The Fitness Ninja

It’s 10:30 PM and I am finally finished the hybrid!! Woot! Time to take a shower and hit the sack!

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.

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!

Still staying strong… still doing fairly well on the whole new nutrition thing and of course keeping on top of the hybrid.

Except for last night as it I had a fight night party at my house for the Mosley / Mayweather super bout.  Had pizza and ribs and brownies and all sorts of crazy goodness.  Not gonna feel bad about it as that was my one splurge and I’m gonna keep going hard on the weight training and cardio.

Speaking of which, things this past week have been fairly smooth.  Because of the hiccup early last week, I had to re-adjust my schedule.  The Angie on Thursday saw me making a bit of progress.  Instead of doing my bar work in sets of 5 reps / 3 then 2 (totaling 10), I was able to do 7 then 3.  I’m hoping to be able to do 10 straight every time at some point without those 15-20 second breaks, and I know it will come but I just have to inch along in baby steps.  Friday saw me doing Core Cardio and Balance.  Nothing new to report there.  Thankfully, it’s a fairly light routine.

Yesterday, I almost did not do Chest, Triceps and Shoulders as I was pressed for time and pretty beat up after a day at work.  I vacuumed the house, puttered around cleaning up some clutter and spent some time with Eli so his mom could get a bit of respite.  In the end though, with only an hour before people were supposed to arrive for the party, I pulled it out and did it.  Interestingly, I did not follow along with Tony at all.  I did at the start of the dvd but whenever he decided to take a 30 seconds or so to yack about something absurd, I just moved onto a move I was familiar with, did the 8-10 reps and kept on going.  At times, what I was doing would intersect with the video but most of the time it was just on as background noise.  The end result was that I was able to complete the workout (sans the warm up and cool down) in under 40 min.  Not bad at all!  I did not, however, do Cardio Abs as I was already pressed for time.  I’ll tack that on to Max Cardio Conditioning today.  Thankfully, that’s a short Max workout relative to all the others and it shouldn’t be too hard (I say that now but I know I’ll be dying at the end of the workout hehehehe…).

Side note:  Thank God for Colleen.  I would not know how I could get by without her in raising Eli as I honestly think she does the bulk of his caregiving what with me needing to go to work.  Gotta give props to all those single parents out there who have done it on their own as I can only begin to imagine how completely draining (emotionally / physically) it must be.  Sometimes, in the haze of sleep deprivation, I wonder how WE are even doing it.  The answer is… because we must; it’s because we love the little guy more than our own lives.  That’s why we do it.

As for the party last night, it was pretty awesome.  Good friends came over, lotsa good food and laughter.  The fight itself was kinda “meh”.  Mayweather was the favourite going in and in true “Money” fashion he was as slick as ever.  I can’t stand the guy’s persona and all the shit he talks, but at least no one can ever blame him for not being able to back it all up.  He dominated Mosely after the 2^nd round.  Mosely looked jittery during the entire fight, like he was terrified to let his hands go.  If he just fought and roped Mayweather into a brawl rather than a boxing match (which he was able to do on a few occasions in some rounds), I think he would have fared better.  But Mayweather’s speed,  defense and evasiveness is legendary and it dominated Sugar Shane.  Too bad.  I like Shane but at 38 I think it’s time for him to toss in his gloves.

Now, they just need to come to some compromise with Manny and the dream match will be set.  As much as I love Pac, Mayweather will undoubtedly be the toughest test he’ll face.  When, and if, he overcomes Money he should just retire and enjoy his legacy (not to mention his millions up millions of dollars).

Prior to the fight, my brother brought over the previous episodes of HBO’s 24 / 7.  In true form, awesome, awesome music in there.  I leave you with this track from Eminem’s coming album. Gotta get this on the iPod for my running.

Peace!

Hmmm… last night the weather was terrific.  About 15 celsius I think with a very light wind.  As such, I decided to run the 8 km home from work.  Felt great, moved at a brisk pace throughout, got lucky and caught the red lights when I felt I needed a break.  Upon getting home, legs were tired but not overly sore.  More importantly, NO BLISTERS! THANK GOD!  I made sure to lay down some bandages on the foot that gave me trouble last week before hand though for some extra protection.

I honestly think I should read up on proper running form.  Not that I think mine is terrible, mind you, but it could probably use improvement.  It’s been over a year since I started running  (this post talks about how everything started with the treadmill) and I’ve learned a lot from people who do run just talking to me about what good form is about.  Paramount amongst the tips I received is to not heel strike so as to lessen the impact on my body and to lean forward a little when running.  Landing the mid / front portion of my foot is still something I have to consciously keep in mind when running, same with the leaning.  I do think that my decision to do all of Insanity and this new hybrid bare foot has done wonders to strengthen the muscles in my feet (which are so often cocooned in protective layers of  rubber and plastic).  Hmmm… come to think of it, I should probably pick this book up….

… as my one friend kept raving about how revolutionary it was with regards to running form.

