Visual Progress Report

Well, I'm 21 days late with the photos (I was supposed to post new ones on Day 30...), but here they are, with Day 0 comparisons. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a drastic change. However, I have lost two inches in my waist, and can now fit into waist size 32 pants!! I haven't seen that in more than 15 years!

Here they are (click on a photo to embiggerize):


Day 0...No, I haven't gotten shorter!...Day 49


Day 0 ................ Day 49


Day 0 ................ Day 49


Day 0 ................ Day 49


Day 0 ................ Day 49


Day 0 ................ Day 49

I switched mid-stream from the cumbersome, ineffective (for me) resistance bands, to a more traditional dumbbell set, and I have been dealing with my right shoulder issue, so there are two excuses I can offer for the lack of improvement in definition. I still have a considerable amount of belly fat, but it has shrunk. My pants don't lie.

I don't imagine there will be much purpose in taking day 60 photos (as I'm supposed to do) in only 11 days, but I will try to do so anyway and post them here, again with Day 0 comparisons. You never know; there could be some noticeable change. I noticed today that I seem to be dropping weight after maintaining 180 since I started P90X. I'm headed into the recovery phase of Training Block 2. I'm told that some pretty drastic changes occur in Training Block 3.

So, I dunno. We're each our own worst critic. I don't see much change or improvement in the new photos. Let me know what you think ... other than that I need to get out in the sun more....



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Motivation Deprivation

Over this past week I had a two-day shoot gig. Last month when I had a three-day shoot gig, I took only the three days, and suffered the consequences when I had a short week from which to make up the next week's lease payment on the taxi. This month I decided to take the whole week off. The coming week's lease is paid already, and I'll just pick up from where I left off.

All that aside, I knew that several days' loafing, as well as the two long days of shooting and traveling, would affect my motivation for working out. And I was right. Monday's workout came very late in the day ..er, night... Tuesday was the first day of the shoot, local, but then I drove to Muskegon, Michigan, and arrived late. There was definitely no opportunity to work out where I stayed (think RUSTIC). Wednesday I shot in Michigan, and then drove back, again arriving very late in the evening. Two days with no workouts.

Thursday was spent returning gear, the rental car, and I had a job interview downtown!! I failed to get the energy up and press play, so no workout Thursday, either. I originally thought I would knock out two workouts a day to catch up, but Friday I decided I would forgo all the cardio workouts for the week, and just focus on the resistance workouts...at least the ones I can do without my right shoulder. So Friday it was Biceps (I skipped Ab Ripper X because I wanted to get out to see a movie...yeah, motivation!!), and Saturday will be Legs and Ab Ripper X.

Good news, though, is that on Monday I finally bit the bullet and bought a sensible alternative to the stupid resistance bands. At $400 dollars that I really can't afford to spend, I bought a Bowflex SelecTech BD552 Dumbbells set:


Click on photo to embiggerate.
Don't worry, it won't get heavier...

They're mechanical dumbbells with selector knobs that, when the dumbbells are in their tray, allow the user to quickly change the weight from as light as 5 pounds each up to 52.5 pounds each. It was expensive, but I saved about $100 and a ton of space over buying individual pairs of dumbbells, not to mention the fact that the Bowflex set weighs a total of 105 pounds, where individual pairs of dumbbells, starting at 5 pounds and going up to 50 pounds in 5 pound increments per dumbbell, would weigh 550 pounds!! I got more than a quarter-ton of workout weights in a package that I can carry in two hands.

Theoretically.

May the next week I be faithful.



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Setback

For several months before I started P90X I had noticed soreness in my right shoulder when I moved it into certain positions, usually with my arm stretched out in front of me or above my head. It came on gradually, so I figured it was just out of laziness and lack of motion, brought on by the limited movement involved in driving a taxi ten hours or more a day. I also noticed that the pain didn't happen in the same positions if my arm bore a load of some sort, and that made me ever more certain that it just needed exercise.

During Training Block 1 of P90X I had no trouble at all with my shoulder; the warmup before each workout all but eliminated the pain. But something changed during the recovery week of Training Block 1, because when I started Training Block 2 last Monday, I couldn't shake or warm up the pain out of my shoulder. And when I started the Day 1 workout — Chest, Shoulders & Back — there was nothing I could do with my right arm that didn't cause severe pain in my shoulder. I was devastated emotionally. I was finally psyched up for really the first time in my life about working out, and Monday it seemed like it was all over. I stopped the DVD and emotionally curled up into a little ball.

It was a brief moment of panic, but after I calmed down I realized that it's just my shoulder. Yes, it connects the arm to the body, and just about anything that involves the arm involves the shoulder, but I can still do biceps and most triceps exercises. I can still (unfortunately) do the Ab Ripper X workouts. And the leg workouts.

I took a look at WebMD online and determined from the symptoms that it's likely a "chronic tear" in my rotator cuff. It's common in men my age, common in the dominant arm, and comes on gradually, often with no definitive injury event to point to. So, eliminated until I can get it checked out and corrected (I have no health insurance at the moment) are all chin-ups and pull-ups, push-ups, yoga, shoulder "fly" exercises, and some triceps moves that involve extending my arms above my head.

I'll be a chiseled god from below the chest, down. Chest and up, I'll still be all marshmallowy....



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Recovery Phase

The P90X Extreme Home Fitness program is designed in three training blocks of 28 days. Each block is broken down into two phases: Adaptive & Mastery Phase; Recovery Phase. Adaptive & Mastery is pretty self-explanatory. You do these exercises. Your body isn't used to them, so it must adapt to the movements, build new strength to do them more easily, and eventually master the movements. And that's when you change what you;re doing. It's called "muscle confusion." Never let the muscles settle into a routine. That's when your body hits a plateau. After three weeks of Adaptive & Mastery, just when the muscles are solid and you feel confident and secure about the exercises, the program changes.

