Day Seven

And the first week is over! A little "X Stretch" today, a lot of resting, and (as always) a lot of eating. I'm ingesting about 1800 calories a day, but it feels like way more. Protein apparently does that to you. Supposedly I should lose the fat this month, but we'll see if it happens. Ever seen those models of five pounds of yellow fat? (Or is it ten?) It's bigger than a yoga block! (4x4x8 ish for those of you who, like me, had no idea yoga blocks existed.) My Better Half (MBH) and I both are at comfortable weights for our heights, but we want to adjust where it's at a bit. (Less gut, more guns!)
     After six days of pummeling, my body was SO EXCITED for a day off. My  right elbow is finally starting to recover from the pullup mania of day one. (Just in time to do it again tomorrow. Yippee.) My right hip still complains about moving, but at least it doesn't have to "bring it" again for a few days. MBH did "Legs & Back." His comment? "Seems like it was a little easier than some of the others." Ha! There's no accounting for taste. I quote "Pirates of the Caribbean." (We just finished rewatching the trilogy. So many great lines!)
     I'm reflecting that maybe God knew what He was doing with the "Six days you should labor, and on the seventh, rest" thing. Pick a day, maybe yours can't be Sunday, and relax. Hang with family, read a book, grill out, or whatever floats your boat. MBH doesn't have a set schedule, so when he has a stretch of time open, we drop everything. We visit, either friends/family, or the couch. We play games: card, board, computer, outdoor, you name it. We catch a movie, or four.
     I've noticed that principle applies in other ways, too. After seven hours of work (housework, or whatever) my brain starts shorting out. I find myself walking in circles around the house trying to remember what I was going to do. A 20 minute sit-down, or an hour to nap or read, and I'm recharged for another seven hours. So take a guilt-free break. (Just not on company time, of course!) And maybe pause to thank the One who had the idea in the first place.
~Stick to it!

Day Six

"Kenpo X" - martial arts as exercise! I won't lie, I was looking forward to today. I experimented with some various forms of self-defense after high school and had a blast. The best part was that the instructor was a police officer, etc. so we heard practical tips, real life examples, and some great stories! (And some gory, but that's not the point!) I think I would have enjoyed taking it farther (or is it further? English experts, anyone?) but you can only do so much in one lifetime. You may have "Top Twenty" priorities, but if you plan on sleeping or eating, better pick ten. And if you want to do them well, pare it down to five.
     Therefore, Kenpo brought back some good memories. But it's a good thing no one is watching anymore. I ain't no teenager no more. (Actually, if you're an English expert, you should probably not read this. You don't need this kind of stress in your life!) All that uncoordinated jiggling was embarrassing me!
     In my defense, I think it was a little rotten of Tony Horton to put Kenpo right after "Legs & Back." I could barely walk yesterday (ok, slight exaggeration, but only slight!) and today...all that kicking? Followed by all that punching while down in a "horse stance"? (Horse stance: like a squat, only you never come back up. Isn't that nice.) Pretty sure I need a cane to get the mail tomorrow.
     Pro - drinking lots of water is healthy for you. It gets the toxins out of your body and into the toilet. Con - it gets the toxins out of your body many, many times a day. Pro - All this exercise helps me sleep better at night. Con - All this exercise makes my muscles sore. (Even with the much touted recovery drink, though I do think it has helped.) Pro - After getting up in the middle of the night to "purge toxins", I fall back asleep faster. Con - With bedroom and bath on two different floors, and sore muscles, I spend way too much time hobbling up and down stairs at three in the morning while questioning my own sanity. Pro - Pretty sure my body will adjust after a few more weeks. (Either that or I will finally get it through my thick skull that the negative effects of drinking water after supper may outweigh the positive health benefits! Timing is everything.)
     The end is in sight! (Of the first week of thirteen anyway.)
~Stick to it!

