P90X: A Commentary

As I mentioned in my last post I started P90X on Saturday. I am loving it.  That may sound strange to you if you have heard anything about this video series.  Essentially, it’s a set of 5 DVD’s that take you through 13 weeks of hard core, and when I say hard core, I mean hard core training.  It incorporates strength training, plyometrics, kenpo, core exercises, and yoga.  It’s just the diversity I was craving in my exercises and the right kind of cardio for me.

My diet has shifted a little bit, I need to take in more calories now and the diet that they suggest was a bit different than the one I was using before, but I am really enjoying it. You can learn more about the nutrition plan at http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/p90x.do?code=P90XDOTCOM.  I found this website extremely helpful in finding out what I can eat and when I can eat it. It gives me a list of foods  I can and cannot eat and then a worksheet to track what I am eating.  I also use my “Lose It” iphone app to track my calories.  It’s been great and only required a bit of an adjustment, but I feel like I am eating even healthier becuase I am able to have more veggies on this plan than I was on the other.

Example Day of Meals:
BREAKFAST
Smoothie:  1 c. nonfat yogurt, 2 c. strawberries, 1 scoop of protein

MID-MORNING
6 egg whites
4 slices of turkey bacon
(sometimes I have a whole wheat english muffin)

SNACK
Protein bar/almonds and cranberries mix/pb with celery

LUNCH
Grilled chicken on 2. cups of lettuce with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing or
Lean meat burger with veggies

MID-AFTERNOON
3 oz. of chicken and veggies or protein shake

SNACK
12 small rice cakes

DINNER
3 oz. steak with veggies or baked potato or sweet potato

SNACK
protein shake/4 oz. of frozen yogurt/string cheese

I find it much easier to plan this way and I enjoy having a worksheet to fill out. 

Now, for the exercises.  These are not for the faint-hearted.  They are tough, intense workouts and definitely devised for people who have been working out for a while and want a new challenge.  If you begin this workout without being even a little bit in shape, you will want to take it slow and you’ll also want to be okay with not finishing the videos.  Some of them are really lengthy and can be difficult to complete. But if you feel ready and up for the challenge DO IT.  Every person I have talked to, whether they have followed the diet or not has seen results.  I’ve only been doing it for five days and already I can see changes in my body.  I feel leaner, stronger, and more fit.

 

Tired, very tired

I went to bed too late last night and 4:50am came way to early.  By body still ached a bit from my weekend work out so I decided to do yoga, 45 minutes of beginner’s yoga.  It was still quite the workout for me but my body feels much better.  I was fighting to keep my eyes open as I drove to work today.  It was pouring down rain and I gotta be honest, it was a bit scary.

I’m going to restart my hardcore workout again tomorrow, probably start with Jackie Warner again.  I really enjoy that workout because when I am done with it I feel stronger and leaner.

I’ve been doing really well with my diet.  I know I haven’t reported much on it but I am starting to hit that 60/20/20 mark a bit better than I have in the past.  I’ve really had to increase my protein intake to make it happen.  So what they looks like for me, typical meals throughout the day is something like this:

Breakfast
Fruit smoothie (organic yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, ice, water, scoop of protein)
Mid Morning meal
4 egg whites
3 pieces of turkey bacon
1 slice of Ezekiel bread
Lunch
chicken/lean beef burger(10% fat)/pork chop/ground turkey/tuna
veggie and/or brown rice
salad with protein
Mid Afternoon meal
tuna with organic mayo
hummus with low carb veggie (cucumber/tomato/celery)
lean meat
Dinner
lean meat
vegetables
brown rice

My snacks consist of:  almonds, veggie sticks, carrots, celery, peanut butter, Laughing Cow cheese
Dessert: Low carb ice cream, skinny cow sandwich

I am usually anywhere between 1100-1400 calories a day.  Once you start getting into the groove it really isn’t too difficult.

Tip: I have found that preparing my food the night before can be really helpful.  For instance, I’ll peel my eggs and take out the yolks and put them in a tupperware container, get my lunches ready, and if I need to decide on dinner, I’ll take something out of the freezer to thaw, if not already thawed.  It can be extremely helpful for me, especially the mornings that I am running a bit late.