The Recovery Phase eliminates all the weight training and focuses on stretching, cardio, and core training, and allows the muscles that have been worked so hard in the lifting and pulling workouts to fully recover. And grow. It also introduces a few new workouts, such as "Core Synergistics" and "Stretch X," while working in a few familiar workouts such as "Yoga X" and "Kenpo X."

Today is day 22, the first day of the Recovery Phase of Training Block 1. I was looking forward to a brand new workout, but was disappointed to look at the schedule and see that today is "Yoga X." But the mantra of P90X is "Just press play. So I did.

I've been having trouble with "Yoga X" because of my aforementioned lower back/left hamstring. The hamstring is extremely tight, and is either the result of or the cause of my lower back pain. Today I vowed to take it a little easier through the stretches and poses of "Yoga X," and to my surprise, thgouh I still couldn't do all the poses or hold the ones I could do for as long as they do in the video, I was able to do more than I could last time. I even tried and found some success with the balance postures, which had me perched precariously on one leg while extending various other limbs out and up! Where the last three times I skipped the middle half-hour of "Yoga X," today I stuck it through and at least tried all the poses and movements. I felt damn proud of myself. Not to mention soaking sweaty wet.

So it's this kind of stuff for the rest of the week. Next week begins Training Block 2, with a workout of the Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, and, of course, the dread Ab Ripper X!

Still with it!

Just because I haven't posted here in a week doesn't mean I quit...even though that's what I wrote in the description up top. BE PATIENT, PEOPLE! Give it a couple of weeks before you assume I quit. (Though do keep an eye on the obituary pages, as those go up within a day or two, and they don't repeat....)

It's Friday, so today was Legs and Back again. I'm too lazy to actually write, here, so below is my copied and pasted entry from the Team Beachbody message boards:

Did Yoga X Thursday mid-day, before heading out for a long shift. I've been dealing with a finicky lower back off and on since I was a teenager. My left side above the glute, and then on down the hamstring, and sometimes into my groin...they get tweaked, and they let me know how unhappy they are. My left hamstring is ridiculously tight. When I stand for too long (and lately 5 minutes is too long :( ) my back goes into painful spasm and I have to sit and/or stretch it out.

In Yoga X, the standing stretch of the RIGHT side, with the left side compressed, was too painful to do. So, needless to say, though I Brought It to Yoga X Thursday, I was about half-intensity (though FULL sweat!). I did a few more of the poses that I avoided last week, though none of the balance poses.

Today, however, though my back was talking to me before the Legs & Back workout, it gave me no problems during! On the other hand, I did the workout not long after waking up and having a small snack (one hard-boiled egg whites (I botched the boil and the yolks were semi-solid... YECCHHH!)) I had to hit pause a few times after some of the leg exercises before hitting the chin-up bar. And I only made it half-way through the one-leg wall squats (I killed all the wall squats last week!!)

Today, with the chin-ups, I did only negatives* and counted the time that my arms stayed at 90° or less. And, yes, the numbers were pathetic! But at least those are more real than the "leg-ups," and I can gauge true progress that way.

But the workout, combined with , I'm sure, poor nutrition/first thing after waking up, left me totally wiped. I skipped Ab Ripper X completely. I think I will try it tomorrow after Kenpo X. We'll see. It's a shame, too, because I think I'm actually beginning to see a little definition pushing through the fat on my belly!

Nutrition accountability: Thursday night I ate a Met-Rx Power Bar as a meal replacement (before I saw the suggestion [in this message board thread] for Clif Bars). I love the disclaimer on the wrapper, something to the effect of, "Contains sugar alcohols. May cause gastrointestinal discomfort. Frequent consumption may have a laxative effect." I ate it anyway.

Later on I tried a "Muscle Shake" chocolate flavored drink. I don't know if that was too much, too many calories or carbs or protein after the Power Bar, but I do know it was BLECHHH! It tasted like I was sucking on metal. And the taste stuck with me for hours after I finished the drink!

I'll stick with the fart bars, thank you!




*"negatives" are achieved with assistance to the top of the chin-up, and then dangling and holding the "up" position as long as you can, and slowly lowering yourself (as though you had a choice!) to the bottom.



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Changes

I'm nearing the end of week 2 of P90X, now, and, despite missing the second workout of Chest and Back on Monday, I have begun to notice some changes.

My legs are feeling stronger. I get in and out of the taxi probably a half-dozen times a day; more if I'm really busy. Before starting with P90X (and dealing with lower back pain that I know from the past is due to weak back muscles - hence I'm working out) I noticed that I had started using my left arm as a lever to raise myself out of the seat to get out of the car. And getting into the car, I was stepping in with my right foot and then dropping into the seat. Now I'm using mainly my legs to get in and out of the car!

My energy level has increased slightly. My sleep schedule is still on the deprivation side and, though the P90X literature stresses adequate sleep, I'm noticing less sleepiness while I'm working, and fewer or shorter naps when business gets slow. And I'm still caffeine free!

I'm already seeing less of me. While my weight has plateaued at around 180 lbs., I've noticed that my belly fat has decreased. Pants that had been loose around my waist after working with George, the personal trainer last year, and had begun to fit more snugly recently are once again feeling loose. With/After P90X, I may finally feel the confidence and self-assurance to go out and buy replacement pants for a new, smaller waist size!

Day 12: Legs and Back; Ab Ripper X
Today's workout was Legs and Back, and Ab Ripper X. I did great in the Legs and Back workout, keeping up with most of the routines. I'm still using a step-stool for the chin-ups. Next go-round I'm going to push the stool further away from me so that my arms work harder, and the leg has less say in the deal. I still can't do ONE without aid. Grrr.

