Tough Decision

Sam and I have decided to end our round of P90X 12 days earlier than we should...  We have been having a hard time with it right now between time, and injuries we've both gotten (which resulted in us doing our own cardio).  We are moving onto a different program for the time (ChaLEAN Extreme) which we will start on Tuesday.  This won't be as time consuming or nearly as intense as P90X.  We will do another round following this 90 day round of (CLX).  Here are our P90X stats for 80 days:


Dianne:  -13.9 lbs lost,  6” off waist,  5” off hips,  2.5” off chest,  .5” off each arm,  .5” off each thigh,  neck and calves stayed the same (after losing and gaining).

Sam:  -14 lbs,  5.5” off waist,  2” off hips,  1” off chest,  .25” off neck,  .75” off each arm,  1” off each thigh,  .50” off calves.

NSV

Big NSV tonight!! My husband and I just got back from 'walking' the local bike path. The entire length was 4.26 miles from our front door and back. I briskly walked the first mile, and then jogged the entire remaining length (3.26 miles). Granted my jogging is still slow, but it got my heart rate high, and I had a nice burn (644 calories in just over an hour). I have been out of the military for just over 11 years and this is first time I have jogged/ran that long of a distance!!!

P90X: Week 10 Recap

We started out Week 10 with cardio on the elliptical machine and treadmill in the morning and weight lifting in the evenings.  This seemed to work out a little bit better, even with things being so hectic right now. I was starting to lose motivation last week because I was stressing out about having a hard time fitting in our workouts because the husband and I are doing P90X together.  When I take our daughter to and from meets in the evenings (Monday - Friday) it makes it hard to get them in because that is when he is off work and he is finishing up this last 5 weeks of his degree right so he is swamped with homework and seminars. Thank goodness swim team is done of the 14th of July, and his schooling on the 24th of July...  that way we can focus on Round 2. 

Monday (June 11): P90X: Day 64: Chest, Shoulders and Triceps  

I remember doing Chest, Shoulders and Triceps that first day the beginning of Phase 2...  man.. it was hard, hard, hard.  Even with the modifications I still struggled that first day.  I am getting better now.. I still am on my knees for the push-ups in both videos but I can knock out more reps a lot fast while being able to go deeper into them.  For the first time in this round I was able to do a bunch of one-arm WALL push ups...   yes, in the beginning I couldn't even do them on a wall.  For round 2 I am shooting for being able to do them on the ground.   I am slightly improving on my clap/plyo push ups... I still need to be more careful and not slips while doing them because I almost smashed my face into the floor this last week doing them.

Tuesday (June 12): P90X: Day 65: Plyometrics X (Did Elliptical Machine instead):

I swapped out Plyo X for my elliptical machine because my shin was bothering me little bit, and I didn't want to aggravate it further. I think this will be the last day I switch Plyo out for something else since I really enjoy this video. Hopefully when I do it tonight my shin won't give me problems, and I will have more to say about Plyo next week.  

Wednesday (June 13): P90X: Day 66: Back and Biceps

 I think that Back and Biceps will have to be my absolute favorite P90X workout... even though Katie in the video annoys the crap out of both Sam and myself. I had to take a step backwards during this workout, and use mainly 10 lbs weights for the backs reps and 15 lbs weight for the bicep reps. During the workout I kept getting a sharp pain in my shoulder blade that I couldn't get to go away even with extra stretching. This resulting me being unable to lift heavy on the back exercises (pull ups).

Plus, I have been noticing a trend the past several weeks that during my weight training workouts my heart rate doesn't jump like it used to, which is making my calorie burn go down.  This is even with the fact that both my reps and dumbbell weight has gone up since I first started P90X.   

Thursday (June 14): P90X: Day 67: Swimming

I usually swap out Yoga X with Cardio X  but today I went ahead and swam instead of either one. I wanted to take it easy one more day on my shin because it had felt pretty good the day before. 

I spent 3 hours at the pool, and got in 1.5 hours of laps and water aerobics. I did about 45 minutes of laps that were enough to get my heart rate pretty damn high (150-165) by doing 50m and stopping to let my heart rate get down to the 120's and repeating. The last 45 minutes I did laps and aerobics that were enough to keep my heart rate in my lower end zone (126-136).  I stopped my HRM afterwards while I relaxed and played with the kids, but I did stay in the pool the entire 3 hours. 

