P90X, Day 10...and 12?

That's right, I decided yesterday that since I'd fallen off the wagon I'd do two days worth of workouts at once. I did Shoulders and Arms and Legs and Back plus one set of AB RIPPER X. And...that may not have been the best idea, considering that I'd been struck with a random dizzy spell yesterday morning (while sitting down no less) and felt nauseous the entire time, but I did it! I missed one or two exercises for Legs and AB RIPPER X, but considering how much I did and how miserable I felt while doing it I think that's not so bad.

Tonight I'm gonna try to squeeze in Yoga X, but if I don't have time I'll just do another set of AB RIPPER X and then try and bust out Yoga and Kenpo X tomorrow. It'll be tough but worth it! Just gotta keep telling myself that.

P90X, Day 9

Ughhh, I hate that I keep getting behind. I guess as long as I get them done at SOME point it's not the worst thing that could happen (and it's way better than just quitting, right?) but it's still kind of frustrating, in the worst way because I know that it's my own fault. Bleh. I think it's just the point in the semester I'm at right now - still a month away from Thanksgiving break, so much stuff to do, stress piling up and very few bright spots to look forward to till I get to go home. It always makes me want to just shut down and go to sleep for a week or so.

Anyway, I decided to do Cardio X instead of Plyometrics X, since I don't think I'm in quite good enough shape for plyo - especially with all that jumping, not very kind to my beat up ol' knees. But Cardio was really really fun! I was surprised, it's always been my least favorite part of going to the gym but yoga/kenpo/plyo/core routine is way better than the stupid treadmill or anything. Maybe I'll replace Plyo with it again for another week or two and try going back to it after that.

I guess I'm 1/10th of the way through....it still feels like I have so much longer to go. And I'm still waiting to notice any real changes....I know it's kind of silly to think there would be after 9 totally sporadic days but hey. Just gotta keep doin' it to it I guess.
Tomorrow: Shoulders and Arms!

P90X, Day 7 and 8

Saturday was nice, I had a pretty good day in New York! Did lots of walking too, so it wasn't quite a rest day, but not exactly strenuous either (though my knees were feeling pretty worn out by the end of my travels). Did some coooool stuff and things.

Did my Chest "and back" and AB RIPPER X yesterday. It seems like the ab and core stuff is getting easier, though I still can't keep up with the video guys. But I'm nowhere near as sore as I was after the first day! And though once again I still haven't found a good way of doing all the pull ups and stuff, I did wayyyy more push ups this time around. Still on my knees, but I think I'll get there sooner than I would have thought!! I think I'll try to start real SRS PUSHUPS by next month. Assuming they're still in the program....

Later today is Plyometrics....we'll see how that goes. For now, gotta go do laundry (wayyyy over due), finish cleaning my room, and make some artz and such.

P90X, Day 6

So I skipped yesterday....what can I say: school happened. But I did Kenpo X today! I'm really tired though, so I'm gonna make a bulleted list.
-really fun
-lots of kicking
-very hard to follow at first
-very easy to just randomly flail your arms instead of actually doing the right thing....
-also had a pretty good riding lesson!
-rode Billy
-cantered okay and no one died because of me sucking even though we were in the indoor!

Tomorrow: REST DAY!! Or Stretch X. But considering I will be on a field trip to New York I think I can afford to skip that. And now my schedule actually kind of makes sense, what with starting on a Sunday! Assuming I can keep it up....I'll do my best.

(Don't forget, I've been tracking my nutrition progress on dailyburn.com....if you're interested.)

P90X, Day 5 (finally...)

I swear I haven't purposely vanished! I just had a very busy couple of days and trust me, I'm mad at myself for not trying to muscle through and get my workouts done anyway, but I really don't think I could have handled it! Just not enough hours in the day I guess. I missed it though! Exercising makes me feel so good. Especially when it's hard and you get that burn. Pretty uncharacteristic for me, considering I'm the laziest person ever, but I really do love it. Except when I pull something and it actually hurts, hahaha.

