Dear Bob Harper.....

Well I know I have been out for a while again but it has been yet another stupid busy week that I have been having a hard time keeping up with but I don't have a whole lot going on today and should be fairly caught up. I have been pushing through my last week of P90X and have only one workout left tomorrow morning before I am a P90X grad! When I finish I am going to take the 10 days off I have been talking about taking to do some running and my new Bob Harper video so that I stay active. The end of P90X could not have come at a better time, today I am going to the doctor for a physical, it will be the first time I have seen a doctor since losing 115 pounds, as a matter of fact in is going to be the first physical I have had since 1998 so I am interested to see what comes of it. One thing I hope happens in I can get a body fat % since the measuring systems I use don't seem to be all that accurate I would like to get a pretty accurate number today while I am with the nurse. I figure the number won't change too much between today and Sunday when I get to take my final after pictures and fit test to see how I ended up. Today was Cardio X which is only the second time I have done that workout and as per the P90X schedule it is really the first time I would have done it had I not used it in place of Plyo the Tuesday after my half marathon. It is a pretty good workout and I have fun doing it since it has a little bit of exercises from each of the other cardio videos in the program. Since it is shorter and I finished early since I forgot that I couldn't eat lunch today I decided to give my new Bob Harper DVD a go, I just did the 15 minute Ab workout not the yoga yet. Let me tell you all this, Bob had me wishing for Ab Ripper X, all thought Ab Ripper is a hard workout I think I have gotten pretty darn good at it and the Bob workout totally blows it out of the water in the way of difficulty. If you do all the advanced moves (which I tried as much as I could) you find yourself keeping your abs contracted for the entire 15 minutes of the video, needless to say that did not happen for me. I am thinking that rather than spending the money on ankle weights for my second go round with P90X to make the Ab Ripper harder I am just going to do the Bob workout in its place. As I sit here now my Abs are still on fire and I finished the workout about 40 minutes ago. I totally think I will be feeling the affects of the workout for the rest of the day and perhaps into tomorrow. If nothing else I bet it is going to make the Yoga Belly 7 part of my last workout a lot harder that it would have been otherwise. Tomorrow morning I do have to teach so I will be waking up nice and early to get yoga out of the way before the family wakes up, I will spend a little time with them and then it will be off to school. If I can get body fat % from the doctor today keep an eye out for it on the blog because I will be posting my final results of P90X once I have taken the fit test and gotten all my measurements. Here is something you most likely don't hear from a lot of people on P90X. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I gained somewhere between 7 and 10 pounds. It looks like I have put on a good start to a lean body but I would love to see an increase in weight and muscle when I am done. I guess we will know in a few days.

Foot of fire and last few workouts

This morning I did Yoga which is day one of my final recovery week which means I am down to only five more workouts before I finish the program....it is so close I can see it. When I woke up this morning my foot was still a bit tender but not nearly as bad as it was through the weekend. I do look like an old man because I am in my normal work clothing but have my running shoes on since they are the only shoes I can wear that don't kill my feet. When I get home I will take my shoes off and try walking barefoot to see how it feels. When I got out of bed this morning and put my feet down feeling the pain I figured Yoga was going to suck. When I got into the first few poses I was hurting pretty OK but after a few downward dogs and warrior poses the things started to loosen up quite a bit and I was able to blast through the rest of the DVD. As always I felt really good when I was finished and I am a little sad that I only have one more Yoga X before I am done with the program. The good thing is when I do finish I have my Bob Harper Yoga for the Warrior DVD to do while between cycles.

