New Phase

We've completed the program... kinda. It got really hard to keep up with the exercising but we did our best. So now we are starting over with another 90 days.
I am on week two of the Lean program. I really like it! The hardest days for me to do on the classic program were Mondays where we did a bunch of pull ups and push ups and Tuesdays where we did plyometrics. Plyometrics is so hard and exhausting and it was really hard towards the end to want to do such an extreme workout... too much jumping...
Anyway so the lean program seems better suited for women. I like it so much better. There is a cardio workout that is comparitive to Plyometrics but not as hard. I like it so much better. The other days are the same, and I am really liking this new program. I have more motivation to work out now that I'm doing lean. Although last week I was sick, so I only worked out 4 days. This week I'll be getting in 5-6.
I still have more work to do. I am pretty happy with the results I have seen so far. (And happy that I am fitting into sz 7-8!) But I still need some work on toning my arms and post baby tummy. I'm not trying to be obsessive, I just really want to get rid of this extra fat. I'm feeling so much better after loosing 45 lbs, and I know I will feel even better if I didn't have to feel uncomfortable or self conscience about hiding my tummy.
And Billy is looking great and seeing great results. He is toned and seeing definition. His arms have gotten really big again. BUT he still has some goals too. He is doing classic again and would like to really bulk up and start lifting heavier and then he says when he hits a plateau he'll do more reps and break down the muscle and get toned and lean and then go back to bulking up again after. So he's got it all figured out. And he's got a lot more motivation then me. He's doing good and I know he'll keep going.
Lately I've been wanting to back off the diet here and there and have a sandwhich with chips or something and he will totally resist "those empty calories". I'm glad I have him around to help with motivation. He's doing great.
So that's what we're up to now. We are so happy we are getting healthy and loosing those extra pounds we've been carrying around these last 6 yrs.

Our Before and After pictures

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Our kitchen counter

P90X has taken over our kitchen counter! That's how dedicated we are. :) Ok, I'll explain. We had to get a new blender since we use ours pretty much every day now (for fruit shakes, slushy recovery drinks- that taste like Orange Julius- and sometimes for soups) So we've been using it so much that our old one died on us, and it was time to get a new one (the 1st one we've actually boughten since we've been married). So that's our nice new blender, and then I just got those new canisters b/c we had these big ol' tubs taking over all our counter space. We had 2 big tubs of protein powder and one w/ a recovery drink powder. So I had to get those, so it would actually look nice. And there's multivitamins in the last one.
OK, and then there's the hand held blender which we a lot of time use for our recovery drinks, and there's the scale (self explanitory, right?)
After I got all that new stuff I just thought it was kind of cool how that whole counter was P90X related.
And you should see our fridge! The fruit and vegetable drawers are always PACKED full, and then the whole bottom shelf has vegetables. The middle shelf pretty much has eggs and a loaf of bread for the kids. The freezer has mostly frozen vegetables, frozen chicken, fish, turkey burger, etc. But it is so cool to see all healthy stuff!
We're doing good. We took 30 day pics and already we are both seeing a big transformation. But Billy wants to wait to post pics until 60 or 90 days that way there's more dramatic results.

My exercise insight

So I was mopping the floors this morning and I had a thought. OK, I DO NOT like cleaning...who does? But I do it b/c I can't stand to live in filth and unorganization/ clutter. So even though I don't like cleaning I do it b/c I feel better when it's done. I feel less stress when the house is clean; it feels, calmer, happier in our home when the house is clean. If the floors are a mess I do not feel good about just letting it go, and if I don't do it that day I feel bad, but once I get it done I feel so good that I've done it even if it wears me out.
Then I had an epiphany (haha) I started comparing it to exercising. Last night we didn't exercise and I didn't feel as good physically or mentally. I felt guilty, and at the end of the night I was wishing I would've just done it.
Also, now when I exercise, I feel really good after I'm done. And mentally, I'm proud of myself that I did it. So it's kind of like cleaning the house; sometimes I'm so tired that I don't want to do it, but once I get it done it is so worth it and I feel so much better.
I need to remember that when I don't feel like exercising (how good I feel once I'm done)
So it's been a little since I've updated. The last two days of last week were legs and back (which is not as hard as plyometrics but still a good work out) and then Kenpo X, which I'm really starting to like! The more I do it the more I like it, b/c there's a lot less "What the heck? How do you do that? What is he doing?" Once I started getting the hang of it, I was like this is actually pretty fun.
One time I was in a boxing pose and I was trying to get the footing down so I wasn't doing much w/ my arms and Billy looks over at me and says "You look like Will doing his chicken dance." I could not stop laughing!!! It was so funny, and then every time I'd get in the stance I'd think of Will doing his chicken dance and start laughing again. haha
This week is recovery week. We were really looking forward to this week b/c we thought it'd be so easy! We saw that there was Yoga (which we orginally thought was going to be easy but soon found out it's not as easy as we thought) so Yoga, and X Stretch. We've never done X Stretch b/c it's always on the 7th day which is either Rest or X Stretch and we always choice rest. Then there's Core Synergitics. This ones new to us but we figured it couldn't be too hard since it's on the recovery week. Yeah! (insert sarcasm here) It kicked our butt. This week is not the easy week we thought it would be. Maybe none of it'll be easy... but it's worth it.
30 day Result pictures coming soon.

