Very short entry today. Just saying that instead of doing my Modified Angie, I opted instead to do the Cardio Power and Resistance that I was supposed to do yesterday. This means the only workout I actually missed was the Angie… and I can tack that on at the end of the program. I just didn’t want to work the chest and back muscles two days in a row (as C&B is what is on tap for tomorrow). I did, however, also do Cardio Abs. I figure working the abs two days in a row won’t be so bad.
Calories for today 1805… and that’s with me going out for Japanese tonight. Man, I am really learning to love this SparkPeople calorie tracker site.
In other news, check this video out. I’m part of the P90x fan page on Facebook and this was posted there. Very inspiring. I hope when the time comes that Eli will want to work out with me. It’s a great way to bond I think.
K, decided to tackle the Max Plyo workout I missed earlier this week rather than the scheduled Cardio Power and Resistance. All I can say is…
Thank God that’s over. I don’t foresee myself doing Max Plyo again any time soon. I HATE THAT WORKOUT. I was literally collapsed in a pool of my own sweat afterwards.
I was thinking of running home tonight but the forecast of thunderstorms for this region put a halt to that thought. It never came though. Just some light rain. Oh well, my body needs to still rest and recuperate plus I am still working my way through the ChiRunning text.
SparkPeople calorie count for today: 1844 … just 6 shy of the max I can have on any given day of 1850. Will do better tomorrow. This counter is neat in that it builds a database of common foods I eat so I have a much better clue as to how many calories are in the homemade snacks I make (like my Shreddies, raisins and almond mix) and how they figure in with the rest of my daily intake.
Whew! Finally, my cough and cold have broken. I’m mending well and I’m just phlegmy now as opposed to being totally stuffed up and hacking up a lung. WOOT! However, Southern Ontario is in the grip of some really hot days (approached 34 Celsius in some parts near where I live) and the humidity is just killing me. Still, I did finish Back & Biceps along with Cardio Abs today around 9:30 PM. Took much longer than usual as after about 4 exercises I had to take a half hour break because the baby was fussing and needed more attention than just sitting in his car seat with some toys while I work out in front of him (the wife was busting her butt on the treadmill). I took the baby into our cooler finished basement and he stopped fussing. Once the wife was done, she took him off my hands and I sweated my way through the rest of the routine.
Oh… one more thing. I started an account with SparkPeople. My wife started one a few days ago as she is really serious about losing the pregnancy weight. She even made a friendly bet with one of her closest high school chums (who also just recently gave birth to a baby) as to who can lose the most weight by a given date. They exercise and plan meals together and do weekly weigh ins so it’s all healthy. I’m really proud of her for taking the initiative to do all this.
But as I was saying… I started an account and am tracking my calories again. I have to buckle down and really get some of this fat shredded off. NO POINT IN BUSTING MY BUTT WITH EXERCISES THEN EATING AWAY THE GAINS!!
So for today… calories consumed: 1660 (my total allotment is 1800 according to my nutrition plan on SparkPeople)
One of the key reasons I hate missing or skipping workouts is that, miss enough of them, and I find myself completely lost in whatever schedule it is I’m trying to follow. So… just to review day 64 and 65 (Saturday and Sunday) were a write-off as I was just too beat up by my cough / cold to do anything. To add insult to injury, the healthy meal of portabella mushroom sandwich and salad I thought was doing me good at the Cheesecake Factory was, in fact, slowly killing me with its delicious goodness as it clocked in at over 1,000 calories for basically one sandwich. How can a vegetarian sandwich be so heavy?
It’s probably due to that tasty house balsamic vinegar type sauce they slather it with.
At least when we got home yesterday after the six hour drive back from Rochester, I followed through on my goal of finishing Chest, Triceps & Shoulders along with ARX. I know it should have been Cardio Abs but as I didn’t have the dvds on hand in the basement on the time, I decided to sub ARX in its place. I’ll do the two Cardio Abs session tomorrow and Friday. Everything about the workout was sluggish as hell (as expected when you consider the factors) and I was a couple reps short on a bunch of the sets.
