Phase 2 and carbs

I ended my first of three recovery weeks with a 7.49 mile run around the neighborhood yesterday. I think I could have done more but the socks I was wearing caused my right food to start to blister pretty good so I called it a day before I ended up really hurting myself. I am feeling a lot better about the half marathon I signed up for after getting that run done. I would like to be able to get somewhere between 10 and 11 miles run before  race day. I figure if I can get that far just going around the neighborhood then I should not have much of an issue going the whole 13.1 with the adrenalin pumping and the thrill of doing my first half marathon behind me. As part of yesterday being the end of my recovery week it was also my 28th day of doing P90X which means that it was 28 day picture time. I am very happy about how it went, before I took the pictures I finally found my tape measure and measured the areas that needed to be measure to calculate my body fat %. Here is what I can tell you. Since starting P90X I have lost 1.4% body fat (about 2 pounds) and have gained 5 lbs of muscle. There is already a difference in appearance in how I looked when I start the program and how I look today, my chest has started be become tighter and the love handles at my waist have almost totally gone away. When I flexed my arms and back you could see growth in both areas and I lost an inch off my waist line while gaining a net for 3 pounds. What excites me the most about this news is that while reading up on other results of P90X most people see little to no results after day 28 then they really see a difference after the second training phase, if this is truly the case then I am very excited to see how I end up looking on day 56 and finally on day 90! Like I said today started up Training Phase 2 which means different weight training workouts than the first one, today was chest, shoulders, and triceps three muscles that I know are not all that strong on me and today it was easy to see that. Out off all the workouts that I have done so far this one was the most difficult of the bunch. About 20 minutes after finishing the workout my chest was already sore and it was hard to keep my arms up long enough to shower and get ready for work. There were quite a few different types of push ups and shoulder presses in the routine that really put a hurting on me. Don't get me wrong I loved the workout and it really did work all the muscles that I know I need the most help with so I was happy that I completed it but I am not going to act like it was not a challenge because it totally was. Hey one of three times through it down and only two more to go, now I just need to work on getting the form down next week and adding weight the final week. Tomorrow is Plyo and I am pretty excited to do it again. It always is a good workout. One final thing to be excited about is I am not off the fat shredder diet and on the endurance maximizer plan which means that I get to eat more carbs than I have been able to the last month and I ended up having a pretty darn big breakfast (all healthy) but am already starting to feel hungry again, that just tells me that my muscles really got the work they needed this morning.

Yoga with friends

It is not quite as fun as words with friends but it is way more rewarding.today was the last day of my recovery week and it ended with the same disk it started with...Yoga X. Like I have been saying this week my wife decided that she would do it with me and. We went up to the bonus room around 9 am to get it done. Whitney was able to do about 40 minutes if the DVD before she had to stop. Before you start judging, it had nothing to do with her ability or fitness level it was because Yoga X is hard enough to do on its own and becomes even more difficult when you have a 35 pound 2 year old handing you crayons and climbing all over you. Rather than hurting herself she decided that she would stop and keep Haley entertained so that she would not get in the way of my finishing the disk. I need to tell Whitney this but having her in the room with me meant a lot and it really pushed me to hold the poses longer and stretch further than I have been. I really think it paid off because I was sweating harder than I ever had by the end of the disk and was able to stretch further by the time the disk was over than when I started, I guess you can say she was my McMuse. I am thinking of getting off the fat shredder diet a day early since I really need to start training for this half marathon. I had pretty much no energy by the time I finished lunch today and ended up falling asleep on the couch for a little bit. Even though I know I needed it I was not very happy with myself about it because I missed time with Whitney. I didn't miss any with Haley since we put her up for a nap and she didn't sleep. Tomorrow I am really going to have to push myself I have only four weekends to get ready for this run and right now I don't think that I am even close to it. Tomorrow I am going to get up and run 5 laps around the neighborhood that should be around 7.5 to 8 miles. I don't care how bad it starts to hurt or how slow I am going at the end of the run I am going to finish it because I know that I can. Take a look tomorrow or Monday to see how the run went. Forgive any typos this is another iPad post.

