This is ridiculous.

I do not think I have completed one full week of this program. I have made progress, no doubt about that, but I did not succeed in p90-xing myself the first time out of the box. I started over last Monday and got sick Friday, been sick since. It'll happen, but for now I just do a few push-ups to remind myself I can. And take tons of Sudafed.

Day Who-knows...

Well, true to form, I have not followed the timing of this program. Not to worry - I don't have any competitions for body building in the next few months so I can catch up. Food isn't so much the issue. Sour Patch Kids are kind of an issue. I haven't made huge progress in the last month of "alone-training" but I do feel like I have kept up strength and toned a little more. Clothes are continuously fitting differently - for the better.

Today I started back with Cardio-X. I have never done this one before, it's the first of the two-a-day program throughout days 31-90. Cardio/Weights three times a week. Well, today I only did the cardio. Got a lot done around the house and got a good workout in. I hope to keep off the illness that has infected my two roommates. Enchiladas cure everything. And, yes it's not the best for you but portioned well it's ok, Mexican sour cream is going on everything I ever eat ever again. Portion, what?

Day 18, 19, 20, 21ish and some excuses...

So if day 17 was July 30, then July 31 I cut my finger. Broke a pint glass and jammed it in my thumb just for fun. Not fun really, jammed it at the same time but couldn't pop it due to the gaping wound that showed the inner workings of the thumb. Blahh. It will now pop every time I bend it seems. It's sad that's its been that long (20 something days) since I did this, but I didn't stop eating right. I might have drank a little more, but that was a for a wedding! Drank a lot more. I haven't consumed that much alcohol since college - early, rush-time college. It's fun sometimes. I digress...and then bother to type an ellipsis, today, August 21 will be considered day 21. This doesn't make sense, but is does make sense. Three days (Day 18) ago I started back with Chest and Back and Abs. Not gonna lie, not gonna lie at all, it sucked. It sucked a lot. I didn't finish either, but if you consider not being able to do more exhaustion then I kinda succeeded. I felt it the next day - I did feel the difference in my abs from not finishing the whole ridiculous routine. Each one has a job - some parts didn't get it. Day 19 was Plyometrics. That was a good ass kicking too, honestly. I came ready for it and didn't finish that either, once again, I...exhausted. Anyway. I see now that is still a pattern. Day 20, Shoulders, Arms, Abs. Everything was going well to begin with, running on not enough food and bailed with just enough energy to do 70% of the abs (realizing further, now writing this that I have yet to finish anything and that sucks). Day 21 is still early and I will complete Yoga X and calmly exhale the tension that doesn't exist.

Day 15, 16, 17...

So day 15 - half way through phase I!! Shoulders and arms, followed by abs. I have done these consecutively to try and make up for the lack of momentum last week and to get my mind back in the right place. I did S&A full out, didn't remove weights from the dumbbells and kicked butt. I felt good and sore the next day (16) for Yoga X (at midnight, but whatever) and it felt good. All of the balancing postures got tricky but I tried them all! I can feel that each workout helps the other. Plyo helps in yoga, Chest and Back is essential for yoga. It is the toughest part of the program (spare the basics like push-ups and stupid, stupid pull-ups). Reps, schmeps. Yoga is for cool people.

Day 17 - Legs and Back. Back to the pull-up bar. I hate that thing. It helped motivate me when I noticed I could do a few more and then a few more, but the different hand positions and the constant movement is a pain. Physically - it's a pain. I got 60% of this one and will do abs later tonight or tomorrow morning. Got a program, almost got the routine. 73 more days.

Day 14 - Plyometrics

Did the Ab Ripper X routine two nights ago and then got the nerve to try Plyo again. Jesus. This may be the hardest workout in the world. Jumping, jumping, jumping. Over and over. I got further through, almost to the last series of exercises, before I started stretching and cooling down. I wouldn't have gotten that far if Delbert wasn't there doing the same thing. If he would have said stop at any time I wouldn't have argued. That's my problem. Quit too easy. Now on to the beach because it's a brothers-Chumley day off.

This is actually day 21 of the program but I am only counting days that I actually worked out since day one.

Day 12 - Kenpo (late again), Day 13

I have not been keeping up on the workouts as well as I should. It's hard. I knew that, I told myself before hand that I wasn't going to quit and I'm not, but damn. Yoga was a good surprise and I felt good "finishing" it, I knew Kenpo was easy enough because I had finished it the week before but I felt this one a lot more. Getting the motions, the sequences, and the muscle control down and it starts to feel like I could actually kick some one's ass should I need to uppercut them.