Speaking of, my routine is shifting a bit again.  Sawyer is starting to sleep until 8-8:30am so we have decided that I am not going to get him up in the mornings to feed him anymore.  My husband will get up with him.  This way I can work out for 4o minutes a day and not have to rush to get myself breakfast, showered, and the dogs fed.  I think I’m going to miss that time with Sawyer in the morning, but it will help me with not feeling so rushed in the morning.

There is an app for that

Before I tell you about the app that I am now using on my iphone, let me share with you about how my day went.

Got up at 5:00am with Sawyer.  He was so pleasant today.  I gave him some breakfast and then stuck him in his jumpy.  He enjoyed watching me torture myself to Holly Perkins yet again this morning.  The backs of my legs are still killing me and it’s 8pm.

I then made myself some breakfast.

Breakfast
3 egg whites
2 pieces of turkey bacon
1 c of milk

I got in the shower and afterwards stepped on the scale.

Zero.

Not my weight, but rather the pounds that I lost and the pounds I also didn’t gain. UGH!

I was pretty frustrated. But once I regrouped, I decided that this was all worth it and perhaps I may have lost inches rather than weight. I’d be okay with that.

So I texted my friend, the trainer, and shared with her what I’d found out.  She said we’d come up with a strategy, that I may need to be eating more calories.

So now I am doing a 60/20/20 method.  60% protein, 20% carbs and 20% fat. We’ll see how it goes.  So how do I track this you ask?

Well, there’s an app for that called “Lose it!”

I’ve had it on my phone for awhile now, used it once before but now it’s going to come in handy again.  I can record everything I eat, search for calorie information, it calculates the nutrients of the food according to what I select, and it sets my goals.  We’ll see how it goes, but it has been helpful to know how many carbs I am eating, even though I haven’t had any bread, pasta, or other snacks today.

Speaking of, what I did eat today:

8am meal
oatmeal – 1 instant packet

Snack
10 almonds

Lunch
salad with grilled chicken and balsamic vinegarette

Mid-afternoon snack
1.5 c carrots
1 tbsp hummus

Dinner
grilled eggplant – 4 slices
grilled tomatoes
1/4 c of ricotta cheese with garlic powder

NOTE: Dinner was a Bobby Flay food network recipe and if you like eggplant parmagna this is a great spoof on it. It’s absolutely delicious.

I then ate a tbsp of peanut butter to try and up my calories. But I finished the day with 1136 calories. Not high enough. I am supposed to be at 1455. Hopefully I can get there tomorrow.

Sunday evening review

Wow.  I have not been a good blogger this weekend.  It’s almost 7:00pm on Sunday evening and although I caught up on Saturday about my Friday, I didn’t get the chance to blog on Saturday to share my day.

Saturday

I worked out in the mid afternoon to 30 day shred at level 2 which kicked my butt. I felt it all day long and into Sunday.  But that’s the way a workout should be right?

Things went well with my eating.  I had yogurt and berries for breakfast, some nuts for a snack, a cucumber and tomato salad with ricotta cheese and balsamic vinegar and for dinner we went to Whole Foods and I got some sushi.  Wow, my whole day wrapped up in two sentences.

Sunday

I slept in today, thank you Sawyer.  He didn’t get my up until 8am.  It was great.  I got him some breakfast and then we headed back to bed.  I love the weekends because I get to spend so much concentrated time with him. It was a beautiful day outside so I knew whatever exercise I did, I wanted to do it outside.  I texted a friend and we decided we’d take our boys for a walk, her’s is just about to turn one.

Breakfast
2 eggs
3 pieces of turkey bacon

As I was getting ready to go walking I had some cucumbers and humus and guacamole for a snack. Two dips I am trying out from whole foods. Haven’t fell in love with either of them but they are something different right now. I also had a few grapes and then I ate a banana before I went walking. Bananas are a great energy booster but they metabolize into sugar.

Tip: Eat a banana before you work out for energy, and it will metabolize quicker.

I had a great walk with my friend. We walked about 2 miles and the back of my legs and back are still hurting. It felt great, though my back is still paying for it.

Dinner
black bean soup
1/4 c. greek yogurt

I tried the greek yogurt tonight because I was making a turkey chili recipe that I was trying to remember by Ellie from Food Network. Yeah, I didn’t get the recipe right, though I did get some of the ingredients. I tasted my version and not bad. At some point I’ll have to try her’s.