Running into the weekend

So I woke up about 20 minutes sooner than I normally do and got my core workout in. Since I was able to get through it without breaking any bands and did some the the exercises correctly rather than incorrectly like last time I got more reps and a better workout this time I feel. Once I was done with the workout I threw a sweat shirt on and ran around the block twice, which turns out to be 1.12 miles and I did it in about 10 minutes. When I plotted it into my run keeper it came up as being slower than I felt like I was going but the manual plotting of the runs never seem to be as accurate as when the phone app finds the GPS signal, I just didn't want to sit around and wait for the signal to be found. Over the last two days I have run half the distance I am going to need to run for the Thomas King 1/2 marathon and my legs are pretty sore from it. Looks like I am just going to have to push a little harder to make it happen. Tomorrow is the last day of my recovery week, which has not been as bad as I expected it to be, and it will be wrapping up with Yoga. My wife and I are going to do the Yoga video together tomorrow because she wants to check it out and I have been looking forward to doing a video with her since she brought it up. Once the Yoga is over I may go for a two mile run around the neighborhood to keep the training going. Sunday is going to be a long one. I pretty much only have about a month to get ready for the 1/2 marathon so I need to push if I am going to make it. I am going to try and run 5 laps around the whole neighborhood which should give me somewhere around the 7 mile mark but I guess we will just have to see how that goes the day after Yoga. The last time I ran on a free day it was not all that bad since the workout before was Kenpo and it does not put quite the same hurt on your legs Yoga does. Next Monday starts phase two of P90X with new workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and more carbs added to the nutrition plan. I have been looking forward to phase two of the nutrition plan since I started as it is going to be a much more all around diet and I won't have to worry about when I am going to be eating my one carb portion for the day. Don't get me wrong this nutrition plan has not been near the pain in the butt that the Body-For-Life plan was and the first four weeks of P90X have gone by pretty quickly. One last thing my wife's sister and her family have made it back to the states from an 8 month trip to Africa to spread God's word. I hope they have a great time for the 8 weeks they are here and everyone that wants to see them get as much time as possible with each one of them.

Finally took care of that itch

Well I finally took care of the running itch I have had for a while now, I decided not to do the X Stretch and went to the rec center to run. When I got there I had planned on running a 10 K or 60 minutes whichever came first but that didn't end up happening. I ended up going 5 miles in 48 minutes which isn't so bad since that is the furthest I have run since before Christmas. I am about to sign myself up for the Thomas King half marathon that is happening here in Nashville in March so I am really going to have to get serious and start running again if I want to be able to finish it without passing out. I fully expect to start running after every P90X workout with the exception of Tuesday mornings so that I can start getting back in running form and this Sunday I will be going on some kind of longer than 5 miles run so I can start getting the distance up and be ready for the run. The last thing I want is to have to stop and walk, drop out, or pass out. Take a look at the blog to see how the training is going.

Call me the king of fighters

Like I said I took today off work today because it is one of the most wonderful people's in all the worlds birthday and I wanted to be able to spend as much time with my wife today as I could. I got to sleep in this morning and have breakfast with the family, which never happens during the week. Once all that was done Whitney was off to bible study and I hung around the house a little bit to let the food setting then went to the office to get right into Kenpo X. I have been looking forward to it this week and usually look forward to it each time because it is fun and I am starting to see better form and higher kicks when I am doing it. I got just as good a workout as I have in the past but I didn't sweat quite as much and I think a lot of it had to do with eating before working out rather than after. My body had fuel in the stomach to use for the workout rather than using reserves stored in my body. Either or is fine with me it just means that I really didn't have breakfast this morning if that is how you want to look at it. Tomorrow is a stretch day like I said yesterday but I think I am going to skip that and go for a nice long run. Like I said the itch to run has been with me for a while now and the longer I go without doing one the more high stung I feel like I am getting so it will be nice to get out of my head for a little while (hour or so I am thinking) and just run to burn some calories and energy. Taking a look at the forecast it does not look like I will be doing it around the neighborhood but I still have a few trips to the rec center left so I may just do that. I don't have to be at the office first thing in the morning so I can sleep in a little bit before going in and running. Well I am watching a quick webinar before going to get my birthday errands done. Come take a look tomorrow and see if and how my run went.

I'm so strong that I......

