When You See the Buddha (belly): viva las vegas

Due to a number of factors, I think I'll jam together my last Kenpo, Stretch, and Ap Ripper routines together after work tonight to finish up what I'm counting as my third week of p90x (technically my 5th week). I'll be starting on the final 7 day transition out of phase one and in to phase two tomorrow.

The transition will introduce a new "Core Synergistic" routine, which I assume works the abs and back, and a more thorough upper body workout...combined with regular stretching or yoga every other day.

They call it a "recovery week". They also mention that if you have shitty conditioning, it's not likely to feel like a recovery week at all. Between hockey and a couple extra phase one weeks, I'm expecting to be well prepared.

Since the yoga portion seems to be a big chunk of this transition, I'm going to try the Yoga-X disc again. Earlier I was turned off by the difficulty of the moves, the repetitiveness, and my terrible flexibility...so I guess we'll see if any of my training has gone in to making this any more tolerable.

I have yoga blocks now too, which should help.

The past week I started to get bored and annoyed with the program for the first time since I've started. I even missed my first day--stuffy sinuses weren't really much of an excuse--but I slept for 14 hours in the middle of the work-week all the same.

Hopefully, the transition, new routines, and change of pace will lift my spirits back up and get me motivated for the next two months...I just have to figure out how I'm going to make it through the upcoming vacation in Vegas...

Golden Nugget Pool w/Fish Tank Waterslide

Well, the good news is that I'm getting stronger. I managed about 7 declined push ups in the middle of yesterday's Chest & Back routine (I can remember struggling with 3 at the beginning). Even the pull ups and "diamond push ups" from yesterday are getting more tolerable. I haven't had to duck out early from any routines for quite a while now (with the exception of excluding parts of Ab Ripper-X), so I think I'm getting over the initial difficulty of getting my body used to working out...although my left elbow has been cracking and feels kind of iffy during the overhand pull ups.

The bad news is that I'm back at 159 lbs. I'm really not sure how this is possible unless I have an extremely slow metabolism that is refusing to kick it in to high gear. I don't think this weight stagnation can be directly attributed to muscle gain at this point. Here's a goal chart of hitting 145lbs by my upcoming Vegas trip 2/19...it's not looking very probable any more. (I went back and retroactively added past weight milestones based on entries)

Most advice is for males to operate on no less than 1,800 calories per day for a sedentary lifestyle. I've been doing 1200-1400 calories a day comfortably, though, and I don't go for periods of feeling hungry or starving--which is what they warn against. I followed the advice that by pacing my meals out roughly 3-4 hours apart throughout the day I'd increase my metabolism and burn calories with greater ease. That doesn't seem to be happening, though.

There is the potential that I'm not eating enough to force my metabolism to increase, but my fear of gaining even more weight is too great to attempt an experiment now. Additionally, my energy level has been fine throughout the workouts and my general energy level has been high, which should mean that my body has been receiving enough fuel/food.

I have been eating soon before I go to sleep, though, so I'm going to make a concerted effort to avoid eating within 3 hours of bed to see if that makes a difference. My favorite snacks of the day are always my last.

Sigh...

This was the first time I ate asparagus on this diet. It's hard to describe just how amazing this burger, cheese, mustard, asparagus, and soy sauce combo tasted.

Chicken breasts, light swiss, grilled peppers.

My new dumbbells (awesome upgrade), push up bars, and purple yoga blocks that help me perform difficult stretches that require touching the floor in strange positions.