Day Five

I don't want to be sexist, so I'll keep this general - guys tend to make more noise than girls when they work out. The grunting and groaning is a way of psyching themselves up. They're saying "I'm tired. This hurts. I'm accomplishing this by sheer force of will power. I'm not ready to quit, I just have reached the point where I need a little encouragement." (Side note: They aren't actually THINKING all those words in connection with their grunting. They're just grunting. What you just read was the female expanded version.)
     Today's "Legs & Back" followed by "Ab Ripper X" got me to that point. So I did the female version - I cried. Note to other females: maybe you're not a crier, I'm not saying you are, I'm saying I am. Note to males: notice that sometimes female crying is the equivalent of male grunting. It just means "I'm tired. This hurts." (And so on, read the above expansion.) A little gentle encouragement is all that's needed.
     And I finished. And I'll do my workout tomorrow. And I'll do that same workout again next week. (Though I'm trying not to contemplate that too deeply too far in advance. No need for all that extra stress in my life!) Sometimes you gotta say, "Life is hard," and then keep going.
     Not quite a decade ago, I was pretty frustrated with a certain musical genre which shall remain unnamed. It felt like all the songs were based off the children's tune. You know, the one that ends "And now I'm am happy all the day!" They rang false. Nice fairy tale, now get back to reality. Fortunately, the pendulum has swung back the other way. Now there's great songs like "The Edge" by Michael Card, "Praise You in the Storm" by Casting Crowns, and "Held" by Nichole Nordeman. Life's tough, but it's worth doing.
~Stick to it.

Day Four

Yoga X. Biggest challenge: endurance. Whereas the others are 60 minutes or under (maybe adding on the 20 minutes Ab Ripper X on which I only do about 1/4 of the work cause I'm a wimp at this point)  this one is 90 minutes all by itself. It wasn't too bad though - I'm fairly flexible already, so I felt more successful than on other workouts. And I skipped the two minutes of "ohmms" at the end. That's just not my style, so I did more stretching.
     Quite frankly, that's about all I'm going to say about it. Today is actually Day 5, so I'm trying to remember yesterday. Keep in mind, I hardly remember what I had for breakfast today, so anything that happened yesterday...
     As Tony Horton says: "Do your best, forget the rest." Got the second part down! (What's the opposite of "the rest"? Cause I forgot whatever that is, too.) Sometimes it's just better to let history sleep. Maybe I'll remember when it repeats itself.
~Stick to it!

Day Three

The first test: spent half the day away from home. This in itself was a challenge - I had to get up extra early in order to do the whole "Shoulders & Arms" plus "Ab Ripper X" plus eat breakfast (which, prior to August 1st, I typically skipped) plus do all I needed to do to be able to be gone the rest of the day.
     But overall, I did ok. I packed my snack, along with extra water bottles. I resisted the temptation to grab a frappecino for the drive. At the supper restaurant, I carefully ordered to match my allotted portions - no alcohol, no dessert. I was surprised at how easy it was to find something to order. An 8oz tenderloin was 2 portions Protein (plus 2 extra ounces, but I wasn't about to ask the chef to chop off 2 oz, he might get offended!) A side of cottage cheese = 1 Dairy. A house salad finished me off with 1 Fat, 1 Extra, and 1 Vegetable.
     I didn't even stumble when we stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home. I needed to use the restroom anyway - no need to spend all that time waiting in line drooling over the lucious menu of sin. :) Maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but maybe not. The mindset permitting cheating on a diet needs disciplined just like the mindset permitting cheating in other areas, though consequences are less severe.
     I did succumb to a handful of dark cherries. What does that imply about my character? I won't waste sleep on it. Most likely the difference is the conviction that cherries are not equal to ice cream.
     Anyway, My Better Half (MBH) is done with "Shoulders & Arms" (he is behind, I'm somewhat smug) so it's "Yoga X" for me.
     ~Stick to it! 

