P90X - Week 5 - Tuesday

I survived my second Doubles day. I got up at 5 AM to do Cardio X (43 minutes and 234 calories) and ARX. A couple hours later, I did Back & Biceps. I'd normally wait longer than 90 minutes between workouts but I had tons of stuff to do today. This workout is nuts! I used 25 pound weights for lawnmowers and 10-15 pounders for the rest of the exercises. There were some interesting pull ups (corn cob and towel) that were challenging. The strip set curls at the end were a bitch. I only have 2 pairs of dumbbell handles and one needs 4 different sets of weights for the exercise. I had to stop after each set of 8 reps to pull weights off. I am going to get another set of dumbbell handles to make it easier. I know I talk about doing that all the time, but I am really going to do it now. I also think I was a little ambitious with the starting weight for the strip set (17.5 pounds). It was hard!!!!!!!!! I was so glad when I got down to my last set, with 10 pounds. This exercise being at the very end sucks.

Here is the exercise list for Back & Biceps:
wide front pull up
lawnmowers
twenty-ones
one-arm cross-body curl
switch grip pull up
elbows out lawnmowers
standing bicep curl
one-arm concentration curl
corn cob pull up
reverse grip bend over row
open arm curl
static arm curl
towel pull up
Congdon locomotive
crouching Cohen curl
one-arm corkscrew curl
chin up
seated bent over back fly
curl up hammer down
hammer curl
max rep pull up
Superman
in-out hammer curl
strip set curl

apple & cottage cheese [3 pts]

Special K protein cereal w/ skim milk, banana [4 pts]

omelet w/ cheese, onion, green pepper & picante sauce, multigrain English muffin [6 pts]

catfish w/ light sour cream, picante sauce, romaine lettuce & green peppers [6 pts]

roasted chicken & mixed vegetables & EVOO [6 pts]

yogurt [2 pts]

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

28 points today. I'm down to 17 weekly points and 6 activity points. I'll earn a few more APs this week, thankfully.

P90X - Week 5 - Tuesday

Big, bad Plyometrics this morning (58 minutes and 410 calories). I actually kind of missed it. I did NOT get up at 5 AM to do the workout. Well, I was up, but there's too much jumping for me to do when my guys are trying to sleep.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I've started meditating again. I did it earlier this year (or maybe it was last year - it's all a blur) and thought it helped me out a lot. So I've picked it up again. I'm listening to John Edward's "Developing Your Own Psychic Powers" stuff - not because I'm particularly interested in my psychic whatever, but because I love his voice. On Sunday night, I did the introductory meditation and last night I did the one that actually focuses on opening your mind to psychic energy.

And it must be working. I was in the kitchen this afternoon, tearing up a cooked chicken. The song "Feed The Birds" from Mary Poppins popped into my head and I couldn't get it out. I finished up in the kitchen and came out to the computer, started Firefox. I checked my Twitter extension and saw this Tweet from Nathan Fillion: "Feed the birds." No kidding.

apple & cottage cheese [3 pts]

banana [1 pt]

turkey bacon, omelet, multigrain English muffin w/ butter (bad, I know!) [8 pts]

rice cakes [2 pts]

tuna salad w/ romaine lettuce, baby carrots, green pepper slices & light dressing [4 pts]

cube steak & jasmine rice [8 pts]

frozen banana w/ chocolate protein powder [4 pts]

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

I had to dip into my savings today - 31 points.

P90X - Week 5 - Monday

I have decided that I am 100% definitely doing Doubles. I woke up at 4 AM and tossed and turned until 5, when I finally got out of bed and got Cardio X out of the way (43 minutes and 254 calories). It's a decent work out. I probably wouldn't pick it as a stand alone cardio option outside of P90X, but it's not overly taxing when you've still got another our work. The schedule says to do cardio in the morning and the weights and abs in the afternoon/evening. I'd planned on doing that, and changed my mind. I wanted it out of the way, so I did ARX immediately after cardio, then shortly before lunch, I did Chest, Shoulders & Triceps. This workout was awesome! It's a lot of push ups. I managed a good number on my toes, even near the end. I only had trouble with the clap/plyo push ups - I couldn't get a good push off the ground to get a clap in. I used mostly 5 and 10 pound weights. I'll be going up a bit for a few exercises next week. Overall, I really liked this workout, but my arms are exhausted.