So anyway, today I finally got back on track and did my Legs ("and Back", except I didn't actually do any of the pull ups...I don't have a pull up bar and somehow there's not a suitable one in the gym! I know, I know, excuses excuses. Whatever, I'll figure something out. Or just have a wimpy back, haha) and AB RIPPER X. No, I will never stop capitalizing it. The legs actually weren't too hard - I was definitely feeling the burn, and panting while I was doing it, but it never felt like it was something where I'd have to do less reps than they were doing in the video or anything. I guess that just goes to show that my legs really are the strongest muscles I have. Which makes sense, considering my main uh..."athletic activities" are biking, riding and now fencing I guess. All very reliant on having strong legs! I definitely want more muscle tone in them though, so I'm excited to stick with it and push myself a little further. I want to have serious quads! (I'm fixated on quads right now, I don't know what it is but I'm obsessed, hahaha). Maybe next week I'll go over to the gym to do it so I can add extra resistance with some dumbbells in my squats/lunges/calf raises/etc. Speaking of calf raises: OW!! But in the good way!! :) As for AB RIPPER X, I still can't keep pace with them very well, but it does seem a lot easier than it did as recently as a week ago - that's a good sign right?? I can totally believe that I'll be super ripped at the end of 90 days if I keep pushing myself.


And as for my horse show this weekend.....I wouldn't call it a total disaster, considering I was doing really well, but when I blew it, I blew it big time. I got all my leads, my position was great, I was keeping myself in the saddle perfectly (on Billy!! My "buddy" as Malinda called him), but I got cut off with nowhere to go, panicked, and while I was confused, he broke into the trot and I couldn't get him back together immediately (or until halfway around the ring....). It was pretty awful. But after that, on the second direction, I was right back to being a champ! Unfortunately it wasn't enough and I came in last. :( But hey, I have another pink ribbon and learned a valuable lesson, and other than my giant fuck-up I did well, so I'm optimistic!!!

Tomorrow: KENPO X! That should be...interesting.

P90X, Day 4

Yoga X was awesomeeeee. It was an hour and a half - the longest one by far - but I barely noticed how long it was while I was doing it. Well, mostly anyway. There were a few poses in there that got pretty repetitive after awhile. I even started sweating, and not just because it's stuffy in my room. I was not expecting to sweat during a yoga routine! The ab/core part was especially killer, you can reeeally feel it in there trying to hold yourself off the ground. But I think the best part was how relaxing it ended up being. The first 95% of the video is hardcore, lots of moving and twisting and balancing and all that jazz, but the last couple minutes were nice, just to sit and breathe and feel how much looser all my muscles felt - pretty big accomplishment too, especially since I had a riding lesson earlier today as well. Which went okay - was having some issues getting the canter without help from Monte, but I eventually got it worked out, like the very last time I tried to pick it up around the ring. Otherwise I had a pretty good lesson though! My stirrups ended up pretty short so I got a really good leg workout too. And I think I did a great job keeping my butt in the tack (as Malinda would say) at the sitting trot considering how short they were. My canter position isn't as great, I really need to work on keeping my back straight instead of rounding it out while I try to push my butt down to keep myself in the saddle. Hopefully all this core work will pay off and help me improve that. I may not win the show on Sunday, but I'll do my best and then know what I need to work on right? That's where the blue ribbon winning really starts :)

I think I should probably get an actual yoga mat before I have to do this video again though. My carpet is not very kind to my knees. And I really have to vacuum it, haha. Tomorrow is Legs & Back and AB RIPPER X again! But I think our homecoming game vs Illinois is taking priority...I'll get it all done though. :) Woo!

