Day 82

1 1/2 hours of yoga is a great way to end off 2009, I am going to have a beer now:)

Out with the old and in with the new

This has been a good year for me as far as my personal well being is concerned. I started off 2009 in a crappy job that was driving me nuts working for a couple of immature and unethical asses and I was out of shape and getting worse but I made a change from that situation by the end of January and am now working someplace much better that is giving me time with my family and time to take care of myself. I have changed my eating habits over the course of the year and been working out heavily. I am about 30 pounds lighter today than I was at the start of the year and I have quit smoking as well. It would have been nice to have finished up round one of P90X by the end of the year but that did not work out and that's OK. I am looking forward to what the new year brings. Sarah and I are planning to continue the new healthier lifestyle with proper diet and exercise, not exactly sure what comes after P90X yet but I am working on it. We are getting ready to sell our house and move to something a little bigger so we have a little more room so that should be exciting. We will be visiting my parents in Florida and I will be meeting with some old friends in Virgina very soon. Sean will be starting Kindergarten and Sofia will begin preschool. All in all this has been a great year and next year is looking to be at least as exciting. I hope everyone else has a safe and happy new year as well.

Day 81, Back and Biceps

Last time for this one and I pushed so hard I really couldn't lift my arms. At one point my wife asked if I needed her to write down my weight and rep count on my workout sheet because I was having some real trouble writing. Tore up the ab ripper X today too but I will be glad when we do that for the last time on Friday. I like it but you do it too much and it is getting old. My wife mentioned today during ab ripper that we need to find a different ab workout because this one is getting old. I am so glad to be working out again this week, I was feeling like a fat slob already having the few days off last week. Looking forward to Yoga tomorrow.

Day 80 again

I was real happy to get a second chance to do the plyo workout for the last time after my half ass effort last week due to a sore back. Last night my back was feeling good and I took advantage of the second opportunity to bring it for this workout. My legs were a little sore due to some running I did on Sunday but after warming up they felt good and the workout went well. My legs felt like jello by the end of this thing but that is what I was looking for.That was a much better result for my last plyo workout of the 90 days.

Day 79, second time

It felt real good to get back to it after almost a week of sloth and gluttony. Both Sarah and I noticed how quickly you can regress back into some old habits but also how quickly we began to feel like fat slobs and wanted to get back at it which is good. My back is feeling much better today and I made it through the workouts without any issues while maintaining the weights and reps I did last week so I am happy with that. Today was Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps which is a good workout as I mentioned before. Sarah and I were laughing at this one tonight because Phil is just hilarious with some of the comments he makes to Tony in this video. We also did ab ripper tonight again and I had no problems there with my back either which I would have expected if I was still having back issues today. We finished about an hour ago and still no issues with the back so I think this episode is behind me, knock on wood. I am looking forward to getting to do plyo again tomorrow since I had to sort of half ass it last week because of my back, at least I have a second chance on that one.

Rewind

Well I have done it again. Looks like we will be restarting from the beginning of last week on Monday night this week. This will mean we will finish up 2 weeks later than originally planned because, if you recall, we had a reset during the phase 2 recovery week as well due to illness. This time it was my back. I mentioned that I thought it was from hockey before but after some thinking I realized that I probably did it shoveling the foot and a half of snow from the driveway. After completing the plyo workout on Tuesday it just got more sore and we have not worked out at all this week since then. I have been taking my medication for my back and doing stretches to try to loosen things up and it is finally feeling better now. I have learned another good lesson though from this, even though my back is in much better shape an I can do things I have not done in a long time there are some activities that you just really need to pay attention to form on and not overdo it with, shoveling snow is one of them. This setback early in the program may have caused me some stress and disappointment but I have come to buy into Tony's philosophy of "do your best and forget the rest" and I am fine with doing what I have to do to take care of an injury first. I also have come to the realization that all of the work I have done over the last year to get into shape is really a life long lifestyle change and not something short term which means that a week long setback really does not mean much in the grand scheme of things. The other thing is my lower back muscles were sore but this is a far cry from the pain associated with the herniated disks so I know things could be a lot worse, and they are not. As an added bonus I am pretty excited that I get to do Plyo again and that last half ass effort was not the final plyo workout for the 90 days.

Day 80, Last Plyo Workout :(

Well I would like to say that I worked harder today on my last day doing Plyo than I have the whole time but I can't. My lower back is still pretty tight today and I had to take it a little easy on a few of the twisting exercises in the workout today. I am more than a little upset about that and will have to do this workout again shortly after day 90 so I can really push it hard. I did some extra stretching after this workout today trying to get my back loosened up a little bit so hopefully that will help. I have another hockey game tonight and plan on getting there early to do some serious stretching before going out there. I also think I am going to make sure to enter and exit the ice through the door rather than hopping the boards as usual. I suspect that may actually help somewhat based on a conversation I had with another player who has some back issues.

I had a typo in yesterdays post where I said I skipped 32 exercises, that should be 2 exercises. I don't think we even do 32 different exercises during that workout.

Days 78 & 79

Sunday was a rest day but I played hockey Sunday night and that went well. No X Stretch but got a good sweat going at least with the game.

Today we did the Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps routine and I pushed it real hard up front and made gains on pretty much everything but by the time we got to the last 3 exercises I was done and lost a little ground on all of them. I am pretty sure if I try to do another push up right now I will fall flat on my face. I did ab ripper on my own since Sarah was up most of last night with the sick kids and just was ready to get to bed. I had to skip 2 exercises because my lower back is a little tight. I have been noticing lately that the day after a hockey game my lower back is pretty tight. I am going to try to start doing some different stretches both before and after games to make sure I take care of this right away. It is interesting because when my back was in bad shape hockey never seemed to bother it but now it seems to get a little sore. I just need a little time to figure out what it is and address it.

Day 77

We had a huge snowstorm here so not only did we do our Kenpo but I had to shovel the 16" of snow from the driveway for a little added bonus. I also just had some sort of malfunction trying to post this and inadvertently posted like 4 empty blog posts so I am sure those of you that subscribe got a pile of emails, sorry. I have a football game Monday night this week and a hockey game Tuesday so look for some modifications to the schedule for this week, not sure what yet but something needs to move.

Day 76

Legs and back might be my least favorite of the workouts in this program but I am making gains on the pull ups now so that is good. I felt strong last night even during the ab ripper x exercises. Those V-up Roll-up's are a killer! I just noticed last night that they did in fact do some editing to add in stuff to the videos at some point, I had not noticed that before. If you look at the part where Tony comments on the chicklettes in the one girls mouth her arms are in front of her body but they are doing a stretch with arms behind. This really blows my impression of Tony out of the water. I sort of assumed he was just a goofy guy with these comments and they were sort of off the cuff but this was clearly something they added later, not funny enough for that dude... It is snowing like crazy here right now so we are stuck in the house and will try to get Kenpo done tonight if my hockey game is canceled.

Day 75

We didn't start Yoga last night until pretty late because we had to go out and get some Christmas shopping done. We then took a break in the middle due to visitors coming over. All in all though it went well and I made it basically through the whole warrior 3 sequence. My leg was not straight but I made it through. That sequence is a killer on that leg. Since we did not finish until very late we did not get up this morning and will do Legs and Back tonight instead. I can't believe we only have 15 days of this left.

Day 74

I, much like Tony, think this is a good workout with the three exercise setup. You do a shoulder exercise followed by bicep followed by triceps and then repeat them. This is done for like 5 sets of 3 exercises. I increased my weight on a bunch of these today and am still feeling stronger on each workout which is good. I struggled a little again today with ab ripper though for whatever reason. That is a frustrating part of this program and it seems I fluctuate wildly on my ability to keep up with it. Maybe it is just that we do that routine so much more often, three days a week. Perhaps I fluctuate just as much on the others but it is not as obvious because they are spread out more over time. Looking forward to doing some yoga tomorrow.

Day 73

Plyometrics, I am a little sad that we only do this one more time before the 90 days is up. Pushed hard this morning and felt good. My chest and back are sore this morning like they were when we first started. I guess that is a good sign that I worked hard yesterday. A second day in a row with no interruption from the kids too, wow!!!

Day 71, and 72

Sunday was a rest day and I took it. We did not do the stretching Sunday, we just took the day off. My sister and her kids came over and I made pasta and sauce and we all had a good time. I did have some candy yesterday as well,for some reason I was craving candy and we happened to have some in the house. Hopefully that was a one time thing and I don't get cravings like that again.

This morning was the last time we do Chest and Back for this 90 days and I tried to push it as hard as possible. I felt good with it and made some good gains on everything as opposed to the last time when I felt like I had slipped back. I did feel a little weak on the abs stuff this morning for whatever reason but I struggled through and finished it up. Neither kid woke up before we finished this morning either which was a nice change from having them trying to climb all over you or whatever when doing exercises or stretches. Don't get me wrong I love my kids, it is just nice to get the workout in without an interruption every once in a while.

