Mastering Ab Ripper (Day 34 of 90)

Okay, so, I haven't totally mastered Ab Ripper X... BUT - for the first time - I did all 349 moves! This was a big milestone for me because Ab Ripper X is such an intense ab workout and I thought I'd never get through it all the way. I did pause the DVD a couple of times between exercises, but I did not pause during exercises and kept up with the reps throughout. I feel great about it!

Now I just need to do the elusive unassisted pull up! I think that goal is a long way off though. I find pull ups to be, by far, the hardest part of the whole P90X program. But one day I will master those, too!

I shared my side by side pictures so I figured I'd share my measurements, too. I started this whole thing from day one doing my hip measurement wrong. I've debated whether I should start recording it the right way or just be consistent and keep doing it wrong. For the sake of comparison, I'm going to continue to do it wrong, but to note the correct hip measurement, too. So, here are the numbers:

 Day 1 - Day 31:

Waist: 33 - 31.25
Hips: 36.5 - 35.25
Chest: 39.5 - 38.5
Right Arm: 14 - 12.75
Left Arm: 14 - 12.75
Right Thigh: 22.25 - 20.5
Left Thigh: 22.25 - 20.75

I'm getting there slowly but surely!

Day 31 of 90

Betcha thought I quit, didn't you? Nope! I'm still going strong. My scale really isn't being very kind to me. I lose a pound or two and then gain it back. It's very discouraging. But today I took my day 31 pictures for comparison and I do see some changes. So, I'm going to focus on that and keep on doing what I'm doing.

Here are the pics:

Week Four! (Day 22 of 90)

I can't believe I'm already in the last week of phase I. It's really flown by. This week is "recovery week" so I won't be doing any weights. It'll be a week of yoga, cardio, core work, kenpo and stretch.

Today is Yoga day and I think I'm going to give P90X Yoga a try again. I don't know if I'll end up doing the full 90 minutes because it still seems insanely long, but I'm going to give it a shot. Last time I found the repetition in the first 45 minutes to be frustrating and boring, but maybe it won't be as bad this time. We shall see!

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Well, I still hated P90X Yoga. BUT I didn't hate it quite as much as last time. I got through the 45 minutes of vinyasas and sun salutations and it wasn't as awful as I remember it being the first time. After that it went into the balance poses and I developed a brand new hatred for Yoga. I did 10 minutes of very unbalanced balance poses and had had enough for the day. So, I did almost an hour of the 90 minute P90X Yoga this week. Better than last time and I figure that if the first 45 minutes got better the second time around then the second 45 minutes will eventually get better, too.

Back on track (Day 20 of 90)

I got myself all caught up again and made up that one missing workout. Funny how missing just one day made me feel so off. So, today is Kenpo and after tomorrow it's on to week 3!

I lost a total of four pounds this week! I stepped on the scale about 10 times this morning to make sure it was right. I'm so happy it was! So, I've lost a total of six pounds in a almost three weeks and at least an inch everywhere. Yahoo!

Still catching up (day 18 of 90)

I am still a day behind. Missing monday's workout and the kids having the week off school has thrown me off a bit. I am just missing one yoga workout which I plan to make up tomorrow morning.
Today was arms and shoulders and ab ripper. I'm getting much better at the ab workout. I'm almost to the point where I am keeping up with the dvd. Almost!
Upped the weights for the arms and shoulder workout and my arms were on fire!
Tomorrow is catch up day. And, you know, even with my missed workout and cheating on the diet I still lost weight! A pound is all but I'll take it!

I'm still at it (Day 16 of 90)

Sunday was day 14 and GG and I did Stretch X. It was wonderful. I skipped it the first week and took a day off, but I'm very glad I didn't skip it this week. It really felt great and GG and I enjoyed it. It was a great way to start the weekend.

Since Monday was a holiday and the kids were at their dad's, GG and I spent the day running around together. I had every good intention in the world of fitting in my workout somewhere in the day, but it just didn't happen. You know what I did do? I had some fantastic wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. Ugh, I suck at this diet part!

So, tonight I'm doing Core Synergistics since I missed it yesterday. And tomorrow I plan on doing Cardio, Shoulders & Arms and Ab Ripper. I was going to double up today, but I just had too many work calls. Tomorrow I have a more open schedule so hopefully I will be able to get all caught up!

So, off to do some core work now! :)

Kenpo (Day 13 of 90)

Kenpo this morning. I was really dragging through it. I have not been eating right at all and I can feel it during my workouts. I need to be eating more. Still working on this nutrition business.

Otherwise, this morning's workout was good and I kept my heart rate up there. Tomorrow is Stretch X, which I am definitely going to do this week and that marks the end of week 2. Woo hoo!