I had a dessert tonight, skinny cow ice cream sandwich.  I figured I didn’t consume as many calories as normal, so I’d allow myself some ice cream.  Yummy.

Catching up

My apologies.  I owe you a couple of posts.

Thursday, March 4

My day finished off well.  I had a conversation with a friend who is a fitness instructor and competes in fitness competitions.  She suggested I go another route with my diet.  I’m going to give it a shot and see if that helps any.

Stacey’s suggestions: no red meat, nothing white: sugar, bread, pasta, rice, potato, etc.  No fruits that are high in sugar: no red apples, pears, pineapple, oranges, etc. No whole wheat bread or pasta. No processed foods.  I can eat yogurt and berries, lean meats, low calorie dairy foods, nuts, beans of all sorts, veggies (think green) but I can eat others if I want, brown rice, sweet potatoes.

I am going to need to do some food shopping to make that happen but I am going to give it a go. I trust Stacey, she loves me and she wants the best for me.  She may be one of my biggest cheerleaders in getting fit.  I’m still supposed to watch my calories, though I think it may be a bit more difficult for me.

Dinner:
part of a lean pork chop
1/2 a baked potato

Friday, March 5

Sawyer got me up at 4:50am to eat. I was glad to see my “alarm clock” was working again. I fed him and got into my workout clothes. I decided that I would try a little experiment. I wanted to see if I would weigh more or less after I worked out. So I got on the scale, still 148.8

It was time to push myself a bit more so I did level 2 of the 30 day shred. OH MY GOODNESS! Now that was a workout. I forgot what it felt like to be pushed that hard. I did feel my sciatic nerve a bit this time, when i was laying flat on my back, but the rest of the time it was fine. My heart rate was up, I was flushed in the cheeks when it was over, and my body ached. Now that is how a workout should feel. Before my workout I ate a banana for some energy, and I think that really helped.

After my workout, I made myself some breakfast and got in the shower.

Breakfast
2 eggs
1 tbsp of salsa

After I got my shower I got on the scale again. 146.8. What in the world??? I am apparently lighter after I work out and eat breakfast. So now I know. I’ll still be weighing in on Thursdays, but this time after I workout, eat, and shower.

On my way to work, I felt myself get a little hungry so I ate some cashews. I think the one thing I have to be careful of if I am going to consume nuts, is the salt. I really like salt on my nuts, and I am going to have to watch that.

Mid-morning breakfast
bagel
salmon cream cheese (1 tbsp)

I went to Whole Foods for lunch and got a VERY tasty meal. I also picked up some fruits, couple of veggies, some humus and guacamole spreads that I can eat with my veggies. I love Whole Foods. It’s a great place for anyone who is trying to eat healthy. Though you do have to be careful with that, because not everything there is good for your waist.

Lunch
grilled salmon (small piece)
grilled veggies: squash and zucchini
green beans

Around 3pm I found myself hungry again so I grabbed my snack out of the fridge. I think I’m supposed to be eating more of a meal at this point, but I love my carrots and cherry tomatoes snack. It does fill me up and it’s tasty too.

Snack
1/2 c of baby carrots
5-6 cherry tomatoes

Last night was date night, so my husband and I went out for dinner. Ruby Tuesday’s was his pick. It was pretty good and they have a good selection on the menu.

Tip: Look for items on the menu that are not processed, lean meats and fresh or cooked veggies. Ask for substitutions, in this day and age, they are used to it.

Dinner:
2 mini turkey burgers sans the bun w/ tomato, lettuce and pickle slices
grilled mushrooms
salad from the salad bar with balsamic vinegar
grapes

We headed home and called it a night. Sawyer was fed dinner and then off to bed. It was about 9:00pm when I felt myself drifting off as well. Long day.

Calling it a night

It’s 10:00pm and I’m about to head to bed, but I didn’t want to end the night without finishing up my day.  The afternoon seemed to drag a bit at work as I hit my 3:30pm-4:00pm lull.  It had already been a long day.  So I pepped myself up with a mid-afternoon snack.