Day 70, Kenpo

Another grueling workout looking at Wesley's jiggly ass. My wife and I were talking during the warm up this morning about how we really don't care for the warm up to this one. We were wondering if Wesley developed that as well, even if he didn't I am going to blame him, and I blame Dreya for everything else I don't like about the program which isn't much. My legs were pretty tight this morning and I was having a tough time with the kicks because of it. I have started to increase the speed on the blocks, elbows, and vertical punches starting from the beginning because they don't speed up fast enough. When we first started it was fine but I need to get moving faster now. I don't have the same problem with the regular punch sequences like jab/cross/hook/upper cut where it seems that they are doing them faster than I can unless my form breaks down. I just do it a little slower than they do and make sure I am getting my core involved as much as possible. My shoulders were screaming during some parts today as well for whatever reason. Felt good though and the heart rate was up where I like it so that is all that matters.

Weighed in again this morning and tipped the scales at a whopping 150.8. This is the same weight I was when I was sick and thought I looked too thin. This time though I don't really think I am looking too thin and neither does Sarah. It is funny how different you can look at the same weight depending on where it is placed and in what tissue form. Feeling real good and looking forward to the last 3 weeks of the program. Should be fun and we are going to finish strong.

Day 68 and 69

We did Yoga last night and I am absolutely amazed at all those of you out there that can make it through tat half moon sequence. My leg will just not stand up for that length of time, especially when still sore from Plyo and Hickey in the same day. It was a good workout though and I was nice and relaxed after. I would like to know though who the genius at beachbody is that decided it was a good idea to put people yelling at you 2 seconds after finishing up the relaxation part of the video. For those of you that don't know you finish this workout with a relaxation section and ohms (not sure on spelling), as Tony puts i "this is the Yin part of the Yong energy... you don't just finish up and leave, not with Yoga anyway..." Well the end of the videos have infomercials trying to get you to buy other beachbody crap like the recovery drink and protein bars. I wouldn't suggest them based on the price and what is in them, there are much more economical ways to get the same benefits and I will post something about what I take at some point but I digress. On this video it jumps directly to what I think are beachbody coaches yelling at you "DO YOU WANT TO GET ON SHAPE..." Shut up already I am trying to relax here, that is why we do this one at night after the kids are asleep instead of in the morning when they wake up and there is no relaxing. Well I guess I just blew my chances at ever becoming a "beachbody coach" with this paragraph but oh well. Not that they are all bad but just not for me.

This morning we did legs and back and it went well. I didn't increase on any of the pull ups, big surprise, but I did keep up with where I was before. I did increase on the leg work though and it felt good. Struggled a bit on abs this morning as usual for Friday but made it through and I feel good.

Day 67, Back and Biceps

I was pretty ragged in the legs all day yesterday after the Plyometrics and Hockey the day before. We did the Back and Bicep workout last night and it went well. My arms were shot after, I could barely lift my protein drink by the time we were finished. This workout is, I think, the fasted paced one of all we have done. I am constantly having to pause the DVD because I can't get the exercises done in the allot ed amount of time. My wife seems to finish in time though so maybe I am just slow. I do like this one though and it really gets your biceps burning. I can't believe how heavy 15 pounds feels by the time I finish the strip set of curls at the end of this workout, I can barely lift it.

Day 66, Plyometrics

Holy crap this is a fun work out, have I mentioned that before. I am still feeling a little behind where I was on plyo before I got sick but I pushed it hard today and it felt good. I have a hockey game tonight so it should be interesting to see how sore I am in the morning tomorrow. I don't think I will have much trouble during the game but after... I am also not looking forward to the fact that it is at 10 pm and we were doing plyo at 5:30 this morning. I actually woke up at 4:30 for some reason and thought it was 5:30. I woke my wife up and told her we needed to get up to work out, she was not thrilled about that since she was unable to go back to sleep. Good thing we were not doing kenpo she might have kicked me in the back of the head or something. To be honest with you she is getting pretty ripped, I am a little scared of her now;)

Days 63, 64, and 65

Saturday should have been kenpo day but I had an old friend stop by around dinner and then we went out for a bit. I actually had a couple of beers with him which is the first beer I have had since starting the program. Tasted a little funny at first but I was able to fight past that and enjoyed the 2 I had. because of this excursion we did not do any workout on Saturday.

Sunday we went to the football game and then did kenpo at night after getting home. My core was tore up by the end o this thing again. I am so amazed that people think this is a weak workout. My wife says I look like some sort of psychopath while I am doing it. I explained I am beating the hell out of the guy who cut me off on the road or any number of other dickheads I cam across during the course of the week. Better to do it there than in person I suppose.

We then woke up this morning to do Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps. This was a pretty good workout but I need to increase a bunch on some of the weights. It did not feel like I was pushing it hard enough so I noted that and will bump everything up next time. That is one thing I don't like about this workout, you don't have a second set to correct on. Most of the workouts you do two of everything so you can change it up on the second set but not this one.

I have been a little more lax on the diet since starting phase 3. I am still eating the same basically but not measuring things out so much and like I said I had beer on Saturday. I weighed in this morning too and was at 150.4 so I have actually dropped a few pounds again. Interestingly I don't look thin and sickly like I did last time I dropped to this level. I would not have even guessed I had dropped weight, I actually may have guessed I had gained some. I also have doubled my creatine dosage to the level the manufacturer recommends for phase 3. My wife seems to think I have gotten bigger over the last week but I don't know about that. I feel good though and am looking forward to doing the plyo workout tomorrow. I also have started thinking about what comes after this. I think we are going to do a 10-12 week muscle building phase based on talking to my wife about her goals. We will probably drop down to 3 days a week of weights with a short (15 minute) HIIT cardio session after the weight training. I would also like to keep doing the Yoga at least once a week and maybe try some pilates too or something. I am going to try to find some other good yoga routines though so there is a little variety. Following this we will probably do another round of P90X.

Day 62, Legs and Back

Good workout tonight and I felt really strong again. I at least kept up on the pull ups with what I was doing before so that was good, I actually increased on some of the pull ups. The leg exercises I really felt strong on and I increased weights on some things and reps on others. Ab Ripper was mostly good but I struggled with heals to the heavens for some reason today. I started this week thinking I had taken a step back but now I am not so sure that was the case. I felt stronger and stronger as the week went by and I actually think I will see some good gains next week. I am putting my day 60 pics below. I don't like them much and don't think they actually do a very good job of showing the changes that I have undergone since starting this. Sarah noticed when taking the pictures that the flash was making it so the muscle definition did not show like she was seeing it when just looking at me. I also had a sore back when these were taken and you can see I am not standing straight which happens sometimes to me. They are what they are though but I am much happier with what I see in person than what I see in these pictures. You can definitely see the difference though if you go back to the day one pictures and compare. I included an extra here too that is a closeup of my leg and again I don't think it really reflects what you see in person but here it is anyway. I am very happy with the progress I have made to date and am now actually expecting to see some changes during phase 3 based on this week. I think I had mentioned before that I was not expecting any phase 3 changes but now I think there might be some.

Day 61, Yoga X

We did Yoga X last nigh and I felt really good. Initially my back and legs were pretty tight but after a few minutes everything was good and I made it through the routine strong. I still can't get that half moon sequence all the way through but I did pretty well last night. I also am still only able to do about 20-25 seconds of crane but just because it is tough on my wrists so I am not going to push for longer on that. We were going to get up and workout this morning but the kids have both been sick and they were up last night so we will do it tonight.

Day 60, Shoulders and Arms

Interesting workout today. I have been saying for the last 2 days that I feel like I lost ground but this morning I made some gains pretty much across the board. I added weight to many of the exercises and I felt very strong. It seems that I lost most of my ground on the pull ups and the rest of the strength exercises seem to at least have remained the same. Today was the 2/3 mark as well and I did take some pictures this morning, I will try to get them up tonight. I also measured my waist again and am down to 32" from a starting point of 35.5" 60 days ago and 40" at the start of the year. I forgot to weigh myself before downing a ton of water and my whey drink so I will try to get that done tomorrow but I think I am at about 153.? which is right about where I think I should be.