Snapped one of my workout bands today, I don't know what happened I was using the band just like you normally would and next thing you know it just snapped. I am glad that it didn't come up and whip me in the face but it still sucks that it broke. I guess I am going to have to spend this weekend looking for a new set or just ordering the same set I had before. If all else fails I can come to the office to workout until I get new bands, I can use the ones I used for EA Active for the time being, or I can pick up a few different sizes of weights and use those to workout. I am thinking the new bands are going to be the way to go but that might change. Anyways today I did the core DVD and I was told that it was a pretty hard workout and the people that told me that did not lie to me. I didn't expect to be rolling all over the floor for some of the moves but sure enough that is exactly what happened. When I was done with the workout I had a pretty good sweat going on and felt like I did good. It could have gone a little bit better had I not had to stop to get different bands when the one I was using snapped or didn't have to figure out the best way to use the bands on some of the exercises the folks on the DVD were using weights on. I get to do the same workout again later this week and I am thinking it will be an even better workout since I know what some of the moves are. Tomorrow is Kenpo and I am looking forward to that. I took tomorrow off since it is my wife's birthday so I won't have to wake up at 5 AM in order to get the workout and and I am thinking that I could get a short run in after the Kenpo if I want. Since Kenpo is a cardio workout I don't see myself doing that but you never know. Shoot, I might even run Thursday rather than do the X Stretch just because I have had the itch to run for about two weeks now and have not been able to do it. I guess we will just have to wait and see since I did like the X Stretch when I did it Sunday I might be unhappy with myself if I don't do it again this week. Like I said we will just have to wait and see, the important thing is that I am staying active and doing all that I can to continue to eat right and be healthy so that I can keep the weight off. Take a look at the post tomorrow to see how Kenpo goes. I am going to work even harder to get harder/higher kicks and punches and well as keeping the heart rate up so I expect a good workout.

On with the great recovery

Today is the first day of recovery week and it starts off with Yoga like I said yesterday. The idea of getting up and doing Yoga never really thrills me but once I start to do it I am happy that I am. Today went really well, I focused on keeping my legs straight when I was supposed to and getting further in the poses. For the most part I was able to do just that but as I was finishing up the first set of poses I could barely hold the royal dancer pose and struggled a little with the prayer twists. I don't recall that happening in the past but I think it did today because my legs were a bit waisted by the time I got to that part of the video. When I finished up I had time enough to go out and run a mile like I have been thinking about doing but chose not to just because it rained like nobody's business most of the night and the ground is when and gross so I figured I can go on a short run on Wednesday and Thursday and even Friday if the weather permits. I would tomorrow morning but that would mean I would have to wake up around 3:40 or do and I don't know that I really want to do that after the 14 hour work day today. All of this exercise is not going to do any good if I don't get the required rest to let my muscles repair and grow enough. Tomorrow is the first time I am doing the core synergistics workout and I am excited to see what it is like. I have been told that it is not an easy workout and like all the rest of the workouts will be a challenge. I am very OK with that. Even though it is "recovery week" I still want to push hard and get the best results that I can so that my 28 day pictures on Sunday show great progress. While I was doing the Yoga poses and sitting in downward dog I happened to see down my t-shirt and was not thrilled with what I saw. I still have a log of toning to do in order to like what I see there as well but it is only a matter of time. While I was in the shower today I was planning out a P90X cycle schedule that I think I am going to go for. Finish this cycle off by the end of March, take April off for running and rest. Start again in May finish at the end of July and take August off for the sam running and rest, then start again in September and finish in December and have the month to enjoy the holidays. Sound like a great plan we will just have to see if it works or if I would rather add more variety to the routine. I do think what I have planned will get me to the body I want by the end of the year but I do see switching from bands to weights by the end of the year, if that means working out at the office again so be it, but I would like to wait until the pull up bar they said was getting installed is in place before I make the switch. The one that I use at the house is leaving a little mark on the door frame, no damage to it just a little black spot I will have to paint over.
Check back tomorrow to see how core synergistics was.

Pretty disappointing

Well I was all jazzed up for today, I was expecting to run a while then go out and spend all kinds of time out of the house today with the family. As it turns out the forecast was wrong and it ended up being cold and rainy so none of that happened. The bright side is that I did get to spend time at the house with the family. I left for a little bit of time for a run to Sam's to get a few things I need for nutrition and protein to last the next few weeks. When I got back Whitney went to Publix and before we knew it we had everything done we needed to before the football games started. BY the way I don't know if I have mentioned it but I am a Pat's fan and it was a really good game. While my wife was shopping my daughter and I (mostly me) did X Stretch since I was feeling restless and wanted to do something. I tell you what I am glad that I did and wish that I had done it sooner. By the time I was done I felt really good and almost all of the soreness I have been feeling this weekend was gone. I am still a little upset that I didn't get to run but time permitting tomorrow I will run two laps around the block when I am done with Yoga. Tomorrow is the first day of my first recovery week and I am looking forward to see how it goes. Don't know if I will have a whole lot to say tomorrow since it is just a Yoga day and all I can really do is try to stay in the poses longer and stretch further to add the intensity. One last thing I can say is that I was thinking about this program compared to Body-for-Life and I am liking P90X even more since it does have the Yoga and Stretching and focuses on more than just trying to burn fat and get stronger it also adds flexibility which I am starting to believe more and more programs overlook. Well I may or may not have much to say tomorrow so you are just going to have to come on back and check.

