Back in the Saddle Again!

Hey everyone!

I am not going to get into WHY I failed completing P90X the first time, I just did.

I am back at it. Yesterday I completed day one with chest and back. With about 8 minutes to go in the workout I became incredibly nauseous. I wrapped up right at 5:00 and I went immediatly to my car. While sitting at a stop light I came very close to pulling the car over and vomiting. I remember getting this way the first round after the first workout. Well today is the DREADED plyo......Gulp

It is incredible how much strength you loose in such a short period of time. I am a little sore today but no where near as sore as I know I am going to be tomorrow. My friend Craig Morris is doing P90X along with me and it is nice to have someone to talk about what we are going through. He did plyo yesterday and he is feeling the super soreness today.

I weighed myself this morning and the scale said 208. Not the 218 I started with before but not the 205 I was down to. Yesterday the scale in the gym read 212 (prior to my workout).

I am going to shoot for a 2:00 workout today. This way I will have some recovery time before jumping behind the wheel.

Had a small egg omelett for breakfast, a protein bar around 10:30 Am, some Chicken breast and couscous with tuna for lunch and will have a protein shake right now.

P90X is not for the timid, Tony is Superman

For those of you that do not know that much about P90X or still do not quite understand what it is like even after reading these posts I would like to take this time to tell you.

If you have never been athletic or you are seriously out of shape this program is not for you. Hell, I have been an athlete all my life, played hockey in college and some of these workouts humble me. I am amazed that Tony and the others on the DVDs can rip out exercise after exercise and look like they just started while I am hunched over catching my breath and sweating like something you have never seen before.

Tony is a freak of nature. This guy is ripped, can do more pullups than I can contemplate and he is pushing 50. If I can ever get through one of the DVD's and keep pace move for move with Tony then I will be astonished. I have to keep telling myself that he is a professional and he does this for a living. I am sure if exercising was my profession I would be really good at it as well.

I just do my best and forget the rest.

I have some serious respect for the individuals in this program. And I respect all of you who make it through the 90 days. You have to want it or else you won't make it. It isn't for people hoping for the magic pill, it is anything but that. It is boot camp.

It has been awhile!

Hello Readers!

That is if I have any of you left after my prolonged absence. When I started this blog I had some more free time here at work during lunch to jump on the computer and update the blog. The last few weeks have left me with hardly any time to do anything let alone update the blog. So I apologize for that.

I do want to assure you that I am still doing P90X and my results have been good so far. I have two small children at home, I work full time, I do P90X and all of that leaves me with just enough time to eat and sleep.

OK. Let's talk about the last few weeks of P90X.

When I started the program on November 3rd, 2008 I weighed 218 lbs. On day 16 of the program I weighed 207.3lbs and on Monday of this week the scale here at work read 205.6lbs. I have seen my weight fluctuate back and forth since the 16th day of the program but have not gone above 211lbs. This morning for example I was 208lbs, a few days ago I was 210lbs. At this point I do not know my current body fat % (the girl that runs the gym here at work won't have the calipers until next week) so I will be delayed with posting my 30 day photos and results.

When you see yourself in the mirror everyday you don't notice the changes your body is undertaking as much as someone who does not see you everyday. I was hoping for more dramatic results by this time but I realized that I was indeed having results but I just wasn't able to notice them since I see myself everyday. I have had so many people ask me if I have lost weight (none of which new I was doing this program) and tell me I look great. Hearing this really helps keep you focused because this program will test you on a daily basis and it is so easy to just quit. For those of you reading this who don't really know much about P90X let me tell you it is very demanding, very hard, and will put your willpower and body to a serious test. More on this in a minute.

Today is day 32 for me at the end of next week I will be half way through the program. I have worked out hard for 23 out of the last 32 days. I am going to be honest with you and tell you that the week of Thanksgiving was a bad week for me and I missed several days in a row. Now this week also happened to be recovery week so I didn't miss many resistance days (I did do the Core Synergistic DVD-Loved it) but I did get mad at myself for missing the workouts.

