Prepping for my 2nd "Transition Week", New weigh in day, Next program considerations

The week started off really bad with Amelia being sick with walking pneumonia.  She is MUCH better now.  However that resulted in me missing the first 2 days of the week of workouts due to complete lack of sleep.  I'm 1 workout behind with 1 day left in the week, meaning I'll have to do a double tomorrow.  No biggie.

I've changed my weigh in day from Sunday nights to Saturday mornings.  It just makes more sense to me.  Saturday night is my cheat meal and although one meal shouldn't make a big difference, it can.  Especially if you have a couple of alcoholic beverages with it.

Weigh in this morning was 173.2lbs.  Still not where I want to be, but getting closer.  Very much looking forward to my transition week.

It seems as though everyone in this house has been sick lately.  Christie, then Amelia, then Kiera... repeat cycle and mix me in every now and then.  I'm still rundown and I don't see myself getting past that until after the transition week maybe.  MAYBE.  I want to really push hard in that last block of P90X3.  I want to see what my results are going to be when its all done.  I feel like I need to mix in some cardio or something, but I likely won't.  I have to be honest there.  I like to get my workout in and just be done for the day.  It sets the tone for my whole day.  We'll see.

I'm still undecided on what doing for my next program.  One thing to be certain is there will be a continuation of working out.  There will likely be a NEW program.  What?  I don't know just yet.  I have 6 weeks left of P90X3.  I want to have my new program figured out within the next 4 weeks.  I've thought of Les Mills Pump or Combat, neither of which I own (YET).  I've thought of the 21 Day Fix, because I've considered that maybe my portion sizes may be a little out of whack and that could help me in that area.  That is really such a short term routine though.  3 weeks.  I've considered Insanity and I have that one, but I'd have to preview it first.  My concern with Insanity is it'll be too much like T25 but longer.  I really enjoy being done with my workouts in 30 min or less.  Its going to be tough to take on something longer than 30 min.  It'll also be tough to take on something that doesn't have weights in it.  Lots to figure out.

End of Week 2, block 2

OK - so Thursday night I came down really sick and was exhausted.  I did not workout at all on Friday and it really really bugged me.  Hell I felt like such shit I even called into work.  You know how often that happens?  I think it was the fourth or fifth time in the last 15 years.  Yeah - that often.

Saturday night we actually went out and it was nice to get out and just have a night away from the kiddos.  We went out to one old stomping ground and had a pub platter of apps.  We split that and each had a beer.  Both pretty full from that.  Moved on and went to the pet store to pick up food for the shithead dog.  Then to Home Depot so we could get stuff so we can hang a Bruins flag.  We then moved onto food destination #2 which guess what... another app and another beer each.  We split an order of buffalo calamari.  It was OK.  The beer was good.  We then each had a water while we split a piece of chocolate cake with a scoop of what apparently was vanilla bean ice cream on it.  Nothing crazy and honestly much more reserved from a "normal" night out.  We finished off our big date night at  BJs shopping for who knows what.  Shoot me, I'm apparently old enough to be at retirement age but not enjoying any of the benefits.

Since I missed my workout on Friday I was really concerned about having to repeat week 2 of block 2 and I don't want to do that.  I don't want to fall behind.  Also, block 2 has some really fun stuff in it - but it also has some stuff in it that I am not really a fan of (Triometrics, Eccentric Lower).  I managed to do Incinerator on Saturday morning before the girls activities.  Sunday I doubled up and did MMX & Dynamix.  MMX really gets you moving.  By the time Dynamix was done I was totally wasted.

I weighed myself just for the sake of weighing myself.  I knew it wasn't going to be what I was hoping for.  Not after a night of a couple beers and some fried food.  176.6lbs.  It will flush out, so I'm not too worried about it.  Week 7 starts tomorrow.  Really have to push myself harder.

Mid week report

So we had Amelia's 7th bday party and followed that up with Great Grammy's 86th bday party the following day.  To say I made some bad food choices would be accurate.  I had about 7 pieces of really bad pizza at Amelia's party.  Really - bowling pizza sorta kinda sucked.  I also had a pretty large piece of cake.  On Sunday I followed that up with some snacking (cashews, veggies with ranch dressing, triscuits/cheese/pepperoni) and then had dinner which consisted of a beet salad (that was a first) and lobster mac n cheese and regular 7 cheese mac n cheese.  I got at least 120oz of water in each day.  When all was said and done though I was up with my weight (surprise surprise)  Up to 177lbs.  So up 3 lbs, despite not having any alcohol in 2 weeks.

I jumped on the scale today just to make sure that I had rid myself of the weekend bloat and I have.  174.2lbs.  Still not where I want to be, but still progress.  I know I'm still converting fat to muscle, so I'm not complaining.  I can see it in my arms, legs, back, etc... I'll get there.