Here's the exercise list for Chest, Shoulders & Triceps:
slow motion 3-in-1 push up
in & out shoulder fly
chair dip
plange push up
pike press
side-tri rise
floor fly
scarecrow
overhead tricep extension
two-twitch speed push up
Y press
lying tricep extension
side-to-side push up
pour fly
side-leaning tricep extension
one-arm push up
weighted circles
throw the bomb
clap/plyo push up
slo-mo throw
one-arm balance push up
fly row press
dumbbell cross-body blow

The decision to do Doubles came to me when I was thinking about the ice cream I ate last night. Doing extra cardio is good motivation for me to eat as cleanly as possible, otherwise, I'm wasting my time. Every time I want more than one serving of junk, I'm definitely going to think twice about it. I'm not doing an extra 45 minutes of exercise just to eat twice as many calories in crap.

turkey bacon, omelet, multigrain English muffin [7 pts]

apple & cottage cheese [3 pts]

yogurt [2 pts]

catfish & romaine lettuce on homemade whole wheat bread, baby carrots & green peppers [6 pts]

chicken breast & steamed cauliflower w/ EVOO [5 pts]

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

24 points for the day. I'm exhausted.

P90X - Week 4 - Sunday

I completely forgot to weigh today. I will try to remember on Tuesday, which will be Day 30. I took a rest day, instead of doing X Stretch. Recovery Week felt like a lifetime. I will be very glad to get back to the good stuff tomorrow.

I've already started to change the way I do things, in terms of food. I didn't weigh my apple today. I didn't write down what time I ate. I only wrote down what I ate and how many points it was. To make things even simpler, I've decided to stop logging all my food in SparkPeople, and I'm going to stop doing all the points-earning activities there. That was taking up too much of my time, reading articles and doing polls and all that other crap. So I'm just going to focus on the message boards, teams, and my blog. Another change - I'm not going to use the computer/online points calculators I'm going to stick to my slider. For some reason (probably user error, because I'm always in a hurry), I was getting different values with the different e-calculators. So no more. I feel less stressed already.

We "officially" start Weight Watchers-style tomorrow. I've been through the list of Filling Foods and, like Michi's Ladder, it's really just common sense eating. That means I'm screwed, because it still comes down to making the right choices, and I'm not really one to do that. Of course, I can still have "bad" things, and chances are I will go over my points limit. Ugh, no matter what plan I'm on, I can still over eat. I could focus on the why of that and blah, blah, blah. Frankly, I am not even sure I care why. I understand nutrition and exercises and all the psychological stuff behind overeating/binge eating and recognizing true hunger vs boredom and emotional eating. I get all that. I know the strategies for avoiding it. I know it all like the back of my hand. Applying what I know is where I fall flat. But that's on me - not the plan I choose. It doesn't matter what plan I choose. I still have free will.

apple & cottage cheese [3 pts]

Special K Protein cereal w/ skim milk [3 pts]

Jennie-O turkey meatballs [7 pts] & baked sweet potato chips [2 pts]; I really screwed up here. I was going to throw some boneless, skinless chicken breasts on my grill and I realized I bought (2 bags of) the wrong chicken breasts. The stuff I bought had skin & bones. I couldn't just pop them on the grill - they need to have the skin removed, baked in the oven, then taken off the bones. I'll have to prep those tomorrow. I had to scramble for some protein that was quick and "went with" sweet potato. It was either the meatballs or canned tuna.

mandarin oranges [1 pt]

McDonald's chocolate chip cookie [4 pts]; Damn, these thing are evil.

baby carrots & green pepper slices [0 pts]

lasagna [4 pts] & homemade whole wheat bread [2 pts]

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

I had a good 27 point day, until I ruined it by eating myself sick with ice cream.

P90X - Week 4 - Saturday

I did yoga this morning and it went well. I'm still having trouble with the half-moon stuff and crane, but I can see improvement in the other moves. My flexibility is improving - that move where you reach under your leg and behind your back to clasp your hands together, I can do that on one side of my body (I still fall out on the other).