Good bye weight training

Today was my final legs and back of training phase one. Just have a day of Kempo tomorrow and it is off to recovery week. I was taking a look at the recovery week calendar and it seems like I will have three early days next week. Two for Yoga so I have enough time to do it and my normal Tuesday morning early day to get my workout in before bible study. I am just 9 short days away from taking my 28 day progress pictures and I can't wait to see how they come out. Like I have been saying I can totally see some results already since starting the program and following the fat burner plan but I am excited to get them documented and making sure that it really is a change and not just my minds eye. When I went to bed last night I had full intention of getting up 20 minutes sooner than normal so I could go out and run a mile when I finished my workout but that idea changed when the alarm went off. I was pretty sleepy and decided that I could use the extra time today. I have a feeling that I will really have to push myself out of bed if I want to get the run in the first few times I go to do it or it may never happen. Yesterday I was talking to a co-worker and the conversation lead me to wanting to sign up for another 5K so I think I will be doing that. It is the Mule day 5K in Columbia TN. Something tells me that it will not have quite as many people as the race for the cure did but I am sure it will still be fun and since I will actually be doing it with people that I know I am even more excited about it.There is also a half marathon coming in March that ends on the 50 yard line of LP field that I am thinking of doing but I don't know that I would be ready for it in time since I am putting forth so much time and effort on P90X. I guess I will have a gauge on how that would go when I go out Sunday morning and run. If I can get pretty far (four laps or so) around the neighborhood without too much strain that I would think I am off to a good start but if that is not the case then I don't think there is a chance I would be able to do it. We shall see on Sunday. By the way I am totally looking forward to Sunday and the weather. It is supposed to be pretty great and it makes me have to make a decision, I want to watch the Pat's game but I want go out and spend time with the family since it seems like it is going to be too nice a day to just waist it sitting in the living room watching football. I bet I will choose time with the family, football season starts anew each year but my daughter will only be 2 years old once. Take a look at the posts from next week as they go up to see how my "recovery" week is going.

Going the "Extra Mile"

First of all let me start by saying I must either be getting boring or everyone that used to come to the site must be tired about reading how I feel after each day. If I showed you my chart that counts the number of page views then you would know what I was talking about. When I woke up this morning I was surprised that I did not feel any soreness at all in my arms or shoulders since I worked them pretty darn hard yesterday. I guess the Recoup is really paying off. This morning was an early morning so I could do my Yoga X. Today I focused on staying in the positions as long as I could and to really stretch the muscles where I could to start to build flexibility there. I did a pretty good job of it buy now I am paying the price for it as my legs and shins are screaming pretty good. Next week I get to do the Yoga routine twice while in the recovery stage so we will see if that pays off. Another win for me today was I was able to stay in the crane pose longer than the last time that I did it so I feel like it is paying off and that I am getting better. Today I was talking to one of the other guys in my areal of the world and he was telling me he has need increased fat loss since he has started to do a quick one mile run after each of his weight training workouts so I think I am going to start giving that a shot when I am done with the recovery week. I figure it will also help me get to the 500 mile mark I am trying to get to by the end of the year. Who knows I may even start the mile after the workout tomorrow depending on how I feel. I figure since I can run a mile in less than 9 minutes I will only have to wake up a few minutes sooner to get the run in and really see the benefits. Anyways I have yet another busy day here at the office so I have to get going.

