January 8, 2014

Welcome to 2014.  New year, same old goals.  Why is that?  Is it possibly because I haven't been committed enough?  Is it because I haven't done enough of the right things?  I don't know.... Here is where I am though.

I've completed Beachbody's T25.  All phases, ALPHA, BETA & GAMMA.  The ALPHA & BETA phases are essentially 10 weeks.  It took me somewhere between 14 - 16 weeks.  I lost 17 lbs during that time.  At the suggestion of some other folks from the fitness challenge group I am part of, they suggested I move forward and give GAMMA a try.  I had been really surprised & disappointed by the lack of strength training in T25.  That was a challenge for me, because I felt my body really responded best to strength workouts.  I was told GAMMA would be much better and sure enough it was.  GAMMA was fantastic.  Want your ass kicked in 25 minutes?  That's the one for you.  Lots of weights but still with that Shaun T non stop cardio.  I did GAMMA for another 5 or 6 weeks until P90X3 arrived.  During that time I lost another 7lbs and got down to 173lbs.  My lightest weight in over a decade.

At the beginning of December P90X3 was released.  I was an excited boy and a first day buyer.  I could not wait to get my hands on it.  Everything I wanted.  Short workouts (30 minutes), Tony Horton and lots of strength training.  Man oh man was I excited about this.  I didn't get the package until the week before Christmas and it took me time to convert the DVDs to digital files so I could upload it to my NAS and do these workouts from any room inside the house.  I started Christmas week.  I'm in the middle of week 3 and my results have been mixed.

My progress.  Well weight wise it hasn't been good.  During Christmas I acted liked "old Chris" and ate and drank whatever I wanted.  Beer?  Yup, I'll have 1, 2, 3, 4.... what the hell... why not another.  Wine?  Yeah - I'll have a bottle.  Cookies?  SURE!  Just give me MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE.  I weighed myself right before New Years.  Mainly just so I could see how much more I could get away with on New Years Eve.  I mean, after all the first few days that I was the human garbage disposal I was still hovering around 174 - 175.  To my surprise I was up to 183lbs.  I was SO SO MAD.  I had fought and worked my ass off and fairly discipline (not strict, but not unreasonable) when doing T25 and lost 24lbs.  I was pushing so so hard to get to 170lbs and instead of being closer to my goal I was what seemed to be a whole month behind to get back to where I was before Christmas.

So where am I now?  Well, since I haven't really missed much for workouts (1 week I was sick out of the past 5 or 6 mos) I'm considerably stronger.  Chest, back, arms and even my legs are stronger.  I still have knee issues and knee pain, but that comes and goes.  My knees still feel weak.  I get it, but I don't.  I've had this issue with my wrists before and honestly I don't know what I did to cure that issue, but wrists are great.  Knees.... not so much.  Anywho - my body continues to get stronger.  My belly is still very much present.  That is a result of 2 things (IMO).  1) There isn't nearly as much "Ab" stuff in P90X3 and most of Shaun T's workouts were "Core".  2) Nutrition.  Abs are made in the kitchen.  That's what I've been told over and over and over.  I keep saying, bullshit.... I work my arms and my arms are muscular.  I work my chest and my chest is muscular.  I work my back and guess what?? Yeah - fucking muscular.  Why would abs be any different?  Here's why.... anything your body can't process (extra protein, extra fat, extra sugar, extra whatever) all sits in the least worked part of your body.  Penis you say?  No, abs.  I'm not a geriatric.  That brings me to Nutrition.

Nutrition.  I call myself "Paleo"... most of the time.  However, a person who eats Paleo doesn't do dairy, grains, refined sugar, etc....  Tell that to the guy who LOVES pizza.  Go ahead, fucking tell me.  I can't tell you how many pizzas I've eaten, ESPECIALLY around the holidays.  I practically went out of my way to eat more pizza.  Seriously downing large pizzas at will, on my own in a single sitting.  Last time I checked pizza has both dairy (aka cheese) and grains (aka crust).... so WTF!  Alcohol?  SUGAR and more grains.  Again WTF!!  Want to know why I gained back 10lbs?  I was fucking dumb, that's why!! 

My commitment.  Well - I have been introduced to some truly inspirational people that are friends of my youngest brother.  One does crossfit and is a frigin workout machine.  He pushes the limits of his body with that stuff.  Having done T25, I feel I could do some crossfit.  The other is a woman who in 10 mos time took her plateau'd semi fit body and turned it into a rock hard hot momma.  During that time she only lost 7lbs but the difference in her body is AMAZING. ROCK HARD solid Abs and just all muscle.  I want that.  I'm putting in the work and I should see better results and I'm not.  It is clear to me that its been due to my nutrition choices.  My commitment is to stop drinking alcohol for the foreseeable future (my last drink was on Saturday January 4th 2014).  Stop eating pizza (also, my last pizza was on Jan 4th).  Stop eating processed foods (we typically indulge in frozen apps on Saturday nights or chips, or both.  lol).  Track my food and log it (the thing I absolutely hate the most).  See what my results are from there.  The next pizza I will have (and it will suck) is likely going to be at Amelia's 7th bday party on January 25th.  This may not seem like a big deal to some people, but its a HUGE deal to me.

As of this writing I'm just under 178lbs (177.8lbs)  Just over 5lbs lost since New Years.  I'm trying to be happy with that, but I still have the regret of putting that weight back on.  I'm trying to do what I always recommend to others..... don't look back, just correct what you can and move forward.  Always easier to say than to do.  I have my yearly physical coming up on Friday and I had booked this appt back in June or July.  At that time I was somewhere near 200lbs and I told myself I was going to be 175lbs (or lower) by the time my physical appt came.  I was going to work hard and get off the prescriptions for high cholesterol and high blood pressure (which, back in June my cholesterol went down 100 pts and was finally in the acceptable range).  Despite my slip ups I'm still close to that target weight (for the appt, my goal weight is 170lbs and then I'll revisit it).  We shall see what the Dr says regarding my meds.  I really want to be off them.  I don't like taking them.  Even though I have zero side effects from them I just find it unhealthy to have to live off medication and supplements. Its not the example I want to set for my children.  My children have recognized my efforts to get healthier and that makes me proud.  My youngest likes to tell me (as she did this morning) "Daddy, your belly is growing smaller".  lol  She is too fucking cute. 

I'm going to try and blog more as I continue on this journey.  Occasionally I look back at it and its nice to know what worked and what didn't work and also just to see how far one has come.  I look forward to completing "Block 1" of P90x3 in the coming week and checking out the new stuff in "Block 2".  Definitely time for some changes.  Too much of the same thing over and over gets old. 

I'm out - take care to anyone who reads this.