The Fitness Ninja

Woohoo! This is one of the best times of any 3 month program – the final recovery week.  I can see the end in sight and it feels good.  By all accounts I should be finished Friday evening if everything goes according to plan (no rest day that day as I need to catch up on a Modified Angie).

So far everything seems good.  After work yesterday afternoon I tackled Cardio Recovery and today I did Cardio Synergistics.  I really don’t know why I didn’t arrange to do that routine more during this round of workouts as it is, hands-down, my favorite P90x routine.  It’s so well rounded and yet so basic.  Very little equipment use but it works basically everything including cardio AND provides a great sweat-on (those plank to chataranga runs are still killer… but I can do them now without stopping once during the sequence).

Where I failed today was the nutrition side of things as my wife and I decided to take in a film: The A-Team.  It was my intention to bring my own snacks to the movie as then I could control the calories but we were in a rush and all I put in my pocket was a roll of flavored Mentos (not bad at 140 calories per 14 piece roll).  However, upon arriving at the theater we were told that we could either get a free ticket or a free snack combo because we had acquired enough points on our special SCENE membership card.  The most economical choice is to always choose the combo as these cost 16 bucks (YIKES!) while the ticket is only 9.50.  That is the logical choice, not the healthy one.  Still, being suckers for a bargain we took it and got a medium popcorn and a large diet Coke to split between me and the wife.

To top it all off, we went over to my mom’s for dinner and were spoiled by her terrific home cooking.  All told I think my calorie intake for the day was 2500 or so … a whopping 700 points over my allotted 1850.  NUTS!!  Maybe I can do two runs home this week to make up for it? Hopefully, the weather is good enough for such an endeavor.

As for the movie itself, IT WAS ROCKING.  I had low expectations and was surprised when the movie turned out to be a terrific summer blockbuster with a half-decent storyline to boot (it was predictable but not altogether brainless).  It was, as my wife put it, the quintessential “guy flick” with a ton of explosions, car chases and even a bit of “bromance”.  She enjoyed it because according to her Bradley Cooper is a “dream”.

Yeah, I gotta admit … that guy got into wicked shape for the part.  In one scene he takes off his shirt and he is quite defined in the abs / upper body.

Still, my “ideal” male body type is Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.

Those shoulders are great.

Not that I’ll ever have either body… but that won’t stop me from working out and focusing on my own physique.

Alright… enough with the man-love.  Peace out and have a great evening!

Alright… the good news: I’ve been able to keep up with all my workouts thus far this second recovery week.  Cardio Recovery was a cake walk on Saturday, Core Syn was done late last night and almost caused me to throw up (more on that in a bit) and I just finished Max Recovery today.

Now the bad news: I gorged myself yesterday on tons of delicious food… AARGH!!  See, we had 3 families come over yesterday to have a Mother’s Day celebration at our place.  My wife made a butt load of ribs from Costco, my mother brought over lasagna and garlic bread, and the in-laws brought a table full of desserts (there were something like 2 cakes, 2 pies, 2 loads of cookies and 3 bags of chips / nachos / salsa).  The beginning of the day wasn’t bad as I prepared my own meager meals (toast with peanut butter, granola with yogurt).  But after lunch when everyone had gotten here, all my willpower basically left the building.  I had like 4 ribs and 2 squares of lasagna and sampled like 3 of the desserts.  I was so full by the end of the evening I thought I was going to burst.  Not good!  I should have paid better attention to my satiety levels.  Thing is when it’s a party that kind of rationale thinking for me sometimes goes out the window.

By the time everyone had left at 9 (it started at like 2 PM), I was pretty icky feeling.  BUT… I knew I would feel worse if I didn’t do Core Syn.  So I dragged my butt into the basement and cranked it out.  I felt pretty damn nauseous through it but the bucket of sweat that came from my pores was also, strangely, felt kind of cleansing.  I actually contemplated trying to force myself to hurl as that might have made my bloated self feel better.  But alas I did not!

Today was a little bit better but I faltered again after going to see Iron Man 2.  Shared a bag of popcorn (no topping) with the wife along with some Twizzlers (nibs actually).  I love comics so I’m biased towards a film like this.  It was pretty awesome as far as summer blockbusters go.  The story’s decent and the effects were pretty tight.  Stay until the very end of the credits if you go see it as there is an “Easter Egg” to be seen.

To be expected I think after all the rich food eaten this weekend, I was a little nauseous even after seeing the film.  Had a very simple dinner of toast with a little peanut butter and water.  Waited a bit then did Max Recovery upon getting home.  Maybe it was just me but again I found Shaun T. kinda unbearable during this routine for some reason.  There’s something about the constant repetition of his commands that can drive you nuts after a while.

In other news, I’m getting scared regarding the situation at work.  I know now that my hours will be cut but to what extent is still up in the air.  More than likely I’ll be reduced to 2 shifts.  There’s no way we can function on me earning that little but the job searching is a bit bleak at the moment.  During quiet moments of the day, when I look at my son and wife, it really brings home all the responsibility I have towards them.  Thankfully, the money I’ve been saving for my computer can be a small little nest egg.  If I save some more I can cover about an extra month’s worth of mortgage payments.  Not a lot in the long term but at least it’s something.  Trying not to think about it too much.

