Week 2, Day 3

Today was another good day. We didn't have our workout planned until later in the day, so I had all day to do other things which was awesome. The workout was arms & shoulders and then the dreaded ab ripper x. I did heavier weights this week for the arm/shoulder workout and could do more of ab ripper. Someday I'll be able to get through the whole routine...maybe next week :)

Breakfast: Crab scramble..yum!
Snack: Cottage cheese and dried cherries
Lunch: Open-face turkey, butternut squash soup and coleslaw
Snack: Recovery drink, balance bar
Dinner: Tilapia, couscous, broccoli

Week 2, Day 2

Saturday was a great day. It was a cardio workout which I really like - really did kick my butt, but in a good way. We went out to lunch and were still able to really stay pretty much on plan, while enjoying a meal out, which was nice. Also had a Coors Light last night before dinner.

Breakfast: Chicken and spinach scramble
Snack: Recovery Drink, Coffee, string cheese
Lunch: Baja Salad with blackened tilapia
Dinner: Beer, Lemon garlic chicken, rice, veggies
Snack: Half-powerbar

Week 1, Day 5

Ok, this was a lost day in my memory, but I know we did legs and back. I'm sure I could figure out what I ate but at this point I don't really care. Anyway, legs and back was pretty intense. I tried to do the pull-ups on the bar and couldn't, but even pulling my weight up while supporting myself on a chair was really hard! So I could tell that it was still working. Also, I learned that i am a beast at wall squats. Exciting, I know ;) That's it!

Week 2, Day 1

Friday - Core Synergistics (for the second time)

Friday (today) has been a little up and down for me. I woke up feeling pretty tired and have felt a little draggy all day. We have eaten really well today though, and the second time of doing Core Synergistics I think I liked it even better because I knew the moves better. Its a really awesome workout. Me likey. On a side note, me and Erik have both noticed that our arm muscles are way more defined and its been a week. A week! That's crazy. So not sure where this is going, but I think its gonna be good. Ok, here's rundown on today's meals:

Breakfast: Sausage muffin and skim milk
Post-workout recovery drink: Protein powder, frozen banana, little milk, ice..yum!
Lunch: Island pork tenderloin salad - P90x recipe. This was good too.
Snack: Half a protein bar, coffee with (bad) flavored creamer. oh well! It was good. :)
Dinner: Chicken tacos, tortilla soup Our own recipe but according to P90x portions.

That's it. I'm feeling really good after one week of this. Stronger, healthier, and surprisingly not hungry. I'm starting to lose some of my cravings and am getting more excited for going to the beach in a month! :)

Week 1, Days 6-7

Ok, I'm doing a group post to catch up, since the point of this is not to spend tons of time on it if I slack off. I'm spending time doing the workouts! Which is more important. Anyway, the workouts for the last three days...

Wednesday - Kenpo X
Thursday - Stretch X

Wednesday started off great, ate pretty well for breakfast and lunch, but knew I was going to a party that night for LOST. So, I made a pork tenderloin for the party and knew that that would be the main part of our meal. The Kenpo workout was awesome, really kick-ass. I really liked it and honestly didn't think it was that hard because I've done lots of kickboxing classes at my gym before. Anyway, it was still a good workout. Definitely overate at the party, but I was allowing myself to go "off plan" for this one night. I drank about 3 beers (more than I was planning on..isn't that how it always goes..) and a cupcake and a brownie. Um, yeah, not exactly P90x. And, unfortunately I feel that I ended up paying for it on Thurday because I felt kind of bloated and crappy. Hmmm...could what I eat determine how I'm feeling? yeah, Maybe. :) Anyway, in the end I still ate way better than I would have if not doing P90x.

Thursday was a recovery day, in more than one way. I ate on plan for breakfast and lunch, a cheese scramble, banana, turkey bacon for breakfast, crab salad for lunch, and then dinner was a healthy choice. I just didn't have the energy to cook for dinner. We did the stretch workout which was a whole hour of just stretching, but it did feel good. Tony can be pretty convincing that stretching is really important, and I haven't been all that sore which I think is due to the warm-ups, cool-downs and stretching in general built in to all of the workouts.