Ab Ripper X, on the other hand, kicked my ass today. As I'm officially on the night shift for the weekend, I worked out in the early evening shortly after waking up. I think I over-hydrated, or I began working out too soon after drinking a full glass of water. About 1/3 of the way through Ab Ripper X I started feeling like I was going to hurl if I pushed much harder. So I lay there panting and sweating on my mat, watching the exercises and studying form. I sat through most of the middle ones, and then joined in on the last move, a seated on the floor, balanced on your tailbone, feet off the floor and legs bent position, matching about one for every two of their reps of touching joined fists on the floor on one side of the body and then the other, back and forth. They do it fifty times, but I managed to do maybe 30.

I was wiped for sure, and I spent a good deal of time walking around with my hands on my hips, my head hanging from my shoulders, trying to just feel better. After a shower and the P90X recovery drink, I do feel better.

Kenpo X again tomorrow, and then it's on to week three!



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Where the heck am I?

I haven't posted here for a while. No I haven't quit. And I hope it's obvious that I didn't die....

Life has been busy the last few days after getting back from the shoot in Omaha, and getting on track again with the taxi schedule. I skipped Monday's return to Chest and Back all together, but I have stayed with the rest of P90X. Perhaps I'll double up on it somewhere down the road so that I'll have the same number of workouts with Chest and Back as I do with all the others.

Life is still busy, so this is a short post.

Was that a collective sigh of relief I heard?



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Nutrition Plan on the road: Epic Fail

I knew going into the road trip that I would face challenges to keep with the workouts and the nutrition. I did well on the way to Omaha, but once there, it was a different story.

The person who was the subject of the video I shot is a very gracious man who has a wonderful, huge home, and who put the producer and me up for both nights in his home. While that was great, it meant we were captive to his (or his wife's) meal choices. Sunday evening that choice was grilled hamburgers, baked beans, and potato chips among others. I "made up" for it with a Michelob Ultra light beer. FAIL.

When I thought I had eaten my fill, the Mrs. pulled from the freezer homemade ice cream sandwiches (two chocolate ship cookies with ice cream between them). FAIL. *sigh*

Monday's lunch was Jimmy Johns sub sandwiches. I had the "Vito." Could've done better, but I could've done worse. And potato chips. FAIL.

Monday evening our host brought us to a monastery themed steak house. Twelve(?) ounce ribeye (salmon was on the menu, but I am a total sucker for steak!)...FAIL. Steamed broccoli with melted cheddar cheese... win. Once slice of bread, no butter...win. Two glasses of wine... FAIL, FAIL! One-third of a shared chocolate ice cream pie thingy. F A I L!!

Breakfast both days was a spread laid out by the Mrs.: Blueberry and raspberry muffins, one each day...FAIL, FAIL. Orange juice...win. Fruit bowl (strawberry, banana, grape, others?)...fail.

It's not like I had a great deal of choice. A guy's gotta eat.

And, though I skipped the Chest and Back, and Ab Ripper X, I worked a twelve-hour day with a good deal of moving around, wielding a 20-plus pound betacam video camcorder, and ape-handling heavy shipping cases back and forth, so I got some workout into the day...fail.

Upon my return, I experienced — am experiencing — some difficulty getting my nutrition schedule back on track, though I have been good about eating the right things in the right portions...WIN!

But, as far as the P90X schedule, and my own body, the trip was a mild disaster.



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Day 7: Road Behavior...?

Traveling to Omaha for a video shoot has proven a bit of a challenge. One of the tenets of the P90X nutrition plan is that, in order to keep within my 2,400 calorie daily limit, I eat three small-portioned meals, and then I snack in between on sensible foods, like nuts, fat-free yogurt, or my toenails. (Shut UP! It's protein!)

But seriously, I awoke Sunday morning at 4:00 on the notion that I might do the Chest and Back workout. However, knowing (and not forgetting, this time!) that it would also mean doing Ab Ripper X, I opted to skip it and observe my scheduled rest day, mainly for fear that I would run out of time with all that pausing! I decided to bring the Chest and Back DVD with me, as well as a couple of the resistance bands should the time and opportunity come up for a workout.

I made a breakfast of 2 eggs over-medium, 2.5 strips of bacon (there was an orphan in the package), and a slice of dry Italian toast, with a small glass (6 oz.) of orange juice. I had a rather funny snafu involving — believe it or don't — taxi cabs, and wound up driving my own personal car to the airport. (I thought about driving my taxi to the airport, charging my credit card for the trip to get paid by the taxi company, and then expensing the parking fee to my client, but I'm certain I would have screwed that up and got caught, and wound up not getting reimbursed anything!)

By 9:30, a few minutes before the flight started boarding, I was hungry. I had spoken with my client on the phone who told me to go ahead and get something to eat, either on the ground in Omaha while waiting for him, or before my flight, because he was going to get something to eat on one of his layovers.

Dilemma: most of the stuff on offer at airports is crap. And while that's a great excuse to cheat on the nutrition plan, it's still cheating on the nutrition plan.

Right across the aisle from my gate area was a food kiosk called Hot Dog Express. Oh, brother, did that ever sound like a bad idea! But I went over there anyway, and I saw that they offered fruit bowls and vegetable bowls, cheese and crackers, and sandwiches. I'm allowed one serving of fruit per day, so that carb blast was out of the question. I'm allowed 4 servings (I think) of veggies, but I knew the veggie bowl would leave me hungry only an hour or so after eating it. I looked at the sandwiches: every last one was "shaved" turkey and gouda (good to know that bird left this world looking sharp!). It had at least half of my lunch portion of meat, my one daily serving of dairy, a reasonable portion of fruit/vegetable in the heart of romaine lettuce and the slice of tomato, and the second serving of carbs I'm allowed to expand to if I feel a little sluggish in the workouts...as long as I ate only one slice of the whole grain bread on the sandwich.

