Feeling the Changes

I am now in week 4 of P90x.  I can't see too much of a change in my body when I look in the mirror, but I can FEEL a change. I can feel my muscles getting stronger. It is a really cool feeling. Where there used to be flabby fat it is much more toned.  When I walk I can feel my leg muscles. I know it takes time to SEE the changes. I am really glad I can at least feel the changes. That motivates me to keep going.

I am not a sweat-er. I don't sweat very much. I don't know why that is either. I always want to sweat but I mostly just seem to get red in the face when I workout.  But today during our workout I sweat like crazy. I was dripping sweat!! And what did it take to do that? Core Synergistics! In week 4 of P90x you change up the workout routines a little. We did yoga yesterday and we did Core Synergistics today.  It is killer.  You just go go go. And its core work. And you use weights.  And my whole body was hurting.  And I was sweating.  Sweating like crazy. We used mats and when I laid down my body stuck to the mat. It was awesome.  It felt good to sweat. It felt good. My whole body is still sore from this morning's workout.  I want to curl up on the couch all day.  I will try not to but I want to.

On another note, I am doing well in my family's health challenge.  I have been in 1st place two weeks in a row! But I am only in first by 20 points so I need to BRING it this week!

P90x week 3 day 1

I am into week 3 of P90x.  I am tired. All the time.  This workout program is killer.  I can feel a difference in my body though and I know I am getting stronger.  I haven't been writing down everything like I should be. I need to start so I can see how much I am improving.

I decided to take my picture every two weeks.  I see little changes here and there but not much of a physical difference. Here I am in all my glory:

Aahhhh! I definitely don't look like a model. But there it is. It is good for me to visualize how I am doing.  I've just got to keep going and I know I will start to get definition in my muscles.  Only time will tell.

P90x-Week 2 Day 2

My body is sore. It hurts.  Especially today. I did the week 2 day 1 workout last night and I couldn't even get up to my alarm this morning.  When I did get out of bed my whole body ached.  But you know what? It hurts so good.  It took me a little while to get going today.  My husband left for school around 9am and I was still in my pajamas, sitting on the couch watching The Bachelor.  I think in my head I planned on being a vegetable today.  But then I watched The Biggest Loser and decided not to be lazy.  I got dressed. I even did my hair today.  I ate some healthy meals.  I played with my kids. I organized my desk which has been messy for a while.  I did several loads of laundry.  I accomplished a lot once I got my big lazy bum off the couch.

I want to back track a little bit.  Yesterday I weighed myself and I gained 2 pounds. I am now 157. What? I don't understand how that happened. I ate healthy and worked out hard and drank a lot of water.. If I was on the Biggest Loser I would have been sent home.  Hopefully this week I can lose some.  My overall goal isn't to lose weight, it is to get fit and healthy. But I also think I should lose weight in doing so. That just didn't  happen last week. I need to remember that muscle weights more than fat.  Here is an example:

This picture shows the same weight of muscle and fat

This picture is really motivating to me.  Even though muscle weighs more than fat it takes up less space.  So if I turn my fat to muscle I will be smaller. That is encouraging.

The scores came up for my healthy challenge. I am #2 out of seven people. I should be proud of that but I really want first so I need to do better this week.  I WILL do better this week.  I did the Plyometrics workout tonight and I worked out hard.  I am proud of how I did tonight. It is a hard workout but I kept going and I didn't give up.  Go me! haha.

Tomorrow will be hard but not brutal. It is arms and shoulders.  Bring it on.

First Week of P90x Complete and Health Challenge Update

My body is sore and I didn't want to get out of bed this morning, but I am proud to say I completed my first week of P90x! This program is brutal! I feel like everyday I was excited to workout and as soon as it started I was like "No! no! I can't! It hurts! When is it over?!" but I kept going and I am proud of myself. It helps to have my partner in crime supporting me by being my workout buddy.

I do have a confession. I didn't get my P90x workout in on Thursday, which was a 1.5 hour of yoga. I chose to go on a date with the hubby to see Les Miserables and couldn't find 1.5 hours in the day to do yoga uninterrupted by my kids. But I did workout that day. I found a 30 minute kickboxing video and it was pretty good. I did, however, do the yoga along with the Legs & Back workout I was scheduled to do on Friday.

Friday was a killer day for working out.  I did 30 minutes of the Legs & Back workout in the morning and the other 30 in the evening along with the yoga.  The yoga kicked my butt! I didn't realize that it would be so grueling. I love yoga.  I have taken many yoga classes. I substitute taught a few yoga classes in my community.  I do not love doing yoga after I have already worked out my legs.  But I am glad I did it.  I didn't want to say I didn't do a P90x workout on my first week.

I am feeling pretty good about myself this week.  I have been eating really well (with the exception of eating candy at the movie but I ate the serving size when I normally would gorge on many servings so I am proud).  I have made a few "clean eating" dished this week. That basically means I made dinner the way people did back in the day--from scratch. And the meals were delicious!

On Monday night I made Curry Pineapple Turkey Rice Bowl which was SO GOOD! Click on the link for the recipe.  On Tuesday I made Taco Salad from the same website and it was also really good.  I had a lot of vegetable options to pile on top of the meat and I used this meal as an excuse to have Tortilla Chips Hint of Lime in our house.  On Thursday and Friday we had Shrimp Jambalaya which is a family favorite and only 158 calories per cup! It is so flavorful! Yesterday we treated ourselves to some Sushi. Yum! I feel proud of the way I ate this week.  Every meal I try to have 2 or 3 vegetables on the side to eat.