Damn it. I know what my goals are, where I want to be and how I want to feel come summer but instead I am so lethargic despite working out. I have some real reservations about where I’ll be at the end of this phase as I still feel ‘paunchy’ if you know what I mean.
As for today’s workout, I did Core Cardio & Balance. I’m still feeling a bit under the weather and still have a few problems breathing so I decided not to opt for what was originally on tap: the killer Max Plyo. Don’t think there’s any way I would have survived that. I’ll tack that on at a later day to some other workout. Or maybe I’ll just do it after the third recovery week. Who knows? It just has to get done. Speaking of which, I tacked on the last 15 minutes of Yoga Belly 7 that I didn’t get around to doing last week.
K… enough of my excuses. I’ll be sure to ‘bring it’ tomorrow for Back & Biceps.
Ah nuts… due to not feeling well I took TWO rest days back to back in order to shake this cough / cold. It seemed to have worked as I am now on the tail end of it and I can breathe a bit easier. Bad news is I am now officially 2 days behind the hybrid program. Hopefully I can double up on one of the days to get back on track AND I hope I am not too tired tonight when I get home after this 5 hour drive so I can do Chest, Triceps and Shoulders.
Overall, this vacation weekend was pretty decent. Would have been much better had I not been sick but what can ya do? It happens. I didn’t do too much shopping as we’re trying to save money. The wife got a nice dress and some earrings for the Baptism coming up in June so that made her happy. She has pretty frugal tastes so that’s good (only came to $50 for the combo).
As for my eating… it wasn’t bad. Because I was sick my appetite was lower than usual (hooray!) but I did splurge yesterday and we went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch. I had their house salad and portablella mushroom sandwich. OMG… so good. I never thought I would love vegetarian fare but this sandwich beat the pants off any hamburger I’ve ever had. It was eye opening. I’m glad I’m trying more vegetarian fare. For dessert last night, I also caved and split a slice of cheesecake with the wife.
Alrighty… lunch time… hope you have a great day! Hope to be back later!
Alright… I’m all caught up on the workouts this week. Thursday saw me doing the Modified Angie along with ARX. I actually did ARX for the first time without the DVD as I remembered all the moves and reps. Know what I learned? I move a heck of a lot slower without Tony counting out my reps and forcing me to move onto the next set. I basically added 5 mintues to ARX as I kept taking several seconds in between each set to catch my breath. I’m speaking literally here as I am in the midst of a full blown head cold and cough. Stupid thing won’t disappear.
With this same condition, I finished off Pure Cardio this afternoon. Not a good idea to try and keep up with Shaun T. when you’re sick. I’ve done it before in the past but it was balls out hard today. I had to take several seconds throughout a few of the exercises to catch my breath and just get on track. Maybe I should take a few days just to actually rest and recuperate from this thing so I can go full throttle again? Aaargh. I hate knowing I’m gonna get thrown off my schedule especially now that I am in the home stretch of Phase 3. But then again… who’s it gonna affect if I am thrown off. It’s not like there’s some do or die deadline I need to meet.
Plus, I’m actually writing this from my dad’s place in Rochester NY. I don’t have any of my equipment here so that means no weight lifting for the next 2 days. I did, however, bring my Insanity DVDs in order to stay on top of some of the exercise routines I planned to get done this week.
What I really have to watch out for is my eating habits as I can go nutty when I’m with my parents (they have snacks EVERYWHERE in the house… like, I’m literally sitting on some RIGHT NOW!).
Things to think about…
K… I’m exhausted from the drive. Peace out and hope you’re doing well!
PS Note to self: I also need to tack on a Yoga Belly 7 to a routine this week as I cut that short from my Modified Yoga X this past week. Yummy, yummy, yummy.
Alright… so the sickness I was battling last week is really hitting me. I don’t have the head pains so much but the post nasal drip is driving me nuts. I’m coughing up a lung all day long and with large chunks of phlegm everywhere.
As Tony says in Yoga X: “Yummy, yummy, yummy.”
