If you’re anything like me, you thought workout videos died a painful death along with other oddities from the 1980′s, but apparently they just ditched Richard Simmons and switched to DVD. For those of you who haven’t heard of P90X, it’s apparently the latest workout video ‘everyone’ has been talking about.
I’d not heard of it until a friend of a friend started talking it up non-stop at lunch a few months back; then, a friend of my sister started posting her impressive results on facebook; soon, my roommate was talking about buying it, and everyone I know seemed to know someone who was doing it. So when the opportunity arose for me to try it out, I figured I’d see what all the fuss was about.
Two days later, I am in incredible pain. I seriously cannot recall a time in my life where my muscles hurt more than they do right now. Yesterday, we only made it half an hour into the workout before I threw up and jogged in place for the rest of video.
If I were sane, I’d probably step back now and consider doing this at some point in a healthier future, but I’m going to try and keep it up, because I made a commitment to my roommate to do it with him (and the fact I’m going to be the best man at a wedding coming up at the end of July might play a tiny part in my decision as well)
But for those of you thinking P90X will help you lose serious weight, I suggest you think again. This program was tailored toward people who are in average to above average shape looking to make the jump to great shape. It most certainly was not intended for people with 80 pounds left to lose.
I’d listed running a 5k as one of my New Year’s resolutions, but like so many things in my life, it was always something I was ‘intending’ to get to, but was unlikely to actually do anytime soon. Two of my buddies at work, who’ve been very supportive of my weight loss goals, took it upon themselves to register for the local race in the hopes of getting me to run as well, and it worked.
Seeing as how this is a blog dedicated to my personal nutrition and fitness, you’d think I would have mentioned the fact that I was registered to run a 5k yesterday. However, given the fact that it was at 7am and that I hadn’t really been training for it at all, I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to show – as anyone who knows me can attest, the only time I’m up at 7am is if it’s because I’m still up from the day before.
But I did show, and I ran (or more accurately – walked, with alittle running mixed in), and I did okay. I was aiming for under 40 minutes and I got decently close with an official time of 41:35. The cold morning air was harder to breathe than the warmer air at the gym, and the concrete/asphalt was waaaaaay harder on my knees than the treadmill, so I’ll happily take that time.
Now, as soon as I can walk without hobbling, I’ll look towards running another.
Second day in a row my weigh-in has jumped 4 pounds. That’s 8 pounds in two fricking days! Seriously, wtf?
These are the kinds of results that cause people to quit. I mean, I know I haven’t been eating like a saint or hitting the gym like a champ, but an 8 pound upswing just feels like sucker punch straight to the gut. I didn’t see a jump that bad from day to day during the holidays, even when I ate cheesecake multiple days in a row.
I know I’ve really got to get more disciplined if I want to keep seeing results as I lose weight, but I had felt like I was doing alright this last week; not great, but alright.
My only real option is to soldier through and work harder. Maybe alright isn’t good enough.
So today marks the end of week one for the Perfect 10 Challenge and here is my weekly update:
So, overall, not a great week for my goals. Still I reversed the rising weight trend I had over the month of December, and I didn’t miss any of these (except my weight loss goal) by a large margin. I expect next week to include a lot more successes.
Something you probably don’t know about me: I’ve been to 15 different countries (other than the United States) including the two smallest in the world (Vatican City & Monaco).
I’ve also been to 49 of the 50 U.S. States – the 48 contiguous States were hit all in one road trip where friends and I spent 10 weeks zig-zagging across the country and back in order to get pictures at all 48 ‘Welcome to’ state signs. Unfortunately, about two thirds of the way through the trip, our laptop died and all the pictures we’d taken up to that point were lost. In the end we only ended up with pictures at the state signs we had yet to visit (17 or 18 if I recall correctly).
Mary over at A Merry Life has the absolute best resolution I’ve read yet:
I’m just going to throw it out there that this year is going to be awesome. Seriously. My goal? Be awesome.
I’m totally adding that to my list.
Happy New Year everyone!
While I didn’t end the year on a great note, I played most the chords right in 2009; a trend I intend to build on in 2010. I’ve broken my goals into two categories – Resolutions are things I intend to WILL begin doing, or do better, Un-Resolutions are things I intend to WILL stop doing.
The only problem with resolutions (both the standard and “Un” kind) is that they are usually high level concepts or long term goals such as “Be Financially Responsible” or “Stop Feeling Guilty about the Past” which makes them both difficult to implement (where do you start?) and hard to keep in focus from day to day. To quote Tyler over at 344pounds “The more important part is how we’re going to accomplish your goals…”
With that in mind, every Monday I’m going to create a list of things I intend to do that week in order to achieve my longterm goals. Most of the time the list will consist of small, easy to do things, as success in most of the goals I’ve laid out is more a matter of consistency than anything else. Other times, bigger, more significant items will make an appearance. All of them will be done.
With that in mind there’s almost certainly going to end up being a lot of overlap between my Perfect 10 Challenge goals and my weekly list, but that’s fine. Participating in a challenge is good, continuing to evaluate myself weekly after the 10 weeks are up is better.
The last twenty days mark the longest I’ve gone without posting on this site in the 35 weeks since I’ve started all this. Twenty days – that’s a long time.