Day Two

Today feels like a walk in the park compared to yesterday. I got a whole night's sleep. I ate lunch at lunch time. (We never did get around to supper yesterday. Had a protein shake after "lunch" and called it good.) My Better Half (MBH) is off to work with a cooler that's heavier than his work bag, but I think he has everything he needs. We also have quickly gotten comfortable with changing the program to fit our lifestyle without affecting quality. (I hope!)
     For example, we officially scrapped the menu plan. Didn't even make it to breakfast today! Too much food and too much work. MBH dropped back a calorie level in the hopes of actually being able to eat all the food he's supposed to without feeling sick and overstuffed. I'll eat my food groups separately and count servings. (Though several of the recipes are pretty tasty!)
     Also, today I did "Cardio X" instead of "Plyometrics". The manual says you can if you have bad knees, so my conscience is clear. I don't have bad knees (yet) but I'm not a fan of all that jumping around. And I'm pretty sure I'd end up with bad knees if I did do all that jumping around. Don't get me wrong, it was still a workout. I have always sworn by the adage "Girls don't sweat, they glisten!" But I was sweating.
     Why was today easier? Expectations. I knew the workout was hard, but survivable. I accepted that I wasn't able to do everything perfectly. (My "Jump Shot" exercise only remotely resembled anything related to the basketball move it was named for!) I am finally willing to admit that (as too annoyingly often) MBH was right - I am not athletic. (I may only have 20 invisible pounds I want to lose, but that doesn't make me coordinated!) I was prepared for the fact that eating five times a day feels like you never stop eating.
     Reminds me of the first six months of marriage. I have always been an overachiever and when it came to being a "good wife" that drive kicked into a new gear. Failure! Keeping the house perfectly clean while working and having a life? Not possible. Always being cheerful and unselfish like I was while we were dating? Ain't happenin'. MBH didn't meet some of those expectations either. Sometimes when I childishly sulk to get attention, he leaves the room! We've had to agree that he won't pressure me to play "Zip" (counting windmills) for the duration of every single road trip and I won't resent that he doesn't cook me gourmet meals on his days off. I don't think I will ever be done adjusting my marital expectations, but it has gotten easier.
     The 90 days of P90X seems like forever at this point. A 75th wedding anniversary is a distant date. But the only way to know if they're worth doing is to "Stick to it." ~

Day One

     It's official! And we're off with a bang - or a bust, depending on how you want to look at it. Let's start off by simply stating that the cards were stacked against us. My Better Half (MBH) got home from work at 1am. My alarm went off at 5:30am so that I would have time to do my normal routine PLUS make two mushroom omelettes of two different sizes (we're in two different calorie levels) PLUS make two protein shakes for snack PLUS round up the remaining junk food hiding in our house to bestow on my grateful non-P90X brothers. And still make it to church on time! (Granted, normal people don't have to be to church by 7:30, but that's another story.) Actually, we didn't quite make it on time anyway, but we were close.
     As it turned out, I didn't make two different omlettes. In retrospect, I should have gotten up at 4:30. But, then again, maybe not. MBH graciously stepped in to make one giant omelet-that-turned-into-scrambled-eggs-because-it-stuck-to-my-ancient-pan as I yelled directions from the bathrooom while blowdrying my hair. And we used whole eggs, not egg whites, due to my lack of grocery planning. The recipe called for 16 egg whites, but I only had 5 whole eggs and no plain egg whites at all. Not to mention that I was so caught up in the running late and no egg whites dilemma that I forgot the milk, yogurt, and strawberries also in the breakfast menu plan. Good thing, too. We almost couldn't finish the omelet. Apparently going on a diet doesn't always mean going hungry!     
     I've heard that protein powder turns bad (or at least a bad color) if it's mixed and then sits, so we just blended the fruit and milk. No time to measure out the powder into a small container, so we took the whole two pound tub to church. Nothing like a little free advertising for health, right? :) This led to the discovery that egg powder makes funny yellow lumps in your pre-mixed raspberry shake. Fortunately, it still tasted ok.
     (Side note - Gold Selection Egg Powder from GNC tastes like yummy vanilla pudding. Liquid chocolate Muscle Milk is nasty, even chilled.)
     After church, it was TIME! Day One: P90X Chest & Back workout. I must say - I did better than I had expected. Granted, I used the chair assist for all the pullups. And Dive Bomber Pushups left me way too close to rug burn on my nose as I collapsed at the bottom. Never did make it back up to complete the pushup. Better luck next time. (Or maybe in October!)
     Note to self - read the whole instruction manual first! Otherwise, you begin an exhausted victory dance after the 24th set of Chest & Back, only to discover Ab Ripper X is also on today's to-do list. And that completely kicks tush. I am (was) actually quite proud of my abdominal strength, but "Pride goes before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18) New goal - be able to DO Ab Ripper X by October.
     After carefully examining the manual twice more, we declared ourselves done for the day and consumed our recovery drink, sank onto the couch, and watched a movie while we finished the forgotten portion of our breakfast. MBH followed up with a recovery nap as well.
     Normal people would be eating supper by now, but between all the other eating and the exercising and the napping, we're barely ready for lunch. (I did have my afternoon snack while MBH slept. It was beef jerky instead of turkey because the store was out of turkey. Go figure.) Then I suppose we'd better eat supper so we can go to bed. :) This plan to lose weight has some interesting perks!
~Stick to it!