P90X: Round 2: Week 2

I had an OK week this week...still not eating nearly as good as I'd like to be.  As I said last week, that 6-week in-between period really screwed me up and had my mind telling me it's OK to eat that way...I've already lost 50 pounds!  True, but I really want to get down below 200 and that will take another 27 pounds.  I don't think I'll get there eating like this.  I'm not sure how to fix it...but I need to...soon.

As for the program, I had to adjust again.  Monday was our last Senior legion baseball game so I missed that workout and moved everything out.  Then, it was so hot Wednesday night (when I was supposed to do Plyometrics...which I have to do in the garage) that I did Kenpo inside instead.  This was supposed to push Plyometrics to Friday but it was 100+ degrees again and I decided to do Yoga...hoping it would be cooler on Sunday...which it was.

Basically, as you can see below...I did no workout on the day it was originally scheduled.  :)  Oh well, I got them all done, so that's the important thing.

Monday: Chest and Back No Workout
Tuesday: Plyometrics Chest and Back
Wednesday: Shoulders and Arms Kenpo
Thursday: Kenpo Shoulders and Arms
Friday: Shoulders and Arms Yoga
Saturday: Yoga Legs and Back
Sunday: Stretch Plyometrics

I think I'm going to try to do Stretch tonight if I have time to (which I should).  I really enjoyed it last year, when it was the only workout on Sunday and especially after I did Legs and Back, which leaves me sore every time.

Dan

P90X: Round 2: Week 1

I've come to the end of my first week of P90X round 2, and boy was it painful!   I wouldn't think that taking 6 weeks off between would make such a big difference, but I was really sore this week...just like I was during the first week of round 1.  Now it's Sunday and I'm feeling much better...with the usual glute/upper leg soreness from Legs and Back.  I'm hoping that week 2 is much easier and less sore like it was in week 1.

As for eating, I'm not doing as good as I should be.  Not horrible, just not as good as I'd like.  The 6 week period between rounds has brought back some bad habits that I need to rid myself up pretty quick here.

As for the program, I've made one simple change.  I've swapped Yoga and Kenpo around.  I now do Kenpo on Thursday and Yoga on Saturday, when I have more time for a 90 minute workout.  Kenpo is <60 minutes, so it just makes sense.

So, one week down...12 to go.  I'm really excited about where this round is going to take me and my fitness level.  I'd love to see my abs, but if I don't, that's ok because I still will have worked my ass off during that 13 weeks.

Talk to you next Sunday!!

Dan

Round 2, Day 6: Kenpo X

Didn't get up early Saturday to get this workout in, but I did have some good luck...for P90X anyway.  We were supposed to have a Senior Legion tournament in Falls City Saturday starting as noon, and just as the first game was winding down, we got about 1.5 inches of rain...in the span of about 30-40 minutes.  Needless to say, the tournament was cancelled so I had all kinds of time in the early afternoon to workout.

Kenpo...well, it's Kenpo.  It's a fun workout and I have a lot of areas to improve.  For example, my side and back kicks with the left leg are still ugly and wouldn't be very effective in a real situation.  I also need to try and improve my hip and feet movement during some of the punch sequences.  All in all, though, the goal is to burn calories, and I certainly did that.  My heart rate monitor showed 75-85% max heart rate most of the time, so that's very good.

I'm just getting ready to do my X Stretch, so I'll be shooting off a post on that later this evening or tomorrow.

Dan

Round 2, Day 5: Legs and Back with Ab Ripper X

Well, just like the Yoga workout I did today, I "nailed" the legs and back workout too.  Again, I don't know what it is, but I was really going after it tonight.  I would have expected that with my doing two workouts today, I may have trouble with legs and back, and I guess some of the "usual suspects": were still harder than others (I really stink at balance lunges), but again I was huffing and puffing after this workout more than I ever did the firs time around.

Ab Ripper was pretty much a carbon copy of Wednesday's workout.  I did all of the reps with a couple going past the "time limit" imposed on the TV.  None more than 5-10 seconds, though.

