Disaster Averted

I experienced a mild freak out on Tuesday while I was reformatting my primary hard drive and updating my computer to Windows 7 (Ultimate 64). I knew I had a long wait ahead of me, so I took a nap once it started installing. I set my alarm for 9:30pm and planned on waking up and doing the Shoulders and Arms routine before it got too late.

All of my music, pictures, videos, and p90x information was on an internal 1 terabyte storage drive, which shouldn't have been affected by the new install. The primary drive would be reformatted and would contain all OS and Software files. I figured that I would be able to just hop onto my new version of windows and start up a video on my backup drive without issue. I've done this kind of thing before.










Bill Gates threw me a curve ball, though, and upon finalizing the installation, my hard drive was invisible. I couldn't find about 800 gigabytes of media that I count on to keep me happy and sane every day of my life...and that included the p90x videos. After cracking open my computer case, rewiring SATA cables, fucking with my system BIOS, fearing that I accidentally reformatted the wrong hard drive, and generally freaking out, I learned that I simply needed to activate the drive and assign it a letter in Windows 7.


















What in the fuck is the point of making people do that? Previous versions of Windows bring in extra hard drives without any extra effort. Fuck you Bill Gates. Fuck you straight to hell.

On the plus side, I'm not the only one boosting performance. While messing with the BIOS I saw an option to overclock my dual core AMD 2.6 ghz cpu and got it close to 2.9 ghz. The recommended resolution for my games got bumped up and I haven't had any stability issues. Score one for experimenting.

All was well once I finally got my hard drive to show up, and I was able to complete the disc by about 12:30am.

As of today, I will have been following Phase 1 of p90x for 3 weeks (even though I don't really count that first week since I couldn't finish any of the routines). This might be surprising to some people since following some stupid workout DVD program sounds monotonous, annoying, and easy to quit. I'll try to explain why it's working.









A) I devoted myself to honestly recapping my progress from day 1. The fear of public failure is a strong motivator.

B) The workout routine is hard and you only do each workout once per week. Because of this, I still haven't perfected my form on all of the exercises, so it continues to be a challenge just to get in line with the people demonstrating the moves. I have yet to memorize each routine. Repetitive boredom has yet to set in.

C) I'm still getting sore after workouts, which means I'm still doing difficult, strenuous exercise that will produce results. If these routines didn't feel like a lot of work, I wouldn't be interested in continuing.

D) I've remained injury free. My wrists would be holding me back if I didn't buy the pushup bars. The lack of other injuries may be attributable to the fact that each routine starts with a warm up.

E) I have devoted myself to following a strict food plan and haven't eaten anything other than salad from a fast food joint. Also, cutting out drinking.

E) Tony Horton, the instructor, is not nearly as much of a prickish, intolerable asshole as he could be. You can tell that he really believes in the program and his nearly psychotic love of pushing the limits of exercise is both humorous and infectious. They even do occasional fun stuff like a "Groucho Marx" exercise/walk.

















Here are some classic Tony Horton lines from the videos.

"Look at his triceps, do you see those? Jimmy, get in here and get a shot of those tri's. Diamonds of gold my friend!"

"Do your best and...?"
"Forget the rest."

"Like a pteradactyl backing out of trouble. Cawwwwwww."

"Tip of the day: Don't smash your face. Let someone else do that to you."

"Just keep showin up, keep showing up, keep pressing play, keep pressing play."

"Now if you need a break while we keep going, take it. Just don't go off running into the kitchen to grab yourself a donut. Keep moving."

"I'm going to be on the cover of Downward Dog magazine."

"Ab ripper X....I hate it, but I love it!"

"That's the face...BRING IT!...of a girl who's working hard."


So, all in all it has gone pretty well. I expected that I'd want to shoot a hole in my skull by now, but things have been going smoothly.