Food Journal, Thursday October 7

So, funny story! Today after my fencing class I was weighing myself on the scale in the hallway between the entrance to the two locker rooms - I'm still at 150, that's not the important part! I notice someone behind me, and it's my fencing coach...
Let me tell you about Viktor. He is so cool. As you can surmise, he is pretty Russian (well, actually he is Ukrainian, but since he's like 60 years old he was born in Soviet Russia so I guess it's kind of ok to say he's Russian right? Whatever I'm not up to speed on the intricacies of Eastern European political correctness) and so awesome. He has a pretty intense accent, kind of like Boris from Rocky and Bullwinkle, and he says awesome things like "Make your feet light, like cat" and other such things that would be nowhere near as notable if it wasn't for his accent. So he was born in the Ukraine when it was part of the USSR, coached the fencing team of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the 70's and 80's and was named Fencing Coach of the Year by the USSR Olympic Committee in 1982. He also coached teams in four different Olympic games, not to mention being one of the coaches for PSU's amazing fencing team with multiple national championships under their belts. So yeah, he's so bad ass.
Anyway, he comes up behind me while I'm on the scale and says, "Oh, you are trying to lose weight eh?" I said yeah, you know, just started working out, checking for progress, etc etc. "You know best way to lose weight?" Coming from a 4-time Olympic coach, I am all ears to hear his weight-loss ideas, because he must know something about eating healthy and being in shape. "Best way: don't eat after six-thirty at night!" So there you have it: dieting advice from a certified badass Russian fencing coach.

Though I didn't do a very good job of listening and stuffed my face with hummus at like 10 PM when I got back to my dorm (after an eventful evening of finding more reasons to hate my giant boobs and getting intense finger wounds in a fraternity house).

And I also didn't do a very good job of meeting my calorie goals AGAIN. Today's damage:

P90X, Day 3

Today was Shoulders and Arms and round two of AB RIPPER X! I made sure to pace myself a little more this time, so I didn't end up crying, hahaha. It was still pretty rough. I think I should probably also invest in an actual mat rather than just doing it on my rug. Shoulders and Arms actually went really great - I went over to Rec Hall and blasted my way through it. I'm sure there were a few lifts where my form needs work, and yeah, maybe I was only using the 5 pound dumbbells, but hey, it's a start! I can definitely see myself moving up to heavier weights once I build my endurance a little more. I am gonna be SO SWOLE. RAARRRGH. I will have biceps bigger than my head!!! Okay, probably not really, though my head isn't really that big. :P I don't really have much to add otherwise. Under the jump is the sets & reps I did for each exercise. Tomorrow is Yoga X...sounds fun! And hopefully somewhat less strenuous....Riding lesson tomorrow too!

Food Journal, Wednesday October 6

Today I discovered DailyBurn.com and it's awesome! It's a food diary and workout log all in one, and there's an awesome free iPhone app for it. It even comes up with charts and stuff, and adjusts your daily calorie intake amount for you depending on how much exercise you get. I'm definitely gonna be using it from now on. Here's today!

P90X, Day 2

Day 2 today! And somehow it was even harder than yesterday...and I can still feel my muscles hurting from AB RIPPER X. So I did start catching up on Chest & Back that I skipped over yesterday. I didn't have time to go to the actual gym yet again today, so the pull-ups and exercises that involve weights are still on hold. That said, I think it's kind of better to pace myself like that a little bit, though it's probably undermining the whole thought process behind the program, with my luck. Oh well! That said, I'm pretty sure today I did more pushups in half an hour than I've done ever before in my entire life. Regardless of whether or not they were from my knees, it was still soooo hard. I am pretty lacking in the upper body strength department. But hey, it'll come with time right? So the sets of 4 reps I did will totally increase....yes...eventually....

As for the actual program for today, Plyometrics, it was PRETTY FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE. Haha. I only got through about 15 minutes of it, plus 5 minutes of warm up and cool down on either side. I think it's just something else that has to come with time - my endurance will get better as long as I keep pushing myself a little further each time! I think I'm using this first week as kind of a gauge: see what I can do now, how much time I need to set aside for each program, etc. So far though, I'm pretty happy with it. I've already exceeded my own expectations at how many of these exercises I CAN do, and the host (Tony?) makes me feel like its okay to rest when I need it, unlike most fitness videos I've seen where they are just merciless. Thus far, I'm already satisfied with my results.