In spite of this, I was able to do Shoulders & Arms on Monday. I like the fact that I am so familiar with P90x now that I can do the routines without the DVD. I remember the form and the points Tony makes with regards to each move so I just use the tracking sheets to keep everything in order and record my reps. No huge improvement in my performance for this routine this week as this sickness is kinda draining me.
Tuesday was Yoga X day. Almost didn’t do it as I was extremely sluggish. Finally, right before I had to head to work I decided to plow through it. I got through the first 45 minutes (the Ashtanga section) but had to skip the 15 minute abdominal work at the end of my modified program as I ran out of time. Here’s where I made mistake. The weather Tuesday night was absolutely beautiful and perfect for running. However, my constitution was not as my head was stuffed up and aching and I felt kinda clammy. I don’t know then what possessed me to push through it and decide to run the 8km home. I did it and felt okay during the run but the times I posted were worse than my previous run. This does not bode well.
At the 5km mark I was: 26:20.
At the 7.5km mark I was 38:30.
Pretty ‘meh’ overall. I wonder if I can make it to 10km in 50 min.?
I’ve started reading more of Danny Dreyer’s ChiRunning book to see if I can make myself more efficient in terms of running of form. I hope so. I want running to be a lifelong pastime and acknowledge that injury is the key thing that will keep me from making it so. I don’t want it to be an activity that causes my body to degenerate over time because of how hard it is on the knees and back.
Today was a bad day as I did not do my Modified Angie… so I am treating it as my rest day. It sucks as I was pumped up to do it all week. However, the run last night took everything out of me and my legs were extra sore (no way I could have done the weighted squat / lunge series).
On top of that, tonight I went to an information session hosted at a small local private college for a program to become an educational assistant. I thought it would be a small affair. It wasn’t. The fee for the diploma is $10,000. I already have a teaching degree among other diplomas and so am actually qualified to work as an EA (baseline requirement is grade 12). I was just going to get this if it would make me more marketable. But at that fee, no way I would even attempt it. To top it all off, it’s a full year, 6 hours a day, 5 days a week deal. Not compatible with me working part time and taking care of Eli. Kinda had the sneaking suspicion it would be like this but I figured I might as well go to the session as it was free and open to the public.
Strange coincidence though. At the end of the session, a young twenty year old man tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I had taught at a local high school several years ago. I said I did. The man told me his name and lo and behold, I had taught him in grade 10! What a small world… I mean what are the chances of that happening? I asked him what he was doing and he said he was going to McMaster University for Biochemical something or other and then will probably go on to study medicine. I could totally see this guy doing it as he was one of the brightest kids in the entire school. He was in basically every advance placement program we had.
Walking away from the session, I knew I wasn’t going to be taking the course; it was too expensive and too much time to dedicate for too few gains. What stayed on my mind was that young man. He was a reminder of my old life as a teacher, as a well paid professional. Strange to see people I taught as 15 year olds suddenly going to university and becoming productive members of adult society. I know, I know… it happens to everyone. I just didn’t think it happened so fast.
If you could go back to being a teenager, knowing what you know now… would you re-shape your life to become a completely different person? It’s a question I often find myself asking. A very useless question really. But it’s human nature (or at least in my nature) to look back and wonder at what could have or might have been had I made different choices. But then, I guess ultimately, I’m asking if I would trade what I have currently for something altogether different. Putting Eli to bed every night, I’m not so sure I would.
I met my wife at a local restaurant. I faltered and we decided to go inside and share a dessert and I also had a coffee. We talked things over and she totally understood (and supported) my decision to not enter the program.
Instead, I’m going to put my computer savings towards helping her finish some qualifications that would increase her standing on her pay scale so she can earn a bit more. That would be the smartest choice to make as it will net us more resources in the long run.
I haven’t really added any new resources in a while but Fitbomb did a small blurb on this site, Fitness Spotlight, that had an awesome article by personal trainer Mike O’Donnell. Basically, it’s a summary of key bits of wisdom he’s picked up over the years as a trainer. Go check it out! Very enlightening. Here’s part 1 and part 2.
More importantly, though, the site led me to I what I think is the new homemade fitness project I am going to tackle:
A dip / inverted row station. Nice!
