P90X Day 5: Kenpo

Last night was Kenpo which is a cardio work out that involves a lot of punches, kicks, blocks, and jabs. It actually is pretty fun and the time goes by quickly. I tried to push myself hard, and not slack on my punches or kicks. I woke up today feeling sore again, so I got a decent work out in last night with Kenpo.

As for yesterday's eating I went over my calorie goal by nearly 300 calories. Costco's cheese pizza did me in. Oh yeah and the Churro. The weekend eating is always a struggle for me. During the week it's easy to eat my preplanned meals, but when the weekend comes it all goes out the window because we're usually busy running around, and we're not eating as much planned out food. I did follow the rest of my rules yesterday, I ate fruit, didn't eat after 8:00, and I had a good breakfast.

Tonight is my legs workout. One that I really need. One that I am going to hurt after for sure. This will be my last workout for the week since tomorrow is my rest day. I am almost through week 1, the hardest week of them all. Woo hoo!

P90X Day 4: Arms and Shoulders

Yesterday's work out was less intense for me. I wasn't huffing and puffing like I was the past two days. This work out involved a ton of curls. I used my 5 lb weights but it's clear to me that I need to up my weights. I would really like some 8 lb weights, I just need to cough up the money to buy them. I can tell I need heavier weights because the final three curls were not all that challenging to me, and they are supposed to be a struggle. Overall I liked the work out, even if it wasn't as tough as it should have been. I hate my jiggly arms and anything to tone them up makes me happy.

Following the Arms & Shoulders work out I did the Ab Ripper. OWIE!!! It's sixteen minutes of pure ab torture. My abs were burning. I was not able to complete the full sets but I did my best. I would take a mini-break when I was dying and then continue on with the exercise when I felt I could handle more again. I cannot wait for the day when I can complete the exercises in the ab ripper. That will prove to me that I have come a really long way.

Yesterday for breakfast I had oatmeal on the suggestion of a friend and it was delicious. I added a little bit of brown sugar to give it some sweetness, and a little bit of milk. It was so tasty I think I'll have it again today. The rest of my eating went well. I ate my fruit. I stopped eating before 8:00, and I had a good breakfast. Yesterday was another good day.

P90X Day 3: Cardio X

Last night I was supposed to do the Shoulders & Arms workout but I couldn't find the disk. I knew we had taken it with us when we went up to my IL's cabin last week, but last night I couldn't find it and Hubby was at work so I couldn't ask him. My options were waiting until hubby got home and using the disk then, or doing the next day's exercise, and since I doubted I'd want to start my exercise at ten at night I went ahead and did the Cardio X.

The Cardio X was a good mix up of all the cardio routines. I started with Yoga which I detest. I am not flexible, and I don't have great balance, but thankfully this is only a small slice of Yoga so I managed to make it through. Next up was Kenpo which I enjoy. Kicking and punching are pretty easy, and it got my heart rate going. That was followed by Pylometrics which is what I had done a full hour of the day before. I was sore from it still so having to do more Pylo kind of hurt, but it was the easier stuff so I managed that also. And finally the DVD ended with Core. And since I have yet to use the Core DVD so everything was new to me. The infamous Dreya rolls were nearly impossible but I tried my best, and the Superman/Banana's were pretty tough also. I ended the workout with a protein drink. It wasn't the tastiest but I thought I'd give it a try.

Today I woke up feeling sore. My legs hurt. It hurts to sit down which makes going to the restroom oh so much fun. I feel stiff and sore. I am trying to not step on the scale at all for the first 30 days of this challenge. I don't want to get caught up in scale numbers when I know I am gaining muscle. It's more important to wait and see what my body fat % is, and how my clothes fit. This isn't easy. I am like a scale obsessed monster, but I am trying to wait this out.

Lastly I ate well yesterday. I stayed within my calorie range. I made a nice fruit salad with dinner. And I stopped eating around 5:30 for the day. Overall it was a good healthy day for me and I am glad.

P90X Day 2: Plyometrics

I had forgotten how hard Plyometrics is. Just the warm up period had my legs burning from lunges. I started the work-out fairly strong, but by the end I was hurting. I could barely get my feet off the ground, but I did my best. And as Tony says "Do you best and forget the rest." I made it through the entire work-out which is at least kind of impressive since when I did this back in December with hubby, we didn't make it all the way through. After the work-out I just laid on the couch and tried not to move, everything hurt.

This morning I am still sore in a lot of places. My chest and shoulders still hurt from Day 1, but now I've got the added soreness in my legs, and every time I try to squat it hurts. It's a good pain though, it means I am making muscle and burning fat. I'm hoping tonight's exercise goes a little easier on me, but it's P90X, so I doubt it.

I ate healthy yesterday and followed my rules. And I started out today with a nice bowl of cereal and some fruit. I think it should end up being a good day.

P90X Day 1: Chest & Back

Yesterday was the first day of my P90X work-out. I was sort of excited about it all day. Unfortunately when I started the exercises I had a headache, and I had hoped that exercises would make me feel better, but that was not the case. I was able to push through the pull-ups, push ups. heavy pants, lawn mowers, and even backflys, but when it came to the second round of them I couldn't continue and instead lost my dinner in the toilet. At that point I decided that I should take it easy and laid in bed instead. I was pretty disappointed that I couldn't even complete my first work-out but I did manage to get half-way through it which isn't terrible. Tonight is Plyometrics and I am hopeful that I can have a better exercise experience.

What did do right yesterday was my healthy eating. I learned that Kashi Go Lean tastes nasty in milk, so bad in fact that I switched it out for some Honey Nut Cheerios in milk instead. I ate three types of fruit and I didn't eat after 7:00p.m.

