When it's good it's good....when it's bad......

Geez. I don't know what day it is. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm starting over at Day 22. If I called today what it is, which is like day 40 or something, I wouldn't feel right about it. So Day 22 it is!

I've been in a downward spiral since I left off. I got sick once, managed to stick with it and keep my eating somewhat in check (you know when you're sick, you don't feel like eating rice cakes- bring on the comfort food). As I was getting back into the groove, I went on vaca with Big Mo, Little Man, my brother, and neice. I went to this magical place called Missouri where the food contains no calories and the only exercise you need can be done in the car driving up and down the strip. Definitely going back there again. Then lo and behold, we ALL got sick. I knew I better take it easy this time. The junk in my chest threatened pneumonia if I didn't allow myself to heal. And again, bring on the comfort food. It just got worse from there. Suddenly I was saying, "Sure, Sonic sounds good." and, "how about ice cream for lunch?" Before I knew it, I accepted a bag of M&M's from a supervisor at work and didn't think twice when half the bag was missing (and I'm not talking about the fun size people)

So I went to the grocery store and made myself snap out of this funk. I was reaching for some apples and did a quick check in the mirror and was amazed that I was able to wear pre-Little Man clothes and didn't look too bad, if I do say so myself - no muffin top, no sucking in, and no spandex jeans. Okay, this is working. I just gotta stick with it.

So here I am. Happy to report I got my slacker butt out of bed to do Core Synergistics this morning. I brought good snacks and tuna for lunch. I'm pumped and ready to BRING IT!!

Okay, Okay! I'm back!

What day is it? I have no idea. This is week four so this should be somewhere between 21 and 28.

Okay, in my last post I was sick and had big plans to double up workouts. I picked back up on Saturday and did Legs & Back and Cardio X (but I skipped the yoga warm up). Sunday I did Plyometrics and Ab Ripper. So I made up for the missed days partially.

After checking the schedule I realized this week is supposed to be a recovery week. I did the stretching video only on Monday and I have to admit it was a very nice break. My legs were shot after my double weekend and the stretching took out alot of stiffness. But I still don't feel like I should "recover" this week. I feel like I lost the opportunity for progress last week and tomorrow I leave for a four-day vacation where I will inevitably eat poorly. I told Big Mo that I'm going to take P90X with me and try to do it at least two of the days. He thought I was crazy.

So here's my goal: I'll do a video tomorrow morning before we leave. I'll try to stay away from all the extra snacks and goodies that come along with road trips. I'll take with me the Plyometrics video because it doesn't require any weights and I might even talk my brother into doing it with me. So that's my plan.

Here's the other thing I'm thinking. Since I've missed so many days, I don't feel I'm at the true 30 day period. So I might repeat a week. I will feel better about it if I did.

I've been really nervous about my motivation level lately. I think, 'Oh no. It's happening again! I'm SLIPPING! Before I know it I'll completely give up. I've missed days and I'm going to miss more. I recognize the pattern! Eeeek!' But my aunt Rojo, the one that got me into running and has trained for many events herself, said, "Chubby, it's almost impossible to complete a 90 day anything without interruptions. You know, you get sick, go out of town, or whatever. You just gotta keep going." So I'm still with it. I've even enlisted a friend to do a weekend workout with me. That will help keep me going. I even watched the P90X infomercial last weekend and admittedly got pretty pumped all over again.

And if I really start to doubt my motivation, I just look in the mirror at where my muffin top used to be and think, okay, gotta keep going! Keep Bringing it!!!!

I hit a snag

Day ?. I have no idea what day it is and frankly I don't have the energy to look. Big Mo has been sick for three days. Night before last, Little Man was up all night with an ear ache. I thought he was making it up so I felt really bad when the doc told me yesterday that his eardrum was about to burst. Then last night, I started to feel that ole familiar tickle in the back of my throat. I knew it was coming. I was up all night with a sore throat and congestion. I feel like death.

So, needless to say I have not P90X-ed in two days and I ate really crappy yesterday. Minor setback. I've told myself if I rally this weekend I will try to double up some of my workouts to make up for it, but I'm not making any promises.

