Day five is done. It is a great leg and back workout plus the Ab Ripper X that finishes all the strength training days. The back part was mostly pull-ups and it made me realize two things. One, my pull-up tower sucks for this workout. Two I need to do more pull-ups. Maybe I'll use bands for a little while until I can get a better tower with a straight bar all the way across.
Then I rested for a little while and worked on the couch before getting up and walking almost 5 miles on my treadmill workstation. I feel just about every muscle in my core and legs when I move. Nothing is sore without motion but I do feel every time those muscles tense up. I'd say that was a successful workout then. Still, there is room for improvement as I wasn't able to do all the exercises 100% (one legged seated wall squats for example).
Diet wise was only ok. I ate 2031 calories 42% protein, 30% carbohydrates, 28% fat. The meal that killed the day was dinner from Outback - prime rib has much more fat than I thought. Tomorrow I'll definitely stick to less fat. This is the second day I took the recovery drink and it might be helping but it does eat up a good chunk of my carb allotment for the day.
Still feeling stuffed all the time and can't believe I should consume another 400 calories (which is a whole meal the way I've been eating). I'm not "bonking" (running out of energy) during the workout so I'll just go on the belief that I'm eating enough.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
P90X Day 4: YogaX Rocks!
Today I experienced YogaX for the first time. The workout is simply awesome. I love Bikram's Yoga (hatha yoga, 22 poses, performed in a hot and humid room). Someday maybe I'll be able to attend the Bikram teacher training, but time, schedules, and cost (not to mention spending 9 weeks away from family) make that difficult at best. Right now I'd settle for going back to the studio once a week... maybe after the first week of P90X I can start making it to the Sunday morning class.
I didn't sweat as much with YogaX but it did bring a great workout and had some poses I've never done before. I'll give this routine an A++.
Another first today was giving the recovery drink a try. I was a little concerned by the sugars and carbs (4:1 carb to protein ratio) but I didn't get the sickening sugar buzz I dreaded. Instead I felt energized and bounced back - we shall see if that feeling continues and helps in future workouts.
My day started with Shakeology for breakfast, 45 min rest (doing morning chores), then the 90 min yoga workout, a recovery drink, 1.5 hrs of work, and then the peanut butter oatmeal second breakfast. I had enough energy to walk 6 miles while working (at 1.2 mph) and a little energy left over at the end of the day.
Consumed 2248 calories 24% fat, 28% carbohydrates, and 48% protien. Very close to the recommendations. We shall see how this works out for me over the next 30 days. I still feel like I almost have to force myself to eat sometimes and I'm almost never hungry (was getting hungry before second breakfast). I'll trust in the diet for now until at least the first weigh in - after that I'll re-evaluate since I'd rather not feel stuffed any more than starving.
I didn't sweat as much with YogaX but it did bring a great workout and had some poses I've never done before. I'll give this routine an A++.
Another first today was giving the recovery drink a try. I was a little concerned by the sugars and carbs (4:1 carb to protein ratio) but I didn't get the sickening sugar buzz I dreaded. Instead I felt energized and bounced back - we shall see if that feeling continues and helps in future workouts.
My day started with Shakeology for breakfast, 45 min rest (doing morning chores), then the 90 min yoga workout, a recovery drink, 1.5 hrs of work, and then the peanut butter oatmeal second breakfast. I had enough energy to walk 6 miles while working (at 1.2 mph) and a little energy left over at the end of the day.
Consumed 2248 calories 24% fat, 28% carbohydrates, and 48% protien. Very close to the recommendations. We shall see how this works out for me over the next 30 days. I still feel like I almost have to force myself to eat sometimes and I'm almost never hungry (was getting hungry before second breakfast). I'll trust in the diet for now until at least the first weigh in - after that I'll re-evaluate since I'd rather not feel stuffed any more than starving.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
P90X Day 3 Shoulder and Arms
Today was a good day. The workout this morning hit shoulders, biceps, and triceps in 5 "sets" of 3 exercises with each set repeated twice. I certainly could feel the burn, even with pacing myself and fumbling around with the new workout routine.
I was also able to hit the dietary requirements almost head on. My breakdown of 2019 calories was 51% protein, 26% carbs, and 23% fat. A little short on calories and off on the percentages a tad but I'm pretty stuffed. I'm drinking a ton of protein as well as eating a pile of food - 4 cups of broccoli in one day sets a personal record I'm sure.
