First you eat then you get hungry

Read any P90x blog and you will eventually find a post about the how hard it is to eat all the food. So here is my token entry, but there's a twist.

That first breakfast is a real killer. For Level II your eating an 8 egg white omelet with 3 oz of cheese and 12 oz of cottage cheese with 1 cup of berries. It's almost painful eating that much. Especially since most people doing P90x have trained themselves for low calorie diets. That first week you feel like a 300 pound fat guy at an all you can eat buffet. My coworkers eyes went wide when they saw my shrimp stir fry because it looked like a meal for three. I was definitely anxious those first 2 weeks. I was right in between Level I and Level II and was wondering if I made a mistake going with Level II.

The key thing here is what your eating in the meal plan. It's a huge amount of veggies and protein and almost no carbs and low fat. So yes you are eating a ton of food but that doesn't necessarily translate to a ton of calories. The calories you are eating are all good calories from protein and vegetables and whole grains. Remember that calories are just a measure of how much energy something contains. You're bodies ability to convert a food into something useful depends on what it is (Protein/Carbs/Fat/Alchohol). Basically, to build muscle, Protein is what you want and stay far away from the alcohol which is basically converted to fat. This is why you can't just buy a bottle of vodka and be good for a week.

Well I'm almost through week three and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The first two weeks my body was definitely panicking a bit. I felt over full the whole time and was worried that I was putting on fat. Now I think my body has figured it out. I'm hungry when I should be now and eating the meals is easier. My body fat is also down about 1%. I'm also happy that my weight is slightly up, 2 lbs, which means I'm gaining muscle as well.

So my advice to you is don't sweat the first coupe of weeks. It'll be a pain but by end of the first month you should see the results. My promise to myself was to stay on Level II unless I gained over 5 lbs and had higher body fat%.

Human Pretzel

Having been through all of the Phase 1 workouts for the second time now I'm starting to settle in. My 2 greatest challenges right now are flexibility and balance. I'd say those 2 things are what is really kicking my ass in most of the workouts (Although Chin-ups and Ab ripper X just kick my ass period). Unlike P90 many of the exercises rely on your balance (Kenpo/Yoga etc..). Ah just mentioned Yoga. I'd advise you to be cautious with the Yoga X. I definitely see the potential to injure your self pretty easily here. I'm taking it easy with the Yoga X and will be signing up for a group yoga class when I get the chance. I haven't done Yoga before and can definitely see the need for an expert critique on my forms and technique.

I faught the kitchen and the kitchen won

Wow, I was so excited about the P90x diet plan. different levels for different people. Phases depending where you are in the program, all awesome stuff. I figured I'd go extreme and do the extreme meal plan. I had no idea what I was in for. Cooking till 2am trying to keep up. Ouch!

I mean really: 5 different sauces, 6 different soups, 5 different salads, 15 other recipes on one week!! I guess if you're unemployed you can pull that off but then you wouldn't have the money to buy all the ingredients. That's another thing, these aren't "combine 4 ingredients and cook" recipes either (A feature of the P90 meal plan). Some recipes have as many as 14 ingredients and 5 steps and stuff like dicing shallots and doing stock reductions.

I still like the idea of the meal plan but it's way to much effort. My current scheme is to make a bit of a hybrid between the meal plan and the portion approach. Oh and since I mentioned the portion approach I'll mention why I'm not doing that instead. Honestly I'm a little too anal for it. I would go crazy guessing at portion sizes and trying to figure out what counts as what. Does a chicken sandwich with cheese count as a fat/protein/carb and the guide only lists fats that in oil form so I have no idea what a portion of cheese would be.