If I don't blog again for a few days, contact me to make sure I'm still alive.
Dayquil and Chloroseptic??? Bring it!!!! Please!

I could almost taste the Oreo!!!!

Day 16. I have never been more mad at my alarm clock. I'm not sure where I was but Kid Cradduck and I were hanging out and he offered me some Oreos - the big fat double stuffed kind. I pulled the two sides apart and I was about to scrape the filling off with my teeth when my heard the most painfully excruciating noise - my alarm. In my confusion, I grasped the air with my hands to see if I there were any Oreos to be had. Nope, all a dream.

It will be nice when my daily posts aren't devoted to my struggle to get out of bed. Will I ever see that day? Probably on Day 90.

Even after the struggle, I made myself get up and do Cardio X. I even went as far as resetting my alarm. And as I was finishing my last stretch and reached to turn off the dvd, my alarm sounded for the second time. I thought, wow, I got a whole sweat session in in the same time I would have laid there arguing with myself. Way to go, Chubby! Way to Bring It!

Weekend Wrapup

So it's two days past the weekend but I figure better late than never.

What can I say about week 2? I jumped some hurdles- eating well, getting up almost every day, making up missed workouts...did I mention getting up almost every day?? I complain about that factor alot but it's the worst part of this whole thing. It's even worse than going without junk food! I know, that's pretty bad!

As it is, I hate being obligated to get up, drag myself to the shower, lather, rinse, repeat, put on makeup, goop products in my hair, blowdry, fix, primp, get the Lil Man ready....So many times I stand there going through the motions and think, 'why am doing this? Is it really necessary? One of these days I'm just going to roll out of bed and walk in to work. Let's stop this charade!' So when I have to get up extra early, work my butt off and THEN go through all of that, I really dread it. Don't get me wrong, I feel better when I'm finished. But GEEZ I hate waking up early.

So why don't I work out at night? you ask. I feel guilty enough as it is being away from Lil Man for 9 hours a day. I can't bring myself to spend another precious hour away from him in the evenings. Working out before work is my only option. Plus, I get an hour to myself that way.

I'm coming to terms with the fact that this is what it takes to get in shape. Notice I said in shape, not "get skinny". After I finished my workout on Saturday - Plyo - I felt great and fit. Exhausted completely, but fit. I said to Big Mo, "I want people to look at me and say, 'Man! She must lift weights!' instead of, 'Man, that girl is skinny!'" A wise person recently told me that I'm more than just a number and I have really taken that to heart. There's so much more that qualifies a person than the number on the scale. That's why I have made a strict No Scales Policy. My only guage of improvement will be how I feel about myself when this is over.



**BTW, took Friday completely off. I was so exhausted. I worked out both Saturday and Sunday to make up for it. So my "perfect attendance" record is still in tact!

Thus begins Week 3

Day 15. It's Core Synergistics Monday people! I have to say, my level of "bringing it" was pretty lame this morning. I just didn't have much Umph. I did all the exercises but still did a lot of the pushup ones from my knees. In fact, I was on my knees a lot this morning.

Big Mo seems to think I'm not eating enough. I still think I'm eating too much. I'm doing really well to stick to 5 proteins, 1 carb, 2 dairies, 1 fruit, and 2 veggies guideline....okay, maybe not so much. I don't think I eat enough protein; I usually don't eat more than one carb; I eat at least one fruit; and on most days NO veggies at all. Maybe the lack of protein is killing me. Here's an average day's menu:

BF: Slim Fast Protein Shake (I think there's 10-12 grams of protein + what's in the milk)
Snack: Rice cakes (carbs)
Lunch: Dry tuna (18! grams of protein), string cheese
Snack: Apple w/PB (I think I eat more than the allotted serving of PB
Dinner: Baked/grilled chicken, steak, or tilapia w/side salad or veggies.

So, if you count PB, that's 4 proteins, 2 dairies, 1 fruit, 1 carb, 1 condiment/fats (2 if you count the PB too.) I guess that's not that bad. But I did inadvertantly skip dinner last night, unless you count a diet strawberry limeade? I never skip meals...ever. And I was staaaarrrving this morning. I'm going to blame my that for my sluggishness this morning.

