Yesterday, I completed the first 30 day phase of P90x. The last week was a 'recovery' week which consisted of yoga, stretching, and core work. I still incorporated running into my schedule last Tuesday, but unfortunately injured my foot and couldn't run the rest of the week.
The workouts are still tough....however, I am able to complete them (aside from Yoga). I've increased my reps on almost all exercises, but have been keeping it steady with the amount of weight used. My best improvements have been staggered push-ups and chin-ups. These are the parts of the workout I enjoy the most because I can actually hang with them without scaling the workout too much.
My numbers on the scale have dipped a bit, have lost 6lbs to bring me down to 164lbs. One of the most noticeable changes is my flexibility, I attribute this to the Yoga and Stretching routines. Looking at myself in the mirror, I have more muscle definition and am leaner. The upper body and abdominals have the most marked improvement. There is less fat, more muscle! I can see an outline of where my abs are - which is pretty sweet. It's no six pack yet - but in due time...
The diet has been incredibly easy to maintain. I have no problem eating predominately protein, especially with the variety of different fish, chicken, pork, and beef dishes.
A typical day's consumption looks as follows:
- Breakfast (7:30am)
- Whey protein shake
- AM Snack (10:00 - 11:00am)
- Pure protein bar
- Lunch (12:00-1:00pm)
- Chicken/Steak salad
- PM Snack (3:30 - 4:00pm)
- Almonds/turkey jerky/cottage cheese/string cheese
- Dinner (7:00 - 8:00pm)
- Chicken Breast/Salmon/Swordfish/Steak
- Asparagus/Green Beans/Zucchini/Squash
This totals roughly 1900-2400 calories depending on the meat selected. Occasionally, I'll throw in some brown wild rice or some good carbs to help with recovery. I really believe a lot of the success I've seen so far has come from diet. In my opinion, it's a terrible idea to do P90x or any rigorous exercise program without committing to a clean diet. It's better than nothing, but you're not going to get the best possible results without modifying your diet.
I broke my streak of not drinking last weekend. I met up with some friends on Saturday and had a beer that soon turned into several. I'm OK with it - I do need to keep my sanity and not be too much of a hermit. However, I do find that I get the most results when I go completely off the grid. When I was on my juice fast, I didn't see my friends for 2 1/2 months! I went almost a month this time...but I think I've found that happy medium between social life and my health goals.
One of my goals in 2013 was to run the Gate River Run in under 90 minutes. Before last night, the longest distance I had run was 7 miles. I was feeling it last night and went 9 miles in 1:32 minutes. I wasn't pushing it nearly as hard as I could have, given I was coming back from an injury. As I was nearing the end, I was thinking back how in February 2012 I was running intervals of 30 seconds. I couldn't run for longer than 30 seconds, and I just did over an hour and a half! It felt pretty damn good and I couldn't get the grin off my face afterwards. So, I've got about 3 weeks to shave a few minutes off that time. Ideally, I'd like to run it sub 1:25.
Keep pushing play!