So, I think I did all right in choosing the sandwich...and I did eat only one slice of the bread! Upon landing in Omaha, I bought a 9 oz. bag of "Energizer Trail Mix," which contains a farrago (!) of AA batteries, peanuts, raisins, almonds, and chocolate "buttons" (think plain M&Ms), and I snacked on it and a cup of decaf coffee while composing this post. I probably should have left well enough alone to leave room for the "Omaha Cowboy Buster" steak dinner I'm certain we'll be having tonight. I love working with a client...he always pays for the meals! It's not cheating if the food's free, right? ;)

(And am I dyslexic, or what? Every time I see the word "Omaha" I read it "Obama.")



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Day 6: Kenpo X

Kenpo X is a cardio workout based on martial arts moves, so this was an hour of about 11,000 kicks, punches and blocks, and about a thousand jumping jacks. I exaggerate, of course, but there were a lot of kicks, punches, blocks, and jumping jacks. What attacks jumping jacks defend against, I don't know. But I digress.

Little to say here, other than that it was a pretty intense workout, with lots of sweating, my heart rate running above 155, and a pressing reminder of just how physically uncoordinated I am. Tony Horton demonstrated punches I was to do. He did them one at a time at first, but then, as things moved along, he added other punches, putting them into combos, and then he picked up the pace with everything. If I were in a fight, the only way I would win would be because my opponent died laughing at my form.

But I made it through. I didn't quite match the number of repetitions as the screen gods, but I did do every exercise.

I have a dilemma for the first part of the week: I fly out Sunday morning for Omaha. Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, but on Monday I'm supposed to start up again with the Chest and Back workout. However, since I'll be a guest in someone's house (as I understand it), I don't want to bring that along and be overheard grunting, panting, and moaning through the workout. So I could work out EARLY Sunday morning, but I don't know if it's safe to do so soon after the Kenpo workout (I finished that at 8:00pm Saturday evening. If I skip two days, then I'll be out of synch with my message board friends for the week, and would have to blast through my rest day next weekend.

So idunnowhatiwannado.

Day 5: Legs and Back; Ab Ripper X

(This post lifted from my entry today in the Beachbody message boards, because I just ran out of time...)

Day 5: Legs and Back; Ab Ripper X

My day was kind of screwy. I lost my real job (videographer, corporate) last year in April, and since September I've been driving a taxi to tread water while my industry (I hope!) recovers from the recession. My current schedule, of my own making, is Mon-Wed. split days (4:00am to 9:00am; 3:00pm to 10pm), and Thu night-Sat night, overnights (usually around 7:00pm-10:00am.) I nap in the car whenever possible, usually not while driving!

I have a shoot gig next week (Sun-Tue) with my former employer, and today I had to go to their office and pack video gear to take with me to Omaha. I worked overnight last night, got home around 9:30, ate breakfast, and then goofed around too long on Facebook and Beachbody.com. I lay down around 11:00am for a nap, was up at 1:00am and was off to the office to pack. Since I left there, the shoot gear has been strewn to the four corners of the globe. One of my former coworkers did his best to corral it all into one room, but there was still a fair amount of hunting to do, so the visit took longer than I had hoped. By the time I got home it was 5:30. I was hungry, but I hadn't worked out yet. I was poorly hydrated, so I drank a glass of water,then killed some time online again. I started the Legs and Back workout a little after 6:00.

Sleep deprived, undernourished, and underhydrated make for a difficult workout, let me tell you! I didn't quit, but I did push 'pause' a lot. A LOT!! But at the end I felt totally wiped.

Oh, did I mention? I totally forgot about Ab Ripper X ... again! When that segment started I really wanted to cry! In the previous two visits to Ab Ripper X, I made it through about 1/3 to 1/2 of each routine. Today I fought really hard to make it to half the reps of each routine they do in the video. And I thought I was wiped before? JEESH!

Day 4: Yoga X

I've never been a big fan of yoga, so I've eyed this workout from afar with some disrespect. It's not that I think it's easy; I know how difficult it can be. I just have never cared for it. But I'm not letting that stop me from trying it. Nay, from doing it!

Yoga X is a 90-minute workout. Ninety minutes! That exceeds my attention span by about 87 minutes! And when I ... OOH! Hey! I found a nickel under my chair!

Oops... Where was I? Oh, yeah. Yoga X.

As with everything in this program, I knew the yoga would be extreme. I had little hope I would complete the 90 minutes. Fortunately, Tony Horton structures it (though he doesn't mention this) from easiest to hardest, or, for lack of better — or actual — terms, from beginnerest to advancedest. I think he works it that way so that beginners like me can get to a certain point and they can say, "Nope! Not gonna do that!" ...like I did! I kept up at about 3/4 the pace, maybe not doing the same number of stretches they were doing on screen, but keeping up by doing the same positions and holding them for as long as I could. I paused the DVD for a couple of Tony breaks, but I got to a certain point in the workout where I realized my breathing — such an important part of yoga, which must be kept calm and even at all times — had turned to panting! Sweat literally ran from my head to the yoga mat! I knew I was toast, so I called it quits. I was about 5 minutes shy of the halfway point. It was a good, wise thing for me to do it then, because the next position Horton did was a leaned-over, balanced-on-one-foot pose. I never would have accomplished that one! I was indeed wiped!

