Days 6-8

I was so optimistic after my last post, but things got a little difficult for a minute, and I had to take a P90X break. The good news is, I'm getting back to it tomorrow.

Last week, I completed day 6, which was Kenpo X, and then I had my rest day Wednesday, and that was great. Thursday I did chest and back again. The problem started Friday. My day was so busy. I worked late unexpectedly, so I didn't have time to fit plyo in before my soccer game at 8 p.m. Then after my soccer game, I was so tired. So, so tired. So I went to bed.

I woke up Saturday and completed most of the plyo workout, but then the baby really wanted some attention and was going to sit on the floor and cry until I stopped jumping around. So, I stopped. I had a roller derby game later that day, and I didn't want to wear myself out, anyway.

I played my game, and I tweaked my neck. I've had this ongoing problem with my neck for a couple of years. It all started with whiplash I got while playing roller derby. Ever since, it flares up from time to time, and I get a really stiff painful neck for a couple of days. I hate it. Consider how often Tony warms his neck up, and that might give you an idea of how awful it is to have a bad neck. Anyway, I had planned to still do the arms workout after my game, but I didn't.

I worked out with my trainer Sunday, and then I rested today. Tomorrow I will get back to the arms dvd and continue from there.

The worst part has been my diet. I really failed on it. I'm hoping that with a little discipline, I can get back to it full force tomorrow. So, I guess I won't finish this program in 90 calendar days. That's a bummer, but I'm just going to do my best and forget the rest, ya know? I don't want to tempt myself into giving up by getting really down about having to take a break, and then completely ruining my diet.

Here's my chest and back reps, just to be keeping track:

	Week 1		Week 2		Week 3
Chest and back moves	1	2	1	2	1	2
Standard push-up	20	22	10	9
Wide front pull-up	25	20	10	10
Military push-up	12	10	6	5.75
Reverse grip chin-up	20	25	10	15
Wide fly push-up	15	15	10	9.75
Closed grip overhand pull-up	20	20	10	15
Decline push-ups	12	9	8	7.75
Heavy pants	20	20	20	20
Diamond push-up	12	20	8	9
Lawnmower	15	15	20	20
Dive-Bomber push-up	8	10*	8	8
Back fly	15	20	20	20
*The first set of these I did not do on my knees, but the second set I did.

This time around, I didn't do anything on my knees, so my reps are a lot smaller. I also sat farther back using the band on the pull-up moves, and really focused on squeezing. For the reps that have a .75, that was because I attempted the rep, but then almost fell on my face trying to come back up. And for heavy pants, lawnmower and back fly, I used my same old 8-lb weight, which isn't enough. But I got a set of 12-pound weights at Target the other day, so here come the gainz.

Man, just catching up on this blog is making me feel lots better and excited and motivated again. Thanks blog!

Day 5

Since my legs were so dead after back-to-back workouts Sunday, I saved today's workout for the evening, after my roller derby practice.

I've been playing this sport for many years now, minus the one year I took off to have the baby, and by now, practice never feels like much of a workout. That could be because the level of training on my team isn't that high. Still, I usually manage to work up a sweat, and it is better than doing nothing. Often, when someone takes time off from roller derby for one reason or another, they gain weight, so it definitely counts as being active.

The main downside to waiting until after practice is that I didn't get home until almost 10 p.m. because I also had to run to the grocery store, since I didn't go over the weekend. Which means I didn't get finished working out until almost midnight, which means I didn't eat dinner until then.

This workout was legs and back. My legs already have the strongest muscles in my body, partly because I play sports involving sprinting and roller skating, and partly because I do a lot of legs with my trainer to improve my performance in sports.

Not much in this workout was particularly challenging. I completed all of the reps that they did in the DVD, and then I did 20 reps each for the pull-up exercises. I used my same old 8-pound weights for all the moves where weights were recommended. I am usually careful to do squats properly without my knees going over my toes, but my knees were a little sore right after the workout. I don't know if that was from improper form, or from using weights. I'm going to ask my trainer.

