Day 57 - Chest and Back + Ab Rippa X

Week 9 has started and I felt pretty damn good. I felt like beast flavored awesome with awesome sprinkles on top. OK maybe that's a bit much but it felt pretty damned good to get back into working out today after my infant induced hiatus. Chest and back was the same it always is but I made some pretty decent gains over last time that I did this workout. I'm up in reps and/or weight on every exercises and holding steady at 165 lbs. I stopped actually keeping track of my calories a few days ago and I'm holding steady at my current weight. I continue to check my weight everyday and if my weight starts to balloon again I'll go back to calorie tracking.

Day Whatever the Fuck it is

Let's start with a little fun with math: new baby + sick toddler + wife with stitches = workouts being a very low priority. The newest member of my clan has settled right into the his place of sleeping and playing with my wife's boobs but my oldest boy has had some issues over the last few days. He's been pretty sick and he is not happy about it. I'm still off work for maternity or paternity or whatever kinda free 10 days off work that I get for popping out another tax deduction. We really, really don't want a sick infant so we've kinda half-assed segregated the house. I have been taking care of the toddler and my wife has been dealing with the toddler. As a result I've had a sick kid on my lap about 12 hours a day. I managed to put him in the a running stroller I bought off craigslist for $20 (score!)for 3 miles earlier this week and today I ran with my buddy at Raven Rock for 5 miles.

The Raven Rock run was a smoker! We did a differ ant trail and the entire way is roots and rocks. Add the fact that you are very rarely on level ground and it destroyed me. The entire run your either climbing or descending. I faded pretty badly for the last half mile of climbing but whatever. I've hardly ran for the last few weeks. Both my wife and son seem to be feeling fairly chipper now though so I'm planning on getting back on schedule tomorrow. This actually coincides with the end of the rest week for P90X. With the break I don't think I've made any real progress from days 30 to 60 but hey I got a baby out of the deal so it's not that bad of a deal.

Day 50 - Chest and Back + Ab Rippa

Week 8 has started and this is supposed to be a recovery week, but since I missed most of last week due to my new son's birth I'm gonna get some work in. I did Chest & Back since I hadn't done that workout in a while and it delivered. I really enjoy the simplicity of this workout and it continues to be my favorite. There are hardly any weights, no crazy moves, just push and pull your body weight around til it hurts. I made very small gains since the last time I did this. Maybe like 2-3 reps per exercise. But hey make small gains every week and they turn into a big gain. As for ab ripper X, well nothing I haven't already said except I'm glad it's not every day. I'm not working this week so, baby permitting, I'm gonna work in some running and power lifting in addition to the P90X stuff.

If your getting bored or need more motivation try this little trick. If your using an excel spreadsheet to track your workouts like I am, then somewhere below the reps column add up the total numbers of push ups and pull ups that you do every week. It'll be something like "Sum(D1,D2,D4,D5)". It helps give you a big picture for the whole workout and makes you feel like you did alot of work.

My results today: (Not including heavy pants, lawn mowers and back flys)
Push Ups: 343
Pull Ups: 55

Diet.
At this point I'm still tracking my calories and eating low carbs but it's not really a diet so much as how I'm going to eat from now on. I don't really care if I exceed my calorie goals or if I sneak some sweets from time to time but I no actively choose to avoid sugar, bread, potatoes, pastas, and rice. When I avoid these foods and eat high quality protein I can't eat too many calories. It's simply not possible to overeat when your that full. I had some small 190 calorie fillet Mignon steaks yesterday. One hundred and ninety calories and that includes the bacon that wraps it up. Try eating over 2000 calories of lean steak and broccoli. I dare you. You could eat 10 of those little steaks and 3 cups of broccoli and you would be at 2005 calories. Well til you threw up from having over 2 pounds of beef in your stomach. I started out at 177.8 pounds and now I'm holding pretty steady at 166 pounds. I may play around with what I'm eating a bit to cut the last bit of fat but honestly if I just stay around 14% body fat like I am now forever I can live with that.

Push Ups: So easy a monkey can do them. Ya know before it freaks out and rips your face off.

NarTube - Watch Video

Sweet Sweet Fried Chicken Sex

Somehow the comments section of the post I wrote about the KFC Double Down a few weeks ago has become a place to advertise for "no strings attached sex" and methods to quit smoking. I've deleted 5 comments so far which is impressive since I think that about 2 people actually read this blog. So let me just put this out there real quick: eating KFC has never helped anyone quit smoking or have sex. You should consider spamming a website of a different topic with actual readers. Thank you and good day you smoked chicken fuckers.

