Are You Serious? Just Shoot Me...

I was all excited when I woke up this morning to pull doubles this week to make up for my food orgy yesterday. I was only able to squeeze in 30 minutes of cardio this morning due to time constraints, but I wasn't worried since it was my extra workout anyway. I definitely should've finished, because in the end there was no workout for me tonight.

Work got a little busy when I was ready to leave, so I decided to stay for an extra hour and help out one of my instructors in class. Generally the chances of me getting injured when teaching are about 0.0001%, and today didn't seem to be any different. About halfway through the class we were up demonstrating an elbow technique, and my instructor was actually doing it while I was holding a focus mitt. He throws the elbow and *WHAM* he hits the pad solid while somehow hitting me right below the elbow in a nerve. It hurt like hell, but I was more confused as to how he hit my arm since he hit the pad square. After we finished the demo I look at him and said, "does you elbow hurt? I think you hit me." He just kind of looked at me and said, "yeah, but I'm not sure how." Yeah, we're meatheads, I know. Anyway, I have to give him credit though - he hit the nerve hard enough to send pain shooting down to my hand and make me lightheaded. I haven't had that happen in a while.

Anyway, on my way home my whole arm was throbbing and my elbow was starting to tighten up. I figured it would go away soon, but by the time I got home it was worse and even a little swollen. I downed a few ibuprofen and went through Ab Ripper X hoping my arm would feel better at the end. Everything was going strong until right when finishing mason twists I collapsed (like I normally do) right onto my arm and elbow. Normally I wouldn't have even noticed, but that landing sent a shockwave through my arm that unleashed a fury of expletives from my mouth. Yeah... it hurt.

I tried doing a push up and the pain was pretty bad. I know I could've been a tough guy and made it through the workout, but I've gotten this far without any major injuries by listening to my body. There's no reason to push to the breaking point since an injury will just side track me longer. With 30 minutes of cardio and Ab Ripper X done today I at least got some work done, but missing chest/shoulders/triceps really ticked me off. If my arm is feeling up to it tomorrow I'll try and get it done in the morning and do plyo later. If not, I'll see if I can circle back around at the end of the week.
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Hardbody Geeks just got a little geekier

I figured since I've been spending a good amount of time on this silly blog that I might as well make it official and get us a domain name. I hopped over to my completely overused GoDaddy account (yes, the same one whose VP is driving up the prices on auctions), and decided to register Hardbodygeeks.com! Much to my surprise it was completely untouched - I guess I am just that creative in my titling.

Anyway, you can now enjoy reading your favorite blog at www.hardbodygeeks.com. However, you if try and reach us by going to hardbodygeeks.com (sans the www) it may not work immediately - I'm waiting for some DNS forwarding to propagate. Enjoy! Read More...

The Path to Being a Hardbody Geek

While it's been great fun relating my stories of pain and anguish while going through P90X, part of my hope in writing this blog is that other geeks out there will see what we're doing and realize that you don't have to condemn yourself to a life of being a Mountain Dew swilling code monkey in order to keep your geek credentials. Personally I think most geeks sell themselves short on the physical end and just assume that since you're smart and enjoy the glow of an LCD screen at 3:00am that you need to look like a pear. Well, I'm here to say that isn't so, and I've put together some ideas on how to get yourself on the path to being a hardbody geek.

The first step for all your wannabe hardbody geeks is to realize that being in shape is not just reserved for gym rats and muscle-bound freaks. Anyone is capable of getting into good shape, but you also must realize that it’s going to take some time and effort. From my experience we geeks are notoriously obsessive about things (hence the reason why we can play WoW nonstop for 12 hours), and so we need to take our OCD tendencies and put them to work for us.


Step 1: Become the Expert – On Yourself

Part of the geek mantra is to become an expert on anything you’re about to buy or do. I think we do it because we like to flex our intellectual muscle when we’re around our friends, but the reason doesn’t really matter. Eventually we want to become experts on nutrition and fitness, but first we need to become experts on ourselves. This is usually the most depressing step – owning up to realizing you’re out of shape and actually taking an inventory on it. Here’s where you can get some help:

Body Fat Percentage Estimator – Body fat (and its loss) is one of the best indicators of how well you are doing on a fitness and nutrition plan. Tons of people rely on the scale only, but that’s just part of the equation. Personally I can fluctuate 5 pounds up or down on a given day just by how much water I drink. This calculator is based on the Navy Circumference method and is an estimate only. However, it does give you a decent idea as to where you stand.

