P90X 60 Day Photos!

We took them last night. Usually I'm insistent on taking them in the morning before I eat anything. I tend to get that little pooch by the end of the day.

I didn't really see much of a change between Day 1 and Day 30, but I think at Day 60 it's starting to show a little bit better, especially in my back muscles. If you look real close you can even see some ab muscles trying to poke through! I'm down from 22.7% body fat to about 18-19%. I know my waist has gotten a lot smaller, but I don't know how much smaller because I didn't re-measure it yet.

It's hard to take these pictures without feeling like a total toolbag, so please excuse the doofy look on my face. I don't like having my picture taken in general, let alone half-naked and in weird poses. I wish we would have taken the "before" pictures in January when we started Power90. I think the difference from then to now would be amazing. I also wish C could take more consistent pictures. His are all the same from left to right. Same lighting, same coloring, same framing. Mine? Not so much. Lucky for him to have me behind the camera.

(note: you can click on the pictures to enlarge them. you might be blinded by my pastiness, but at least you'll be able to see my little muscles better)

P90X - Week 8 Completed

31 days to go!

I've come to the conclusion that a large percentage of this whole exercise thing is mental. Like with those Oblique V-Ups from Ab Ripper X. For the first 5 weeks that was always my stumbling block. I just couldn't push past 12 on each side. Then in week 6 I finally made it through the whole routine. Ever since then, it's all been a mental game for me and ARX. In the first half, I know I just have to get through those reverse bicycles. Easier said then done when ARX is following a legs and back workout and my hip flexors and quads are screaming in pain. After that I know I'm good until the V-Ups. As long as I can push myself past that, the rest of it is smooth sailing.

I tried the same approach to pull-ups this week. Still no success, but I'm getting closer. I made it halfway up. I keep thinking that I can just "do it." No luck so far. I traded the bands out for the chair again, hoping that's a step in the right direction. We'll see. I'll be happy if I can just do one pull-up before the end of my 90 days.

We started week 9 on Saturday, which included a disc we've never used before - Chest and Back. I knew when we were going through the routine that it was going to hurt the next day. It did. I also found my new most-hated-exercise. Dive-Bomber Push-Ups.



I fell on my face a few times at the bottom of the initial push-up, when your upper body is supposed to go through and past your hands. Mine wasn't having any part of that, I just kept getting stuck and falling down.

We also added Plyometrics back into the cardio slot. I'm starting to wonder if it will ever leave me feeling like anything other than a giant puddle of suck.

Pictures to come soon!

P90X - Week 7 Completed

Week 7 is over and we're in the recovery week of phase 2. I'm looking forward to phase 3 because it doesn't include the Legs & Back workout disc! I've gotten really bored with it lately. Wall squats, pull-ups, lunges, pull-ups, wall squats, pull-ups, etc. I think part of the problem is that I still can't do a single pull-up and it makes me sad. I started out using a chair for assistance and then moved to the resistance bands because I thought it would help, but I think I'm going to go back to the chair. I'm just not seeing any progress on that front. Charlie has been helping me practice. I'm still hoping that I'll be able to do one before we're finished with our first round.

We've also been talking about what we're going to do after we're done with this round. Charlie wants to do a round of P90X Classic, but I really want to do the Insanity program, or at least a hybrid of the two, because I just can't stand the P90X cardio discs. We've compromised - we ordered P90X Plus so we're going to do the Classic and then switch out the cardio nights for another disc or I'll go running. I went running last week for the first time since the fall and it felt really good. I forgot how great it is to exercise outside. I was able to run about 2.5 miles without feeling like I was going to die, which made me happy.


We also ordered the Tony Horton One-on-One Yoga disc. I LOVE yoga, but the P90X disc is just too much. Ordinarily I have no problem with doing 90 minutes of yoga, but between not starting it until 8:00 at night and Tony's constant hyperactivity it's just not the same. The One-on-One disk is only 50 minutes so it will fit into our schedule better.


Today is day 52 so next week we get to take our 60 day pictures! I'm excited!

Shining Example of Healthy Eating

I met a woman the other day who is a director of a pretty well-known daycare center in my area. We were talking about food and lunches, and it came up that she does not allow parents to send lunches (or any food) in with their kids unless there's a severe allergy issue.

Me: Oh, that wouldn't work for me as a parent.

Lady: Why, is your kid a picky eater?

Me: (thinks about it for a second) No, he's not a picky eater, I guess I'm just a picky parent.

Lady: Well, let me tell you about our menu before you make a judgment. You might feel better after you hear what kind of food we're talking about.