Come to think of it, a bunch of those tools looked pretty promising. Time to go visit Home Deopt…
Phase 3 is a go. I’ve got 5 weeks before the end of this hybrid program and I aim to make the most of it. One of the key goals when I first started this program 2 months ago was to be in better shape come the summer season. I feel at this point in the journey that I’ll have mixed results come mid-June. What’s really thrown me off has been my fluctuating nutrition. Easter at my dad’s place was really bad as well as getting through the layoffs near the end of April. I can be a big emotional eater sometimes and I got off of my eating plan big time and that’s why I gained a couple of pounds.
Recently, however, I’ve been able to get back on the wagon. Still falter here and there but not to the degree that I was doing before. I’ve been able to hold true to all the tenets of this list that I made a few weeks ago so that’s good. I just have to tighten up a bit more and I should for all intents and purposes at least be able to hit the 130s again by mid-June.
After coming home from work yesterday I cranked out Chest and Back. Felt really good to be getting back into it after a recovery week. I dunno… I always feel like a slug during the last week of the month because the pace of the workouts dies down considerably. Still, I’m thankful for them as I know they prevent me from totally burning out or over training. That happened to me once and it was horrible. I literally felt sick and defeated, unable to move or do much for several days because I was so tuckered out.
Ahem… to get back to my point of really giving it my all during C&B, I tried to complete 30 reps of all the push-up variations and doing 10 reps rather than 8 of the weighted moves. I was successful with the exception of the last set of dive bomber push-ups which I only did 20 of. Interestingly, half way through C&B I decided to do ARX then return to finishing the rest of the weight routine. It was a good arrangement as it allowed my arms to become a bit more ‘fresh’ for my remaining sets yet it kept my heart rate up.
Today I cleaned up the house from top to bottom then around 3:15 tackled Max Interval Circuit. Man, am I glad I’m done Insanity in its classic form. I could not imagine doing Max workouts back to back through a whole month again. Damn things are so ball-breaking. Got through the circuit sweating buckets and I’m glad I only have 3 more of those left for this phase.
In other news, I finally got around to renting Rocky Balboa (effectively Rocky 6).
It was decent. Not my favorite Rocky (that would be 3 with Mr. T as Clubber Lang) but it had its moments. Stallone got huge for this role, purportedly taking the juice for it. He looked good for his age. Quite a bit of definition but you could tell he was getting a touch saggy in parts. Also, his face is starting to get some of that trademark ‘pull-back’ look from being overly worked on. Why can’t Hollywood stars age gracefully? Why do they have to struggle so hard to look unnaturally young? If I made millions and millions of dollars, I think I would be able to let it go and just be happy with the works I made and the pile of cash I was sitting on. Incidentally, unlike Stallone I could never use roids. I know roids on their own don’t make you huge and that you still have to put a crap load of work in if you want to take advantage of their benefits (faster recovery during the workout program), but it still smacks of “taking the easy way out”. Just my personal opinion.
I wonder if Tony Horton is a 100% legit in this department. He looks like he’s had a bit of work done on his face but it would be interesting to know if he ever experimented with roids or HGH. Might be tempting now that he’s moving into his 50s and muscle constitution gets harder to maintain but any hint at this kind of controversy could affect the successful sales of P90x. I dunno… something in me doubts it and I believe that aside from nutritional supplements he’s probably “all natural” (which is amazing considering the awesome shape his body is in… beats the pants off of most twenty year olds).
I’m sick today. Not good as this will probably stall my P90x / Insanity hybrid program. Just congested and “mucous-y” with a small headache. I’m taking meds so hopefully it will blow over in a few days and, most importantly, I pray to God the baby doesn’t get sick. On top of his teething that would truly be hellish. So today, I am taking a true rest day. I called in sick to work and will just recuperate, lie down, sleep maybe read a bit and watch some tv, drink juice and eat fruit.