Continuing Tuesday morning.....
So I didn't get to finish my post yesterday so I just figured I would keep building on it today. This morning was my last Core Syn workout and man did it seem harder this time around than the 4 times I have done it before. It may not be the case it could have been just as hard as the last time but since it had been about 5 weeks since I did it last I may not be remembering it correctly. By the end of the day yesterday my foot was feeling much better after wearing my running shoes all day but when I woke up this morning it was starting to hurt again. I figured I would wear my loafers rather than my running shoes so see how it was going to go. If the pain is what everyone is telling me it is (Planters faciatis...don't know how to spell that) than I am thinking it is something that I am just going to have to deal with and hope it goes away. Someone was telling me that you can get inserts for your shoes from a doctor but insurance doesn't cover them unless you have diabetes so I won't be going that route. Tomorrow is the last Kenpo and I am excited about it for a few reasons, first it is the last one so I really want to go after it and I don't have to wake up at 3:50 in order to get the workout in before heading to work like I do on Tuesdays. I hope that the foot pain will lessen by tomorrow before the workout by I guess we will just gave to wait and see. Come back tomorrow to find out. 

The big 200 and what could have been.

No I have not gained 40 lbs and gotten myself back to 200 lbs, this is the 200th post that I have done so I just figured I would mention it. I say and what could have been because I woke up this morning and my leg and foot were killing me and I can't explain why that is, as a matter of fact it hurts to walk a little bit so I am going to try and stay off my feet for the time being. What could have been was today being my last legs and back with Ab Ripper X workout before the end of this cycle but now it looks like that will be tomorrow. I did bring some stuff to workout with and plan on doing the Ab Ripper part before lunch today so that I don't have to do it tomorrow. This will at least let me take 20 minutes off my workout time in the morning. I am going to set the alarm and wake up to workout so I can get it done before the rest of the family wakes up. I have to teach on Saturday afternoons again because school made a last minute change to my schedule so if I workout after everyone is awake I loose that much more time with the family on Saturday and I don't want to do that. I will wake up early tomorrow and do my legs and back, (it should also give my back another day to rest as it is still sore) and wake up again on Sunday and get kenpo out of the way then I will be ready for recovery week and the final 6 days to the end. Let me tell you how my last two workouts went. Wednesday was back and biceps and I added weight where I could and was able to add at least one more rep to all the exercises I was not ready to add weight to on the pull ups, I was able to get at least one more pull up on each of the exercises before going to the chair for help. The next day I was really feeling the fruits of my labor in that respect. My biceps were as sore as they have been in a while and my back was so sore that it hurt to pull doors open. Thursday was my weekly Yoga and I don't have to get into how I feel about the Yoga DVD, but as always I finished feeling really good and much more calm. One thing I did notice is that when I do Yoga in the morning rather than after work like I did last week I really need to work harder to get the flexibility going and I am pretty stiff during the first few moves leading up to the sun salutations but after about 15 minutes or so I start to get loose and all is good. A good thing that happened is my new Yoga DVD came in Wednesday and I was taking a look at it a little bit Thursday morning and the poses they show on the cover all look very familiar to me so I expect that I should be able to get right into that and feel the full intensity of it while I am taking time off before starting my next P90X cycle.  I don't know if I will have time to post this weekend but I am going to try we will just have to see. I have to workout twice, mow the lawn, teach, take care of some things around the house, and try and fit in some hacker training if I can so I have a pretty full plate but I will post if I can find the time.