I jumped to the last ten minutes of the workout and rejoined Horton and gang as they left the advanced moves and went into cool-down stretches. I figured it best to work out the kinks in my muscles before I went on with my day.

So, I'm a little disappointed with myself, but I know I did the right thing by calling it quits on the yoga workout. I didn't want to snap a femur or something worse, like get a bruise.

Early this morning I joined a support group — at Team Beach Body — consisting of a few other people who started their P90X journeys on Monday, July 5th. We haven't agreed on a team name yet, so I call them the July Fifthers. (Hey you Fifthers, if you happened to pop in! Welcome to my blog!) Everybody's sore. Nobody has dropped out. I don't want to use the word "yet." I hope no one drops out...especially me!

Onward. Just Press Play!



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Day 3: Arms and Shoulders

My legs are incredibly sore form the Plyometrics workout on Tuesday, so moving is slow, and getting up from or down into a chair is actually somewhat comical!

Today was Arms and Shoulders, plus another dose of Ab Ripper X.

The Arms and Shoulders workout was pretty good, but I'm really having trouble with getting the moves right with the resistance bands. There's always one person on the screen using bands to show how those exercises are done, but sometimes the lowest resistance band is still too much resistance for my noodle arms. I was able to create my own modification for one of the triceps exercises, but it took a while to figure out.

So, while I sweated pretty good, I don't feel I got the maximum out of what I was willing to put in.

The Ab Ripper X, on the other hand was a little bit easier for me today, mainly because this time I knew what I was in for, and I paced myself a little better. I still fell out of most of the exercises, but I made it, I do believe, a little farther into them this time. My form sucks, especially on keeping my legs straight up in the air for the crunch-type moves, but I got a little farther into them all.

Best of all, when I got up from the Ab Ripper X workout, I felt GREAT! Of course, my legs had gotten good and loose, but once out of the shower I was hobbling like an old man again.

Oh, well! Only 87 more days to go!



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Day 2: Plyometrics... Oh My Effing God!

Plyometrics is a cardio workout. A one-hour, practically non-stop, heart-driving sweat-fest. Tony Horton, the P90X guru, also calls it jump-training. Yes, there's a lot of jumping. I can only imagine what my downstairs neighbors were thinking!

I won't go into all the routines, as there are many, which Tony Horton breaks down into fours or fives, runs through them twice in approximate 10-minute blocks, with 30-second water breaks in between each block, and then he does a 5-minute cool-down.

As I expected, I was unable to keep pace with them what was on the tee vee, but I fell out already in the very first block! I kept at it, though, doing as much as I could and then breaking off to catch my breath, or pausing the DVD, as Horton recommends, so I could at least keep up with the same exercises they were doing.

I think it's safe to say that I have never... NEVER sweated so much in one hour as I did today. My t-shirt was completely soaked, from the neck hole, across the shoulders to the arm holes, and all the way down to the body hole, front and back. And I won't mention my underwear.

Oops. I guess I just did. JEESH!

In the shower afterward, I could barely lift my legs to wash my feet!

With my order of the P90X materials came a huge jar of Recovery Formula, an orange-flavored powder drink mix that they recommend I drink after every workout. It's mixed with cold water and... well, it's growing on me already. Yesterday I drank it immediately after I finished the workout, and I thought I was going to throw up. But I realized that it wasn't the drink mix, but that I drank too much of it too soon. They recommend I drink it within one hour of completing the workout, so I put it off until I was out of the shower. Mmm-sorta-mmm.

I said it yesterday... somewhere ...but I'm going to be sore tomorrow!



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Day 1...UGH!

I finally started P90X Extreme Home Fitness today. I can't explain the trepidation I felt, the intimidation, going into this thing. I heard so many people tell me how intense it is. One of my longest-term friends commented upon my Facebook mention, "Get your old ass some ibuprofen and Ben-Gay!" And he is an extremely fit body-builder, two-time cancer survivor, muscle-head dude! If it was tough for him, then I'm really in for it! So I planned to start Saturday. Then I planned to start Sunday. Finally I sat myself down and gave myself a talking-to, got my head out of my ass and made myself promise myself that Monday I would, as the P90X workout trainer and all the literature stress, just push play.

It was a weird sensation as the DVD started. During the warm-up I felt this unexpected emotional surge, and I was almost in tears as I started to move! I don't know if it was just a dose of personal pride, or a sense of accomplishment (I finally pushed play!), or maybe the same sensation as on the first day of Air Force basic training: "What the hell have I gotten myself into?!" But I felt blubbery. ...Emotionally.

The first workout is chest and back. Naturally. The first day, and I would be running back and forth between the TV and the bathroom to do the chin-up bar exercises!

Along with the workout DVDs, I ordered resistance bands. They're used in place of dumbbells, since a full set of dumbbells costs as much as you would think a full set of dumbbells would cost. A couple of the chest and back exercises use the resistance bands where you stand on the band and adjust the stretch length between your foot/feet and hand(s) to maximize the workout. Thus far, with only one workout under my belt, the resistance bands are proving cumbersome, and they slow everything down...not like my fat carcass wasn't already slowing things down. I pressed pause so many times I think my remote felt like it was getting a workout!

And yes, the workout is intense. Tony Horton, the trainer on camera, instructs and directs, and he gives tips and breaks to those who, he realizes, aren't as fit as the people on the set with him. "If you need a break, take one!" "Proper form over number of reps!" Meaning, he'd rather you keep your body in the right, safe position or range of motion for the exercise and achieve a low number of repetitions than for you to try to reach the number of reps you set as your goal and risk injuring yourself. Of course, it's a little discouraging when the people on the set bark out their goal reps at "20!" or "30!" and I manage to grunt out seven.

