P90X - Week 11 - Wednesday

I got in about a 4 mile walk this morning. It wasn't as quick as normal. It takes me a while to get warmed up, for some reason (probably a little gas left over from my tubal), and I get a stitch in my sternum. It goes away after a while, but I did take it easy anyway. I walked for 62 minutes and burned 194 calories (2 Activity Points). I came home, rested for about 15 minutes, then did Shoulders & Arms (2 Activity Points). It whooped me. I've made progress on paper but it always feels like I'm not getting any stronger. I'm working on a chart that shows my progress for all the workouts - I'll post that on the last day when I post my final stats and Fit Test results.

Banana Nut Cheerios w/ skim milk, banana [4 pts]

apple & cottage cheese [3 pts]

chicken salad w/ light sour cream & salsa [4 pts]

carrot sticks [0 pts]

venison meat loaf & garden medley vegetables [6 pts]

fudge baby [4 pts]; I discovered this gem on a raw vegan blog. I have never, to my recollection, had a (fruit) date before so I was a bit skeptical. I am no longer a skeptic.

garden medley vegetables [2 pts]; These Green Giant steamer things are awesome!

Two cups of coffee [0 pts] and 80 ounces of water.

25 points today. 22 weekly and 11 activity points remaining.

P90X - Week 9 - Wednesday

Ab Ripper & Turbo this morning (353 calories - 3 Activity Points). I got through the Fifer Scissors without a break!! I really dislike ARX. Really. I did Shoulders & Arms in the afternoon (2 Activity Points). I wanted to skip the workout so badly. My head was killing me and my gut felt like someone ran into me with a battering ram (side effect from ibuprofen is the only thing I can think of, even though I've never had a problem with the stuff before). I half-assed the warm up and took lots of breaks (usually after every 3 sets). It sucked. My performance was good, until the end - that last set of Congdon curls (or maybe it was the crouching Cohens) didn't go as far as I would have liked. Oh well. I am, for damn sure, doing Legs & Back first on Friday (well, after ARX) and saving the cardio for later in the day.

Total cereal w/ skim milk, banana [3 pts]

scrambled eggs w/ onion, green pepper & salsa. light English muffin w/ light cream cheese & jelly [5 pts]

grilled chicken breast, baked sweet potato fries, green pepper slices, avocado hummus [5 pts]

apple & cottage cheese [4 pts]

ground venison & cauliflower casserole [5 pts]

yogurt [3 pts]

protein granola bar [4 pts]

Four cups of coffee [1 pt] and 80 ounces of water.

30 points today. 18 weekly and 13 activity points remaining.

P90X - Week 3 - Wednesday

Shoulders & Arms today. I either held last week's performance or improved. I did get up at 5 AM to get it out of the way. That was good. I also snuck in the Ab Ripper exercises during the breaks, so when I finished the workout, I only had to do 5 of the 11 ARX moves. That was nice.

I am getting a little frustrated with my dumbbells. In the video, they use the hexagonal dumbbells. Mine are weight plates on handles. The handles stick out at the ends, and get in the way when I do some of the moves. I was doing the deep swimmer's presses today and every time I pushed up, I felt like I had to also keep my arms angled away from the middle, so the handles wouldn't get hung up on each other.

Oh, and I almost bashed myself in the mouth doing crouching Cohen curls today. That would have sucked.

Sometimes I feel like I'm doing really well, and other times I wonder if I'm really working up to potential. I struggle with the shoulder fly moves. My front raises suffer because my side raises are weak. I've always had problems with lateral raises, and haven't shown much improvement in 2 years. Of course, I don't do them often enough to actually make progress. It may be something I'll focus on after this round of P90X. I'm still trying to decide what I want to do after, but whatever that is, I'll have a 3 week break if we end up going to New York for Christmas. Hopefully not. I would love to just stay home.

I did pretty well with food today. I hit my carb & protein ranges, and was only over my fat range by 2 grams. I came pretty close with the ratios, too!

