Nutrition is the Rub or Tony Horton is the Truth

So many months have passed since my last post, on either of the blogs that I should be posting to regularly. But as I find myself devoting more time to my fitness I thought it only fitting to post to the Thanxgiving Project. Particularly, since if I keep things going the way I have been I could be in pretty decent shape by the next Thanxgiving. At least I hope so.

See since October 28th I've more or less dedicated myself to my personal fitness. At least in the sense that that is when I started Power 90 again. Yeah the one from the infomercial. Mostly because I am tired of this gut and because a couple of years ago it seemed to work pretty well. And by pretty well I mean I saw a noticeable difference in my body composition. The problem is I was obviously lighter back then. Well obvious to me anyway. And as of October I was only about 10 lbs (give or take) from the heaviest I have ever been. So I started grindin'. And I'm glad I did.

Power 90 is only a 90 day workout. So at about month 2 I started thinking about what I would do when it was done. And since Tony Horton (the creator) had come out with P90X, the more intense version, I started looking into that. Did my research and found it on eBay. Brand new with the pull bar + resistance bands at a savings of about $80 compared to the beachbody website. So once my 90 days of Power 90 were up I started P90X. Sweet Jesus.

As of this blog I am on day 2 of week 9 of P90X and let me tell you I am still sore an achy in places defy conventional wisdom. See by the time I got to month 3 of Power 90 I was doing the workouts with with 3lbs on each wrist and 5lbs on each ankle. I doubt I could even survive any of the P90X workouts using such tactics. Yes, it is that much more difficult. Where as the Power 90 routines were about 30 to 40 minutes (they had level 1 and level 2 routines) the P90X routines are all about an hour. Longer if you include the 15 minute ab routine you do 3 times a week. And 90 minutes if you count the yoga routine. So yeah it's a lot more intense. And since you switch up the routines ever month it makes for some intense workouts. Much more than the origin Power 90 workout.

The problem is my nutrition ain't right. Quite frankly it's spotty at best. Which basically means I've only lost about 15 lbs after 5 months some intense, grueling workouts. Now make no mistake I am definitely noticing a difference in body composition. Maybe not as dramatic as my first Power 90 cycle from a couple of years ago but but the chest, shoulders and arms look better than they did some months ago. Hell if I could get the food part right I can definitely see where I could have those dramatic results you see on the infomercial. Seriously. I was washing my face this morning and notice my shoulders in the mirror. I thought I seriously need to get my nutrition together cause that is seriously keeping my gut from shrinking dramatically. And yes it has shrunk. Only about 2.5" or so but that's better than it was before and since I am actually getting stronger there is only so much complaining I can do. Considering I started this whole process struggling to do 10 pushups I think am doing pretty good. One of the routines involves no less than 6 different types. Another routines involves another set of push ups different from those. Some of this stuff I never would have even conceived of.

So for the foreseeable future I will be working out 6 days a week. If only to keep the belly shrinking. Yesterday I gave using the resistance bands for the alternate versions of the pullups. But after 2 months of using 2 bands at once I decided that I needed to at least make more of an effort to do it right. While I still can't do one complete pull up I can at least do half of one more than once and if use my tip toes I can do even more than that. And if you can believe it my back is now sore in completely new places. So it might be awhile be for I can do any meaningful corncobs. That's when you do one full pull up and while at the top you move yourself to the right, to the left, then push yourself back, pull yourself back to the bar and then lower your self down. That move counts as one. Yeah inconceivable...

Looking for a Wagon or Time keeps on Slippin'...

Um, damn, I didn't realize it had been well over a year since I posted on The Thanksgiving Project. Needless to say I didn't exactly have a beachbody for Thanksgiving nor do I anticipate one for this upcoming holiday season. But I am trying to get back on track. As I stated in the last post, on my main blog, I did a colon cleanse for the month of June. It basically consisted of me taking herbal supplements while avoiding meat, dairy, sugar and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.

A friend I mentioned on my blog (which will now and forever more be known as The CW when I make reference to it... shut up) started a food service that I participated in for the duration of the cleanse. Part of the reason why I did it was because I was thinking about doing something try kick start me into better health. The whole colon cleanse thing came to mind and while I was researching it my friend called (AS2 if you must know). And as luck would have it the universe opened up and got me on track. I say that because it was an out of the blue call specifically to ask me if I had ever thought about doing a colon cleanse. Go figure. So for a month with her help and food service I at vegetarian and mostly organic. Actually I was vegan for the last week. Which was the worse part cause all I ate were fruit and vegetable smoothies. Believe me not even close to being as appetizing it sounds. Please reread the last two sentences and think about that for a moment... yes it was that bad. But hey after 28 days of drink water like a salt water fish and guzzling liquid food I lost a grand total of 15lbs.