Horton gives an out on the pull-ups by suggesting the use of a chair. With the chair a foot or two in front of you, and with one foot on the seat or the back of the chair, you can assist yourself in the pull-ups. It's a "legal" cheat, and it allowed me to complete several sets of the various pull-ups (wide set palms forward, close set palms forward, and close set palms rearward). But today, push-ups were my bane. He does six different types of those: standard, military-style, wide set, "diamond heart" (index fingertips and thumbs of either hand touching, to form a diamond- or heart-shape), decline (with feet on a chair), and "dive-bomber." The last is a wide hand and feet stance push-up, but, from the up position, you angle your body downward, nose-first, lower your chest to the floor, and rock forward, raising your head and chest while your pelvis lowers to the floor. It seems very sexual. He called out "under the fence!" as he did them the first time.

Yes. The first time.

There were about 12 different exercises (maybe more!) that he rocked through in 30 minutes. The workout is one hour long. So he goes through them again, in a different order! Important here is that he frequently tells the video viewer not to beat him- or herself up if unable to match the video exercisers' achievements, or even if unable to reach their own goals. He says that it comes with time and persistence. He added that the first month is brutal, and encourages the viewer to stick with it, and the improvements will come.

I got all choky again.

Finally the chest and back workout was over. He ends it with a brief cool-down and then a yoga-like breathing exercise on all fours. I crawled slowly over to the workout guide and looked at Day 1 and read, "Chest and Back; Ab Ripper X."

WTF?!

Sure enough, Ab Ripper X started a few seconds after the Chest and Back video ended. Sure enough, the Day 1 workout is both Chest and Back, AND Ab Ripper X.

I am so glad there was no camera on me today as I flopped and flailed trying to duplicate the exercises these people were doing on my TV. Already zapped from the Chest and Back workout, I could barely lift my legs or do a sit-up to even half the pace of the chiseled chunks on the video set! But I did feel the burn...or rather the muscle failure. In some cases it felt like I don't even have muscles in the places where I need them for the exercises! But I'm sure I'll feel them tomorrow!

By the end, the extent of my abdominal exercise was lying on my back and breathing heavily in a pool of sweat on my yoga mat. Getting up was optional after the workout ended.

But get up I did, and as I rolled up the mat, and Tony Horton was encouraging me to stick with it, I felt that lump in my throat again, and this time I almost lost it! WTF?!

I think it's just that I feel purchasing P90X was the right decision. The exercises are close to what George, my personal trainer last year, had me doing. There are no gimmicks beyond the occasional entreaty to use their dietary supplements, there are no fancy gadgets or machinery required to purchase in order to make the workouts work. It's just your own determination to "bring it" to your own home workout space, and your own dedication to see yourself through to the body and/or the level of fitness you want to achieve.



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Eating Plan

I have always been one to dismiss calorie counting as a waste of time, believing — when I focused on my eating habits — that portion size and balancing the food groups were the issue.

P90X places huge importance on proper diet (if it didn't, I guess I wouldn't have bought it), but it also structures food plans based on your level of fitness; as your fitness increases, your diet must change. Based on calculations using my body fat percentage and my current weight, the P90X plan helped me determine my resting metabolic rate, and from there determines which nutrition level I'm at according to their guidelines.

I am at level II, which calls for a an intake of 2,400 to 2,999 calories per day, factoring in the daily workouts for a 600 calorie burn.

And now I am counting calories.

Next was the food approach based on lifestyle and cooking ability. As I am not a confident cook, and my available time is so restricted, I chose the "portion" approach, which outlines basic foods and the food groups they belong to, and how many calories per portion. P90X also plots out how many servings of each portion I can have in a day to add up to 2,400 calories, my daily minimum which they recommend I shoot for, and can adjust if my energy levels cannot compete with the rigors of the P90X Extreme Fitness workouts.

Phase 1 is the Fat Shredder, so it's lower in carbs and higher in proteins. I can extend or shorten this diet phase depending on how my body responds to the exercise.

Phase 2 is the Energy Booster. It cuts back a little on the proteins and ups the carbs in order to provide the body with the energy it demands as fitness improves.

Phase 3 is the Endurance Maximizer. Carb intake outweighs the protein intake, as the body is now metabolizing everything much more quickly, and needs the energy.

So I spent a good portion of my Independence Day Sunday holiday reading the P90X Nutrition Plan, roughing together a generic daily eating plan, and trying to decide whether to start today or tomorrow...

And so I begin the Fat Shredder phase at Nutrition Level II in P90X Extreme Fitness!

Fit Test ... UGH!

I just completed the Fit Test. It's a series of strength and/or endurance moves, first to determine against recommended minimums if the user is fit enough to even begin P90X, and, second to establish the user's baseline for future growth and improvement. It's just a measuring tool, but CRAPPO! It felt like a workout all the same! I'll be sore tomorrow. That must be why they recommend to do the Fit Test a couple of days prior to beginning P90X.

According to my home scale, this afternoon I weighed 178 pounds, with a body fat percentage of 26%.

Measurements:

Chest: 42"
Waist (at navel): 39"
Hips: 38
Thighs, r.: 21.5"; l.: 21"
Biceps, r.: 13"; l.: 13"

Resting Heart Rate: 59

Pull-ups to failure (minimum 3): 0 (though they count 1/4 to 3/4 of a pull-up as one!) so, 3!

Vertical leap (minimum 5"): 8"

Push-ups to failure (minimum 15): 19

Toe touch (seated on floor, no bend in knees) (minimum 6" from touching, or a -6): 0 (I touched!)

Wall squat (back against wall, legs at 90° angle, thighs horizontal) (minimum 1 minute): 1:05 (this one is harder than you might imagine. At least it was for me!)