Shoulders & Arms/ Yoga

We had Shoulders and Arms on Wednesday. Compared to day 1 and day 2 it is not bad. I actually really like working my arms. Maybe my arms can take a lot b/c they're used to carrying around a baby many hours of the day for yrs now. At any rate, I really like this work out. It burns after awhile of course; there are many repetitions and the last three are always tough for more, but it's a great work out.

We missed yesterday. You can rest one day a week (or do X Stretch) and yesterday it just didn't happen, so that was our one rest day.

Today we did Yoga. It's harder than you think people! It really is not easy. The first time I did it I realized I'm not very strong and I don't have good balance... at all. I think I am already getting stronger and getting better balance, but I still have a ways to go. I am definetly seeing improvement though. It's hard, but it feels good, and we noticed especially the first week that it helped w/ our sore muscles.
I was surprised at how flexable I am getting. It's kinda fun!

Plyometrics

"The Mother" of all workouts! The warm up feels like an exercise in itself, then the whole way through I feel like I'm pushing, pushing, pushing. 20 min. into it I'm thinking "We still got 40 min. left?!?" When we were half way I thought I might just collapse, but I kept going. He does so many variety of moves and most of them you do for 30 sec at a time. He says "You can do anything for 30 seconds!" We kept going, kept going and kept going and we made it! Each time I finish this I almost can't believe I made it all the way through.
OK, let me tell you I have never seen so many varieties of squats, jumps, and lunges in my life. He'll do a jump squat (where you squat and then jump), followed by run stance (where you get in a runners stance w/ the toe of the front foot aligned w/ the heel of the back foot, you squat, leap up, twist to the other side and repeat over and over again), then airborne heisman, followed by swing kicks... repeat the sequence..
next sequence: squat reach jump, run stance squat switch pick-up, double airborne heisman, circle run, repeat sequence...
next sequence: jump knee tuck, mary katherine lunge, leapfrog squat, twist combo, repeat sequence...
and there's 3 more sequences w/ other jumps, squats and hopping around. Oh there's also jumping jacks, running in place, leaping... yeah LOTS of cardio! Heart rate is up the WHOLE time!
This is probably the hardest one but it feels good when your done b/c you've just completed the hardest one.
I think we burned a couple calories...

Yesterday's workout: Chest & Back/ Ab Ripper X

I'm going to try real quick every day to let you all know about the work outs every day, and how I felt.
So last night we did Chest and Back which involves A LOT of push ups and pull ups! I mean a lot, where you wonder- When is it going to stop?
But it was so cool last night b/c I realized how far I've come since the first time we did this.
The first time we did this I was trying to do 2-5 pushups every time (and that's girly style) and my form sucked. I had a really hard time going chest first and having good form. But last night my goal was 10+ push ups every time and I actually had good form every time!! I was so excited that I could do more and that my form was improving. The people on P90X are doing 20-30 push ups at a time, but 14 was the highest I went yesterday.
But I felt good! And I was pushing myself and doing the most I could do. I am just happy to be improving and challenging myself every week. I could do more pull ups as well.
I don't usually look forward to this work out (I've always felt push ups and pull ups are more of a guy thing), but I felt good last night.
It feels good to complete the work out and to be makeing noticeable progress.
Ab Ripper X is tough!! Billy sometimes yells out "My abs are burning!" During the exercises. It is the hardest 15 min. of abs I've ever done. (And ab work outs used to be my favorite.) But we've gotten better w/ keeping up w/ them. I still love doing abs but it's like Tony Horton says "I hate it, but I love it." It feels good when it's over. haha