Normally I do my workouts here at work in the gym we have downstairs. Typically I head down to the gym around 2:30 in the afternoon and I have the place to myself. It is a really nice gym and it is equipped with all of the things necessary for me to perform my workouts. It works well for me and it has become routine. The week of Thanksgiving I had several days off of work and more activities going on at home. I don't really have the equipment at home nor the space to perform my workouts and add in Thanksgiving, the fact that I have two children under 2 and other unavoidable events that went on I ended up missing 3 days of workouts in a row. Not only that, but I did cheat a little on my diet during those 3 days.

I was glad to get back to work and back into my routine for the start of the second phase (5th week). Right now I am still in the "fat shredding" phase of the nutrition plan and I will be sticking with this phase until the end of next week. For the most part I have really tried to avoid carbs during this phase and I can't really tell if my body is just tired or feeling the lack of carbs.
I may need the additional carbs because I still can't keep up with Tony and the individuals on the DVD and I still have to pause the DVD's on some workouts in order to keep my heart from exploding dropping me dead on the spot.

Yesterday I did Back and Biceps for the first time and I could only do one (ONE LOUSY) Corn Cob pull up. I was just wasted by the time that came up in the workout. Not only that but the last exercise has you curl four different weights for 8 reps each and I thought I could start with 35lbs and go down but my left bicep was so beat by the time that exercise came up I dropped to 20lbs and had a hard time doing 8 reps (I still had 3 sets left after that).

That's all for now.

Back after a week of no new postings.

Hey everyone! Sorry that I haven't had a moment to update you all on my status in a little over a week. Life got really busy. My son turned 2 and we had his birthday party, I was busy at work and busy getting my snowmobile ready for the season.

I was also still very busy doing my P90X workouts. I am proud to say that I have stuck with the program and the diet and I am doing really well. I missed two of the ab ripper X workouts due to running out of time but I have made changes in my schedule that will ensure I have enough time to do those workouts on the days I am supposed to.

When I started P90X I weighed 218lbs. My weight on Tuesday of this week was 207.3 lbs. I can't believe the difference in just 16 days.

Today is supposed to be Yoga X and I am not sure if I am going to do the whole workout or do some of it and do some time on the treadmill. I loved Yoga X the first time but didn't care for it so much the second time.

I have stuck to the diet with only one small cheat. I had a piece of ice cream cake on my sons birthday and a slice of the turkey sandwich we bought for the party. This week was hard because I ran out of supplies at home and I didn't have my full meals like I am supposed to. I had no snacks and no protein bars or drink for the past two days. All I had was breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I will try to do regular postings going forward and I will try to make them interesting and fun so you all will want to continue reading.

Day 10! Is it bedtime yet?

It has been a few days since I last posted. Right now I feel like the guy in the picture. I am not sure if I am feeling the effects of the lack of eating carbs or because my daughter becomes the devils spawn when the lights go out or a combination of the two. All I know is I can't wait to get into phase two of the nutrition plan.

I have stuck by the diet right down to the letter. the other night I had two turkey burgers with lettuce and tomatoes but no bun. Today, for breakfast, I had plain oatmeal with a little bit of cinnamon and some fresh fruit. The plain oatmeal is gross. I needed the carbs though this morning. The only real cheat I had was the other night after plyo (more on that in a minute) I HAD to make a pot of coffee at home. I have cut out coffee and I really needed it at the time.
Monday was chest and back and Tuesday was plyo. I am going to tell you right now, I HATE the plyo workout. I had an awful night sleep on Monday night because my daughter woke up what seemed like every hour on the hour crying loudly. When I woke up on Tuesday I knew it was going to be a tough workout.

