Schedule Anyone?

Here is one of the schedules that I use when working out.

The final photos…

I made it to the pinnacle! I completed P90X and feel great. Right now I am on round 2 but I have the photos from round 1. Check them out!

 

   

Day 44 is done and just 46 more days to go!

Well folk, I guess I am falling a bit behind on my blogging. I had better get on the ball if I want to blog daily on my P90X experience. I have noticed a few blogs out the in internet land where guys are blogging daily on their experience. My desire is to run through the P90X for the second time and bring the same level of intensity that you see in the videos. The second time around I will blog more often. As for the reason why I would do P90X the second time around, I am completing a lot of the routines but feel I can kick it up a level. The hardest routines for me right now are the pull-ups and some of the push-up routines. That one arm push-up is a bitch. Hell I can’t even do one without the knees touching the ground.

Today I will keep the chit chat short. I would like to point out that in the coming weeks I will post my meal plan tips and tricks sheet. The document will essentially teach one how to follow the meal plan in an efficient and effective manner. For example, if we were to look at the first week of Level II Phase 2 meal plan, it would make sense to barbecue the (1) 9 oz Extra-lean Burger, (2) 9 oz Chicken Breast and (1) 9 oz Halibut on Monday afternoon. Then on Sunday of the first week you can barbecue (1) 9 oz Filet Mignon, (1) 9 oz Extra-lean Burger, (2) 9 oz Chicken Breast and (1) 9 oz Halibut on Sunday afternoon.

Anyways, I suppose the whole tips and tricks thing must be the engineer in me shining through. I should have more info in the coming weeks.

Started training block 2 this past week.

Week 5 is history! And I do mean history.

Today I went to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf with my family and had a small double vanilla tea latte with skim milk and no sugar added powder. Man, the tea was so good! Prior to going to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, my wife and I took the kids to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. I tell you, I was drooling.

Anyhow, went grocery shopping for the first week of training block 2 and spent a lot of money on food. The total bill came to $150.00. I have gotten smarter with the preparation of the various dishes such that the leftovers are stored away for later week. To give you an example, I made 10 pear muffins and my family did not like them. I ended up freezing the remaining muffins for later use. Another little trick I do is I like to barbecue a lot of my meats. On Monday night I will barbecue the burger, halibut and two chicken breasts. On Thursdays I grill salmon, chicken breast and ahi tuna. On Sunday I grill another chicken breast and the filet mignon steak. I am definitely, grillin’ and chillin’. During training block 1, I would grill the salmon and halibut on Monday. On Thursday I would grill the top sirloin, chicken breast and swordfish.

Today I started questioning whether I was measuring thing properly. For example, one of the snacks is 2oz of soy nuts. Does this mean 2oz soy nuts weighed or 2 fluid ounces? I went with the lesser of the two and chose the fluid ounces. Sometimes it just seems as if I am eating too much food. The portions at times seem to be very large. At this juncture I am sure I am measuring things correctly.

Next week I will try to post the current cost sheet and the phase II shopping list.

Week 4 is out the door!

Well, I made it through Core Synergistic! Twice! What a workout! Even after two sessions of Core Synergistic, The routine is still rough.

Yesterday I spent some time putting together my shopping list for Phase II / Level II. Here is the list I used for the first phase. I have the list in an Excel format and would be more than happy to email to anyone interested.

Ok, here is the 28 day information.

And here are the lovely 28th day photos.

Week 3 is in the books!

Made it through week 3 and man what a ride. The Yoga X is still kicking my ass! I was quite thrilled that the recovery week was week four until I saw it was littered with Yoga X. Yikes! Anyhow, I will suck it up and make it happen.

I had a very interesting experience with the folks at beachbody.com where I placed and order for the Strength & Muscle Men’s Formula and waited for 5 days with no indication of shipment. I get online with a rep and was told that the item was very popular and was backordered. You would think that the folks would notify customers of such a thing. Instead they just sit and wait with no notice. Not a very good business practice.

On another note, this P90X is not cheap endeavor. Here is my current cost breakdown.

 

That’s a lot of money and I am only on week 3! Zoinks Batman!

Made it through week 2! Here I come week 3!

Well, week 2 is in the bag. I do feel like I have more energy. I think the Plyometrics and Kenpo X is really helping out. This week I loved the Kenpo X and Stretch workouts. The Yoga workout kicked my ass and made me sweat pretty heavily. I do however, fell that I am getting better in the Yoga workout. In addition to the Kenpo X workout, Kari and I walked almost three miles on Saturday.