I don't know if you can tell, but I'm still feeling pretty blah this morning. It is Monday. Maybe I should continue this post when I'm feeling a bit more chipper. This is sad, I don't even have a motivational "Bring It!" line to end with! Wow! This is pitiful. I'm going to put this away until after my morning caffeine. Deuces.

Dropped the ball this morning

Day 12. Didn't get up this morning. Sonofawitch. It's no secret that I have to get up earlier than humanly comfortable to do this thing. Some mornings have been harder than others. Yesterday I felt like telling Tony where to stick his X. It was only yoga anyway, right? But I sacrificed the extra hour and a half of sleep and I was quite proud of myself for doing so, if I do say so myself. But I paid for it last night. I was almost asleep in the recliner with Little Man building a train track on top of me when Big Mo decided we better clean house for the air conditioner man. That's all it took to send my mood packin to a much darker place. I helped, but with a bad attitude. As I was throwing clothes around and snapping at Little Man (who was wrapped around my leg crying for "his mama back"), Mo says to me, "Dang! You need to skip tomorrow and get some sleep! You're way too grumpy!" And I agreed. But I still had good intentions to get up this morning.

I ended up falling asleep in the recliner with Little Man later that evening and at 4:15 this morning I reset my alarm for 5:45 and didn't think twice about it.

Today's high temperature is only 79 so it shouldn't be too hot in my garage. And today is Back and Legs, which I enjoy. So tomorrow I will give a full report.

There, I told all (4) of you that I am going to do it so I can't back out now. I also stuck with my diet today and took an extra flights of stairs to make up for not working out this morning - another breakthrough! Usually after skipping a workout, I fall out of rhythm and give up for the day.

So, I haven't "Brought it" yet. But I will!!!!

One day I'll land the crane

Day 11. Yoga. Last week I gave the Yoga X video about 20 minutes of my time. After 20 minutes of downward dog, I said the heck with it and did cardio. Today I vowed I was going to stick with yoga - all one hundred and two minutes of it. I did the downward dog to ashtanga to upward dog and back again. What I didn't see coming (since I had already gotten p.o.'d by this point last week) was the more strenuous poses that challenged every muscle in my body.

The warrior, triangle, and twisted seated poses were difficult and, for me, unattractive, but doable. The crane and some other God-forsaken pose, however, were not. The pose I can't remember the name of started from twisted warrior 1. With one arm behind your back you put the other arm through the front bent knee to wrap around and lock fingers (okay, yeah, sure!)with the other hand that's still behind your back. If you can't picture what I've described, it's because I have no idea how I got into the position and therefore am not describing it well. I didn't completely suck at it, though. I would have been better and might have completely locked my fingers if my fat rolls hadn't gotten in the way. I just couldn't lean over enough!

Okay, so the crane...this one was prefaced with a warning not to do a face plant into the floor...I braced myself for what was coming. You put your palms on the floor and hitch your knees around your triceps. Then slowly push off your toes until you are holding your whole body up with your arms. Um. Sure. I tried the full minute. I even tried the modified version *grinds teeth-grr* with my toes still on the floor but still couldn't do it. I've seen other people do it so that makes me want to do it even more. I should mention that the crane was part of the second half of the video devoted to balancing moves, which I liked.

Today was a success, I suppose. I still haven't made it all the way through the video, but still much farther than last week. I have about a half mile walk and then five-story-climb up to work and I noticed my muscles were very fatigued, confirmation that I did in fact do something productive instead of just bobble around. My only complain is that the heels of my hands are RAW from downward dog. I think I'll have to get some gloves or something. Which sounds out of place in a yoga setting. But Tony did say this isn't just Yoga, it's Yoga X! So I better get some gloves so I can Bring It! again next week!

Yoga + Little Man = Chaos

As I mentioned yesterday, my DVD went caplooey and I was forced to do my workout last night. I really hate working out in the evening - too many distractions, too many reasons not to do it. It's like a cloud hanging over my head. Big Mo: What do you want to do tonight? Wanna go to the park? Chubby: No, sorry, can't. Gotta work out. It's not that it takes all night, but seriously, who wants to go anywhere after sweating for an hour? That why I like to get it over with. I then go through the rest of my day feeling accomplished.