Usually Kenpo is followed with a day of stretching or rest but I definitely didn't earn that this week so I went straight to the next weeks workouts, Chest and Back. So I find the set-up easier, the initial completion easy but when I get to failure I am d-o-n-e. It is a fast paced workout that doesn't leave a lot of time for you to slow down, which I know is the point, so I keep moving and then I feel like I'm going to die. Still trying to figure out where my breaking point actually is and stopping before I get there. Abs come today too but, like I said last time, maybe after work.

Day 11 - Yoga (two days late)

The last two days I've been in a funk and had no desire to workout. I'm snapping out of it. I had that great workout Thursday and when I realized that I forgot to do Abs I felt a much lesser sense of achievement after the fact. Last week Yoga was a "quitters disc" and that didn't help motivate me, although it should have! I got up, ate a little bit and waited for the motivation to hit. It hits.

I press play and here we go again. T-Horton tells you at the beginning that this is no resting day and that you will be twisted and challenged. When you see that the timer starts counting down from and hour and a half (the longest running disc so far) I can't imagine doing any more vinyasas after forty minutes. There is variation but you hit the same rotation and I was about to lose it and yell at the TV that it is ridiculous to do this over and over and over again and then...it's over. It's over. The title "Last Vinyasa" pops up with 46 minutes left and I think, "This man is an ass hole that has created a harder variation of this damn vinyasa series that will be the last one I will be able to do, maybe because this is where I would go crazy", but it was in fact the last one of the workout and then the last 45 minutes are balancing poses. I quit before this last week thinking, NO, no, no, I can't keep going. He knew that! Granted I am not near Crane many of the other crazy balancing poses but it wasn't a vinyasa and that was great.

I quit too easily. I'm learning that a little more and more.

Day 10 - Shoulders and Arms

Finished the whole thing! Every exercise plus the "bonus" exercises and I feel it. Compared to last week where I didn't even finish, I lifted more weight this week and paced myself through the whole workout. We'll save Abs for after work. On another note, I don't feel anything in my legs from yesterday which leads me to believe that I quit too early thinking I was going to be borderline-immobile like I was last time. Here's to week three and getting it all done!!

Day 9 - Plyo...duh, duh, duuuuhh

I really didn't want to do this today, but I came out of it around 10:00 p.m. and got it done. Well, mostly done. 2/3 done. I did much better than last week and stretched a bunch before hand and after. We'll see what difference that makes tomorrow.

Day 7 - Beach, Day 8 - Chest & Back, Abs

Day 7, a well earned day of rest which was spent at Shelter Cove, watching the prehistoric, albatross-size pelicans, sea gulls, and sea lions explore the still, quiet surf for food. Those stupid pelicans must not have known, or even learned after the fact, that the water is about as deep as their beaks and when they dive-bombed the fish/crabs they hit bottom and had their wings and feet flailing above the water and a beak in the sand. The sea lions watched all of this and very politely, I thought, refrained from laughing at the large, gangly birds flopping around upside down.

Day 8 starts the whole process over. Here we are, the beginning of week two and Del and I are about hooked. The day revolves around when we press play - all things come after. Got to use my new dumbbells in the workout today. Felt the burn. The dreaded Plyometrics is tomorrow. I will remember to stretch plenty this time.

Day 5 - Legs & Back and Abs, Day 6 - Kenpo X

I was still hurting from plyometrics, but improving, and the Legs & Back workout did not sound like a fun thing to do...then I think that very little of this is "fun", but it all has its purpose so just do it!! Even after a long warm-up I was not in the right zone to beat through this. The wall squats were fine, for a little while, but then you stick one leg out while you stay in the squat position...weakness set in. Honestly, I quit. I quit instead of waiting the pain out and finishing. I know that next week will be better. Abs on the other hand were much easier than day three. Not easy really, but easier. They feel great today.

"Kenpo X" - karate/cardio. Punches, kicks, back and forth, left and right, up and down. It was a definite challenge but I remembered feeling like I cheated myself yesterday, so I powered through and it felt great. Makes me feel like I should walk around punching and kicking things, using my newly-acquired uppercut skills. I believe that I "brought it" today. Tomorrow is "Stretch X" - no doubt that Tony Horton has made that hella crazy also.

Day 4 - Yoga X

So yesterday I was so sore from plyometrics that I couldn't imagine doing any yoga - so once again I skipped a day. Maybe I overworked myself but more likely it was not enough stretching. I need to go shopping for energy-rich food. Fill up every space with good, healthy, energy supplying food. It could be that I am just not strong enough to finish these yet, but I have yet to finish any disc except the first.