Week 1, Day 4

Today I was feeling really great all day. I feel like my body is already starting to look and feel better from the extra healthy food and more likely lack of alcohol and sugar, and extra carbs. The workouts are obviously good too, but I think the food might have a faster mental/physical effect on me. I also have been sleeping really well probably because I'm exhausted, but also my stomach seems to me more settled than it is sometimes when I drink too much or eat too much sugar in the evenings.

The workout today was Yoga X (everything basically has an X). I was gearing up for this because my friend Matt told me it was an hour and a half, so I knew what I was in for. I have taken about 5 yoga classes before that were pretty intense, but definitely not as intense as this workout. This was some serious yoga. I was about ready to call it a day about half-way through the workout, but once we were done with the vinyasa portion or the workout we did lots of static poses that were a bit easier (for me). Overall it was a really great workout, even though Tony is a bit of a spazz for leading a yoga class. I'm a little sore every day so far, but nothing that has kept me from working out.

I also think today was maybe the best meals we have had so far. Really good all around.

Breakfast: Sausage muffin (veggie sausage, whole wheat english muffin, light swiss cheese), glass of skim milk
After workout: Recovery drink - Protein powder, frozen strawberries, water, ice and a spoonful of ff cottage cheese
Lunch: Steak and arugula salad
Snack: Protein bar
Dinner: Chicken with honey chile sauce, zucchini, and rice (supposed to have quinoa but don't have any and we still have rice leftover from the last few days)

Week 1, Day 3

So I'm posting about yesterday so the details might be a little fuzzy. This day started off good and then went a little downhill, but then I rallied. This was "arms and shoulders" day plus "ab ripper X". We got up, had breakfast, waited a bit and then did our workout. It was a pretty intense arm and shoulder workout, but I felt like I wasn't quite pushing myself as far as I could have. I think next time instead of using 5 lb. weights I'll try 8's for at least some of the exercises. Also, by the time we got to the ab ripper I was totally running out of gas and stopped half-way through because I just couldn't make myself do it. Speaking of which, the ab ripper workout is insanely hard. I want to try it again when I'm not so tired and see if I think the same thing.

Meals today were pretty good overall, I just had a stomach ache at the beginning of the day and had to adjust my meals accordingly so it didn't get too bad. I have IBS so I have to be a little careful about what and when I eat certain foods.

Breakfast: Chicken scramble, turkey bacon, and half an orange (or juice but we just ate the orange)
Recovery drink: protein powder, water, blended
Snack: Half a banana
Lunch: Shrimp stir-fry with lots of veggies. I added some white rice to help my tummy.
Dinner: Halibut with homemade pesto, zucchini and rice (I just ate half the amount of rice since I had some at lunch)
Snack: Half a protein bar. FYI, we got these zone bars at target - chocolate caramel something? and they are freaking amazing. SOOOO good. yum.

Week 1, Day 2

So day 2 is almost over. Today was a little harder in terms of planning because we were traveling most of the day and eating on the plan was kind of challenging. The workout was Cardio X which I actually really liked. It reminded me of a mix of other aerobic workouts I have done in the past, just slightly more intense. I'm a little sore, but nothing crazy. We'll see how I feel in the morning.

I was also definitely hungrier today, not sure if its because its the second day or just the combination of foods today. I was craving carbs and sweets a little more than yesterday but I think its also because I'm in serious PMS mode (sorry if thats tmi). Anyway, here's what I ate today..

Breakfast: Protein shake with berries, skim milk and bananas
Recover drink: Protein powder with water and ice, blended
Lunch: Chicken salad (P90x recipe) with greens
Snack: Half-protein bar
Snack II: String cheese
Dinner: Some carrots and strawberries, turkey and gravy, butternut squash soup, sweet potato, and green beans, and (dessert..yeah) half a protein bar
Late snack (we ate dinner around 7 and I was still hungry..so..) some watermelon and half a protein bar.

