOST exercises, and now I'm able to start focusign more and more on form, instead of just trying to flop around on the ground following the workout!

Diet today was so so. I went out with a girlfriend to a mediterranian restaraunt and think I fared well, although I have no way of knowing how much fat was in the meal. We split Sleek (kale, black-eyed peas, onions, spices) and a swchwarma that thankfully had a paper thin pita for a wrap.

The lunch threw my meal timing off, but I recovered with a few protein bar snacks, a 1/2 cup of yogurt with 1/2 cup warmed blackberries, and then a nice dinner whose recipe I'll post separately.

Keep pushing play!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

p90x Photos Week 1

Well kids, here it is, it's ugly, but necessary! What shocks me (aside from how big my AP diameter is) is that I can actually SEE a difference between Day 0 & Day 8. Take a look and see what you think...



I notice these things in particular:
1) Smiling on Day 8
2) Smaller Chin
3) Waist more defined
4) Belly less saggy
5) Belly Button happier
6) Hips less wide

By next week, my belly shouldn't be flopping over my waist like that! (Yuck!). Wierd how the right side of my body is fatter than the left. LOL.

p90x - Day 9 - Plyo

Wow...I made it through 40 minutes of this workout before fast forwarding to the end to cool down. I felt so much better than last week, it's really incredble!

My diet was not quite up to par today in terms of timing and total calories, but it was OK. I need to continue planning like I did last week.

Well, pretty tired now so this is short.

Bring it!

Monday, February 25, 2008

p90x - Day 8 - Chest and Back


I was psyched for this workout, but it sure wasn't EASY! As Greg LeMond is noted to have said, "It never gets easier, you just get faster", or in p90x terms, "It never gets easier, you just get stronger." I think that will be my new tagline for the blog!

I suppose I'm getting stronger, and I'm noticing new limiters. For the pullups, my limiter is my grip strength, believe it or not. I'm using a chair for assistance, just enough to crank out 10 reps, but at the end of it, no matter how much assistance i give myself, my grip strength still gives out. I'm going to have killer forarms at the end of this...they are already big. The genetics of my great-grandmother I've discovered from family photos. LOL.

As far as the pushup series, Today I was limited by my back and lower abdominal strength. From the very first pushup, I could feel my abs activating to keep my body straight. I must have had really poor form last week if my abs weren't sore. I don't even think my abs knew what to do when I was doing a pushup last week! Now that they've woken up with 3 Ab Ripper X workouts (and today makes 4), they are getting into the game as well.

Ab Ripper X...Wow, this was killer, today! My best day yet, I did about 20 reps of most of the exercises. Not as pretty as they did, but I forced the reps out, even when it hurt. The last exercise, Mason Twists, I don't go all the way to the ground...my disc surgery was too scary to want to repeat it, so the ballistic nature of hitting the ground on each time is too much of a risk for me, so I just do a controlled twist in the air. But today was the first time I could even do a single rep of Mason Twists after Ab Ripper X!

This has become the favorite part of my day, finishing the workout, drinking my recovery drink and updating the blog.

Bring it! And keep the comments coming, I love visitors!

p90x - Week 1 Progress Notes

It's the end of week one and I'm feelign pretty good. I'm excited for this week. The diet is getting easier to follow, but I am/was still having doubts about whether or not I was donig it correctly. I am eating far, far better than I was before, have had minimal (probably not enough) fat, and typically I used to eat lots of chocolate, pizza, cheese, lots of olive oil for cooking, etc.

My muscles feel toned, my pants are already fitting better.

While I know it's not super accurate, I'm encouraged by the body fat calculator...I had been dissapointed the weight loss is not more, today is the first day the scale is below 150, but it says I've lost about 3 lbs of body fat, but gained a pound of lean muscle. Yahoo!

here are my stats:

Weight 149.5 (2 lb loss)
BF%:You have 28.5% body fat.

You have 42.5 Pounds of fat and 106.5 Pounds of lean (muscle, bone, body water).

BMI: 26.5
Chest: 37.5"
Waist: 31"
Hips: 40.5"
R thigh: 24.5"
L thigh: 24"
R arm: 13.25"
L arm: 12.5"
R calf: 15"
L calf: 15"
R wrist: 6"

Saturday, February 23, 2008

p90x - Day 6 - Kenpo X


Yahoo! For the first time I made it through the warmup without feeling wiped out! This was a fun workout. I like the fact that it was pretty much basic kicks & punches with some combos and variety. It's not what I was expecting, I guess I was expecting something more like Tai Chi with various poses and linked moves, but nope, this was just kick, kick, kick, more kicking, punch, punch, punch, etc.