My Baby Ate My Homework

So this week has been a bit of a blur and I went 4 days without working out. I also ate a crap ton of fast food and vending machine trash but I have a greeeat excuse. My wife just had my second son. Her water broke on Monday and the hospital in all their wisdom declared that um no her water didn't break and sent us home. I guess it's perfectly normal for a woman who is 9 months pregnant to just leak fluids for 14 hours. Clearly I'm no doctor cause I would assume that leaking tons of fluids and having contractions would indicate that shit is about to go down in a pregnant woman. Later on the next day we went back in just to play it safe and a different nurse was kind of like "Your water broke about 14 hours ago why didn't you come in?" Um ya about that. Anyways a few hours later I was holding a scrawny little 6 pound 1 ounce boy that was just perfect. The doctors were a bit concerned that he had some jaundice and he stayed under these crazy Burger King heat lights for a few days. We finally got the whole family home on Thursday safe and sound.

As far as my fitness schedule is concerned, I'm completely off schedule for the week but my body had plenty of time to heal up. So I'll count this as my recovery week instead of next week. I did a quick semi-half assed plyometrics last night and I'll do some lifting tonight. I'll be easing back on my running for at least another week or so because I don't wanna get too far from the house for too long until my wife is back to 100%. As a caveat to that I think I found a running stroller for $20 on Craigslist. Hopefully I can pick that up and I can take my older boy running. Not working out and eating trash had me feeling pretty sluggish but not that I'm getting back into the rhythm I'm already feeling better. The funny thing about the lack of working out is even though I was eating about 2300 calories a day and not working out, I still dropped a pound in the hospital. I was probably over training a bit last week. In about three weeks my wife is jumping on the P90X train as well. So in summary, everyone is healthy, I have a house full of little boys now, and life is pretty darn good.

Day 43 - P90X Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps

Well week 7 has started not with a bang but a pitiful whimper. Lifting yesterday really wiped me out for this workout. I was really struggling to match past weeks performance. In a few areas I saw losses, mostly in chest heavy moves. Some of the triceps and shoulder workouts I was able to move up to 30 pound dumbbells but not all.
I think that with the combination of all the running, the P90X, and the 1000-1500 calorie diet I may be overtraining. Last week I upped my carb intake to be 30-40% of my calories and set a calorie limit of 1500 a day. Since the change I haven't lost any weight. I realize that my total weight isn't what I should be concerned about so I'm changing my focus a bit. I did a tape test for body fat and I know those are inaccurate but it measured me at 15% body fat. I'd like to be around 10% or so but I'm going to play around with my diet a bit. I'm going back to an low carb diet and raising my daily calorie limit to 2000. We'll see what that gets me. Hopefully I'll maintain the same weight or add muscle without gaining fat. Next week depending on how this works out I'll change things up again.

Day 42 - P90X Legs and Back

I did the Legs and Back workout today, after realizing that I've skipped it for the last few weeks. The dumbbells really make a big difference on this workout. My legs aren't destroyed but during the workout I feel like I was working pretty hard. My only real gripe with the workout is that the three way lunges and the sneaky lunges are kinda worthless. During the time where Tony and his loyal minions were doing those sets I knocked out some free weight squats. Unlike most people I have an actual squat rack in my home gym so that may not be easy for everyone to do. However doing some heavy weights in the middle of the workout was a nice change of pace.

Diet update. Over the last week I've stayed around 1500 calories a day but I've roughly doubled my carb intake. I feel a lot more energy and much less tired but my weight loss has plateaued. I've been at 168 for about 5 days now. I know that the last few pounds of fat is going to be lost much slower than the first 10 were so I'm not too concerned but if there is no change in a few days, I'll go back to virtually no carbs. Once I get down to about 14% body fat or so, I'll make the decision to add mass or stay lean. Gotta say just for running purposes being lean is much nicer.

Day 41 - Mo Raven Rock

Matt and I ran another 4 miles of trails at Raven Rock State Park this morning. We ran a pretty decent pace but nothing insane. My legs are a bit tight at the moment and I was planning on doing legs and back this evening but ole Papa John interfered. My wife is pregnant and had a craving for Papa Johns for lunch so I complied. Instead of ordering an entire pizza we went in and each bought a single slice of awesomeness. I haven't had Papa John's in a long time and that single piece pretty much whipped my butt. I've felt tired and slow all day since then. As I write this it's 8 hours later and I still feel uncomfortably full. I have no idea how I used to be able to eat an entire pizza. One thing that made me laugh on the way home is I saw a Baby Ruth Candy bar that was advertising that it has 4 grams of protein. 4 grams OH WOW! Never mind the 300 plus calories and however much fat. It's got 4 whole grams of protein! That's slightly more protein than a cup of Broccoli! It's totally health food.