Tomorrow we are doing arms and shoulders (i think) and ab ripper.

Week 1, Day 1

Well, its almost over...the first day of P90X! Me and my husband are doing P90X Lean, which basically just means it has a bit more cardio and a little less upper body work than the "classic" or the (insane) "doubles" programs. The first thing so far that has struck me is the sheer amount of food that you're supposed to eat. Its crazy! Its really healthy, but I'm just not used to eating that much. For the first 30 days you eat a lot of protein and not many carbs, so that will take some getting used to, but I was definitely not hungry at all.

The workout today was "core synergistics" - about a 55 min. workout that was pretty intense. We both sweated a lot and I think will even more once we get the moves down a bit more. I liked the workout mainly because there are many levels that you can do all of the moves, so even if you can't do the most intense option there are still ways to get something out of it.

Food journal for the day:
Breakfast: Mushroom scramble - 6 egg whites, mushrooms, tomato, gr. onion, l.f. mozzarella, 8 oz. ff cottage cheese (basically a shitload of cottage cheese) and a cup of strawberries. I could barely finish the scramble and save d the cottage cheese and strawberries for later, which I mixed together and froze because I am weird...but...
Recovery drink: Protein powder plus skim milk plus some frozen strawberries and cottage cheese. This was so good!! I bought this brand of protein powder called Aria I think? Its from TJs and is specifically for women, and less caloric that the other metrx stuff. I thought it was really yummy made with my fancy stick blender.
I was supposed to eat a bar also but was so not hungry so I didn't.
Lunch: Chef salad with basically the most meat and cheese I've ever eaten in a salad. It also had hearts of palm which are really freaking good, a little avocado, a little low-fat ranch, and some other veggies. Super good, but I also had to eat it in two sittings because it was so much food.
Snack: Almonds, I think I ate more than I was supposed to, 1 oz, so next time I'm just going to eat half that.
Dinner: Roasted red pepper soup from scratch that was amazing! Salmon with lemon dill sauce (wa- wah....blah.) and asparagus and wild rice. Soup was definitely the best part of dinner. I over cooked the salmon which made me very sad.
Dessert...dessert? Well, I use the term loosely for a plan that basically doesn't involve sugar..but I ate half a peanut balance bar since I didn't eat it earlier and wanted something sweet.
Oh, and like a gazillion cups of water. And like a half a cup of coffee with some 2% milk. '

Like I said, tons-o-food, but not many carbs, so I guess that's how it doesn't add up to being like a million calories. It was definitely filling and I'm looking forward to tomorrow...and even more to like 2 weeks from now to see if my jeans aren't quite so tight.

Gearing up!

So we start tomorrow and I have a few more things I need to get today to prepare. We're going to Aldi's to get the rest of our groceries, and then I also need to get one of those workout band thingies that attaches to a door frame. I'm thinking either target or sportsmart or something. Hmm...

Anyway, we are going to do the Lean version of P90x which is supposedly slightly easier, and less upper body, more cardio. We'll see how it goes - I'm sure my posts will be more interesting once the program actually starts!

Preperation is everything

So me and my husband have decided to try P90x to get in SHAPE for the summer (and in general). I'm pretty excited to start it, and a little scared. I'm going to use this blog to type out my frustrations and hopefully my new insights into my health and body.

We went shopping yesterday for groceries for the meal plan. The food actually looks really good, and is definitely healthy (no surprise there). The only thing I'm apprehensive about is the concept of denying myself certain foods..such as alcohol and sugar. I know if I do this I'll get better results, but I also want to maintain a bit of normalcy, as this is the start of summer! So, I'll let you know when I indulge and when I'm strict and we'll see how this effects my results and overall mood/energy levels.

I'm just setting up the blog today, we are starting the program on Friday...so there will definitely be more to come.