Actually on day 28 I woke up and took a massive dump. Severely massive. I weighed myself right after and I was 20lbs lighter from when I started the cleanse. But that next day I pretty much leveled out at 15 so that's what I count. For the most part I have kept most of it off. I weighed myself today and I was 4lbs heavier. Which basically means I need to get back in gear. Which is why am posting well over a year since my last one on this blog. I'm hoping this will giving me some motivation to get it in gear...

Been A While. Seriously.

I just compelted the switchover from Blogger to linking up with a Google account. Lo and behold, there was an unmoderated comment from JezChill, clowning me for the slack nature of the blogging about healthy lifestyle stuff.

Suffice it to say, this has not been a summer of fries, pies, burgers that are super size, and watching double thick shakes enlarge by butt and thighs. I've been away from homebase, but more on point in the gym than before.

I definitely feel stronger, and can do over two miles in 20 minutes pretty reliably now. They're treadmill/elliptical miles, but still. I've been focusing on these kinds of goals a lot more lately, because I still don't have the measurements I'd like to see. In other words, I'm not as much the fatass as I look!

In an effort to be more relevant and stick with the orginal premise of The Thanksgiving Project, I am going to start posting stats on a weekly basis when I get back home and normalize things. Expect updatery before Labor Day. The stats I'm looking at are more practical and descriptive than weight and simple BMI: circumfrences (chest, waist, gut), body fat %, and I/O compliance.

More later- suggestions for other weekly stats are welcome!

...Cole? Chill?

8/10-8/20 Check in

On weekdays, it was no problem to get the minimum 30 minutes of cardio. I usually got that and some good lifting in. The past couple of weekends have not been so successful. Most of my problems come from poor consistency in maintaining a solid schedule of six days of exercise a week, and eating right. We'll get there.

On the plus side, I now know that when I'm feeling lazy, I can fire up Eye Toy: Kinetic in short order and get a very solid workout on. The exercises vary, too. Gotta work on that in the gym.

8/8 - 8/9 Check In

I've been back on the wagon! The equipment upgrade helped, as I immediately started to take longer to exercise to failure, and had to focus more on proper form. Higher reps, more resistance, and a higher cardio budget are all in the works. Best of all, I'm back in the pool at the gym now that it's been fixed. Swimming has to be about the best thing for overall toning, even if the wet hair adds 15-20 minutes to me getting out of the gym.

Cole's advice about eating more salads, while simple, was priceless. Actually buying the leafy stuff and prepping it means I have to get back into the kitchen more regularly, and even if I don't feel like a salad, I'm still going to fix something that is (a) 200% more healthy and portion-appropriate and (b) at least as tasty, in comparison to whatever I get out in the world.

Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight.

I've been relatively good at maintenance these past few weeks of blog inactivity, but that's not the point. Clearly, whatever I'm doing hasn't been enough, as I've hit a massive ass plateau. Not to mention, the whole accountability thing of posting here at least every other day. Sometimes we have to remember what it is we are trying to accomplish and why. Look better, feel better, wear better clothes. In principle, there's also a statistical correlation between looks and career success, and Lawd knows I need a better job.

So what have I done? Upgraded my regular jump rope to a weighted one, upgraded my fraying workout gloves to a pair with wrist bracing wrap-arounds (so I can lift more/longer), and I'm getting in the pool more often, now that it's been reopened. Cole says I should start eating salads more often, which is a good idea.

7/2-4/06 Check In

Nothing like a good long holiday weekend to get all kinds of off track. It's all good, as long as you get back up, right? My exercising was minimal, although I did a full workout on the Fourth. My eating was standard for the occasion, i.e., too damn much, but really tasty. Unlike the birthday party, I didn't do anything to compensate. Oh well.

6/29-7/1/06 Check In

Been putting off posting this one, for no good reason. I did OK on all accounts, and have started incorporating my new fitness game at home to break up the routine a bit. It's pretty good for the cardio stuff.

The only "slip" was a planned trip to a birthday party out of town. Even though I took in more calories than recommended, I don't count it since (1) it was planned and (2) I did more exercise in an attempt to compensate.