Day 59, Plyometrics

It is official, I have lost some ground for whatever reason. I still love this workout but man did it kick my ass beyond belief this morning. I did not slide back to where I was at the start but I certainly did not do as well as I did in the last week of phase 2. I was huffing and puffing and sweating like a whore in church throughout this thing. My lower back muscles were still pretty tight as well which was obvious when trying to do the hot foot with my right foot, left was fine just the right caused some low back tension so I took it a little easy with that foot. My legs were fried by the end of this thing and I was barely able to get my feet off the ground by the time we reached the end and were doing the running back football drill but I powered through and finished as strong as I could. Like Tony says just do your best. We did get the ab ripper workout in last night too and I tore that thing up. I suspect it was because we were not doing it right after another workout that we were able to really bring it for this one. I did about 20 reps on mostly all the exercises and a full 40 on the mason twist without any stopping which is pretty damn good compared to what I had done the last time we did it.

My wife talked to a couple of people yesterday who are considering trying out the program which is pretty exciting. I am not sure if it has anything to do with us doing it but I am excited to see others try it out and interested to hear what they think as they go through. Looking forward to taking pictures and measurements for day 60 tomorrow.

Day 58, Chest and Back

Man I suck. I seem to have lost ground on this workout based on the numbers I had down before. I dropped my reps on most of the pull ups for some reason although most of the push ups I was able to keep up to where I was before. Not sure if this was due to waking up late, being tired, having such a long break between phase 2 and 3 or what. I also am a little sore in my lower back this morning and we ended up stopping the ab ripper x workout pretty close to the beginning and will try to do that tonight instead, hopefully I will be a little looser in the back by then. Not real happy with the results this morning but I am going to just chalk it up to a bad day and move on. If I see the same sort of thing going forward...

Day 57, X Stretch

Nice relaxing stretch this evening. It felt good to get this routine in twice this week. Looks like we start back with the Resistance training again tomorrow to start out phase 3. The chest and back workout is one we have not done in 5-6 weeks I think. Should be interesting to see how the reps and weight goes. Looking forward to getting started on phase 3 and heading down the home stretch of this thing. I am not anticipating seeing any big changes in the way I look or feel over the next 5 weeks but we will see, I could be wrong.

Day 56, Yoga X

Nice workout tonight with Yoga. I felt really good, strong and balance was good. I even did beter, somewhat, on the sequence I always have problems with (half moon,...). I have put back on a couple of pounds since getting over my illness and I am back up to 154.4. I am actually much happier with how I look at this weight than any lighter. When I was a few pounds lighter earlier this week my waist started looking too thin and I think I am going to try to stay about where I am even if that means altering the nutrition plan. I still have a small layer of fat around my waist but I think as it was going away earlier in the week I just looked skinny and sickly. I think we are going to have the time tomorrow to get the X Stretch workout in and I am looking forward to that no matter what the NY times says here. I am still convinced that the stretching and yoga is increasing my flexibility and I am also convinced that will help prevent injury.

Day 55, Core Synergistics

Good workout this morning. I don't think Sarah really likes this workout much but I think it is OK. I don't think it is very tough though except the lunge, kickback, curl, press, reverse curl move and that is really only hard because you do it for so long. Even though it does not seem to tough to me when we are doing it my core always feels ragged after we finish. I have a band around my mid section right now that is taught as hell and feels like it got a great workout. This is just a strange workout that way for me.

Sent most of the leftover food home with others last night so we don't have too much junk here but we did somehow end up with all the pies. We have an apple and a pumpkin. I had a very tiny piece of the pumpkin last night and it was damn good, Sarah can really make a pie. I think Sarah had some of each which is good considering she spent all that time making them. Need to figure out someone to have over to eat the pies soon. Looking forward to a long weekend with nothing to do, should be relaxing.

Day 54, X Stretch

We got to sleep in a little this morning because the kids slept at grandmas house last night so that was nice. We went out with some old friends of mine last night and this was the first time we have really gone off the nutrition plan, not too bad though. Went to a mexican resteraunt and most of what we had was fine but we did eat some chips and salsa and the chips were fried. We also went to a wine bar and Sarah and I each had a glass of wine. No worries though we had a good time.

Did X Stretch this morning while some food is cooking in the oven, we are having everyone over here for thanksgiving. It felt good to stretch but I was a little tight especially in the lower back. By the end of the hour everything was loose again though. I can't believe how long it had been since we did this workout, we need to try to start fitting it in again on Sundays. Have a good holiday everyone and remember portion control.

Day 53, Kenpo X

I could certainly tell that the Core Synergistics workout did a number on my core as I worked through the Kenpo workout today. It was especially obvious when doing the kick moves when I could tell there was a band around my midsection that was pretty sore from the previous workout. We did pretty well with this one today and sweat like crazy by the end of it. Heart rate still getting up there good on this workout unlike others out there. My shoulders really seem to get a good workout from this one for whatever reason. I am still pretty bad with the kicks but can hold my own with the punches and blocks. This workout really flies by when you are doing it as well, I guess because you never really stop at all. Looking forward to doing X Stretch tomorrow, we have not done that thing in weeks because of schedule conflicts on Sundays for a while.

Days 51 and 52

Monday was supposed to be Yoga X but if you recall we did that on Sunday due to other things going on Monday. I was planning on trying to get X Stretch in Monday but my parents came over for dinner and hung out for a while so I skipped it and used it as a rest day instead.

This morning we got up at 5:30 and did core Synergistics. This is the first time in a while we have worked out in the morning and it felt good to do it. We have had schedule issues that have forced us to do the workouts at night for a while and I forgot how good it feels to get up and workout first thing in the morning, except Yoga. This workout went by pretty fast and I got to sweating pretty good. I lightened up the weights on a few of the lunges because I am still pretty sore in my left groin for whatever reason. I hope that gets better this week.

Nutrition is back on track after the several days of not eating much but man did I drop some weight. I weighed in again this morning and was 150.8. I was able to tell I had lost some more weight just by looking in the mirror because my stomach is shaped a little different and you can really see the muscles in there moving when I move around. Kenpo X tomorrow should be fun.

Day 50 rewind

Well, looks like there is just something about this recovery week that gets me. If you recall I had a fever and was sick all week during the first one and worse I was on vacation. Last Tuesday we did Core Synergistics and I woke up Wed. morning with some sort of stomach bug and have been out of commission until today. I was unable to eat much but did not blow the nutrition, although I did eat mostly carbs since toast and rice are pretty easy on the stomach. My wife and I talked about what to do about the program and decided to just redo the recovery week this week and go from there. So Monday should have been Yoga but my wife is going out Monday night so we did Yoga tonight which makes today logical day 50.

Yoga was pretty good and I felt surprisingly strong considering I hardly ate for the last 4 days. I even made it through most of the ridiculous half moon sequence, yeah most I still did not get it all the way. For whatever reason my left groin muscle is pretty sore even though I have bee doing nothing for the better part of a week, hmmm??? That soreness and a few of the stretches a little tough but all in all it was a good workout. I was able to get myself mostly back into the nutrition plan today although I was still probably a little light on calories but that should change as the week goes on. Speaking of calories I weighed myself this morning and was a whopping 150.6, wow. It is incredible how quickly you can lose a few pounds when you are not eating much at all. I will probably try to do X Stretch tomorrow night while the wife is out and then we get up Tues. morning to do Core Synergistics again for day 51.

Day 50, Yoga X

First day of te recovery week and the first time I have done Yoga after playing hockey. My legs and lower back were tight as hell and I was struggling with the yoga tonight. I really did not think I was going to make it through to the balance moves tonight but I struggled through. My balance was off a little too due to my sore legs but I feel really good now that I finished it. I am relaxed and everything is loosened up. Should be fun to try core synergistics again tomorrow, I don't even really remember how it was. I guess I should go back and read my post from the first recovery week.

As if people need another excuse

I read this article in the NY Times that appears to be saying that people are fat, excuse me overweight or whatever the politically correct term of the day is, not because of poor diet and lack of exercise but due to their DNA and their brain. The article almost seems to suggest that the attempt to get Americans to slim down is futile. What a load of crap!! Learn what to eat, how much of it to eat, and get a lot of exercise. There is no magic formula to weight loss and fitness just hard work. When I say hard work I am saying exercise but even more importantly diet. This is hard work too and there are no tricks to it. You are not going to find a cookie, or brownie, or ice cream diet that will work in the long run and just cutting calories is likely to fail as well because your body will go into starvation mode and try to conserve energy. As anyone who has done a really intense workout program will tell you if you are working hard enough you will be able to eat a lot of food and still lose weight.