Body Fat Percentage Information - Now that you have your approximate body fat, look on the chart and see how you are doing. Just so you know, being in the “Adults in the Unites States – Average” box is not necessarily a good thing. It means you’re not classified as obese, but you know you can do better.

You may decide later on to get more in-depth in this personal inventory, but for now this should hopefully start getting you going in the direction of wanting to become a hardbody geek.


Step 2: Become the Expert – On Nutrition and Fitness

Like I said before, we geeks like to be experts on everything we do. Well, there’s no way we’re going to work out if we don’t know every tiny little intricacy in doing it right. With that in mind, here are a few places to turn for information:

Nutrition.gov – Your tax dollars hard at work. The feds have put together a site that gives good general information about nutrition. This is the place to start if you know nothing about nutrition.

How to read food labels - I’ve always been amazed at how people still don’t know how to read food labels. Here’s a primer on the art of understanding what is in your food.

EXRX.net – Probably the most comprehensive online source for fitness information out there. This site offers a little bit of everything, so take your time and look through it extensively. If you read everything on here you’re definitely on your way to becoming an expert.


Step 3: Find the Right Program for You

Alright, so we’ve been honest with ourselves and realize that we’re officially out of shape. We’ve even gone as far as becoming an expert in the fields of fitness and nutrition. But what are we supposed to do from here? Buy all new food, join a gym, buy some sweatbands, and start pumping iron? Well, unfortunately that’s what most of the inexperienced folks do, and that’s going to lead to failure. Yes, I know – you did all this reading and you’re now an expert... right? Actually, you’re pretty much the equivalent of a paper-MCSE. You have all the knowledge, but no real experience to put it effectively into practice. What you need is someone (or something) to guide you through the workout and nutrition at least for a little while. We need to crawl before we can walk, and trying to design our own fitness and nutrition plan from scratch with only the internet as guidance is like strapping a pair of rocket boots on to a 3-month old. In theory it will work, but the sickening splat at the end reminds you that it wasn’t the best of ideas. There are a couple of ways you can go about this:

Get a trainer AND nutritionist
This is by far the most expensive option, but if you are a successful geek then maybe this won’t be a problem. Notice how I said get a trainer AND nutritionist. A trainer is someone that will develop a workout plan for you, guide you through it, and be a constant source of motivation. However, a trainer is not necessarily a nutritionist. A nutritionist needs a college degree and usually some type of state certification. Many trainers will give “nutrition advice,” but there’s no guarantee that they know what they’re talking about. By pairing the two up you get the best of both worlds. And since you’re able to afford both of them don’t skimp on the workouts – work with your trainer 4-5 days per week. Some lame, 3-day a week workout program isn’t going to keep you on track.

Find an at home workout program
This option is probably about 1/100th the cost of the above option, and for many it can yield the same results. Why are there no steps in-between the two? Well, I’m assuming that the wannabe hardbody geeks are workout n00bs, and joining a gym is just going to be a colossal waste of money. Sure, you can hire one of their trainers, but if you don’t have the ability to pay for 4-5 sessions per week then save it and head back home. Besides, heading into a gym with a bunch of jocks is like walking into freshman year of high school all over again. Save yourself the trouble (and possible humiliation of dropping a barbell on yourself).

Since this blog is primarily about using the P90X then obviously that would be one of my top recommendations. The main reason I chose the P90X program was because it had the complete package of fitness and nutrition. You are more apt to stick with a program that is simple, and P90X is about as simple as they come. However, the workouts are extremely intense and may be too hard for somewhat just starting a fitness program. If that’s the case, I would recommend P90X’s little brother, Power 90. The program includes both the fitness and nutrition portions, so it will get you on your way to being a hardbody geek.


Step 4: Track Your Progress – In Public!

