The Fitness Ninja

Just want to key in some numbers.  I’m gonna add the rest of the entry later.  Tomorrow is the 1st of the month and so my regular ritual of weighing comes about.  Decided to do it today though, early this morning.

Weight: 137 lbs.  The scale says 16.3% body fat so I don’t think I have moved at all.  That sucks but I could swear my arms and legs feel firmer and I think I see a little more definition on my abs.  I dunno.  Like I said in an earlier entry, I hope they can give me a body fat % at my physical early next year.  I also did something I haven’t done in years.  I measured my height (or…well my wife did as I had a heck of a time marking the wall while standing against it).  My official height is exactly 64 inches – 5′4″‘.  That’s done on a hardwood floor with no socks and pretty flush against a wall.  Why did I do this? Well, for the longest time all I ever answered when people asked “How tall are you?” (not that I get asked this all that often), I would just say “Oh, about five foot three or five foot four.”  I wanted to know for sure which one it is.  Turns out to be the latter.  YAY for an extra inch!

Be back later.

==========================

I’m actually writing this portion on December 1st.  I missed my workout and entry yesterday due to extenuating circumstances involving a pregnant wife and hospital visit.  It’s been a pretty crappy two days of eating as all I’ve had has been gotten from the hospital food kiosk.

Food for November 30th: breakfast was PB&J with two pieces of toast, tapioca pudding cup (120), half a rice crispy square, blueberry muffin, 4 cups of juice, nature square (made of cereal and nuts and raisins), corn beef sandwich on white bread for lunch, bag of Rolls Gold Pretzels (190), 6 pieces of chocolate (310) dinner was a ham and egg sandwich on white bread (I haven’t had white bread in ages!)

I decided to tackle plyometrics today in bare feet.  To my knowledge this is the first time I’ve done this.  I’ll have to go back on check on this but… in any case, I really liked the results.  Maybe it’s because I cut the weight of my shoes or maybe because without them I am more careful on the landings, using the natural springs of my foot’s arc to propel me up and down, but today’s workout felt great and I was more energized than usual (it might have helped that I took a quick 1 hour nap after having cleaned the whole house from top to bottom including the dreaded washrooms… ick!).

I was able to keep up handily with the exercises (still sweating buckets though) and I opted as often as I could for the harder versions of the moves (i.e. hands up on Mary Katherine lunges).  I think I will try to do most of the workouts from now on without shoes.  Yes, even the weight lifting ones (that includes legs and back… which I had a heck of a time with last time I attempted it without footwear).  I get the feeling that my sense of balance and strength within my feet would benefit without the confines of a shoe.  Certainly feels like I have to work a bit harder on focusing during weight lifting to keep myself steady during the lifts but I’m fine with that.

I bought the book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall and am half-way through it.  It’s a quick, entertaining read about back to basics running and the barefoot movment.  In it he chronicles a brief history of running and an ensuing race set up between ultra-marathoners and a hidden tribe in Mexico, the Tarahumara Indians, who seem to be natural born long distance runners.  Basically, he attempts to answer the question “Why does my foot hurt?” and the conundrum that modern humans seem to be the only animals that inevitably injure themselves by running repeatedly.  I bring it up because it makes a good case (so far) about the detrimental effect all these scientifically engineered shoes may actually have on our feet.  Needless to say, I am intrigued by the notion of getting stronger by shedding more (that and the fact that I don’t want to keep buying $150 running shoes throughout my life in order to keep running).

Which bringe me to these… a product that has gotten a lot of great reviews and I am seriously considering buying in order to try and work on “barefoot” running.  I don’t know how much they cost, but hopefully less than $150!

Vibram Five Finger KSOs

Pretty funky looking.  They allow you the benefits of being “barefoot” with an added layer of protection for really rough surfaces (i.e. anything worse than carpet or grass).  I’ll try to pick up a pair and give my review of them sometime in the future (might be far future as I still have to look for a local specialty shoe store which sell these).

Food for today: breakfast was two pieces of toast with PB&J, a granola bar, 3 cups of juice, lunch was leftover pasta from last night and dinner is mashed potatoes with meatloaf and a side of mushrooms, 2 small peanut butter chocolates (122).

Man, I am sore.  I always think after three weeks of regular weight training that I have a handle on things.  But then right after rest week, it’s like I’ve just started P90x all over again.  The same soreness I felt on day one returns and I wonder where all my progress went.  I guess that’s the whole beauty (and selling point) of P90x… the muscle confusion theory that prevents plateauing.  Hope I fall asleep easily tonight because my body feels pretty wrecked.