The article says at one point "First, the federal government told Americans to exercise for half an hour a day. Then, dietary guidelines issued in 2005 changed the advice, recommending 60 to 90 minutes of moderate exercise a day. There was an uproar; many said the goal was unrealistic for Americans. But for many scientists, the more pertinent question was whether such an exercise program would really help people lose weight." Well if you are not willing to put the work into losing the weight then you are not going to lose the weight. We were not designed to sit in front of a computer all day and then come home and sit in front of the TV and when we do we get fat. We evolved as hunter gatherers who did a large amount of "exercising" every single day, much more that 60-90 minutes most likely. As far as will this exercise do the trick, not if you keep eating the crap you always do. You can't just go to McDonald's every day and workout and expect that you are going to lose weight. If it wasn't once alive or you can't pronounce any of the ingredients on the package you probably should not eat it more than once a month or so. Better yet, real food does not need an ingredients list.

They then go on to say "Scientists now believe that each individual has a genetically determined weight range spanning perhaps 30 pounds. Those who force their weight below nature’s preassigned levels become hungrier and eat more; several studies also show that their metabolisms slow in a variety of ways as the body tries to conserve energy and regain weight. People trying to exceed their weight range face the opposite situation: eating becomes unappealing, and their metabolisms shift into high gear." Give me a break! By this logic all the morbidly obese people out there must be genetically designed to be at that weight, I think not. If they weren't then as stated their food would become unappealing and they would simply lose weight with no effort so it must be correct. How convenient that is for the person that wants an excuse to not get up off their fat lazy ass and work hard at their diet and exercise. I will again go back to our evolution as hunter gatherers, if you were that overweight in that environment you are very unlikely to last very long. Toady we don't have to worry much about predators but in the past that was not the case and if you were too fat to run away you would not last too long.

Finally, it is suggested that "According to several animal studies, conditions during pregnancy, including the mother’s diet, may determine how fat the offspring are as adults. Human studies have shown that women who eat little in pregnancy, surprisingly, more often have children who grow into fat adults. More than a dozen studies have found that children are more likely to be fat if their mothers smoke during pregnancy." Really, is this so surprising as suggested. Is it not reasonable to think that a woman who eats little or smokes during pregnancy may be more likely than others to not have as much concern for her overall health and perhaps she does not teach her children proper eating habits over the course of their childhood. I am not saying this is the case or that eating little during pregnancy or smoking during pregnancy makes you a bad mother but I am saying that there is no cause and effect relationship that one can draw from the results of a study like this. There could just as easily be some totally unrelated or maybe related factor or factors involved. This is another case of giving people a way to deny personal responsibility. No matter what your parents or society does you are always still free to make your own choices so don't blame your weight or any of your other problems for that matter on someone else. Step up and take some personal responsibility and work hard. Unfortunately too many people want an easy fix, a pill, that will just make all their problems go away.

I know some people might take offense at some of what I have to say here. I suspect most people reading a P90X blog will be OK with it but who knows. This is largely my opinion but is based on my personal experience with gaining weight as well as my observations of others and the large amount of reading I have done over the past year trying to figure out how to lose weight. If it offends you then perhaps you are one of the people I am talking about and maybe you should think about what I am saying.

Days 48 and 49

Well I missed a couple days of blog posts so here goes. We did Kenpo on Saturday to finish out the last full week of weight training for phase 2. I got a really good workout and still am amazed that some people claim they can't break a sweat with this workout. I don't break a sweat until after the first break when all the jumping jacks and X jumps come in but after that I am sweating pretty good and my heart rate gets up where it needs to be. I do notice that my heart rate drops quick if I stop but that is not much of a problem with this workout. I also notice that I am often moving faster than they are in the DVD so maybe that has something to do with it. I think I might pause the DVD after the warm up next time and do some jumping jacks until I start to berak a sweat so I am there from the start.

Sunday we went to the football game and did some tailgating again. Stuck to the nutrition again even at the game. We did not do X stretch because by the time the football game was over I had a hockey game to go to. That was a decent workout and got me sweating pretty good. I am looking forward to being able to do the X stretch routine this wek during recovery since we have not done it in several weeks due to scheduling things on the off day. Can't wait for Yoga tonight.

Day 47, Legs and Back

Saw some gains in my pull ups tonight for a change. Lost some ground again on the ab ripper again though, I just can't seem to do as much in this workout after the leg and back workout and yoga the night before. Still feel good though and having fun with it. Looking forward to one more day this week and then recovery week again. I am interested to see how the recovery week goes this time. I was sick as hell last time we had the recovery week and I really was not able to put into it what I wanted to. Should be interesting.

Chicken Salad Tip

I can't stand yogurt!! If I was starving on a desert island I would probably not eat yogurt. However, there is one thing I hate more than yogurt and that is fake mayonnaise. So the problem is what to do about eating chicken salad and sticking to the nutrition plan. My wife made some chicken salad and snuck some yogurt in there and I have to say I never even noticed. What she does is uses half mayo, we use regular but you could use low fat if you want, and half plain low or no fat yogurt. Basically the yogurt does not add any flavor but has the same texture as the mayo and it doesn't have the fat so the chicken salad now is significantly lower in fat than usual. Her recipe is:

chicken
almonds
grapes
celery
curry powder
may
yogurt

Adjust it if you want an go all the way with either low/no fat may or yogurt. It is delicious stuff, the curry powder gives you a little kick the grapes some sweetness and the the almonds and celery give you that crunch.

Day 46, Yoga X

Just finished our yoga for the day and it was good. I still had problems with the half moon sequence but was good on all the balance postures after. Everything else was good with it and I am feeling pretty relaxed. Looking forward to finishing out the week and getting to the recover week. On another note, we made the gronola that fitbomb put the recipe up for and it is great stuff. I measured out my 1/2 cup serving and stuck to it but watch out for this stuff, I could sit in front of the TV and eat it all.

Day 45, Half Way There

I can't believe we are half way to the 90 day mark already. This thing goes fast once you get into it. Almost done with phase 2 and getting stronger every day. We had back and biceps today and the workout was good. I increased my weight on a lot of the exercises but I am not seeing very big gains on my pull ups yet. I wonder if I will see more improvement there in phase 3. Ab Ripper was good again but I think I figured out why the Monday one seems easier. There are a bunch of exercises in there that involve you legs as well as abs and low back, like crunchy frogs and bicycles. So every day but Monday there is a leg workout before the Ab Ripper workout and that is affecting my performance on those exercises. I noticed it today because as I said I really pushed hard on Plyo yesterday and I could tell that my legs were holding me back on those exercises. I had no problems on the exercises that did not involve legs tonight and did as much on them as I had done Monday. I still am getting much stronger in the core and I am noticing that the stronger my core gets the more I use it. I notice, for instance that after playing hockey now my core is sore the next day which was not the case before. I basically feels as if I did a core workout the night before and I assume this is because I am engaging my core more during hockey than I was before. This is great because it just makes my core that much stronger and helps prevent injuries while I am out there.

Day 44, Kicked Some Ass on Plyo Today

Another great Plyometrics workout today. I went into this knowing I have a recovery week next week so I won't get to do this for 2 weeks and I decided to really go for it. This was without question the best I have performed on this workout to date. I kept up with Tony and the kids throughout this one and even outpaced them at points. I am still amazed that I am seeing the improvements week after week after week like this. This program works pretty damn well if you follow it. My wife noticed tonight that ever sensitive Tony commented when doing leg stretches that we need to switch and do the other leg because "we all have 2 legs." Keep in mind this is right after the announcement that one of the kids, that is what he calls the people working out with him, has a prosthetic leg. Looking forward to hitting the half way point tomorrow!! Can't believe how fast it is going by.

Keep pushing, it is only a little pain

Good article in the NY Times about working through pain. This can be a real problem for those not used to doing it or who have never been pushed to do it. It takes being pushed for most people to realize their bodies are capable of much more than they think and all they have to do is ignore the discomfort and keep pushing, it will end eventually and then you can relax and the pain will be gone. Just learn to recognize the difference between injury and normal workout pain. Once you realize you can do just about anything for 30 seconds it then becomes easy to take the next step to a minute...

Day 43

Today was rest or X Stretch and I did not do the stretching because I just did not have time. My son had hockey and then I had a hockey game too so I got a pretty good workout there. Plyo tomorrow night and I can't wait, I love plyo. Nutrition is still right where it needs to be. I did another weigh in Sunday and was 154.2 which I think means no change in the last week in my weight but I am looking and feeling good. I did go buy some new jeans and they were 34" waist and have a little room in them. I measured my waist again too and I am down to 33" even which is down 1/2" from day 30. Almost halfway through and still having fun.

Day 42, Switching Things Up

Well today was supposed to be rest or X stretch but I have a hockey game to play tomorrow night so we did chest, triceps, and shoulders tonight instead of tomorrow. Good workout tonight and Phil cracks me up with the crap he gives Tony. I just love it when he tells Tony "will you get lost." I do not like the plyo (clap) push ups at all. They bother my wrists and I am actually thinking about substituting something else, I almost hurt my wrist on this one tonight. Hopefully it will be fine tomorrow. I kicked some ass on Ab Ripper X tonight too which is interesting considering we did not have the day off before this workout. I had assumed that I was doing better with the abs on Monday because of the day off on Sunday but maybe it is something else. I did more of the ab workout today than I have yet, I think I did 20 reps on most of the exercises and that is pretty good considering they are only doing 25 in the DVD and I couldn't get to 15 on most at the start and even 5 or 10 on some.