Tomorrow I'm going to give the P90X recovery drink a try (it just arrived today). I'm a little concerned about the sugar content in it. The recovery drink plus shakeology in the morning are just about the entire amount of sugars I ingested today. I try very hard to avoid much in the way of sugars; at least the ones in those two drinks are fructose which has a lower glycemic impact than most and are all natural. Maybe I'll move the shakeolgy to lunch and have something else for breakfast. But I suppose putting most of my sugars before and after my workout gets them burnt out as extra energy rather than lurking around in my system.
We shall see how I feel tomorrow. Dying to know what effect this eating is having on my weight but I try hard to only weigh myself once a week so that will wait until Saturday.
I don't plan to blog every day forever. Once my initial week is over, I'll likely only blog at the end of each week and when something interesting comes up. I do plan on reviewing some of the low-carb/all natural products (well at least I understand almost everything on the ingredient list) I've been enjoying from Dixie Diners their brownies were quite the hit at my game table Saturday.
I was also able to hit the dietary requirements almost head on. My breakdown of 2019 calories was 51% protein, 26% carbs, and 23% fat. A little short on calories and off on the percentages a tad but I'm pretty stuffed. I'm drinking a ton of protein as well as eating a pile of food - 4 cups of broccoli in one day sets a personal record I'm sure.
Tomorrow I'm going to give the P90X recovery drink a try (it just arrived today). I'm a little concerned about the sugar content in it. The recovery drink plus shakeology in the morning are just about the entire amount of sugars I ingested today. I try very hard to avoid much in the way of sugars; at least the ones in those two drinks are fructose which has a lower glycemic impact than most and are all natural. Maybe I'll move the shakeolgy to lunch and have something else for breakfast. But I suppose putting most of my sugars before and after my workout gets them burnt out as extra energy rather than lurking around in my system.
We shall see how I feel tomorrow. Dying to know what effect this eating is having on my weight but I try hard to only weigh myself once a week so that will wait until Saturday.
I don't plan to blog every day forever. Once my initial week is over, I'll likely only blog at the end of each week and when something interesting comes up. I do plan on reviewing some of the low-carb/all natural products (well at least I understand almost everything on the ingredient list) I've been enjoying from Dixie Diners their brownies were quite the hit at my game table Saturday.
Monday, April 13, 2009
P90X Day 2 Pylometrics
Pylometrics is a killer workout. All that jumping and fast movement really got my heart rate going and worked up a serious sweat. Since I work from home and walk all day on my treadmill, I often wait until the end of the day to shower if the workout wasn't that bad. I couldn't skip the shower after this.
I was a little concerned about my back after hearing the description of the exercises but no problems so far. I took it a little easy today because I'm just getting used to the workout and some of the moves were a little awkward. But still I did work hard and haven't had to pay a price of back pain so you got to love that.
Still working at balancing my diet to take in 2400 calories 50% protien, 30% carbohydrate, and 20% fat. Not that easy to do. I feel like I'm some sort of eating machine and still haven't eaten that much (unless the calculations are off). Getting the proportions right is hard as well. I managed 2124 calories today broken down like this:
Too much fat in some of those meals; I need to switch to chicken and fish instead of turkey sausage and beef (but there were left overs to be used). Whey protein is your friend and I found/came up with two awesome treats:
Eating like this seems almost indecent after the depravation of my previous diet. We shall see what the scales tell me on Saturday.
I was a little concerned about my back after hearing the description of the exercises but no problems so far. I took it a little easy today because I'm just getting used to the workout and some of the moves were a little awkward. But still I did work hard and haven't had to pay a price of back pain so you got to love that.
Still working at balancing my diet to take in 2400 calories 50% protien, 30% carbohydrate, and 20% fat. Not that easy to do. I feel like I'm some sort of eating machine and still haven't eaten that much (unless the calculations are off). Getting the proportions right is hard as well. I managed 2124 calories today broken down like this:
Too much fat in some of those meals; I need to switch to chicken and fish instead of turkey sausage and beef (but there were left overs to be used). Whey protein is your friend and I found/came up with two awesome treats:- Peanut Butter Oatmeal + Whey Protien - Saw this on youtube (and beachbody's recipe book has it) and it was awesome.
- Yogurt + Chocolate Whey Protein + Blackberries - I was running low on energy after pylo and walking 3 miles and also low on protien. So I combined 1/2 cup blackberries, 1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt, and 1 scoop chocolate protien powder. Tasted more like chocolate blackberry pudding than I expected.
