Disclaimer: P90X is tough and you should be in decent shape before going all out using this system. You could certainly use P90X to get fit but listen to your body and only do what you can. This is *my* journal and I do not advocate that anyone do what I'm doing. Some of it is probably very foolish and you should do your own research and/or consult with a doctor before doing crazy stuff like this.
I know I was going to wait until next week to start this journal but something happened this week that has made me want to jump in early. Today's post won't be a journal because I haven't really done anything except plan. Instead, this will be my road map to hell (you know, my best of intentions).
Let me explain what happened first and then explain how I plan on fixing it.
I haven't been exercising much since getting hit in the throat during karate practice. My diet hasn't been terrible for the most part but there have been periods of terrible. As a result, I've been putting the weight back on that P90X took off. I've seen it coming and I've known that I'll need to get back to exercising and thought that the new year would be the appropriate time.
We are going on a cruise in June and I want to be in excellent shape, both so I look good and so I can fully take part in any activities that I choose. My wife and I both had plans to start after the new year in preparation for the cruise.
I'm starting a week early because my gut says that I have to.
Not my gut feeling or instinct but my actual gut.
I'd known that I was slowly slipping backward but one day it was like my stomach muscles just gave up the fight.
"Screw it! We're not holding this back anymore. If you don't care, either do we."
One day, I woke up with this gut. It's not *huge* but it's very different than what I looked like after 70 days of P90X. I wasn't the only one that noticed either.
My pants were tight, my shirt was tight, there was no escaping this feeling of growth. To top it off, as I was pushing Trey around a store on Friday, he said, "Daddy, your belly's gettin' big."
He's subtle and tactful in a way that only 3 year olds can truly pull off.
My wife was laughing and has declared that the funniest comment of 2007. I don't know if Trey timed this at the end of the year in order to garner the award or if he had any real strategy. I don't think it's the funniest thing that was said but the statement was shocking enough that I couldn't think of something said earlier in the year to challenge it.
I decided that I couldn't wait an extra week before doing something. To top that off, I went to work on Friday night. One of my officers asked where I had been. I said that I had been on vacation. He patted my gut and said, "I see that."
I don't have any idea how this overnight perception change occurred but I do know that I'm not going to put up with it. My vague outline has 3 parts to it.
- Phase 1 - Damage Control (desperately needed apparently)
- Phase 2 - Target Practice
- Phase 3 - Cruisin' to to the Cruise
My pants are starting to get uncomfortably tight where they were once very comfortably loose. Phase 1 is all about getting a little breathing room, quite literally. The cornerstones of this part of the plan are comprised of diet and exercise (I've heard that it works) and a bit of supplementation.
The diet I have already changed. I started Friday night by going low carb. This is the quickest way that I know to get a little size off my waist. By going low carb, my body will start dumping water and that will make things a little more comfortable. I will stick with mostly chicken at home and have beef and fish at work. Beverages will be water and tea. I'm going to have a little bit of fruit to satisfy my desire for something sweet. I'm also going to continue taking my multi-vitamin and have added one of those "super food" supplements that gives you nutrition from fruits and vegetables. I think real fruits and vegetables are better but this is better than nothing and will help serve my purpose.
Exercise will start today. I'm going to do doubles when time allows (a P90X workout plus a cardio workout in the same day) but mostly I'll be concentrating on the weights. I have found that the best way to change my body composition is with weight training. I trained for and ran a half-marathon and never lost a pound. I was overweight and stayed overweight. I know that part of that is diet but I also know that my body just responds great to weights. For Phase 1, I'm going to be doing 5 days of weight training per week (3 days, 1 day off, 2 days, 1 day off, start over). I'll do Plyo on one of the off days and probably Yoga on the other one. I'm still only going to do Ab Ripper X 3 times a week. "Only". Ha!
Doubles will be hard until after the New Year's celebration has died down but I'll see what I can do. I'm barely going to have time to sleep on Monday and Tuesday but maybe I can sneak in 20 minutes of Turbo Jam. I'll be doing plenty of walking on those days too and have been recording my walking with my pedometer. I'll list my mileage as part of my journal.