Maybe this is a sign of what's to come.  I really have a great feeling about how I'm going to feel when day 90 of round 2 rolls around.  I have 2 goals.  1) I want to go below 200 pounds. 2) I'd love to see my abs.  I don't know if either are possible, but they are goals that I can shoot for, right?

Kenpo tomorrow morning, as I have a busy Saturday planned.  Baseball tournament, wedding reception, and Wendy's 20 year class reunion.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Dan

Days 90 & 91: Yoga X and REST!!!

Sorry for the last post, folks, but this was an extremely busy weekend.  Falls City hosted a 6-team American Legion Junior baseball tournament.  3 teams from Nebraska (Falls City, Auburn, and Tecumseh) and 3 teams from Kansas (Sabetha, Holton, and Doniphan County).  The teams from each state played each other on day 1 (Saturday) and then today we had the 5th, 3rd, and 1st place games pitting teams from each state against each other.  We were fortunate enough to not only win the tournament (we beat Doniphan County 10-6), but Auburn and Tecumseh also won, so it was a clean sweep for Nebraska.

Because we hosted the tournament, we all spent all day Saturday there, and all Sunday afternoon and evening as well.  Therefore, I got up early Saturday morning the completed my final Yoga X session for this round of the P90X program.  It really feels good to get the workouts done in the morning, and not have to worry about doing them so late at night.

For Sunday, I fully planned on doing X Stretch when I got home from the games, but I'm spent, folks!!!  I'm going to go ahead and take option #1 of that "Rest or X Stretch" wording in the P90X workout guide.

As for final results, I had a slight problem with my scale.  It decided to crap out on me with dead batteries, and it uses the watch battery style.  Therefore, I fell back to the Wii Fit scale.  While it does read about 10 pounds light compared to my regular scale, I did have an early March (when I started the program) weigh-in on the Wii to refer to.  Therefore, according to the Wii, I lost 46.1 pounds total (265.7 to 219.6). Awesome!!!  Of course, it doesn't measure body fat, so I'm going to have to replace the batteries in the regular scale to get that.

Also, I have updated the final pictures to the website as well, and they are accessible from the "P90X Pictures" link at the top.

What a ride this has been for me.  I've been looking so long for something to help me get in better shape and lose weight, and this program nailed it for me.  I'm so happy that I stumbled upon those commercials way back when.

Where do I go now?  Well, I can pretty much guarantee that this will not be the only time I follow the program. As for when I start again, I was first considering the end of baseball season.  However, the nuclear plant I work  at has a refueling outage coming up in October.  As I work 60 hours a week during an outage, I don't want to be spending an additional hour doing workouts.  I then considered just starting up again, but baseball keeps me so busy that I really need to conserve my free time.

Therefore, here is the current plan:

1. Do Plyometrics, Kenpo, Cardio, or Core Synergistics 2-3 times as week as time permits
2. Eat the same healthy foods I ate during the program.
3. Start up with the next round of P90X after the refueling outage.

This plan should help me to still drop weight (slower of course) until I'm ready to start up with the program again.

Thanks for following me throughout this journey!

Dan

Day 87: Kenpo X

Well, I got the workout in plenty early tonight!  Our baseball games were postponed due to rain, so I was home nice around 7:30 and got to spend some time with the family.  I still have difficulty doing side and back kicks with my left leg, but it's been that way the whole program.  I feel like my ball kicks are higher than they were when I started, and the (right foot) side and back kicks have much better form.

Still eating healthy meals, but haven't kicked the habit of snacking on not-so-healthy stuff every now and again.  This is something I really need to bear down on now because when I go off of the program in a few days, it's going to be that much harder, I'm afraid.  I have to believe that the progress I've made and the great comments I've been getting from people will help keep me true on my diet.

I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to do for exercise starting next week.  I've considered walking, running at the high school track, or even doing Kenpo X and Plyometrics on nights that I don't have games.  I definitely want to ensure that I'm exercising at least 3 times a week during my P90X downtime, because I certainly do not want to regress.

4 days to go!