I had initially planned to do the workout without the DVD by just following the book. But then I wasn't totally sure I was interpreting some of the descriptions correctly, so I popped in the DVD. It was the right thing to do, because I really do benefit from having Tony motivate me!

The next day, the only soreness I had was mild soreness in my inner thighs, so I definitely need to intensify the next time. I hope to have heavier weights by then.

I was not successful at sticking to my diet, all because I didn't spend any time Sunday meal planning or prepping. I had to run out the door in the morning, so all I grabbed was an egg, turkey bacon breakfast sandwich. I went home for lunch and ate a burger patty with veggies, and then before practice, I ate a granola bar and a cup of yogurt. Too many carbohydrates and not enough protein, for sure.

When I was grocery shopping after practice, I was hungry, so I got myself a chocolate protein drink from the milk aisle. Man, I hate protein powder. First of all, half of it is a scam because it has more carbohydrates than protein. Those are "recovery" drinks, I guess. But then the stuff that has the right amount of protein, fat and carbs tastes like sweet. Just sweet. It's that sugar alcohol crap they use to sweeten it because it doesn't have that many calories. I'd rather just eat some plain bitter cocoa powder. Don't get me wrong, I love sweets, but I don't like things that just taste like super-concentrated sweetness.

I had been choking down protein powder for months just to get a high number of grams of protein in my diet, until recently, when I swore I would never consume it again. Having a drink with some of it mixed with chocolate milk did not make it OK. I could still taste the bad taste. I didn't even finish my drink. This is what happens when you go to the store hungry.

After working out, at around midnight, I had a dinner of steamed spaghetti squash, a little pesto and chicken breast. That is way too late to be eating, so I have to figure something out for the nights that I have practice or a game, and then work out after. I also didn't even eat enough calories and went to bed hungry. Boo.

I forgot to mention earlier in the week that I skipped the second Abs workout, but I did get back to the abs DVD at the end of this workout. I skipped it because my abs were still really sore, and I didn't think it was a good idea to do the exact same workout while sore. Also, I'm not obsessed with abs workouts. I know that you can't target the fat in specific areas of your body, and I feel like people do too many abs workouts because they think that will make their stomachs thin. It won't, only diet will make your stomach thin. If you want a six-pack, do as many abs as you want, but I don't care about that.

Day 5 is an accomplishment! I see that this will turn into a monotonous routine, and I'm going to sleep a little less and have a less clean house, probably, but I am confident at this point that I will complete all 90 days and not quit.

Day 4

This day was really tough for me. I usually work out with my trainer Sunday mornings, and I wanted to get P90X out of the way before that because it was Mother's Day, and I had fun things to do.

Yoga was my workout, and I was not looking forward to it. I don't consider it that strenuous, I'm just really bad at yoga, and it's a long workout.

I stayed up too late Saturday night (that's kind of a running theme for me. I really need to make myself go to bed earlier), but I got up early with the baby, and then got right to yoga. It was just as difficult as I remembered, but I did my best.

After the first few times of the sequence with plank, chaturanga, upward dog and downward dog, I was able to get the hang of all that and start doing it OK. My warrior poses got better the more I did them, but I'm sure that anyone who actually does yoga would be horrified by my sloppiness. I wasn't low enough in my squats, and my arms were droopy and uneven, and then there were some things I just couldn't do, or could only hold for a few seconds or whatever.

At the end, I wasn't even totally sure I could count what I did as a workout, and was glad that I had a second workout with my trainer right after. As it turns out, yoga totally killed me. Or at least, yoga was the thing that finally did me in after days of multiple workouts.

My session with my trainer was this thing he does sometimes, five rounds in a row of five different exercises. It's actually a smart way to quickly plan a workout for yourself, and I plan to use that a lot when I'm working out by myself at the gym with no one to tell me what to do.

The first round was mountain climbers with furniture sliders on my feet, and my forearms on a step. I really hate this one, and we do it a lot because my trainer is sadistic. I always expect to have a hard time with these, so I didn't think too much of it when I struggled through the third and fourth rounds and really had to dig deep inside myself to not quit on the fifth round.