I will say it again though... swimming is an awesome cardio workout! I love the fact it gets my heart rate good and high, but I love that it is low impact.  Makes all the problems in my feet, knee, and shin seem like they aren't there at all.

Friday (June 15): P90X: Day 68: Legs and Back   

I finally did Legs and Back after missing it the last 2 or 3 weeks. This workout is probably the one I have been struggling with the most.  It consists of A LOT of squats, and lunges which are brutal on my knee if I do it too much or too longer. I remember doing this workout the very first time in Week 1...  I cried through the entire video and threw up afterwards. Week 2 I only cried.  That is how bad it killed my knee.  

This night I held the entire first set (90 seconds) of Wall Squats, and I did another 60 seconds when Sam and the video did the Single Leg Wall Squats. For me this was a huge improvement as the first two weeks I could only do 30 seconds... one time during the workout. I also managed to do the Groucho Walks the entire time even though my steps were very tiny. The lunges with my right leg (not bad knee leg) are getting a bit deeper too! This stuff still hurts my knee, but I can push through it easier now.

Had a total WOOHOO moment during this workout too.  I did 9 assisted pull-ups! I have been using dumbbells the entire round instead of a bar or bands. We did buy a pull up bar a few weeks ago, but I was unable to do any at that time.  But, I tried it during this workout and did 9 with the husband holding my foot (he didn't push me or anything.. it was all me!!).  I could have knocked out maybe a few more, but his hands were sweating and my foot slipped out of his hand, so I stopped.      

Saturday (June 16): P90X: Day 69: Kenpo X (Did Swimming Instead) 

Went to the pool again today, and spent 3.5 hours there.  My husband actually went with me today, so that was a lot of fun.  We got in almost 2 hours of laps and water aerobics (mainly freestyle and inverted breast stroke).    

Sunday (June 17): P90X: Day 63: Rest Day (Did Kenpo X instead) :

Made up Kenpo X tonight instead of taking a full blown rest day.  I did not do any of the jumping jacks during the break periods, but lightly jogged and did light jump ropes instead.  My shin was actually feeling really good, so it is time to start slowing adding stuff back in...  this way I can see what aggravates it. 

Side Notes: I had an awesome weight loss this week! I lost 2.8 pounds, and hit my first goal of 25 pounds lost. For a total of 25.6 pounds since Feb 15th! I now weigh what I did right before my surgery (2 pounds less then a month after) and am 8 pounds away from the lowest weight. The weight that I got to last year (and when I did South Beach Diet back in 2007). I am going to shoot for this for this time in July.  

P90X: Week 9 Recap

Monday (June 4): P90X: Day 57: Chest and Back & Ab Ripper X  

I did not get enough sleep the night before and I was super sore from that 6.38 mile hike the day before. I still pushed through the workout (the first time since Week 4), and I did a crap ton of push-ups!!  8 total sets during the entire workout for a total of 196 push ups (of different variations... military style (elbows close to sides) I still really suck at, but I have seen an improvement.  I did reach muscle failure quickly (as usual) and I wasn't able to knock out my 200 rep goal during the hour video.  I did 14 additional afterwards to surpass my goal. Yay! I did all the "pull-ups" and back moves with 15 and 20 pound dumbbells. Ouch! ARX kicked my behind again... but that is still be expected with carrying a bulk of my weight in my abdomen.  Plus, I still try to be easier on it with only being 1 year post-op hysterectomy/sacral colpopexy.    

Tuesday (June 5): P90X: Day 58: Plyometrics X:

I did have to re-modify a few of the exercises that I have been doing normal the past few weeks.  I did this because I am currently suffering from a shin splint in my right leg. I think that a combination of Plyo, jogging, and doing too much too quick is what did my poor leg in. Still managed to get this workout in, even though I was really stupid and took two Vicodin right before hand (shin and I was still sore in the glutes, and quads from the hike).  I got really dizzy and nauseated about 40 minutes in and had to have Sam grab a handful of mini wheat to settle my stomach in order to knock the remainder out. (I did track them in my calories log).  I will never do that again! I usually only take Vicodin before before for the whole dizzy thing. 

