Hang in There, Baby

Well, I finally got over a big hump last week and am finally feeling like I'm in half decent shape. I have extra energy after hockey and my workouts...which is one of the reasons I'm going to change my schedule up a bit.

I felt comfortable taking Saturday and Sunday off this past weekend to visit Master P and his Special Lady Friend downtown. We went out Saturday and P had people over at his place for Superbowl Sunday, so I wasn't being very cautious about what I ate and drank. I just tried to keep portions smaller and avoided stuffing myself. Beer, guacamole, those Mexican things in corn husks...it was all quite delicious.

As an added bonus, the relaxed weekend resulted in my first scale reading that was closer to 154 than 156. It may have even helped my weight loss.

Maybe throwing up in the middle of the night after drinking (again)helped.









Originally, I had planned to move on to Phase 2 of P90X after my 5th week (they suggest moving on after four weeks). The 5th week just ended with yesterday's Kenpo-X workout...but I'm having second thoughts. I'm finally making noticeable progress and I no longer feel like a wrecked vessel every time I finish a workout.

When I do pull ups now, I can launch myself up with a quick burst of strength and keep going for 7-10+ controlled reps. When I first started, I was barely able to muscle myself up for 2 or 3. My form was disgusting. At times I could barely muster one single pull-up during the final stretch of some workouts. It was a humbling experience.

My form is improving a lot as I get stronger and I'd like to give Phase One another week. Six total. I just want the satisfaction of having one week where I feel like I pwn every workout, every day. Also, this is the weight loss phase, so it'll be one more week on a carb-restrictive diet. I am down to about 155-156 now, but I'd rather shed another pound or two before moving on.

If this trend holds, it may take over four months to complete the 90 day program. Maybe I'll double up workouts a day or two this week to speed things along.

After Kenpo, I went out to my local grocer and bought about 8 pounds of meat (obviously other stuff too) to get me through another high-protein week...no bread and pasta yet.














I've added a few new dietary supplements as well. I've been taking fish oil, Acai Pills, and a new flavor of Syntha-6. What can it hurt?














Grilled Turkey Sausage and Broccoli. The Hillshire Farms turkey sausage has easily won out as the Best Tasting Turkey Product I've tried. This is probably due to it having a slightly higher fat%.














I think I fucked up the steak portions by cooking them with green peppers at the same time on the foreman grill. From what I can gather, the steam coming off of the cooking peppers ended up steaming the meat. It ended up looking like boiled brains on the outside. Maybe that's just how round steak rolls? It was still edible--and more rare than it appears in the picture--but it was a little annoying...I guess when you try doing all this shit on a foreman, these things are bound to happen.

Kid-A didn't seem to mind eating the fatty pieces.

Thursday? What the hell..

Marty McFly: [being chased by Libyan terrorists]
"Let's see if you bastards can do 90."

















I try to update this awesome blog at least every other day, so I'm not really sure where time went this week. Anyway, I'm back.

I've continued soldiering on. So far, I've successfully completed the full hour of the DVD routines for this week, with the exception of Plyometrics (too hard/noisy) and Yoga-X (annoyingly repetitive). In fact, I decided to completely abandon p90x's shitty yoga disc after last night. I switched to another yoga DVD I had downloaded while I was partway through the p90x disc. Here are my main problems with the "yoga-x" routine.

• It lasts 1.5 hours

• It features doing the "Downward Facing Dog" pose (see image below) a maddening number of times in the first 20-30 minutes. It's not hard or challenging, I just don't need to stretch out my calves 50 fucking times in one sitting.

• So many times, in fact, that my sensitive right wrist starting hurting like a motherfucker any time we had to do a transition to/from this pose.

• They repeat every move ad nauseum while adding minor, uninteresting variations.

• The instructor, Tony Horton, moves from pose to pose so quickly I don't have time to get set in a good stretch or lunge, even when I know what move is coming.

• It seems as though they are trying to adapt yoga techniques into a routine that burns a certain number of calories and strains the muscles enough that people feel worn out after finishing. That means a shitload of mind-numbing repetition and a really long, boring routine.

I will not be giving the p90x version another shot. From now on, I'll just substitute/rotate through some of the other yoga DVD's I've downloaded on the days that I should be doing yoga-x. I don't plan on doing more than one hour of yoga in any sitting, either. I'm really turned off to Yoga after my initial experiences within this program.

Why are you making me hate yoga, Tony Horton? What the fuck?

I've been consistently consuming about 1250-1450 calories a day and haven't had a drink in two weeks. I'm thinking that it may be time to work a little whiskey (0 carbs) in on the weekends to help maintain my sanity. It's not like me to go on bitching about something like yoga.








Anyway, it looks like my restrictive eating habits and high protein intake are finally translating into a little weight loss. I didn't breach the 160 lbs line on the scale for the last two days, at varying times during each day, so it looks like I'm down about 3-4 lbs in two weeks. Yeehaw!

I think I made a commitment to taking progress photos every two weeks, and today is the day. I'll probably throw something up tonight.