The second round was jump squats with the TRX bands for assistance. Normally, these make me tired, but I can complete a high number of them without wanting to die. I wanted to die right away, though. My legs were just burning with the most minimal of a squat. I was really feeling the lack of sleep, and my legs were totally dead. Damn you warrior poses and all your squatting!!

I stuttered through my jump squats, followed by weak performances on burpees that included jumping up onto and down from a step instead of just up in the air, and then jumping alternating lunges (which were barely lunges at all). My last round, which my trainer called everests, was really just a complete failure. I had my hands on my ground, and one foot up my hands, and another straight back. The move was to switch, and jump my other foot up to my hand, and the forward one straight back. I paused so often, and dropped my knee a lot. I would be one of those dead frozen people if I were really climbing the mountain. Disappointing.

Lesson learned: I should probably avoid doing my workouts back-to-back from now on.

The good news of the day was the food. Because it was a special holiday, I did not follow my diet. I had a glorious cheat day that involved homemade brunch with apple cinnamon overnight french toast, a sugary java chip coffee drink, an early dinner at an Italian restaurant complete with desert, and then candy while watching movies on the couch. I also got a massage, and we managed to fit in a family game of Settlers of Catan.

Overall, a pretty amazing food day, although we didn't make to the store or do any food prep, so my Monday diet might kind of suck.

Day 3

I decided to join the baby for his morning nap instead of do my workout early. Saturdays are busy for us. By the time I finished running errands and my older son's soccer game was over, it was almost 7:30 p.m. and I hadn't done my workout.

I had the zany idea that I could fit the workout in before the baby went to sleep, and that he'd play happily in the living room while I pumped iron for the arms workout. That was mostly true. He was really interested in my bright blue hand weights from Target, and I had to pause a couple of times so that he could check them out. At one point, I set them on the ground, and he tried his best to pick one up, and then cried when it wouldn't budge. When I laid on the ground for one of the later moves, he crawled over and on top of me, so I also got to engage my core during that one. Bonus!

My main problem with this workout was that I meant to get a better selection of weights, but didn't have time, so I was stuck with 8-pounders for every exercise. That was fine for some, but definitely not enough for others. Next time, I'm either going to complete this workout at the gym using the book, or get more weights. Because my weight situation was less than ideal, I didn't record my reps.

On the subject of food, I ate way too many calories on accident. While out running errands, I grabbed lunch at Chipotle. Chipotle has this really great calorie calculator on their website, which I should have done BEFORE I ordered. Since I didn't do that, I ended up with a 770-calorie burrito bowl, and my diet for the day was 50 percent fat after lunch. Oops! I didn't eat anything else till dinner, when I tried to focus on protein, but I did go over my calories.

My food for the day:

• Breakfast
• One whole egg plus two whites with 4 slices of turkey bacon
•  Steel cut oats with berries
• Lunch
• Chipotle burrito bowl: chicken, black beans, medium salsa, cheese, sour cream, guacamole and lettuce
• Dinner
• Sliced chicken and top sirloin steak
• Frozen stir-fry veggies
• Homemade peanut butter, sriracha, hoisin and teriyaki sauce

Day 2

Between my two workouts yesterday, pretty much every muscle was sore. Not so sore I couldn't walk, but sore enough that I was not worried I didn't bring it hard enough.

I had a late soccer game, and the workout was plyometrics, so I thought doing the workout before my game would be a great way to loosen up my muscles. Usually, I sit around and get sleepy before my late games, and then I play terribly.

The plyometrics workout used to be the second-most dreaded for me, with the first being yoga. But this time around, it wasn't too bad because I've been doing high-intensity interval training with my trainer. I definitely sweated, and got to practice being a cat, so it was actually kind of fun. I did skip the bonus round because it was time to get ready to go to my game, and also the first move in that round is pitching, and I just cannot ever do it correctly. I get turned around and backwards and all confused and annoyed.