Anyway, I set up the laptop in my son's room so I could close the door and have some privacy. Guffaw! Little Man had to come see what I was doing while I was in downward dog. He crawled under me, laid on his back so he could face me and started jabbering, "you workin mama? you playin mama? read a story, please mama." "No, honey, not now....Big Mo!!" After several attempts to steal my attention he decided downward dog provided a good horsey alternative and proceeded to climb up my legs. It was then that I had to shove him out the door as nicely as I could to go play with his dad. He cried outside the door for a few minutes and eventually lost interest. I felt bad, but I reminded myself that I need time to take care of myself too.

So after a rocky start, I got to do my video and came out sweating like I'd had the best work out yet. In the mean time, Mo got the DVD back up and running. Game on for tomorrow!

Woohoo! Double Digits!

Day 10. That's right, people, TEN! The last three days have flown by so fast I didn't even realize I'm already in double digits. I had to stop and think this morning when I put in my video because I thought, 'surely I'm not already on day 3 this week!' Yep, day 10, baby! Just a measly 80 more to go!!

I guess working out and getting up an extra hour earlier is taking it out of me...I didn't even hear my alarm going off for 20 minutes! And today's workout was another two-fer - Shoulders & Arms and Ab Ripper X. Since I've already done this and knew how to do the moves, I fast forwarded through the demonstrations to save time. I saw an improvement this week! I laid aside my teal green Jane Fonda 5lb weights for the uber impressive Gold's Gym 10 pounders. ooooo...aawwwww. I know, intense, right? But I completed all the reps, struggling on the last 3-5. I still used the jazzerciser weights for the tricep kickbacks and shoulder flies (these have always been my weaker muscles) but still felt the burn. Ab Ripper, as always kicked my butt, or core, whatever blows your dress up...Again, I saw improvement!! There's this move where you sit in a "boat" position - like a V up with your knees bent and back straight - and clasp your hands together in front of you. Then you turn to put your knuckles on the floor on either side of your body without breaking the boat position. Hitting both sides is one rep; we did 40 reps plus 10 "bonus". Last week I couldn't finish the 40 without breaking. This morning I did ALL 40 and 7 of the bonus reps! Very encouraging!

As always, I headed straight to the shower where I pose and flex and check myself out in my birthday suit. I held my arms up like a body builder and I was shocked to find a hint of a bicep ball forming! I may never have the arms of a 12-year-old boy again but I'm happy to bid farewell to my mom arms!

Things are looking up, folks! I made it over the hump this week and so far, I'm getting stronger. I'm officially Bringing it!!

And I'll call him....Mini Me

Still Day 9. It occurred to me yesterday that I need to name the people in my life. I've given my husband and son various different titles. So I think it's time to stick with one name for each. So I therefore dub my husband "Big Mo". Long story short, my 87-year-old granny who lives in Texas has never met my husband and often gets his name confused. In her last letter, she referred to him as "Big Mo". The name is growing on me. My hubby will be thrilled.

I can think of several names to call my son - Crumb-grabber, George (after Curious George, his favorite cartoon), or Job (pronounced Jobe, the Biblical name, and also his innitials). But "Big Mo" and I have called him Little Man since he was born so that seems appropriate. And thus he shall be named.

I'll probably name a few others as they come along. At that time I'll be sure to make the introductions.

Stay tuned!

Blankety-Blank DVD Player!!!

Day 9. I love waking up at 4 a.m. just to find out my DVD player isn't working! Man, that really chaps my hide! It was giving me fits last night when I tried to turn it on to show the Mister some of the stuff I've been doing, but I didn't think much of it. But this morning, it was completely zonked. So instead of prancing around in my garage trying to simulate the video, I decided to go back to bed for an hour. I woke on my own, which is never a good sign, to realize my alarm never went back off and that I had 20 minutes to get ready for work. Now I just feel off - sluggish, lazy, just yucky.