The last part of my damage control will be supplements. I'll be taking all my favorites as usual which you can find listed HERE. In addition, I'll be adding an EFA and a fat-burner. EFAs have proven to be helpful in weight loss. Fat-burners are still questionable for a lot of people. At this point, I'm willing to try it if it will help jump start my program. The EFA I ordered is NOW's Omega 3-6-9 and the fat-burner I picked is ALRI's Venom Tri-Lean System. The Venom System looks like it works on the problem from all different angles so I'm going to be giving it a try.
I have been shopping with Bodybuilding.com for years and I have loved their prices and their service. If you have a fitness New Year's resolution, I can't recommend them enough for your supplement needs (or wants). If anyone tries the Venom system, let me know how it works for you. I will be documenting my results here, of course, for the world to see.
I don't have any hard time lines for each phase. I will end Phase 1 when it feels like I'm just not getting enough energy from my food to keep it up. When that happens, I'll switch to Phase 2 - Target Practice.
For Phase 2, I'll be concentrating on diet and exercise (seriously, I've heard that it works) and maybe supplementation.
For the diet, I'll switch to what I call my "no-white diet". It's not low carb, not even close. If I start feeling like I don't have the energy to keep up with the P90X workouts, I'm going to increase the carbs. There are things that I won't be adding though (or at least not in large amounts) and most of those things happen to be white, hence the name. I'll restrict my intake of sugar, flour, white bread, potatoes, white rice, and pasta. I know that a lot of people thrive on these carbs but I have found that my body does not. I'll increase my intake of more colorful fruits and vegetables, do whole grain if I feel like having something along those lines, and cut back on the protein a bit to make up for any increased consumption.
For exercise, I'll cut back the weight training to 3 times a week but continue to do doubles when I can. I'll rotate workouts around to keep things fresh. I've ordered the P90X+ series to add more DVDs to my choices for workouts. Between P90X, Turbo Jam, and P90X+, I should be able to keep myself amused. If I can't, I'll just get more. One of the most fundamental aspects to fitness is finding something that you really enjoy doing. For me, part of that is changing things up. Some people like routine. Some people like sports. All that matters is that you find something that you like doing. Trying to force yourself to be fit is a long uphill battle that most people lose.
I have no plans at this point for any special supplementation for Phase 2. I'll keep on with my usuals and that might be all.
I'll stick with Phase 2 until I get down to either 175 pounds or six pack abs, which ever comes first, and then I'll move to Phase 3.
For Phase 3, I'm going to try something new and innovative and base my weight and fitness on diet and exercise (for those of you new to my blog, this is an ongoing joke from way back) and maybe supplementation.
Phase 3 seems like a long way off right now so I'm not going to commit myself to anything yet. I'd like to scale back off of doubles so that I have more time for other things. Maintenance or my Cruisin' to the Cruise should be easier than getting down to my goal.
One thing that I'm going to do through all the phases is work in recovery weeks. I'll do the weight lifting workouts for 3 weeks and then take a week off from the weights. I'll change up the workouts for the next go 'round and keep cycling through 3 weeks of weights and 1 week of recovery until the cruise.
My diet will probably be more of the same from Phase 2. I'll get plenty of chances to break my diet while I'm on the cruise. I've never been on a cruise before but everyone that I have talked to says that you are practically tripping over food the entire time.
Supplementation for Phase 3 will depend on two things, how close I am to being ripped (if close at all) and how well the supplements from Phase 1 worked. If I'm looking great, I won't change anything. If I'm close and feel like I need some extra help AND I feel like the 3-6-9 and Venom helped, I'll use them again for the last 4 weeks to see just how lean I can get.
If everything works out, I should be looking great for my cruise.
There you have it. My plan to be in the best shape that I can do in 5 months using P90X as the backbone to my plan. I will journal my progress each day and release the post each Sunday. I know that people find my blogging helpful but I'm doing it more for myself, to keep my efforts honest. It's easy to excuse myself from a workout but it's harder to announce to the whole world that I gave up. =)
You guys are my workout partners in this endeavor. Instead of counting the days up like I did for the first attempt at P90X, I'm going to count the days down to keep reminding myself how close the cruise is getting.
Wish me luck on the next 161 days!
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You can find out more about Million Dollar Body and Beach Body products HERE. I'll answer any questions left in the comments section or you can email me if you feel more comfortable doing that.
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