Urg. So I was great through the first week and a half, and now I'm sick. I don't think it's super serious or anything, but it is enough to disrupt my workouts. My strategy is to rest until better, then work out until I get back to the start of week 2 and continue from there. This is especially vexing in that I was already starting to see some results and feel like I was doing better in the workouts. I get through them pretty well, with a few breaks here and there, maybe not finishing a few sets, but some of the moves are awkward, so I wasn't feel great about all of them. Now, right when I'm getting into the rhythm, I get sick. Meh. I should be back into it in a few days, I'll let y'all know!
-Bryce
Friday, November 21, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
DVD players are evil
I was pumped for my Yoga workout yesterday! I've done a bit of Yoga before, but the stuff I've done was far more relaxing that this workout... man. I was working up quite a sweat... and then my DVD player froze. It has been known to do this occasionally. So after finishing 45 minutes worth of Yoga in an hour, I decided to re-do the workout later. Maybe I'll do it on the same day as another workout, or maybe on my rest day, I haven't decided yet. I was able to borrow a DVD player from my parents, so here's hoping this doesn't happen again!
-Bryce
-Bryce
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Diet and day 3
So I did shoulders and arms last night... all I can say is, sometimes it's a pain to do these workouts with bands! I'm not fiscally interested in buying a full weight set and I don't have the cash for one of the selectable weight sets, so I'm rocking the bands. Sometimes it isn't until halfway through the set that I figure out how I'm supposed to be doing the exercise! I guess the further I get along on the program, the better I'll know everything and the better I'll do, but it was a bit frustrating yesterday. It's tough to 'bring it' when you don't know what to bring! ;-)
In related news, I slipped a bit on the diet yesterday. I went to Red Robin for a friend's birthday, and I had some fries. Not only is that going over the carb limit, I'm sure fried foods in general are frowned upon. But I haven't let that depress me; after all, I was able to resist getting anything at Cold Stone afterward! (NOT easy!) But also along the lines of the diet, at least, I think it is, is the sweet feeling I had today. Nothing really brought it on, I was just walking out of class, and a feeling I can only describe as euphoric washed over me. I think it's just my body enjoying feeding on real healthy food and it felt awesome! For those of you that have gotten the runner's high, it felt a lot like that, except I wasn't sweaty and tired from running. That right there keeps me going. And my diet can only improve, since I went to the grocery store today and bought a bunch of stuff straight from the list in the diet booklet! So good day so far. Yoga is due later on.
-Bryce
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
My fitness journey thus far...
Okay, where to start? Why not at the beginning.
I first started to get interested in fitness when I needed it the most. I was in the Navy and I topped 200lbs on the scale one day. I'm 5'10", so that doesn't seem like a particularly obese weight, but I was weak and I knew it. Most of the weight came from the fact that I was working on the mess decks at the time and was eating all the time and not really burning it off. I thought about my family history, which is full of fun things like high blood pressure and heart disease, and saw myself running down the same path. So I decided to follow my father's footsteps and start running. On a deployed Navy vessel, running is fun! So my formula was treadmill, usually 3 miles at a time, at least five days a week, usually more. During those five months, I dropped down to 175lbs and I was hooked on exercise.
After the deployment, I didn't have nearly as much time to run as during. We were in port San Diego and there were always things to do after work which didn't involve sweating (too much). As I started to slowly put weight back on, maybe to 180-185lbs, I decided I needed to fix my diet. So after some thorough research on the internet, I entered into the world of fad dieting and working out. I did most anything feasible: low carb, low calorie, low fat; all of it worked for awhile and then I usually broke down and started eating more. Probably the same as most people that diet. Next deployment came around, and I was more motivated than ever. I ran, I dieted and I did a bit of lifting in there as well. I reached my all-time low since I don't know when: 157lbs. And I still didn't have that six-pack that I had always wanted and dreamed of. Maybe my altruistic goal was to keep myself healthy, but my selfish motivation has always been that elusive six-pack. Anyway, I was in shape but I felt horrible. I wasn't eating well, and I'm certain that I was malnourished. So I rebounded again, up to around 170: still a good weight for me.
After deployment I wanted a balance. So I lifted a LOT, and ran a LOT, until the calories I was eating weren't nearly enough to cover my expenses. My body was in starvation mode and my performance was generally pretty bad. So I cut out weights. I began training for a marathon that I wanted to run in in San Diego in January. Let me tell you this: 12 miles on a treadmill is probably the worst thing I've ever done in my life. It came right down to the wire, and I got surge deployed less than a month before my marathon. Talk about a motivation killer. I was out of exercising for awhile, or at least, exercising with any purpose. I kept about the same weight and all that, and I slowly started doing less and less exercise.
I did a year of land-based (not on a ship) duty in Korea right before I got out, and, despite living next to a gym, almost never worked out. That was the shape I was in when I got out of the Navy. I'd guess around 180-185lbs, but not in particularly good shape. Certainly a far cry from where I was four years before, but still really no closer to the six-pack I craved. I went to college and became a cheerleader. Back then, I didn't need to be in good shape. As I became a better cheerleader, I began to get into better and better shape, mostly in the realm of weights and explosive activity. Now in my third year of cheer, I believe I am currently in the best shape of my life. The six-pack shows when I flex, and I know I just need to push myself over the edge to be in truly incredible physical condition. So I am taking it to the extreme with P90X.