I liked the star moves and the elbow series teh best.

At first I was very awkward on the kicks, but even from the beginning to the ending of the first session my kicks were much better. I'm sure they will be even better next week!

Recovery drink is in, and now I'm going to fix some lunch.

Great workout, my jeans are fitting looser already!

Friday, February 22, 2008

p90x - Day 5 Back and Legs

Today was the first workout I've made it through without getting the "bonk" feeling part way, yay! And I'm shocked at how well I did with the leg exercises.

The pullups felt really, really good and I really pushed it at the end with the last set of switch grip pullups. I'm still using a chair, and will for awhile, but getting the muscles moving and stretching my lats feels great.

I discovered with the diet that I was underestimating my egg white measurements by about 2/3s! I was misreading the carton label as well as the recipe. So I got a little more calories in this morning than I had been.

Food is still challenging...preparing it all and having it ready to take to work. It's getting better slowly.

As far as progress? I actually think that I've lost 1/2 inch from my chest, waist and hips so far...but that could just be user error with the tape measure, so I'm going to withhold my glee. No obvious weight loss so far, but my muscles feel great.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

p90x - Day 4 Yoga

Today I had the day off work, my favorite days of all! Somehow I managed to fill my entire day with errands, cleaning, office work, bills, my coaching job, quick stop to the health club to sit in the hot tub for 15 minutes, etc.

I finally started Yoga lated at night and only lasted about 40 minutes before turning it off. I'm not sure if I was tired, or if I was bored, but 40 minutes of Yoga is more than I was doing before, so I'm OK with that.

p90x Recipe - Scallops with Avocado Lemon Dill Sauce

I made up this recipe based on some guidelines in the p90x Nutrition Guide:


Name: Sauted Scallops and Green Onions with Lemon-Dill-Avocado Dressing and Rice


Stats:
Serves: 1
Protein: 2 portions
Carbs: 1 portion
Fat: 1 portion


Ingredients:

8 ounces of scallops (2 portions of protein or 200 calories)
1 cup of cooked rice (1 portion of carbs or 100 calories)
1/3 mashed avocado (1 portion of fat or 100 calories)
2 tbs fresh squeezed lemon Juice
1 tsp fresh chopped dill
2 chopped green onions
salt & pepper to taste
1/8 cup Vermouth or White White ( didn't figure this into the calorie counts...but I'm sure it's got calories...)

Directions
Saute 2 servings or about 8 ounces of Scallops in a pan coated with cooking spray until they just begin to brown.

Mix together in a bowl:
1/3 mashed avocado
2 tbs fresh squeezed lemon Juice
1 tsp fresh chopped dill
2 chopped green onions
salt & pepper to taste

When scallops are close to being finished, pour in a few tablespoons of vermouth or white wine and scrape up all the glaze at teh bottom of the pan mixing it back in with the liquid.

Pour the lemon-avocado dressing over the scallops and mix well.

Add 1 cup of cooked rice and stir together until rice is warm.

You may need to add a little more liquid while the rice is heating through.

This is a balanced and tangy p90x recipe with loads of nutrition.

Sit down and enjoy!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

p90x Day 3 - Arms & Shoulders

Wow, this day was a lot better than yesterday. I woke up with some energy, brought good meals to work, ate snacks at 3 hour intervals and came home psyched up to work out.

My biceps are a little sore from Saturday's test still, and my hamstrings were sore from just the tiny bit of plyo I did yesterday...no wonder I couldn't complete it!

My lats started getting sore as well from Mondays workout.

Today's DVD was killer, my arms & shoulders FEEL huge right now, wierd. I guess they are just pumped. I reached a point about 80% of the way through the workout where suddenly I was just dead tired. During breaks I didn't want to move, and even forgot what set were were doing on the very last tricep pushup...what a cool exercise THAT was!

Ab Ripper X...don't know that I did it better today, but I did it smarter. I did 10 sets of each exercise which enabled me to do a few more, but I still petered out after 5 or 6 sets. I enjoy the cooldown the most.

I had a fantastic post-workout shake, I'm using Endurox since I still have some, I mixed 1/2 cup yogurt and 1/2 cup blueberries with it & topped it off with water...never had a better shake in my life.

Thanks for reading and leaving comments!

PS Funny thing at work... I had a craving I've never had before for a vanilla flavored cupcake with strawberry icing! How funny is that?

