Heading into September...

and hoping for cooler weather. These 100 plus days have been killer, and they really make it hard for me to want to work out. I do anyway, but I long for some cooler temperatures at night so we can work out and not be totally sweltering the entire time. Thank goodness for fans and A/C.

Yesterday was a pretty great day. My youngest starts preschool again next week. I haven't seen her teacher since back in May and yesterday I went to the school to help prepare it for the new school year. D's teacher immediately complimented me on looking great and asked me how much weight I've lost. I told her all about P90X and how it has changed our lives. She was very interested to hear all about it, and had mentioned she knew some friends who had done the program also. It makes me feel great to spread the word about P90X, because it may be just the thing that someone else needs in their life that will put them on the right track to healthier living.

Later last night a friend of mine who I see at my daughters school called me up just to tell me how fantastic I looked. I'll tell you what, I was on cloud 9 last night, with two sets of compliments in one day, I was feeling the love. Hubby always says I look great and skinny all the time, but sadly I don't believe him as much as I probably should.

I did my Ab Ripper last night and really rocked it. I finished every move in its entirety which I am not sure has happened more than maybe once. Hubby came home from bike riding and then we went right into doing Cardio X. It is supposed to be Pylometrics but hubby's legs hurt after riding, so we did the shorter, easier DVD and we'll do Pylo on Thursday instead.

Well that's it from me. Enjoy the rest of the week.

P90X Round 2: Week 5

This week was the first week of Phase 2. The two muscle building days are much harder than they were in Phase 1, but that's a good thing because it helps keep your muscles growing and strong. Monday's workout is a ton of really hard push-ups. I have improved a lot with doing push-ups so I don't hate them nearly as much as I did in Round 1. Wednesday has lots of Pull-ups which I don't mind as much anymore ever since I started using the chair method in which I use the chair to rest my heels on while I hoist my body up using the pull-up bar. Much better than the bands IMO.

The rest of the week went smoothly with some minor tweaks to the schedule because we had a fun dinner out Saturday night, so we did our Kenpo on Sunday instead.

Weight wise I hit a new low last Friday and I was four pounds away from my goal weight of 125. We overindulged this weekend, so I am not sure if I'll be any closer to my goal this Friday, but I plan to meet my goal weight soon, hopefully by the end of September. I bought a new dress for our Saturday night out and it sure was fun getting to browse in the teenage/young women section in the small sizes.

Well that's it for me. Have a good week.

P90X Round 2: Phase 1 stats and pics

Yesterday I officially finished the first phase of Round 2. This was a hard 30 days because of the many special events that occurred such as: my 33rd birthday, my Grandma and Uncle came into town to visit for three days, and a day in Monterey with my family. I wish that my stats were better than they are, however I am nearing my goal and I don't think it's possible for me to keep losing 6-7 pounds every 30 days. So I'll take what I can get, although I do hope in the next 30 days my numbers are better.

Stats:
90 day Weight: 132.9
Body fat %: 25.9

120 day Weight: 131.1
Body fat %: 25.6%

Total Weight loss for Round 2: 1.8 pounds
Total body fat % loss for Round 2: 0.3%

Total weight loss since starting P90X: 20.2 pounds
Total body fat % loss since starting P90X: 4.6%


Onto the pics which I am not all that thrilled with because I look heavier in some of the pics then I did last time, but they are what they are.







Thanks for looking and I'll post stats & pics again in another 30 days.

P90X Round 2: Week 4

Recovery week flew by. It was nice giving my muscles a little bit of a rest. I actually kind of miss the Ab Ripper, as Tony says I love it, and I hate it. I'm moving into the harder Phase 2 exercises on Monday and oh boy, those are gonna hurt. My weight continues to creep down, at a slower rate than I'd like, but still as long as I am still going down, I am happy.

School started for my eldest again and I ran into a mom I haven't seen since school got out. She knew I had been doing P90X at the end of the school year, and when she saw me again her eyes lit up and she said, "Are you still doing P90X?" and I told her I was and that I was on Round 2. She said that she could totally tell! That kind of made my day. =) I had few other friends make some nice comments to me on the first day of school also and it made me feel good. I've been working hard and it's nice when someone acknowledges it.

Eating wise it was a bit of a struggle to get back on track, but now I am into the groove of things again. I overate a little last night, but I do allow myself a meal on the weekend when I am not quite as careful with my calories. I figure I have the rest of the week to work it off, and I don't go totally crazy, I just relax a little.

I guess that's it for now. I hope everyone has a super great week! Do your best and forget the rest!