Starting week 3 P90X

Starting week 3 P90X and we are feeling good. We are eating either scrambled eggs (egg whites only w/ lots of fresh vegetables mixed in like tomatoes, spinach, fresh basil) or we are having a protein/ fruit shake for breakfast.
Lunches almost every day are salads. We for the most part have chef salad every day, somedays we put chicken in it or do a tuna salad. We do turkey burger w/ Gazpacho soup once a week for lunch. It's good!
For dinners we have chicken 3-4 nights a week usually accompanied by wild rice and lots of vegetables. The other days we have fish or turkey, and once a week we have a beef and broccoli stir fry.
The meals are great!! We have never eaten so many vegetables in our life! We are starting to love having everything fresh and having so much variety of healthy foods. I'm getting used to cutting up vegetables for every meal. We also have 2 servings of fruit a day. We feel so healthy and we are already loosing weight and our clothes are fitting better.
Now part of that might be from the exercise too! I sure hope so! B/c we are working hard. Every night we work out for at least an hour sometimes more. The work outs are intense, but every time I complete a hard work out I feel so good. Maybe not so much physically (at least not right away) physically my body just wants to crash after a work out. I feel good physically later on. But MENTALLY I feel so good after a work out- like I Did It! The sense of accomplishment is so great, mentally and emotionally I feel a million times better than if I were to have watched TV for an hour.
Every day we motivate each other. I admit there have been some days where I was so tired from taking care of the kids, and cleaning the house that I just did not feel like working out. But Billy is such a good motivater! He says "Come on! Won't you feel good to say you've never missed a day? Let's do this." If I'm still hesitant he'll say "Well, I'm going to do it either way." And then I would feel too guilty if I didn't work out w/ him. So whether it's 7:30 or 9 pm we work out every night.
We are really excited about this.

P90X

After 4 months of no dieting/ exercising we are back in the game. But this time it's a different game. I loved WW. It was the easiest diet we've ever done, and I'd recommend it to anyone that wants to eat normal food, and loose weight. I love that it's all about controlling what you eat, and helping you to think about how to eat healthier but not going overboard- like Atkins.


But now we are doing something a lot more intense!! It's a little scary for me, but we are excited to do this. I have to admit, I don't think I ever would have chosen to do this on my own. I'm doing it w/ Billy by my side and he is my motivater.


So he kept hearing about P90X from a variety of people, and when he looked it up on the internet, he was sold. Billy used to be in great shape in HS, he did a variety of sports- including weight training and he had very little fat and a lot of muscle. So when he saw how intense these workouts were, he loved it. It's right up his alley- when he works out, he likes to push himself. The before and after pictures and videos we've seen are pretty amazing. Mostly guys and couples are doing it, b/c the guys get really ripped. So, when Billy said that we could work out together I got excited. I think it would be fun to work out w/ him, and so much easier if we are both motivating e/o. So I agreed. Now we've really gotten into it and there's no going back.


P90X comes w/ a manual that is like a book, that talks about basically how to get the best results. It talks about all the workouts and a lot about nutrition.


We will be following the exact example of what to eat that it gives in the book. (It also talks about how many calories you can have in a day and you can eat what you choose based on the calorie guide lines- kind of like WW, but we wanted to go 100% and eat the suggested meals and snacks, b/c these people know what they are talking about.


So today we had a mushroom omelet for breakfast. It was just egg whites (never done that before) w/ mushrooms, green onions, and tomatoes. It was really good. Then we had cottage cheese and strawberries on the side. We've had a power bar for a snack and then a really good chef salad. I've never put so much meat in a salad before. We got fat free turkey slices and 97% fat free ham. It says 6 oz per salad- so that was a lot. Then low fat mozzarella cheese, an avacado (that was new for me but it was good) and we added some cucumber even though it didn't say too. MMmm, that was a good salad.


And we feel so good so far. I have never eaten so many vegetables by noon before! I've always been a picky eater, so trying all these new things that I don't normally make is different for me. But I'm finding I'm liking everything so far! (my mom might be surprised to hear this. haha) So I have an open mind and I'm going to eat everything it says, and I know it'll pay off. So far I feel good!


We did the fit test last night which was a workout in itself, but the real first workout is tonight. Our only time to workout together is at night after the kids go to bed. We will be exercising everyday. And I'll be lettin' you know what it's like. It's going to be hard, but we're going to "bring it"!


The official P90X website is http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/p90x.do?code=GOOGLE_SEMB_P90X&gclid=CObE2aTx7pkCFQgNDQodlUZ_SQ&ef_id=1908:3:s_32545c9892e22acb52743badcf473685_3336511693:FJorV9BkOIYAAG9KEEwAAAAC:20090413221731