Mid-Afternoon Snack:
Celery sticks with Laughing Cow lite garlic and herb cheese (80 calories)
Snack size luna bar (90 calories)

I didn’t feel like cooking tonight and for some reason I was craving Baked Lays Sour Cream and Cheese chips so I decided that a turkey sandwich sounded awfully good.

Tip: Sometimes its helpful to give into the cravings.  Just do it with the right portions.  For example, take a handful of chips and make sure you look at the bag to see the calories, which will deter you from wanting to go back for more.  Then savor your snack like it’s the last time you’ll get to eat it.  You’ll enjoy it all the more and by the time your done eating it, you’ll appreciate what you had.

Dinner:
turkey sandwich (180 calories)
handfull of baked lays (120 calories)
coke zero (0 calories)

TOTAL CALORIES FOR THE DAY: 1141

Overall, I am feeling pretty good. I am tired, of course, but my body feels good. I am standing taller, I am feeling a bit thinner through my middle and I think it was a good week. We’ll see what the scale says tomorrow morning.

PS.  Found a great blog today with what looks to be a mighty tasty salad, it’s called Elegant Sprout Salad.  I am thinking about giving it a try.

My best friend and my worst enemy

It’s my scale.  That’s right, there are days I step on the scale and I want to kiss it.  It’s my favorite thing in the whole wide world when it gives me good news, like I lost a pound or two, but when it gives me bad news it is my worst enemy.

That was my news this morning.  Some how I gained 2 lbs since Thursday. Again, no idea how I could have done that since I worked out everyday and I know I made healthy choices. Maybe it was the lack of water I consumed? Maybe it was because I didn’t work out this morning because I went to bed too late last night?  Who knows?  But I have decided that I am no longer going to chart my progress every couple of days by my scale. Instead, I am going to weigh in once a week, and only once a week.  Since last thursday was when I weighed in last, I am going to stick to Thursdays.

It’s 8:24pm and I’m exhausted.  In order to avoid skipping yet another day of working out I am going to head to bed soon to get a good night’s rest.  However, before I sign off I wanted to share my food for the day.  Protein bar on the way to work, a toasted 100 calorie english muffin with natural peanut butter for a mid morning snack, a veggie chili taco salad sans sour cream for lunch at McAllister’s Deli (essentially this was lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, salsa and veggie chili).  A mid-afternoon snack of celery and 2 quarters of light laughing cow cheese.  Dinner was whole wheat pasta with red sauce and black olives, appropriate proportions.  Since I went a little skimpy on my snack, I ate more calories for dinner.

Okay off to bed so I can get up, well rested in the morning to continue with my exercise routine.

Sunday afternoon reflections

The rest of my Saturday went well.

I had a salad: green lettuce, tomato, red onion, pine nuts, and a little bleu cheese crumble with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing and I heated up some bbq chicken breast that I had in the fridge.  I had a bit of a sweet tooth so I decided to enjoy a skinny cow ice cream sandwich, only 150 calories.  The rest of my day included doing some work around the house and I realized that I have much more energy when I work out to get things done than I do when I don’t work out.

We went on to church and then had to make a trip to Target and to Sam’s Club.  Therefore, not only did I get a work out earlier in the day, but I also did quite a bit of walking through the evening.  While I was at Target I picked up some 2 lb weights and a Jillian Michael’s DVD.  I had been considering buying her 30 day shred on-line for $12.98 but I wanted to see if I could find it anywhere else cheaper and low and behold, Target came through for $9.00.  I like her 20 minute workout because it circuits through 3 minute strength training, 2 minute cardio, and 1 minute abs.  It’s good diversity and just when I feel like I can’t go on, the exercise changes and I am using different muscles.  It also makes me sweat and I just feel good afterwards.  Oh and before I forget I had a Subway turkey sandwich (no cheese) red wine vinegar on the roll, lettuce, tomato, onion, and banana peppers with a unsweetend ice tea and bag of low-calorie lays chips for dinner last night. In between lunch and dinner I ate a Protein Meal Bar to make sure I wasn’t starving since I knew we’d be busy for awhile before we ate dinner.

Sunday has been a lazier day.

