Chest & Back / ARX

Did the first reboot Ab Ripper X (ARX) and Chest & Back. I really hate ab/core work so I always do it first. I was shocked at how many reps I could do of some of those moves. I'm getting better at the Oblique V-ups. I can definitely feel it getting deep into my obliques.

Also, the Mason Twists at the end? From the devil. Straight from hell. No lie.

Chest & Back. This workout always intimidates me, but it's one of my faves once I get going. I like the idea of being a woman who can eek out some push-ups on her toes & will someday do pull-ups without a chair.

Also, the Divebomber Push-Ups at the end? Also from the devil. Straight from hell. No lie.

Thirdly, I'll be so dang happy when I'm doing a downward dog and not seeing the cellulite jiggle on my thighs. (Yes I could just wear longer shorts, but I'm working out in the summer in a well-insulated Chicago apartment and avoiding turning on my A/C as long as I can!)

Fourthly, (almost done, I swear) I'm looking at getting the Recovery Drink into my nutrition routine at some point. Besides cost, I'm concerned that I'm not pushing myself enough to get much out of it. Generally, I've only felt well and truly wiped out after Plyo. I could easily take a 2 hour nap after that. I think my upper body is so weak in various places that I can't push my weight lifting as much as I'd like, i.e. - I couldn't do as many push-ups today because my biceps and triceps gave up the ghost. So now, I don't feel as torched as I do with Plyo. But I also know I would struggle to do another push-up.

So, I guess I feel like I'd get more out of using the Recovery Drink when I can push my body further in all the workouts, not just one really killer workout. Although, it'd be nice to have the Drink for that one.

Alright - have a great day!

P90 X Fit Test

Here we go - Reboot # whatever.

Pull-ups

0.125 (1/8 of a pull-up - pathetic, but it'll change!)

Vertical Leap

9 inches

Push-ups (on toes)

21

Toe Touch - flexibility check

4.5 inches past toes

In & Outs - ab exercise

53

Seated Wall Squats

4 min, 55 inches

Arm Curls to Failure

23 curls w/ 12.5 lb weights

Heart Rate Maximizer

HR immediately after 2 min jumping jacks: 160 bpm

HR after 1 min: 124 bpm

HR after 2 min: 124 bpm

HR after 3 min: 108 bpm

HR after 4 min: 88 bpm

I'll need to do the morning resting heart rate tomorrow. Whoo-hoo!

Some more inspiration

"Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda

18 Tricks to Make New Habits Stick

I'm notorious about STARTING STRONG...and whimpering to nothing. Not even whimpering to a finish, just embarrassingly fading away.

I know if I keep starting P90X, someday I'll actually make it a full 90 days.

So to help inspire me in my new habit - and y'all in yours - a link to a helpful article.

My P90X goal - work out every day, including the X Stretch on my rest day, for 30 days straight. Come rain or shine, hell or highwater, no sleep for this wicked until the workout is completed. That's what it took for me to get onto any kind of running schedule. P90X asks more of my than my running goals so I'll have to give myself more structure and force it with all I've got through Phase 1. Wish me luck!

10 K down

One of my goals on the Nike+iPod site is to run 24 times in 8 weeks. As long as I run 3 times a week I'm fine.

Got a bit behind last week, so I'll need to make it up. I also ended up cutting my Saturday run short b/c my earbuds quit around 6.43 K in. Dang it! I can't run without music to distract me and an encouraging voice saying "2 kilometers completed!"

But got my 3rd? 4th? pair of replacement earbuds last night and I'm back on the road!

Tonight at 5:30 PM will be my P90X reboot fit test. I even went in scheduled in my workouts for the next 90 days. Whoo! It's in print now. No turning back!

Reboot!

It's more than a cartoon series!

(caution You Tube video)

A friend from high school emailed me over the weekend asking about P90X. She and her husband were looking for a new workout regime and asked if I could recommend it.

I sent a tl;dr email with more detail than she surely wanted, they took the plunge and ordered.

So they're new venture inspired me to reboot myself. I got about 2.5 weeks off my schedule, so it made sense. Plus, hopefully this (almost) trans-continental accountability will help all of us.

So, I'm doing the Fit Test, measurements, and photos tonight. Tuesday will be my new Day 1.

Thursday Morning Inspiration

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."

- Mark Twain

Thursday Morning Inspiration

"Winning has nothing to do with racing. Most days don't have races anyway. Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism, and never, ever, ever giving up. "

- Amby Burfoot, The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life

Crap this is hard!

Just back from a run. 10 K in a bit over an hour. That seems to be my comfortable pace these days. I need to work in some more interval workouts to see if I can bring it down. Also need to vary my life a wee bit from 2 10 K runs, then a long run over the weekend.