The countdown continues

Today just like Tomorrow and Friday brought about the last of yet another workout. Today's final was Plyo. I know I say this every time I do the workout but it just never does get easier, some of it has to do with the nature of the workout itself and the rest has to do with my ramping it up where I can. Today I did all the double time moves with the DVD and put my hands up to make the moves harder where I could. The only place I didn't put my hands up matter of fact is the squat jacks, can't really explain why that is but I didn't. Don't worry I will be putting them up when I do my next plyo in about a month or so. According to my tracking info my Bob Harper DVD should be here tomorrow so I am looking forward to doing that first thing Monday morning. I think I may do both the Yoga and the Ab workout or I may do the ab workout one morning before going on a run, I have not quite decided yet. I am thinking some of it is going to be up to if I feel like sleeping or working hard. Right now I feel like working hard but that can always change. This morning as I was getting dressed I noticed that I am really starting to see some muscle in my Abs so I really want to keep pushing that muscle group to see if I can get a pack showing up. I think before I do the next cycle of P90X I may take a look at Amazon and see if I can find some cheap ankle weights to wear during Ab Ripper X. I know I am creating quite a shopping list for my next cycle to up the intensity but I don't think it will cost all that much not to mention I am pretty darn cheap so when the time comes there is a chance that I may not even buy the stuff that I am thinking about. For anyone that has not been keeping tabs here is what I am thinking I am going to bring to the table on the next go round, Yoga block, Yoga mat, ankle weights, push up bars. I figure between all of those I should be able to bring some serious intensity to the next round of P90X. I have gotten really good results on this round and could not be happier with them but I know I can get even better results if I just continue to push harder and Bring It. Tomorrow is my last back and biceps workout and I will be setting up before bed to save a little time, I can tell you that I will be using stronger bands every where that I can. Today I feel some real soreness in my chest and a little in my shoulders, now to just get those same results in my back and biceps for the last workout and I will be feeling great about how I am ending this thing. Only 10 days to go and only four workouts to my LAST recovery week.

Last devil workout is done!

Today was the first day of my last week with resistance training and like I have been doing with all my workouts the final stage, I really pushed hard and added weights and reps where I could. I added weights on almost all the exercises, and added reps where I couldn't add weight. There was only one exercise where I didn't get the same or more reps but as with all the other times, it was more that I was pretty worn out from pushing on the other exercises. I didn't have to go to my knees on any of the push up exercises so that was a huge win for me. Tomorrow is the final Plyo of the cycle and I am going to try and keep up with Dom as much as I can. I am going to have to be careful as the last time I pushed that hard I felt like I was going to vomit a few times and that is the last thing I want to do in the office, (At least until I get a mat in there). I counted up the days and there are only 11 left so I am getting pretty excited to say that I was able to finish the program. Yesterday I ordered the Bob Harper Yoga for the warrior DVD on a recommendation of a friend so I am excited to have that come in. I don't think I am going to use it in this cycle of P90X but I plan on using it during my time off between this cycle and my next one. I figure I can do it Monday, take Tuesday off, go for a run on Wednesday, do it again on Thursday, and one more run on Friday. Then I can take the weekend off. I will do that for a week or two perhaps order a Yoga mat and some push up bars from Amazon, and get started on my next round of P90X. This cycle was about getting lean and tone, the next cycle is going to be about building muscle.

Keep an eye out for a "review" on the Bob Harper Yoga and Ab workout.

Ahhh...all kinds of limber

Got everything done early today, while my wife was in the shower getting ready to go shopping Haley and I went to the office to get our X stretch on. I am a big fan of this day when I have had a long week, it feels good to loosen things up and work the soreness out. The learning point of today was that some stretches become much more difficult when you have a 30 pound child crawling all over you. It was fun watching her try and do some of the same moves as the video along with it. That puts one in a great mood when your 2 year old is working out with you. I was able to get all the way down on the back hero stretch, I was able to get my hands flat on the ground when doing the standing hamstring stretches and was able to grab my heels durning the sitting hamstring stretches without any pain. What Tony says in the beginning of the video is correct if you work on flexibility you will become flexible, crazy I know. When I started P90X I considered myself pretty unflexible but I have improved quite a bit since doing 12 weeks worth of Yoga and stretching. I am going to spend the rest of the day with my family and enjoy the time I have with them today before I have to go back to work.