I hate that I missed my workout this morning. Grrr. It's like in college when you've dragged yourself to class in impossible weather every single day to have perfect attendance. Then one day you just didn't make it out the door and suddenly it's one-hundred times easier to skip class the next time because that record has already been shot anyway, right? I'm still going to do my video tonight, but it's going to be a heck of lot harder - my garage is going to be sweltering, the Little Man will be wrapped around my leg wanting Choc-Choc (chocolate milk), and I'm afraid my butt will be draggin' so I'll get lazy and just want to lay in the floor.

But technically, my perfect record hasn't been smashed to bits just yet, I just switched my schedule around. So I'm going to set aside all my excuses tonight and just Bring it!

I officially needed a belt today!

Day 8. Today I started the first repeat of week one. Core Synergistics. I'm not inclined to say that I did so much better today than last time. There were still some moves that I just sucked at. The side plank hip-lifter-upper (obviously not the real name) still had me gasping for air and ticked off that I spent most of the allotted time on the ground. And all the push-up moves were either done from my knees or they were so puny and sad there's no way my drill sergeant would have ever counted them as real pushups in boot camp. But I still felt good. I passed that 7-day new habit mark and I'm thinking that is in fact the magic number because this morning there was no question whether or not I was getting up. I still cursed under my breath a bit, but staying in bed wasn't an option.

After my workout, I got ready for work and put on a pair of my "fat" pants and guess what?! I added a belt to my outfit to keep them from sagging! I can pull them away from my waist about an inch and a half now! Holy Skinny Cow Ice Cream! Progress!!

Dude, if my pants are fitting better after just one week, I'm completely, totally, 100% sold that I will be amazed at the end of the 90 days!!! BRING IT!!!

Weekly Wrap Up

Day 7. Okay, so I'm writing this on Day 8, only because it was really nice not to be a slave to my daily commitments for just one day - no alarm clock, no Tony, no sweating, no computer - all the things that constitute the regular work week.

I officially finished the first week! Woohoo, yeehaw, shizam, and any other interjection I can think of!! Quite frankly, that's further than I thought I would get. Have I said that before? Well, that's because I'm continuing to surprise myself. That's my MO really. I've always gotten hyped about one thing or the other, start off strong, tell everyone I know about the "new me" they'll see soon, only to fizzle out, lose momentum, and go right back to the Krispy Kreme and Coke diet. Even when I do stick with something for more than a month, my fitness (or lack of) comes in peaks and valleys. Senior year of high school, not going to mention which year that was, I was leaning towards the pudgy side. I got the grand idear to join the military to pay for college. Turns out you have to do a LOT of pushups and situps to make it through basic training! So I whipped my soft butt into shape - ran 4 miles a day, had a strict regimen of pushups and situps everyday, ate nothing but water and pretzels (I'll admit, one of my stupider diet plans), and before I knew it I was a size 3 at prom and fit for basic training. After training, I went to college and gained the inevitable 10 lbs. Then married life came and added several more. Then one day, my aunt asked me to watch her run her first marathon. I was at the finish line when I saw her pass me by. I was so moved by the sense of triumph the finishers had that I had have it too. I started running the next day. I ran races, ate well, trained hard, logged about 30 miles a week, and lost about 25 lbs. Hell-O size 5's! Well, it's hard to keep a size 5 when you're preggo. But I didn't just gain baby weight...I gained a whopping 64 lbs!! Problem was, I was in that valley again, the one where all of sudden there were no feelings of regret when I scarfed down a combo meal from McD's. There was nothing motivating me to stay in shape. All that food that I was able to eat because I was going to "run it off anyway" didn't go anywhere but to my thighs. After the baby and after breastfeeding didn't make the weight "just fall right off" like everyone said it would, I kept waiting for some outside source to say, "Get off your butt! Go exercise! Get jazzed about something and stick with it!" ..... It's been two and a half years since my son was born and nothing has forced me to make the climb up that peak. Then, finally I said to myself - I'm tired of feeling bad in my clothes. I'm tired of choosing not to go out with my husband's friends with skinny wives, I'm tired of feeling bad about myself, and no one is going to change that but me.

So with that in mind I start my second week by choice - not because someone or something else motivated me. It's all me this time and I'm ready to climb. All I gotta do is Bring it!!