Also, I'm about 4 workouts behind for P90X. Not surprising. I knew it'd be hard to integrate the two together. But it took about 4-6 weeks of trying to run 3 times a week to get on board with that, too.

So plan is to get my butt caught up with at least the weightlifting workouts + Yoga X. Kenpo & X Stretch are less vital. Or actually, just Kenpo (or a TJ substitute) is less vital with the running.

Just need to get over the mental hump of doing 1.5 hours of Yoga. I love it once I start and it's not that much longer than the lifting workouts + ARX. It's just the idea of 90 minutes = Aarrgh!

Holy crap - Insanity is here!

Insanity - the 60-day training program from Shaun T. & Beachbody is now available.

Holy crap! The preview video scares the snot outta me! And every other bodily substance, too!

I'm excited, but I promised myself I'd finish P90X, and ChaLEAN Extreme before jumping in. That much Plyo scares me! Gotta work up to it. I already feel close to death after the Plyo X workout!

Tuesday Morning Inspiration

"Remember that if you don't go to the starting line, you will never view the whole course with all its possibilities. And you will certainly never see the glories of the finish line."

- Amby Burfoot, The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life

Catching up on workouts

Monday - ran 10 K in 1:03:15. Really felt like crap for the last 2 KM. Drank 32 oz of Gatorade afterwards and felt much better. I think I was a bit dehydrated and maybe didn't fuel up properly before hand.

Holy crap? Was that my first bonk? Did I actually push my body really hard and run out of resources to fuel it? Badge of honor, over here! I usually way underperform. Granted I need to avoid bonking, but cripes - I pushed myself to a limit!

Tuesday's plan - I'm behind on P90X. Need to do Yoga X, Legs & Back, ARX, and Kenpo to get caught up totally. The first two will happen. But I might save Kenpo (or a Turbo Jam substitute) for a double-up tomorrow with X Stretch. I'll have to see how I feel after Legs & Back.

"Why are Southerners So Fat?"

Time magazine asks the question, as do doctors and public health officials south of the Mason-Dixon.

As a native South Carolinian, transplanted to Chicago, the answers are what I expected:

So there you have it. Southerners have little access to healthy food and limited means with which to purchase it. It's hard for them to exercise outdoors, and even when they do have the opportunity, it's so hot, they don't want to.

Surprise, surprise, surprise [/Gomer Pyle]

Eating cheaply ideas from Zonya

Zonya Foco, is a Registered Dietician with some great ideas about living a healthier lifestyle.

Here's a link to some of her ideas about "Eating Right When the Budget is Tight."

Healthy Food Hierarchy

Pursing a healthy lifestyle ain't easy. One of the hardest things for me is eating healthily. It's especially difficult to eat healthily on a budget.

I'm a big advocate of eating as healthily as you can within the constraints you're given. Something's got to change about my lifestyle and about yours if we're going to eat better. Usually the biggest challenges are time, taste, and money.

So here's my work-in-progress hierarchy of eating better

1. Eat food from home as often as possible - brown bagging is your friend!
2. Eat at home as often as possible - less temptation, especially if you keep a "clean kitchen" with little or no junk food
3. Eat food you made yourself - the more control you have over your food, the less your food will be infiltrated by mysterious fat, sugar, preservatives, and other nasty junk
4. Eat food you made yourself from scratch - get away from stuff that came from a box
5. Eat with others as often as possible - not every meal needs to be a social event, but eating with others helps us stay connected to family, friends, and neighbors
6. Eat a wide variety of food, especially fruits and veggies
7. Eat more meatless meals - I personally eat a lot of meatless meals, but I like my steaks rare. I'm not going full vegetarian or vegan anytime soon. But maybe try limiting yourself and say, "I'll eat vegetarian/vegan until dinner" or "I'll eat meat 3-4 days a week instead of every day." You'll save money and diversify your diet.
8. Eat organic produce if you can, but really focus on eating any produce - be it fresh, frozen, dried, or canned with as little salt and preservatives as possible.
9. Try a new food multiple times before you give up on it. - It often takes 10 times before our brain gets over the novelty of a new experience before it can process enough to see if it really likes it. If something turns your stomach, don't force yourself. But if you're just not thrilled about it, try it 10 times and/or try it 10 different ways. As a kid I couldn't stand cooked tomatoes but I loved them raw on sandwiches or in salads.

Any other ideas to add?

Weekend Workouts

I ran my first 10 miler Saturday! Whoo-hoo! The first 3.5 miles or so were in a steady rain, with a drizzle that came and went until mile 6. My pace was 11:38 min/mile and I came in with slightly under 2 hours, so I'm satisfied with that.

I made up my ARX and Shoulders & Arms workout this morning. Yoga X will be this afternoon.

One downfall of losing weight, my butt is losing padding. Overall, good thing since my lower half is getting smaller, but doing abs work is a pain b/c I'm not accustomed to my sitz bones sticking out. Yeouch!