I am doing well in my health challenge.  We turn our scores in today and tomorrow we will find out who is in the top 3.  I have no idea how I fare to the other competitors. I know I have more points than my husband but starting tomorrow he will be biking to and from school so I need to kick it up a notch if I want to have more points than him.

I am really glad I have this challenge to motivate me to want to be healthier. Not only want to be healthier, but it motivates be to make healthier choices.  Yesterday we decided to have family movie night, so we went to the store to get some movie snacks. I chose to get the Chex Mix Muddy Buddies.  It was a 10.5 oz bag. It has 10 servings in it. Each serving is 1/3 cup. That isn't very much.  During the holidays my husband and I downed one of those bags just the two of us in like 10 minutes.  Last night I portioned out one serving and took my time eating it.  It satisfied me and I didn't go back for more. Not only that, I didn't find myself craving more. Whohoo! There is hope for me yet!

Tomorrow is my first weigh in.  I will post pictures along with my weight (whether I lose or not) and I will let you all know what I ranked in the challenge. And let me just say I love that Sunday is a day of rest and I don't have to work out today. My body needs rest, for tomorrow is the first day of week 2 of P90x!

Health Challenge and P90x Day 4

I need to start posting everyday on how I am doing in both the health challenge and P90x.  I am doing really well! I have been eating healthy, drinking a lot of water, and exercising to the P90x videos.  On Monday I did the P90x fit test, which I really should have done on Saturday and started the first workout video on Monday... oh well. On Tuesday I did the Plyometrics video which was a killer on my legs and butt. The whole day yesterday I thought I was supposed to do the yoga video but it was actually Shoulders & Arms and the Ab Ripper. I was pretty disappointed that it wasn't yoga.  But it was a really good workout.  My whole body feels sore this morning.  I'm writing down my scores, though they won't make much sense because I forgot to write down the exercise I was doing but they were all arm exercises and I wrote them in the order the video did them, so it's more for me to come back to and see how I am doing as I go along through P90x.  Here they are:
Shoulders & Arms P90x workout:
10 lbs 8 reps
10 lbs 16 reps
10 lbs 8 reps
10 lbs 10 reps
10 lbs 14 reps
10 lbs 5 reps/5 lbs 5 reps
5 lbs 12 reps
25 modified chair dips
5 lbs 11 reps
5 lbs 12 reps
15 modified chair dips
5 lbs 12 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 6 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 10 reps
5 lbs 12 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 8 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 8 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 11 reps
4 reps left arm
7 reps right arm
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 6 reps
12 reps left arm
16 reps right arm

In the P90x program I will do this work out again for the next two Wednesdays. I am excited to see how I improve.  I would have liked to use the 10 pound weights but my husband was using them because we only have 5, 10, and 25 pound weights.  I guess we need to get some 20 pound weights.

It was a good arm and shoulder workout. It is good to have a break from cardio and do weights.  After that I did the Ab Ripper and... IT WAS INSANE!!! My abs were screaming! When they say ripper, they mean ripper. I felt like my abs were ripping apart. It hurt so much! But it is so worth it..

I am ready for yoga today.  It is an hour and a half so I will do it after the kids go to bed. It will be so good to stretch out all my muscles.  Whoo!

Health Challenge

My family has decided to have a Health Challenge for one year.  This challenge is to help motivate us all to be healthy.  We get points for exercising, for eating healthy food, for being physically active in a social setting, etc.  We get minus points for eating bad food.  We are all putting some money in a "pot" of sorts and after a year the person with the most points will get the money. That is definitely motivation for me.

Yesterday we started our competition.  I also officially started the P90X program yesterday.  My husband and I took the fit test yesterday and today we did the Plyometrics video. It. Was. Crazy! It is an hour long workout of death.  It is like doing those workouts 3 times in a row. It was intense.  I don't think I gave it 100% but I did work hard and I know I will feel it tomorrow.


I am not happy with my body at this moment in time. I am 5'1" and 155 pounds. I haven't been able to get the baby weight off.  I want to motivate myself to change.  So I am letting it all out there folks. I want to document this year to see how my body is changing.  I know that if I eat healthy and exercise I will lose weight and get fit.  Good bye donuts, chocolate, and nutella! You do not belong anywhere in my life!  You are the fat makers! haha.

Doing a Quicky

I procrastinated in working out today but I finally did it.  It was a short one. But I got it in. "That's what he said".

Holiday Hiatus

Ok so I took a sabbatical from working out the last two weeks.   I got sick and family was in town and it was Christmas time and excuse, excuse, excuse.  I got lazy. And I ate naughty food. And I loved it!  I did get some fun fitness presents as well.  I got a pair of Nike Flex running shoes from my mother -in-law and they are beautiful! She also gave me a pair of yoga pants.  My husband gave me two 5 pound weights. I am really excited about those because I was in need of 5 pounders when I did the P90x arm workout.  My brother-in-law's girlfriend gave me an interval timer and my mom gave me a pedometer.

The pedometer is awesome.  It tells me how many steps I am taking, how many miles I am walking, and how many calories I am burning.  I realized that I do not move around enough during the day.  Some days I don't even walk 1 mile during the day.  So my goal is to walk 3 miles during the day not counting my workouts.

Now that the holidays are over I am ready to get back on track.  I have made some fitness goals for myself. Along with my 3 miles worth of steps a day goal I also have a goal to workout every weekday this year, and not miss a day.  I started today.

After we put the kids to bed my husband and I did this little workout:

Yes it was only 4 minutes but it was a good start and it was hard. At the end I was out of breath.  I can't believe how much not working out for two weeks takes a toll on your body.  Where did my muscles go?  I need to get myself back on track and in a good place.  Here's to being fit and healthy in 2013!