Last weekend, Lance said he wanted to get serious about eating right and working out. i mentioned i’d wanted to try P90X and he said let’s do it. Got on craigslist and found a half-price copy near our house. 15 min later i was paying for it, and 5 min after that i was home reading the nutrition manual. Lance & I made a deal: i’ll be the food czar if he will get our asses out of bed in the morning. Preparing the food is a fair amount of work, but at least it’s something i can do. Getting up early is NOT something i can do. (Whenever i’m in charge of getting up, we press snooze about 6-7 times at least.) I’m hoping this arrangement can work.
Over the last week i have kept a brief journal of the experience. Perhaps no one cares for this level of detail, but here it is if you’re interested.
Day0
Workout: Did the fitness test to determine if we should consider not doing this program. Passed with flying colors. Happy – i would have been upset if we weren’t fit enough. But i guess you have to be even fatter-assed than we are before you’re not in shape enough. Also took “before” pictures. Barf. I should print my picture and put it next to the M&M bin at work to discourage cheating.
Food: Started eating the program food even though it is technically a day early. Went to the grocery store and bought a shit-ton of food. Spent $250. Are you kidding me? The food is OK. I prepare a day and a half in advance.
Day1
Workout: OMG 6 am came early. Lance did his part and got up as soon as the alarm went off and turned on the light. I was crabby. But we did it. Walked the dog. Chest & Back 60 min, Ab Ripper 15 min. We don’t have the chin up bar yet, but we have some bands. We also did a shit-ton of pushups. OMG. More than either of us can do. We’re dying by the end. Ab Ripper is hard hard hard. Lance is having lower back issues.
Food: I’m trying to get a hang of the nutrition system. It seems like we are eating a lot of food. The amount of meat they want us to put on the Cobb Salad is ridiculous. 4 oz each of ham and turkey. Do you know how much deli meat that is? It is nearly a whole container of sandwich meat. I could not finish the salad, it was grossing me out. Meat Salad.
Day2
Workout: 6 am is still early, but we got to bed early last night. Got up right at 6. Walked the dog. It’s still dark. Plyometrics workout is 60 min. Lots of jumping and high impact. We give up after 30 min with feet arches hurting and generally not pleased. Took the dog for another walk to get some more activity in even though we quit early. This is not encouraging.
Food: I’m getting a hang of the food system. I do not like the egg substitute – the store brand is more “pure” with ingredients being egg whites only, so that is the one we buy. But ugh, a cup full of egg whuites just looks naisty. (I did not misspell that – you need to add the ‘i’ to really understand my feeling towards the egg whites.) The name brand Egg Beaters look yellow at least but that brand has a bunch of other ingredients. I do not like them, Sam i Am. I do not like egg whites and ham. Wait, i do like ham. I have been cutting back with the food a bit so it’s not as ridiculous as yesterday’s Meat Salad. Already had to revisit the grocery store for more veggies and meat. They like meat on this diet. Spent $91 more. Surely i can figure out a way to do this cheaper.
Day 3
Workout: 6 am is still early. Got up at the first buzz. Walked the dog. Arms & Shoulders today. We made it through the whole workout – go us. We need a few additional weights, perhaps. We just plain forgot to do Ab Ripper today.
Food: One of the recipes is AMAZING, Island Pork Tenderloin, it is going on my regular recipe list. Very spicy and island-y. Discovered that freeze-dried fruit is not that great. I would even go so far as to say terrible. Now, maybe regular dried fruit is better. I certainly like banana chips. That freeze-dried shit, i don’t know what that was. Naisty. Regular fruit is much better.
Day 4
Workout: 6 am is still too early. Went to bed a little later last night. Lance snoozed once. I’m evil, i tell you – when he snoozed and reached over to snuggle i was trying to send mind control waves “snooze again, snooze again, let’s skip it today”. This is why he’s the wake-up czar and i’m the food czar and not vice-versa. Yoga today – 90 minutes! At first Lance thinks this is better, but the yoga is not particularly easy. Especially the part where we’re told “try not to fall on your head”. Seriously – that was about the extent of the instructions.