Oh and I changed my protein supplement today from a whey protein isolate mixed with chocolate milk to this…

Crazy sweet... but only 180 calories and 2g of sugars. 42g of protein.

Don’t know how to feel about it.  It’s sweet and syrup like so I diluted it in a cup of juice.  Drank half of it 40 min. prior to the workout then the other half afterwards.  The one bonus it has over the milk concoction I usually drink is that it doesn’t make me as gassy as I usually get.  My wife loves it for that reason.

Food for today: oatmeal, 3 cups of juice, granola bar (100), cheese string (60), cup of yogurt (35), tapioca pudding cup (120), mix of raisins, shreddies and almonds, 5 timbits (approx. 120 cal.), lunch was light Michelina’s frozen dinner (280), dinner was chicken fetucinne alfredo, dessert was half bag of light popcorn (130).

I know… I said I would do a run this week but … well it didn’t pan out as it started to rain after work when I had to planned to run.  Cold, dark, rain.  I didn’t have it in me to run home … energy level was just low.  As a result, I actually rested today as opposed to doing extra exercise like running or Cardio X.  Looking back over the past week, I realize I have to buckle down and try to focus my eating habits to be more wholesome in this final phase.  I also want to push doubly hard knowing that this is IT (well, at least until I restart the whole thing over again).

Food: oatmeal, cup of juice, 3 granola bars (300 cal.), cheese string (60 cal.), lunchable kit (390),  for dinner Swiss Chalet double chicken leg, rice pilaf and bread roll (1100 cal.), half a cup of ice cream (150 cal.).

Ugh! I always sabotage myself.  Today started off well.  I had oatmeal and a cup of juice for breakfast.  I got off the bus several blocks early so I had about fairly brisk 25 minute walk to work + brisk 15 minute walk to my initial bus stop.  For snack, I had a granola bar (100 cal.) but then a really nice co-worker made cranberry muffins and brought them to work.  I had 2 (1 around 10 the other around 2).  For lunch I had a light Michelinas lunch (280), a yogurt cup (35 cal.), a cheese string (60), and shreddies, almonds and raisins.  Where I really blew it was when I got home.  My wife had thawed out some Costco apple muffins and I devoured one as I was so hungry (another 15 minute walk going back home from the bus stop).  If you’ve ever seen a Costco muffin, they are pretty damn large.  To top it all off, depending on the internet source you look at these things range in calories between 600-900 calories.  THAT’S ALMOST HALF OF A WHOLE DAY’S CALORIC VALUE IN ONE SNACK!!! It’s worse than a big Mac and not as filling.  Geez that was depressing to learn.  Dinner was a leftover pork chop with some mashed potatoes.

To top THAT off, my wife is having a girl’s gab night at my place and they are all ordering Dairy Queen Blizzards! Sheesh… as if my will wasn’t broken enough.  Thankfully, I was able to say no to these.

Damn.  900 calories for a muffin.  I wish I had known before stuffing it into my mouth.  The diet truly is the hardest part of P90x.

And oh yeah, I did Yoga X today.

Oh Costco... you will be my downfall!

Just finished core synergistics again.  I can’t say it enough… that one is a burner.  The whole body is just worked and you’ll be dripping in sweat if you go all out (I actually pooped out again in the middle of plank-chataranga run).  Thinking ahead to my second round of P90x, I think I might sub out all the kenpo X routines for core synergistics.  It would provide a better, more thorough workout.  I might also switch out yoga x for Tony Horton’s fountain of youth yoga from his One-on-One series (I can’t wait to swap out that 1 and half hour beast for something else… love everything about yoga except for the length! TOO DAMN LONG!).

Food for today: oatmeal, 2 cups of juice, 3 granola bars (300 cal.), lunch was a Michelina’s frozen dinner (280 calories), mix of Shreddies, raisins, and almonds, 4 twizzlers (150 cal.) bag of chips (230 cal.), 6 pieces of chocolate (est. 210 cal.), dinner was pork chop with gravy and mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables.

Looking at that list… I think I’m going to be doing an extra run this week on top of Yoga X tomorrow.