Day 41 , Kenpo X

Well I started out trying to use some 2 pound weights on this workout just for the hell of it and since some have said they needed to do this because they were not getting a good workout on this one. I only made it to the first break using the weights and let me tell you my shoulders were getting fried. I mentioned before that I really try to pay attention to keeping my hands up and punching, blocking, and kicking as if I am really trying to kick someones ass and I make sure to get my core involved. I am not trying to suggest others don't do the same but I currently could not get through this with the weights for whatever reason. An interesting observation I have made while doing this workout is that if I were to be a boxer or similar I think I would be a southpaw. I am much more comfortable and coordinated on that side even though I do everything else right handed. I also noticed tonight that not only does Wesley not only is slacking in general during the workout but he spends a lot of time taking breaks and drinking water and wiping sweat while everyone else is doing jump rope or running in place. I think he is just out of shape compared to the rest of these guys and that is why he appears to be dogging it as the workout goes on. I am sure he could kick my ass in a fight but I bet the longer I could make it last the better chance I would have.

Nutrition is still going good and I have not been hungry at all. I did have a weird situation the other day though, I went to lunch with someone and I did not have the opportunity to pick the place. I ordered a grilled chicken with potatoes and green beans. When it came the beans were drenched in butter and the potatoes were very greasy as well. I ate the beans but could not force down the potatoes and I felt kinda bad after eating all that butter. My taste buds have without a doubt changed over the last 41 days and I think that is probably good. I have done some reading about changing your eating habits to lose your sweet tooth and it seems there may be something to that and it might not really take that long. I may blog about some of my reading on that some time soon if I can find the time to write it.

Day 40, Nice Round Number

We just finished Legs and Back and I made some minor gains on the pull ups and also seem stronger in the legs but it is hard to say because there is not a lot of weights involved in the leg work. I would like it if they had switched this workout during the 90 days instead of the same one the whole time. This thing seems almost as if it was an afterthought to the program or something. I also don't like the fact that phase 2 has you doing back on Wed. and again on Fri. This seems like poor planning and does not allow me to be able to get the most out of the back workout or get the rest for my muscles I need. And what the hell is Tony talking about at the intro to this one when he says the reason he can do so many pull ups is because he works back and legs together... what the hell is that supposed to mean??? Oh well, I am getting stronger and still enjoying the program but I think this one could be better. Ab Ripper was good but again I am much better with this on Monday after the break than Friday after doing workouts all week and Yoga Belly 7 the day before.

Day 39

We just finished Yoga and it is getting to be one of my favorite workouts, what a turn around from the beginning. I am able to do most everything now in the workout including crane for about 25 seconds. I still can't make it all the way through the whole warrior three to standing splits to half moon to twisting half moon sequence. I can usually get all the moves but I need to put my foot down at some point for a bit, that is a long sequence to be standing on that one leg for. I will get that damn thing though before this is over. My balance was off a little tonight on a few moves (tree and royal dancer) for some reason. I had no problems with the rest of them though. I am wondering if it was just fatigue from trying to complete the half moon sequence just before that.

Day 38

Back and Bicep workout was last night and although I did not have the gains I did during Mondays workout I did see some improvement and it felt like a great workout. I don't like this one as much as the Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps workout but it is still fun. I think it is the fact that I don't really like the pull ups, probably because I am not so great at them although I am getting better. I was not quit as good on Ab Ripper last night as Monday but I assume that is due to the 2 days of workouts before hand and I was still better than last week. Strength is improving and workouts are still fun so that is good. Looking forward to relaxing with Yoga X tonight.

Great Recipe, Easy Too

This is a recipe that my wife has been making for some time now but we had it last night and I thought I would share it with everyone. It is pretty simple to make and unbelievably good. This comes from the Cooking Light web site which has many other good options if you want to check it out. The pineapple pepper relish on this is so good, I might even make that some time all on its own to put on something else.

Ingredients
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
4 (6-ounce) tilapia fillets
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh pineapple chunks
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped plum tomato
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 small jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
4 lime wedges

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Combine Cajun seasoning, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Sprinkle fish evenly with spice mixture. Add fish to pan, and cook for 2 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness.

Combine pineapple and next 5 ingredients (through jalapeño) in a large bowl, stirring gently. Serve pineapple mixture with fish. Garnish with lime wedges.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 228 (22% from fat)
Fat: 5.5g (sat 1.2g,mono 2.2g,poly 1.4g)
Protein: 34.9g
Carbohydrate: 11.2g
Fiber: 1.5g
Cholesterol: 85mg
Iron: 1.2mg
Sodium: 328mg
Calcium: 29mg

Day 37

Just finished Plyometrics and I LOVE THIS WORKOUT!!! It seems from looking at the rest of the P90X bloggers out there that most people don't care for this workout much but I can't wait for it each week. I am feeling much stronger and making gains every day in phase 2. I don't know if it has to do with the diet change or just my body getting used to the intense workouts or what but I am loving it. Bring on the weights tomorrow.

Day 36

Just finished chest, triceps, and shoulders and what a great workout that is. I like the phase 2 workouts better than the phase 1 for sure. I fell on my face trying to squeeze out one last plange push up tonight, can't imagine doing them without my feet like this guy.I feel like I am getting more out of these phase 2 workouts than I was out of the phase 1 workouts, I am going to be real sore tomorrow. Sarah really brought it tonight as well, should be funny when she has to lift the kids tomorrow. I like the fact that my grandmother is in this video too, and she outworks me no less. Laura is one bad ass for her age or my age for that matter. A quick thanks to Fitbomb for posting the yummy looking granola recipe. Check it out we will be trying that here real soon. I kicked some serious ass on Ab Ripper X tonight too. I definitely am getting a lot better with this workout but I still have problems with heals to the heavens. I was pretty disappointed with my performance on Ab Ripper on Friday but I am pretty sure it is due to doing Yoga Belly 7 the night before.

Day 35

Well Sunday was supposed to be my X Stretch day but I had a sore wrist from something and decided to not do the stretching. I am not sure what the problem was with my wrist or how I hurt it but it appears to be feeling better today, a little sore but not bad. I did not just sit on my ass all day though since I did have an ice hockey game Sunday night. That was fun and got me moving and the blood flowing a bit.

Day 34, Kempo X

The more I watch this DVD the more amazed I am at Wesely's seeming unwillingness to exert any effort whatsoever. I am sure this guy could kick my ass but come on man at least pretend to care about what you are doing. So today the thing that struck me was how many times Tony comments on Wesley's flexibility, of course he is flexible he looks like he is made out of play-dough. Aside from that I also noticed that several folks have commented on how quickly they adjusted to this workout and did not seem to be getting anything out of it. Fitbomb suggests adding some light dumbbells during this one. I have had a very different experience with this workout. For me it took a couple of times before I was not falling all over myself and now I am getting a really good core workout from this one as well as shoulders. I have been really concentrating on keeping my hands and elbows up high all the way through and getting my trunk into all the moves as much as possible. I am usually fried by the end of this one and can really feel the soreness in my core, especially my lower back, for a couple of days after it is over. I am wondering if this will change going forward since it seems that most of the people adding weights did not do so until very late in the 90 days. We will see I guess.

I also weighed in again today and tipped the scales at a whopping 154.4 down from my 155.2 on day 30. I am really not trying to lose weight anymore but am still sort of using the weigh in along with how I look and feel to help me gauge what kind of progress I am making. It should be fun to see what weight I end up at by the end of the 90 days though. I am still feeling a little hungry on the phase 2 nutrition plan and am considering adding an extra snack to my day at some point in the evening but have not yet decided for sure.

30 Day Pictures

Well here they are finally. I tried to keep everything as close as possible to the day 1 pictures, I am wearing a different color pair of shorts but other than that it is pretty much the same. I can't stand it when I find these things and the before picture is like mine and then the after is all tan with a shaved chest and whatever else they can think of to make it look beter. To be honest with you it is hard for me to see a lot of difference in the pictures until I zoom in some especially with all that hair on my chest and stomach. I absolutely can tell in person and after looking at the pictures a bit it looks like I was wrong about the 2" I lost around the chest being from my back I think now it was from my chest. The last picture is the one I mentioned Sarah took while I was doing the warrior 2 pose during Yoga. Still have long hair in these too.