Since yesterday was my start day here are my starting stats, and pics:

State Date: 4/25/2011

Weight 151.3, Body fat: 30.2%

One last hurrah

Happy Easter everyone! This holiday is right up my alley because it always involves lots of candy. I am proud of myself this year because I cut way back. The E.B. only brought me 2 boxes of peeps (I love them stale though so I won't get to eat for at least a week but luckily they are pretty low calorie), 1 bag of Lindor Truffle eggs, and one chocolate butterfinger bunny. This may seem like a lot of candy to some of you, but take my word for it that this was a much smaller load then last year. The truffle eggs are especially yummy.

Tomorrow will be the first day of P90X for me. The first day of 90 days. I won't lie, I am a little intimated by committing myself to this for the next 90 days. By making my blog public and linking to it on Facebook, this ensures that I can't give up without at least some amount of embarrassment. However I do like to challenge myself, and by making this challenge so public, I think that it will give me the kick in the pants I need to succeed.

I've also come up with some minor daily goals to meet which are:

• Eat a real sit down breakfast every.single.morning. (I am the queen of forgetting to eat breakfast or just grabbing a granola bar and running)
• Eat at least one fruit a day. ( I am starting small because even one fruit a day is more than I normally eat. Today I had strawberries)
• No eating after 8:00 p.m. (I am a total nighttime snacker. I love eating junk food while watching t.v.)

Today is my last big hurrah before the intensity begins. I had strawberry waffles with whipped cream for breakfast. I am enjoying my candy right now. Tonight hubby and I will dine on New York steaks, double stuffed potatoes, Mike's hard lemonades, and brownies for dessert. After today I will stick to a healthy eating plan. I will do my P90X. And at the end of this thing I have no doubt that I will be happier with my body then I have been in a long time. It's going to be quite a journey, but I think I am ready to push myself to the next level.

P90X: A new beginning

This is not my first attempt at a blog, nor is this my first attempt at P90X. I've been blogging for the past three years and I enjoy it immensely. I find it's like an adult version of a diary and I have always been fond of diaries. However this is my first health only related blog and it will be mainly geared toward me and my challenge to complete the full 90 day cycle of the P90X.

I attempted this back in December with my hubby. We got three full weeks into the program and then Christmas hit. And from there on I lost all willpower to continue the plan and I said that I would start it up again next month, and the next, and the next. And here I am. It's nearly May. I have a lot, and I mean A LOT!, of extra Christmas weight to shed, but more than that, for once in my life I want to be fit and toned.

Here's a little background of me.
When I was young I was always very petite and thin. I could eat anything I wanted and not gain weight. I would take my entire twenty dollar allowance to the 7 11 and buy candy, chocolates, and then devour everything on my way to school, or when I got home. I was, and still am, addicted to sweets.

Around fourth grade I took a tumble when riding my bike and it was discovered that I had a cyst on my left shoulder. I suddenly had a medical reason to not do P.E. and that kept me from P.E. from fourth grade all the way to when I graduated High School.

I was still skinny when I graduated High School and moved in with my boyfriend (current Hubby). We lived the college diet of anything cheap, a lot of fast food and prepackaged crap, which resulted in both me and hubby gaining weight.

After five years of living together hubby and I decided to get married. I tried to diet before the wedding, as did hubby. We took those Metabolife pills that were all the rage back then. They made me super jittery, but they did keep my appetite in check. They were also really expensive but at the time we felt like it was worth the cost. I managed to lose some weight for my wedding, I think I was a size 14 on my wedding day.

After the wedding we bought a house together and we plumped up again. Finally tired of being overweight hubby and I started a diet in February of 2002 which would get us down the skinniest we've been together since our teenage days. I went from 150 down to 122. I looked great, felt great, and it was powerful knowing that I did it. I met my goal and beat it.

Before too long I got the bug to have a baby and soon enough we were pregnant. Pregnant ladies are supposed to gain between 25 and 40 pounds depending on their body. I gained 66 pounds. I was massive, and when I delivered I weighed 196 pounds exactly. My baby was decently sized at 8 lbs 4 oz, so some of the weight came off easily, but not all 66 pounds of it.

Life is crazy hard with a newborn and eating right was not a priority, but eventually I managed to get back down to the 140 range. And then we decided to go for another baby. With the next pregnancy I started at a higher weight to begin with, I gained 55 pounds, but when all was said and done I walked into the hospital to deliver weighing 196 pounds again! That must be my magic number or something. My second baby was huge weighing 9 lbs, 12 oz. But once again I only lost so much weight in the beginning, I had a lot left to go.

The second baby was really difficult, having moderate reflux which kept us all in misery for several months. She also had bad skin issues, and so because of the reflux, and the skin problems the Pediatrician put me on an Elimination Diet which meant all seven of the top food allergens I couldn't eat because I was breast feeding. No wheat, eggs, dairy, soy, nuts, certain fruits, and I can't even remember what else. I lived on the blandest foods I could find, it was quite depressing but I was willing to do anything to have my baby be healthy and happy. I dropped weight like no ones business. I was down to my pre-pregnancy weight in just a month or two.

Life went on. The children are bigger, older. One is in school. My eating habits and exercise fluctuate. I usually manage to do well in the Spring and Summer, but I start packing on the pounds in Fall and Winter. I have never been into exercising, and my addiction to sweets is still going strong. Looking at myself in a mirror after two kids and very large babies, I am left looking flabby and definitely not toned or muscled in anyway.

So my challenge is to make it the full 90 days of P90X. To take pictures to document my progress, and to post daily to keep myself accountable. This is my challenge to myself. And if I can help anyone else along the way, that would be great too.