The running was great but the sleeping through the night was yet another battle.  Eli woke up for a feeding at 3 and I never was able to get my body back to sleep.  Felt restless and just tossed and turned.  Work probably also has something to do with it as I feel as I am just not getting any breaks where I work.  We have tonnes of stuff to do and look after especially in light of the impending lay offs at the end of this week.  In order to compensate for all the budgetary cuts, it feels like more work is being loaded onto less people… I shouldn’t complain but man… it can drive one absolutely nuts.

Dear God, I hope I don’t lose my job.  Twice in the space of less than 3 years would really, really suck.  The event has everyone stressed out at my building and rightfully so.

Once I got home from work today, I had a snack of frozen yogurt and granola.  Sooo good! Then I surfed a bit and just had to take a nap.  It refreshed me but also left my head super groggy. Around 8PM I hauled my butt downstairs to get Core Cardio & Balance out of the way.  It was a decent workout but because I still felt like I was half awake, moving through some ephemeral soup, I feel like I didn’t give it my all.  Probably around 80%.  C’est la vie.  Tomorrow is modified Yoga X and I hope I can bring the proverbial ‘IT’ as Tony Horton would say.

Last but not least, Eli went for his second audiology test today.  Poor kid.  He’s not allowed to eat or sleep prior to the test as he needs to sleep DURING the test so you could imagine how cranky he gets leading up to it.  They have to stick a bunch of electrodes and weird gel on his head to read brainwaves or some such.  Well, he wasn’t having any of it and despite being super tired and hungry, he refused to go to sleep at the clinic.  My wife says he was just “over-tired” and thus was wired instead.  *SIGH* She’ll have to go back next week to try again.  This test is to assess exactly the level of hearing loss he has in his left ear.  I pray to God he has some partial hearing.  That would be immense!

I love that little boy so much.

That’s what it feels like when you get into a good running rythm.  Feels like you’re flying.  Or high.  Or both.  Tonight was perfect for running home as the weather was cool but not cold and there was no headwind so I just clipped along with minimal effort it seemed.   This morning I also did Core Cardio and Balance.  I love that this workout is only 37 minutes long and yet it still feels like it’s giving you a half decent sweat on.  I would rank it up there with Cardio X in terms of intensity; tiring but not balls out exhausting.   I just hope all this exercise doesn’t cause my legs to seize up halfway through the night like it does sometimes after a run (this happens despite a cool down period and dousing the legs in cold water to cut down on inflamation) or that I get so sore I have serious troubles tackling the squats and lunges in the modified Angie tomorrow.

Other than that, there’s nothing else much to really report today.  I was hoping to help a friend with her foray into Wordpress (she’s trying to make a switch from Blogger) but work got in the way.  Check it out here.  I don’t understand how she can photograph all her meals then blog it.  I tried it once and it was just WAAAY too much work.  But it seems to work for her in terms of keeping tabs on her nutrition (she is a nutrition nut!).

Pretty tiring day today as I opted to do the bulk of the evening feedings last night because the wife had done them the prior night and was pretty wiped.  I finally, got to sleep around 3 AM.  Poor baby has a wicked diaper rash which is starting to heal up (thank God for modern creams – what the heck did they use before Penetin?)

Around 12:30 this afternoon I got the motivation to do Core Cardio and Balance.  This routine always seems to land on the right days for me … just when I am totally wiped.

Y’know even though I’ve been planning a second recovery period next week, I’m thinking of changing plans and doing the first week of Slim in Six.  I know right?!?!?  Slim in Six? That’s a “girly” program.  Well, see, my wife is eager to lose some weight (especially in light of the pregnancy) and it might be fun for us to work out together.  I’m happy and proud of her for getting up the initiative to try and tackle Sin6.  I don’t foresee it being anywhere near as strenuous as Insanity (but, then again, what is?) so it might serve well as a recovery week workout.  However, if she feels self-conscious working out with me, then I’ll go back to my original plan.

God knows, I’d feel pretty self conscious working out with others.  It’s the whole reason I avoid the gym and kinda hated physical education class as a kid (definitely as a teenager).  I couldn’t stand the whole “jock” mentality that seemed to pervade high school athletics.  This is a key reason why I love the Beachbody programs so much.  It’s like having a personal trainer whenever you need one in the privacy of your own home at a fraction of the cost.

Check out the Slim in 6 Infomercial here…

GEEZ! Rereading all that I realize I sound like an adman for Beachbody… REMEMBER folks I’m not affiliated with the company in any way.  I just like their stuff.  Buy whatever the heck you want!!

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Breakfast:  Two pandesal, 6 slices of cheddar, watered juice.

Snack 1:  Yogurt and granola.

Lunch:  Two pieces whole wheat toast with PB & J, watered juice, granola bar.

Snack 2: Shreddies, raisins, almond mix.

Dinner: Caesar salad, 2 hotdogs and hotdog buns.

Snack 3: Cup of vanilla ice cream, granola, 6 arrowroot cookies.

