The Fitness Ninja

As the title implies, I’m almost done all the weight training routines involved with this hybrid.  Today I knocked out the second to last modified Angie.  This would have been my last weight training routine had I not gotten sick earlier this month and had to skip / rearrange a bunch of days.  As it stands I’ll tack on that Angie on the rest day after the last Recovery Week.  I also have to make up two ab routines (ARX and Cardio Abs) which I skipped this week.  BLAARGH…. I find my motivation to do the core work go down the drain after finishing the main workout routine as I am already soooo tired… I can usually push through but recently the wife has been tired after a long day of taking care of the baby so… I try to take him of her hands after work and / or as soon as my workout routine is over.

Which leads me to wonder what the heck I’m going to do for my next workout project.  I’ve speculated here and there about it but haven’t really come to any conclusions yet (Chalene Extreme?).  Seriously, though, whatever it is it HAS to consume less time than P90x.  An hour and 15 minutes is just way too much time to commit.  The ideal workout duration is 45 minutes I think.  That’s why I love the run home. 40 minutes tops and it’s done… and I know it’s one hell of a cardiovascular workout.

Crossfit looks like a really cool program but I have neither the equipment nor money to enroll in classes for it so that’s out the window.  I don’t really feel like doing more P90x or Insanity.  I dunno… I’ll probably return to it just to fill in the spaces before I can figure out what to do next.  What other routines does Beachbody offer?  Heck, why stay with Beachbody? I gotta do some research.  Maybe I’ll just start doing the Men’s Health routines packaged in each of their magazines or books.  Problem with that is these routines are generally very piecemeal or require specific gym only equipment (i.e. cable machines).

Something  to think about for sure.  Alrighty, peace out! Have a great evening and keep bustin’ your butt!

PS I think the other reason I am losing my motivation to blog is because of my new diligence in tracking my calories on SparkPeople.  It takes a while to key everything in so all the time I spend on the net that should be dedicated to this blog is now going into trying to recall not only what I ate but the numbers associated with them.  Ah… the things we do to stay fit and trim!

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)

Where to start?  Sunday was pretty uneventful as I got through Max Cardio Conditioning pretty unscathed.  I had to take a few breaks here and there for a couple of seconds but other than that it was fairly smooth sailing.  I added Cardio Abs on top of it as I missed doing that on Saturday night due to the Mayweather / Mosley fight.  I love how much easier Cardio Abs is over ARX.  It makes for a nice break in the core work.

Today I decided to do something different with Back & Biceps.  Since my biggest complaint regarding the workout is that it is so concentrated on two regions of the body with not enough recovery time, rather than doing it all in once, I decided to break it up into thirds (each having 2 pull-up sets).  In between these sessions, I would do some chores approximately 15 minutes long (i.e. ironing my shirts, putting away folded laundry, etc.).  It made the workout last much longer but also more bearable and I feel like I could crank out more consecutive reps and in better form because it was broken into smaller, more “intense” sessions.  I dunno if I’ll keep doing it this way, but it was nice to experiment for a day.  Really, this is the last time I will be doing B&B for the next three weeks as I move into my recovery routines next week and then onto Phase 3 soon after that.

Now onto something else entirely…

I’ve lost my position at work.  I say ‘position’ and not job as I am not opting to leave and take unemployment benefits.  Instead, I am being demoted as I will be moving into a position of lesser seniority with far fewer working hours.

It has me…angry… bitter… and a little depressed.  With the part time hours I previously had, I was making enough to make ends meet without too much worry.  Now, more than likely I’ll be reduced to working whatever extra shifts can be thrown my way and probably trying to find a second source of income at some point to help with our expenses.  My best guess is that rather than working 4-5 times a week, I’ll be doing 2 maybe 3 if I’m lucky.  Meanwhile, the hours I had will go to someone else.

The layoff notice came about at a meeting with the big boss, an HR person and a union rep.  Afterwards, I was given some advice by the union rep on what to do, followed by a small pep talk with a counselor they had on hand.  She was pretty useless as she didn’t really know what to say to me (or even what I did at the building [spent several minutes just trying to explain my position to her] or how to ‘console’ me as it were).

Side note:  Last year, a list at work of anyone earning more that a hundred grand was released.  This is something that’s done with any government run organization.  There were something like 26 people on that list, a bunch of them being the higher executives.  I wonder how many execs were let go in this recent round cost cutting layoffs?

The counsellor need not worry about me.  No job is worth killing yourself for.