It was the first time I was able to sleep in since before Sawyer was born and it felt SO good, thanks to my wonderful husband.  But when I sleep in like that it almost makes me more tired.  But I got myself up, ate a brunch of lender’s bagel (140 calories) some lite salmon spread, lox, tomato and onion.  It was delicious.  I also had an 8 oz glass of lite Soy chocolate milk.  D-lish!  After some time with Sawyer, I handed him over to his father for a nap and popped in the Jillian DVD.  For some reason my knees were bothering me a bit more this time. I wonder if it’s because I wore sneakers this time rather then doing it in socks.  Interesting.  As a quick snack after my workout I ate a Kellogg’s Protein Meal Bar and I’m consuming a large glass of water.  I don’t drink enough water on the weekends, for some reason I do a much better job drinking water at work than at home. Probably because I am up moving so much on the weekends and at work I am at my desk most of the day or I take my water with me to my meetings.  I also find that I do a better job of  eating small meals during the week than I do on the weekends.

Well, it is 3:15pm and the men’s USA hockey team is about to play.  I’ll be enjoying the game while researching some new recipes on Food Network.  I am planning on eating some grilled Salmon (we have an inside grill pan that I can put on my stove – wonderful) litely seasoned, some brown rice and some more salad from what I made yesterday.  I am actually excited for dinner because I love grilled Salmon.

I need to go grocery shopping today and I find that researching my recipes first and then making my list can be helpful.  Which reminds me, I had bought the ingredients for a lite turkey chili that I found online, I’ll have to make that this week.

Day One blogging, week two getting fit

It’s a saturday morning so I decided to sleep in a bit today, Sawyer had me up around 8:30am.  After I got Sawyer fed and back down for a nap I put on my exercise clothes and began exploring my options for a workout to do for today.  As I surfed Exercise TV, I decided to do, what I thought was a 22 minute Biggest Loser cardio burn, by some of the folks who have been on Biggest Loser. Once I got to the workout, she mentioned it only being a 10 minute cardio burn.  I decided to go ahead with the workout and figured I’d find something else to supplement it.

The workout was quick and fairly intense.  After working out with professional tv trainers all week there was a comparable difference between their style and the young woman directing me through my cardio burn.  But what I liked most about working out with this crew was that they were all different shapes and sizes and I kept thinking if they could do it, so could I.  To be honest, it wasn’t easy and I definitely worked up a sweat.  It was a great motivator and even though it was sometimes to follow the young woman’s lead I will probably give this one a try again.  I then did a ab workout for another 11 minutes.  This was a standing ab workout and to be honest I am not sure I really got my abs working.  My abs most certainly are not what they used to be and so it’s difficult to even find them anymore, I think I’ll have to stick to the floor routines for now.

After I exercised I decided to get some water and something for breakfast.  I had purchased some Grape Nuts and wanted to eat those with possibly some yogurt. However, the box said that a 1/2 a cup of grape nuts equals 200 calories so I mixed that with a 60 calorie yogurt.  Yeah, I would not suggest that for a meal to anyone, unless you are wanting to punish yourself.  Too many oats and not enough yogurt makes for a fairly dry and untasty meal.  I know I am eating to live and not living to eat, but some taste is nice. I am not out to torture myself.

It’s now 11:48am and since I just started working on the blog today I am starting to feel my stomach growl again. I normally would have had another small meal before lunch but spending time on setting up this blog took my mind off the clock and apparently my hunger and I didn’t even realize that it was almost 12pm until I got some hunger pains.  I’m off to find something to eat for lunch.  For me and for Sawyer.

It’s a new beginning…kind of

It was just this past week that I really started getting serious, really serious about losing my pregnancy weight.  For a couple of weeks, maybe a month I have cut my calorie intake and saw at one point a 5 lbs. weight loss in a week, to only learn that I gained it back over a weekend.  Nobody I’ve asked can figure out why it happened, maybe too much sodium intake, no idea.  At any rate, it was at that point that I decided I needed to get serious about this weight loss or I was going to keep this weight on for the rest of my life.

