P90X Day 10, 11 & 12

YES! We are still going strong! :)
I will admit, Saturday proved to be too much of a challenge and we were unable to get out workout in. By the time we got home from the awards ceremony, (7:45pm) we were "starving" and I knew by the time we ate dinner and waited for our food to settle, there would be no way we could get Plyometrics done before bed. So...we vowed to get up extra early before church and knock it out. And we did! :)
(That's dedication there folks...to get up at 6:30am on Sunday morning and do jump tucks, etc. for an hour!)
Sunday-Day 10 (after the Plyo dvd and church) we did our "arms" workout. Matt REALLY wanted to substitute Body Beast: Bulk Arms rather than do the P90X Shoulders & Arms video, so I agreed and we knocked that out. Felt like my biceps were going to pop. It was pretty rad. :) That night at church, we had a Missions Banquet to go to...and being that the missionaries were from China...they served a HUGE Chinese buffet.  Oh boy...there's nothing healthy about that. I tried to eat sensibly but not obsess over the fact that I wasn't getting my P90X food.
Monday-Day 11. Should be Yoga, but there was no way I was getting Matt to even try yoga again. He told me, "You can do whatever you want, but I'm going to work shoulders and abs."  Since we sort of missed out on the shoulder work the day before...I decided to join him for Body Beast: Build Shoulders and Body Beast Abs. I DO love those Body Beast workouts for 2 main reasons. 1) The warm up is only about 2 minutes long (rather than upwards of 8 minutes in P90X) AND...they dvd's are only about 35 minutes long instead of a whole hour...and that is super encouraging. Plus, another bonus: You do strip sets of each exercise, increasing weight as you go. So for instance, when we do shoulder press, we start with 15 reps and I use 8# weights. Then we go to 12 reps and I use 10# weights. Then  we do 8 sets and I use 15# weights and then a last set of 8 and I go back to 10# weights. That's FORTY THREE shoulder presses without any break! The pump you get from this workout series is insane. I love it. However, in the long run, I actually think the P90X workouts will probably produce (FOR ME) the results I'm after (long, lean muscles). I really think the way Body Beast is set up...is to help you BULK UP in a hurry. It feels good to go so hard so quick...but I'm trying to build endurance and produce a toned (NOT bulky) look...so I probably should stick with the P90X workouts for the most part.  Its a bummer really, because Matt really wants to switch over to Body Beast exclusively now, and I don't...but we both recognize the importance of working out together. Blahhh!?!?!? Maybe we'll will just have to compromise half and half. :)
I know I haven't been sharing our diet with you over the past several days. That is mainly because I haven't been taking the time to write it down (booo on that!!) It's also partly because we haven't been being super good either with our choices. (double boo on that!!)
One lesson I know I need to learn is not to just throw in the towel and "quit" when I make a few mistakes...and so for that reason, I am going to start writing everything down again today and post it here for you. Today's workout will be Legs & Back and Ab Ripper. I will write again later to say how it went and what we ate. :)

Ps. We made the P90X Lemon Garlic Chicken for dinner last night and to our disappointment, it was reallllly bland. Crazy because I marinated it for about 2 hours in the fresh squeezed lemon juice, molasses, fresh minced garlic and Worcestershire sauce. You would think it would have been amazing...but it was really blah.