I'm not sure when I'll stop counting calories. This is going to be a transition to just points, then just writing down what I eat. I'm still trying to figure out how I want to track my points. I told my husband I was just going to string some beads and move them from one side to the other throughout the day as I eat. Or, I'll make us both an erasable chart for blocking off points eaten. I don't know. I do know that it's a pain in the ass to concern myself with calories and points, so the quicker I make the switch, the better for my sanity.

8:15 AM - banana & cottage cheese [3 pts]

11:25 AM - turkey bacon, multigrain English muffin, omelet w/ onion, green pepper & picante sauce [7 pts]

1:15 PM - baby carrots [1 pt]

3:00 PM - chicken breast w/ light barbecue sauce & cheese on whole wheat bread, McDonald's apple dippers; I ate the whole bag of apple slices but only a quarter of the caramel sauce. [6 pts]

7:15 PM - turkey stuffins (turkey muffins made with stuffing mix), mixed vegetables [5 pts]

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

Calories - 1495
Carbs - 170 (28 fiber)
Protein - 121
Fat - 41
C/P/F Ratio - 44.3/31.4/24.3
23 points, if all my math is right. It may not be. I lost my whole blog draft and tried to redo it from memory.

P90X - Week 4 - Friday

Core Synergistics today. I am very mixed on this workout. I don't feel like I enjoy it overall but I love the individual exercises. I do have a hard time remembering to keep my core engaged, but I think the moves are fun and challenging. I love banana roll and Superman/banana. The Dreya Roll is my favorite. I did struggle again today with the plank to chaturanga run, so I stayed in a plank run, but I nailed the ISO! And I love the push ups in this workout. I can't do all of them on my toes yet, though.

I also did 30 minutes on the Wii Fit (breaking 3 of my yoga records) to entertain my son.

I have decided, thanks to the patient guidance of my friend Melissa, that I am going to adopt the Weight Watchers lifestyle. I'm not going to join the program officially, but I am going to start thinking in terms of points. It hit me that this would be a good way for me to move away from being a compulsive calorie counter. I've always said that I don't want to track my calories forever. This feels like a good transition, and a lot of the nutritional philosophy of Weight Watchers matches my own. I'm not sure how I'll handle overeating, but that is a problem with any plan. I'll still be doing the same things I did (food-wise) over the summer, but with a little guidance rather than strict calorie counting. I'm optimistic.

I won't know for sure until Sunday morning, but assuming I weigh 130 pounds, my daily points allowance will be 21 points (and that's being generous with the "how do you spend most of your day?" question). Taking the middle of the road estimate (moderate) with my activity points, I get an extra 3 points on days I work out (Monday - Saturday). With my 35 weekly Flex points, that all works out to about 28 points per day, if I've done my math right.

So starting Monday, I'll begin my transition to counting points instead of calories. By the time I finish this round of P0X, I'd like to be off the calorie counting, and not logging my food in SparkPeople anymore. Gah, that is such a pain, even after all this time, especially with my new computer (which is a netbook and slow as hell - it takes forever to do anything on the Spark web site).

7:55 AM - apple & cottage cheese [3 pts]

10:40 AM - turkey bacon, whole wheat toast, scrambled eggs w/ onion, green pepper & picante sauce [11 pts]

12:55 PM - almonds, banana [5 pts]

3:00 PM - chicken breast & green pepper slices [4 pts]

6:15 PM - catfish on bun w/ ketchup [4 pts]

Four cups of coffee [2 pt] and 80 ounces of water.

Calories - 1553
Carbs - 154 (25 fiber)
Protein - 137
Fat - 48
C/P/F Ratio - 38.5/34.3/27.2

Manually calculating and adding the points for the day gave me 27 points, but using this recipe calculator (it's an XLS file), I get 30 points. I'm not sure which to go by - this one seems more precise because it allows for decimals. But it's a 3 point difference. That's quite a bit.

P90X - Week 4 - Thursday

It's weird doing X Stretch in the middle of the week. I was up at 4 AM (yes, that's a 4) and tossed and turned, then finally got up and got it out of the way. My son did not have a fever when I woke up and he came out to keep me company halfway through the dvd. He proceeded to bug the crap out of me for 27 minutes. His fever did come back several hours later, so he's going to be home again tomorrow. I'm ready to pack him up in a box with air holes and send him to live with his Nanna in New York.