I bought Just Dance 3 a few days before and tried it that afternoon. OMG that is so much fun (and much better than Zumba Fitness, which I complained about last week) and it burns a good chunk of calories too!!

Wednesday (June 6): P90X: Day 59: Shoulders and Arm & Ab Ripper X

 Man, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the strength training portion of P90X! Lifting weights make me feel good and strong. Strength training is where I am seeing the best results (will post my Week 1 and 13 reps and weight in Week 13 Recap). The downfall is it does not burn a ton of calories.. although it elevates your metabolism for 48 hours afterwards.. where as cardio only does for several hours.  Plus lean muscle burns more calories than the same weight in fat at rest.

I felt a bit better this morning than the previous couple days..  I managed to get up at 5:30am with a full 8 hours of sleep under my belt.

Walked my fasted 3 miles (3.64) on the treadmill in one hour as well!  Didn't go extreme because my knee was achy and my shin was eh, sore-ish.... so I went low on the incline, and went for a faster pace.

Thursday (June 7): P90X: Day 60: Cardio X

It all caught up with me...  I crashed and burned during Cardio X this morning.  I didn't know what was wrong but I had no energy and my body would not move.  It felt like I was walking through mud up to my ears. I did so awful...  I only made it 30 minutes into a 45 minute video and then I literally laid on the floor and cried.

I didn't know if I had been overdoing it with 2 (sometimes 3 workouts) a day (swimming, cardio, P90X, Just Dance 3)...      or if it was the new sleep schedule. Or the fact I haven't had a full blown rest day in 2 weeks.

Friday (June 8): P90X: Day 61: Legs and Back & ARX (SKIPPED)  

I did not get up at 5:30am and get my LB & ARX in.  I went to bed super eary Thursday night, but I was physically unable too get up when I was supposed to. My body needed the sleep. I ended up getting a little over 13 hours of sleep total before getting up for the day.

In order to make up missing LB and ARX I did my normal walk (low incline, brisk pace) and I spent 3 hours at the community swimming pool and logged 2 hours and 9 minutes of either swimming laps or doing water aerobic type stuff (running/jogging in the water, elliptical movies, or jumping/jumping jacks).  The nice thing about being in a pool is the fact it takes ALL the pressure off my knee, ankles and shin.  I don't even feel the pain in my heels from the spurs that I get often too!  I foresee lots of swimming this summer.

Saturday (June 9): P90X: Day 62: Kenpo X (Subbed Swimming Instead) 

Payday again, and it seems like every weekend we are having to go out and buy tons of produce. Which I am not complaining about..  eating all this fruit and veggies makes me feel good, and I am starting to like all the veggies!

After shopping (which my hubby rewarded me with a new pair of really nice athletic shoes and a pair of http://www.alegriashoes.com/products/paloma-brown-distressed-mary-jane.html) I went straight to the pool with my mom and kids while my hubby worked on his homework.  This time I got in 1 hour and 44 minutes of swimming laps and water aerobics. 

BBQ'd at my parents house, and I managed to eat healthy! I say it like that because I am prone to cheating at my mom's house, because she is an awesome cook, she bakes a lot and always has snacks.   But by the time we got home I was pooped and didn't not manage to get Kenpo in, but that is alright. I still worked out, and I still ate within my calories range, so it was all good.   

Sunday (June 10): P90X: Day 63: Rest Day:

We got up early and headed off to the Cleveland Zoo for the day. Which was really fun.. and we did not have to stop to sit down because we were tired. Although wearing flip flops was a horrible idea! The trip to the zoo (and Lake Erie) gave me 13,940 steps. Yeah! I did go off course on my eating and enjoyed myself.  I did not log any exercise for the day and only ate 400 calories over my limit. If I logged all my walking I probably could have made up half, but I didn't to be on the safe side.

Walking:  I did not make my goal of 15 miles this week due to having an off week, and spending 2 of my days swimming.  I did manage to get slightly under 14 miles though (13.83 miles)

Swimming:  See above.. I swam twice this week.  My heart rate gets really high doing 100m freestyle and my breathing gets tough. So another fitness goal now it to be able to swim 100m freestyle next summer like I did on my HS swim team. 