Friday Morning Inspiration

"Love yourself, for who and what you are; protect your dream and develop your talent to the fullest extent." - Joan Benoit Samuelson

These pants are getting looser

Added to the recent 158 lb discovery - I'm also fitting into some old size 8 pants.

Kick ass! (Literally, I guess!)

Thursday & Friday catch-up

Thursday I ran 10K in approximately 1 hr, 4 minutes. Whoo-hoo! Closer to my goal pace! Also did P90X Ab Ripper X and Chest & Back. Dang, I've lost a lot of upper body strength, but I'm sure I can get it back. I must be consistent!

Friday (today) was Plyo X. I love what this workout does for my lungs, heart, jump ability, and body fat percentage. But, crap, I haaaate squat jacks. Maybe it's just by time I get there my heart's fixin' to explode out my chest and I'm covered in sweat and can barely hold my arms up. I can't wait until my conditioning is to the point that it doesn't take me an extra 20 minutes to finish the workout because I have to keep pausing and rewinding!

Bringing good food to the city

The New York Times had a profile of Will Allen, a farmer in Milwaukee. Allen is working to help bring "good food" to the people of Milwaukee's northwest side.

He's encouraging people to get the best food they can, ideally stuff that's locally farmed in a sustainable way.

Good quote: "So no, Growing Power [Allen's venture] isn’t self-sufficient. But neither is industrial agriculture, which relies on price supports and government subsidies. Moreover, industrial farming incurs costs that are paid by society as a whole: the health costs of eating highly processed foods, for example, or water pollution. Nor can Growing Power be compared to other small farms, because it provides so many intangible social benefits to those it reaches."

Friday Morning Inspiration

"An excuse becomes an obstacle in your journey to success when it is made in place of your best effort or when it is used as the object of the blame. "

- Bo Bennett

Monday morning motivation

"An athlete who tells you the training is always easy and always fun simply hasn't been there. Goals can be elusive which makes the difficult journey all the more rewarding."

- Alberto Salazar

'Scuse me while I gloat & ponder

I don't own a scale at the moment. My roommate owned the previous one and took it with her when she moved out. I'll buy one at some point, but I'm conserving $$$ at the moment. So, while at Target yesterday I weighed myself on one of the tester scales.

158 lbs baby! Kick ass!

So I figure I'm at 27% body fat (using calipers and a website) with about 115 lbs of lean body mass (skin, bone, muscle, etc.)

My healthy goal is to get to 18% body fat, which will put me losing 18 lbs of fat and weighing around 140 lbs.

It amazes me to think that's a healthy and attainable weight and body fat percentage. While, I'm tall for a woman in my family - 5 foot 8- I'm actually medium framed. I always thought I was large framed! And really, I always see myself as the pudgy junior high/early high schooler. Same height, but hovering around 175 -180. I've gone up and down slowly since then, once getting to 155 for a red hot minute when I hit goal at Weight Watchers.

So what's different this time? I'm going slower. I'm adding pieces to the picture one at a time. First running, then weights, then focusing more on food. I'm balancing my weight/body fat goals with physical fitness goals, i.e. Getting to 140 lbs and also training for a half marathon.

While getting to a healthy weight and body fat percentage is important, I know that I suck at keeping weight off once I get to a goal. So, as little intrinsic passion as I have for running, I use it as part of my physical fitness goals. Once I learn to swim, I'd love to train for a sprint triathlon. I'd also like to do the Hustle Up the Hancock stair climb some day. I may even get up to a marathon someday if I can get my pace time down.

So hopefully the combo of "be a hot ass in a swimsuit" + "get my tail out and use my damn body for some physical show of strength" goals will work to keep me invested in training and staying at a healthy weight.

Defying Gravity

I'm adding P90X back into my workout plan since I'm feeling pretty good about the running consistency, I want to add pumping iron back into the rotation, and I really miss trying to do pull-ups.

When I do the X I use an assist from a chair or stool to get up over the pull-up bar. Even with the assist I can tell that my back gets stronger doing pull-ups than any other exercise. But I do want to work up to unassisted pull-ups.

So, anyone with or without the X who's interested in defying gravity, here's a 12-week plan from Women's Health to build up to 3 pull-ups.

Hot and Sweaty

Just back from a 10K run. It took 1:04:10 with a 6:24 min/km (or 10:04 min/mile )pace. Yeah for this crazy cool weather in the mornings!

So, I'm my ideal 9 min/mile is in theory possible. But I'm not fighting for it. It'll just be nice if it happens. Maybe if I add in some more sprint workouts?

Later tonight will be P90X Ab Ripper X (ARX) and Chest & Back. I also might do Slim & Limber before bed if my joints are still creaky. Dang period! Always makes my hips & knees want to make themselves heard. Bleh.