BUT…

There are so many emotions rolling around in me, I don’t know how to write it all down.  I’ve been laid off fully before and remember being incredibly … angry… feeling a lot of self-loathing and plenty of cynicism about how things would turn out.  It’s kinda the same way this time too but not so much self-loathing.  Just a helluva lot of bitterness towards the company and life in general.

This might sound incredibly stupid but I busted my butt in school, attended 3 good universities and acquired several pieces of fancy looking paper.  I was raised in the belief that working hard and following through on your obligations would provide one with stability in life.  Maybe I was stupid to believe that? Or just unlucky in my career choices?  Probably a combination of both.

I think vainly, naively, stupidly I believed when I was a kid that I would make something of myself… would become a great success.  Don’t we all have those dreams?  I never thought that I would be in my mid-thirties scratching away at part time jobs, cobbling them together to make a living.  Doing a couple of hours here, a couple of hours there while my friends have made successes of themselves with good full-time work… buying houses and cars and all sorts of thing I could only dream of.

Re-reading that sounds bratty, childish and insecure.

Whatever.

I’m feeling kinda beat up now.  I know there’s a lot to be thankful for.

Eli. Colleen. My parents, brother, sister.  My health.  Hard to remember sometimes when you’re feeling like shit.

I’m tired.  Have a good night.  I’ll try writing again tomorrow.

“I’ll hold on to my anger for at least I know that’s real.  Everything else is a lie.”

Alright… I’m slowly putting things back in order.  AND, I’m in better spirits than I was on the weekend.  I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I may never get my old computer fixed and it’s time for a new one anyway (what with Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 on the way).  So my brother has helped me pick out some computer kits from Tiger Direct along with a new graphics card which I’ve been reading up on.  Should get it built within the coming month.  No rush as I am thoroughly distracted with Super Street Fighter 4 on the PS3 right now… so that along with Eli, work, looking up stuff for the computer, planning Eli’s Baptism and just maintaining the house has kept me pretty damn busy.

But fear not! I have not slacked on the workouts!  I had to rearrange the schedule around a bit this week due to taking my rest day on Sunday when I had my shit day.  So, yeah, I did Back & Biceps on Tuesday, Cardio Power yesterday and the Angie today.  I kinda liked the fact that I had two days in between Back & Biceps and Chest, Shoulders & Triceps…. my muscles were super sore and needed the extra recovery time.  Maybe next time I do a three month set up, I’ll place the recovery day in the middle of the week to facilitate more of this prolonged resting.  Mind you, today I’m still sore from Back & Biceps so I hope the modified Angie goes well.  Of all the P90x routines, B&B is the one I find the most strenuous.  Just too damn concentrated on one muscle and not enough recovery time.

The other thing I’ve been working on is revamping my nutritional plans so I can melt away these extra pounds I’ve accumulated a little more easily.  I’ve tried to keep the rules simple and easy to follow as I’ve read that small changes to the way you eat are often the ones you are most likely able to maintain.  So here they are:

1.  Stay away from the vending machine!  I’ve been able to resist the snack machine on the 2^nd floor of the building for quite some time but then I found my resolve waver over the last 2 months.  No more! I’ll try not to carry so much damn change on me all the time (not that that matters actually as this thing will take all sorts of bills).

2.  Do not eat from the group work table.  Seriously, with all the treats my co-workers keep putting on this thing, it’s become like a sugar / pastry buffet at times.  I’ll get my revenge though as I’m gonna drop some girl guide cookie bombs on it this weekend (my wife was obligated to buy them from our cute niece… but since she’s also on a fitness kick, no way we are gonna eat them – plus, they aren’t the chocolate covered mint variety! Haha.. j/k.).

3.  Do not eat past 9 PM.  This one was a rule I kept to for a long time but like so many other things that fell away with my complacency … it disappeared.  You might ask, “Why not 8?” It’s because I usually get home from the evening shift around 8:30-8:45 so I still need to eat dinner by then.  No way I’m gonna forego a meal (skipping meals is actually conducive to GAINING weight as it puts your body in starvation mode and lowers your metabolism).

4.  Limit myself to ONE granola bar per day.  I love granola… been having way too many of the bars though.  And that’s an easy way to pack on calories without noticing it as they are so small and easily eaten.

5.  Try to drink more water.   Not getting enough.

6.  Do not order desserts when eating out.  For some reason, I started doing this once I found out about the great mini dessert deal they had going at Kelsey’s Restaurant.  It’s like 3 samplers for $5.99 but the sampler is basically the size of a full on serving. UGH. NO MORE!

