Exercise Kinda Sucks
So, I’m older now and a bit too fat for my own liking. After nearly having a heart attack during my last weigh in, It’s time to not… be fat.
- The plan? P90x.
- The goal? Losing 25 lbs. and come the end of June, shredding the low-fat parmesan for my salad using my 8-pack.
- The chance of success? 0.00001%.
I’m going to need all the help and encouragement I can get, so make sure that I don’t eat crap on your watch and we’ll get along just fine.
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Day 1 (21.03.2011): My 75 minute workout took 100 minutes. The guy said take breaks, so that’s what I did.
Do people actually stick with this for 90 days?
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Day 2: My arms no longer function properly Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be John McCain? Do one day of this stupid workout, go to bed and then try lifting your arms the next day.
In an attempt to remain motivated after only one day, I dropped $100 on healthy food. In my heart I know it won’t make a difference, but then I’m not terribly bright.
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Day 3: I did Plyometrics last night (whatever that means) and Shoulders & Arms + Ab Ripper X, tonight.
Interestingly (and by that I mean unfortunately), my body is still destroyed from Day 1. On the bright side, I’m working out different groups of muscles, although the soreness does still impact my will to live.
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Day 4: I hit my first speed bump tonight and the outcome is about what I would have expected of myself.
Abject failure.
I was tempted and I said “yes please!”, but it could have been worse. While I missed the Yoga X session, I did manage to end the night eating nothing worse than pasta with a tomato-based sauce.
I’ll be sure to redouble my efforts tomorrow…
Yeah right.
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Day 5: So I redoubled my efforts.
Maybe I’m selling myself short? I’m proud (and only a bit sad) to say that I stayed in on a Friday night to workout.
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Day 6: I just did Kenpo X… There’s an optional stretching day tomorrow, but like the father of other people’s lord and saviour Jesus Christ, I think I may have to take Sundays off.
This is all just a bit too intense and unless I really find my range of motion dropping back into McCain Country, an hour of X Stretch (way to break the naming convention) isn’t in the cards.
That’s about it for my weekly workout… Wash, rinse, repeat.
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Day 14: Contrary to the first week of my P90X routine, things have settled down and my body is now used to – but not thrilled about – the idea of performing motions that it long ago deemed unnecessary. My six days of working out have gone pretty much according to plan and I’ve actually increased my weight in many places, or improved my form so that I’m targeting my muscles properly.
The only thing I’m not getting done is my complete set of 339 crunches. I can’t seem to do a proper oblique V-up, which knocks off 50 crunches and leaves my love handles intact. A slight problem. The video on this page gives a great explanation of how to do one properly, so I’ll try that out tomorrow.
After the first week, I actually lost 11lbs, which I thought was slightly insane/unhealthy, but when I weighed in this week, I had started to put weight back on again, from muscle. I can’t see any muscle, but I know it’s there. It certainly isn’t fat, because other than a brief tumble off the wagon, yesterday (cheesecake) I haven’t eaten anything unhealthy since starting this workout two weeks ago. The meal plan lists healthy food that actually tastes good and you get a list of ingredients to buy for the recipies you’ll be preparing each week, along with the nutritional information.
Tomorrow is the most intense day of the week, as it’s the workout I hate most (tons of push-ups), followed immidiately by an hour or tennis. You might say that my forehand has suffered.
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Day 21: Another steady week of P90X. It’s 3 weeks down, 9 to go and I’m definitely feeling an improvement, although it’s not a massive visual change. According to the before/after/during photos I’ve seen from other people, things should start to pick up in another three or four weeks. Despite putting weight back on, I’m still gaining notches on my belt, which definitely indicates some muscle gain!
It’s been a bit tough to keep the diet going properly. Less in the sense that I want to eat bad foods and more to do with not always getting all the meals in each day. Because of this I’m looking for little cheats to keep pace with the program. Someone suggested I move from regular yogurt to Greek yogurt which will get a lot more protein in my diet and I’m hoping translate into more muscle gain.
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So… I was supposed to be in a recovery week, doing yoga and other cardio stuff, but I messed up and did a regular week. After reading about this online, it seems I should really be doing the recovery week in order to help with the whole idea of ‘muscle confusion’. Since this is what the whole program is about, it looks as if I’ll be doing P97X instead.
Slightly annoying.
Anyway, I’m just glad that I caught the mistake and hopefully the extra week of doing weights will help overall.
There isn’t much else to report on. My dedication to the diet has taken a hit, due to certain people bringing bad food into my life… You know who you are.
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Next up, Day 35…
Notes