I've been talking to friends about what eating plan I should follow. I'm a big advocate of most of them, and I truly believe it comes down to what works for the individual. My biggest complaint with any plan is the restriction. Atkins is too low carb for me. Most other plans are too low fat for me. Or too low calorie. Regardless of the plan, I find myself obsessing about getting everything to fit properly. Do you know that before I started P90X, I calculated - to the gram - how much apple I could eat with my cottage cheese before my work outs? An 86 gram apple gave me exactly half a serving of fruit. This allowed me to have another half a serving of fruit later in the day. What if I wanted the whole apple? Or the whole banana? It didn't fit.

Anyway, Weight Watchers is one I was considering. It's sensible and many, many people have great success with it. I was concerned though, that it might not be enough calories for me. I have no idea about the points to calorie conversion, and people say that's part of the beauty of it - don't worry about calories, just eat your points. Maybe I could learn to do that, but I think in terms of calories for right now and it's hard to change that mindset. And of course, I still believe a protein-dominant diet is best for me. I also like moderate fat intake. I like cheese now and then, you know? I like vegetables. In fact that was one of my main beefs with the P90X plan - it didn't allow enough vegetables. But as I stated in the comments of my last blog, I don't want to find myself hungry and having to "settle" for vegetables just because I don't have any points left for the day.

I used to think I needed to have a plan. Maybe the best option for me is to NOT follow a plan. Over the summer, I was very laid back. I did not binge as much as I have in the first 4 weeks of P90X, that's for sure. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted it. I was happy and satisfied. Sure, I only lost half a pound in 2 months, but that's okay. I think I can make that same method work for weight loss. To be honest, I don't think my diet, overall, is that bad. Yes, the veggies have been lacking the last few weeks but that changes today. Aside from the binges, I've made good choices. And I honestly think the restrictive diet caused the binges. I'm sure of it. I hate being told I can't eat something. So no more can't!

One thing I posted in my comments for yesterday's blog that I wanted to repost here:

It doesn't matter what "rules" I have for food. I'm impulsive and emotional, and that's never going to change. Having rules makes feel weak and out of control. Without rules, I don't have to feel guilty for breaking them. When I break rules, it makes me want to throw in the towel. I'm very big on "Oh, I ate something I shouldn't have - might as well blow off the rest of the day." Or "I ate so much, I might as well keep going." This has always been my issue.

I was all set to eat a healthy chicken and vegetables dinner, then I watched the season finale of Hung (if you've never heard of it, it's about a guy with a very big wiener who becomes a professional wiener-user to make money after his house burns down), and I could not shake the craving for hot dogs. And you have to have mac & cheese with hot dogs. All I had was some deluxe shells & cheese, which tastes like total crap. I took one bite and decided I didn't really want it. I'd called my husband to bring home some hot dogs (I asked for some bigger ones that fit right in the bun) and some whole wheat buns. He brings home these monster quarter pound freaking hot dogs and regular buns. I was pissed. He insisted there were NO whole wheat buns anywhere in the store. Apparently, I need to spell everything out for him, or do it all myself. Even for hot dogs and buns, I have standards. So I told him I wasn't eating it. The he got pissed and said he wasn't eating. Screw him then. I threw the mac & cheese in the garbage. I don't give a crap if he starves, and now I'm too pissed off to eat because he's a freaking idiot. WHO THE HELL EATS A 250 CALORIE, QUARTER POUND FRAKKING HOT DOG WHEN THEY ARE TRYING TO LOSE WEIGHT???? I could have cut it in half, but at that point, I had no appetite at all because he doesn't have an ounce of common sense.

For a few days, I'm going to track my points as well, out of curiosity.

6:50 AM - apple & cottage cheese w/ cinnamon & Splenda [4 pts]

10:50 AM - whole wheat toast, omelet w/ onion, green pepper & picante sauce [5 pts]

1:45 PM - catfish, green pepper slices & baby carrots [3 pts]

2:40 PM - yogurt [2 pts]

5:45 PM - baby carrots & banana [1 pt]

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

Calories - 1132
Carbs - 156 (21 fiber)
Protein - 91
Fat - 22
C/P/F Ratio - 52.8/30.5/16.7
16 points

Obviously, not a good food day.