No Cool Down Required Thank You

So one of things that surprised me about this program so far, and I think I have mentioned this before, is the seemingly short cool down period provided with the workouts. In certain cases the cool down and stretching following the workouts is basically non existent. I assumed that this was due to an attempt to keep the workouts under a certain length, an hour probably, but after reading this article from the NY Times maybe this was by design. That being said I plan to continue to do extra stretching following the workouts since it seems that it helps me to not get sore low back muscles which for me can be an issue, although it appears I am probably beyond that now.

Days 32 and 33

Well last night was Yoga X. I had mentioned to fitbomb, a great P90X blogger, if not the rest of you that I share his thoughts that this DVD is too long. I mentioned though that my wife and I started doing this one at night so as not to be interrupted by the kids and since then I have enjoyed it a lot more. Yoga is so much better if you don't have a 2 year old hanging on your leg while trying to do a half moon. Last night I was still sore from the bicep and back workout and I also did not feel like my balance was as good during the moves as it was the previous week. Maybe the soreness had something to do with it or maybe I was just tired I don't know but I do know I am liking Yoga more and more each time I do it and I think it is helping me in ways I never would have guessed. I am going to go ahead and credit Yoga with the balance and coordination improvements I have had with my ice hockey, maybe that is not it but I am going with that anyway. My wife took a picture of me from the back last night doing a bad ass warrior 2 pose during the workout. She said when she looked over she noticed how much more defined my back shoulders and arms are and just wanted me to see. I will post that picture later. Speaking of pictures I still need to get those 30 day pics up, I will try to do that tonight and add the Yoga one in there too.

So this morning was Legs and Back. My biceps and back are still sore from Wed and that made the back work a little tough. I actually lost a couple of reps on some of the pull ups the second time around but I did add some weight to most of the weighted leg exercises and I felt like I got a pretty good workout. There are 2 drawbacks to the fact that we are doing Yoga at night now. First we have a late workout Thursday and then have to get up at 5:30 to do legs and back. Second, we do Yoga belly 7 at night and then Ab Ripper X in the morning. I did notice that I am not as good at the Ab Ripper workout on Friday as I am the other days and I assume that is because of the ab workout the night before. I still think this is the way to go as far as Yoga is concerned because I was hating it the other way.

The nutrition is still going well but it is strange to be eating as much carbs as I am. I am still a little hungry but I think the early hunger I had with the phase 2 plan was more just getting used to it. I like the phase 2 workouts so far and I think I am going to see some good gains from it over the next couple of weeks. Sarah is looking in great shape now and also getting better and better at all the workouts. for those of you that get the email version of this yesterdays post had a video embedded and it looks like it did not get sent with the email, at least not to Sarah. I am not sure what will happen with the pictures but I assume the same.

Thank You Dreya!!

For those of you doing the program just in case her appearances in the DVD's don't give you reason enough to dislike Dreya check out what else you have to thank her for, or maybe it is just me that gets more and more annoyed with her the more she opens her mouth or even just appears on screen.

Day 31, Back and Biceps

WOW!!! You know it was a good bicep workout when after you finish you have to use one arm to lift the other to your face so you can shave. This was another new workout for phase 2 and it goes through 24 exercises one set each in groups of 4 that appeared to be 2 back followed by 2 bicep. This one moves very fast from exercise to exercise and we had to pause the DVD a few times to keep up because we did not know the exercises but I think we did pretty well. I thought the crazy ass one hand push ups were hard on Monday or Tony and his flying push ups on the same day (he does these plyo push ups where all parts of the body leave the ground on the up move) but the towel pull ups are nuts especially that late in a workout where you are just killing your biceps. this is a move where you hold the pull up bar with one hand and the other grasps a wet towel that is draped over the pull up bar and you do pull ups like this. Tony has you do 3 with each arm alternating back and forth for as many as you can do, I could only do 3 with each arm what a wuss I think the girl in the video did 10. If that is not bad enough try the corn cob pull ups, what the hell is that shit about??? So you do a wide grip pull up and stop in the up position then pull yourself to the left so your chin is at your hand and then to the right so your chin is at that hand and then back to the middle all while still in the up position finally you push yourself away from the bar while staying in the up position and then lower yourself down and that is one rep. I did 3 and holy crap are they hard. Tony and his buddy in the video make it look easy, after trying them it looks like what they are doing on the DVD would be impossible, damn those dudes are strong and again the girl in the video outdid me big time. It was interesting, at least for me being a former Marine, that this is the second workout where one of Tony's workout buddies is also a former Marine. This kid in this DVD looked pretty young but the other former Marine was also a Desert Storm vet as am I, pretty cool. I like this workout and think it will do wonders for my arms and back, I can't wait to do it again.

On another note my legs are sore from the Plyo workout so I guess the fact that it felt easier did not mean much. It is good to feel sore from it because I don't think I did feel to sore the last time I did it. My triceps and shoulders are also sore from Monday but my chest never got sore, guess I will need to make sure to push it harder next week. Looking forward to Yoga tomorrow, imagine that me looking forward to Yoga.

My thoughts after 30 days, and pictures

Well now that I am 1/3 the way there I thought I would take a little time to reflect on it and what I think about it. First motivation. For me there are several things that have gone into this and this blog is one of them. I am a very competitive person and get really upset with myself if I fail at anything especially if someone else is aware of it. This is part of the reason I started blogging about this experience, so I would be less likely to give up. While this blog has served that purpose well I am also finding that I just like doing it and I will probably continue it once I am done with the 90 days. One of my goals all along in my recent fitness quest that started earlier this year was to increase my core strength to diminish the chances of any recurrence of my back problems and so far that has been going good as well. The P90X program itself has been a great motivator for me because I am seeing results on an ongoing basis and the more results I see the more motivated I get to go harder and stick to it to see even more. I have also been reading some other blogs, you can see links to some of them on my blog, and other peoples stories and thoughts have been helpful for me as well. There is one blog I have to call out by name though and that is fitbomb. This guy has some very entertaining things to say, hands down the most entertaining blog about P90X I can imagine, and some really good information about the program to go along with it and I can't recommend this blog enough to anyone considering or doing P90X, I am not sure where he finds the time for all that blogging though shouldn't you be working man? It is interesting to see how many other of these P90X bloggers have found and linked to my blog and it is also amazing how many people out there are doing this with good results. Finally my main motivation is that my kids see me and my wife committed to eating healthy and exercising. It is apparent that they are picking up some healthy ideas from all of this and I want to continue that influence so hopefully they can maintain a healthy lifestyle throughout their lives and possibly avoid becoming part of the out of shape blob of a populace I see all around me.

As far as the program itself goes I am very happy so far. The workouts are interesting and change often enough to keep my interest, I am even starting to enjoy Yoga. The nutrition plan was a little difficult at first but as I said before the more I see the results the more I want to stick to it. I have not cheated at all yet and I don't plan to even though we will be doing this through the holidays. I initially did have cravings for things I shouldn't eat, like sweets, but that has mostly gone away now and I am pretty used to the nutrition plan and it is just common sense. I have no problems now with going out to eat with someone who is eating not so healthy or with being someplace where there is free pizza or something which early on was a little more of a struggle, I don't even want to eat that any more. I was recently at a full breakfast with a bunch of people from work and there were piles of bacon and sausage and eggs and the works. I just waited a few minutes and watched and eventually a huge fat guy went up and started piling eggs and bacon on his plate and that was all I needed to see to be turned off to it, I had oatmeal and a cup of black coffee, motivation for me in this case came in a huge disgusting gelatinous package. This wait for a fat ass to show up technique to staying on track is great because you can practice it any place in this country without having to wait long to be grossed out by some jaba the hut looking slob stuffing their face and usually washing it down with a diet coke, as if that is going to help anything. I really don't think I am going to have any problems maintaining the healthy eating habits once the program is over either, it is amazing how much better you can feel simply by eating the right things. I will not stick as strictly to the eating plan as I am during the 90 days but as I mentioned I don't even want to eat junk at all and when I see some greasy pile of crap that I used to eat it almost makes me sick to think about trying to gag it down. One thing I am noticing this week is that I seem to be more hungry now that I have started phase 2. This seems a little strange to me given that I have added some more carbs but it has also only been a couple of days. I am going to keep an eye on that for the rest of the week and see how it goes. Not sure what I will do if it continues but we will see, any other P90Xers out there have this happen to them and if so what did you do?

Another nice benefit for me has been the smoking thing. I mentioned in my first post on why I was doing this that I had "mostly quit smoking. Well I had quit on January 2nd of this year with the help of Chantix (I highly recommend it to anyone by the way), this was again largely motivated by a desire to get back in shape and more importantly not have my kids see me smoking. Up until starting P90X I had quit except for when hanging out drinking beers with my team after ice hockey games and since starting I have not done that either. My current thought is that if I can go the 90 days of this program without smoking at all I should be off that habit for good. I really don't want to do it at all now that I am eating right and exercising this hard every day, this is similar to the food I just don't want to put that crap in my body any more and I can't believe I ever did.