Only two weeks left

Today I finished my kenpo workout while Haley was napping, and it felt great for a number of reasons. The first reason being I was not doing it the day after running 13.1 miles in a half marathon, the second reason is because I worked to really keep up with the DVD and to kick high and punch hard, the final reason was that I was doing it at the house rather than at a hotel miles away from my family. To be honest with you I could be doing the worst thing in the world and it would have been great today because I am here with the family and not away any more. Now that I have the kenpo for today out of the way I am done with this week's workouts (I do have stretch tomorrow, but I should be able to fit that in some time) Monday starts my final week of weight training, I will be filling out the last column on each of my workout pages then putting them away as I finish. I have been making it a point to hold on to each of my worksheets because I want to see the difference between where I started and where I finished the first round, and don't worry I will do the same thing when I start my second round. The only real think I am keeping an eye on today is my calorie intake, It feels nice to be back home and to be back on my normal diet but I took in more calories than I thought at lunch today so now if I am not careful with what I eat the rest of the day I will end up going over the calorie count and I don't want to do that. I am eating at whole foods today so I should be able to keep it within reason but right now my biggest battle is do I want to eat a full 200 calorie snack or just go for a 100 calorie and save the rest for dinner. Although I am pretty darn hungry right now I think I will go with the 100 and drink plenty of water and some coffee to stave the hunger. I don't think the hunger I have now is so much from not eating as it is from having a messed up blood sugar due to being out of town. I expect to be back on track by the end of the day tomorrow. Keep an eye on the blog to see if my diet is back on track and to see how my last set of weight training workouts.

Did what was planned today

So today I actually got up when my alarm went off, I am thinking it is because I actually got to sleep at a reasonable hour and still got a full eight hours of sleep while waking up at 5 AM. I am going to just go ahead and put this out there, I don't dread the legs and back workout like I used to. It still gives me a really good workout and I still feel it when I am done but it is nice that most of the time I am doing it (at least today) I was thinking about what exercises I will be adding more weight to. Who knows some of that might have to do with the fact that I didn't get to use my pull up bar since there was not a door that it would fit in and I had to use resistance bands. Don't get me wrong I still got a good back workout from them but it just is not quite the same. I did have to put some serious resistance on them to feel the burn, to give you an idea I had both my black bands, my blue bands, and yellow bands to get a good pull on it. I got through the workout, and for the first time I got all the reps done on each of the moves Tony gives you a target rep count for, words can't tell you how happy that makes me. I just have one more Legs and back next week and I am done with them. Tomorrow is kenpo, can't wait to get that done and get my workout on there then a nice day of stretching. Funny thing is it has been less than a week since the half marathon, and I am getting the itch to start running again, don't get me wrong it won't be this weekend but I am ready to go on another run.

Yoga Junkie!!!!

Yet another morning has come and gone when I planned on waking up early and getting my workout on. Today I wanted not so much because I was going to try and sneak a double in or anything like that, I just wanted to Yoga and get into a good state of mind before I went off to the client. Well, the alarm went off and that did not happen….again. I decided that I would sleep and get all the rest that I could. Unlike yesterday we actually finished up with the client on time so I was able to go right to the hotel, talk to the family for a little bit, and get my yoga on. I only have a few yogas left, as a matter of fact I think there are only three. I have one more week of weight training and then recovery week so three should be it. As always since I am nearing the end of the program I pushed myself to get lower in the poses and to keep my form in mind the whole time. I am going to say that it must have worked because before I knew it as  I was getting to the end of the DVD I was actually pouring with sweat, more so than I ever remember in the past. When I was finished once again I was in a great head space. I was feeling no stress and my whole demeanor was calm. I really do think that I am starting to become a yoga junkie. Tomorrow I have no choice by to wake up with the alarm because I need to get my legs and back workout in before we head to the client, then I get to head home and see the family, which I totally can’t wait to have happen. One thing I do want to mention in my arms and shoulders workout from yesterday. It was the last time I was doing that workout in this cycle so I wanted to make it a good one and that is just what I did.  I added more to the bands where I could and or the most part I got the same number of reps on each of the exercises but with the additional resistance so it was a really good workout. I love knowing that I am almost two weeks away from being finished and I actually don’t mind what I see in the mirror anymore. I am still not quite exactly where I want to be but I am pretty darn close. There is not a person on the planet that I would not recommend P90X to. As long as you follow the program and the nutrition plan you will get results. Out of all the stuff I have done to get in shape this last year or so nothing has given me the results this has.