7.  Do not go up for second servings. 1 meal = 1 serving.  This one is hard to stick to as I can get so hungry after work.

8.  Do not gorge myself at my mother’s house.  And I used to wonder why I gained so much weight while living there.  It’s like rooming at a Costco / Convenience store hybrid.

Alright, that’s it for now! Hope your nutrition / fitness goals are going well!  And if not… then do something to get them back on track.

Life’s too short not being the person you want to be.

Peace!

Alright… so I’m safe from the lay-offs … for now.  I didn’t get one of the dreaded phone calls this morning so my job is safe for the time being.  The reason I say this is because there is a system of “bumping” in place in the organization I work for.  Basically, anyone with more seniority than me who has lost their job will have the option to move into any other position that they are qualified for if it is taken up by someone with less seniority.  There are more rules to it, but that’s the basic premise.  Strangely, they estimate that the bumping will probably take a couple of weeks to settle through.

I’ve got one small thing going for me in that the position I hold has always been kinda looked down upon.  Also, I am a part-timer so I don’t get the most hours (although amongst part-timers I probably have one of the higher hour totals).  I dunno… I can’t think and worry about it anymore.  I’m just going to keep going to work until they tell me to stop (which hopefully occurs when *I* want to stop).

In fitness related news, late this afternoon the wife, Eli and I all decided to take an hour long walk along the lake this afternoon.  The weather was wonderful but OMG, the gnats were out in full force.  I guess this must be breeding season for them as there were clouds of them wherever we walked.  To make matters worse, they got stuck all over my sweater… EWWW.

HUNDREDS ALL OVER MY SWEATER!

We then went to the mall.  I had 2 soft tacos from Taco Bell’s Fresco low calorie menu.  These are basically the only thing I ever get from the Bell nowadays.  I figure they’re a pretty good compromise when I have a craving for Mexican fast foods as they have less than 7 grams of fat and only 180 calories per taco.  I think the caloric reduction comes about from the fact they have no cheese or cream.  I don’t miss either one so all-in-all they’re not that bad.

Almost as gross as the gnats! Just kidding...sorta.

When we got home, I tackled Back & Biceps.  Darn thing took almost an hour and fifteen minutes as I had to keep taking breaks.  Using 30 pound dumbells and a 20 pound dip belt burnt down my arms pretty fast.  My form throughout was decent but I had to lower the weights to 20s when doing the static arm curls (as per usual) and then again when entering the hammer curl series at the end.  Right now, they’re totally dead which is to be expected.  Thankfully, I opted to tackle ARX earlier in the day so I didn’t have to do that on top of the workout.  I think I’m going to do the abdominal work pre-emptively earlier in the day from now on as then I can give it my all (being “fresh”) as opposed to being exhausted when attempting it.

Gonna enjoy a small treat of yogurt and granola! Peace!

Had another hard time sleeping last night.  Throat was sore and dry and I felt like I was getting a small fever and cold.  When I finally fell asleep it was probably around 2.  Got up early to go to another ultrasound and stress test with the wife.  It took over 2 hours as the hospital was packed with people.   I’m amazed I haven’t gotten sicker sooner due to all the time I’ve been spending in the general waiting room.  I’m just kinda bummed it had to happen now so close to the end of this fantastic first round.  In any case, after this was all over, wife and I had to do some quick groceries for the coming holiday celebrations.  Once we got home, we had a quick lunch then crashed.  I went through my usual sickness ritual of bundling up like crazy and trying to sweat the damn thing out during a nap.  Kinda nasty when you think about it, but it’s worked for me.  Fell asleep for 2 hours or so and woke up drenched in my own sweat (ick).

I then debated for a long time whether or not to go through with Back and Biceps or switch it out for yoga X so I can do it later on in the week when I have more energy.  I even looked up articles on google about it and found some common thread among most of them.  1) If you’re sick and go to the gym for a workout, don’t as you have fellow gym members to think of. 2) If you are congested and have a high fever, feeling achy and nauseous, don’t work out.  Finally, 3) do a so called “neck-check”.  If most of your ailments are above the neck (i.e. runny nose, slight headache) then it should be ok to work out so long as you keep an eye on your exertion level and make sure to be ready to dial back your intensity when needed.  Also, have a lot of water on hand as sickness increases your propensity to become dehydrated on top of the water drain exercise already brings about.  It was with this final thought in mind that I decided to buckle down and tackle Back & Biceps for the last time this round.  I moved all the weights down 5 lbs so the bulk of the routine was carried out with 20s (I did do both lawnmower sets with 50s though).  I also made sure not to go balls out with the pullups.  As soon as I got “squirrelly” I went straight to assist-mode or just cut it out altogether (hence, most of my bar work hovered around 10 or so).  Afterwards, I was again debating whether or not to go through with ARX.  I figured what the heck and started.  Worse comes to worst, I can just stop and try again another day.  I finished it and I am glad I did.  Whew.