Finally it has been nice that Sarah and I have done this together. This has been something that we needed I think, to do something together other than sit on the sofa and watch TV. It is hard to do things together with young kids other than things with the kids and this has been helpful in that regard I think. I think it has also made us much less lazy in general if for no other reason than we need to get off our asses and get things done so we can be in bed in time to be up at 5:30 every morning. We now do grocery shopping together some which did not happen much before, as well as meal planning and preparation. This may not seem like much but I think it is good for us in general not to mention we both look and feel better than we used to.

I have recently found a few blogs that appear to be critical of the P90X program claims at success and try to discount some of the things it claims it is doing (i.e. muscle confusion) such as this blog. Well this guy may have all the science down and the facts on his side as far as the latest research goes but all I can say is this program is working for me and my wife and as far as I can tell it is working for a lot of other people as well. When I say it is working I mean we are getting in better shape and eating healthier, spending more quality time together, getting more done around the house, and setting a reasonably good example for our kids. So I don't really care about your science or your studies or if muscle confusion is bullshit, all I know is we are getting a lot out of the program and we are being motivated by it to make some positive changes and that is really all that matters. I have also started thinking about what comes next after this 90 days and I have some thoughts but nothing solid yet. I will post more on that as I come closer to the end.

I still need to put pics at the 30 day mark up and I will try to get that done tonight.

Day 30, Plyometrics

Well it is the 1/3 mark and things are going good. Man did I miss Plyo last week, I love this workout. For some reason it seemed much easier today than before the break. It will be interesting to see what it is like next week. I weighed in again this morning to get a good 30 day progress report and I am happy to say I started the program at 160 and today I was at 155.2 which was my pre back injury weight that I have not seen since 2003. I also took some measurements and the changes

Chest 38" down to 36" on my chest, presumably from the lost subcutaneous back fat.

Waist 35.5" down to 33.5"

I gained roughly an inch in each leg and less than a 1/4 inch in each arm. I took pictures as well and will post them tonight after I get home, I have not really looked at them yet. Sarah is seeing similar results although I have to say I think she looked significantly more muscular when I took her pictures today than she did when I took the day 1 pictures. I am a little scared she is going to kick my ass, better watch myself.

Day 29 - Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps

Sarah and I got back up at 5:30 this morning to start out the phase 2 workouts. This was a new workout for phase 2 so we were a little bit slow initially trying to figure out all the exercises. There are 24 different exercises and no repeats, i.e. only one set on each. Some of these were pretty difficult like the one handed push ups which I really was terrible at. After the workout was finished both Sarah and I commented that we did not feel like we got a great workout due to trying to figure out the new exercises but now that some time has gone by I might want to change my mind, I am going to be sore tomorrow.

We also had Ab ripper X this morning and both Sarah and I saw some big improvement here following the recovery week. This is still a crazy hard set of exercises but we both were able to do more reps on pretty much everything and Sarah was able to do a couple of exercises she could not do before the recovery week. My core is so much stronger now than when I started this program it is amazing. This is great for me because with my back issues I really want to concentrate on getting that core as strong as possible and it is working.

I am finally feeling better after the flu or whatever last week, figures I would feel better just in time to go back to work. I also got a suggestion from a friend that after this program is over I might want to try the LB4444 workout or some such shit so I checked it out but as far as I can tell it is a scam and does not work, best I can tell it turns you into a whinny little bitch and you start rooting for crappy NY sports teams and worse yet you start taping your hockey sticks with 15 rolls of tape for some unknown reason as if that is going to make you any better (for those of you that don't know Lenny this is not a real workout so don't go looking for it I am just giving someone a hard time).

Day 28

I played ice hockey Sunday and then did the X Stretch routine when I got home. I am really noticing a difference in my hockey, mostly balance and coordination but also I am getting bursts of speed on the backcheck that I have not had in years. The X Stretch felt real good after hockey and I am gaining a lot of flexibility with this program which I like. I am hoping that will help prevent injuries. I also started the phase 2 nutrition program today which removes one serving of protein, one dairy, and one veggie and adds in 2 carbs. It is a little strange to be eating a carb with every meal now but I did enjoy the baked potato I had with diner. It is going to take a few days to get used to the new food and I am sure Sarah needs a few days to get used to the new meal planning routine but it should give me a new boost of energy to really bring it for the phase 2 exercises and see some good gains.

Days 26 and 27

Still feeling a little sick on Friday but really was able to bring it for the core synergystics workout. This is a fast paced workout that goes by so fast it is done before you know it. It is intense too, reminds me of some of the 2 a day football workouts we used to have during the summer in high school. A lot of varied exercises with a little weight, but not much, here and there. My core was screaming by the end of this workout, especially my lower back muscles, and even more so Saturday morning.

We drove home today and did Yoga tonight, day 27. I am steadily getting better and better at the Yoga workout and getting a lot more out of it because of that. I am actually starting to enjoy it some, it is relaxing. Don't get me wrong though it is hard as hell and I sweat like a whore in church but it feels good. We stuck to the nutrition plan all the way through the vacation and it was really no big deal. We ate out a couple times and had no problems getting the right kinds of food. I start the phase 2 nutrition plan Sunday, one less serving of protein and veggies and 2 more servings of carbs a day. This should be a more normal diet for me and a little easier to maintain long term. Looking forward to some new workouts this week to start out phase 2 of the exercise program as well, should be fun.

Day 25

X Stretch was nice and relaxing last night and I am still sort of sick so I needed that break. I am getting a lot more flexible too. Still sticking to the nutrition plan without any problems even though we are on vacation, no excuses here. Looking forward to core synergystics again tonight now that we know what everything is. I think it will go a little smother. Interesting thing, my core is pretty sore today and yesterday from the kempo. We have a giant wall full of mirrors here in our hotel and I think it is a lot easier to do kempo, or any of the routines, correctly and thus with greater benefit if you can actually see what you are doing. Unfortunately I don't have a place at home where I could put up some big mirrors or I think I might.

Day 24

Just did kempo tonight and look out because I am ready to kick some ass, YUT!! I am still a little tired from being sick and I think that affected me a bit tonight. I am hoping to be feeling myself again tomorrow but we will see. We have been sticking to the nutrition plan while here on vacation as well. I did not follow the plan on Sunday when I was sickest but I did not eat anything bad for me I just did not eat much at all because I did not feel good, not much I could do about that. X Stretch tomorrow should be nice.

Days 21, 22, and 23

Well I am an idiot and had all kinds of problems getting my network connection working properly here in our hotel which is why I have not posted in a few days but I am back now.

We got in Saturday afternoon and just relaxed until bedtime. In the middle of the night I woke up with a 101-102 fever so Sunday we skipped X Stretch. I did forget to mention that I weighed myself again on Saturday and was down to 157 even so still seeing changes. I do think I am gaining muscle mass though so there really won't be a lot more weight loss I don't think. I look a lot different though and my waist is smaller for sure, more on that later.

Monday I was still felling pretty under the weather and was taking theraflu all day. We did do Yoga though Monday night and it felt really good to sweat like crazy. I felt like I was sweating a bunch of the trash out during that workout and felt a lot better after we finished.

Tuesday I was still feeling tired and a little sick. We went to a surf shop to get me a new swim suit because my old one didn't fit any more. I tried on a 32" waist and it was a little lose so I tried the 30" and they were a tiny bit tight but I went with them because I think they will fit perfect soon and they look good now. We did Core Synergystics Tuesday night and spent some time on each exercise trying to figure out what we were doing since this is a new workout. This is a tough core workout but it flies by because you are constantly doing something. It seemed like it was over right after it started. I think we will get a little better workout next time we do it this week because we will know what to expect.

I am still felling a little sick now and have lost my voice, great vacation, but looking forward to kempo tonight.

Day 20

We got up at 5:30 and did kempo this morning and it felt good. I am getting the hang of this thing now. I think I might be ready to join the special Olympics karate team I might not even get my ass totally kicked, sorry if I offend but I am not really known for my political correctness. Sofia, our 20 month old, was awake and screaming at us the whole time, kinda like the DI back in boot camp all over again.

Well we are off to VA beach for vacation, I have my laptop and will try to keep you posted here with how we are doing. Looking forward to the recovery week and then some new workouts.