Recovery Week at last!

Yesterday was a fun day with my Mother-in-Law and my girls. My MIL took us to the movies to see Mr. Poppers Penguin's and then out to a restaurant for lunch. I was worried about what I was going to eat when we went out, because I didn't want to blow my diet. What I ordered was a Patty Melt, which I didn't think would be too horribly bad, but I was wrong.

After I got home I went to input the calories for the day and the Patty Melt was 1,300 calories according to the restaurants website. Thankfully I only ate half of it, but still!!! I thought about ordering a salad, but a lot of times the salads are just as bad, if not worse then a hamburger is. My MIL got a large salad, with all the goodies on top, and salad dressing, I am not sure how many calories she ate compared to my 1,300, but it didn't seem like it was the best choice either. Oh well what can I do now? Nada. Just not order that again the next time I am at that restaurant, which may be hard because that Patty Melt was really good.

Last night hubby tried once again to ride his bike, even after the fall last week. Unfortunately the bike was more damaged then he realized, and it's basically toast, unless we want to drop a ton of money into fixing it up, which for a twenty year old bike seems kind of ridiculous. So hubby is officially done riding for the year, and maybe we can scrape up enough money to buy him a new bike next year. He's disappointed that he can't ride anymore, but he starts teaching at the end of the month anyway, so he's really only missing out on a couple of rides.

We had Cardio X last night and it went well. Always fun and fast. We'll be happier exercising when it isn't as hot. We're ready to say good-bye to summer, but I don't think we'll get off that easy. I am ready for Fall. It's my favorite season and I want to enjoy those cool nights, and the smells of the season, and by that I mean pumpkin spice latte's sans coffee. =)

It's been a good week so far and I plan to keep it going. Enjoy the day everyone.

P90X Round 2: Week 3

This week was one of up's and down's. The beginning of the week I was in a low place and had lost my motivation, by the end of the week I was feeling good again, and right on track. High's and low's are to be expected in life, but I can't let the low's stop me from meeting my goals. I am still pushing play, still doing my best and forgetting the rest, and I am going to hit my goal and hopefully it'll happen by the end of 2011.

Not much else to report. Next week is a recovery week so I can take it easy, and get myself excited about Phase 2. Phase 2 is hard, but I am ready for it. I've done it before, I can do it again.

Eating healthy is going well now that I was able to go grocery shopping and restock our household with healthy foods. Celery with laughing cow cheese is a favorite of hubby and me. I also really enjoy the Dreyers single serving ice creams. It's nice to find foods that taste good, but don't cost you too many calories. I also finally tried out the new 64 calorie beer and it tastes good. Even hubby likes it, and he doesn't like beer. So that is another tasty low calorie treat to have on hand.

I'm feeling good and ready for another week of P90X. To all my readers: Have a great week and Bring it!

The journey

It's been a hard couple of weeks for my husband. He's been working hard on losing weight by doing his P90X and riding his bike, but then he got hurt. Last week he hurt his knee and it was really troubling him. I told him he should go easy on the exercise so that it could heal. He agreed that even though he didn't want to, slowing down on the exercise was the right thing to do so his knee could improve, and not be damaged further. By Monday of this week he was feeling good to go again, and was all ready for a great week of P90X and riding.

And then he got hurt. While out riding his bike, which is older than dirt, the bike decided to suddenly dislodge his front wheel, while he was riding over a bump, and consequently my hubby fell off his bike. Thankfully he wasn't badly injured, nothing broken, but he wasn't exactly feeling too swell either. His elbow took a lot of the initial damage with some bleeding and scrapes, he also had road rash on his arm and back. His leg was also banged up and he came home with a limp. But the full knowledge of his injuries were not fully known until the next couple of days, when more of his body complained about the fall that he had taken.

Well needless to say my hubby didn't feel like riding last night. And doing his P90X wasn't his best effort and he eventually stopped after my urging that he needed to rest and not be a hero. My point with all of this is that sometimes shit happens. The best laid plans, fail. Sure hubby had great plans to lose x amount of weight, in X amount of days, and then he got hurt. Twice. So now what? Does he throw in the towel and say "Screw it? I blew it now I am done because I keep getting hurt?" Or does he instead take this time to heal, to get himself back to feeling fine again, and get back to it?

I gave myself a hard time on Tuesday when I went to do my Plyometrics and I had a headache. I didn't want to skip my exercise, but after just the warm-up it was clear that if I continued with the P90X I was going to make myself worse, not better. Hubby encouraged me to stop, and as much as I didn't want to, I did. Because I needed a break. My brain was thumping around in my skull something fierce and doing my P90X wasn't going to help me, in fact it probably would have made things worse. No need to be a hero.