This leads me to my mini review of Back & Biceps.  I personally think this is the mother of all P90x workouts because of its concentrated nature on only two muscles and high pace / low rest time between sets.  It doesn’t help that pull ups to failure are included in the routine, two versions of which I find absolutely killer (corn cob is probably the hardest move in all 12 dvds, followed by towel pull ups).  One other drawback to this dvd is that includes Katie.  I usually don’t rag on Tony and company very often, but of all the personalities across all the DVDs, I find her voice and laughter to be the most grating (thankfully, there are options on the disc to fix this).  The upside to this routine is that it probably provides the best “pump” of any of the workouts.  Your biceps are just bulging after this one.

Food for today: breakfast was oatmeal and cup of juice, lunch was a hamburger with cup of juice, dinner was two eggs boiled with lipton noodle soup and cup of juice.  Dessert was 1/3 cup of granola with 1/3 cup of vanilla  ice cream.  Didn’t have much of an appetite, I guess.

Aargh.  Wife and I went to the doctor’s again today and they told us she needed more checkups for the baby.  At this rate, we’re scheduled to go in 4-5 times a week it seems like.  I feel bad for the wife because I know it’s a lot of stress on her but we’re doing this to keep an eye on the baby and make sure it’s healthy so it’s all worth it.  Thankfully, my mother is around so she is able to help out too at times (especially when I’m at work and can’t go with the wife to these ultrasounds / stress tests).

In any case, after coming home from the clinic I put made my routine whey protein / chocolate milk mix, down half of it 30 minutes prior to back and biceps then tackled the workout.  It was kinda slow going today as I took the plunge and upped all the weights by 5 (so the bulk of the routines are done with 25s now, 45s for the lawnmowers [I really should bring that up to 50]).  I had to take mid-rep breaks on static arm curls (as usual), and between some of the sets I need to take 15 seconds or so to gather myself and stretch the arms a little.  I’ve said it numerous times before, but I find this routine the hardest simply because of the super fast transitions between 1 exercise and the next.  Especially when there are double bicep workouts back-to-back  (the back exercises don’t provide much of a relief either as it’s natural to activate some of the muscles in your arms during a pull up).  My arms always feel like they are going to fall off after this routine.

Hmm… my brother sent me this clip from the making of the film “Ninja Assassins”.  I don’t really have much of an interest in the movie or the lead star, pop-Korean singer Rain (as I understand it he has a huge following in Asia and I’ve seen him in a hilarious guest appearrance on the Colbert Report), but I do respect the amount of work he’s put into his body.  It’s amazing what personal trainers (and personal nutritionists too I’m sure) can do for a body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Yvkd7jBh4

Although to be honest, if there is one male star who I think has kick ass physique, for me it would have to be Daniel Craig as he looked in Casino Royale.  I’ve never been big into the huge muscular look a la Schwarzenneger or Stallone.  If I had to emulate a look, it would be sizeable and chiseled but not overly so.

Other thing I like about Craig is that, as Bond, there’s a certain wicked ruthlessness in how he looks and holds himself.  Bond isn’t a spy.  He’s basicallly a government hitman / assassin.  Craig as Bond seems like he wouldn’t think twice about killing anybody (except for perhaps M).  Clint Eastwood had that same ‘fierceness’ in his younger days when he played all those bad asses in his spaghetti westerns and Dirty Harry pics.

It is interesting to note though how our cultural notion of what’s attractive in a male figure seems to have changed over the years.  As a prime example, look at these side by side photos.  More of a premium on muscle and a clean cut look me thinks.  Hehe… but then again I’ve never been a big fan of the hairy look either.

Not really liking the look Sean's rockin here.

Food for today: breakfast was oatmeal and cup of juice, granola bar, lunch was Michelinas frozen macaroni and cheese (230 cal.), snack was 1/2 cup of granola and yogurt cup (240 cal.), dinner was rice and tinola (a chicken, giner and chayote dish), 4 cookies (250 cal.).  Yummy!

My mom's an awesome cook... and so is my wife.