I am two workouts into the X and I am still very excited about it. I am not as sore as I was expecting, honestly. But the soreness I have is the kind of lasting soreness that sticks around for four days or so; the kind of soreness that means your muscles are really effectively building and becoming stronger. Shoulders and Arms (I think) coming up in a few hours.
My thoughts on the program in general so far: Amazing. The diet portion is a bit tricky for me, as I am used to monitoring my net calorie intake but not really proportioning everything in terms of fat, carbs, and protein. Other than Atkins, obviously, but that wasn't a proportioning, it was an "avoid"ing. But I think I've done really well for the first few days anyway. Like many others have said, it gets hard to eat that much. But the hardest thing for me is, since things are split up, I don't usually eat until I'm full. I'm never really hungry, but neither am I full. So it's an odd feeling. But I feel plenty of energy in the workouts, and I guess that's what really matters. I already feel like I'm getting leaner, and I hope I can see it soon! Though I know that is a LOT to ask ;-) All I can do until then is to keep bringing it.
-Bryce
I first started to get interested in fitness when I needed it the most. I was in the Navy and I topped 200lbs on the scale one day. I'm 5'10", so that doesn't seem like a particularly obese weight, but I was weak and I knew it. Most of the weight came from the fact that I was working on the mess decks at the time and was eating all the time and not really burning it off. I thought about my family history, which is full of fun things like high blood pressure and heart disease, and saw myself running down the same path. So I decided to follow my father's footsteps and start running. On a deployed Navy vessel, running is fun! So my formula was treadmill, usually 3 miles at a time, at least five days a week, usually more. During those five months, I dropped down to 175lbs and I was hooked on exercise.
After the deployment, I didn't have nearly as much time to run as during. We were in port San Diego and there were always things to do after work which didn't involve sweating (too much). As I started to slowly put weight back on, maybe to 180-185lbs, I decided I needed to fix my diet. So after some thorough research on the internet, I entered into the world of fad dieting and working out. I did most anything feasible: low carb, low calorie, low fat; all of it worked for awhile and then I usually broke down and started eating more. Probably the same as most people that diet. Next deployment came around, and I was more motivated than ever. I ran, I dieted and I did a bit of lifting in there as well. I reached my all-time low since I don't know when: 157lbs. And I still didn't have that six-pack that I had always wanted and dreamed of. Maybe my altruistic goal was to keep myself healthy, but my selfish motivation has always been that elusive six-pack. Anyway, I was in shape but I felt horrible. I wasn't eating well, and I'm certain that I was malnourished. So I rebounded again, up to around 170: still a good weight for me.
After deployment I wanted a balance. So I lifted a LOT, and ran a LOT, until the calories I was eating weren't nearly enough to cover my expenses. My body was in starvation mode and my performance was generally pretty bad. So I cut out weights. I began training for a marathon that I wanted to run in in San Diego in January. Let me tell you this: 12 miles on a treadmill is probably the worst thing I've ever done in my life. It came right down to the wire, and I got surge deployed less than a month before my marathon. Talk about a motivation killer. I was out of exercising for awhile, or at least, exercising with any purpose. I kept about the same weight and all that, and I slowly started doing less and less exercise.
I did a year of land-based (not on a ship) duty in Korea right before I got out, and, despite living next to a gym, almost never worked out. That was the shape I was in when I got out of the Navy. I'd guess around 180-185lbs, but not in particularly good shape. Certainly a far cry from where I was four years before, but still really no closer to the six-pack I craved. I went to college and became a cheerleader. Back then, I didn't need to be in good shape. As I became a better cheerleader, I began to get into better and better shape, mostly in the realm of weights and explosive activity. Now in my third year of cheer, I believe I am currently in the best shape of my life. The six-pack shows when I flex, and I know I just need to push myself over the edge to be in truly incredible physical condition. So I am taking it to the extreme with P90X.
I am two workouts into the X and I am still very excited about it. I am not as sore as I was expecting, honestly. But the soreness I have is the kind of lasting soreness that sticks around for four days or so; the kind of soreness that means your muscles are really effectively building and becoming stronger. Shoulders and Arms (I think) coming up in a few hours.
My thoughts on the program in general so far: Amazing. The diet portion is a bit tricky for me, as I am used to monitoring my net calorie intake but not really proportioning everything in terms of fat, carbs, and protein. Other than Atkins, obviously, but that wasn't a proportioning, it was an "avoid"ing. But I think I've done really well for the first few days anyway. Like many others have said, it gets hard to eat that much. But the hardest thing for me is, since things are split up, I don't usually eat until I'm full. I'm never really hungry, but neither am I full. So it's an odd feeling. But I feel plenty of energy in the workouts, and I guess that's what really matters. I already feel like I'm getting leaner, and I hope I can see it soon! Though I know that is a LOT to ask ;-) All I can do until then is to keep bringing it.
-Bryce
P90X Round 1!!
So here I am, now already two days into P90X (only 88 more days!). I'll keep this short, as I don't have much time, but I've created this blog to help keep me honest about the program, and to give my reactions to the program for anyone who might happen to browse through... No time to write anything else, but I'll blog later!
-Bryce
-Bryce
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