Usually when people start fitness working out and eating well (notice I didn’t say the word diet – more on that in subsequent posts) they tell everyone they know – sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, co-workers, and passersby on the street. Then about two weeks later no one hears about it anymore (then again they don't ask), the thrill of telling people is over, and then before you know it you’re back to your old ways. In most areas of our lives we are accountable for what we do, and I think that one of the best ways to get yourself on the path to being a hardbody geek is to be accountable in a public forum. A blog is probably the easiest way to do it, and you can even gain some notoriety from your friends and family with your witty and insightful posts. If you’re so inclined you can even venture into the greater blogosphere and try and get other people to read what you’re writing. Before you know it you’ll build a network of people that can support you through your endeavors. While it’s nice to know that mom still loves you, you can’t beat intheface34 giving you a thumbs up about puking during your last workout.


Step 5: Set Geek Incentives

One of the great joys in taking part in a fitness and nutrition plan is that you get to reward yourself for every tiny little thing that you do. Use this to your advantage and set some geek incentives for doing well – think of it at Xbox 360 achievements for real life. You can set these incentives with pretty much anything – body fat loss, consecutive workouts, you name it. Got a gadget you’ve been wanting for a while? Buy it for yourself as a present after successfully completing your first 30 days. Dying for a new laptop? Get it after you finish 90 days. You were probably going to buy those things for yourself anyway, so why not double the enjoyment of purchasing by satisfying both your geek and newly christened hardbody sides?


Yes, these steps are somewhat simplified in that they skip over the sweat dripping, pain filled, puking inducing workouts. However, it's the workouts that are the easy part. They take up a grand total of 60 minutes of your entire day – barely enough to get in the way of a TF2 frag session. The hard part is staying focused on the overall idea of getting into shape and not getting discouraged. There’s also the issue of allowing yourself to find excuses that get in the way of your workouts – excuses suck and they’re a waste of time. Your boss wouldn’t let you get away with, “well, I didn’t get the project done because I was in my raid party until 2:00am” so why should your body be any different?

Be sure to check out the Hardbody Geeks store for all of your P90X and Power 90 program and equipment needs.

About the Author
Force Trainer is a geek turned self-defense instructor that realized you can still devote hours of your life to gaming while staying in good shape. He has coined the terms “hardbody geek” and “Mountain Dew swilling code monkey” as ways of describing the opposite ends of the geek workout spectrum and is currently working on an equally original scale to describe levels of muscle soreness in the common geek. He still considers himself to be a “wannabe hardbody geek” because he does not yet have a six pack to show the ladies.

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Sins of our Brothers

If Muddy's Red Robin outing was considered a failure by him then today for me was nothing more than straight up sin. As I commented on Muddy's post, while it's great to follow your diet to a "t" there's also the fact that we live in the real world where you're not always 100% in control of when and where you eat. Today was my test to see how I could survive in the wild.

I knew when I woke up this morning that I was heading over to a friend's for a house warming party. I've actually known for quite a while, and since I accepted the invitation to the party I started thinking about how I was going to handle the food. I knew there was going to be hamburgers, hotdogs, tons of side dishes, desserts, and god only knows what else. All of my friends know that I'm taking part in P90X, but at the same time I was in a bit of a quandry when it came to the food at their party. I was worried about being "that dieting guy," showing up with my own food despite the plentiful buffet that they worked hard to provide. I chatted with Muddy briefly about what I should do because I didn't want to insult my friends, but at the same time I knew that they would completely understand and wouldn't mind what I did. Regardless, I felt that it was rude to snub by nose at their hospitality. Am I being overly polite? Probably... but that's just me.

In the end I ate a decent breakfast and snack before I went so that I wouldn't be starving when I got there. While at the party I ate the following:
- Hamburger with lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard, and a bun.
- A little bit of potato salad and coleslaw.
- Two small helpings of baked ziti (mmmm.... goooooood).
- A brownie (yes, I know, don't even say it. And yes, it was worth it).

It was pretty much like walking into the belly of the beast. At best I figure I consumed about 1000 calories with more fat than I can probably calculate in my head, and worst case scenario I was around 1500 calories. While not great, I gave myself some wiggle room with what I ate at breakfast and dinner, so I'm thinking that I came in about 200-300 calories over what I normally eat. Not so bad considering.

Obviously this is not something I going to make a habit out of (this gets classified as a special occassion), and I'm going to have to eat very clean this week to avoid any negative effects. However, I got through the party without any major downfalls, I was able to show my appreciation by eating their wonderful food, and I left without feeling too guilty.

