The Fitness Ninja

Today started out fine.  Knocked off Pure Cardio this afternoon along with ARX, so all I have left to do this week is Cardio Abs tomorrow.  My eating was also going pretty well as I had about 800 calories left for dinner.  I was holding as much in reserve for tonight as my nephew and his mom were coming over for a small birthday gathering… just burgers and some dessert and a few presents (interestingly, he’s also getting into weight training so my wife and I supplied him with a pair of 20 lbs. dumbbells, and his other aunt got him a pull up bar [I got him push up stands for this past Christmas]).

Well, my nutritional plans all went to shit once I got to work.  There was a fairly large basket of Hershey Miniature Chocolate Bars there (a mix of regular Hershey, Dark Chocolate, Mr. Goodbars, and Krackel) – seriously who leaves this stuff lying around?  Fine I thought.  I can hold off.  I had my low calorie granola bar (90 cal.) and thought I was good.  But then I was asked to work with a family that had lice (I only learned this part way through my shift) and as soon as I learned of it, I kinda freaked out! I started getting all itchy and scratching even though I was pretty sure I didn’t contract anything.

Exactly what you think it is.

So what did I do in response? That’s right… I ate a tonne of chocolate.  Like 15 pieces… this just brings home the fact that I can be one hella emotional / stress eater when the occasion arises.  It’s like I lose all sense of scale and just go nuts because … well, it feels good.

AARGH.  CHOCOLATE DOES NOT CURE LICE!!

I was so freaked out that right after work I went to a pharmacy to get some special medicated shampoo to use ‘just in case’.  If it were just me and the wife I don’t think I would have reacted this way to a lice scare but now that we have Eli and he already has a ton of problems with his Eczema and dry skin, I just didn’t want to chance bringing another hardship into his young life.  Upon getting home, I stripped in the front foyer (wife took all our clothes into the dryer and set it on the highest heat setting and just roasted it for 40 minutes) ran upstairs and started scrubbing with the medicated shampoo.  I have to keep up with it for several days just to make sure (and BOY does it sting if it gets into your eyes).

Calculating everything on SparkPeople today, I think I ended up with a calorie count of 2400… when my max allotted value should only be 1850.  Ugh.

Gotta hold on to the fact that tomorrow is a new day and I can start fresh.

Alright, peace out!

Oooh boy.  Still going strong.  I can see the end to this hybrid program so I don’t want to stop now… and boy on some days do I want to stop, feeling stretched so thin between the baby, work and just keeping things maintained around the home.  I can see now why so many people let exercise slide by once they have a family.  It just feels like too much to stay on top of.

But enough of my belly-aching.

In any case, I was able to stay on track all throughout last week.  I finished strong with the Angie on Wednesday and Plyometric Cardio Circuit along with ARX on Thursday.  I actually split my time during the Angie and multi-tasked between working out and cleaning all three bathrooms in the house.  I’m a champ! Hahaha!  (Don’t worry, though, I made sure to disinfect the handles of all the equipment I used too).  And yesterday, I finally had a true rest day doing nothing.  It was glorious as it feels like forever since I’ve had one that wasn’t forced on me due to sickness or something else.  Felt good.  All I focused on was eating right (which I did… then dutifully recorded it on SparkPeople).

Today, I knocked Chest, Shoulders and Triceps out of the way early in the morning along with Cardio Abs.  Feels good to do it in the morning so I don’t have to worry or think about it for the rest of the day.  Wish I had the gumption and discipline to ALWAYS do it in the morning.

In Eli news… we finally got the little guy to a pediatrician.  And boy, are we glad we did.  Apparently, the eczema medications given to him by our family doctor were the wrong ones as they weren’t meant for babies.  My wife was furious when she learned this.  Needless to say we are looking for a new family doctor.  The pediatrician also prescribed a new bathing / cream regimen for the baby along with scheduling an ultrasound in order to check up on a soft spot on top of Eli’s head.  On top of this, the city hospital called and arranged his final hearing test to determine the degree of his deafness in one ear and, hopefully, what can be done about it.  What sucks is that the appointment is in Toronto during the upcoming G20 summit.  UGH!! All those agitated protesters and police… there’s no way I’m letting my wife and son go down there alone so I’ve requested the day off from work to accompany them.  Hopefully, it’s a smooth trip.