Dan

Day 86: Core Synergistics

It's late, so I'm going to make this quick!  :)

If I haven't mentioned it before, this is a good well-rounded workout.  Kind of a nice hybrid between the other workouts in the P90X program.  Except for Kenpo moves and Pull-ups, it has it all!  I'll be doing it again (for the last time) in a few days.  The only real issue I had was I tuckered out at the end of the prison cell push-ups.

Kenpo tomorrow...after another set of games.  We won 6-5 (juniors) and 10-0 (seniors) tonight!

Dan

Day 84 (part 2): X Stretch

Late night stretching!!!  Started after midnight tonight!  Had baseball today and then a family get together with the in-laws on the back deck with a fire in the chiminea.  After that I compiled some baseball statistics so I could send them to the boys and coaches tomorrow.  So, X Stretch got pushed way back.  It's ok, though, because tomorrow is a holiday and a day off so I can sleep in!

Well, today ended Week 12 of P90X, and al I have left is a recovery week next week.  2 Yogas, 2 Core Synergistics, 2 X Stretch and a Kenpo.  It's pretty amazing to look back on all of the work I've put into this program over the past 3 months!!

Off to bed!  I really need my beauty sleep...ask anybody!  :)

Dan

Day 84 (part 1): Kenpo X

Did Kenpo X this morning, as I had hoped to do.  Forgot to put on the heart rate monitor, so I don't know how that was, but I'm pretty sure it was good as I really "brought it" during the workout.  I still have trouble with kicks with the left leg for some reason.  It's been that way the entire time.  I also have trouble with glut stretch when I cross the left leg across my right thigh.  Also pidgin is hard for me when I tuck in the left leg.  I think that leg is either just really badly inflexible or there's some sort of physical issue with it.  Another odd thing...I'm left-handed but kick with my right foot.  Most left-handed people kick left, so it could be that this issue (whatever it it) has been with me since I was young and caused me to learn to kick right instead.

I'll be doing X Stretch tonight when I get home from the baseball games.  That will catch me up from the missed workout I had on Wednesday of this week.

Dan

Day 81: Back and Biceps with Ab Ripper X

Back on track tonight...because there's no late baseball!  :)  Did the final Back and Biceps workout tonight, and it went pretty good.  I'm up 10-15 lbs in almost every exercise in the workout, and the new band is really giving me some extra resistance I didn't get with the old one.

I don't think I told you about the band...I was working out to one of the back exercises a little more than a week ago and my band broke!  Luckily it broke right by the handle and not in the middle.  Gave me a little scare for a split-second there, but nobody was hurt!  So, I got a new band at the new Dick's Sporting Goods that opened up in St. Joseph about a month ago.  It's one that has the handles that can be placed on any band.  I'm using the green band, which I think is 80 or 90lb of resistance.

As for Ab Ripper, I barely made 349/349 again.  During the pulse-ups, my last two "reps" were done after Tony and the gang were done.  Not exactly what I wanted, but I did do 25 reps!

OK, on to Yoga tomorrow.  Again, a good day for it because we have no games or practice tomorrow.  Saturday (Legs and Back with Ab Ripper) and Sunday (Kenpo & X Stretch) we have a tournament in Auburn.  I'm hoping to get the workouts done in the morning so I don't have to worry about them.  Doing that last Saturday made such a big difference!

Dan

Day 80: No Workout

Well, work and baseball games dominated the day today.  I didn't get home until 10:30pm and hadn't eater supper yet.  Therefore, I'm pushing the scheduled workouts back a day and plan on doing Kenpo and X Stretch on Sunday...one in the morning and one in the evening.

Speaking of baseball, we beat Doniphan County tonight 4-0 to up our record to 4-0 on the young season.  Our Seniors also won 2-1 and are 2-1 on the season (isn't that weird???).

So, Back and Biceps with Ab Ripper X tomorrow (no baseball...should be good!)

Dan

Day 76: Kenpo X

Well, I did it!  I actually got up early yesterday morning and did my P90X workout!  I went to sleep about 1am the night before, and was up at 5:30am to do Kenpo.  I was a little tired, of course, but the workout went really well.  Besides X Stretch, Kenpo X is the easiest workout to keep up with, but it does work you pretty well.  I had plenty of energy to "bring it" the whole time.