Jump around, jump around

Yes, I finally had to go there when starting a post about Plyo. Today was the last Plyo for a at least a week or so. When looking at the calendar I noticed that there is no Plyo during the recovery week so it should be at least 14 days or so before I have to do that workout again. I really don't know how I feel about that yet, it will be nice to stay away from one of the harder workouts for a little while but at the same time it is the one I enjoy the most because it is fun and I always feel like I got a killer workout when I am done. Today when I finished I looked like I had just gone swimming. Now that I have done the Plyo workout three times I am really starting to master the moves and am able to work on both the form of each of the moves as well as the pace and intensity of each of them. That is exactly what happened today, I was jumping higher, didn't have to stop at all during any of the moves, and didn't stumble or have to slow down at all. I am just about at the point where I can keep up with the people in the video. One thing I do want to get once I have the money for it is a heart rate monitor to keep track of if I am in the fat burning zone as well as kind of get an idea as to the number of calories I am burning during the workout. This is not all that high of a priority but I would like to know at some point, perhaps after tax return time or when and if I do either another cycle of P90X or move on to doing one of the other beach body products or perhaps just doing weight training here at the office. Tomorrow is shoulders and arms before I put that one away for a while an I am going to try and push the intensity up a bit so I don't have a repeat of the Monday workout and get a good burn going for the final upper body for a little while. I may even go up a band on the bicep lifts to really break down the muscle and try and add some size to my arms. I had a wild hair and wanted to see if my biceps had gotten any bigger since I started P90X since they look like they have to me but I could not find my tape measure anywhere. I am thinking it is a good thing because I could see where I would have been unhappy if there was not a change in size even though there would be no reason to be. This way I am not tempted to check anything until the end of next week when I have to take my 28 day progress picture. Even though I feel silly doing that I am looking forward to comparing the day one pictures with the day 28 pictures to see if there is a difference. Keep an eye on the post a week from Monday to see if I noticed a difference.

Now I say farewell

No not to the blog or to the readers of the blog but to disk one chest and back of P90X. I decided to try a new workout yesterday and went after "Watch football X". So far it has been the easiest workout so far. I decided that it would not be a bad idea to take a day off and just rest since a lot of areas of my body were pretty sore yesterday. Today starts week three of the first phase of training which means that each of the weight training workouts will be the last of that disk until phase three starts so I shouldn't be doing the workout I did this morning again for about six weeks. When my alarm went off this morning I forgot that it was monday so that didn't really start me out on the right foot, but hey I have not missed a workout yet. When I got into my first position to get started on push ups I felt a little weak an as I continued through the workout that trend seemed to follow. I can't say that I feel great about my workout today since pretty much all my numbers were down, both in the chest and back side and the ab ripper x side of the disk. In the ab ripper side not only were my numbers down but my form was pretty bad as well. When I have time today I am going to have to do a little bit of thinking to try and figure out why I didn't have any strength. Was I tired, is it because it is the last week of the first phase and my muscles have had enough and are ready to recover, do I need to get off the fat shredder diet a little sooner rather than later and move onto adding more carbs for energy, or was it just an off day? I'm thinking it was just an off day but I am sure I will know better as today, tomorrow, and Wednesday's workouts come and go. Tomorrow is another round of Plyo and although it is still one of the hardest workouts to get through it is quickly becoming one of my favorites so far because it gets a good sweat going and even thought it is about an hour long it really seems to go by pretty quickly. Quick note on my Kempo X workout from Saturday, I don't know if I mentioned it or not but I was a little concerned about the quality of the workout and my ability to keep my heart rate up when I did it the first time. This week I had a much better idea of how to do the moves and get my entire body involved so I got a much better workout this time around and am looking forward to this Saturday so I can really see what I can do. Back to today's workout, is the one thing I can take from it is that I did feel the burn in the muscle groups I was working out today and should have a pretty good amount of soreness tomorrow. I am going to work harder to get ab ripper X back under control and then start to work on getting the same number of reps as the people on the video. Today is a late day and tomorrow is a very early morning so I am going to get going and get ready for work. Here is hoping that my energy level starts to raise as the day moves forward.

Until next time

Yoga! Yoga!