And what about my workouts? I would've been on track to finish up week 6 today (I got a day behind because of my Tuesday schedule), but when I got home from work last night I felt horrible and took a little nap. That nap turned into a fitful, sweat-filled sleep and when I woke up I felt worse than when I first fell asleep. Why I felt like crap I'm not sure, but I was not in any shape for a workout. Instead I got as much sleep as possible, and this morning I took legs and back by storm. I managed to squeeze out a few more pull-ups which is great, but that didn't help the fact that I missed Kenpo this week. I hate dropping workouts, but I guess it happens. Instead of beating myself up about it now I'm going to beat myself up next week and do doubles on Monday and Wednesday to make up the difference. That should make up a not so hot week 6.
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Master Chief - Take 2

Alright, I admit - I'm cheating right now because I'm changing my pics. However, to be fair - they friggin' sucked. I've been staring at myself in the mirror every day for 43 days and I KNOW for a fact that I look better than those monstrosities. I've been actually brewing over them to the point where I was pissed thinking, "holy crap, I've worked harder than that!!" So, taking a few cues from Muddy's pics (he looks awesome by the way) and some manscaping tips from our faithful reader Prophet I present to you Force Trainer on day 43 :)

And before you ask, yes... I took down the old pics. It's one thing to have a reminder of how you looked back when. However, those pics didn't represent me the way I look NOW, and a lot of it was due to the fact that I was standing in front of a yellow curtain. Since I'm already of the banana-colored persuasion (half-asian for those that need to know) it's a definite no-no. I was always told by my mom that wearing yellow made me look jaundiced... I've also learned it makes me look fat! So, these second set of pics were taken in a room that was a little more white, and I was able to compensate for the flash with as much other light as possible. Since these pics look MUCH better than the last set I know it was due to the way they were taken, not because I really look like crap.














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Photo Day

Thanks to all who expressed their support with regards to yesterdays diet dilemma. As Force Trainer can tell you I'm not renowned my my social interaction. I'm generally a loner geek, the one who complains when a quest in an MMORPG can't be done solo. Better example, I have fourteen instant messenger accounts containing a total of seven contacts, and two are my wife. As you can imagine the concept of sharing my P90X experience with the general public was not one I was initially warm to. Right now I am officially glad that I have. Having a support group is surprisingly helpful and I want to extend thanks to those who have taken a few minutes of there day to chime in with positive thoughts.

That out of the way, it's my turn to share.

Fortunately I did take day 1 pictures. I never expected them to see the light of day but today's pics would be meaningless without them. I didn't take the time to label them out, I think it's pretty obvious which are day1 and which are day 42.





I'm looking forward to day 90 more than ever before.
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Day 41 - Major Fail

My workout today was uneventful, but I failed miserably in the diet department. We had a family day, taking my daughter and niece to see Wall-e. I avoided the snack bar knowing nothing good could come of it but we were later faced with a lunch decision. I thank my family in that they've been plenty supportive of my diet needs but honestly I hate to be fussed over so when it came time to eat I insisted that it was okay if we trekked across the paring lot to the local Red Robin family restaurant. I figured there must be at least one thing on the menu I could eat. Bad assumption.

After bypassing the appetizers and the obvious villainous treats I found a quite disappointing salad selection. The cobb salad was out for sure. While most people would say, "Hey that looks healthy", I knew better. Crisp greens with tender chicken breast, hickory-smoked bacon, hard-boiled egg, avocado, black olives, ripe tomatoes and crumbled Bleu cheese. Served with house bread & your choice of dressing. Even if you skip the house bread and the dressing that breaks down into protein, fat, fat, fat, fat, not available due to the potential to kill you right now, oh, and another fat. The Fajita Fiesta salad has cheddar and pepper-jack cheese and a creamy dressing so that's out too. Crispy Chicken salad gets eliminated simply by the presence of the word crispy. The closest you get to crispy in the P90X diet is fresh celery.

Granted I could have stripped away the bad from one of the less offensive salads but then I would've been put in the position of paying $9 for the same lettuce and random greens that are currently filling my fridge (for only $1/lb at Pathmark, mind you).