Whew! I can’t believe I’m halfway through the program already.  That flew by fairly fast.  I’m still on track to finish by the end of December.  I pray nothing unexpected like an illness comes up to halt this round as I haven’t missed a day yet.  Thus, far I am finding the program incredibly rewarding as it has taught me new exercises, new skills and habits that I think will only benefit me for the rest of my life should I keep weight training.  Primarily, I like that I’ve learned how to follow a system other than Day 1 / Day 2 and instead focuses on body parts on given days.  As well, I like that I’ve started writing down and recording my reps / weights for all the exercises.  This really helps in knowing how I can improve slowly over time.  What I have failed miserably at in my opinion though, is probably the most important part of the P90x program – the diet.  I won’t go into too much detail here as I’ve already mentioned my shortcomings over other posts.  Let’s just say that I fall to temptation too easily and sabotage my gains by endulging in junk.  I have to remember the long term goals versus short term fulfillment.

Tonight’s workout (Back & Biceps) was killer as usual.  I have to re-assert my point that I think this is the hardest routine in P90x.  The lack of adequate breaks or change up in exercises is what is killer and continues to remain killer.  Ah well, at least I won’t have to see this beast again for another 2 weeks (at which time I hope to up the weights I use).

Food for today: 2 pieces of toast with PB&J, granola bar, for lunch 2 fajitas and a plate of plain nachos and salsa (we went to Lone Star for lunch), dessert was a swiss roll slice, dinner was leftover beef chili from yesterday, pudding cup (120 cal.).

Well, did my second set of back & biceps.  Just one more to go until rest week again.  That’s one of the other great things about this program.  If you have a routine you’re not too crazy about, take solace in the fact that you will only do it at most 3-4 times a month.  For me, right now, I guess I feel that way about back & biceps.  I just find this workout killer even though I’m using manageable weights (20 pounders for the majority of the sets).  The rest periods between the sets aren’t very long and I find that the exercises themselves (despite being varied) kinda “double dip” in that the arms are always a key part (even in pull ups where I know the key stress should be on back, my arms still get killed).  Oh well, just gotta suck it up and go on.  I hope by phase 3 my arms are strong enough to increase my weights to 25 lbs.

Food: Everything was good today until the evening.  It seems dinner is my downfall.

-breakfast oatmeal, cup of juice, 3 small cubes of cornbread throughout the day (about 1.5″ by 1.5″ by 1″), lunch was 6″ Subway roastbeef sandwich, bag of Baked Lays chips (130 cal.), diet Coke, dinner was Japanese food – grilled chicken on a bowl of rice and 5 pieces of tempura vegetables.  If I keep this up, I think that whole sub 10% fat goal will be out of reach.  AARGH.  It’s true what they say, nutrition is the hardest part…. and it’s impossible to outrun or out-exercise a bad diet.

OMG.  I’ve just been hit by the truck that is Back & Biceps.  I don’t recall feeling this sore since the first time I did Chest & Back on day 1.  What blows my mind is how concentrated this routine is… You have 1 back exercise followed by 3 bicep exercises.  When I was doing my regular full body routine, I did at most 3 exercises that targetted biceps.  This circuit feels like overkill but I’ll stick with it as I know the results should speak for themselves.  I started with 20 lb. weights and was hoping to stick with those throughout the entire hour.  For the most part, I was able to do this and my reps hovered in the 8-10 range.  But I also noted that during the second half hour, I started to break form pretty badly on some of the exercises or needed to keep taking rest breaks in between reps.  As well, my unassisted pull ups and chinups were much lower in the second half.  When it came to the final strip set curls, I went down to 15s then 10s and stuck it out with 10s and just did as many reps as I could (I’ll try to move up to 20s on that one next week).

Oh man those corn cob and towel pull ups are crazy hard.  I use the iron gym pull up bar and so I find I have to push out pretty far to move my head side to side for the corn cob exercise.  But even without that impediment these things would still be super difficult.  I was able to do like maybe 2 unassisted very sloppily then the rest were assisted.  Like any other new exercise, I can only hope I improve over time with these types of pull ups.

These guys in the upcoming video make it look so easy to do bar work and stylish too… but man … you gotta realize how much work and training must have gone into being able to do the tricks these guys do on a pull up bar.  After having done some of the P90x routines, I just have that much more respect for them.

Food for today: 2 pieces of toast with PB & J, 6 inch roast beef sub with diet Coke and baked Lays (130 calories), beef udon, cup of salad, cup of miso soup, 3 pieces of tempura vegetables, 3 small pieces of tereyaki beef strips.

Yoga should do me some good tomorrow as I know I will probably be stiff as a board.