I just finished Wk6D3 of P90x3.  Not thrilled with the 2nd block of P90x3.  Probably because it has a lot more legs in it.  lol  I hate working legs.  This week I started adding in Ab Ripper X from P90X fame and today I just finished the 30 day burpee challenge (30 burpees a day for 30 days).  No question it was tough.  Glad its done.  Not sure what my next challenge will be aside from my every day workouts and mostly healthy eating... but I'll figure something out.

Overall I feel good.  Again, I still want to get rid of this belly fat.  I'm told I look great and that's great and all.  I still see belly fat and I want to lose it.  I've contemplated taking supplements that would help with that, but it is kind of morally wrong in my head.  The goal has always been to get healthy with REAL food.  Not processed food.  Healthy and ripped.  ;)  I'm healthier, not ripped.... yet

OK - until the next post.  I'm out and going to bed.  Time to catch up on some sleep as I have a frigin lower body workout tomorrow AM.  SUCK.

Wednesday.... not such a good day

So I struggled.  It was very snowy, shitty and even though I didn't have to get up and go to work (work from home day) I still had to get up and clear the snow so my wife could go to work.  Knowing I didn't have to get up and drive into work I decided I would take an extra hour to myself and sleep.  So instead of getting up at 4:55, I set the alarm for 5:55.  What I did was set my day up for failure.

I cleared snow until almost 7:30 and I had to be logged into work for 8AM.  What does that mean??  No morning workout.  I spent most of my day angry and I ate my way through that anger.  First a whole bag of buffalo flavored pub fries, then followed that up with a 14" tall gingerbread man cookie and I'm sure there was some other crap in the mix there as well.  I was pretty much angry the whole day.

After I got dinner ready (which I had a shit ton of veggies and a tiny piece of fish) I went and did my scheduled Yoga workout and of course my burpees.  I was a little disappointed in myself for letting me get into emotional eating, but I know I could have been far worse.  I also know that I burned some of those calories off snowblowing in the morning.  Did I burn the 1000 calories that were in that fucking gingerbread man cookie?  Probably not.  I just know it could have been worse.

What this reminded me of was basically I am a creature of habit and I don't like my routine fucked with.  My shit gets messed up and I get pissed.  Right or wrong I get pissed.  I've been fully back on track today and I plan to stay that way.  Saturday is Amelia's bday and I'm very much looking forward to proudly celebrating her birthday.  She's an amazing young girl and I'm reminded of that more and more each day.  On top of that I get pizza.  :)  Next weigh in Sunday.

P90X3 - Day 30 measurements

I will start by saying - I never measured or took pics before I started P90x3.  I'm not in this to get a free T-Shirt.  I'm in this program to get lean, healthy and look pretty kick ass. 

I do however have some measurements that were last taken from when I completed T25, which was shortly before I started P90x3.  That will have to do.  The one thing I didn't record when these measurements were taken from T25 was my weight..... how the fuck does that happen?  I have a rough idea of what it was, so we'll go with that.  Now onto the stats....

End of T25 (early December, ALPHA, BETA & GAMMA - 1 round)

Weight: 176 lbs
Arms      13 inches
Legs       21 1/2 inches
Chest      37 1/2 inches
Small of the waist  35 inches
Belly button  38"
2" below belly button  37 inches
Biggest part of the ass  39 3/4 inches


Day 30 of P90x3 (Block 1)

Weight   174 lbs
Arms       13 1/4 inches
Legs        21 1/2 inches
Chest       39 inches
Small of the waist  34 1/4 inches
Belly button  35 1/2 inches
2" below belly button  37 1/8 inches
Biggest part of the ass  39 1/2 inches

A couple other things I'd like to note here.  I definitely feel less fat, certainly I can see some muscle definition in my arms, legs, chest, shoulders and back.  I know I'm making forward progress, even though the measurements are minimal in their changes I know I'm trading fat for muscle.  The pictures don't lie... so I get why they say "take pictures to help measure your progress!" 

I think the biggest surprise to me was the measurement of the belly button.  Certainly after an ab/core intensive workout I can definitely see some abs that want to pop out there and show themselves under all this fat.  lol  However I still see myself as kind of fat.  To see that I lost over 2 inches just around my waistline where my belly button is.... well... it just really really surprised me.  I'm pumped to see what the next 30 days brings.  I'm ready to bring it even harder (if that's possible). 

Off to bed.  Block 2 starts tomorrow and that starts off with Eccentric Upper.  NO idea what that is, but I'm sure I'm going to pay for not previewing that video tonight.  lol

Almost end of block 1

Tomorrow is my last day of "Block 1" or , the first 30 days of P90x3 for me.  I've made no secret that my "diet" or eating habits the first couple of weeks of this program was pretty poor.  I made some really good strides to bring myself back to reality and get back what I've earned over the past 6 mos or so. 