Plyo is my moneymaker!

Day 6. Plyometrics. I got a little break from the alarm clock this morning and as Tony would say, it was "Gooh-geous!" Tony Horton wasn't kidding when he said that this video puts the "X" in P90X. He calls it the jumping exercises, and it was strictly that.

I think I "brought it" more today than I have the rest of the days, mostly because I like to think that I can still do all the leg moves no matter how inflated my spare tire has gotten. Another reason is, for some reason when an instructor points out the "lower impact" or "modified" version, I think to myself, 'there's no way in hades I'm going to do that! I'm stronger than that. I can do the real thing!' That way of thinking got me through boot camp, it got me through half marathons, and by golly it's going to get me through the next 84 days!

So we went through a series of jumping and squat moves, mostly squatting and then jumping. My legs were aching and burning but it felt awesome! Each move was 30 seconds long. Then we repeated each series again with a 30 second water break in between. And if you're thinking we did nothing but squats over and over, you would only be halfway right. We did squats, hundreds it seemed, but we squatted on our left and on our right; we jumped in and out of squats. We traveled forward and backward. We even did a jumping spin squat! Bottom line - I wasn't bored by any measure.

I'll be honest, the pantry hasn't been my friend today. Even the P90X approved rice cakes called out to me. They're good for you, sure, but not when you eat the whole bag! I started off strong. Right after my workout, I had a protein shake and two scrambled eggs - good muscle building breakfast. For lunch I had a chicken breast and a piece of string cheese. Then we decided to watch a movie...it's almost impossible to eat healthy food and veg out with a movie. So I opted for perhaps just a little larger portion sizes of approved foods (i.e. rice cakes). I knew this would be challenging. And even though I didn't eat perfectly, it sure beats the pancakes, syrup, sausage, donuts, cheeseburgers, pizza, chinese takeout, etc. that I usually eat on the weekends.

Tomorrow is simply stretching and boy howdy I'm lookin forward to it. Even this day is optional but I hate to get out of the groove of allotting time for this committment. I'm on the home stretch...toward the end of ONE week. But hey, I've already made farther than I thought I would. As Tony says, Bring it!!

Oh, THERE'S my tattoo!

Day 5. If I'm operating on the theory that it takes 7 days to form a new habit(like getting up at 4am), then I've got two days to go - thank God! I struggled again this morning. But, yet again, I talked myself into getting my chubby buns out the door. Today called for Legs & Back and the Ab Ripper X - trust me, I felt them ripping! I really enjoyed today's video, which made me even more psyched that I made it out. There was a good mix of leg workouts and pull-ups. I still have yet to fashion a pull-up bar. One demonstrator used resistance bands attached to a hook on the ceiling. I didn't have a hook so I threw the bands over the rails that the garage door slides on. If I knelt down, it worked just fine! I leaned back slightly with a straight back so I made sure to work my back and not my arms. And the one-legged wall sits were killer! I'm curious to see how bad I'll be hurting in the morning.

After my workout, I headed to the shower but stopped by the mirror before I hopped in. When, lo and behold! My long lost tattoo revealed itself!! I have my son's footprint tattooed on the front of my left hip. Over the past few months, it has, um, bulged and distorted just a tad. Okay, not just a tad, if I look straight down I couldn't even see it! Yowza! But after just one week, it's coming back into view! Hallelujah! Progress!!!

Truth be told, the rapid reappearance of my permanent art is due to diet, not the sweat sessions. I've been following the Portion Plan from P90X. It's strict, but easy to follow and doesn't take a tremendous amount of planning. When I go to the grocery store, I just make sure to get the approved foods and during the week I throw them together in different combos. As long as I eat the right number of each food group, I'm golden. I'm in the much-needed Fat Shredder phase. I get to eat 5 proteins a day! Downside? Only one carb. When I reach into the cabinet, I hear Mr. Miagi's voice saying, "Choose wisely, grasshoppah." I usually try to save my chinsey one stinkin' carb for the best choice from that group. But in a rush, I used it on bran cereal. Laaa-dee-dah. At least I have some leftover baked buffalo chicken from last night (skinless breasts, not the wings)!