Eating like this seems almost indecent after the depravation of my previous diet. We shall see what the scales tell me on Saturday.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
P90X Day 1 Complete
This morning I completed my first P90X workout - Chest & Back plus the Ab Ripper X. The variations on push-ups were fine (I need to do more) but the pull-ups, as I expected, kicked my butt. Not sure if I was doing them right and maybe the pull up tower I purchased isn't right for this program as it doesn't have a straight bar going all the way across. Maybe I need to get another tower since I don't have an appropriate door in the room I'm using (and don't really want to drill holes in my walls).
The Ab Ripper X program really was hard for me as well. While I was able to do the P90 ab program this one has some moves that I'm not sure I'm doing right and put a little more strain on my back than I'd like. Fortunately no back pain has resulted and it might just be a matter of getting practice with the exercises.
My biggest difficulty today has been food. I'm supposed to eat 2400 calories on the phase 1 of the P90X program split 50% protein, 30% carbohydrates, and 20% fat. My previous diet (which was less food than my body needed I'm sure) got me used to something closer to 1600-1800 calories of mostly protein. When I'm conscious of how I eat, I try very hard to adhere to a low/good-carb and low gylcemic lifestyle; I'm not a diabetic but that way of eating makes sense to me as it seems closer in-line with how our bodies were designed.
I'm ready for bed and have only consumed roughly 1800 calories (at least very close to the right proportions). Maybe I'll grab a protein drink (180 calories) before bed but I hate eating so late - tomorrow I'll try to eat at least 400 calories with each of 5 meals.
So far I like P90X. The exercises are great and this is the first time (other than while in the military and P90) that I've done mostly body weight workouts. The energy level of the workout cast is high and Tony is a good motivator. As an added bonus the music is oh so much better than P90.
Right now I'm sharing my workouts as a google document available for anyone to view.
I'll be back tomorrow for pylometrics (jumping around like a crazy man from what I understand).
The Ab Ripper X program really was hard for me as well. While I was able to do the P90 ab program this one has some moves that I'm not sure I'm doing right and put a little more strain on my back than I'd like. Fortunately no back pain has resulted and it might just be a matter of getting practice with the exercises.
My biggest difficulty today has been food. I'm supposed to eat 2400 calories on the phase 1 of the P90X program split 50% protein, 30% carbohydrates, and 20% fat. My previous diet (which was less food than my body needed I'm sure) got me used to something closer to 1600-1800 calories of mostly protein. When I'm conscious of how I eat, I try very hard to adhere to a low/good-carb and low gylcemic lifestyle; I'm not a diabetic but that way of eating makes sense to me as it seems closer in-line with how our bodies were designed.
I'm ready for bed and have only consumed roughly 1800 calories (at least very close to the right proportions). Maybe I'll grab a protein drink (180 calories) before bed but I hate eating so late - tomorrow I'll try to eat at least 400 calories with each of 5 meals.
So far I like P90X. The exercises are great and this is the first time (other than while in the military and P90) that I've done mostly body weight workouts. The energy level of the workout cast is high and Tony is a good motivator. As an added bonus the music is oh so much better than P90.
Right now I'm sharing my workouts as a google document available for anyone to view.
I'll be back tomorrow for pylometrics (jumping around like a crazy man from what I understand).
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Pre P90X Fit Test
I just took the fitness test to see if P90X is for me and I managed to squeak by. The program recommends some minimum requirements (noted in [] below) before starting the program. Some people begin without meeting those requirements but I promised myself I'd hit them first. Here is how the test went.
- Resting Heart Rate: 68
- Warm Up - Did the P90 Cardio 3-4 warmup
- Pull-Ups: 3.5 [min 3]; I just made it and they were hard. The program does give the option of using bands which I plan to do after my pull-ups fail.
- Rest 1 minute
- Vertical Leap: 10" [min 5"]; I've always been good at jumping
- Rest 4 minutes
- Push Ups: 29 [min 15]
- Rest 4 minutes
- Toe Touch: +7" past my toes [min -6" from being able to touch your toes]. Been out of yoga for a little while but still flexible (need to get back to the Bikram studio)
- Rest 4 minutes
- Wall Squat: 1:07 [min 1 minute]; tougher than I expected but I pass.
- Rest 4 minutes
- Bicep Curls: 15 reps @ 30 lbs [min 10 @ 20 lbs]
- In and Outs: 33 [min 25]
- Heart Rate Maximizer (jumping jacks 2min with sprint at end): Heart rate at end and every minute 163, 121, 106, 100, 92
Enter Beachbody's Tony Horton and P90
So there I was at the beginning of 2009. I had my treadmill workstation but my weight wasn't moving - I wasn't eating right or doing any real fitness conditioning. I began a serious diet - one of the shake + 1 real meal diets called the New Lifestyle Diet.