So I turned to the chicken burgers. If I'm going to spend $9 I'm want to at least taste something. I settled on a Whiskey River BBQ Burger. Leave out the mayo and I knew I could stomach the extra carbs from the sugar in the BBQ sauce (turns out that was the least of my worries). Turns out I also had to scrape away the "funions" (batter dipped and fried shredded onion bits) before I ate. In the end I was left with the chicken, the bun and a minute amount of cheddar-like cheese. It tasted pretty good and while I was disappointed that it wasn't up to the quality of the food I have been eating I felt comfortable I could make it up by keeping dinner clean.

As we were waiting for the food to be delivered I noticed a family of three getting their lunch served. The dad had the Cobb salad and it looked like mom and daughter each had the Grilled Chicken Caesar salads. As they poured on their creamy dressing it occurred to me that they were all probably proud of themselves that they were eating healthy. Damn, ignorance IS bliss. Lucky bastards.

Anyway we ate, came home, worked out, went food shopping (now that my wife has picked up the diet we go through protein bars and bananas like crazy) had a good salad and a clean deli sandwich (mustard, no mayo) for dinner and watched some TV.

I probably could have put aside my culinary transgression had it not been for my insides. Under the P90X diet your bodily functions are VERY predictable. I can put my trips to the bathroom in my calendar three days in advance with confidence. Today my insides told me I did bad.

I decided I needed to know how bad. While Red Robin makes it as hard to find as possible, you can get the nutritional information of their product on their website. I couldn't actually find it when I went there, I ended up finding an external link into it from another site.

I plugged in my chicken burger -mayo -onion straws -salmonella = (oh, gak) 609 calories, 48g of protein (not bad), 56g of carbs (Phase I would've been bad, Phase II a-ok) and, wait for it, 21g of fat. Nooooo! Oh shit, blah, pooey, gaak, yak, omg, lol, gg, qq n00b!

The only saving grace was that by passing on the mayo and the funions I avoided an additional 30 grams of fat.

After my heart started beating again I decided to dig deeper into their menu. That Cobb salad that the dad went for weighed in at 832 calories w/46g of fat and the mother-daughter tag team on the Chicken Caesar salads cost them each 811 calories w/57g of fat.

Holy shit, I'm glad I had the chicken.

It's no wonder the U.S. populace is in as sad a shape as we are collectively. While most of us are aware that eating out, especially at a mass market place like Red Robin, isn't the healthiest of living nobody would expect that kind of evil coming from non-fried chicken and and salad greens.

Lesson learned. I definitely won't be eating out again an time soon.

Out of curiosity I took a look at one last item on the RR menu. Every family restaurant from Tony Roma to Beefsteak Charlie has some sort of onion ring type appetizer that I love. The Outback calls it the "Blooming Onion" and RR has their "Towering Onion Rings". I've been known to kick back an entire tower by myself before delving into an entree. While I may be disappointed by what I ate today, my former dietary choices make today's lunch seem like cookie crumbs. That tower of rings, 1837 calories; total fat, 124g.

Love it or hate it, P90X has put me on a path to a better life, even if I don't have an 8-pack after the first 90 days. And with 49 days left to go, who knows what can happen.
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Not my finest day

Until today this week had been pretty uneventful. I'm kind of scratching my head wondering where the time is going. After Kempo tomorrow week six will pretty much be a thing of the past. Phase II has been moving along much more quickly than Phase I did. Next Wednesday will mark the midpoint of this adventure and it's all downhill from there. Time can fly even when you're not having fun.

I'm not knocking P90X in any way, I think it's a great program. I just hate working out in general. I've never gotten off on it, even when I was in the Marine Corps. While all my buddies used to jam as much time in the gym as possible I avoided it like the plague. There was no shortage of physicality in my day to day life in the Corps, I wasn't going to spend what little free time I had volunteering for more.

Anyway, back to today. I had the day off so I decided to bang out my workout this morning rather than wait to my normal late afternoon. I had slept in 'til about nine and then had my morning protein shake. About 11:30 I decided to hit it and then have lunch.

Forty minutes in I started feeling pain in my belly and it wasn't from the exercise. It didn't take long before I was gasping for air and feeling like I was going to be sick. I ended up taking a break and realized I was bonking. I knew I was behind on calories yesterday but apparently I didn't realize how far and it caught up with me since I had eaten only about 300 by the time I started my mid-morning workout. Need to pay more attention.