P90X Day 9-Sat, Mar 2

Hey guys! Sorry I skipped a few days but let me fill you in real quick!
Wednesday was our "Rest Day" because it's impossible to get in a workout between 5pm when Matt gets home from work and 6:30pm when we leave for church, because we have to eat and shower in that time too, so...No workout Wednesday. We did eat good though.
Thursday was a special day because I got the opportunity to go with my friend Rene to her gym (LifeTime Fitness) and take three new (to me) classes! We started out with an hour of spin, then 30 minutes of Core Conditioning and then about 30 minutes of Yoga-Pilates Fusion. It was great and afterwards we had a healthy lunch in their cafe. Rene and I both got the hummus/veggie wrap. It was SO FUN working out with a friend, taking classes again! It's been a loooong time since I've done that! After that we ran to the  mall to get our shopping fix! ha ha Found some great bargains so that was the icing on the cake!!
Friday was DAY 8 as well as our first WEIGH IN DAY! I'm pretty certain in saying this is the MOST WEIGHT I have ever lost in one week. Last Friday (2/22/13) I weighed in at 149.6  (eeek!) ...but yesterday (3/1/13) I weighed  in at 142.2!!!! That means I lost 7.4 pounds!!! Wow! All I can say is the difference is EATING RIGHT! I always get in good workouts several times a week...but I haven't eaten this clean in a very long time (obviously!)
Our workout for Day 8 was Chest & Back and Ab Ripper again and I felt a little stronger this time. I've challenged myself to do at LEAST 8 pull ups every time we have them. I think we do 8 sets during this dvd...so that's 64 pull ups in an hour! Not to mention a TON of push ups too! Ab Ripper wasn't my greatest effort ever. My abs were really sore from all that I did the day before and honestly, I was so hungry for dinner and just kind of mad that we were STILL working out. I wanted to be done ALREADY! :) ha ha
Today is Saturday, March 2 and DAY 9-Plyometrics. I'm typing this in the morning while I'm having my coffee (haven't eaten a thing yet) so there's not a whole lot to say. Its going to be VERY difficult for us to get our workout in today because Matt gets off work at 5pm and we have an Awards Ceremony to go to at 6pm. I guess we will have to come home from the ceremony and do it afterwards. :(  That really stinks for me. I know...excuses, excuses...but I HATE to get all showered, do my hair and make up and be all fresh and clean and cute...and then waste it all with a workout. Ugh! However, that's just the way it is...so I do it. :)
I admit, I'm a bit "afraid" of what my weigh-in will be like next Friday...because I know its unlikely for me to have a good number on the scale again. My mom has already warned me not to get too disappointed if it stays the same or even goes up a pound. Ugh...that will totally stink. I can't WAIT to see the 130's again! Even if it's 139.9. ha ha

P90X Day 5 - 2/26/13

Day 5-Legs & Back with Ab Ripper. I just could NOT get my balance today...kept falling over sideways during lunges. Maybe I used it all up yesterday during yoga! ha Or maybe because I was already STARVING by the time we worked out.
I have a confession: I am SICK of being hungry. I've been hungry for 5 straight days now, it seems. When I'm hungry, I'm grouchy and when I'm grouchy, I'm no fun.  When I'm no fun, I don't like to work out. Needless to say, this hasn't been the chipper-ist week I've ever had. I've been thinking about WHY I'm so unsatisfied food-wise and I believe it has to do with the major difference in my carb/fiber consumption. We eat plenty of meals with plenty of food. It's just that the food we are eating is not lasting.  That's great because it means our body is using it (not storing it) but what happens is that I am hungry again only 1 hour after eating a meal and then by the time the next snack or meal comes around, I'm feeling ravished (and very irritated). I wonder sometimes if I don't have some sort of blood sugar issue because I get so shakey, dizzy and even disoriented feeling if I don't get something in me quickly. I know that within the next few days, my body will adjust to this new way of eating and I will be fine. I remember going through this before...I just hope I actually LOSE some pounds this week so all this sacrifice and depriving are worth it! We will be weighing in on Friday!
Anyway, here is what we ate today:
Breakfast: Kashi Go Lean cereal and skim milk, coffee = 300
Snack: Banana & 5 almonds = 150
Lunch: P90X Chicken Salad and 9 pita crackers = 350
Dinner: Block Party Stew (lean beef and tons of veggies) w/ 5 crackers= 420
Dessert: 1/2 banana nut low-sugar muffin= 200
Total Calories for Day= 1430

P90X Day 4- 2/25/13

Ahhh, the infamous Day 4...YOGA.  When we first did P90X back in 2008, we did our first yoga class on day 4 and discovered that we both HATE yoga. Fast forward 5 years and as far as we know, nothing has changed, however, we decided to give it another try. 5 years ago when we tried it, we had a 6 and 3 year old as well as a brand new puppy. Life was quite a bit more chaotic than it is today.  So....today it was rainy all day and quiet in our house. We dimmed the lights and decided to try yoga again. This time instead of doing the original P90X Yoga video, we opted to try the P90X2 Yoga dvd. After about 10 minutes, Matt gave it up and put in a Body Beast video on the other side of our home gym. However, I actually did the entire 70 minutes of yoga and I think (??) I might have sort of enjoyed it!?!?! :) Honestly, I'm not sure. It is a VERY weird workout for me since I didn't sweat much and there was no hyper jump tucking or anything of the sort. It was a bit distracting to have the Body Beast going on in the same room (total opposite of yoga! ha ha) but in all, I completed it AND decided to do TurboFire Greatest HIIT's as well so I could work up a good sweat before my shower. (don't want to waste a shower! ha ha)
Eating was a bit goofy today. It should have been good, but I failed to read the directions to my recipe ahead of time and didn't realize dinner had to be marinated for a couple of hours...so I had to change things last minute and we ended up having a few extra snacks to hold us over till I could get dinner cooked.)
This is what we ate on Day 4:
Breakfast: English muffin, turkey sausage, egg whites, coffee = 270
Snack: 1/2 subway sandwich, 5 crackers = 300
Snack: Yogurt fresh fruit parfait, 5 almonds = 200
Snack: 22 wafer chip thingys = 120
Dinner: 1 chicken breast, fresh boiled green beans, mashed potato/cauliflower = 500
Dessert: 2 Shakeology balls = 70
Total Calories for Day:= 1460