Food: Nothing too exciting. We’re sticking with it. We eat a protein bar every day as one of the snacks. They’re not exactly tasty. We’re trying different brands to see if we like a certain kind better.
Day 5
Workout: Played bridge last night and didn’t get home until after 11. Latest night of the week. Lance was still up. Exhausted, i fell asleep before he turned the light out. In the morning he snoozed at least twice. Again, the evil drowsy me was rooting for sleeping in. But he got us up. Walked the dog – Nugent is loving this new routine. Legs & Back, 60 min workout. Then Ab Ripper, 15 min. My legs were super tight from two workouts the day before, OMG. Yes i’m still running 3x per week in addition to all this – insanity. We did get our chin-up bar delivered, but haven’t set it up yet. Will have to do that this weekend. After which we probably still won’t use it b/c we have weak arms.
Food: It’s about time to go to the store AGAIN. Made the yummy island pork dish again. Haven’t cheated much. I might have thrown in an extra fruit serving or nut serving on a couple of days, but i don’t feel guilty b/c i have severely cut back on some meat servings such as the aforementioned Meat Salad. Lance is even eating all his food, which is new. In the past when i have tried to make us healthy meals, he would sometimes forget to eat. I have never had that problem.
Day 6
Workout: Saturday. Slept in to a blissful 9 am after getting up at 6 every day this week. Workout was KenPo X, which looked a lot like Cardio Kickboxing to me. Wow, this was fun fun fun! By far the best workout yet, with lots of sweat. Lance agreed.
Food: We found a brand of protein bars that we like. This is important since we eat one every day. Back to the grocery store today and spent another $100 for food for 3-4 more days. Everything was a little off schedule since we started our Saturday 3 hours later, but it worked. Lance had a baseball draft from 12-4 at a bar; he got a salad there. Still on track.
Day 7
Workout: Today’s ‘workout’ was a 60 min stretch. Definitely nice to stretch out – lots of sore muscles, especially legs.
Food: Figured out a way to make egg whites such that they don’t gross me out. Something about the texture is just different; they don’t firm up the way regular eggs do. Solution = taco seasoning! Also add some onions, mushrooms, and diced green chiles. Easy. Made a plan for the next few days for lunch/dinner. This is a LOT easier with both of us rooting each other on.
Day 8
Workout: Getting up today did not seem as hard as last week. We did snooze maybe 3 times, and my evil self still secretly hoped we would snooze through the workout, but that voice was quieter today. For the workout, Rinse and Repeat. This week of workouts will look very similar to last week. Chest & Back today, followed by Ab Ripper. We definitely did better during both than last week. What a difference from Day 1. We’re still not doing nearly as many reps as the super-fit guys on the DVD, but we both felt a lot stronger today. Still haven’t put up the chin-up bar. Though at the work gym i was able to confirm today that there is No Friggin’ Way i can do a pull-up.
Food: The food is easy today as breakfast is a smoothie and lunch is leftovers. I really love the smoothies, lots of fruit, yum. Dinner will also be easy. I like easy.
Reflection: I’m so proud of us for making it 8 straight days! It is long enough to know that this will be fairly sustainable as long as we want to keep it up. * After a week i lost 2.4 lbs and Lance lost 1.5 lbs. Weight loss is definitely one of our goals. * I think it makes a huge difference exercising every day, as soon as we get up – it’s like saying to yourself “oh i’m going to be healthy today.” For me, exercising and eating well go hand in hand – it’s a state of mind. * It also helps a lot that Lance and i have committed to this together. I’ve done the thing where i’m trying and he is not – it’s much much harder to eat well when the assumption that we will eat healthily is not shared by both. * I’m convinced that we CAN do this. In order to keep it up, exercise and food health has to remain a priority. Right now we’re riding the new experience high, and then we got a bump in motivation with some minor weight loss a couple of days ago. 90 days seems like a long time. But it isn’t, not really. We can do this. Priority.
Tags: fitness, p90x
