Fell off due to work

but I reached a new landmark - 174.6 lbs!

Dec 9

Yoga X. I made a mistake today in eating a rather large breakfast just prior to starting yoga. Oh, the discomfort in my belly!

I lasted about 22 minutes, took a break for about a half hour then sorta did another 30 minutes. As punishment I've somehow gained a pound and a half. Only ate lunch after that and coffee for dinner. What the heck? I get not burning a bunch of calories, but gaining weight? I mean, I was certainly active for the rest of the day including working until almost midnight!

A frustrating journey, but I'll continue nevertheless.

Dec 7

Shoulders & arms. Done.

eating

Eating has been going well over the past week. I'm following the Belly Fat Cure plan of no more than 15 grams per day of sugar and 6 servings (20 grams each) of carbs. I'm following the BFC mainly because that's where all my extra weight seems to be, and since that's is last area to come off, any other weight should come off in the process.

Yesterday was probably my most controlled day food wise, which is why today was a little bit of a disappointment when I weighed in at the exact same as yesterday:-(

Dec 5

Yoga today at the gym. My first time and it went well, I like it.

Dec 4

Company at the house so working out at home is not an option today. Made an attempt to go to the gym but ended up being too tired and distracted.

Poor excuse, I know, nevertheless it is what it is.

Day 3, a day off.

Dec 3

My son actually reminded me that we need to workout today. Cute.

Cardio X. Done.

Dec 2

Made an old mistake, didn't work out in the morning because I planned on working out in the evening. What always happens? The day gets too busy and the evening workout ends up getting sucked out.

I won't allow myself to do this anymore unless I'm able to make a habit of evening workouts even while doing a morning workout the same day, first.

No problem. Problem identified, moving on.

Dec 1, day 1

I made it. Day one, core synergistics. I am sick with something like the flu so I mostly went through the motions but I committed the time and finished. I know what you're thinking - what are you doing working out when you are sick, especially with something like a virus?! I'm working my ass off is what I'm doing, granted I only went through the motions mostly just stretching, I committed the time and am not letting another excuse get in the way.

It went well. If I felt overexerted, I slowed down. If I couldn't breathe or started hacking, I took a break and chugged water. Most importantly, I started and feel better for it. I took a nice hot shower and will spend the rest of the day going back to recovering from being sick.

I think the increased blood flow, extra water intake, as a result improved rest, hot shower, and overall feeling better physically and emotionally, will aid in my recovery as well. At least I will assume so:-)

I'M BACK AND SERIOUSLY MOTIVATED!

That's right, I've found the motivation to do this. What was it you ask? First I'll mention that I've been going through some pretty heavy depression (though I'll spare you the details) and except for a brief time of feeling motivated by fear to do daily cardio (the doc says my cholesterol is out of wack and I need more exercise) I've had no interest in exercising, yet still dream of being in shape.

Okay, so here is what motivated me. It from an artist named Hugh Macleod. I stumbled upon
his website ( www.gapingvoid.com ) recently and was struck by this truth. Heavy, huh? All too true. I've experienced it myself (AM experiencing it) and have seen it all around, in most people in fact.

If you're not convinced yet, go ahead and ask yourself or anyone you're speaking to when they say they really want something or wish they could do something, just what they are doing to make it happen. I think you already know the answer...nothing.

Anyway, I don't mean to preach. I'm just saying this is what motivated me to look deeper at what I 'want' and ask myself "am I willing to work my ass off for it?". What follows that question is either starting the process of working my ass off, or discarding the thought as not worth it.

Wow. Very freeing. You'll feel quite a load taken off when you can finally just let something go instead of lusting after something you're not even willing to work for. You'll also feel great pride and focus in that thing you ARE will to work your ass off for.

BTW, focus is what will make you successful. Consider this before taking on your next challenge, a quote from Thich Nhat Hanh:

In the United States, I have a close friend named Jim Forest. When I first met him eight years ago, he was working with the Catholic Peace Fellowship. Last winter, Jim came to visit. I usually wash the dishes after we’ve finished the evening meal, before sitting down and drinking tea with everyone else. One night, Jim asked if he might do the dishes. I said, “Go ahead, but if you wash the dishes you must know the way to wash them.” Jim replied, “Come on, you think I don’t know how to wash the dishes?” I answered, “There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes to wash the dishes.” Jim was delighted and said, “I choose the second way–to wash the dishes to wash the dishes.” From then on, Jim knew how to wash the dishes. I transferred the “responsibility” to him for an entire week.

If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact, we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.

Current Mission: Failed.

Checking in

As expected, working out of town proved to be a major obsticle to working out. Since I came home Friday night I had to get up early Saturday without much sleep. Spent the morning travelling, getting to Tahoe just in time for load in at the gig. By the time we got to the hotel we had just enough time to get ready and head back to the venue. Sunday morning, again, I had to get up early without much sleep to meet up and head home. Spent most of Sunday morning and a little afternoon travelling, getting home to a house full of guests. After unpacking a fell asleep for an unknown amount of time before heading back down to our house full of guests who ended up spending the night.

I can't usually workout on Sunday anyway, but no matter, couldn't have if I wanted to.