The best part about Fridays is that I eat pasta. I've found that not eating enough carbs really affects my ability to play soccer, so it isn't worth limiting them to only 20 percent of my calories. This was my food for the day:

• Breakfast
• One egg plus two egg whites with turkey bacon
•  High-protein greek yogurt
• Lunch
• Pasta with ground beef and sauce
• Snack
• 2 pieces of string cheese
• A burger: patty, cheese, whole wheat sandwich thins, 2 slices of pork bacon
• Dinner
• 2 gatorade chews, because of my soccer game

How I'm eating

If you don't follow the dietary guidelines, you'll just build a bunch of muscle underneath your fat. This might be what you want, but if you want to lean out, you have to eat right.

I chose to use the nutritional proportions listed on page two, which involves tracking intake of the protein, fat and carbohydrate macronutrients. Before, this took almost as much time in a day as the workout, but using an app like MyFitnessPal makes it a realistic undertaking.

The minimum calorie goal in the booklet is 1,800, but for me, I shouldn't go higher than 1,600. I can't even manage to fit more than 1,600 calories worth of healthy food into my body. (Unhealthy food, no problem!) I am also eating more fat than is called for. I've seen on social media that Tony Horton still seems wary of fat, but lots of other people who track macros and are lean and muscle-y eat a bit more fat than what used to be acceptable. I think new research debunking the "badness" of fat has helped. Plus, such a protein-heavy diet can only be tolerated with a little more fat, at least for me.

These are my percentages:

Phase one

Protein

50%

Carb

20%

Fat

30%

Phase Two

Protein

40%

Carb

30%

Fat

30%

Phase Three

Protein

30%

Carb

40%

Fat

30%

I'm not really that amazing at hitting my macros all the time, although I do usually stay under calories. And I tend to eat the same foods over and over. When my diet has to be so strict, sticking to foods that I know I like and will meet requirements is the easiest thing. Eventually, I do get tired of certain items and go searching for something else. The worst is not being prepared, so I'd rather reach for the same old thing, than talk myself into eating out somewhere when I really shouldn't. Of course, when I do eat out, I go to places where I can actually get ahold of the calories for each dish so I can log it.

Listening to your body is really important. Just before starting P90X, I was eating between 1,200 and 1,300 calories most days. At first, I was trying to hit certain macros goals similar to the percentages I have for phase 1. But when I'd try to go to roller derby practice or play soccer, I'd just perform really badly. It took me awhile to realize that I wasn't eating properly for that specific activity. Fridays are now pasta lunch day, and I eat more carbs than on other days of the week. It makes a big difference in how hard I can run in my soccer game, and I even finally scored my first goal since returning to soccer.

Some people advocate loudly against cheat days, but I think cheating is good. Changing it up keeps your body on its toes. I've read a lot about plateauing because your body just gets used to whatever fitness routine you've got going on, so it seems to me that a little cheating is probably OK. Also, being 100% perfectly strict does not work for some people, but rather causes them to quit and make a hard swing in the exact opposite direction.

Now, the way I was doing cheat day was all wrong. I was doing it every Saturday, all day. I would wake up and just start binging on sugar and mac-n-cheese. I was probably making up for my entire week's calorie deficit in one day. I didn't even want to do things because it would get in the way of being able to eat as much crappy food as possible.

The worst part is that it started spilling over into Sunday. I didn't even make a conscious choice to do this, it would just happen. Before I really started dieting, I used to joke to people that I hadn't lost the baby weight yet because I would black out and binge on sugar. That was only sort of a joke. Something would happen to my brain, like in a dream when you're floating above yourself watching yourself. I would be thinking to myself about how I shouldn't eat anything crappy, but then my arms and mouth wouldn't listen.

So, I'm not doing a scheduled cheat day. If a holiday comes up, or it's someone's birthday at work, I might have a cheat snack or meal or something, but I'm always going to log it. My hope is that after being reasonable for 90 days, I will just live a reasonable life and stop going nuts over sugary treats, and then I won't even need a full cheat day.

Day 1

Day one of P90X is like starting a new job! I felt bright-eyed and excited, even though the baby woke up too early, and I went to bed too late the night before.