P90X Day 3 - 2/24/13

Today was Shoulders & Arms and Ab Ripper. One of our favorites from last time! We rocked it and Matt couldn't quit admiring the "pump" in his arms! :) (they did look pretty amazing!) Here is what we ate today:
Breakfast: 2 Berry Waffles & SF syrup, coffee = 240
Lunch: Subway Turkey 6" sub and P90X coleslaw, 1 Shakeology ball= 425
Snack: Greek Yogurt = 100
Dinner: Island Pork Tenderloin over salad (spinach, oranges, red bell pepper, golden raisins, walnuts and light balsalmic vinagrette) = 550
Dessert: 2 Shakeology balls = 70
Total Calories for Day = 1385

P90X Day 2- 2/23/13

Oh me, oh my! Today was Plyometrics and boy did I forget how difficult that workout is!! It starts out nice and slow, fairly easy, but by 20 minutes in, we were grabbing our knees and dripping sweat! It was extremely tough (mentally too) but we got it completed and immediately felt euphoric! ha ha :) Sometimes I think the biggest accomplishment is winning the battle in my mind!
Today was Saturday and both of the kids still had their friends over. After Grant's basketball game this morning, everyone was hungry and ready to eat, so I picked up pizza for the gang. I decided I would allow myself ONE slice of thin crust pepperoni pizza and eat a bunch of salad & veggies with it. I'm sure that was NOT the best choice, but I do know it is a giant improvement over how I've been eating and I'm hoping that I will get stronger as I go and quit making these mistakes, even if they are small. I want to do this right and have at LEAST as good results as we did last time. I am already sore from today's workout, so I can just imagine how I'm going to feel tomorrow!
Today we ate:
Breakfast: Coffee, 2 whole grain berry waffles, sugar free syrup, 1 turkey bacon= 275
Snack: 1/4 beef patty (left over) = 150
Lunch: 1 slice thin crust pepperoni pizza, salad, coleslaw= 350
Snack: Banana and 8 almonds= 125
Dinner: P90X Beef & Broccoli stir fry on brown rice (instead of noodles)= 500 
Dessert: 1 Shakeology Ball = 35
Total Calories for Day: 1435

P90X Preparation Day & Day 1

So, since hubby and I couldn't do the workout together yesterday, I decided to make that my "Preparation Day". I made out our recipes for the next 2 weeks and I went and bought all the groceries. I thoroughly cleaned out/up our home gym area and organized all our DVD's and weights, pull up bar and bands, etc.
For eating yesterday, we had:
Breakfast: 3T. egg beaters, 1/2 english muffin, 100% fruit strawberry jam, 1 turkey bacon, coffee with 2T coffee mate creamer.  Breakfast Calorie Total = 235
Snack: 3 stalks celery 1T. natural peanut butter = 100
Lunch: P90X Chef Salad (romaine, spinach, green pepper, red pepper, tomato, avacado, 5 croutons, ham, turkey, 2T. light ranch dressing) = 250
Snack: Banana = 70
Dinner: McAllister's Grilled Chicken Sandwich & 1c. potato salad = 700
Calorie total for day: 1355