Side Notes: Even with having a rough week physically during Week 9 I did have a -2 lb weight loss this week. That makes it a total of 22.8 pounds so far that I have lost.  I have not calculated my total inches lost, and I will not be doing that until the end of Week 13. 

I also finally lost my toenail this week that was injured two (three?) weeks ago...  and it feels much better now that it is gone. I have even been letting Sam take picture of me as well...  mainly so I can see the progress that I am making. These two from this weekend are really exciting for me:

I can really see that I have lost weight in my face as well, and hopefully soon I won't have the rest of the fat there or the double chin! I do wish my boobs would start shrinking. 

I am losing it from the top down. The area between my chest/boobs and waist has slimmed down quite a bit. Let's hope it starts coming off my tummy and butt more. 

But I think that I am more excited about the being able to see muscles in the arm!!! I totally want an awesome gun show. 

I still have a long way to go, but I am getting there one step at a time.  I am going to do this! This time next year I will be a whole new Dianne. 

I Love This!

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P90X: Progress Pictures

P90X Progress Picture:    Day 1, Day 30 and Day 60 (Front View)

P90X Progress Picture:    Day 1, Day 30 and Day 60 (Side View)

P90X Progress Picture:    Day 1, Day 30 and Day 60 (Back View)

P90X Progress Picture:    Day 1, Day 30 and Day 60 (Back View with Flex) ~ Didn't know at the Day 1 mark this was a recommended pose. ~

P90X Progress Picture:    Day 1, Day 30 and Day 60 (Flex) ~Wish the definition would show up =( Because I am getting some... maybe in the 4 weeks... ~

Hiking in the Mohican State Park (Ohio) on June 3, 2012 with my daughter and neice.  Starting to see the weight loss on my sides of my body..  the compression shorts I was wearing didn't make my tummy look real good as they were pushing it all up and out it seemed like. I am not to worried about it because I know it will take a while to lose the weight I carry in my stomach...  it has come a long way in the last 3.5 months. On a side note compression shorts are awesome! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compression_shorts)

Just fun pictures from the night we did Insanity last in Week 7. Can not wait to do it again once the shin splint heals more. 

P90X: Week 8 Recap

This week we started doing something new, which will be the norm from now on.  We are getting up at 5:30am for our workouts.  Our daughter just started swim team practices in the evening so it made it so it would be hard to get them in at our "old normal" time.  So far, I really like this schedule. 

Monday (May 28): P90X: Day 50: Yoga X:  

We were good and did Yoga like we were supposed to. I managed to do and hold both Half Moon and Triangle pose without a Yoga Block. I was also able to do both Twisting Triangle Poses correctly and without a yoga block as well. The best part of the entire workout was I managed to do Plough to Shoulder Stand by myself without Sam helping me get my feet up! My stomach still makes it really hard to breath in this position, and hard to get my feet over my head completely. I wrote originally (on my Endomondo) that it took 8 weeks for me to actually enjoy doing Yoga. The next day I changed my mind about that...  while I think Yoga is good for you it kills both of my wrist from the numerous Downward Dog Poses.  Both wrists were sore as hell the following morning.

Tuesday (May 29): P90X: Day 51: Core Synergistics X:

Core Synergisitcs is only done in the recovery week in the Classic version of P90X, so this was only my 4th time doing it.  I think core is my weakest point... this workout kicks my butt worse then Plyo. Not in a raise my heart rate cardio sense, but it pushes my body itself to the limit. The only improvements this day since Week 4 was I able to grab both socks and hold my postion in Boat, and I could do extra push-ups (still on knees, but I did manage to do 2 normal). Downside...  I am noticed my shin splint on this day. 

Wednesday (May 30): P90X: Day 52: Kenpo X

 I believe that I wrote last week that Kenpo X is by far my favorite P90X workout, and usually I can really get a workout from it. But I did the worst I have ever done on Kenpo this morning... I gave it all I hard and it still wasn't enough, it was like my body was protesting me. I had hoped that a decent night sleep would make my shin feel better, but it certainly did not, and it hurt like a b**** doing this workout. I did ice it and wrap it following the workout and it made it feel much better. 

Thursday (May 31): P90X: Day 53: X Stretch

It was stretching... nothing new from last week. 