I decided to change my workout time. It seems that the nutrition plan caters to a workout time between 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. I am making this assumption because the first snack break consist of a protein bar and the recovery drink. Here is what my old schedule looked like. You will see that my workout time was 4:45 a.m. every morning.

On my new schedule, I only workout at 4:45 a.m. on Monday and Tuesday. I then workout at 7:45 a.m. the rest of the week. Hope this helps those who are trying to get their schedule in order. I should also point out that I work from home on Wednesday thru Friday.

Let the games begin!

Well, I started P90X on Monday the 16th. I must say that I had some reservations given the fact that I was quite sick the week prior. Anyhow, I am off and running.

So over the past 6 days, I have completed the following with some pain:

• Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
• Plyometrics
• Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
• Yoga X
• Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X
• Kenpo X

The easiest and most fun of the workouts was the Kenpo X. Don’t get me wrong, I sweated the most with Kenpo X, however, it was fun. It was like taking a karate class! The hardest would be any of the routines that require the use of the chip up bars. I do need to do more work in this area. At this point I can only do 2 or 3 unassisted and then have to use the chair for help. You will find the chin-up bar used heavily in the Chest & Back and Legs a& Back routines. Right now I dread the chin-up bar but I suspect that I will be a master of the chin-up bar in 90 days.

I don’t recall talking about the equipment list but the item listed below are what I have.

• Yoga Block, Mat and strap
• Ball, Treadmill
• Dumbbells (3lb, 5lb, 15lb, and 45lb)
• Chin-up bar
• Push-up stands
• Resistance Bands
• Weight Lifting Gloves

Some numbers that are worth noting.

Here is my body fat percentages:

Here are my initial measurements:

Lastly, here are the lovely before photos.

 

 

 

 

 

Putting together a grocery list.

As I had mentioned earlier, I will be taking the Meal Plan Approach. The Meal Plan Approach takes out the guesswork of the daily food intake. It provides a variety of delicious, healthy, and low-fat recipes that will provide the proper amount of nutrition and energy to get the most out of the P90X workout.

The one big issue I have with the nutrition plan is the fact that there is not grocery list.No list that a person can print out and simply go shopping with. To help make things easier for me, I transferred all of the recipe ingredients to and Excel Spreadsheet. I then copied the sheet to another sheet and sorted the list alphabetically. I then copied that sheet to another sheet where the ingredients were then grouped. Here is what I ended up with.

In the coming weeks, I will post the Excel Spreadsheet.

Working inside the box.

So I cracked open the P90X box and here is what I found inside.

The three main items of importance is the Fitness Guide, Nutrition Plan, and Workout CDs.

Fitness Guide

The Fitness Guide walks through the preparation steps that one should follow to determine accomplishments at the end of your 90 days. The guide also lists the 3 exercise tracks that one can choose from to reach the level of extreme fitness. The three levels are P90X Classic, P90X Doubles, and P90X Lean. P90X Classic is the most common and the plan I will be following. P90X Doubles is the same as Classic but after 30 days you add cardio, so it’s an A.M and P.M. workout. P90X Lean is for the people who prefer more cardio and a little less upper body resistance. You will also find in the guide a post-90 day process where you compare notes to what was done during the preparation phase.

In addition to a number of other things, the guide also covers the supplement that you should take during the workouts. In my previous post I mentioned purchasing these supplements during the purchase of the program. I chose to purchase the first 30 days worth and will purchase the additional as my supplies run out. You will want to order 90 day supplies of the P90X® Peak Performance Protein Bars, P90X® Peak Health Formula, P90X® Results and Recovery Formula and the Whey Protein Powder. Please note that you can substitute the recommended supplements with one from your local health store.

It also covers the equipment that you will need in order to successfully complete the workouts. In an upcoming post, I will list out the equipment require and the cost.

The Nutrition Plan

The Nutrition Plan provides the information to keep the body clean and nourished. I am no nutrition expert; however, the book is pretty easy to follow. Like the Fitness Guide, there are three phases (Fat Shredder, Energy Booster, and Endurance Maximizer), three approaches (Portion, Meal Plan, and Quick Option) and three Nutrition Levels (Level I, Level II, and Level III). You will find a few formulas in the book to help you determine your nutrition level. The approach for me will be all 3 Phases using the Meal Plan Approach at Level II.