Soon to be caught up

Once I do my arms and shoulders workout I will be all caught up and back on track. Last night I got to where I was going and settled in around 10 PM. I was still a little ramped up from my trip so I decided to go ahead and do my missing legs and back workout. What I didn't do was the Plyo in the morning since my legs were just too sore from the run this weekend. I ended up doing the Cardio X workout which I really liked since it was a little bit of yoga, plyo, and kenpo plus it is only about 45 minutes. The extra time gave me a chance to do the ab ripper X workout I had been missing, between that and the late night legs and back workout I was all caught up with my workouts and found out what it was like to do a P90X doubles day. Today I was going to try and do another doubles day but I was sleepy when I woke up and decided not to. After work today I ate dinner and did a little more work while resting then I did today's ab ripper X (Three days in a row) and just finished talking with my wife and daughter. Now I am going to get my LAST arms and shoulders workout of the cycle in and get ready for bed. It is pretty cool to know that I am just 2.5 weeks away from finishing up. Right now I think the hardest thing is going to be getting up Friday morning to do the legs and back workout before going to the client but hey I can do it. Once it is done I only have one more normal week left and my recovery week and I will have finished the program with what I think are pretty good results. (Don't expect to see pictures) I am going to wake up in the morning to do Yoga since it really does focus me and clears my head which is something I know I am really going to need going into tomorrow. Well off for the last arms and shoulders, shooting for more weight and more reps. Really have to bring it to this one. If I have time to post tomorrow you will all know how it goes.

Quite the accomplishment

OK so I know I have been talking about the Tom King classic that I was going to be running in and I know that I got the date wrong and have not been posting in a while but work has been busy and I was toying with the idea of ending my blogging days. I decided against that when my wife had a really good point, I had mentioned that I had not had views in a few days and that was really making me not want to write but she reminded me that I was writing the blog for me and not for others. When I started this I wanted it to be an inspiration for anyone that was going to try and lose weight but really I started it so I could get my thoughts down somewhere as I continued to get healthy and stay healthy for years to come so I decided to pick it back up. Let me tell you what has been going on. I am still on my last training phase of P90X and now with the exception of the Legs and Back each time I do a weight training workout it is the last time I will be doing that workout until I decide to do another cycle of P90X. Before I get into that I really need to tell everyone about my weekend. First of all, after all this time I am one workout behind on P90X but I am with good reason. I did not do the legs and back workout Friday since I knew I was running a half marathon the next morning, but don't worry I have a plan to make it up and I will get into it later. Saturday morning came along and I woke up nice and early so that I could eat and get all the food down before I started the run so that I would not crap up when it started. I woke up right around 5 AM and ate my normal big breakfast. After that I sat around the house for a little bit while I let the food settle and read the Bible. Once I was ready I headed to LP Field, where the Titan's play to get ready for the run. By this time I was pretty nervous and was taking every chance I got to pee so that I didn't have to stop to use the restroom. Finally right around 8 AM the gun went off and the race started. I got my run going and told myself that the day was not about pace it was just about getting the run finished and I was feeling good. It was a cool sunny day and there was not a cloud in the sky when I started running I felt good and was going at a pretty good pace the whole time, as a matter of fact I didn't even start to break a sweat until around the 4th mile. I kept my pace up pretty well and even go to the 6.5 mile mark in under an hour. The amazing part was that the way to course is set up you do a loop and start to head back the other way and I was seeing people on their way back at about mile 5 which is just amazing to me. Once I got past the halfway point I was still feeling pretty good and just continued to push. One thing I did learn while running was that it is harder than you would think to grab a cup of water and drink it on the move, there was a few times where I made a pretty good mess. I knew that once I got to mile 8 I was going to really have to start pushing since that is the longest I had run to that point and I needed to find 5 more miles in me to be able to finish the race. When the 8 mile mark came I was still in pretty good shape and was moving right along, my pace had slowed a little but I didn't care. When I got to miles 9 and 10 it started to get really hard and at mile 11 I finally had to pull up and walk for about .25 of a mile and I started running again until about the 12.5 mile mark where I had to start walking again for about 100 yards but then I was at the ramp to enter the stadium and was just about to finish. I can tell you one thing, I was never so happy to see something that I see almost every day but the part that was no fun was that when you get on the field you still have to run around the the field before you get to the finish line. If that was not enough when you are leaving the stadium you have to walk up three ramps to get back to the parking lot since running 13.1 miles is just not enough. I ended up finishing in 2:21 which I am told is really good for a very first half marathon and I will take it. Now I even have my next running goal, I want to finish a half marathon in 2 hours. Next time I might even train for it. Anyways, I am glad I did it and this is getting long so I will talk about today's workout and my makeup plan's for Friday's missed workout tomorrow.