Exhausted (Day 12 of 90)

I am just so tired today. It's either my nutrition (I definitely have not been eating enough the last couple of days) or my sleep (I definitely have not been sleeping enough the last couple of days) or a combination of the two. I just feel so wiped out right now.

I did Legs & Back and Grim Reaper X... err, I mean, Ab Ripper X today. I'm using a Superband to do my pullups/chin ups, which works well, but I still struggle with them. I did a total of 66 Superband assisted pullups and I had to fight for every one of them. It's a start though!

I'm inching along with Ab Ripper. I definitely am able to hang in longer each time I do it, but I still have to take breaks here and there.

It'd be really nice if I saw at least a little change on the scale, but I can see and feel the changes in other ways. So, I will focus on that for the time being.

A little yoga love (Day 11 of 90)

Fountain of Youth yoga kicks the ass of P90X yoga! Okay, sure, Fountain of Youth yoga is half the length and a lot easier than P90X, which accounts for my love of it. But for the beginner (me) and someone with a crazy busy schedule (me), it actually makes yoga doable. There was just no way I was going to add 93 minutes of P90X yoga to my weekly routine. I despised it and felt it was far too long and way too repetitious. Maybe when I reach a more advanced stage in my yoga abilities I will embrace the P90X yoga, but for now this is such a better alternative. I got my weekly yoga in, I felt GREAT afterwards and it was the perfect length for me.

GG actually joined me for FOY yoga. So much of it was painful for him because of his knee issues, but he thinks it'll be good therapy for him (he's had extensive knee surgeries). He used to be an extreme mountain biker and all the abuse caught up to him. Hopefully this will help him get his knee back into shape so it's not so tight and painful. So, he's going to borrow the FOY yoga for his own therapy and then we'll do it together once a week when it comes up for me in my routine. Awesome.

 So, despite Tony's shorts that allowed me a far more intimate view of him than I'd ever dreamed, I really enjoyed Fountain of Youth and am so glad I have an enjoyable alternative for yoga.

Double Digits! (Day 10 0f 90)

Today I worked on buffifying my arms and shoulders. I did the same number of reps for each move as I did last week, but I increased the weight. I was definitely feeling it!

But there is nothing like the abdominal workout. Every other workout on these DVDs is a walk in the park compared to Ab Ripper X. Wow. I did better than last week, but I am still a far cry away from being able to do all 300+ moves. Someday!

So, for the past year I have had an Outlook reminder pop up on my screen everyday at 11:30am that simply says, "You are fat." The idea was that it would inspire me to get my behind into action and workout. Simple, direct, self deprecating. It had all the elements for motivation, no? Well, aside from the months over the summer when I was jogging and doing CrossFit, most of the time when that "You are fat" notice popped up I had done nothing - and planned to do nothing - to change it (my fatness, that is). So, "you are fat" would pop up and I'd click the "dismiss" button with varying emotions. Sometimes I'd feel guilty, sometimes I'd feel disappointed in myself, sometimes I was just annoyed... you get the picture. And there always seemed to be a lot of symbolism in "dismissing" the fact that I was fat. Well, all that has changed! Now everyday I'm working out like crazy and feel damn good about it. Now I close that reminder everyday with a sense of pride and maybe a little bit of "take that, you naggy Outlook reminder bitch!"

Tomorrow is Yoga. But instead of doing the P90X Yoga I am substituting Fountain of Youth Yoga - All the yummy yoga you've come to expect from Tony Horton in half the time. Sweet! Or so I hear. We shall see tomorrow!

Cardio! (Day 9 of 90)

Today's cardio workout went well. Last week I was sucking so much water during all my workouts that I'd run out and have to refill. Today I actually had some water left in the bottom of my glass. Does this mean anything? Is this progress? I'm going to assume it is and give myself a big ol' atta girl pat on the back.

So, we went out to dinner last night and the waitress delivered the biggest plate of fried seafood I have ever seen! Fortunately, it was not very tasty so I ate very little of it. So, that didn't hurt the diet too badly. But afterwards we stopped at a little Italian bakery. I'm thinking that possibly the chocolate eclair and the biscotti we had that might've done a little damage. It was worth it though. Yummy!

I'm still struggling on the nutrition portion of this. I think I'm going to forgo being on an actual "plan" and just have the bulk of my diet be healthy, low fat foods and concentrate on portion control. We did way too much eating out before and they just put way too much food in front of you. Restaurant portions are just ridiculously large and, of course, I feel obligated to eat it and not be wasteful. Enough of that!

Tomorrow is Shoulders & Arms and Ab Ripper.  My chubby, wussy arms need some serious work so I look forward to it!

Week 2 begins! (Day 8 of 90)

Today was Core Synergistics again. I was able to do a lot more than last week and the workout didn't seem to last nearly as long as that first time. Amazing how quickly the human body responds to exercise. Yes, it's true I don't have a smokin' hot bod yet, but I can already feel that I have more strength and stamina and that's a great thing.