Day 40 - Picture day

Ok so I'm about 10 days past due for the 30 day picture but whatever. I still have a lot of improvements to make but I'm satisfied to see there is some visible progress. I hope to cut another 6-9 pounds of fat and then I'll decide if I wanna add some mass or just stay lean. Please excuse the quality of the pictures as the day 30 ones were taken with my phone. I tried to do yoga again today, I really did, but damn. It's soooo boring. I got all the way to the 48 minute mark this time and I was done. I'd check the time every 15 minutes and only one minute had passed. I do feel stretched out from doing the yoga but I simply don't have the patience to complete the workout. I'm sure it does great things for you but it's not for me.

Day 39 - Running

Two of my friends went to Raven Rock with me yesterday and we ran 4 miles along some trails that whipped me pretty soundly. I swear those stairs are the devil. The problem is even once you get up the stairs there is still a hill to climb. I actually ran in shoes yesterday which felt kind of strange after doing so much training in my vibrams but it did feel much easier than running in the vibrams. I think I am improving pretty well but I should really do more speed work. Maybe some intervals would be a good idea.

Day 38 - Back and Biceps

My biceps are done right now but my back feels OK. I managed a few gains on this iteration of the workout but nothing crazy. Mostly just an extra 10 pounds on the sets or a few extra reps. I did 22 pull-ups the first set and was down to maxing out at 6 by the end so I'd say I'm pretty smoked. My arms are still pretty weak compared to my back but they did improve a bit. Looking forward to seeing what happens next week when I do this workout.

Ab ripper X sucked as always but it is getting more fluid at least. I tried to get 30 reps on all the things that asked for 25 up until obliques. Those are still pretty tough for me.

I'm getting pretty tired of Tony's filibustering. Now that I know all the moves and my cardio is improved enough that I'm not panting on the floor after each set I find myself wishing Tony would shut up and get on with it. Next week I may have to make use of the fast forward button. Yoga is tomorrow but I'm just gonna run instead.

Day 37 - Got All Fern Gully On That Ass/Plyometrics

I have the day off of work so I drove up to Raven Rock and ran random trails for 52 minutes. Based on the campground map it was a total of somewhere between 4.5-5 miles but I also hit the devil stairs and kinda just wandered around so who knows. I was the only one at the park so it was very peaceful and relaxing to just run through the forest. I was pretty tempted to wear a thong and paint myself blue so that I could run through the forest while singing about Eywa, but maybe that's taking it a bit far. The park is 15 miles from my house if I take a bunch of sleepy back roads. After the baby is born I'm gonna talk my buddy Matt into riding our bikes up to the park doing a run and biking back. 30 miles of cycling, and 3-5 mile run should be a freakin smoker. I need to study today but I think I'll do plyometrics later on this afternoon.

----Update-----
I did plyometrics before dinner. I was having an urge to eat some peanut butter so I figured I better at least earn it. This workout is getting pretty easy for me. I didn't do all the excercises the way the crazy guy in the back does them but then again that asshole probably didn't run five miles this morning so I'd say we are pretty much even. This is Kyle's favorite workout by far and he was jumping around like a crazy baby for a good portion of it.

Day 36 - Chest, Back, and Triceps

So week 6 of P90X has officially started and I did my second workout of Chest, Back and Triceps. The workout went better than last week and although I've always regarded my shoulders as being pretty week they seem to be coming along nicely. I saw small improvements across the board on every exercises but nothing crazy. Sometime this week if I'm feeling antsy I'm curious to do Chest and Back from the first week. Tomorrow is supposed to be plyometrics but I think I'll go back up to Raven Rock and run 4-5 miles and then maybe knock out plyometrics later on in the day. I have Monday off from work so my energy level will be the determining factor as opposed to my schedule.