What freaks me out is this thing that the Toronto Police have acquired:

Friggin’ sound cannon.  Capable of causing hearing loss in order to deter violent protestors.

…

I got to keep a positive outlook.  Things could be so much worse (they could be better too… but I take solace in the fact that we’re doing everything we can to help him).

Alright, peace out.

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.

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.

So yesterday was a stretch / low-impact muscle work day and it came in the form of Max Recovery.  Maybe it’s because of the space I am currently in at the moment (with regards to life and crap at work), but I am really starting to dislike Max Recovery.  Of all the low-impact workouts, this is the one I find the hardest.  Yes, it’s even tougher I think than my modified Yoga X simply because … well, it still feels like a foreign beast to me (whereas I’ve done Yoga X to death so I’ve ‘adapted’ to it in many ways).  There’s something about all those crazy pulses and that one sequence at the end where you push up with one arm then the other in a pyramid sequence from 4-8-16 on one side then back down again on the other that drives me ABSOLUTELY BONKERS.  It’s not that I can’t do it, it just irritates the crap out of me.  Maybe it’s also because Shaun T. is constantly repeating the phrase “hold it and press” ad nauseum throughout.  I get it Shaun… I’m supposed to stretch out the sore muscles in Child’s Pose. NOW STFU!!!

You know what else bugs me? It’s this strange, gnawing suspicion that I am doing routines in P90x and Insanity that neither Tony Horton nor Shaun T. can actually do themselves in full.  Meaning, if they were students in the background, they would have given up easily during their own sequences.  However, since they’re the instructors they can go at whatever pace they like, critique whomever they want, join back in at any point, then make it seem like “Oh yeah… I totally did that set… and with such huge weights / effortless speed … no problem!”  I would like to see them actually complete these grueling gauntlets they’ve produced without taking a break not unlike some of the awesome test subjects they have performing behind them.  That would be interesting.

Although… hearing about T. Horton’s One-on-One product… it seems that this is exactly what he does.  If so, all the more power to him for showing he can fully walk the walk.

As for today, I did the Modified Angie after I got home from work.  My 10 year old niece was over as my wife helped babysit her for part of the afternoon and, interestingly, she asked to do part of the Angie with me.  I helped her do some assisted pull ups (whereby I held her by the waist and boosted her up and down on the bar) and we did some side-by-side push up / squat sequences together.  It was nice.  She’s a great girl with a very kind, hard-working personality and I can see her doing really well intellectually and socially.  I hope when Eli gets older, he’ll want to work out with his old man or chill out and play video games (or Dungeons & Dragons).  I think I’m looking forward to that stage most in his life when we can interact and I can get to know his ‘developing’ personality.

After the workout, we dropped my niece off at her house as her dad got home from work then we took off for the mall for a bite to eat.  I had 2 Fresco Soft Tacos again from Taco Bell’s ‘healthy’ menu along with a diet Coke.  Upon getting home, I completed Ab Ripper X then treated myself to some frozen yogurt.

Here’s a tough break:  When we got home it was pouring rain.  My wife and I went to our living room and noticed a leak coming from one of our sun roofs.  Shit like this drives me nuts because 1) I’m not a terribly handy guy when it comes to home repairs and 2) I know hiring out a professional to fix it will probably cost an arm and a leg.  So I have to basically try and MacGuyver it when the rain stops and see if I can find the source of the leak and caulk it shut.  I’ll probably contact my uncle-in-law to see what other advice he has for me regarding leaky roofs (he’s a construction guy who works on houses and does home renovations on the side).