Days 17, 18, and 19

We did arms and shoulders on Wed. night and we really pushed hard on this. I am not sure if it is the working out at night or what but it does seem I am really able to put a lot into the workouts this week. I still don't like working out at night much but there may be an up side. We did great with the ab ripper x as well, I think I am still doing like 2/3 of the reps but I am for sure getting a good workout on my abs. I usually can get to 15 or more reps on most of the exercises and they are doing 25.

Thursday night we did Yoga X and I have to say this is my one exception to the not liking the night time workout. The previous times we had done this the kids woke up before we finished and it made it very hard to relax an concentrate which apparently is real important with Yoga. This time I was able to concentrate fully and really get into it and I have to say I think I got a lot out of it and liked it more than before. I think we may do this one at night all the time from now on. The other good thing about doing this at night is that I was very relaxed when it was time to go to bed, of course Sofia woke up for a good long while screaming during the night but nothing is perfect and it was harder on Sarah for sure than me.

This morning we did the legs and back workout again and it felt pretty good. I think both Sarah and I are obviously getting stronger and seeing changes in what we can do in the routines. Abs was the same tough workout as always, as tony says "Ab Ripper X I hate it, but I love it." we switched back to the morning because we are leaving for vacation tomorrow morning so we want to get up and do kempo early. It was not too bad doing Yoga at night and legs and back in the morning, I would not recommend doing the day one workout at night followed by plyometrics in the morning.

We are sticking closely to the nutrition plan and it is working out pretty well. I think Sarah is happy to have me a little more involved in the meal planning and prep as well. I also think that our kids are getting a little bit better diet than they were before although it was not terrible before. We are making sure they get more carbs than the phase 1 diet allows.

On vacation next week for the recovery week and I am looking forward to the change in workout routine even though it has only been 3 weeks. We still do a workout of some sort every day but not as heavy. I think we do Yoga 2 times X Stretch 2 times Core Synergistics 2 times and Kempo once next week. We have not done Core Synergistics yet but we did take the time this week to watch it so we know what to expect next week. It looks like a lot of balance and core stabilization work with a little bit of weight added here and there but not a lot. Should be fun. I am going to try to keep up with the blogging next week on vacation but we will see how that goes.

Day 16

Just finished up Plyometrics and damn that shit is fun. I really did feel like I was going to puke by the end though, I never have that problem in the mornings but so far both times I have worked out at night that is how the workout ended. I do not like working out at night. We really did push hard tonight too though so maybe that has something to do with it too. Unfortunately next week is the first recovery week and there is no plyo that week, I can't wait to do it again.

I got a question about how often do we do X Stretch, is it hard, and is it good stretching for my back. If you have read my blog from the beginning you know I have a history of disk problems over the last 6 years or so. The X Stretch is optional during these firsts 3 weeks. The 7th day is either a rest day or you do X Stretch, we chose to do the stretching. It does have stretches for basically your entire body, it is about an hour DVD of nothing but stretching so you hit everything. We did it one week right before bed and that worked out real well, I was relaxed and ready for bed after it. As far as how difficult it is not really. You do need to have some level of flexibility and there are a few yoga moves in there but it is not really a workout just a stretching routine. Maybe next week when I have some more time I will try to explain the workout schedule over the 13 weeks of the program. Next week we get to do a new workout called Core Synergistics. We have not watched this yet and I would like to before we do it on Tuesday but I am not sure when we are going to have time, maybe this weekend. I have read on some other blogs that it is fun so I am looking forward to it.

I am absolutely noticing big changes in the amount of subcutaneous fat, that is fat just below the skin that you can pinch or measure with a caliper. This program is well designed and a lot of fun and will absolutely get you results as advertised. I am not one to go in for the infomercial crap but I have to say this thing is for real. That being said there is nothing about this program that I could not have designed for myself with enough research but my time is easily worth the $120 I paid for the program. There is no magic to this program just sensible diet and hard work during a set of well rounded workouts. Gotta get to bed now but looking forward to bringing it tomorrow for arms and shoulders.

Days 13, 14, and 15

You thought we gave up didn't you? No, just a busy weekend and a busy week at work. Saturday we did Kempo again and I have to say we are getting better at it. I actually was pretty good with the punches, kicks are still a little bad but I was no where near falling on my face this time. I think we got a better workout from it now that we are doing it right as well.

Sunday we did X Stretch again and that feels really good. It is pretty relaxing, although would be better if the kids were not there, and I felt great after it. I had an ice hockey game Sunday night as well and that went good. I was skating better and had a lot of energy out there. I also skipped the customary beers after the game in favor of some whey protein, imagine that.

Monday, and probably most of this week, we worked out at night. this is partly due to the late hockey game Sunday and partly due to the fact that I am in a class at work all week and need to be in a little earlier than I usually do. We really pushed it I think on this chest and back workout and my nephew was there trying to show off how many push ups he can do. He did pretty well. I don't really like working out at night and would much prefer to do it in the mornings. I think we should be able to get back to mornings starting on Friday and I will be glad for that. I don't know if it was the night time workout or what but I felt like I was going to throw up, and actually did a little in my mouth, at the end of ab ripper x, that thing is still a killer. Sarah was pleading with me to stop before I threw up because she is afraid she will never workout again if I spew all over the place.

We have been sticking to the nutrition plan well. Sarah transitioned to phase 2 adding some carbs and dropping some protein but I am still doing phase one until the end of next week. I weighed in again on Saturday and have lost no more weight but I did a waist measurement again, we had done some measurements at the start that I did not post, and I have lost 1.5 inches from my waist from a 35.5 to a 34. For those of you with the big bellies that say I still wear a 36, it is measured around the belly button at that fat point not where you wear those 36 pants that have the belly hanging over them. I am impressed with the results already after just 2 weeks and can't wait to see what happens over the next 11.

I am going to try to keep posting this week but may miss some with work. Next week we are on vacation for the recovery week so that should be fun. We are bringing all the gear we will need to continue the program with us when we go and I plan on holding to the nutrition plan as well.

Not Gone Just Busy

I had a question about not posting since Friday. We are still going strong and the nutrition is still on track. I have a very busy week at work and we are having to do the workouts at night. I hope to continue the posts soon, Friday at the latest but hopefully tonight.

Day 12, Legs and Back

Sarah and I were talking this morning after our workout and we sort of agreed that this workout does not feel as intense as the other weight workouts for whatever reason. I do feel now that I got a good leg workout and I was sweating like crazy but for whatever reason it just seems somewhat easier than the others. Sarah was questioning if you could really build your legs with these exercises, basically a lot of variations on lunges. I think you can and besides your legs are getting a really good workout from the Plyometrics workout as well. Maybe this one is intentionally left a little easier because Plyometrics is in the sequence. There are a lot of these exercises that require good balance as well as strength, this is one of those cases I think they are doing a good job of getting those small stabilizer muscles worked.

My back/hip (think it might be gluteus medius or hip flexor) was still a little sore this morning but loosened up well after warm ups and throughout the workout. It feels pretty good now and I did ice it down last night which may have helped. I think I may have strained it a little doing some of the leg raise exercises in the abs workout incorrectly. I have corrected the form and was able to do all but one of the ab exercises this morning and I expect I will be back to normal by Monday's workout. The abs workout is still a killer, I can't believe how many reps the people on the DVD are able to do although both Sarah and I are getting closer.

Post Workout:

• Creatine (5 grams in water)
• Whey protein

Breakfast:

• Oatmeal 1 cup
• 1 banana

Snack:

• 1 oz Spicy Almonds

Lunch:

• Tuna Salad (Tuna w/celery/carrots/mayo, Lettuce, Spinach, Red Peppers)

Snack:

• 2 pieces String Cheese

Dinner:

• ???

Day 11, Yoga X

We did Yoga again this morning and I did most of it. My back, maybe more hip, is still bothering me a little bit so I did have to be careful. I skipped one series of leg raise type activities since that is where I think I aggravated this muscle. I did do the rest though and I got down and did some stretching during that 5 minute sequence I skipped. I am not a giant fan of the Yoga, I guess it is interesting but an hour and a half of it seems to be a bit much to me. I can see how it will really help with coordination and balance but I still don't like it much, maybe I will change my mind after a while. It was a little easier this time though because I knew what a bunch of the moves are so I did not have to keep looking at the TV to figure out what to do. Legs and Back tomorrow should be fun but if my back is still sore I will need to take it easy with the abs.

Post Workout:

• Creatine (5 grams in water)
• Whey protein

Breakfast:

• Oatmeal 1 cup
• 1 banana

Snack:

• 1 oz Spicy Almonds

Lunch:

• Flank Steak Salad (Flank Steak, Lettuce, Spinach, Red Peppers, Cucumber, and Cheese w/Red Wine Vinaigrette)

Snack:

• 2 pieces String Cheese

Dinner:

• Shrimp Stir Fry