3 days old

But let me back it up a bit.  Almost 16 months ago, January 31, 2008 I found out I was pregnant for the third time with our first child.  I had two miscarriages before this pregnancy and so though I was elated to be pregnant, there was still some anxiety as to whether I would actually get to experience pregnancy this time.  8 months later, at 35 weeks (due to preeclampsia) I gave birth to Sawyer James, 5 lbs. 3oz. and 19 in. long. He was and is still perfect.  I was able to breastfeed him for the first 5 months of his life.  I was told around that time that due to my preeclampsia my body was just not going to produce anymore milk and I was going to have to give it up.  I had such mixed emotions about not breastfeeding anymore, I didn’t want to lost out on that time nursing my son because it was so precious to me, but I knew that this may mean a chance to start losing the weight that I thought would have come off from breastfeeding.  As you are probably already guessing, I am not one of those new mom’s who lost my weight within the next few months because I was breastfeeding my child.  When I got pregnant with Sawyer I weighed in at my doctor’s office around 135 lbs. (Height 5’41/2″)  It was more than I had wanted to weight when I got pregnant with my first baby, but it was what it was. Since I had to be induced and didn’t get to my next doctor’s appointment my best guess at how much I weighed when I delivered is somewhere around 170 lbs.  I thought I was doing okay weight wise because I had only gained about 35 lbs, and my doctor told me to stay in the 25-35 lbs range and it should come right off.  Well, with my preeclampsia I am not completely sure that was true.

So now my son is almost 7 months (March 6) and I am, as of a weigh-in yesterday, 145.8.  I am determined to do whatever it takes to lose this weight and get fit again.  Now you may be thinking, well, you only have 10 more lbs to go to be at your pre-pregnancy weight.  True.  However, I’d like to be fit and trim as well, so my goal is 125.  I know when I am at that weight I tend to feel best about myself, I am working out and eating healthy to stay there, and I like the way I feel in my clothes.  That’s really what this is all about isn’t it…feeling good about who you are in what you have to wear.  So I have twenty pounds to lose and I am hoping to do it by May if possible.

So here is my plan and what I hope to blog about each day.  I realized and embraced the reality that the only time I have to work out is in the morning before I feed my son, feed my dogs, and get myself off to work. So this past week I have been getting up at 5:00am and using Exercise TV as my means to exercise.  For those of you who do not know what  Exercise TV is, if you have cable on-demand you may want to check out the channels to find out if it is available to you. (In my local area, the channel is 426)  Since we are currently on one income, I didn’t have money to work out at a gym and the thought of doing the same exercises over and over again from a DVD just didn’t seem appealing, I like variety.  Exercise TV offers a wide variety of options and tells you exactly how long each workout is going to take.  And, for the most part, it is exact.  I say for the most part, because earlier this week I chose a workout and it said 22 minutes but the countdown clock said 42 and I didn’t quite have the time to finish a 42 minute workout.  At any rate, my plan for the next 30 days, if not longer,  is to workout each day taking one day off to rest.  I will blog about the workout that I chose, share how I am feeling, what the exercise felt like to go through, maybe comment on the trainer, and share my food intake, etc.

Thus far I have seen some great benefits to working out.  Since about my first trimester I have had sciatic nerve issues.  I thought it would go away after I had the baby but it didn’t which is why I have been putting off working out for so long and why I stopped working out during my pregnancy.  However, I have done cardio strength workouts, yoga, Pilates, and ab exercises and I have to say, except for the day that I did yoga, which increased the pain, I have had little to no pain since. I think the stretching and poses done during a yoga exercise, aggravated it a bit, but also helped to heal it. I also feel much better about myself already, I can feel some of my muscles again, especially in my abdomen and I am starting to feel stronger. I feel better about what I am putting in my body.  I had found some recipes on food network this past Sunday and made a few of them throughout the week.  I found them to be healthy, though some were lacking in flavor so I’ll have to tweak them for next time around.

Starting today, you’ll begin to read what I do throughout my day, what food I eat (how I liked it or didn’t like it), my mind-set, how my body feels, etc.  I hope that this blog will speak to women who felt the same way I did about their pregnancy weight, but hopefully my actions will encourage them to do what it takes to take it off.  The reality is only I can choose to take off this weight, no one can do it for me and thinking that it’s going to come off on its own or that it will come off later, will not get me anywhere.  The time is now and so I am ceasing the moment and embracing a mantra a close friend once said to me, “I eat to live, not live to eat.” I get one body and it’s my responsibility while I am here on this earth to keep it healthy.