Bicep curls (minimum 10 curls with 20lbs): 23 curls with the red (I think) band. I'm not sure what this means...

In & Outs (seated on floor, hands at sides, feet off floor and bring knees to chest without touching floor with feet) (minimum 25): 30

Heart rate maximizer (jumping jacks at quick and steady pace for 2 minutes, with final 30 seconds at "sprint") (minimum: be able to complete the 2 minutes of jjacks): completed 2 minutes of jjacks with a maximum heart rate of 168, down to 95 within 4 minutes.

I was able to beat all the minimums (minima?) with the exception of the pull-ups. I think I psyched myself out of that because, without thinking about it the day I assembled the chin-up bar, I knocked out a pull-up with seemingly no effort. Today? Bupkis. So, I figure 7 outa 8 ain't bad.

I will press onward with P90X.

Retrograde: Day Zero ...and holding.

Well, not exactly setbacks, but I still haven't started. I mentioned earlier the P90X Fitness Guide and the Nutrition Guide. Other printed materials in the P90X box strongly suggested that I read both guides, so I did. And am I glad I did! There's a pre-start Fit Test that I have to take a couple days before I start the workouts to see if I'm even ready to tackle (or be tackled by, rather) P90X. It's a series of movement and strength measures to see if I'm up to the level of fitness recommended by the designers of the program. Sheesh! I hope I am, otherwise I blew some awful good money on that credit card I found....

So Tuesday I went out and bought a measuring tape, because I'm supposed to take "before" measurements of my chest, waist, upper arms, thighs, big toe on my left foot, third toe on my right, and the depth of my rectum. Why? I don't know. I just take their supplements, and suddenly I do whatever their literature commands.

Today I went back to Dick's and bought a heart rate monitor, as that is also highly recommended to use to measure whether I'm at my peak or over it. I peaked about 15 years ago, but I won't tell them if you won't.

Beyond the Fit Test, the Guides outline in pretty thick detail the workouts I'll be doing, how long they are, and what types of foods and how I should eat during each phase of the training. Where the hell I'm gonna find yak testicles is beyond me. I mean, at THIS time of year? Are you NUTS? (no pun inten... okay, yeah, I meant that.)

So I think I'll do the Fit Test during my transition break mid-day Thursday. I switch to overnights on Thursdays, so I'll get home, take a nap, wake up, measure my body, do the Fit Test, and, I hope, start working out on Sunday.

Day 1 ... NOT

I was all primed and ready to go. I had already stopped off at Dick's Sporting goods to get the plyometrics/yoga mat, the "Perfect Pushup" handle-thingies, and a couple of yoga blocks, as I had read in the quick start guide.

I moved a piece of furniture out of the way of the TV set. I set a bottle of water nearby. I pre-dialed 9-1-1 on my mobile phone so that, in the case of my heart seizing inside my chest, I would only have to press "Send" ....

But no. I opened the book of DVDs and the first one in the stack was labeled, "Watch This First."

Turns out that, despite the soul- (and belly-) baring photos I posted yesterday, I didn't take enough! I thought I was just doing it for my blog, but the P90X guru, Tony Horton, makes it a part of the program. As a matter of fact, he makes tracking your progress a huge part of the program.

Where I thought I would be at this point typing with trembling arms and an exhilarated, exhausted feeling — or lying motionless on my living room floor mere inches from my mobile phone — I haven't yet moved a muscle towards fitness. Tony Horton insists that I take a Fit Test a few days before I start the workouts. He insists I take photos in six poses, with which I will further torture you below. He insists I take body measurements and that I get a heart monitor. There's a lot of shit I have to do before I can start this thing!

This morning, I took my usual mid-day break from the taxi and made my selections from the shelves of Dick's. I approached the checkout counter and realized I had forgotten my wallet in the car. The kid there took the items and said he would stash them there while I got it. When I came back, and he placed the "Perfect Pushups," yoga blocks, and the exercise mat on the counter, he said, "So, you're doing P90X?"

I chuckled. "It's that obvious, huh?"

He smiled. "I did it earlier this year. I bought the same stuff."

"Did you see results?" I asked.

"I went from 225 pounds down to 170."

That's 55 pounds in ninety days, people! Yet another unsolicited (well, I sorta solicited) testimonial. I'm only ten pounds away from my "ideal" weight of 170, and 15 from my goal weight. If I can do this, I will look and feel phenomenal! Really! I'll even let you feel me for your own proof!




These are the specific poses Tony Horton in-
sists I take before I begin working out, at
the 30-day point, the 60-day, and the 90.
I will very likely post progress photos
each week.

Before

As requested by some of those who read/heard me mention I was getting P90X, the "before" photos (Please realize how much it took for me to publish these, and temper your ridiculing, derisive (and, no doubt, hilarious) comments with cute little emoticons to make me believe you're just kidding):



Whatever you do, DON'T click on these to make them larger. Trust me, you don't want to do that to yourself!



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Some Assembly Required

I opened the boxes today. One box contained the 12 DVDs, The Fitness Guide book, the Nutrition Plan book, and the fitness bands I ordered, since I don't own any dumbbells.

The other box contained the chin-up bar, which I also ordered. The chin-up bar represents my first setback in my P90Xploits. First, obviously, is the assembly. It never fails, but whenever I have to assemble something according to the pict-o-gram instructions, I always feel like an inept buffoon hunkered down on the floor, trying to imagine the way it's supposed to go together without it falling apart as I'm trying to get the holes lined up and the screws in place. Finally it was together.