5:05 AM - plum & cottage cheese

8:15 AM - multigrain English muffin w/ light cream cheese, turkey bacon, scrambled eggs w/ onion, green pepper & picante sauce

12:50 PM - green pepper slices, chicken breast w/ light barbecue sauce

3:10 PM - mozzarella string cheese

6:10 PM - chicken breast, green beans & whole wheat pasta w/ marina sauce

7:30 PM - chicken breast

9:00 PM - cottage cheese w/cinnamon & Splenda

Four cups of coffee and 80 ounces of water.

Calories - 1784
Carbs - 134 (20 fiber)
Protein - 217
Fat - 42
C/P/F Ratio - 30.1/48.6/21.3

P90X - Week 2 - Wednesday

Shoulders & Arms today. I improved or stayed the same in every exercise in terms of weights and reps. For some exercises, I added weight, so I'm pleased with this workout. ARX still blows. I am still taking breaks to get all the reps in, but I can do all the reps for in & outs and leg climbs without one. And today, I did all of the Mason twists without a break. Go me LOL

HOLY CRAP!!! I just watched the Ab Ripper video to double check something and I've been totally screwing myself on the V-up roll ups!!! I have been counting the V-up and the roll up together as 1 rep, but each one by itself is a rep!! I've been doing twice as much work as necessary! No wonder I loathe those.

7:20 AM - banana & cottage cheese

10:05 AM - plum

11:00 AM - scrambled eggs w/ onion, green pepper & picante sauce

1:30 PM - yogurt; I debated whether or not to eat this because I had the rest of the day planned out and it would have put me over calories and messed up my ratio (which wasn't perfect, but good enough). Then I said screw it.

3:10 PM - chicken breast, baby carrots & green pepper slices

6:30 PM - turkey meatloaf, corn muffins, broccoli & cauliflower; I really overate. It wouldn't have been too bad if I hadn't eaten the corn muffin my son didn't want. I need to find a healthier corn bread recipe! No guilt though.

Four cups of coffee and 80 ounces of water.

Calories - 1784
Carbs - 210 (19 fiber)
Protein - 141
Fat - 45
C/P/F Ratio - 46.4/31.2/22.4

P90X - Week 1 - Wednesday

Today's workout was Shoulders & Arms, along with Ab Ripper X. I did every rep in ARX, but I had to pause the DVD. From now on, I'm not even going to bother putting the DVD in.

Shoulders & Arms:

alternating shoulder press
in & out bicep curl
two-arm tricep kickback
deep swimmers press
full supination concentration curl
chair dips
upright row
static arm curl
flip grip twist tricep kickback
two-angle shoulder fly
crouching Cohen curl
lying down tricep extension
in & out straight arm shoulder fly
Congdon curl
side-tri rise

I used 7.5 and 10 pound weights. I did manage my first set of alternating shoulder presses at 15 pounds, but that was too much. 12.5 might be better for next week. I am trying to be careful when I have an uneven dumbbell so I don't injure my wrist. Sometimes, 5 pounds is just too light and 10 pounds is just too heavy. I am not going out and buying any more weights. I'll make do with what I have. I have a lot of plates and two pairs of dumbbell handles. I think I might get a third pair though.

It was a horrible food day. I was so busy that I didn't get to eat on a very good schedule. I was doing my observations for substitute teaching in the morning, came home to squeeze in a workout before picking my kid up from school, then I had to go to my last class for teacher training and it ran late. By the time I finished dinner, it was 8 PM, and I was way under calories and not at all hungry. I was over on carbs, way under on fat and protein. But I just could not eat.

7:15 AM - scrambled eggs w/ onion, green pepper & picante sauce

11:15 AM - banana & cottage cheese

1:15 PM - Cheerios w/ skim milk

3:30 PM - tuna salad w/ light balsamic dressing, onion & green peppers

7:45 PM - chicken breast, broccoli & green pepper, half a yogurt my son didn't eat

Three cups of coffee and 80 ounces of water.

Calories - 1190
Carbs - 147 (18 fiber)
Protein - 127
Fat - 16
C/P/F Ratio - 47.5/40.8/11.7