P90X Day 1-2/22/13
So, today was Day 1 again and man, it felt like the original Day 1. I forgot how many push ups and pull ups are in this routine! I would guesstimate I did about 150 push ups tonight and about 50 pull ups. I have no doubt that I am going to be HURRRRTINGGG tomorrow! I wish I had ordered some P90X Recovery Drink prior to us starting this, but I never even thought of it until today. Ab Ripper was WAY HARDER than I expected. It's been so long since I've done it...but I've been doing TurboKick Abs and Insanity Abs for several years so I really thought Ab Ripper would be a piece of cake.  Um ....No. Not even close. I struggled to get through the whole thing!! Even though I'm proud of our accomplishments today, I am disappointed to say I did suffer a moment of weakness and I scarfed down a chocolate chip cookie before dinner. I probably shouldn't have baked cookies on our FIRST day of a new program anyway, but both of my kids were having friends sleep over tonight and it just seemed like a "good mom" kind of thing to do..bake them homemade chocolate chip cookies. So..I did. I thought I could be strong and not eat any, but I kept nibbling tiny little bites off this one cookie until I had nibbled 3/4 of it away and then I said "oh forget it!!" and put the rest in my mouth. DANG it was good too! I guess I should be proud because I only ate one and the old me (the yesterday me) would have eaten at least 4-5 EASY.
Oh...and...we took before pictures tonight. Oh Wow. There is NOTHING more humbling than seeing yourself in a bikini under harsh overhead lighting in the dead middle of winter (no tan whatsoever) to make you say "THANK GOODNESS we are starting P90X today!!!"  That was painful for both me and Matt. We both have specific goals to accomplish during this 90 days. He wants to drop about 10 pounds and regain the muscle gains he had put on during Body Beast last year (and our first round of P90X in 2008).  I want to lose 15-20 pounds and sculpt.  What I don't want to do is add muscle.  I've always been a lift-heavy kind of girl, but I am going to try something different this round and instead of trying to push myself to grab the 20, 25 and 30 pounders every time, I'm going to attempt to use 10's and 15's more and just do double the reps the guys are doing at their heavy weights.  I really want lean, long muscles. Not short, bulky ones. I know that the majority (if not ALL) of this is determined by body type, genes and body composition much more than how I lift...but I just want to experiment and see since I've never tried anything but going as heavy as I possibly can.
In addition to P90X, I hope to add in some extra workouts like a little running, of course an occasional burst of Insanity and when I get a chance, some Turbo with the girls! Next Thursday I am going to check out Lifetime Fitness with my buddy Rene and actually TAKE some new types of fitness classes. I'm very excited about that and actually hope I don't love it TOO much because I can NOT afford to join that gym and I don't want to drive that far every day! ha ha
Anyway, before I go, here is what we ate today:
Breakfast: Coffee, 1 WW toast, 1 turkey sausage, egg whites and 1/2 slice cheese. Total Cal = 245
Snack: Banana, prune, 1/8 c. whole natural almonds. Total Cal = 175
Lunch: Charbgrilled Chick-Fil-A Chicken salad with 1/2 packet Light Berry Balsalmic= 250
Snack: Chocolate chip cookie = 150
Dinner: Jennio Turkey Burger, WW bun, 1 c. P90X Coleslaw, 5 tater tots, steamed veggies. Total Cal = 500
Dessert: 2 Shakeology Balls. YUM! Total Cal= 70
Total Calories for the day: 1390

*I'm trying to keep my calories at or below 1,400/day in order for me to lose weight every week.

Doing it Again....P90X

Well, well, well....life has changed. Like it or not, some decisions have been made for me and life as I've known it for the past several years will now be different. The lady I've been renting space from at the martial arts studio randomly asked me to leave. She gave no explanation other than "sometimes you have to do what is right over what is profitable" and told me she was keeping the Zumba instructor (who has about 4 students in her class) and letting me go (I have anywhere from 20-40 students).  In other words, even though I was "profitable" for her...keeping the Zumba lady and letting me go is "right".  It doesn't make an OUNCE of sense. We have always had a GREAT working relationship and even exchanged Christmas gifts just days before she sent me this odd email. I pay her per person who attends class...so she was making upwards of $600/mo. from me for using her facility for 4 hours per week!
But...being honest, I didn't freak out too much when I read her words...because the truth is, I've been wondering if God might be wanting to move me on.  Her words felt like confirmation of just that. So, I quietly accepted them and kept silent about it while I finished out my final session with integrity and character and with as much passion as I had within me. It was an amazing session too...the biggest I've ever had. One of my new girls who came to the very first class this session and didn't miss but one the entire 6 weeks, lost 30 pounds over the course of the session! Awesome! How rewarding!
Anyway, now it's all over and I'm feeling a bit like an ex-girlfriend who's boyfriend has already moved on to bigger and better things. I see FB status of my girls from class joining new gyms, trying new classes and working out with new friends. ouch. Even though that is SO STUPID because I am THRILLED for them--that they are still working out and moving on (not giving up). I guess I struggle with pride more than I realized. I love to be needed. (eeek, hate admiting that) In my heart, I really want what's best for everyone and that means staying healthy and active. And...I know many, many of the girls still wish I had classes and would come back if I started them up again, so I just need to quit my whining.
So anyway, the purpose of this post today was to say that Matt and I have decided to start P90X again. He's been wanting to for about a month now but I've been begging him to wait on me so we can do it together. Now that I'm not working out with the girls anymore...now is the time.
I weighed tonight and it about sent me into a fit of depression, but I will not let it control me. I will regain control of my life...and of my eating.
I really wanted tomorrow to be Day 1 for us...but we got a little snow/ice storm today and hubby has to work to get people's power back on...so it's not looking good.  I may just do it without him...but hate to start that way. Anyway, no matter what, Day 1 is coming VERY soon! :)