I'm anticipating a challenging weekend. The Mister isn't too fond of "diets" and often a pretty bad influence. But he can just think about doing cardio and lose 5 pounds. I'm not getting up at dawn, but I am going to get up fairly early thanks to my three-foot talking alarm clock. I'm banking on the fact that I won't want to eat crappy after kicking my butt in my garage for an hour. Because then, what would be the point? So here's to heavy lifting and healthy eating this weekend! Bring it!

** I'm going to try my dangdest to get some pictures of my workouts up. And if I'm feeling really froggy, I'll even do some videos. Check back soon!

How's that for muscle confusion!

Day 4. Wow. Day 4 already? And I haven't given up yet?? I came close this morning... my alarm went off at precisely 4:15 a.m. but it seemed like it went off about five minutes after I went to sleep last night. I lay there awake for a minute or two, contemplating this whole P90x mishigoss and seriously thought about skipping today's workout. But my conscience got the better of me. In the past, when I have grand intentions of waking up at the butt crack of dawn (*snicker* that one never gets old!) to work out and I hit the snooze one too many times, my own self-loathing kicks in and I end up beating myself up for being so lazy. Thus, not getting any more sleep at all! So this morning, I argued with myself, 'I made a commitment to do this....I don't want to give up....every workout counts....what about my plan?....what about all my blog followers counting on a full report?! Both of them would be very disappointed!!' And suddenly, I was up and out the door!

So Tony Horton's "secret" to P90x is muscle confusion - do exercises in a certain pattern then mix it up for a new challenge to burn the most fat. Well I confused the crap out of mine this morning. Today's video was Yoga X which sounds like an oxymoron to me - extreme yoga? I've never been crazy about yoga with all the 'feel the coccyx lengthening to the earth' garbage, but I have enjoyed a few classes before so I tried to have an open mind. We started with a series of poses - namaste to plank to ashtanga (?) to upward dog to plank to pushup to downward dog to runner's pose and back to plank. Simple, right? Ummm, no. It's not that the moves were challenging my muscles too much, they just hurt my hands and my joints! The palms of my hands were aching and raw, my knees hurt from doing runner's pose after about the sixth time...I like to feel the burn, but not like this. And since the video is an hour and a half long anyway (I only have an hour) I thought it would be okay to skip past that part to some different poses. Guess what? Every pose sequence started with plank, ashtanga, downward dog, yada yada yada. I finally decided I was wasting my precious time that I battled myself over to begin with and put in Core Synergistics again. Take that muscles! By then I only had about 20 minutes to workout, but it was plenty of time to work up a sweat and still feel like I accomplished something.

Last night, the fam and I were running errands when Mr. CarliMB declared he was hungry. I've learned when those words come out of his mouth, I've got about 17 minutes to get him fed before he gets grumpy and moody. So to Applebee's we went. I searched and scoured and finally settled on the 7 oz. sirloin with broccoli and an UN-loaded baked potato. Not great choices, but could be a lot worse. After sharing some of my "snake" with my crumb-grabber and filling up myself, I still had about half of everything left for lunch today. I haven't looked at the nutrition values at all, but I think I passed the first test of eating out with mildly waving colors!

Tomorrow is legs and back, the one I've been waiting for. I bought a chin-up bar, but it didn't fit in my doorway. I bought a plain bar, but the mister doesn't want holes in the door frame. I tried a little southern ingenuity to assemble my own but haven't been successful yet. So I may be doing tomorrow's video without it. But I'm still looking forward to the legs workout. I carry most of my muscle there, like most women, so I'm thinking this will be a huge fat-burner! We'll see! Bring it!!!

Day 3....not too bad!

Day 3. I did the Shoulders and Arms video this morning...All in all? It was doable. I went light on some of the exercises because I wasn't sure what was coming and didn't want to burn out before the end. I probably could have "brought it" a little harder. We'll find out tomorrow when I blow-dry my hair. There were a few new moves I've never seen before and a few I have. The pace was good. If I finished my reps before the alloted time I just moved to the next chapter of the DVD. This also helped save time because today was a two-fer - the schedule called for doing the Ab Ripper X (gotta get that X in there or it doesn't count!) in addition to Shoulders and Arms. So since I was I crunched for time (don't worry, that pun was free of charge), I didn't do the Bonus on the end of the Shoulders and Arms. I figure that will give me a surprise the next week. Plus I was already spent.

