Week Five Day Three

So this month I decided to start doing doubles which means I am adding an extra cardio day three times a week with the cardio X dvd. This means I have to wake up earlier in the morning to get both workouts in during the daytime. I want to start waking up at 8:00am on days that I don't go to school, and then wake up at 7:00am if I if have cardio X scheduled on a day that I do have to go to school. I noticed a little that I was having a lack of energy lately so I'm trying to get more carbs in before my workouts. I had a carb dense meal before my workout today and I felt like I was able to push a lot harder so maybe it might be time to tweak my diet. Today was back and biceps and I think this is my new favorite workout. Weights are getting a lot easier for me to lift, I'm still only lighting about 8-10 pounds but it takes considerably less effort to complete a lot of the exercises.

I posted my 30 day progress pictures on the P90x WOWY.com forum that other day and received some great feedback from other X'ers! My pictures are keeping me motivated because my weight and my measurements have not changed very much this month but my pictures show a lot of progress. I will post my pictures up as well as my measurements for my next post.

Fear less, hope more, eat less, chew more, whine less, breathe more, talk less, say more, hate less, love more, and good things will be yours.

Week Three Day Six

Just got done with Kenpo! My bodybugg showed that I burned 100 more calories this week during kenpo then last week. I was looking for proof that I was getting stronger, there it is. I'm able to push harder and go longer, I couldn't ask for much more then that.

I never thought I'd say this in my lifetime but, I'M PROUD OF MYSELF. If you know me at all, you know what that statement means to me. I made a decision to change my lifestyle, and I've kept it. And even if it hasn't been that long, it's always a day longer then I thought it would have been. I started this process very skeptical, I'm STILL skeptical I can change my life....but oddly enough that skepticism is what keeps me going. It makes me wake up in the morning with a desire to prove myself wrong. It makes me push till my breaking point during my workouts, what drives me to eat eggs whites over bacon, pushes me choose sobriety over a quick high, it makes me choose life over death. So I'll continue to wake up skeptical, because it's what keeps me going. I have a goal in the morning to get through the day one decision at a time, to choose what I think is best for me in that very moment. It's the only way to progress. Set small time goals that you can accomplish, worry about the now, keep yourself in the moment and all of a sudden life becomes much more simple and enjoyable.

Always remember that attitude is everything, once you realize that, nothing can get in your way. Your life is yours to make. Bring positivity to the table, and your likely to get positive things in return. I know it's worked wonders for me, so hopefully others will try to live by that motto as well. Love those who support you along your journey, but also love those who are skeptical, the ones who have negative things to say are the ones who inspire you to be better.

"A postive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."
And that my friends is priceless

Week Three Day Four

Not too much to go over today, finished up Yoga X earlier this morning. There are a few poses that I skip over, more so from boredom then from difficulty. I find my attention span starts diminishing after about 40 minutes into it but once the second half of yoga starts i'm back into it, phasing out again once it gets to the yoga belly 7 section! But i'd say overall I finish about 90% of the video and I'm pretty happy with that.

Tomorrow is legs and back plus ab ripper. Ah the dreaded ab ripper....oh how i despise you. I have a feeling on my third phase of p90x it's going to be one of my favorite workouts, things are considerably more enjoyable when you can actually complete them satisfactorily. I actually love the legs and back workout, I'm always feeling it the next day.

I've decided I'm going to switch to the "doubles version" starting on week 5. It adds an extra cardio workout three days a week which speeds up fat loss. I figured I have time in my schedule to workout more, so why not go for the challenge?

"Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before."

Week Three Day Three

Just finished up my shoulders & arms workout as well as the ab ripper X. I really enjoy the shoulders and arms DVD, although I can't wait until I can lift more weight....right now I'm only using 8 pound weights for the majority of the exercises. However, considering I don't want bulky arms I'm assuming I shouldn't increase the weight too much and focus more on increasing my reps. I am getting through most of the workouts pretty well at this point, but I cannot say the same for ab ripper X. Ab ripper KILLS me every time. I have seen some slight improvements, I've increased the amount of reps I can do for most of the exercises but I certainly am not even close to completing the whole dvd. Core strength is something that I've never really focused on, even when I was very thin the majority of my workouts consisted of cardio, so I'm not very surprised that my abs aren't yet made of steel. All in good time :)

Yesterday was the plyometrics workout which is actually becoming one of my favorites. It's probably the most difficult workout out of the ones that I've done so far. At the end of it I'm sweating bullets and my legs are on the verge of collapse. It feels AWESOME to push that hard. If your doing a p90x workout and by the end of it your still feeling ready to go, then you aren't giving your all. You should feel dead tired after completing most of these workouts.