Oh one last thing: I have set a running goal for myself!  After reading a few websites, and armed with the knowledge of Danny Dreyer’s ChiRunning book (haven’t finished it yet), what I hope to do is work towards running a 5k in under 20 minutes.  That means shaving 5 whole minutes off of my current time! It will be tough, but if I work on it 1-2 times a week, I hope by November to be able to do it.  Every time I run I will try and incorporate a new lesson or adage from the book and over time my form and pace should improve (that’s the hope anyways!).

Alrighty! Peace out!

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!

Man, am I glad today was a recovery day.  My well laid plans last night did not really go according to plan.  I stayed with the baby from 9-3 in the morning doing the feedings.  However, when I finally brought him upstairs to lie in the crib beside our bed, he did not go back to sleep.  So my wife was not able to get a full night’s rest (which was the point of the whole ‘taking the baby off her hands’ thing).  He just kept peeing and peeing all over himself.  No matter how snug we make his diapers he has this uncanny ability to still get everything wet.  So, of course, he cried and cried every half hour or so and my wife graciously took him from his crib and rocked him to sleep each time until morning came.

Aargh.  Nothing to do about but realize he’s gonna outgrow this phase and that yes at some point he will stop leaking out of the damn diapers.  We even got him special plastic liners that cover the diapers today in the hopes that it will prevent the pee from going all over his onesies, blankets and jumpers.  Hahaha… the amount of laundry we do now is like a 300% increase over what we used to do when it was just us.

On the Insanity front, I did recovery around 12:30 in the afternoon.  Loved it despite being somewhat groggy while doing it.  Like Yoga X, this routine puts me in a pretty peacefull mindset.  But damn those poses and pulses are hard! Like my legs want to just explode.

I’ve started watching The Wire.  Loving every second of it so far (just doing the first season right now).  I never got into The Sopranos but I think this is more my bag for crime drama (I don’t mind the original Law and Order either).

Speaking of which… anyone know the name of this song accompanying this video?  I thought it was Cold as Ice by Jr. Writer at first (very similar) but it isn’t.  Love it though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYPl-ka9cx8

Imagine being that badass?

My wife woke up this morning and realized she had a bladder infection.  So off she went to the clinic to get it checked out.

I, consequently, dragged my groggy butt out of bed to look after Elias.  He needed changing and so I placed him on the change pad mechanically going through the process of replacing his diaper.  No sooner did I take his old poopy one out and slip a new one under him when he decided to let loose a new stream of poop which seemed to go all over the place.  I quickly covered him up and MADE SURE to wait until he was done.  I slip a third new diaper in place and WHAT DO YA KNOW? He starts pooping AGAIN!  I was fast enough to get the old diaper back under him to catch it.  I just looked up at the sky outside the window in his roomed and asked “Why do you mock me??”

The wife returned and got some new antibiotics.  I cleaned up the house a bit making sure to wash old bottles we had used the night before.  At about 10 AM, my body decided I had had enough and needed to crash for a nap.  My wife woke me up again at 11 but I still couldn’t get out of bed to start working out.  Finally, at 12 I was able to crawl to the basement begin.

And lo and behold! It was CARDIO RECOVERY day! WOOOHOOO!  No killing myself doing sprints for 40 min.! What a pleasant surprise!  I now know this is Shaun T.’s answer to Yoga X.  I kinda like it better than Yoga X as it is MUCH SHORTER yet almost just as intense in certain parts (some of those pulses / poses are killer).  I don’t feel like a single moment is wasted and still have a half-decent sweat on even after just 30 min.  There’s a very good chance that I will do an Insanity / P90x hybrid after my pure Insanity program is over.  If so, I will definitely keep cardio recovery in the mix, probably swapping it in for Yoga X and putting it into the recovery weeks as well.  I like it that much.

Before signing off, take a look at the side bar at a new blog I’ve included in the blog roll: More Milk, Less Moo is a interesting read of a guy on a fitness kick in Japan.  I remember having lived and worked there for several years so I can kinda relate to a number of the topics he writes about.  Just a good blog altogether.

Peace out!

… and did Cardio Recovery.  So… this is what it feels to workout this early in the morning.  Well, technically it wasn’t a workout as recovery is a slow stretch routine.  Still, some of those pulses hurt!

K… gotta get ready to go to the hospital.   Peace out and hopefully I’ll be writing again tomorrow!

Man, I love turning on these dvds ready to commit an hour then realizing its only like 30-40 min. long.  I know that in the second month the routines start getting closer to an hour (kinda freaks me out really knowing how INTENSE that hour will be) but for now I enjoy the shortness of it all.  If it were up to me, all workouts would be capped at 45 min. (and that would include the warm up).  When I finish this program and get back to either making my own workouts or mashing together a new one from Beachbody routines, I plan on staying within the 45-1H limit.  I love exercising, but I love resting even more I think hehehehe.  Beside, I’m sure with enough weight and intensity programmed into a routine, that 45 min. can be just as fruitful as any hour long program.

Interesting note: I’m glad Yoga X prepped me for this cardio recovery set.  None of the stretches were particularly hard.  But typical of me, when Shaun T. went into the warrior three stances I started stumbling about.  C’est la vie.

Peace!