My immediate observation was that although the workout was still tough, my body could handle it better than any other time I've tried this program because I've been working out regularly for about 7 months now. I have always casually played sports, but I haven't always worked out, and I now realize my chances of sticking with the program are probably better because my initial level of fitness is higher. People might think they can just go from lightly active to P90X, but I don't think that's going to be true for most.

I knew what to expect from this workout, since I've done it before. You are supposed to Bring It!, which I think means you should push yourself to muscle failure, but I didn't exactly go that far. In the past, I have gotten so sore from day 1, that I skipped the day 3 workout, which isn't chest and back, but does involve holding weights in your poor sore arms. What I didn't know then that I know now is that the cure for soreness is more exercise.

How sore you get doesn't necessarily indicate how effective your workout was, but I was glad that today I was pleasantly sore (erm, is that even something anyone says?). I'm still continuing my other activities during P90X, including working out with my trainer twice a week, playing soccer on Fridays and playing roller derby, which could involve anywhere from one to three nights of practice in one week. So in the evening, I had a second workout with my trainer that focused on legs, which resulted in a sore muscle in every part of my body. Yay!

Here's a chart of my reps. All of the pushups were completed on my knees except for my first set of dive-bomber push-ups, and I used a medium band for the pull-up moves.

	Week 1		Week 2		Week 3
Chest and back moves	1	2	1	2	1	2
Standard push-up	20	22
Wide front pull-up	25	20
Military push-up	12	10
Reverse grip chin-up	20	25
Wide fly push-up	15	15
Closed grip overhand pull-up	20	20
Decline push-ups	12	9
Heavy pants	20	20
Diamond push-up	12	20
Lawnmower	15	15
Dive-Bomber push-up	8	10*
Back fly	15	20
*The first set of these I did not do on my knees, but the second set I did.

My legs workout later that night included:

1. Two sets of 25 squat jumps using TRX suspension band things
2. A kettle bell squat pyramid. Starting at 10 reps, I held a kettle bell and squatted elbows to knees, then for 10 reps held the kettle bell against my waist and bent at the waist to work my hamstrings. Resting briefly in between sets, I continued until my reps were down to 2.
3. Laying on a mat, I put my feet on a bosu ball. I lifted and held my butt in the air while I brought the ball toward me, and then away from me with my heels. Keeping my feet on the ball, I lifted and dropped my butt. I can't remember how many reps for each of those, or how many sets.
4. Three different kinds of squats: with feet together, squat, then come up on balls of feet; same with feet shoulder-width apart; same with feet in wide stance.
5. Forearms on a mat, on toes in a plank position. Bring knee out and forward toward shoulder, then straight back and kick upward. Repeat reps without letting foot back onto the ground, then switch legs.
6. 90-second wall sit.

Ok, so that's an account of the workout part of my day, but there's this whole other important part, which is the diet. I'm going to write a separate post addressing what I'm doing about the diet, but here in my daily posts, I want to briefly record what I ate. You COULD follow the meal plan in the nutrition book, but if you don't, it can be hard to come up with what to eat, and I know I love to get ideas from other people.

• Breakfast
• One egg plus two egg whites, fried in 1 tsp. of earth balance butter
• Steel cut oats with some frozen berries thrown in near the end of the simmering
• Three strips of turkey bacon
• Black coffee
• Snack
• 1 serving of ham sandwich meat
• 2 low-fat mozzarella cheese sticks. The Trader Joe's Lite sticks are not too bad.
• High-protein greek yogurt. Check the label for a good balance between carbohydrates and protein, though.
• Lunch
• Chicken breast cooked with liquid in a pan with sugar snap peas and mini bell peppers
• Dinner
• Sliced top sirloin and sliced chicken breast, cooked in a peanut-butter-hoisen-sriarcha-teriyaki sauce
• Sauteed frozen stir-fry veggies

Day 1 was as great as you might expect a day one of anything to be. And day two and three probably. I'll make it to day 4, and then we'll see how things are really going!