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

p90x - Day 2

Wow, I slept hard and well last night and woke up exhausted and with a headache. Anyone else experience headaches when starting this nutrition plan? Funny thing is that I don't feel hungry at all, but I do feel my body asking for energy and nutrition...but it's not out of hunger.

Also, now that I have a specific nutrition plan to follow, I'm far less tempted to snack at night out of boredom...I think that added a lot of calories to my daily intake in the past. I'm also thirsty as heck in spite of feeling like I"m taking in a lot of water.

I'll have to measure my water intake more carefully.

Anyway...today was plyometrics. I had a hard time making it through the warmup, I was just totally wasted from yesterday (day 1, work, getting sick at work). I did the first group of 4 exercises, then tried to do modificaitons to the exercises and then just shut it off because I couldn't even do a simple squat without feeling wiped out. Seemed like a dramatic response to what LOOKED like a simple workout, but my energy level today was the total opposite of yesterday, so I think it's all a part of getting used to the whole change in diet & scheduling.

P90x - Day 1

I was super excited to get up on day 1, have a mushroom eggwhite omlet, then start my workout. Chest and Back was no gimmicks, just hardwork! I was impressed with the fact that I was able to do the entire workout.

I ate well the rest of the day and fixed meals to take with me to work so I was all set.

But it seems like my GI system had some issues somewhere along the line. I don't know if it was the diet change, stress from the weekend, or if I caught a GI bug at work.

I was totally wasted by the time I got home from work, took a hot bath and climbed into bed.

Day 1 complete!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

p90x - Goals

The material that comes with the program doesn't really talk much about goals, but mine are 20 lb weight loss and BF%age of 20%.

Goal statement from 3 years ago still stands. Note that I achieved this the first time around, and have since gained 10-15 lbs back. This time I'm shooting a little further:
My new body will be 20 pounds lighter, a flat stomach, muscular shoulders, arms and legs; strong back; firm butt; smaller hips and thighs!

p90x - Fitness Pre Test

Here are my numbers from the pre-test:

Fitness Test:
1) Pullups: 1/2
2) Vertical leap: 11" (wow!)
3) Pushups: 22
4) Toe Touch +7"
5) Wall Squat 1'30"
6) Bicep Curls 10 lbs: 31 reps (wow...shoulda used heavier weight)
7) Ins & outs: 20 (was supposed to be able to do 25...I know core is a weakness for me)
8) HR Maximizer:
Max: 166
1 min: 120
2 min: 105
3 min: 96
4 min: 88


Measurements:

Weight: 151.5 lb
Resting Pulse: 68

BF%age: 30% as determined by Home Body Fat Test
You have 30% body fat.
You have 45.3 Pounds of fat and 105.7 Pounds of lean (muscle, bone, body water).
(scary!!!)

Chest: 38"
Waist: 32"
Hips: 41"
Right Thigh: 25.5" (largest part for consistency)
Left Thigh: 24.5" (ditto)
Right Arm: 13"
Left Arm: 12.5"

Extras:
wrist: 6"
Calf: 15.25"

P90X - Minus 1 Day

TOmorrow is the big day! Last night I printed out my weekly schedule. I do shift work in an Emergnecy room and every shift may be different during the week which makes it challenging...sometimes i might need to eat lunch at work, sometimes dinner, and sometimes I might be workign night shift which has me up 24 hours in a row and I don't know what meal I'm supposed to be eating!

I noted specifically what meals I'll need to eat at work on which days, and finally I planned out tomorrows meals & food.

I'm ready to get this party started!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Pre-P90x testing

it's been 2 years plus since I lost 20 pounds using Jorge Cruise's 8-minutes in the morning. I kept my weight right at 138-140 for about a solid year without really trying very hard. The good habits I learned plus the added activity of tri training and cycling kept me pretty stable.

But slowly I let my diet slip, began working out less, running became very hard so I quit, and now I'm up to 150+ pounds. It doesn't seem like a mere 10 pounds should make a big difference, but on a frame as small/short as mine, it's horribly noticable, at least to me.

Today I did the fit test for the P90X program and was actually pleased with my pre-program results, and they are good enough to start the plan.

But I was NOT pleased with my before photos! Once I get them uploaded I'll put them here so you can follow along.

Oh, someday (soon?) I'll finish entering all my diary entries for the last go round with 8 minutes. THe diary made a big difference so I think I'll keep up the blogging for this round as well.

Just like last time, the nutrition and planning is going to be the most challenging part of the program.