So here is my current plan of attack:

• Prep 3 different types of soups (prepared on the weekend and frozen)
• Prep 3 different types of sauces (prepared on the weekend and frozen)
• Have 2-3 different fruits
• Have 2-3 different vegetables
  
• Prep 4 cups of wild rice on the weekend
• Combine several vegetables in one meal into a larger portion of 1 vegetable
  

These steps greatly reduce the effort in the meal plan. The soups, sauces, fruits and vegetables are pretty interchangeable. Most soups count as 1 Vegetable portion, most sauces count as 1.5 condiments etc... The other menu items are a little more complex and hard to change without affecting the portion balance. Also an added benefit of restricting the variety a bit is that you won't go broke eating partial portions of things and watching the rest spoil in your fridge I.E. 1/4 of a grapefruit once a week. Sorry but the rest O that grapefruit isn't going to hang around for a month waiting for you to finish it. I suppose this is probably the conclusion they expect people to reach but could they just say "Lunch, Day 1, one Soup from the recipes" etc. This would have made it obvious from the start. Also having 1 Cup of Quinoa (That's a vegetable I can't even find) and 1 Cup of Snap peas for one dinner. Come on just tell me to eat 2 cups of Snap peas.

P90 Extreme, Lets go!

So I started P90x last Monday. And here's the first evidence of the time commitment. Didn't have time to blog about it untill now. But before I digress here are my starting stats.

Here are my starting measurements:

Body Fat% 13.7 (Using Caliper)
Weight: 151 Lbs
Hips: 32 1/2"
Right Thigh: 20 1/2"
Left Thigh: 20 1/2"
Right Arm: 12 3/8"
Left Arm: 12 3/8"

Here are the results of my initial fit test:

Resting Heart Rate: 59 bps
Pull-Ups: 3 (I really suck at Pull-Ups and this is something that P90 misses)
Toe Touch: 0" (Yup I can touch my toes ... barely)
Wall Squat: 3:30
Bicep Curls: 15 at 22.5lbs
Abs: In & Outs: 40

I'm a smidge flabbier than I was after finishing the P90 program. I learned an important lesson about reaching your goal: Always have another one to take it's place. Otherwise it's really hard to resist that extra helping around thanks giving.

P90 It's been fun

So I'm done with the power 90 challenge. It definitely gave me the results I was looking for. I'm in the best shave I've ever been in.

The major critique I would have about P90 is the diet plan. The program is designed for weight loss while maintaining fitness and providing definition. The diet held me back in terms of my fitness goals. In the end I was doubling every meal (portion wise to maintain a decent caloric intake). 2X cereal/2x Lunch Sandwich/2x dinner to give me about 2500 calories. The plan stresses a calorie deficit but the default calorie deficit is way too extreme for most people 1300 – 1500 calories is a crash diet. Granted I'm pretty active in addition to the exercise I'm getting as part of this plan. Still if you're an adult and weight over 140 lbs 1500 calories is not enough. Because if all the adjusting I had to do for the diet it made it very hard to stick to it. I fell off the wagon a couple of times, especially near the end.

Here are my final measurements:

• Body Fat: 14.5%
• Weight: 149.8 pounds
• Chest: 38 1/2"
• Waist: 30 3/4"
• Hips: 32 1/2"
• Right Mid-Thigh: 20 1/2"
• Left Mid-Thigh: 20 1/2"
• Right Upper Arm: 12 3/4"
• Left Upper Arm: 12 3/4"
• Blood Pressure: 124/60
• Resting Heart Rate: 64 beats per minute.

I have already received my Power 90 Extreme and will probably be starting that program in a week or 2. While reviewing the P90x you really see the short comings of P90. For example in P90x they do a good job of splitting your diet among Proteins, Carbs and Fats and they stress that you should eat all the recipes in the plan. This is important to maintain a balanced diet. The P90 program states that you can eat the recipies you like. While all the recipies in P90 are pretty good I don't think that eating the toast, hamburgers and fries and Chicken Marinara every day for 90 days would be a great idea.

The best part of the P90 is of course the workouts. If you stick with it and eat a balanced diet you will get in shape. Now again here is a difference I noticed when looking at the P90x workouts and charts. I notice they stress that you record the weights and reps. Tony stresses that you should set goals and push your self. You see in the P90x routines where his companions are setting goals and pusing them selves with real weights. In contrast all the exercises in P90 are demonstrated with almost no weight. The girls are just using the 5lbs bars them selves. Now once I had mastered the Level 3/4 of P90 I stated to push my self by keeping track of weights and increasing them for the various exercises. Here is where you run into a major annoyance. Since they are demoing the exercises and not changing weights you have about 5 seconds inbetween exercises. Heck 5 seconds was barely enought time to stop the exercise and hit the pause button. Let alone figure out your weight, set the adjustable dumb bells and get ready. I was constantly pausing and rewinding.