I have been working with a couple of Gaiam Yoga dvds for a few months so I was limber enough to follow along with "Yoga X", but I wasn't ready for the pace. Not only is it fast, but it's repetitive. I'm used to spreading out the moves so much that there isn't a lot of strain on one particular muscle group, but this...35 minutes into a 1h30m workout I bailed. I am still sore from plyo but it isn't as bad. I got a new set of dumbbells, push-up stands and a heart-rate monitor/watch. Tomorrow is "Legs & Back" and the abs again. I just keep moving forward and know that I'll finish the whole thing next week. Feel the burn...

Day 3 - Shoulders/Arms and Abs again...

Today was planned out pretty good. Got some oatmeal, some coffee, rested an hour, rewatched a little bit of the MJ memorial and lamented getting up from the couch because my quads and "hip flexor area" are really sore from the plyo. The program is set up to let certain muscle groups rest while others are worked out, so despite the pain and soreness from yesterday, my arms and shoulders were ready to be the targets for the day.

Del came home from work especially for the workout - normally when naps occur - and we divide our living room space and lock in on the TV. Today was a constant rotation of exercises from shoulders to biceps to triceps and over again, twice repeating each section and stopping for 30 seconds here and there to do "ballistic stretches". Today was not nearly as hard as the chest/back or plyo but I might feel differently tomorrow. 47 minutes of that and 16 more of "Ab Ripper X" (which was comical while first watching it two days ago - "He thinks I can do that? Ha. Ha, ha ha." - but it seemed a bit more serious today). I fell apart and couldn't finish it but, once again, Del kicked ass. This was definitely an easier day, tomorrow is "Yoga X" and it will probably have us balancing on our thumbs and big toes. We keep attempting to "bring it" as Tony asks us to. Day 3 complete - that really wasn't that hard.

Day 1, interim Day, Day 2

I have watched P90X infomercials for over a year knowing that I wanted to get in shape, I wanted to lose fat, I wanted to feel better and I knew that buying this 90 day program would do that. Well, sort of. I figured I could do it for 90 days and quit, that was my mindset, do what the title says, achieve, then quit. After trying to download the program for free, crashing my computer, losing the entire hard drive without having set my eyes on the first video I thought that this short cut idea wasn't very wise and that if I really wanted to do it, thought I could do it, I would spend the money to buy it.

I spent the last three months working my way from inactivity to slightly above average activity, changing the way I thought about food, changing the way I thought about exercise and how it made me feel and then took the dive and bought P90X. In four days, it was on the doorstep - then I got scared. The box was smaller than I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be huge - "Look at me!! I'm a big box full of exercise motivation" but it was a pretty small box just large enough for the Program workbook, Diet book and the DVD set. Regardless of it's size, it was here, in the living room, waiting to be used. I took the pictures, did the fit test, wrote it down and waited for tomorrow because that's what I do best.

"Don't say 'I can't', say 'I presently struggle with'."

July 5, 2009 Day 1

My twenty-sixth birthday, my beginning of P90X, beginning of my "body transformation". I've made the decision to change what I eat, how I cook, what I crave and why I crave it. Now, I am choosing to start a 90 day program to start changing my body and my way of thinking about working out. Here we go. Day 1, "Chest & Back" followed by "Ab Ripper X". I knew that I was going to have to do push-ups and chin-ups in this program so I had been trying to work up to a reasonable level of each. It helped, but there are a thousand ways to do each apparently. 47 minutes of near constant back-and-forth, push-ups, military push-ups, diamond push-ups, chin-ups seven ways...I was shocked, accepting, nervous, and excited. I made it through 37 of those 47 minutes and then waited for a while before the Ab workout. Del, Lilly, and I did the 16 "Ab Ripper X" and laughed at each other the whole time. What the hell was Tony Horton thinking when he put this shit together?!? Not insane, but certifiably crazy. We all felt that one big time. I knew that day 2 would be a little less impact, a little easier. Fast forward past a birthday hangover...

July 7, 2009 Day 2

Plyometrics. Jumping. Spinning. Squatting. All of those at the same time. Do it in reverse, drink a tiny, tiny bit of water and do these other workouts. Constant movement. "Easier" I thought it was going to be, "less impact" I told myself. What an idiot. My brother went through the whole routine hardly stopping. I probably was able to go about 60%, maybe 50%. I had no energy! I'm trying to get my eating schedule in tune with sleep and workouts and I think that's why I had such a hard time. Next time get some oatmeal in and not just coffee and that'll help out. That wobbly feeling that you get after a really challenging workout is a less familiar feeling to me but it's a constant reminder that I did something and that tomorrow is planned out for me and all I have to do is put in the disc and actively participate. New pain, new soreness, new gains. Tomorrow is "Shoulders & Arms" and the Ab disc again. It's not easy but it's awesome.