Today was yoga again which means that I had to get up early again to get through the hour and thirty-three minutes it takes to finish the workout. Like the other three DVD's I have done a second time this week I did better this time with this DVD than I did the last time, I was able to hold the poses longer and reach a little bit further on most of the stretches. I am still having a little bit of an issue getting all the way through the last bit of the strength poses because you get to stand on one leg for a pretty long period of time. I got really close to staying on the one leg when standing on my right foot but didn't make it quite as long when standing on my left leg. Now that I am back at the office my legs are a little worn out from the workout but when I finished it this morning and got ready to shower and eat I was feeling good and like I finished something good. Tomorrow is the legs and back workout and this time I am actually going to add bands to the exercises so that I can get a little more resistance and a bit harder of a workout this time. I have that and Kempo on Saturday and I will have gotten through the first two weeks of the program and will be doing my last week of the mastery phase before I go into the recovery week. Don't get me wrong I don't have any illusions that recovery week is going to be easy, I mean it starts with Yoga X and builds from there. Both the P90X guide and everyone that I have talked to say don't be fooled by the name, it is a hard week and you will work just as hard as you do in the first three weeks. Once I am done with that then the workouts change. In case you can't tell I am looking forward to seeing what comes next and see if I can still get the same results. The one thing I am most excited about when I finish the first four weeks of the program is switching to the new nutrition plan where I get to eat more carbs than I am now.

Jump and Pump

Corny title but hey it might get some people to read it let's shoot for 3000 visits by the end of next month. Yesterday was the second go at Plyo and today was arms and shoulders. Yesterday went well, I did have to wake up at 4 AM after getting to bed after 11 the night before so I thought that I would be a little sluggish but the thing about the Plyo workout is by the time you are done with the warm up you heart is pumping and your blood is flowing so fast that you tend to wake up very quickly. Since I was a bit more familiar with the moves this time around  I was able to really focus on the form of each move and work harder than I did last week. Don't get me wrong I still made some mistakes but I was able to keep my heart rate up longer and I only had to stop once for a little 10 second breather the entire time. That is not to say I was not counting down the seconds until the next water break but I was getting through it. I decided that so far the Plyo is my favorite workout just because it does burn the amount of calories it does and even though it is one of the longer workouts it goes by very quickly. Another interesting tidbit about yesterday was working harder for more push ups and pull ups must have paid off because my chest and back were all kinds of sore and today they are still a little bit tender but not nearly as bad as yesterday. This morning I did exactly what I said I would do and made the bands shorter on the upper body workout. Needless to say I didn't get as many reps as I did the last time I did the workout but I got a lot more resistance. That is what I was going for this time, they say 12 to 15 reps adds tone to the muscle were as 8 to 10 reps at a heavier resistance will add size and that is exactly what I was going for. I don't know if my entire upper body will be sore tomorrow but I am sure that my shoulders will be. For those keeping track tomorrow is Yoga X day which means another early morning for me I am thinking it will be around 4:40 or so when I wake up and get started. I know it is early and will make me tired but the way I look at working out in the morning is three fold, if I workout before I eat my body is forced to get its energy from stored fat rather than food I just ate, I never really know what my day is going to bring and I don't want to get home and just not feel like working out, that would lead to bad and missed workouts. Most importantly, it makes it that I don't have to miss time with my wife and child while I work in the office for the 90 minutes it take to complete the workouts. I have pretty much been dreading the Yoga disk since the last time I did it as it is no joke but hey if it gets me in better shape and makes me more flexible then bring it on. I have not decided what I am going to do this Sunday, take the day off, stretch, or run again but if I run I think I am going to add a little bit to the distance and go four miles just so I have a nice round number under my belt plus even though it is not anywhere near the miles per week pace I need to stay on to get 500 miles ran this year at least it is something that will give me a little bit of a distance build up for when I do start to run again. I am thinking when I finish P90X I make take a month or so to do some real running and knock away at that 500 mile mark. Well until next time, take a look here to see how yoga went the second time around.

P90X week 2

So today started week 2 of P90X and it was the second time I got to do the back and chest workout. First of all let me start will telling you about the weekend. I did get the Kempo workout in and I had a pretty good time doing it the only thing that was an issue to me was that I didn't feel like I was keeping my heart rate up as much as it should have been. I don't really know for sure since I don't have a heart rate monitor and I don't plan on spending the money on one any time soon but it was still a good workout. Then came Sunday, it was the rest day where I could either stretch or rest, I decided to do neither. I decided to get out and do a little running, not a long run just 3.5 miles, and I did it in just about 29 minutes which ended up being the best pace I have ran in a while. On to this morning, I have been really good at taking the supplements that I bought last week. When I did the workout this week I did it much sooner in the day then I did the last one but I was able to get more reps out of just about all my push ups and pull ups. When I got to the last set of four exercises those ones were a little more difficult to get to the same number of reps but I know that it is because of the work I put in leading up to those exercises. I again expect to feel sore in the morning but it will be worth it when I see even more results. I was looking in the mirror today and I took a look at my day one pictures and I am already seeing a difference. I think it has to do with the P90X program and diet be so effective, my wife says it is from completing Body-for-Life but I am betting it is a little bit of both. Tomorrow is another jump training day and it is going to be an early day for me. In order to get it done before Bible Study, work, and school I have to get up at 4AM, after I work both jobs today and both jobs again tomorrow. Something tells me I will be sleeping well on Tuesday night. Anyway work is wrapping up so I need to get going but if I have enough time I will let everyone know how the jump training goes tomorrow. So far I am loving how everything is going and just like when I started Body-for-Life I look forward to each day's workout when I finish the day I am on and the jump training is no exception. Until next time