I know we don’t have the money at the moment to get the entire roof re-shingled and treated, although it is coming up to that time in house’s life when such things will need to be considered.  I often think, if I were still single, I think my optimal choice would have been to live in a condo or a townhouse where there is a guy on hand to do maintenance and repairs.  It’s worth the extra cost per month I think if it gives you piece of mind and saves you from butchering your own home (plus saving your own time and labour).  Also, I’d probably live like a hermit monk with a bare minimum of furniture: A bed, a desk, a chair, computer, a couch and a small dinette set, some lamps, a cell phone [no land line or cable TV… don’t need em].  Kinda like George Clooney’s place from the movie Up in the Air.  But this is altogether a different fantasy (re: “Who would I be if I didn’t get married and have kids…”).

I’ve heard that more people were laid off from where I work.  It’s depressing and there’s nothing to be done about it.  As a result, I worry now more than ever about money.  I’ve started combing through the employment websites again.  Any perceived extra cost like this leaky roof sends me into a tizzy.  It must suck for my wife as she has to be the one to deal with me on a daily basis.

Damn I’m tired.  I’m going to bed.  Peace.

P.S. Anyone have any winning lottery ticket numbers they could spare?

Now that’s what I’m talking about… nice and easy.  Love Cardio Recovery.  It’s a cake walk now compared to Max Recovery.  Also got my ARX out of the way as I missed it yesterday.  It felt like everything clicked with this DVD today.  Probably helped that I wasn’t totally burned down before attempting it so I was able to “give it my all”. On top of all that, I went on an hour and a half walk with the baby in his stroller as the wife went out with my sister today looking at places where my sister hopes to move into.  It was nice to spend that quality time with Eli and thankfully he behaved really well (just wish his diaper rash would go away… feel so bad for him and his sore tush… gonna take him to the walk-in clinic if it doesn’t clear up by Monday).

In other news, I’ve been able to try out the Starcraft 2 Beta as my brother got into it! Wooohoo!!  Loved the first SC and hopefully I can get better in this one.  I sucked at the first one (but then again I don’t think I ever fully applied myself to learning the game).

Alright peace out!

As the title indicates, this new round of P90x was a shock to the system.  Not having done any serious weight training until a few days ago (with Shaun T.’s Upper Body dvd), Chest and Back today was kinda a rude awakening.  I’m using the 20 pound dip belt for all the bar work and 50 pound dumbells for the lawn mowers and heavy pants.  Needless to say my rep counts are quite a ways lower than they were before.  For some of the bar work, I just could not get past 5-6 reps as my arms had hit their limit.  Oh well, something to improve upon!

In any case, I took some pictures recently of my torso after this round of Insanity.  Again they are self taken so… yeah, my horrible photography skills shine through!  Of like the 8 photos I took, only 2 or 3 were even remotely in focus.  Here they are:

Apologies that they are basically the same pose… but I tried to take shots of my back and they were even worse.  If you hit the tag ‘Pictures’ on the side you can see previous photos I had taken of myself.  I dunno, I feel like I have a slightly more definition but it’s hard to notice because of the horrible camera work. My ultimate goal aside from losing more body fat % this round is to bulk up the musculature.  Gotta concentrate on that protein intake.

Peace!

Oh yeah… I just recently typed these up.  They are basically P90x Workout Tracking Sheets I made as a Word document.  I remember trying to find such sheets on the net when starting P90x but had no luck.  All I ever turned up were either Excel spreadsheets or the original logging sheets that came with the dvd package (which, incidentally, don’t give you enough space to put comments on should you want to write down more than your reps  and load).  So here… highlight, copy and paste into a Word program and you should be set to go.  Hope these help somebody!

—————————————————————————–

Chest & Back – Weeks 1, 2, 3, 9, 11

—————————————————————————–

Shoulders & Arms – Weeks 1, 2, 3, 9, 11

—————————————————————————–

Legs & Back – Weeks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 10, 12

—————————————————————————–

Chest, Shoulders & Triceps – Weeks 5, 6, 7, 10, 12

—————————————————————————–

Back & Biceps – Weeks 5, 6, 7, 10, 12