Overall I really like the program.  Tony sculpts that body boy.  He helps with all the places that men care about.  Arms, abs, chest, back, shoulders and yes... even the legs.  I'm feeling pretty good about my progress as I gear up for Block 2.  I know its going to get more intense and at the same time I need to kick up my own intensity so I can get the results I want. 

I know I had stated that I was going to concentrate on a few different things and those things were 1) clean eating - eliminating processed crap food.  2) tracking what I eat (I was using MapMyFitness.com) 3) giving up pizza and beer for a while.  I have not been consistent.  Last weekend I did indulge in 3 beers.  Yes on Saturday, Jan 11th I had 3 beers.  Also - on Monday the 13th I bypassed dinner so I could have a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  That was my first bit of ice cream in some time.  It was really yummy.  On top of that  - well, I haven't been tracking.  SO - my wife was right, I should have focused on just 1 thing.  That being said, I've busted my ass with my fitness and I haven't missed a workout in well over a month.  Outside of those 2 things that I just mentioned, my eating has been clean.  CLEAN.  I still haven't had any pizza and I'm still on track for my next pizza being at Amelia's 7th bday party next week.  There is a reason why I am back in the low 170's. 

Tomorrow I do pictures & measurements for my first 30 days.  I never did either of those things before I started P90x3.  I did however do them after I completed T25.... so I'll have a rough idea of how far I've come.  I know its going to be all positive and I'm happy about that. 

My birthday is 2 mos away.  I'll be 42.  I'd like to be 42, 170lbs and have some rocking abs.  lol  Pushy?  Maybe.  It took me 10 yrs of neglect to get this body fat, it shouldn't come off in less than 10 mos.  It doesn't hurt to try though. 

Now.... time to get some sleep while I can. 

"Transition Week" Block 1

This week is transition week.  So the 4th week of every block of P90X (1, 2 & 3) is called "recovery" or "transition" week.  I'm really liking it.  I did Isometrix on Monday and I sweat and worked my ass off and never lifted a weight.  As Tony says, it's all the hardest parts of Yoga without the flow.  Yeah - I see that now.

This morning was Dynamix.  I've done it before and I'll do it again.  This morning for whatever reason my focus was really good and I was really really strong with the moves (I thought).  At the end it was a really good sweat.  

My typical go to breakfast is 2 large cage free eggs cooked in 1/2 tspn of coconut oil with 2 pieces of nitrate free, uncured bacon.  This morning I think I slightly under cooked one of those eggs.  I get completely grossed out by the texture of an under cooked egg.  The uncooked white.  YUCK.  Raw eggs are vomitous.  Time to switch up the breakfast I think and instead I'll mix the eggs together and cook with some sauteed baby spinach.  Greens are so yummy.  Then add some salsa to spice things up.  :)

This week is my "on call" week.  Meaning I work nights from 5PM until 1AM Monday through Friday.  Friday night at 5AM I am the only person on call until Monday morning at 1AM.  That weekend will kill you if you let it.  It can be tough tough tough.  The reason why I mention this schedule here is because during this week I would typically struggle with my eating.  I would indulge in processed foods of all shapes and sizes.  Probably struggle with my water a bit more than I should.  Plus being up late doesn't really help me with my normal "get up early and get it done" workout schedule.  Again, I struggle.  After dropping the kids off I typically head right back to bed and get a nap in.  It's definitely a challenge for me and I recognize that.  I'm working on it and just focusing on my food consumption and water, water and more water.

My wife just started her new diet from her nutritionists.  It is for all intents and purposes at best a 1000 cal a day diet.  They say its healthy but if she should stray off course she could land in the hospital with pancreatitous (no, I don't know how to spell it - sound it out jack ass).  Does that sound healthy to me?  No.  Do I agree with it?  Not entirely, but I do agree something drastic is needed to shock her mind and shock her system.  She will essentially be doing this for the next 8 weeks.  During which time she can have ZERO alcohol.  Her primary nutrients will be in liquid shakes.  She can have a few ounces of lean protein with some veggies every day, which is good - because you need real food.  I'm here to support her in this venture in any way I can.  This means I also make sacrifices with my eating and drinking, so be it.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I need her healthy.  This will hopefully help get her to the healthy weight she needs to be so she can have the hip replacement surgery she needs.  

Those eight weeks should bring me pretty much to the end of P90x3.  I look forward to the journey and seeing what my body will look like and how it feels.  I don't have a six pack.  8 weeks from now I don't expect to have one either.  I'm OK with that.  As long as I continue to make strides in the right direction then I'm OK with it.  I get stronger every single day and push myself every single morning.  My body is toning and getting stronger, all good things.