Week 2 Phase 3

Today I started the second week of training phase three but before I go into that I should bring everyone up to speed. The first thing I have to say is that I got the date of the run I am doing wrong and it is actually this Saturday so I have not done it yet. I know I didn't get a lot of posting done last week due to how crazy busy it was but I am hoping that I can get back on track this week. First of all come Wednesday I did the next set of weight training exercises which was the arms and shoulders workout. I am happy to say that yet again I was able to get either more reps or more weights out of each of the exercises and I really felt pretty strong when  I was finished with it. Yoga came on Thursday an I was able to continue to improve on the poses as well. One really cool thing was that I have done Yoga enough times now that I don't have to look at the screen to see the poses I can just listen to Tony and get into each of the poses as he calls them out. This helped me in a few ways, I was able to keep the poses more solid since I didn't have to change my balance in order to move my head and see what was next and it also allowed me to really clear my mind and think only of the pose and the form. I know that this both added a level of intensity to the DVD as well as put me in a really good state of mind and when I was finished I was totally ready for whatever the day brought. Then came Friday, Legs and Back, this was going to be the day I found out if I was going to have to move the around the workout schedule this week to give my legs some time to rest before the run. As it turns out I think that I will be ok and I will keep the schedule as it is supposed to be with the exception of making up the missed kenpo of Sunday. (Like I said before I don't want to miss a workout even if I am running 13 miles in between). Kenpo went well as always and I was happy to finish it up, I got a really good cardio workout in because of it and burned some crazy calories. Yesterday my workout was yard work and X Stretch, nice light day. I did want to run but by the time I finished the yard a good part of the day was gone and I didn't want to miss any more of it. I was able to get deeper in a lot of the stretches than I have before so I guess Tony is right when he says that anyone can be flexible but you have to work at it. Today was what I call the Devil workout, chest shoulders, and triceps. This is one of those workouts where I love it but I hate it. I love it because I know that these three muscle groups are the weakest in my body so they need the most work but because of that this workout is the most difficult to me. One thing I am happy to say is that for the most part I was able to get more reps in of each of the exercises than the last time I did it with the exception of one but I think it was just because I was so wiped out from working so hard up to it. I am not going to lie there were still times in the push up exercises that I had to go to my knees to finish the set but it happened later in the set so I was getting more normal reps first before going to knees and getting a larger number total. I hope to feel some serious soreness in my chest by the end of the day and tomorrow. Tomorrow is my next Plyo day, only three to go and I am done with that workout until my next cycle. I am going to try and keep up with Dom in the video and jump higher and do double time jumps as much as I can until I am beat. Like I said before I am using this last training phase to push myself harder and harder with each workout and really get the results that I am hoping for. I can't wait to be able to walk around and tell people not only did I do P90X but I finished it with amazing results. I am sure much like anything else you get out of it what you put into it, and trust me I have been putting in everything I have.