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Not so bad but I can see where it could be

Well today was the workout that I have not been looking forward to all week long. I woke up nice and early so that I would have time to get the leg and back workout in, since it is the longest of the weight training workouts so far, and the Ab Ripper X workout before getting up to go to work. I didn't use any kinds of weights on the exercises since most of the people on the video were not using weights either. This gave me a chance to see the exercise moves and get a feel for the difficulty of each one. Trust me when I say that some of the exercises do not need any extra resistance and will not be getting any extra resistance from me for a little while, on the other hand some of the exercises will be getting resistance added next Friday. I went into this workout knowing that it would be hard but again I gave myself some credit for the strength of my legs from running and finishing Body-for-Life, I am sure that it helped out but it was still a hard workout. I was sweating pretty good when I was finished and my hamstrings are burning. This morning I also got back on a supplement routine and I think it is going to help build muscle and keep the soreness down in the morning. In case you are wondering this is what I started taking, Protein: Dymatize elite fusion 7 (extended release protein). I figured an extended release protein will keep me fuller longer after working out. So far it has worked, Dymatize creatine   (I just put it in with my protein shake). Dymatize recoup recovery drink, and Dymatize Xtream NO. I am guessing that you are seeing a pattern when it comes to brands. I like EAS as well but it does not get as good of reviews as Dymatize and it is much more expensive. Tomorrow is the Kempo X DVD, I have had a lot of people tell me that they are not a fan of that particular workout but I am looking forward to checking it out. At the very least perhaps it won't kick my behind as badly as the rest of the workouts have. I am excited that on my 3rd day of Ab Ripper X I am still seeing increased numbers of reps so I am still getting more comfy with the moves and I feel like my abs are getting stronger. I can't wait to see how my Monday workout goes. I am going to be shortening the bands on a few of the exercises to build up the intensity next week. Not so much on Monday since it is a push up and pull up day but on Wednesday and Friday I am really going to push and "Bring It". As I was getting ready today I could actually see muscles in my shoulders and chest moving when I was getting dressed and if I am already seeing tone 5 days into the diet and workouts  I can only imagine how I come out the other end of this. Each time it starts to get stupid hard in the morning or if I don't want to wake up  I just remind myself that it is going to be worth it. Getting healthy and making sure I am around for a long time for my wife and daughter are both well worth losing a few hours of sleep.

One last thing, I noticed today that I am over 2000 views thanks to everyone that checks it out!!!!

WiiFit.....you lied to me!!!!!

Today was Yoga X day and the people that I have been talking to about the program all told me that it was pretty hard.Some of the people I was talking with didn't strike me as the most in shape or limber people in the world so I just figured that they were remembering the first couple of times through the DVD when they were telling me their feelings. Not only that by my WiiFit has called me a "yoga master" on several occasions so I figured if nothing else I had a pretty good start to going into the yoga poses. I expected a little bit of a challenge but for the most part I went into it thinking that I should be OK. Just like the other DVD so far it was a lot harder than I expected and it showed me that I am not nearly as flexible as I thought that I was. Some of the moves were not all that bad and some of the moves were the same or similar to the moves found in WiiFit just a whole lot more intense. For those that may not have done P90X before it started out with moves I was familiar with and built off those into more strength training poses that had my legs burning more than once. When I finished I did feel a lot better and felt like I was totally ready for my day. Now that I am sitting down I am starting to feel a little tired but I bet this 16 oz coffee and the food I just ate will help that out here shortly. As part of all this I am following the fat shredder diet the program gives you which is a high protein low card phase to burn off body fat, you are supposed to stay on this phase for four weeks or so but the guide says it can be shorter if you don't have a lot of body fat. That may be the case with me, I was right around 15% when I started this and I am wanting to get to single digits but if I don't have enough body fat to give me energy then I will just have to move off the fat shredder sooner rather than later, no big deal. Tomorrow is legs and back and everyone I have talked have all said the same thing about it, it is hard and I will be sore. I have been dreading this workout since I started but if I can get through it I will be pleased with myself. After tomorrow I will be done with all of this week's strength training exercises and will be doing Kempo on Saturday. Sunday is a rest. stretch day and my boss runs on those days, I was thinking that I would do the same thing but as this week moved forward I am thinking that will not be the case, at least not this week but hey I might change my mind come Sunday. If I am stupid sore on Sunday I will most likely not run but do the X Stretch video to try and get loose so that I can start the process all over again on Monday. I will let everyone know how tomorrow goes.