Me: OK! (thinking maybe I misjudged and that her center was similar to the organic/natural/green center a few towns over that I would love to send Charlie to but can't justify the additional commute time)

Lady: Last week we served chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers, salisbury steak, pizza, and beef with cheesy mac. You know, like hamburger helper?

Me: (trying hard to maintain a neutral smile that doesn't show my disgust) Hmm, I don't think that would work for me.

Lady: Well, it follows the state recommendation, so it has to be good.

Me: I have to go.


It's one thing to offer a lunch program that conforms to state guidelines as an OPTION for parents. Our center offers the lunch program, we just choose not to participate. There are other parents who do. If that's what works for them, then that's what works for them. But to say that you give parents NO CHOICE in the matter whatsoever, that they HAVE to allow their kids to eat what's being served, is just ridiculous.

P90X - Week 6 Completed

I can't believe we're halfway there! Today is Day 45. This week I have an accomplishment and a setback to talk about. First of all, on Wednesday I made it through all 349 exercises in the Ab Ripper X. ARX is basically 16 minutes of abdominal workout hell. Before we started P90X I thought that core strength was my "thing," after years of pilates and the like. I was able to cruise through the AR100 and AR200 on the Power90 disks, so I thought that ARX would be more of the same. Not so much. I don't know if it's the exercises themselves or the fact that you're doing it right after completing an hour of resistance training - it's probably a combination of both of those factors - but it's really freaking hard. My wheels start to fall off at the same two points each time - halfway through reverse bicycles because my hip flexors are screaming, and halfway through the oblique v-ups because my sides just can't take anymore. I knew that if I was able to push through those two exercises then I could make it the whole way. And I did! I was so proud of myself. We'll have to see if I can repeat the accomplishment tonight.

Here's a video of some random guy doing the oblique v-ups, to give you an idea what I was up against. I couldn't get past 12 without having to stop for a break. I busted out all 25 on both sides! Yay for me!



The setback for the week involves my poor knee and my out-of-alignment patella. It's been a nagging problem for years now, and I should have taken the time to strengthen it up again before we started P90X but I didn't. So it hurts, especially during lunges and squats. We're taking Plyometrics back out of the program and putting Cardio X back in. Technically we were supposed to be doing Cardio X anyway, but I preferred Plyometrics. Hopefully I can build some strength back up and then be ready to go for Round 2 of P90X.

45 days to go! Whee!

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

If you have kids, or are planning to have kids, or care about kids in any way, then you need to be watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Move over Alton Brown, I have a new culinary hero. Jamie stands for everything I believe in when it comes to food and healthy eating, especially in terms of what we're feeding our children.

Jamie is a BBC TV chef who I've watched regularly over the years. He transformed the school lunch program in the UK and now he's come over here to help with ours. The US series takes place in Huntington, West Virginia - the most overweight city in our country. It starts off with a visit to the elementary school where he finds a veritable horror show of processed crap and junk food, including flavored milk, pizzas of all imaginable variety, chicken nuggets, french fries, and the boxes and boxes of pre-cooked, chemical-filled "food" stacked in the freezer.

I still can't get over the fact that the people involved in the school lunch planning and preparation saw nothing wrong with what they were feeding their children - thought it was just fine to serve high-fat, high-sugar strawberry and chocolate flavored milk, sugary cereals for breakfast, breakfast PIZZA followed by more pizza for lunch, and an ingredient list 20+ items long on what was being called "chicken breast."

It saddens me to think that we're completely ok with feeding our kids this kind of garbage. It made me even sadder when he went into the first grade classroom and none of the kids knew what an eggplant was. Sadder still when they couldn't identify a tomato. How did we get to this point?

Then he did the "nugget demonstration" and I thought I was going to puke (if you don't have a weak stomach, you can watch the video here). What made it even worse is that the kids still wanted to eat the nugget after they saw what was in it!

I've now got a renewed commitment to making sure I'm feeding my child the best that I can. I wish I could just stick him in a food bubble.

P90X - Week 5 Completed

Man, I thought Plyometrics was bad, the worst (as in most painful) one in the series, and then we did Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps last week. WTF came up with the idea to add clapping in between push-ups? I was pretty intimidated by some of the exercises, but pleasantly surprised that I was able to do almost all of them without modification. Sure, I'm nowhere near the point of doing a real plyometric push-up, where your hands AND feet come off the floor, but at least I can get my hands up. If you had asked me 5 weeks ago if I thought I would be able to do that, I would have looked at you like you had three heads. Good times!

We're over a third of the way through! Husband has seen some pretty drastic changes. The pants that he bought two weeks ago are already hanging off of him and his belt is down to the smallest buckle. Yet he still claims not to see his awesomeness. (sigh.) Men.