Yesterday I completed the last day of my recovery week with my modified Yoga X. Felt good and I was pretty relaxed afterwards. Nailed most of the balance poses and didn’t find it overly difficult like I do on some days. Despite that the wife and I got into a spat over some silly things. I honestly think we’re a little more on edge now what with this job dilemma and Eli teething and being pretty unrestful quite a bit. Neither one of us gets much rest and that makes for sensitivity issues. It’s probably just me though as Colleen is pretty understanding almost all of the time with my quirks. I have to be more supportive and caring because really I think she is taking the brunt of caring for Eli as I am at work for several hours of the day.
Also, it’s not good being angry all the time. I think I’ve always had an issue with my temper. Partly because a) I’m ultra competitive and b) it has actually helped me succeed in certain aspects of life. See, I am what you would call a categorical type A personality. When I set my mind to complete something, no matter how I am feeling, I have to get it done. I’m compulsive that way with tasks. It’s probably the reason I’ve been able to stay on top of all this exercise (I wish I could apply the same drive to nutrition). It’s the reason why I succeeded at school (that and my parents putting a really high premium on education). When I meet with a stumbling block I feel like I can’t solve it frustrates and angers me to no end. It’s even more frustrating when despite how much hard work and effort I put towards something, it feels like it can’t get resolved. Colleen is kind of the opposite in that she is a type B personality. When she can’t get something to work, she chills out and looks for something else or just forgets about it altogether if it’s not that important. I wish I could have that mindset as it would have saved me tons of aggravation over the years.
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And now, on to something totally unrelated (well, maybe a little related…):
In order to relax and get some down time from all this drama at work, I’ve picked up Super Street Fighter 4 for the Playstation 3. I love Street Fighter as a kid and my brother and I played it to death, for hours and hours upon end in our free time. We became pretty good at it (my brother’s always had a more natural talent for it than me). Seeing this new iteration, I’ve tried picking up the game again and relearning it. Know what I found out?
I suck. Horribly.
Yeah, yeah. I know. With all the other crazy things going on in my life, why am I getting hung up on a video game. I think it’s because this game represents so much of my youth. I grew up with it as a central focus in my relationship with my brother and our friends and relatives. Growing up Asian in the 80s and 90s you couldn’t NOT play Street Fighter. It was part of the cultural DNA. Small mini-tournaments would spring up during family gatherings and it would BE TERRIFIC. Kids would hand off the controller whenever they lost a match to the next challenger, people would cry ‘cheap!’ at perceived injustices, yelling matches would ensue, hearts and egos would be torn then mended. Epic stuff!
I still remember my friends and I would bike out to the nearest arcade (remember those?) on Friday nights just to play in some dingy, smoke filled room for hours, plunking quarters into machines where not even all the buttons worked but you did the best you could with what did work because we were all so enthralled by this virtual pit fight.
In a nutshell, Street Fighter was my youth. Other kids had baseball or hockey or basketball. Our circle of friends had Street Fighter.
So over the past week I’ve revisited this world. The boon of all this new technology is that despite the arcade being dead, the online world is thriving. It may not be a perfect replica (i.e. no cigarette smoke, broken controllers or trash talking face to face) but it’s terrific in that you can face competitors all over the world. Really good competitors.
Actually, I don’t know if they’re “really good”. I just know I suck. My execution is horrible and I don’t know the spacing / timing game anymore. SF was a science and I’ve forgotten most of it. And… my reflexes stink.
Why am I telling you this? I dunno really. Remember how I said I was ultra-competitive? That aspect of me is 1,000,000% true especially with SF. It just stings to return to it now knowing I don’t “have it anymore”. I love games and gaming. It will always be a part of my life. But in many ways, I think because of age and other commitments (rightfully so as I am an adult now), I have to let this bit of my “youth” go. It sounds a bit melodramatic but I don’t how else to put it. It really leaves me hollow inside. But the game now aggravates me more than it makes me happy. And that’s not the purpose of a game is it? Especially one you are looking to in order to help you forget the stresses of real life.
I’m sure I would feel the same way about Starcraft 2 though not as intensely as that wasn’t my first true love.
Maybe I should just start paying Farmville?
F*ck that.
It felt good to write this down. It’s one thing to know you’re aging, quite another to get such a hard, concrete-evidence-in-your-face example that you’re not the person you used to be.