I have started building my shopping list for the items required to make the various meals. It sure would have been nice if the designers of the program included a shopping list. A basic list noting each item and home much to buys each week or phase. In order to accomplish this, I had to put all recipe items on a spreadsheet and sum up like items. That was some work! I will post the list in a few days.

Workout CDs

The Workout CDs are to be use in conjunction with the plans listed in the Fitness Guide. There are a total of 13 CDs. 12 CDs are needed for the exercise programs and the other CD is used to give you a better understanding of the overall program. I must say that getting the CDs out of the case that it was packaged in is somewhat difficult. Even more so, getting the CDs back in the case is another challenge. Now compound this issue with using a different Workout CD everyday to support the various workout phases. Here is what I did to assist in the rapid fire CD changing process that you will have to go through.

Well that’s it for now. I need to finish up my grocery list and create a schedule of my activities over the next 3 months.

The merchandise has been ordered!

Well on Sunday, January 26th, I went out to the BeachBody.com site and placed my order for the P90X program. Let me tell yah, this exercise thing isn’t cheap. The program is $119.85 + $19.95 (shipping) + $10.84 (tax). The grand total at the time of shipping was a whopping $150.64.

Now one would ask why I chose to purchase P90X brand new as oppose to used. Well I did the research on the internet and saw varying prices on the product. The range was from $50 up to $300. I believe that the cheaper prices were for the original P90 program. My understanding is that there are three P90 programs out there. Here is the breakdown:

P90

Tony Horton's Power 90 is the precursor to P90X. If you’re ready to get into great shape, but not quite ready for the high intensity of P90X, this is the program for you. You're guaranteed to go from the body you've got to the body you've always wanted in just 90 days!

Power 90 achieves these dramatic results through the science of Sectional Progression. Every individual move works a specific muscle group to guarantee serious muscle growth and fat loss throughout the entire body, one area at a time. Through powerful circuits of Sectional Progression you can see results in just 30 minutes a day!

P90X

P90X is a revolutionary system of 12 sweat-inducing, muscle-pumping workouts, designed to transform your body from regular to ripped in just 90 days. You'll also receive a comprehensive 3-phase nutrition plan, specially designed supplement options, a detailed fitness guide, a calendar to track your progress, online peer support, and much more. Your personal trainer, Tony Horton, will keep you engaged every step of the way, and you won't believe your results!

P90X Plus

If you have been working out with P90X you know that its a hard workout and takes a good amount of effort. Its not for the weak minded or the timid gym membership lover. The P90X workout program is extreme and will get you in the best shape of your life!

Introducing P90X PLUS Available NOW! P90X Plus is adding 5 new workout days that will keep you motivated and get you in better shape than you have ever been in your entire life.

I chose P90X because I passed the required pre-test that determine if one is capable of completing P90X. In addition, going back to why I purchased new, I purchased the product from BeachBody.com because they have a 30 day money back guarantee if I am unsatisfied with the product. Put another way, if P90X is kicking my ass, I should raise the white flag and surrender.

So, lets jump back to my experience ordering the product. Finding the product on the web site was not that difficult. P90X was front and center on the site. You simply click on the link and away you go. I added the product to my shopping cart and proceeded to check out. Upon checking out, I was bombarded with quite a few other offers, at discounted prices, that one should use when following the P90X program. As a matter a fact, I somewhat regret not selecting some of the offers. After reading the P90X literature, I am convinced that one will not see the dramatic results if they don’t have a strict nutrition plan, follow the exercise plan and take the supplements. The offers presented during the order process were for P90X® Peak Performance Protein Bars and the P90X® Peak Health Formula. If you do decide to take on the P90X challenge, do purchase the additional items at the time of ordering the product. In the long run you will save some cash.

After placing the order I immediately receive a confirmation email. Two days later I received another email indicating that the product was shipped and it would take 5 to 7 business days to arrive. Two days after that, the package arrived at my door. It turns out that the package was shipped from Los Angles and lucky for me I live in Moreno Valley. Hell, I suppose I could have drove out there and pick up the package myself.

To sum things up, the overall ordering experience was superb! Minus a few “should haves” I have no regrets.

Until tomorrow, shalom!

So the journey begins

So the folks at BeachBody.com have attracted my attention to the P90X workout program. Yeah, I fell for the whole marketing spiel, hook line and sinker. I ask you, who wouldn’t want to look like the following folks?

Over the next 3 to 4 months, my intention is to provide detailed information on my experience. I will chronicle my journey and post photos of my transformation. I am quite excited and about the experience and look forward to the results.

America, brace yourself!