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Today was rough.  It feels like I’ve been working a  lot of morning shifts lately and today I had an evening shift.  Well, since my wife has been kind enough to do a lot of the night feedings so I have some sleep pior to work, last night I asked to reverse roles as she had an early morning appointment today.  That one little change totally wrecked me.

What made matters really bad was the fact that the baby was extra fussy.  Seemed no matter what I did (ex. carry him, rock him, put gentle music on and sway to it, feed and burp him, change diapers, wipe him clean, entertain him with toys and playmat, etc.) he did not want to sleep and just cried his head off.  Extremely frustrating.  What’s worse is that I could feel myself losing my cool because I was so tired and at my wit’s end.

The rational side of me knows that I shouldn’t get frazzled as the baby is just being a baby and he is probably as frustrated as I am (a baby’s life it turns out revolves around getting gas and poop our of his system 24/7… It’s their “job”).  Still, though, I couldn’t help but get cross-eyed from the sheer madness of it all, gritting my teeth and raising my tone (in a futile attempt at communcating with a 6 week old infant) when asking “What is wrong, Eli?” or  “What can I do for you baby!?!?!?”  I really have to work on that.

I always pray that our kids take more after my wife in terms of temperment.  She’s so much more level headed than me.  Both my parents have wicked tempers and that was passed on to me.  They’ve mellowed out a lot over the years but it’s still something I know I hav  to keep under wraps.  (NOTE:  I hope this doesn’t make me sound like a raving lunatic when angry cause I’m not.  My line of work has me dealing with people that have defined anger management issues that they seek help for.  I am NOT one of these pople.  I guess I’m just saying I have a low frustration threshhold epecially when tired).

Thank God today was Core Cardio and Balance.  All things being relative in Insanity, this is one hella easy workout.  I needed that today.  Peace!

Breakfast: two pieces of whole wheat toast with peanut butter, watered juice.

Snack 1: Granola and yogurt, cup of shreddies.

Lunch: 10 piece McNuggets with 2 packets of sweet and sour sauce, watered juice.

Snack 2: Half cup vanilla ice cream with granola, 2 tbsp cinnamon hearts.

Dinner: 2 hotdogs in hotdog buns.

Snack 3: Half cup vanilla ice cream with granola.

Man, winter is finally here with a vengeance.  So far the season’s been fairly mild but tonight, coming home from work, it was absolutely freezing with white out conditions whipping up on the streets.  Thankfully, the snowfall hasn’t really accumulated much on the driveway so I can hold off shovelling until probably after work tomorrow.  I generally don’t mind as it’s a great workout on top of Insanity (I say that now but I’ll probably hate / dread it tomorrow).

As for my workout today, it was Core Cardio and Balance so it wasn’t too bad.  I really appreciate how well put together the schedule is for Insanity.  The breaks seem to come exactly when the body needs them.  Next week I believe I will see two break days (just like this week) with both Max Recovery and Core Cardio and Balance happening a day apart.  That’s a good thing as Max really, really takes it out of you.  I never recall feeling this worn out after a workout even during P90x (maybe I was and just can’t recall it now… I do know that muscle soreness rather than pure body fatigue was more of a factor during those 90 days).

Some bad news:  My big screen TV is acting up.  The power keeps cutting out on it.  Frustrating as I’ve finally got my computer and all my old-school games hooked up to it.  Thankfully, I got an extended 4-year home service plan for it which is still good till next June.  My wife set up a home visit for the repair people to come and look at it so hopefully it gets fixed soon.

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Breakfast: Two pieces wholewheat toast with peanut butter, watered juice.

Snack 1: Granola and yogurt.

Lunch: Rice with beef, carrots and potato stew, watered juice.

Snack 2: Cup of Shreddies with raisins and almonds.

Dinner: Lunchable kit.

Snack 3: 3/4 bag of light popcorn.

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Today was my last day of recovery week.  OH. SHIT. What the hell should I expect next week?  It’s onto the Max Workouts.  I predict…

Mr. T has it.  I’m expecting it to be difficult.  It’s like I’m on a roller coaster and now that I’m at the top of the hill, it’s gonna be one hell of a ride to the end of the month.  Just gotta steel myself and get through like I did with any other workout.  No shame in taking a breather so long as I know I’m not slackin’ and I still get my sweat on.

As for my meals today… pretty terrible actually.  I was hungry throughout the entire day and I kept munching on stuff left right and center. Damn.

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Breakfast: 2 pieces of wholewheat toast with peanut butter, watered down juice.

Snack 1: granola bar, cup of shreddies, handful of pretzel sticks.

Lunch: bowl of Campbell’s tomato soup made with 1% milk and two pieces of toast with pat of margerine, watered down juice.

Snack 2:  This is where it went downhill.  Cup of shreddies cereal with raisins and almonds, granola bar, 4 two-bite cupcakes, 3 servings of cinammon hearts (150 cal. total for the hearts)

Dinner:  macaroni and cheese with 2 hot dogs, watered down juice.

Snack 3:  yougurt cup with granola.

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