Philippians 3:12-14 (The Message Bible)

I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

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

Monday, February 25, 2013

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

Sunday, February 24, 2013

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

Saturday, February 23, 2013

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

Friday, February 22, 2013

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.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

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! :)