So I got a call from my sister today asking about P90X and I'm very excited for her. Both my mom and sister are going to try using the system and I am doing everything I can to motivate them to carry their ambitions through. I know that both of them are nervous about it being too intense but if they just stick with it for a few weeks they are going to have incredible gains. It motivates and excites me to see how it works out for my sister in particular. I could hear the motivation in her voice. That motivation combined with the fact that she used to be a pretty solid athlete in high school promises some pretty dramatic results. We have a deal that if she makes it to day 30 and gives it an honest shot then I can't make fun of her. I'm counting on the fact that if, scratch that, When she makes it to day 30 the results will be enough to motivate her to finish. However, if she doesn't make it that far then she gets to be forever branded a quitter and she has to post on facebook that she has a foot fetish. (She hates feet)

Day 35 - Half-Assed Cardio/Recovery

My buddy and I wen to Raven Rock State park this morning and ran some trails for 3.75 miles. The pace was relatively slow since both of us were feeling relatively beat up, but a strange thing happened during the run. I actually enjoyed running. I've been running for years, mostly forced to by work, but I don't think I've every actually enjoyed running. The whole run I didn't feel any pain in my feet or knees and I just enjoyed the feeling of soft dirt under my feet and the forest scenery around me. The trail started out with some gravel which was kind of painful to run on with vibram fivefingers, but about a half mile in it turned to softer dirt. The entire first half of the trail was a gradual climb until you reach an scenic overlook with a great view of the river valley.

Further down the trail there are some stairs that take you down the face of the cliff. The rock walls were pretty fun to poke around in and the stairs themselves were a smoker to run up. It's been along time since I ran off the pavement, with no time schedule and no where that I had to get to after the run. All in all a good recovery run.

P90X Day 34 - Core Synergetics

My legs were feeling pretty beat up this morning so I knocked out core synergetics instead of legs and back. It wasn't as bad as the first time I did it but the workout still has me make the occasional bitch noise.
We have company coming over tonight so I also declared today my diet cheat day. For lunch I had a double bison burger that came in at nearly 1000 calories. Four hours later it still fills heavy in my stomach.

Day 33 - Are we there yet? - Cardio

I just finished my longest run to date in the vibrams. This morning I knocked out 5 miles in 45:50. My goal was 9 minute miles and I just missed that. Total average according to the Garmin was 9:11. Whatever I'll take it. I hadn't run 5 miles intentionally for a while so that in itself felt pretty good. Now time for the excuses. I think I was still a little tired from Monday's cardio fest because I felt like crap from the first step. My form was also pretty lousy today. I was running very "loud", with my feet slapping and I felt like I was impacting harder than I should have been with each step. The calorie deficient diet I'm using is also catching up and I kinda crashed around the 3 mile mark. It's you remember a road as being pretty flat when you drive it all the time, but when you run it suddenly you feel like your in the Appalachians.
Hopefully I only have about a week left of the diet. I'm down from 177.8 to 168.2 as of this morning before the run. I'm almost at the 10 pound mark in less than 2 weeks, and that is much better than I had anticipated. My original goal was to get to 169 by the end of June. I thought that 1000-1200 calories a day plus at least an hour of exercise a day would be to extreme, but other than just prior to meals I feel fine. I am looking forward to being done with it and eating some bread and pasta though. Carbs are the devil, but the devil can be pretty yummy.

Day 32 - Taking the Guns off Safety (Back and Biceps)

I did Back and Biceps for the first time today. I think I was getting a bit cocky about the P90X and then Tony showed me that I suffer from a medical condition known as Bitcharmitis. I knocked out 21 pull-ups in the first set but by the end I was struggling to get 5. This workout destroyed my biceps. I didn't realize how weak it was compared to my triceps but by the last half of the workout I was only using 20 pound dumbbells and even those were causing sweat to pop. I'm not sure if I like a whole workout devoted mostly to biceps, but it's clear that I could use some strength building in this area. Even though I know I need to do it I think I just associate arm workouts with douchebags like this guy.

Day 31- Cardio-Mania! Plyo + Run

Knocked out 3.66 miles in 30:44 this morning. Felt pretty good and it no longer feels weird to run in my vibram fivefingers. I still get strange looks especially since I wore them in the Army PT uniform, but oh well. It works damn it. Everyone else in my unit is on vacation so it looks like I won't be working past noon for the whole month of June. When I got home I was still feeling froggy so I knocked out a plyometrics workout. I thought I'd be dying since I ran earlier but it wasn't bad at all. My quads were kinda smoked but I felt like taunting the TV the whole time. "Screw you Tony! I don't need a water break. Let's do this!" My 1 year old son just learned to jump a few weeks ago so he just thought I was playing with him the whole workout. I even taught him to go flex in front of his mommy when we get done. Had a protein shake for breakfast and two chicken soft tacos for lunch. Hopefully I'll drop another 5 pounds this week and I'll be at or near my body fat goal.