The chin-up bar is one of those doorway contraptions that locks itself into place against a door frame with the aid of gravity, and with the further aid of the weight of a human body. Or, okay, a dog's body, if one could figure out how to train a dog to do chin-ups. With my new chin-up bar freshly assembled, I looked for the ideal doorway in my apartment in which to dangle helplessly while I try to move my weight in any direction that isn't sideways or down.

And?

There isn't one. The chin-up bar is designed to fit doorways up to 36 inches wide. Those in my apartment are, on average, 32 inches. But the kicker is that Every. Single. Damn. Doorway. is butted up against a wall on one side of the door frame or the other, and the chin-up bar doesn't fit in the center, or securely, in any of them.

Well, except one. In the half-bath. At the absolute farthest point in my apartment away from the TV. In the only doorway in my apartment without line-of-sight to the TV.

Once I found where I could do chin-ups, I positioned the bar in the door frame and dangled from it to make sure my assembly was sound (too soon to tell), and to make sure that my weight dangling there wouldn't crack the door frame or cause the apartment building to fracture and crumble to the ground, killing all of the tenants around me...because that would be embarrassing.

And you know what? I did a chin-up! I mean, yeah, wow, so what! But I couldn't do ANY chin-ups while I was working out with George, and I was at my strongest and fittest ever in my life! It was the most frustrating part of my time at Push Fitness. Granted, he had me try them in the middle of my workouts, and maybe I was a little fatigued. And, at my height, I started with my feet on the ground and my arms already about one-quarter bent. But still, I pulled, and I went up! I don't remember the last time I did that. I think I was 17!


The pesky chin-up bar in place.



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The Beginning

On New Year's Day 2009, having sustained for a couple of years the highest weight of my life, I quietly resolved to change things. I am 5'9" tall, and I weighed 210 pounds. By even the most forgiving standard, I was at least 40 pounds overweight. I had more than a spare tire; it was definitely a gut, extending over my belt and threatening to sag below it. My cholesterol numbers were high where they should have been low, and low where they should have been higher. I couldn't bend over to tie my shoes without compressing my diaphragm to the point that I had difficulty breathing.

I knew I wasn't motivated enough to start working out on my own. I also knew that, even if I were so motivated, I didn't know where to start, nor how, and would probably have injured myself if I tried.

I was employed and making decent money, so, after doing some research, I chose a personal training facility and began working with a trainer who focused on proper diet, and workout routines using mostly my own body weight, that worked on core strength as well as shoulders, arms, legs, and back, with very low emphasis on fancy machinery. I started on February 2, 2009.

Five months later I had completely changed my eating habits. I had worked out with and without my trainer faithfully and determinedly. I had dropped 20 pounds from my frame. I lost 2 inches from my waistline. I looked good and I felt great. Most importantly, I shocked my doctor by bringing my cholesterol numbers back into or very near the ideals she had outlined for me at the start of my workouts!

But in that five month period, I had also lost my job. I had already paid for my training sessions through July. They weren't cheap. After July, I had to say good-bye to my trainer and the facility that helped me make it all happen. I stuck with a fitness routine based around the relatively measly facilities provided at my apartment complex, but, admittedly, I was having difficulty feeling motivated without someone helping me, guiding me through a good variety of exercises.

Then, in September, I took a job driving a taxi, and I quickly learned that, in order to make enough money to get by in that job, I had to put in ridiculous hours. On top of that, I began chasing a dream to be a paid professional actor, and landed roles in three shows consecutively, running almost non-stop from September through April. With those occupations went any time or energy I had for working out.

Amazingly, within the first month of driving the taxi, I lost another ten pounds. I soon realized, though, that the loss was in the muscle weight I had gained in the trade-off with fat lost while working out in the spring and summer. Soon I noticed my gut getting thicker and flabbier. By April of 2010 I definitely had a spare tire again. I strained more to climb stairs. I experienced lower back pain from the weakening of those muscles. It was time to do something again, but with no disposable income, I didn't know what to do.

I started listening to progressive talk radio to kill the time when the taxi work slowed each day. I soon gravitated to The Stephanie Miller Show and heard ads for a product about which I was immediately skeptical: P90X. At least twice an hour Ms. Miller would do a live plug of the product, claiming she was using it herself, and touting the fantastic results. One of the touts, however, caught my attention. She mentioned that the exercises focused heavily on "your own body weight," without the need for expensive machinery or gimmicky gadgets. She talked about "muscle confusion," brought on by exercises that vary the movements enough that there is little repetition and, therefore, less danger of plateaus and repetition injuries. Still skeptical, I largely ignored her plugs.

Then one day I was getting some work done on the taxi cab, and was captive in front of a TV that happened to be on a channel showing an infomercial for P90X. I watched for a few minutes and, beyond the testimonials singing the praises of the product, I saw video of people doing P90X workouts. Many of the exercises were the exact same ones my personal trainer had me doing while I worked with him! Suddenly I was interested. I intended to do more research.

Almost as if by some weird karmic coincidence — if I believed in such a thing — a few evenings later I picked up two passengers from one of the bars in my work area. They started talking about "ripping those DVDs," and one of them said he wasn't too sure he wanted them. The other guy said something to the effect of, "Dude, you GOTTA do those DVDs! They are INTENSE! I've done it for three weeks, now, and my energy is up, I'm stronger than ever... I just feel great!"

Sometimes you just feel something, and you know you're right. I just knew they were talking about P90X. I interrupted their conversation. "Sorry to butt in, guys, but do you mind if I ask what you're talking about?"

"P90X!"

Now I had an unsolicited testimonial for the product. Then I noticed a Facebook friend referring to it on several occasions. Any mention I heard about it in passing was positive, almost raving.

So, finally, I ordered P90X. It arrived several days ago.

The Experiment commences.



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