I'll be doing X Stretch here in a bit and will post on that soon.

Baseball-wise, the Juniors team I coach is now 3-0, as we beat Tecumseh 10-5 on Saturday night, and then defeated Syracuse 4-0 this afternoon.  Very proud of those guys so far...great group.  The Seniors team, which I help with also, were "lightning-ed out" last night and lost a tough one to Syracuse 3-1 today.

Dan

Day 75: Legs and Back with Ab Ripper X

Another late night workout today, as I started up after 10pm.  I think I'm getting used to it, though, because it doesn't seem to bother me as much as it did before.  And doing it this way lets me spend max time with the family as well, which is a big priority for me... especially since baseball is taking up a large part of my time too.

Legs and back was pretty much the same as usual.  I did do a little better with the balance lunges which had given me problems in the past.  One thing that has given me problems recently is my left hip.  Whenever I do a low lunge with my left leg back, it gives me a small pain there.  I've also felt some numbness there, so I'm not sure what that is all about.  Didn't bother me at first, but is giving me a occasional twinge now and then.  Something to monitor.

I'm up to 340/349 on Ab Ripper X now, and I have three more shots at that elusive 349 number.  Cautiously optimistic that I'll get there.

Lots of baseball this weekend, with two games in Tecumseh tomorrow night and 2 games in Syracuse Sunday afternoon.  I wouldn't have it any other way, though.  Baseball rules!  :)  I also play golf tomorrow and have to be there at 8:30, so I'm going to need to get up in the morning and do Kenpo because I won't be home until after midnight more than likely.

Dan

Day 69: Kenpo X

Another long busy day...man I sound like a broken record, don't I?  Both Legion baseball teams won today...Juniors 8-0 and Seniors 5-4 in our first regular season games.  Now we get 8 days off before a quadruple header next Sunday in Syracuse and Tecumseh.

As for the workout, I started it about 9:30 after we got home from watching Dark Shadows in Hiawatha.  Pretty good movie...not spectacular, but entertaining.  Anyway, the heart rate didn't get above 140 tonight...maybe again because I've been lacking sleep lately.  I got a good workout none the less.  I'm going to be getting up early to do Wednesday's missed Ab Ripper Workout before we head off to Central City.

Going to bed...I'm pooped!

Dan

Day 68: Legs and Back with Ab Ripper X

"2nd verse...same as the first"
Another busy one today...which resulted in me starting my workout after 10pm.  Ugh!  I think I'm just going to have to accept these later workouts based on how busy I now am with work and coaching baseball.  Guess what?  This weekend isn't going to give me any relief.  Tomorrow are two baseball games at 1pm and 3pm.  then Sunday we are going to Central City for a graduation ceremony for one of Wendy's former students.  Central City is a 3.5 hour drive from Falls City!  :)

The workout went well tonight, even with the late start. I did much better on the balance lunges than I had in the past.  I also did some leg lifts with Eric (the guy on the video) during the leg lift squats.  Toe roll iso's are tough on the right leg for some reason.  I'm not sure if it's because that leg goes 2nd, or if that leg really is inferior somehow.  Oh, and my resistance band broke at the end by the handle.  Good thing I have a Dick's Sporting Goods card!

On Ab Ripper, I was a little short of my record I set on Monday, but still 2nd best ever.  Oh, and for clarification...when I count the Ab Ripper X reps, I only count what I can do by the time the people on the video get to then end of their reps.  I could max all of them, given more time.  But this is how I'be counted them all allong, so I'm not changing now!

Have a great weekend everyone!  Kenpo tomorrow!!

Dan

Day 62: Kenpo X

Kenpo!  Great workout tonight...started after 10pm!  :)  We spent quite a bit of time chatting with the family at my grandfather's 80th birthday party and didn't get home until around 9.  Having said that, it was a good workout!  Even if it was done late, I felt great!!