Now if I had it to do over again would I go straing to P90x? The answer is no. P90 served the exact purpose I intended it to. It slowly brought me to a level where I can now transition to P90x. In P90x the workouts are 1hr or more. That really intensive if you've been a couch potato for a couple of years. So my advice would be to start with P90 but to keep my critiques in mind. Definitely do some research and be prepared to modify the diet.

Stay tuned for P90x which I will be starting in a couple of weeks.

Time to Make the Doughnuts

I had planned to do my workouts after work and before dinner/evening activities. So I discovered two problems with my plan. First is that consistently getting out of work at 5:30 pm just wasn't happening (surprise meetings, deadlines, yadda yadda). Second was my desire not to be a complete hermit (Hanging with friends, volunteering etc...). I constantly fought the first 60 days of Power 90 to get those workouts in. While the workout is only 45 minutes the time commitment is really just shy of 3 hours. Here's a breakdown of my post work schedule:

• 20 min to get home (riding my bicycle)
• 15 min to change/recover.
• 30 min take vitamin supplement
• 45 min workout
• 10 min wait to take Creatine supplement
• 30 min shower and prepare dinner
  
• 20 min eat dinner

That is a 170 minute time commitment which is just short of 3 hours. It's pretty hard to get all that in and then go out. There were several times I had some other activity immediately after work and had to do the workout later in the evening. Those days were really tough because I'd wind up working out at midnight and then was stuck having a late night snack for post workout recovery. In some cases I just couldn't do it and had to skip a workout. So after much struggling I decided that the best time to workout was first thing in the moring. Working out first thing in the morning has many advantages:

• No earlier conflicts to delay you
• Helps wake you up
• Schedule is much more consistent in the morning
  
• Don't have to take 2 showers a day
• All day to recover from your workout
• Evenings can be a lot more flexible

So here is what the time breakdown looks like with a morning workout:

• 30 min wake up, immediately take vitaming supplement and drink water
  
• 45 min workout
• 10 min wait to take Creatine supplement
• 30 min shower and prepare for work
  
• 10 min eat breakfast

As you can see put a good dent in the time commitment, only 125 minutes (~2 hours). I was worried about working out on a completely empty stomach but after some research that seems perfectly acceptable, even recommended. Granted the first time my body was definately not happy about the change. I learned it's important to drink at least a whole glass of water when you take the supplement (Now I know what bile tastes like ;-).

60 Day Checkin for Power 90

Here we are 60 days and and still going. Though thick and thin I've been sticking with it. Sometimes having to workout at midnight but I refuse to give up. I don't think these pictures really do justice to the improvements in my physique. Hum maybe the 60W ceiling light isn't the best lighting option for photography. In any case if you look at the front profile you can just see the beginnings of a six pack. I'm very excited. A six pack is one of my major goals. I've always wanted one but never even come close. So this is proof that I'm definitely getting in the best shape I've ever been in.

Here are my current measurements:

• Body Fat: 14.4%
• Weight: 148.8 pounds
• Chest: 38"
• Waist: 29 1/2"
• Hips: 32"
• Right Mid-Thigh: 20 1/2"
• Left Mid-Thigh: 20 1/2"
• Right Upper Arm: 12 5/8"
• Left Upper Arm: 12 5/8"
• Blood Pressure: 123/60
• Resting Heart Rate: 66 beats per minute.

Wow my body fat continues to drop 1.6% lower than the 1 month mark. There is a caveat here tho. I would say it might be a little higher than that since I did the measurement after working out. That's one of the things that can throw off that measurement. But I'm happy at the progress of the physical measurements. My waist size has plunged nearly 3 3/4" lower than when I began the Power 90 Challenge. Also my chest and arms have gotten bigger. I'm + 3/8" for the chest and + 5/8 for the arms, from when I began P90. Now when you consider the fat I've lost and made up in muscle the numbers are even more impressive. I've also noticed and increase in my definition.

Well so far so good. I'm happy with the progress I've made and have already ordered the P90x program.