Next time: Shoulders and Arms and the return of AB RIPPER X!

PS - I got picked to horse show this weekend, yayyyy! :)

P90X, Day One

So I finally started P90X earlier this evening, and man people were not kidding about how intense it is. I started with AB RIPPER X, as indicated on the program's calendar, and I can't believe that's the video they have you BEGIN with. I can only hope that the rest of the exercises are easier, because that seriously kicked my ass. I was hurting, and about 3/4 of the way through it just started feeling totally impossible. But I got through it! I did the same amount of reps as the crazy host guy in the video, except for one set of exercises (I seem to have blocked it out - I'll look up which one it was in the morning). It was really, really, really hard, but getting through it felt pretty rewarding - it may be really difficult now, and I'm sure I have terrible form, but as long as I stick to it, it'll start getting easier, right?

I was also supposed to do Chest and Back today, according to the calendar, but halfway through my warm-up I got called into the Collegian...I barely had time to eat dinner and didn't get to shower until midnight (thanks to that and my first THON committee meeting!), so I'm going to push it back a day and add it to tomorrow's routine, which is: PLYOMETRICS! I honestly have no idea what that means, though Addie said she did it in basketball when she used to play, and the P90X routine was ass-kicking when she tried it at her friend's house over the summer. Well, I guess I knew that's what I was getting myself into.

Also, I had my fencing class this morning - it's part of my gen ed gym requirement. It's a really fun class, but man do we get pretty gross. And we've only even gotten to the part where we wear the masks and play with swords as of a week or two ago! We always play a game at the beginning of the class as part of our warm up (it's more interesting than just running laps or doing jumping jacks in my opinion). Today we played a game that's basically a cross between tag and duck duck goose - it's one of the class favorite and it's just fun, even when you end up running. Plus I've learned the right way to do a lot of really helpful stretches, so I can feel myself getting more flexible too. Not to mention that kids from PSU's NCAA fencing team come in to practice with one of the other coaches during our class, so seeing some of their BEASTLY leg muscles and super agile feet is a good motivator too. And some of the positioning or at least the way the leg muscles are engaged in a lot of the poses, as well as a lot of that "flexible stillness" is pretty reminiscent of horseback riding, so I'm hoping it's helping my position in the saddle too. Just one step closer to my overall goal of becoming the paragon of the Renaissance Italian nobleman.

Speaking of horseback riding, I signed up to show in our second home horse show this coming Sunday...our coach still hasn't sent out the list of who's showing, but I kind of hope I get to. I've had a few weeks of pretty good lessons in a row, so who knows! Just gotta keep working out so I can have the muscle to hold a solid two point and become slim enough to zip my tall boots up all the way again....

I'm really feeling the burn in my abs and core right now, especially my thighs....ughhhh. I'm so excited to get to sleep. And get that much closer to doing Day 2 of course! :)

Food Journal, October 5 2010

Breakfast (~9AM):
2 cups Count Chocula cereal
with 3/4 cup 2% milk

Snack (12PM):
1 cup hot cocoa, from powder mix

Lunch (~2PM):
Chicken Caeser salad (romaine, cherry tomatoes, croutons, cheese) with fat free Italian dressing

Snack (445PM):
Peanut Butter Cheddar Crackers (Lance brand), 1 package (6 crackers)

Dinner (730PM):
1 grilled chicken breast
5 oz turkey chili with beans
1.5 cup baby spinach, with shredded cheddar cheese, granola, balsamic vinaigrette and 2 hard boiled eggs
1 breadstick

Snack (945PM):
2 small chocolate chip cookies

nutritional info in the morning.