I got a lot of great compliments from family tonight who hadn't seen me since I started the program.  It feels pretty good and make all of the hard work, sweat, and healthy meals worthwhile!  By the way, I had 3 smoked ribs, 4 small pieces of pork loin, some lettuce salad...another broccoli salad and fruit salad.  Very good...great job on the meat, dad!!

Unless we get rain, I'll be mowing at the cemetery tomorrow.  I'm going to attempt to do my X Stretch workout before I go so I don't have to worry about it tomorrow night when I'm spent from all that mowing.

Dan

Day 61: Legs and Back with Ab Ripper X

Well, I am caught up with workouts now!  I didn't do Ab Ripper yesterday because I had already done Yoga in the morning and Legs and Back in the evening.  I did it this morning.  Now, when I do Kenpo tonight I'll be back on schedule.  Whew!  I'm really going to try and focus on getting these workouts done earlier so I don't run into these problems again!

Legs and Back went just fine, as usual.  I'm doing more reps now on the pull-up exercises with the bands.  I'm excited to see if I can do one "real" pull up during my post-fit test.  I'd at least hope to be able to do one!

At the dinner for my mom's birthday last night I had a very good dinner!  I had grilled salmon with some teryaki sauce, some steamed broccoli and a salad.  Very good!

Ok, so Kenpo tonight.  I have baseball scrimmages today at 1 and 3 and then an 80th birthday party for my Grandfather after that.  I hope to be home by 8 at the latest, which won't be too bad.

Have a great Saturday everyone!

Dan

Day 52: Kenpo X

ROYALS WIN!!! ROYALS WIN!!!

Ok, wanted to get that off my chest first!  :)  If you don't follow baseball (shame on you!), my favorite team, the Kansas City Royals, snapped a 12-game losing streak tonight by winning in Cleveland 8-2.  What a relief!  Time for a winning streak!

Ok, now on to P90X.  I'm feeling great today, because I had at least three people tell me they can really tell I've lost weight!  I knew I had because the scale told me so...and I'd seen a few things in the mirror but apparently it's getting obvious now.  How exhilarating it feels to hear those things.  It really makes all of the sore muscles and late nights and sweat all seem worth it that much more.

Did Kenpo tonight...can't say too much about it.  It's an easy and fun workout that makes you sweat a lot!  I did notice one thing tonight.  When I went to do the pigeon (is it pigeon?  or some other bird?) stretch where you have to bend your leg under your torso and then stretch over it, I couldn't bend my left foot under at all.  Right leg, no problem.  Also, whenever I do side and back kicks with my left foot, they aren't nearly as good and crisp as the right leg.  Same thing with glute stretch...it's much harder to do when I cross with the left leg.  Apparently it's not as flexible or something, but this "bird" stretch really opened my eyes to it.

Oh well, on I go.  X Stretch tomorrow.

Dan

Day 48: Kenpo X

Another busy day for me today.  Brandt, my brother in law Dustin, and I spend some time mowing the cemetery.  It was actually a good day for it as it wasn't hot at all.  In fact, it was cool enough in the morning that we had sweatshirts on...and were still a bit cold.  Put it this way...we had work gloves on but not because we were protecting our hands from blisters!

At 4 we had a soccer game, and when we got home from that, I should have done my workout, but I waited until about 9:30 again.  Obviously, something I really need to work on!  I noticed that my heart rate didn't get quite as high as it has in the past for this workout.  Maybe because it was too late.

Baseball scrimmages in Auburn this afternoon and then X Stretch before I begin recovery week #2. tomorrow.

Dan

Day 41: Kenpo X

Much better on the food front today.  Not perfect, but improvement.  I had a good breakfast and lunch...right on track.  For supper, Brandt and Wendy decided to get some Breadeaux pizza and mexican  cheese sticks (yummo!).  I had two of the small corner pieces of the cheese sticks.  Other than that, super day!

Did great on the workout this evening.  We thought we might do some cemetery mowing today, but as some of you may know we had some strong storms roll through today and tonight.  Therefore, the mowing will have to wait until maybe tomorrow.

X Stretch tomorrow!

Dan