The Fitness Ninja

Just a few more days… then what? I dunno.  One thing about starting my Beachbody journey last October with P90x then following it up immediately with Insanity then a hybrid of the two… I feel like there’s nothing left for me from Beachbody.  I’ve read the reviews of Chalean Extreme and other Beachbody dvds… and the one consensus that seems to carry through is that P90x and Insanity are the most difficult videos the company has released.  Meaning, it really only goes downhill from there for them.

There’s always One-on-One with Tony Horton… but that series seems so broken up and piecemeal that I’ll have to concoct my own schedule from his different dvds (or at least the ones I can get my hands on from my friend).  What I loved about P90x and Insanity is that everything is pretty much already done for you.  All you have to do is hit play and watch what you eat (a lot easier to say than do, of course).

There must be a way to do Crossfit on  a limited budget and equipment.  If only I had a barbell with plates…

In other news, I haven’t slacked off yet this week on workouts.  Yesterday I destroyed Max Recovery and today I did the same thing to Cardio X.  Got a decent sweat on especially with Cardio X.  I’ve said it several times before but that workout is deceptively hard because it starts off so damn slow but by the end with the Plyo / Core Syn sequence… Tony really works you.

To top it all off, I ran my 8km home from work tonight so I got a double dose of cardio. Felt good except near the end where my feet were starting to hurt and I thought I might have been blistering up.  Not good.  Also, I hit a bunch of stop lights so it was kinda broken up.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing as it helped keep me fresh during the run… even near the end my breathing was very good and not fatigued.

I hit 5km at 26:50 and 7.5km at 39:51.

Got home and ate a wonderful grilled portabella mushroom sandwich and a PB granola bar for dessert.  All told, today’s calorie count (not counting what I burned from the run and Cardio X) was 1950.  So about a 100 over my allotted 1850… not bad but could’ve been better.  Gonna weigh myself at the end of this week just prior to Eli’s baptism just to see if I’ve been able to return to my fighting weight of 130-something.

Alright peace out!

PS Enjoy this awesome song.

I dunno why but for most of today I was pretty angry.  There was no one thing that sparked it, I just felt pissed off at the world.  Ever have days like that?  Like everywhere you go you think you see an injustice?  I dunno… I’m probably being a bit melodramatic.  I think it’s because I haven’t really found any prospects yet in my search for work outside of where I am currently at.  To add to this, I heard a report on the news that was pretty damn disheartening yesterday. Apparently for this past year, there is an estimated 12,000 new teachers throughout the province of Ontario.  However, the projected job openings only number about 5,000.  That’s 7,000 unemployed History / English / Philosophy / Sociology / Cultural Studies majors that are going to be as frustrated as me (that’s actually a joke if you can’t tell… I don’t really know if all 7,000 have those majors but there’s probably some truth to it.  Major in the humanities and you have pretty limited options for good paying professional work outside of teaching).

I am becoming wholly cynical about life.  That’s not good.

Near the end of my shift today, the sun decided to peak out from behind the clouds that were beginning to dissipate.  I should have run home.  I would have probably made me feel better.  But my depressed mood got the better of me and I decided to ride the bus instead.  If the weather is clear tomorrow night, I will run home from work for sure.

I rested up a bit then tackled Shaun T.’s Core Cardio & Balance.  Again I think my mood affected my effort during the routine as doing the early part of the DVD it felt like I was encased in wet cement.  I was sluggish and slow (as opposed to being ‘explosive’ when doing the moves – especially the Heismans).  By the end of the workout though, I was dripping quite profusely so it was all good.  It was the same way with yesterday’s Cardio X.  Had a slow start but had a good finish.

Looking at Cardio X again, I find I have a greater appreciation for it.  Yeah, it could be considered Plyometric X ‘Lite’ but it’s a great workout on its own.  I like that incorporates so many different moves from the non-weight training P90x dvds (Plyo, Yoga, Kenpo and Core) and that it is deceptively hard.  It has a slow easy start but by the end of it, you have a very good burn.

Knowing that I enter the final phase next week of this hybrid, I’ve been toying around with ideas for what to do with the next set of routines after this 3 month hybrid program is done.  I’m considering either:

a) Doing P90x Slim version and supplementing it with a regimented running routine.  I’d do this to work towards my sub 20 minute 5km goal and to shed this extra bit of paunch I seem to have built up.

b) Chalean Extreme.  I have a female friend who has this and is willing to lend it to me as she is finished with it.  This would be an interesting choice as it’s another Beachbody product that emphasizes weight training but I think primarily for women.  I could be wrong about this as I see male test subjects in the commercial.  This would be a good way to close out my year of Beachbody products as it would take me to the end of September and I started the original P90x journey at the beginning of October last year.