Monday morning and we still have guests so I don't imagine I will be working out this morning so I'm getting right into work. Hoping to get most of it done this morning. Maybe I'll be able to workout this afternoon when the temperature gets over 100 degrees:-(

Moving on

Shoulders and Arms. No I didn't double up yesterday as I was exhausted and had a lot of work to do plus had to work in the city last night. I did stay on track and continue with the next session which is great. As long as I don't fall behind I'm happy. I will do my best to fit in a double workout before the end of the week, but at this point I'm a little concerned about even staying on track. I have to work out of town for a few days and that always seems to throw me off.

I think if I'm schedule around working out I'll be good. The plan is to workout tomorrow morning/early afternoon as usually planned. Saturday will be the monkey wrench. Do I stay in Sacramento and workout at the hotel or commute home an hour and workout here in the morning and head back to Sac in time to commute with the others? If I stay and have to share a room I will not get to workout as the others sleep in. If I come back my sleep/recovery time will be significantly shorter, but is the best chance of getting to workout. Hmm. Probably coming home. Less chance of blowing my workout and getting sucked into a party at the hotel.

Done.

Day 3

Starting the day off well with a little Cardio X as planned (after putting out a few fires and doing a little emergency super priority stuff for work). This is the catch up exercise from yesterday, then today's scheduled workout will be this afternoon (with any luck). Feelin good, although 'Cardio X' was not how I imagined cardio. It was more like a workout.

I should mention that I am using the nutrition portion of this program as a guide, not a strict rule. I do believe it should be followed as a rule if you want the results they promise, but with a spouse (who is not on board with eating this type of menu) and five kids to feed sometimes you just gotta go with what works. That is not to say I'm not coming close. I'm very close to the nutrition menu, if not always for the group, for myself. I'm mostly have to make a few modifications based on feeding the whole family, what we can afford, what we have in the house at any given meal time, and time to prepare and eat.

I have been through this type of meal planning enough to know a little bit about preparing ahead of time certain things for the week. You also have to be careful though with some of the fresh food (meats and such) that if they are not prepared right away, that you will either be cooking them very soon or storing them away. I've had my share of fresh foods go down the drain due to a super busy last minute schedule popping up and having to supplement with lots of shakes and bars. So let me say it again, when supplementing with shakes and bars or whatever, remember the fresh food you are not eating in its place and decide how you're going to handle it.

Okay, back to work, lunch soon, then hopefully an early afternoon workout.

Day 2(?)

As suspected, waiting until the afternoon or evening to workout was not as easy as 'just do(ing) it.' For me, if I want to work out I've had to do it first thing in the morning before things get going and life happens; daily emergencies pop up, situations perceived as more important or needing immediate attention arise, taking care of clients or other peoples problems. Almost anything that comes up seems more important than working out, after all, we can always work out later. Well, usually later never comes, and before you know it, it's tomorrow.

I was a little more firm with myself today and did work out this afternoon, starting with yesterdays workout, and can already see this is going to be difficult to schedule.

I call today's workout yesterdays workout because I missed it yesterday and it is important to me to be on a Monday through Sunday schedule leaving my rest day or easy/stretch day for Sunday. This means I will have to double up one day this week; I think I can do it.

I should mention here that today I've decided to not do the traditional P90X but one of their suggested modifications, P90X Lean. The third option is P90X Doubles, which is mostly what it sounds like, doubling up several days per week. P90X Lean rearranges the order of parts of the program, substituting some additional fat burning portions from later in the program in place of some of the bulking portions that come earlier. My goal is to get lean and mean, stregthen some muscle but not bulk up. I like being skinny, and I'm already a bit bulkier than I like.

Today (this afternoon, aka:yesterdays workout), is Core Synergistics. Todays scheduled workout was Cardio, so I think my best bet is to try to double up today or tomorrow, since Cardio is a shorter workout and more resperitory than muscle fatiguing. That would put me back on track.

Stats

I've decided to post my stats as well.

BODY FAT 16%
WEIGHT 182.8
CHEST 40"
WAIST 35 1/2"
HIPS 36"
R-THIGH 20 (22 1/2 @ top)
L-THIGH 20 1/2 (23 @ top)
R-ARM 14"
L-ARM 14"

I'll mention for reference that I'm 6'1", 41 years, and a guy.

P90X Day 1! Starting with the stats, then the schedule.

Here I am on day one and I'm already feeling a couple challenges before I've started working out. I am not one who works out regularly, nor enjoys it, and I lead a fairly busy daily schedule...So finding that consistent time to do the program daily will be challenging. Also we are in our last couple of weeks of Summer vacation for the kids, meaning all our schedules will be affected when school starts.

That was challenge one, challenge two is actually doing the pre-program stats (ie: measurements). In the couple of times I've done a program that suggested measuring and taking pictures I've dismissed that part telling myself I'm not doing this for some dramatic change to be publisized or for some vain desire to look beautiful. I really only want to be in better shape and healthier. The truth is you need to go through this step in order to see that you are progressing throughout the program and in turn stay motivated.

So here I go. I'm going to start with the measuring and such this morning now that I've finished my ultra priority work. After I knock out half a days work I'm going to start with the workout in the afternoon, either before or after lunch based on what the program suggests. I don't remember off hand. I've never done well with an afternoon workout, but at this time it seems like it will work the most consistently over the next 90 days.