Sometimes you have to just listen to your body when it is seriously hurt, and sit the heck down. P90X was still there for me Wednesday and I even did my Plyo then with no issues. It's all good. It's not a race who can lose the most weight the fastest. It's about the journey, and every journey is going to have ups and downs, highs and lows. I had my low earlier this week, but I am back on my journey. I know other people who have started P90x and then they had to stop because of their health, or because they weren't ready for this particular exercise program. Everyone needs to do what is best for them, for their bodies, for their own journeys, and don't be afraid to stop if need be, before getting back on track, or in my hubby's case back on that bike. You don't need to be a hero.

The Plan

Yesterday I posted about my losing momentum in my healthy lifestyle change. I had a bad day, and after giving it some thought, I think I've come up with a plan to get me back on track.

The first thing I need to do is keeping posting to my blog. No sooner did I stop posting daily to my blog, then suddenly all of my motivation went out the window. I need the blog to help keep me accountable and once a week just isn't doing the job.

The second thing I need to do is to track my calories again. I went for over two months tracking my calories every day using The Daily Plate. When I stopped tracking, I stopped keeping track of what I was eating, and how many calories I was consuming.

I think with doing these two things, along with doing my exercise nightly, I can continue to work toward my goals, and not face the yearly cycle of weight gain and regret.

Today I did both. I am currently blogging, and I have tracked everything that I have eaten. I have a better mindset then I did last night. I have a plan to keep me motivated and focused. Thank you to those of you who supported me last night, and helped me see that a bump in the road doesn't mean waving the white flag of defeat.

Back on track, still pushing play.

Losing momentum

After a big push these last three months to lose weight, and exercise daily, I can feel myself losing momentum. The willpower that pushed me through the past three months, just isn't as present anymore. The sad thing is that this is a cycle I go through every year.

In the beginning I always do well because I know that summer is fast approaching and that I want to look my best in my bathing suit, and summery clothing. I push myself hard to lose weight, and this year with the P90X, I think I looked better than ever, I certainly felt better than ever. But then sometime in August after a bunch of birthdays and celebrations, something just gives, and I stop caring as much about what I eat, and about all the calories I consume. Before I know it it's the winter holidays which always lend themselves to overeating. Come January I am at least ten pounds heavier, if not more, than what I was in July. This past year I was over fifteen pounds heavier than what I was in the previous July.

Hubby and I were just discussing this. How we want this year to be different. He was full of resolve yesterday, until he wiped out on his bike, and totally munched up his body. Now he's not feeling as much willpower, instead he just feels pain.

The upside is that I haven't stopped P90X. I haven't given up completely. I just haven't had my all into eating healthy again. And exercise without healthy eating will only hold off the weight gain for so long, before it catches up with you.

So what's the plan? To keep myself in check. Maybe I need to start posting again every day. It seems like when I posted every day I did better. I know I need to make healthier eating choices again. Sweet Tomatoes your name sounds healthy, but your food isn't exactly calorie free.

Here's to hoping that hubby and I can find that lost momentum again and we can continue to reach for our goals, and meet them in the next few months. We will not give up, we have come too far.

P90X Round 2: Week 2

Another week of P90X down. This week was tough because my birthday was last Sunday. We had lots of opportunities to eat out, and then my relatives came to town, and we celebrated even more. There were so many yummy foods and desserts, that it wasn't any surprise to me to see I was a couple of pounds higher than my lowest weight, while on the P90X. The good news is that I did my P90X exercises every.single.night. We're already back on track eating healthy again, and I hope that I can get back down to my lowest weight in a week or maybe two, depending on how long my body takes to readjust.

I told my Aunt over the phone that I was doing P90X and she had heard all about it and wanted to try it also. She said that a co-worker of hers was looking very muscular and fit and she asked him what he was doing and he said P90X! My Aunt is already a super star. She runs 6 miles every morning and every evening. She has always been physically fit and healthy while exercising without fail, and it was funny to hear her asking me about the P90X and saying that she needs it to build up some upper body strength. I hope she does do the program because I would love to hear her experiences with it.

Well one more week to go and then into my recovery week. The time just flies by. Summer vacation is almost over for my DD and then we're back to the normal around here. This summer has been a lot of fun, but I am ready for the normalcy of the school year again.

Push yourselves to do your best this week, and I will do the same. =)