I’ve kinda ruled out doing a kettle bell routine as I can’t afford them right now so no regimens that will require any new equipment.

Hmmmm… decisions, decisions.

Alright enough of my rambling.  Have a good night folks!

As the title says, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth.  I’ve just had a super busy weekend.  I’ve still kept up on all the Recovery week routines (forcing myself to do them late in the evening around 9 PM if needed).

Sunday was pretty awesome as my wife, Eli and I decided to go do some window shopping in the city close to where my brother lives (he’s at the intersection of Yonge and Eglinton … very nice shopping area).  The weather was beautiful and we met up for dinner at South St. Burgers.  It’s a deluxe burger joint.  I’ve been having a lot of burgers I find lately… probably due to the fact that summer is almost upon us and grilling season is nigh.  I made sure not to have any fries nor cheese or bacon on the burger (all the joints offer these two topping to up the price).  I did have like 3 or 4 small onion rings though.

Catching up with my brother was nice.  As I said in my previous post, all our friends seem to be moving into the baby making phase of their lives.  My brother has just gotten married this past January and now he’s working towards getting his wife landed status here in Canada as she is currently living in Japan.  Hope she gets here soon as it’s hard not living with your spouse.  My parents did that for years as my dad works in the states and long distance relationships are TOUGH.  However, if the love is strong anything can be seen through.  Sounds cheesy but it’s true.  Basically, I think the key thing we agreed on during dinner is that the ultimate dream in life is not so much to get rich (although a bit of extra money is always nice).  The ultimate dream would be to thoroughly love your job so you can get up every morning and look forward to what you do in life. That’s a very hard thing to achieve.  Most people accept a path and stick to it because it offers security, plodding along and putting up with work because it’s a neccesity.  Although, I think it’s possible to learn to love your work if you can get your head around it.  I felt that way about teaching (before I got laid off from the board) and I’ve come to feel that way about my current work.  Gotta learn to see the upside to it as it’s what I’ve got to work with right now.  Also, in a related vein, contrary to popular belief money is not the most important commodity in life (it often appears that way because so much is tied to it), but rather health and time are.  If your health goes down, no amount of money in the world can make you happy and time is a finite resource.  You can never work enough to gain more of it in your life so you gotta make the most of what you got.  All in all, it was a pretty thought-provoking conversation.

Anyway upon getting home, I did Core Syn on Sunday night. Man, I forgot how awesome Core Syn was.  Of all the P90x dvds, that one seems the most comprehensive.  You basically work every part of your body (despite the fact that the titles suggests you focus on ‘core’) on top of including some cardio to boot.  I didn’t heavy up the weights for Core Syn, opting instead to use just 2 five pound dumbells whenever weights were required.  It was strenuous but not balls out so.  Good thing as it’s RECOVERY WEEK.

Yesterday, I tackled Max Recovery. That one is tough.  47 minutes of ‘deep’ muscle work.  Those slowed down push ups plus the staggered push ups near the end where you pyramind up from 4 to 16 on on side then back again on the other are KILLER.  My shoulders are just screaming after that routine.  Hehehe… Max “recovery” my butt.

Today is Cardio X, which I will promptly do after writing this post then, as the weather seems awesome today, I plan on my 8 km run home tonight from work.  Hopefully, I don’t get the same blister problem I got last time.

Alright, peace out!

Edit: I just found this short film narrated by the late Carl Sagan.

“Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.”

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.).

… And it was tougher than I was expecting.  This is probably because the first two sets of exercises in the routine are culled from Yoga and Kenpo X and so I was thinking it was going to be a cakewalk.  Well, the first half is fairly easy, but once you get to the plyometrics Tony really steps it up and gets you sweating.  Thankfully, the routine is only 44 minutes or so and as such goes by fast.  The length makes sense as this is the routine that gets the most air time when you choose to do the doubles P90x program.  I couldn’t imagine (or want to endure) a second P90x program longer than an hour if it were what was required for doubles.

Today was pretty low key.  I had a pretty restless sleep last night but I decided to stick it out and not take a nap as I think it’s really those midday breaks that are throwing my sleeping patterns for a loop.  Stayed home for most of the day then went out for lunch, hit Chapters then shopping for curtain rod for the nursery.  WOOHOO EXCITING! Tomorrow will bring the first day of the second rest week.  I look at it as one more milestone to get through on the road to completing this first round.

Food for today: 3 pandesal with margerine, 3 granola bars (330 cal.), 2 cups of juice, lunch was grilled chicken on a bowl of rice with some Japanese sweet soy sauce mix and some onions (oyako don), cup of miso soup, cup of house salad, dinner was a PB&J on two pieces of whole wheat toast, popcorn (260 cal.), tapioca pudding cup (120 cal.).

Old Jay Z is great.  I put this one on my workout playlist.  That sample from Annie is awesome.