The diet isn't sustainable for life or even really low-carb (their products have more sugar than I'd like). But the diet represented a commitment to change my habits. And their food is tasty; enough so that my wife who has never dieted before and hates most of my diet food, liked it enough to give it a g0. She has been having great success with the diet and working out with Wii Fit but is growing weary of mostly sweet meal replacements.
Toward the end of January my wieght had started to drop but I still needed a fitness routine. One morning while bringing my grandma breakfast I caught an informertial for P90X. "Just another infomertial for some cheap fitness gimmic" I thought. But as I caught more of it I noticed that the exercises were using bodyweight, dumbells, resistance bands, and a pullup bar. So they weren't selling some gizmo and it did look serious. Time for some research.
I combed the internet looking for information on P90x. I found the companies site (of course) along with blogs and facebook accounts. It looked real serious and founded on some solid principles. But, given my fitness level at the time it looked like a bit much for me. So I purchased their P90 non-Xtreme workout. I already had some powerbands but also got some powerblocks for dumbells after the first week because I like the feel of free weights better.
P90 is a 30-45 min workout 6 days a week with alternating cardio and strength training days (although to be honest I get just as much cardio out of the strength days). The program has phase 1-2 which is shorter and introduces you to the program and phase 3-4 which is longer and adds a few new things. Their is a diet described in P90, but I continued on with the New Lifestyle Diet until this last week where I started moving toward the diet for P90X since I had started feeling a little tired and light headed due to (I suspect) just not getting enough fuel for my body.
I did phase 1-2 for three weeks then phase 3-4 for 8 weeks; not 90 days I know but I'm eager to move on to P90X. The program definitely works, see below:
Here are some stats from 2/1/2009 to 4/11/2009:
So far so good. Strange my arms are exactly the same size but I've gone from lifting 20 lb dumbells to 30 - must just be more compact muscle.
The diet isn't sustainable for life or even really low-carb (their products have more sugar than I'd like). But the diet represented a commitment to change my habits. And their food is tasty; enough so that my wife who has never dieted before and hates most of my diet food, liked it enough to give it a g0. She has been having great success with the diet and working out with Wii Fit but is growing weary of mostly sweet meal replacements.
Toward the end of January my wieght had started to drop but I still needed a fitness routine. One morning while bringing my grandma breakfast I caught an informertial for P90X. "Just another infomertial for some cheap fitness gimmic" I thought. But as I caught more of it I noticed that the exercises were using bodyweight, dumbells, resistance bands, and a pullup bar. So they weren't selling some gizmo and it did look serious. Time for some research.
I combed the internet looking for information on P90x. I found the companies site (of course) along with blogs and facebook accounts. It looked real serious and founded on some solid principles. But, given my fitness level at the time it looked like a bit much for me. So I purchased their P90 non-Xtreme workout. I already had some powerbands but also got some powerblocks for dumbells after the first week because I like the feel of free weights better.
P90 is a 30-45 min workout 6 days a week with alternating cardio and strength training days (although to be honest I get just as much cardio out of the strength days). The program has phase 1-2 which is shorter and introduces you to the program and phase 3-4 which is longer and adds a few new things. Their is a diet described in P90, but I continued on with the New Lifestyle Diet until this last week where I started moving toward the diet for P90X since I had started feeling a little tired and light headed due to (I suspect) just not getting enough fuel for my body.
I did phase 1-2 for three weeks then phase 3-4 for 8 weeks; not 90 days I know but I'm eager to move on to P90X. The program definitely works, see below:
Here are some stats from 2/1/2009 to 4/11/2009:| Measurement | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Body Fat (scale/navy method) | 23%/22.9% | 17%/14.4% |
| Weight | 193 | 172 |
| Neck | 15" | 15.25" |
| Chest | 43" | 40.5" |
| Waist/Abdoment | 37" | 32.75" |
| Hips | 43" | 37.5" |
| Right Mid-Thigh | 24" | 21.5" |
| Left Mid-Thigh | 24" | 21.5" |
| Right Upper-Arm | 14" | 14" |
| Left Upper Arm | 14" | 14" |
| Cholesterol | 128 (1/24/2009; was 162 5/10/2008 and 147 9/27/2008) | (will have to wait until I donate in May) |
| Blood Pressure | 112/64 | (I'll go to the store and measure tonight) |
| Resting Heart Rate | 66 | 68 |
So far so good. Strange my arms are exactly the same size but I've gone from lifting 20 lb dumbells to 30 - must just be more compact muscle.
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