I've lost two pounds since I began. At first I was thinking that two pounds didn't seem like a whole lot. But this program is 13 weeks. If I lost two pounds a week for 13 weeks, I'd be right where I want to be with my weight.  I'm going to try to not get hung up on the weight thing though. I know there will be some weeks that the scale doesn't reflect any change. So, I keep measuring body fat percentage and measuring in inches, too. I'm also taking pictures once a week so I can keep comparing. The scale can sometimes be a real asshole so I will try to remember that it is only one tool of many and it only shows one type of progress.

At this point my recovery drink of choice is chocolate milk. I've done a lot of reading on the subject and studies show that it's a very good recovery drink and holds its own over more expensive, commercial drinks. I'm looking to get into shape here. I'm not looking to go broke buying all sorts of powders and mixes and stuff.

So, this begins the cycle again, which means that tomorrow is cardio. Since today is Valentine's I'll be going out to dinner with GG.  Hopefully I don't go too crazy and completely blow the nutrition part of this. But I'm also not going to get so hung up that I don't enjoy myself. Life is for living and, for me, part of that means enjoying food and indulging every now and again. So, maybe I do the cardio DVD twice tomorrow. :)

Day of Rest (Day 7 of 90)

Chose to take the day off and do nothing instead of doing Stretch X. A do nothing day is nice every now and then. I needed it.

Tomorrow is a new day and I'm on to week 2!

No need for a towel (Day 6 of 90)

I do not sweat. And I don't mean this in that girly "I don't sweat, I glisten" kind of way. I mean - I do not sweat. I can run a mile in the blazing sun and will come back dry. I inherited this from my mother since she is exactly the same way. So, I'm not all stinky and drenched when I finish working out. GG (my beau) used to give me a hard time that we always left the CrossFit gym after a workout and I still smelled like I'd just gotten out of the shower.

Now, that sounds all fine and dandy, but it actually really, really sucks. Sweat is a great thing! It's what keeps us from overheating and prevents our brains from frying. I overheat. My face gets bright red, I get very hot and I have terrible headaches when I work out. Maybe I need to start working out with a little spray bottle so I can spritz myself and save my brain. Hmm, possibly too late for that.

Today was Kenpo. It was definitely the easiest of all the workouts for me. Learning some of the moves was tricky and I have a lot of work to do on my form, but I was able to do the entire workout and match their pace. Years ago I had bought the set of Tae Bo DVDs (that spent most of its existence gathering dust on my shelf) and the Kenpo workout was just like that. Great cardio and a nice break from the mega muscle burning exercises over the last few days.

Tomorrow is the end of week 1. The weekends are very difficult for me to find the time to fit in a workout. There's always about a million other things that need done. I wasn't able to fit Kenpo in until 9PM tonight. So, tomorrow is either a rest day or Stretch X. I'll just see how the day pans out with my kids, my man and all my chores and if I can fit Stretch X in I will.

Curse my weak arms (Day 5 of 90)

I couldn't do a pull up to save my life. Really. If I was hanging off the edge of a skyscraper, I would definitely be sidewalk pizza. *SPLAT!* I think that's bad. I think it's probably a good idea for a person to be able to lift their own body weight. You never know when you'll find yourself hanging somewhere. Hey, it could happen! And if it ever does, I want to be able to pull my own body up and save myself. I do not want to be dangling helplessly, watching my fingers popping off one by one right before I'm quickly introduced to the ground.

Plus, let's be honest, it's just hot for a girl to be able to do a few pull ups.

So, today was day five and I did the Legs & Back DVD. I had to use resistance bands instead of doing legit pull ups, but I've got my eye on that pull up bar and someday I WILL be able to do an unassisted pull up. Today I used my AbMat to do my sit ups and it was much better than the other day without it! I find that I'm much more stable and this way it doesn't hurt my back. Awesome!

Still struggling with the nutrition plan. The recipes are tasty and the portions are large, but every recipe requires way too much time. If I had a chef on staff, it'd be great. But the reality is that I don't have the time to prepare three or four complex menu items for lunch and dinner everyday.

I need to come up with a different nutrition plan.

Kenpo tomorrow! Day 6, I'm comin' to get ya!

Why do I have to hate Yoga? (Day 4 of 90)

I've heard the stories. Almost everyone who starts P90X says that yoga sucks, they hate yoga, yoga is their least favorite workout of the DVDs, etc.

Damn it.

I hate being typical and I hate sounding like a cliché, but... Yoga sucks, I hate yoga, yoga is my least favorite workout of the DVDs. And it is just far too looooooong. I'm sure if I were motivated enough, I could find 90 minutes of time to do something that I really hate. But I just can't get motivated for this yoga DVD.