I weighed in yesterday and my weight had actually increased by 3 pounds. I've always been obsessed with the number on the scale so naturally I freaked out. I've been taking my measurements alongside with my weight and it's much more of an indicator of how the body is changing. There are a lot of muscle building workouts in p90x and as we all know, muscle weighs more then fat, so it's very important to keep track of your measurements as well. It's only been 17 days on the program and I've already lost inches in my arms, legs and waist. According to those in my life I have also noticeably gotten smaller, the most difference occurring from my legs. On day 30 I will be posting all of my measurements as well as my weight so you can compare my before and afters.

I received my INSANITY package today in the mail! This is the program that I will be following once I finish my first round of p90x. It's another beachbody program which appears to be just as intense, the difference being that it is only a 60 day program and it focuses on cardiovascular training. I'm already pumped to start it, but lets get through the next 73 days first!

As far a nutrition goes I am aiming for 1200 calories a day with a 50% protein, 30% carb, and 10% fat approach. The p90x nutrition program actually allows me to eat up to 1800 calories, however considering I am trying to lose weight they suggest you subtract 500 calories from that amount to give you an estimated calorie range for weight loss. So technically I should be aiming for 1300 calories. I also use the bodybugg which is a device that estimates your calorie burn throughout the day. On an average day WITH working out with the p90x program I only burn about 2200 calories, which is indicative of me having a rather slow metabolism. They say you should have about a 1000 calorie deficit per day in order to lose about 2 pounds per week, which is why I have lowered my calorie intake to 1200 since burning 2200 calories - eating 1200 calories = 1000 calorie deficit per day. I hope overtime I can increase my calories as my metabolism speeds up and naturally will burn more calories throughout the day. It takes time to improve a slow metabolism however, and I'm willing to put in the hard work to do so. Most women burn more calories then I do during the span of a day, however living over 10 years with an eating disorder has severely affected the rate at which I burn calories. A slow metabolism CAN be cured through exercise and eating properly, which is good news for many of us.

Tomorrow is the Yoga X dvd, observably one of the least liked dvd for many people doing p90x. I can't say I enjoy the first 45 minutes of yoga, but the second half is amazing and rather enjoyable.

"The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to
stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body.
You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is
the will to succeed."- Jacqueline Gareau

P90X Week Two Day Seven

Today marks two weeks that I've been on the P90X program. While it hasn't been that long on the program I am already praising this product. To my surprise I am ALREADY seeing results, and more importantly I feel more alive then I have in years. I decided I would start a blog revolving around my journey with the P90X program in hopes to keep myself motivated and track my personal progress, as well as to provide knowledge about the program to perspective X'ers!

During late January I made a commitment to myself to to not only lose the extra weight I've put on over the past three years, but to make an honest attempt to get healthy both physically and mentally. I've struggled with body image as well as an eating disorder for almost my entire life, my hope is to embrace fitness as a lifestyle change rather then looking at it as a way to loose a few pounds. I want to wake up and workout/eat healthy everyday not only to fit into my jeans but also to allow myself to feel accomplished and proud of the way i treat my body. And the extra endorphins aren't bad either!

I started this journey with the wrong attitude and made the focus purely on weight loss. I decided to order Medifast, a home delivery system that involves eating 5 prepackaged meals with one weighed out lean and green meal. At first I really enjoyed this program because I was dropping weight rather quickly, about 2-3 pounds per week. However it only allotted around 800-900 calories per day which left me feeling sluggish and tired. While I was dropping pounds quickly, I wasn't seeing any changes in my body. I ended up completing four weeks on the program and it resulted in a 10 pound weight loss from the scale, but physically my body had not changed. At this point I realized I was going to need to exercise to change the composition of my body and I began to look at fitness programs.

A friend of mine had recently start the p90x program and was experiencing AMAZING results. I saw some of her progress pictures and was so impressed by the changes she was making. Not only had she lost a ton of weight and physically looked great, emotionally she projected so much more positivity then before and was clearly feeling a lot better about herself. I asked her some basic questions about the program and decided to buy it a few days later. I received my package and began p90x on March 1st. The first week was exciting because you get to do a new workout everyday, which really keeps things interesting. I decided to do the "lean version" which adds an extra cardio day instead of a strength training day. The second week I switched to the "classic version" because I really wanted to do plyometrics! I ended up disliking the chest and back workout so right now I switch out core synergistics for that dvd, so I'm pretty much following the classic version except for one workout.

Tomorrow is the start of my third week and I'm pumped as ever to BRING IT!