I didn't work on Tuesday but I came here anyway to use the gym. I pushed through plyo but I still have to pause it a ton of times to keep from collapsing in complete exhaustion or to keep my heart from exploding in my chest. My legs were still sore and weak from last week and some of those squats just kill me. I stuck it out and finished the whole workout though. I keep reminding my self that Tony does this crap for a living and that I shouldn't expect to be able to keep up their pace on my second time through this workout. I am competitive so of course I try to keep up until I feel as though I am going to have a heart attack.

Today was Shoulders and Arms and I enjoyed this workout and I pushed but I still just felt tired. I might throw in a carb with dinner tonight. I weighed myself last night and the scale said 211 lbs. I weighed myself immediately again and it said 210.6. I couldn't believe it since I weighed 218 just over a week ago. I don't know if this is an anomaly or if I really am loosing the weight that fast.

Week 2

Today I start the routine all over again starting with Chest and Back. I am looking forward to today's workout. I feel good today despite having some rough sleeping over the past few nights. My daughter isn't a very good sleeper at night. She wakes frequently and cries and at least once a night still needs a bottle. So every night either my wife or I basically do a zombie sleepwalk into her room give her her bottle while bobbing our heads in and out of sleep and then do the zombie walk back to bed.

This will be a crazy week for me. My company is closing early today because we were picked as one of the top 100 places to work and they are going to surprise the employees and let them go home early. I will still be going to the gym at my normal time even with the company being closed. I have tomorrow off for Veterans day but I have a dentist appointment here in Billerica at 12:00 noon. So I am going to come to work in the morning to hit the gym and get Plyo over with then scream over to the dentist afterwards. I have Friday off because it is my sons 2nd Birthday and we are going to do something fun with him. I may get up early and try to do Kempo in the basement.

I am dedicating this week to the movie 300. When I saw the movie last year I said to myself. Man I want to look like that. So when I am almost crying doing Ab Ripper X this week I am going to remember that movie and that no pain means no gain.

Legs and back, Kempo X and the start of Joe Six Pack

Hey everyone!

I haven't had two seconds to sit down and update the blog since Thursday so this post is going to cover the last couple of days!

Before I go on, I just wanted to say that I just had most of this post all typed up a few seconds ago and somehow I managed to completely loose everything I just typed. Damn computers.

I was able to get Legs and Back in on Friday before I left work to take my two kids to see Play House Disney Live. I was nervous about this workout because my legs were still very tight and sore from Tuesdays plyo workout. I pushed my self and pushed through the workout and gave it my best shot however my legs being as sore as they were prevented me from doing a few of the exercises at full effort. I did enjoy the back portion of this workout however.

The only issue I am having about doing the pull ups at my work gym is the pull up bar. I bought a door frame pull up bar but the door frame in the gym at my work is too big for it. The pull up bar at the gym is way too close to the wall and I keep hitting the wall. Instead I have been using the lat pull down machine as a substitute. I think I am going to see if I can use the Smith press machine tomorrow and set the bar all the way to the top.

Kempo X: I did this workout from home on Saturday in my TV room. I like the workout but my facility was less than to be desired. I didn't have enough room and kept smacking into the daybed and it started to effect me mentally about half way through the workout. This is another workout that made me sweat like Niagara falls. I was soaked.

My 7 month old daughter was in her bouncy chair watching me do this DVD and she was laughing at me constantly. I am sure I did look like a fool doing some of these moves. I did find that I had difficulty with some of the combinations of punches. For some reason I couldn't nail down a few of the sequences correctly and some of my hooks were straight punches and some of my uppercuts were hooks. I am sure that I will get better each time I do this one.

My calf muscles were so sore before and after this workout, can't wait to get the initial muscle soreness behind me.

Sunday came and my calf muscles were wicked sore. I decided to make this day a rest day instead of Stretch X. I did take my kids for a 1/2 mile walk to loosen up the legs but most of the day I was cooking and watching football.

I feel pretty good about my first week. I can actually notice a change in my stomach already. I can see the start of the six pack, WOOOO HOOOO.

I am 1/13th of the way finished. Start all over again tomorrow with Chest and Back and I am going to try to "bring it" even harder this go around.