Just as the title says, I decided to opt out of stretch for cardio today.  I felt like being more active than usual as  I got a good sleep last night.  Just as I said before, this routine is deceptively hard as the start is so slow (yoga for warm up) but then turns into a drencher when Tony runs through plyo and core work.  There are very few breaks in the last half (and when there are breaks, they are quite brief).  To add to this, I decided to use 5 pound dumbells for the kenpo x portion of the workout.  This was a bit much.  I got through it but it wasn’t pleasant.  Felt like my arms were moving through wet cement.  I lost explosiveness in exchange for weight work.  Hopefully, I can get used to it and my arms will get faster again.

In any case, half way through rest week then onto the final phase.  Can’t wait!

Food for today: two pieces of whole wheat toast with PB&J for breakfast, granola bar, lunch was two pieces of whole wheat toast with a slice of processesd cheese on each along with a bowl of tomato soup (leftover from last night), snacks at work mix of shreddies, almonds and raisins (I only ever seem to make this mix when going to work), granola bar, cup of yogurt (35 cal.), cheese string, dinner was half box of KD with turkey hot dogs.  Had half a cup of ice cream for dessert (150 cal.).

Finished Kenpo X a little while ago then took a shower and had dinner.  Had several slices of leftover roastbeef, potatoes, gravy and a bowl of mixed vegetables.  Feeling full which is a good thing as that helps cut down on rampant snacking.  Today’s workout was pretty good.  Sweating like crazy still.  I feel like 3 pounds is the right weight to be using for kenpo as I am already getting quite sore halfway through the routine.  I’ll try to push to 5 by next week just to see what it feels like but if it’s too much (i.e. painful), I’ll dial it back.

Food for today: oatmeal and cup of juice for breakfast, 2 granola bars, 1 tapioca pudding cup (120 cal.), half a small bag of chips, 2 pandesal with margerine, bowl of tomato soup, and cup of soup for lunch, approx. 20 small jelly belly jelly beans (approx. 40-50 cal.), dinner was leftover potatoes, 4 slices of beef (pretty thick cut for 2 of them), bowl of frozen mixed veggies, diet Dr. Pepper.

While I was writing this, I started watching “The Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp” show.  I rarely ever watch it because of conflicts with workshifts and just forgetting that it’s on (Slice isn’t a channel on my radar… and strangely enough not on my wife’s either).  I like Tommy Europe and how he motivates the men and women on this show.  A lot of yelling and dry wit (wonder what P9x would have been like with him in charge).  I don’t think I’ve ever seen an episode where the person trying to lose the weight did not meet the end outfit goal they are trying to squeeze into (it also helps that they have a personal nutritionist work with the participants; my wife says that if we ever won the lottery we’d hire one of these for sure).  Of course, what they do over the course of 4 weeks is just a fraction of what P90xers do over the course of 12.  Except we do it without anyone yelling at us  as it’s all self-imposed.  Keep on pushing play P90xers!

I’ve had these on my camera for some time now but haven’t had the initiative to upload them (that and I couldn’t find the cable to hook up the camera… but now it’s found!).  Ummm… hmmm… these were taken around day 34-35 according to the date stamp on the files.  I dunno… there doesn’t seem to be much change from the earlier pictures I don’t think.  Sigh!  Oh well, I feel stronger… and it’s not like I’m going to stop after one round! Onward I go!

PS I know my photography skills suck.  The lighting in the washroom and bedroom are always a little off I think… I just use Microsoft’s camera wizard to auto adjust for my lack of camera savy.  In about 2 weeks, barring any unforeseen circumstances I should have some end of phase 2 pics up (I believe November 28th will be the official end of rest week 2 and so I move onto phase 3 then).

Man… felt the burn on this one.  Those plank to chataranga runs are killer.  I think of all the P90x routines, this one is the best “whole body” workout.  Everything seems to get worked and there aren’t too many breaks between the sets.  It’s funny, but sometimes I find myself sweating loads more when doing isometric exercises rather than “moving” ones.  Tomorrow, my wife and I go back to the clinic for a check up on the baby and her safety.  I pray everything is ok.  In addition to working out, I cleaned the entire house and went on the roof to clean the sunroof glass.  That must account for a few calories burned as it took a few hours and tired me out.  At least, I hope so.  Every bit counts.

Eating today was a bit better: Breakfast was 2 pieces of French toast with tbsp of syrup, lunch was 2 pandesal with margerine and 4 slices of cheddar cheese, dinner was roast beef, steamed mixed vegetables, roasted potatoes and gravy.  Also had a chocolate bar (280 cal.), 2 cups of juice, 1 can of diet Dr. Pepper.