I weighed in at 155 lbs the last two mornings (162 lbs start), so it looks like I'm starting to hit that sweet spot where fat starts melting off at alarming rates. I'm expecting to see a good chunk of my excess fat weight to be shed over the next 2 weeks. I'm also developing more width (along with some definition) in my biceps than I've ever seen before. Maybe you'll get treated to some sexy bicep flexing pictures along with the standard fare in another week.

Also, I want an iPad with 3g, so I'd like to encourage the early adopters to beat the shit out of their new toys so I can buy one refurbished.

Another Weekend Down

Day 12 and I'm still going strong. Hockey has gotten in the way of the P90X scheduled routines...or maybe the routines are getting in the way of hockey. Regardless, P90X allows one day of rest/stretching each week, but it always comes at the same time at the end of each week. In order to maintain 6 days of exercise a week, I've started taking my "rest days" the day before my games to avoid next-day soreness. Then I count hockey as an exercise separate from the program and continue with the normal p90x schedule the following day.

I finished the first abbreviated week of the program (only going through 50-75% of each routine), so now I'm trying to complete the full hour of each routine this week. I made it all the way through the shoulder & back disc, which was a fucking trial, but I was unable to complete the plyometrics disc the next day. Aside from being an exhausting routine, I think I'm probably irritating my neighbors with all of the jumping and shit involved with that disc. Even though I'm on the ground floor, I have hardwood floors which, I'm sure, are making noise and mild quaking in the three apartments surrounding me.
















My landings are not quite as "cat-like" as Tony Horton has been asking for. Not yet, anyway. I'm thinking about buying a thick gym mat from the Sports Authority to help dissipate the sound/shock waves, but I'll worry about that next week. I also think that I need some 20 and 30 lb dumbbells for the shoulder and arm routines, but I'm hoping I can find something to fit he bill on craigslist or from Play It Again Sports.

















Since I have a hockey game tonight, I took a rest day yesterday. Instead of just resting, though, I decided to download some introductory Yoga DVD's that I might be able to use on my downtime or on off days. I'm hoping that it will help build my balance for the rather intense (impossible) Yoga-X that is offered as a part of the P90X routine. Also, my lower back has been stiffening up from all of this shit I've been subjecting myself to and I was hoping some Yoga stretches might help. I ended up finding a nice little 45 minute routine that was tough enough to break a sweat, but wasn't beyond my rudimentary yoga strength and flexibility. The downside is that it's clearly intended for young women and focuses a lot on shaping and toning the ass. The upside is that it has lots of attractive young women demonstrating. Below is a screenshot.











I was telling my older brother Mezzo about the delicious Syntha-6 shakes that I started taking. He was interested in starting to incorporate a shake into his daily routine after hearing about how tasty I thought they were, so he checked with a weight-lifting nutrition freak he knew from BJJ. I listened in on the chat. His friend's comments resembled the mad ravings of a paranoid schizophrenic, as one might expect from someone who has spent many hours debating carb-protein ratios with muscle-bound freaks whose rational minds have been clouded from ingesting large quantities of experimental nutritional supplements for their entire adult lives.

He basically advised him against drinking soymilk, or ingesting any type of soy product in any form. He recommended a protein shake that tastes like shit (by his own admission). He advised never ingesting dairy of any kind. He suggested that foods advertising that they have healthy benefits were often the worst possible things for you. He actually said, "Don't get me started on corn."

My argument in favor of Syntha-6 can easily be summed up by this advertisement that I came across in a pirated version of Maxim Magazine that I found.


















I fucking love technology. I didn't realize people put PDF's of magazines up for downoad online. My iPod didn't have that functionality built in, but I was able to find a cracked app that took care of it, so now I can carry periodicals along with me in my pocket!

Spicy Hobo Tilapia w/Swiss













Coffee and Clif Builder Bar


















Lean ground beef w/swiss, steamed broccoli.













Breaded garlic-parmesan Chicken breast, swiss, steamed broccoli and carrots.