Day three, only 87 more to go

Well this morning I got up and finished the third workout of P90X, shoulders and arms, and Ab Ripper X. I know I didn't post yesterday but it was my first day back to work in over a week and I was a bit too busy. Let me get you up to speed. I went into the jump training thinking that it would not be too bad since I have some pretty strong legs and felt like I had some endurance built up in them to get me through the workout without any issues. I was able to get through the workout but it was pretty hard and I looked like I had been running for a good 5 or 6 miles when I was done. I asked a few guys at work that have gone through P90X and they assured me that the jump training never gets easy....something to look forward to. Moving on to today. I was looking forward to today's workout since everyone knows I am a big fan of upper body workouts since I think that is where I need the most help. It was not all that bad a workout but since some of the exercises I did I was able to get up to 20 or so reps I know I need to add a little more resistance to the moves but that is OK since just like Body-for-Life I need to find my baseline on these moves and work up from there. Next week when I do the workout again I can either go to stronger bands or loop the bands to make them shorter and add the extra resistance that I need. When I was done with the workout I felt it in my triceps and shoulder pretty good but I don't know how the arms are biceps are going to feel. I expect them to be a little sore but nothing too crazy. Even though tomorrow's workout is long (90) I am looking forward to it as well, tomorrow is Yoga X so I don't need to worry about doing any weight training or jumping just need to work on working the sore muscles and building some flexibility. On a side note I did a lot better today on the Ab ripper workout than I did the first day, some of my numbers went up, so although I can't keep up with the folks on the video yet I saw some progression. I think more if it has to do with knowing the moves better as I really don't think I am going to gain that much strength in just one day off. I have no doubt in my mind that my abs will be the most sore tomorrow as they were still a little tender when I started and as I type this they are still tight and a little tender. I will let everyone know how the yoga goes tomorrow, I am betting it is going to be an early morning for me so I can make sure I get enough time to get the workout done but like all these workouts it will be worth it.

First day of a new year

Well, I know it has been a while since I posted but I was finishing up my body for life and taking the week off to enjoy the holidays with the family. At the end of the year I came up with some new goals for fitness this year. First I want to run 500 miles before the end of the calendar year, I also want to gain about 20 pounds of muscle, and I want to get my body fat percentage down to single digits. Outside of fitness I want to work to serve others more and actually pick a bible reading plan for the year and stay on track with it. None of this seems to be too out of reach and I have high expectations that I can do all of them. As I stated at the end of the year I have to come up with a new fitness plan this year since body for life ended last year and since my loving wife was good enough to get me P90X for Christmas that is what I am doing. Today was the first workout and I will tell you what it was not easy, the first day is chest and back and everyone I know that has done or is doing the program all say it is the hardest workout. I really hope that is the case because it was tough but I got through it. I finished the workout around 8 this morning and I am already starting to feel sore in the chest and the back, but as you all know that is what I like. One thing I can say is that the workout showed me that doing the body for life did make me stronger and I was able to do more push ups and pull ups than I thought that I would be able to. This program also comes with a nutrition plan but it is not quite as bad as the one in body for life so I don't think I will get sick of it as quickly as I did that one since I can eat a lot mo Ethan I could before and I don't have to worry about doing it in six meals I can make my day fit my portion numbers. Another great thing about it is that I get more than just protein and carbs, I get dairy, fruit, fat, vege all the food groups so I will have a night variety of food to eat. Anyway tomorrow is jump training day and I am looking forward to is since I have pretty good leg muscles the Wednesday is biceps triceps and shoulders which everyone know is my favorite. Keep a look out tomorrow since I am starting to post again to see just how sore I am in the morning and how my jump training went. Forgive any typos, I did this post from the iPad and didn't look up too much while typing,