Now, let's talk about Day 2. Cardio was awesome, as I mentioned yesterday. But I almost had a melt down yesterday afternoon. Seriously. I have new respect for my two-year-old when he throws himself in the floor pitching a fit because he wants a cookie. Yes, that was me yesterday when the afternoon blahs hit and I was staring at my computer screen for the 6th straight hour. I literally put my head down on my desk and with a half-real/half-fake, self-pitying sob, I moaned, "I want a cookie!" Realizing how pathetic and toddler-like that was, I pulled myself together and ate the boring wholesome apple I brought from home. And then I gave myself a pat on the back. That whole "Instant Gratification" thing is a real beeotch. But I think if I recognize that, it will make it easier to change my habits. So I brought my healthy, albeit boooring snacks again today. That's three days of one carb a day and NO junk. How many days do they say it takes to form a new habit?? We'll go with seven. I'm almost half-way there! Bring it!!!!

The better question would be 'what ISN'T hurting?'

Day 2. I'm one of those people who like to feel the burn, work up a sweat, kick my own arse.... well, mission accomplished. Day 2 was cardio and given the thorough butt-kicking I received yesterday, I was expecting the worst. So when we started off with some mild yoga poses for the first 6 minutes, I was thinking, "Okay! This might not be so bad!" When am I going to learn not to judge the whole video from the warm-up? It's a warm-up, Carli! That means it's going to get harder! Yep, it sure did.
The cardio video mixed alot of elements together - kenpo kickboxing, plyometrics, core, and yoga; each one causing a pool of sweat on the floor. I got smarter today - I brought a towel with me instead of grabbing a dirty shirt out of the laundry room because it was close.
Sadly, I suffer from the cliche' ailment of Generation Y - instant gratification. I've never been fond of things that take months to work. I want to see results yesterday! To be fair, P90X promises results in just 90 days - two drops in a bucket when it comes to reeeally losing weight. But I couldn't help checking myself out in the mirror this morning to see if there is any difference between today and yesterday. Nope. Not yet. But! This program is 90 days, right? I was in basic and advanced training for longer than that. So if I can do that with scary people yelling at me and being starved to death, then I can do this! Bring it!!

Day 1 - Core Synergistics

Day 1. So I drug my butt out of bed this morning against my whole body's instinct to hit the snooze about 37 times. Did I mention I got up at 4:20?! But I ran my mouth about this to all my friends last weekend while I had my last hoorah for the summer - I ate like it didn't matter, I drank the real stuff instead of diet, and I didn't substitute a salad for the steak fries! And I enjoyed every minute of it. I knew I had to because the next 90 days are going to be baren of all tasty treats and all beverages with more than 20 calories. Thus beginning my official journey to being the master P90X-er (or at least a graduated apprentice).
I started the video in my garage using my son's 6" DVD player, which worked surprisingly well. I got my mat and my water ready and pushed play. After a few minutes, I was like wow! Okay! I can do this! And then Slavedriver Horton said, "Now that we're through stretching, let's get started!" Um. Yikes.
To my surprise, I was doing the exercises - not with the same grace as the airial gymnast mind you, but I was doing them. I tried to take note of how many reps I completed with each exercise so I can guage my improvement. I've totally forgotten all those numbers now, but I can tell you I completed about 60-70% of most of the exercises and I used the modifications for most of them too. There a few (lunges, squats, anything that used the lower body) that I completed 100% without the modifications. I definitely recognize that my upper body is my weak area. So that will be a good measure of progress.
They say the first step is the hardest. Well, I did drag myself out of bed. That's step number one. Even though I shot the stink eye at my husband for, 1. being a man and only needing 20 minutes to get ready and 2. sleeping a whole two hours longer than I did, as I put on my makeup and blowdried my hair with wobbly arms, I was thinking - yeehaw! I did it. One day down, 89 more to go! Bring it!