Friday (June 1): P90X: Day 54: Core Synergistics  

 I pushed myself this morning to do my best, and I believe that I did really well! Core Synergistics is a little bit of everything with an emphasis, I guess, on engaging your core. It is starting to become 2nd nature now to keep my ab muscles engaged everything I workout (P90X and otherwise) and during the day I am starting to engage them too.

There were 6 sets of push-ups in Core (a few of the advanced types I still can not do so I do normal push ups instead,although, like I have been saying, I am still on my knees). I managed to bust out 151 push-ups today in the time frame he gives us each time. I am starting to be able to do 20-25 push ups now before stopping for a mid-set break or stopping for the set. Week 1 to could do 10, maybe 12. I did cut Jumping Jacks out of the warm up today in order to give my shin a break.

Additional side note today, I am noticing that the past maybe 2 weeks it is taking more of an effort on my part to raise my heartrate up. Bascally I have to push myself and do more in order to get into my zone. I added Zumba Fitness 2 for the Wii into my routine this week in order to take a break from the treadmill, again due to the shin splint, but I noticed that it doesn't really get my heart rate up like it did the first few two or so weeks I had it (I bought it a week and a half before I started P90X). If I really push myself doing it I can reach the high 130s. In turn my calorie burns aren't as high as they were in the beginning on some of the non-advanced type fitness programs. I am assuming that this (the heartrate thing) is due to building up endurance and stamina... I will need to look into it a little more.

Saturday (June 2): P90X: Day 55: Supposed to be Yoga X 

So I did not Yoga for reasons that I stated above.

So, I made up my own HIIT workout on the treadmill and did it. It is all brisk walking and it was awesome. I was able to get my heart rate up, and able to make it stay up, so the end result was that I spent 54 minutes in my fitness heart rate zone! Yay! (Note to self for reference: average heart rate 144bpm, maximum: 171bpm).

Dianne’s HIIT Workout:
5 minutes: Warm-up (3.0mph @ 3% incline)
2 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 5% incline
2 minutes: 3.2 mph @ 5% incline
2 minutes: 3.4 @ 5% incline
2 minutes: 3.2 mph @ 5% incline
2 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 5% incline
(Repeat two more times… 2nd time at 5.5% incline, and 3rd time at 6% incline)
2 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 5% incline
2 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 6% incline
2 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 7% incline
2 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 8% incline
1 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 9% incline
1 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 10% incline
1 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 9% incline
1 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 8% incline
1 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 7% incline
1 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 6% incline
1 minutes: 3.0 mph @ 5% incline
Walked the rest of the time 3.2 mph @ 5% incline

Sunday (June 3): P90X Rest Day:

We went on a long hike today.  We did the hardest, and easiest trial in the Mohican and we did 6.38 miles in 2.5 hours.  I burned almost 950 calories. 

Walking:  I surpassed my goal of 15 miles this week which 18.56 miles of walking!!  WOOT!!  I even earned my 20,000 steps on Saturday night on my Fitbit.  I am loving doing HIIT on my treadmill when the weather outside is too hot, which it has been lately. Or rainy. 

Swimming: Since my daughter is doing swim team this year we bought the season family membership to the community pool. Twice this week, when the weather wasn't cold and nasty, I went to the pool with my mom and swam laps. The first day I swam for an hour (mainly freestyle, but some back and breaststroke). The second day I swam for about 20 minutes, and started getting really bad heartburn and my nephew wanted me to play with him.  I will start swimming more once the weather permits.  I forgot how much swimming was a good workout, and how much I love it! I miss being on the swim team in High School.    

Side Notes:

PHASE TWO OF ROUND ONE IS COMPLETE!!! 

Here is the total stats for Phase 2 ONLY:

I lost 3.1lbs, 1.5" off my waist, 1" off my hips, 2" off my chest, 1” off each thigh, and .25” off my neck. I gained .25" in each of my calves and .5” in each bicep.

Sam lost 4.9lbs, 1.5" off his waist, .5" off his hips, 1.25" off his chest, and 1.25” off each thigh. His neck stayed the same. He gained 1” in each of his calves, and .5” in each bicep.

I should also add that we've both seen a huge in crease in our endurance and stamina as well.

As of right now, I have lost 20.8 pounds, and about 10% BF.