I've heard there's another option. Tony does a 45 minute yoga DVD called Fountain of Youth. I think I'm going to get that and swap it out for the one in the P90X program. Maybe after I get better at it I won't hate it so much and can add Demon Yoga back into the mix when I do P90X Round 2.

In the meantime, I'm going to revisit daily this YouTube video with Tony explaining why yoga is so important:

It makes a lot of sense, he's a great motivator and he makes me laugh. If it weren't for this YouTube video, I think I'd have pitched yoga out the window all together.

Holy Ab Ripper (Day 3 of 90)

I completed Day 3 - Arms & Shoulders and Ab Ripper X.

Ab Ripper X is pure evil. It is definitely the hardest part I have done so far. It'd be generous to say that I was able to do half of it. The half that I did do - the form wasn't the greatest and I had to take breaks.

I look forward to being able to rock Ab Ripper X because today was just plain U-G-L-Y! I think for most of it I looked like some sounded animal stuck in a trap, flailing away, needing to be put out of my misery. I was probably making a lot of the same noises, too.

I will say that I'm surprised I'm not more sore than I am. I have been pushing each workout since day 1 and I really expected to be painfully sore. I ache a bit, but it's not bad at all.

Tomorrow is Yoga X. Hello Day Four.

Day 2 on the books! (Day 2 of 90)

Just finished Day 2 Cardio. I think for me the mental stamina is harder than the physical. I need to learn to shut my brain off, but my brain tends to get in the way of a LOT of things in my life. And during my workouts it's no different. As my body starts to tire my brain kicks in thinking, "I can't do this. I'm going to have to quit. This is too hard." I ignored it and continued on and I made it through the entire workout, but, boy, my brain sure can be annoying.

More than a few times during the workout I was cursing how long it was lasting. It felt like forever! Fatigue and burning muscles definitely alter clock reality. 

Earlier today my boyfriend sent me a text that simply said, "So proud of you for this endeavor!" What a great motivator he is in so many ways. I'm sure I could do this all by my lonesome, but having someone cheering you on and recognizing your accomplishments is so nice. I love that guy. :)

The nutrition plan might be harder than the workouts. The food is great and the portions are actually quite a bit bigger than I'm used to eating, but every recipe is a feat! It's a lot of work to prepare meals that take that long three times a day. Once I use up the massive amount of groceries I bought to follow this nutrition plan I'm going to have to scale things in the nutrition department to work for me.

One down, a lifetime to go (Day 1 of 90)

I just finished my first P90X workout - Core Synergistics. It was hard and I know I'm going to be feeling it tomorrow, but I am happy to say I was able to do a lot more of it than I thought I'd be able to. I didn't do the bonus workout at the end of the DVD and I modified a couple of routines (low running planks? Yowzer!). I definitely didn't keep up with the hot bodies on the DVD, but I held my own and was able to finish most of it - at my own pace.

More than a few times during the workout I was cursing how long it was lasting. It felt like forever! Fatigue and burning muscles definitely alter clock reality. 

So, I have one workout under my soon-to-be-too-big belt. Tomorrow I will be pressing play again.

But right now I really need a nap. :)

So mad at myself (The Beginning)

I rarely ever weigh myself. I generally gauge my weight gain by the way my jeans are fitting me. I had been jogging and doing CrossFit over the summer. But the weather started turning colder and I gave up the jogging. CrossFit was outside of my budget and it was hard to find time for it with the kids. I had planned to just start working out at home on my own instead. Then the holidays came and along with all the extra food came a lazy, sedentary lifestyle. I knew I had gained some weight and knew it was time to start back on my path to losing weight and getting into shape.

So, for the past couple of weeks I have been preparing to start P90X. I got all my gear, got everything set up, did the fit test, went grocery shopping for my new diet. And today I took my "before" pictures. While scrolling through the pictures on my hard drive to upload my "befores" I happened across some "before" pictures I had taken five months ago. I was stunned! My jaw dropped. I can't believe how much weight I let myself gain and I'm so mad at myself for doing so. I needed to lose weight THEN and was unhappy with my body THEN. And now I'd love to trade this body for that one. I have put myself so much further away from my goal. I stand here shaking my chubby little fist at myself for allowing it to happen.

Jack Lalanne said, "Getting out of shape is like a theif in the night that sneaks up on you." He wasn't kidding. Here is what the thief in the night did to me...

Here is my August "before" picture:

My current "before" picture:

I will not do this to myself again. My body is an amazing machine and I need to start treating it the way it deserves to be treated. Good ol' Jack Lalanne also said, "You've got to take care of the most important person in the world - YOU!" And that's exactly what I plan to do.

P90X and I have our first date tomorrow.