Long enough for me to see my biggest jump up on the scale since I started weighing in everyday. Long enough to gather a few questionable glances from friends when eating a holiday cookie, as if to say “Are you even paying attention to what you’re eating anymore?” Long enough for me to start craving soda with certain foods again. Basically, it was long enough to illustrate that I’m still much farther away from my goal than I am from the 325 pounds I used to be.
I’ve been catching up with the sites on my blog roll and I’m definitely not the only one who’s posted a gain this holiday season, so I’m definitely in good company. However, I am the only one who was more or less stalled headed into the month of December. And I’m definitely the only to have hit this long a plateau so far removed from their goal. It’d be a real disservice to myself to try and pretend that the gears weren’t in motion well before the holiday temptations crept into the picture.
Luckily I’ve got some great support to help me get back on the wagon. A coworker of mine has challenged me to run a 5k with him this April. South Beach Steve has a great new challenge to follow up the Hot 100. And Daria’s comments (more specifically, the email I get on my phone telling me I have new comments) kept reminding me the site was sitting here, begging for my attention.
I spent the better part of 2009 trying to undo years worth of bad habits. While I certainly haven’t finished that process yet, I saw more success than failure, and that’s a victory in my book. For 2010 I plan to continue that work, but it’s also time I started to replace those old poor habits with some new, healthy ones. I’ve got until the 1st to put my list together for The Perfect Ten – Any Suggestions?
I haven’t been updating the site the last week or so, other than to enter my decidedly underwhelming daily weigh-in’s. For a couple of days now I’ve intended to write a post dedicated to why I’ve been so lax in my posting, and so unfocused in my diet, but it seemed I couldn’t muster the interest to even do that.
Enter Rachel’s post over at Body By Pizza detailing her trip to NYC, which contains the following call to action:
Seriously, if you’re still fat (in that ‘I can’t even bend over to tie my shoes’ way), the time has come to get un-fat. All logic aside, it’s just something you need to do. Sure, counting calories isn’t glamorous and setting aside a few hours each week to exercise won’t always be your first choice (at least at the beginning), but doing these things is so fucking worth it. Not only will you prevent your heart from giving out at a ridiculously young age, but you will feel amazing from sunrise to sunset — guaranteed. If I’m saying this as a 5’2″, 185-lb individual, you can only imagine how good this shit is going to get! It’s time to grow up, cut the crap, get to work, and come join me as a permanent resident of Cloud Nine.
It sounds alittle hokey but, for whatever reason, this is exactly what I needed to hear right now. After reading that, instead of writing a post about why I haven’t been updating the site or going to the gym, I packed my gym bag and brought it to work this morning.
Cloud Nine, here I come.
There’s no doubt I’m a stress eater – I can attribute at least 50 of the pounds I need to lose to specific traumatic events. Since starting this site, I’ve made some poor food choices, and I’ve given in to cravings on more than one occasion, but today is the first time I’ve really faced the challenge of eating to placate negative emotions.
Last week, ‘South Beach’ Steve over at Log My Loss launched the “Hot 100 Challenge” to get people to set weight-loss goals for the last 100 days of 2009. It’s a great idea and, knowing that working out has been a key factor missing from my current regimen, I decided my goal was going to be a minimum of 30 minutes in the gym, 3 days a week. The very next morning, I broke my toe
“Oh well,” I thought to myself “I guess I won’t be participating after all.” And I’ve been limping around in sort of a funk ever since (not just from the toe mind you, it just seems to be icing on the maelstrom-of-problems cake I’ve been served recently).
So, today ended up being a terrible day at work, and on the drive home I was incredibly tempted to call up a friend of mine and hit up the local Claim Jumper to throw down one of the ridiculous meals we used to eat (a couple of years ago, I would easily take in 3500-4000 calories at such a meal). I wanted it real bad – I swear I could taste the bacon on the potato skins and the whip cream on the chocolate shake. I didn’t want to just cheat, or go over my calorie limit for the day, I wanted to gorge myself until I felt as bad physically as I did emotionally.
In the end, I stopped at the local deli and got a roast beef wrap. I’m really happy with the decision I made, and, in large part, it’s due to the accountability this site provides that I made it. So if you’re reading this, I want to say thank you.
I also want to announce my (revised) goal for the Hot 100 Challenge*: 3 pounds a week.
Just because I can’t get into the gym right away, doesn’t mean I don’t have other room for improvement. In the last 22 weeks I’ve lost 34.3, which averages out to 1.56 pounds per week, and for the next 93 days intend to double that figure. While not astronomical, it’s going to be a challenge, particularly while I’m kept inactive due to my toe, but I’m going to pull it off.
For those of you who weren’t aware, about 2 months ago I bet my friend Russ that I would lose 15 pounds faster than he would. Today I officially won, losing 15 pounds compared to Russ’ 10.1.
At first glance, neither seems like a huge number over the course of 2 months, but that’s a pace of 60-90 pounds a year. Imagine if someone you knew went away for a while (say off to college) and when you saw them 6 months later they’d put on 30-40 pounds. It would be shocking. The difference would be obvious and you’d be amazed they could have changed so much, so quickly.
For some reason, the social impression of losing weight at that same rate doesn’t seem to have the same ‘wow’ factor. However, the truth is, gaining or losing 90 pounds is a truly life changing event, and Russ and I are in the midst of it. It’s actually kind of exciting when I stop to appreciate it.
In the end, I’m really proud of all the work Russ and I put in. Losing 10 pounds in 2 weeks is difficult, but losing 10 pounds in two months is commitment.