Not wanting to get my ass kicked by my own stupidity I resumed my workout later in the afternoon. I felt fresh and knowing I only had about 30 minutes of work to do I went into cruise control and started hitting it hard. It felt good but I guess I cruised a little too deep. I was doing my switch grip pull-ups drum stool assisted (the drum stool is mandatory geek gear ever since Harmonix released the Rock Band video game). When I finished I completely brain faded and let go of the bar. Of course I still had my left leg on the stool and my right leg curled towards my chest. I fell like a sack of poatoes (mmm, potatoes) on my ass. It was more bone-jarring than painful but the first thing that came to mind (well, after "ow") was that I really shouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning.



Albeit inelegantly, I did get my workout done without further incident. I have to say, I'm feeling pretty good about things. While there's no washboard to be seen around my abs I'm feeling stronger every day and am pleased with the slow but steady progress I've been making. And those two pounds that I didn't really lose earlier in the week, well I've lost them since then so my scale can go frak itself.
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Yoga Rocks!

Okay, okay... I'm lying. It still sucks ;) I think I stated a few weeks ago that I'm treating Tony like the enemy and I'm not going to let him defeat me. If Tony is the Supreme Commander of P90Xistan then Yoga X is his most trusted general - quiet, unassuming, but with the ability to decimate all that oppose him (or would would it be a her... I'm not sure). I came with my full arsenal for my assault on Yoga X, but as usual it was the equivalent of feces throwing monkeys trying to take on a battalion of Marines.

Despite my complete and total lack of yoga ability, I made sure I approached today with a "not-to-be-defeated" attitude. I pushed every single technique to the point where my entire body was shaking like a crackhead waiting for his next fix. Thankfully I've noticed that my body is beginning to loosen up and when going from a runner's pose back to plank I'm able to put both hands flat on the floor instead of having to get up on my fingers tips to shoot my leg back. It may be a minor victory, but when I first started the idea of getting back into plank from a runner's pose was in the realm of "are you frackin' kidding me?!?"

I've mentioned before that my take on yoga is a little "unorthodox." The whole clear your mind, cleanse your soul, understand the universe thing just isn't for me. First off, I'm way too cynical to do any of that crap - I think it's BS. If the almighty wanted me to cleanse my mind he would've given me a spigot on the side of my head. Second, I'm lucky if I can go five seconds without a millions thoughts popping into my head. Sometimes I have profound thoughts, but more often than not they're nothing more that pre-adolescent fart jokes and boob references.

Since I'm not able to clear my mind, the next best thing is to drown out the voices so they don't disturb me while I'm working out. Here's a little taste of what I listen to while doing yoga (click the link for a preview - opens an M3U file, so if you have iTunes or similar you'll be all set):

Alter Bridge - Before Tomorrow Comes
Disturbed - Inside the Fire - This is also awesome playing in Rock Band!
Egypt Central - You Make Me Sick
Saving Abel - Addicted
Seether - Fake It
Theory of a Deadman - Bad Girlfriend

On an unrelated but kind of important note, I'm sure many of us are music lovers, and I'm always looking for the cheapest way to get my music in digital format. Since certain *legal* music download sites are having problems accepting payments I highly recommend Amazon.com's digital download service. They have a slick little download applet, it's cheaper than iTunes, and there's no DRM on the songs. In all honesty I would pay the same price just to avoid DRM protected songs - I hate that crap. I paid for the song and I'm going to play it on anything and everything I want dammit!! Besides, it's bad enough that Google has their hooks in in pretty much every part of my life. I don't need a second corporate giant horning its way into my personal life.

Written on my 24" aluminum iMac while listening to iTunes and browsing articles about the new 3G iPhone.

Disclaimer: The final statement of the above post was a complete and total load of crap. I'm a recent Windows convert turned total Apple whore. Remember, the first step is admitting you have a problem.

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The Path to Redemption: Be A Geek

Since today is a new day and I'm not one for dwelling, I got up this morning thinking about what I could do to get out of this mini-slump. The answer? Pure, unadulterated, geekiness. It's my day off, so I decided to bask in the warm glow of my iMac (please no Mac vs. PC arguments... I own several PCs so back off) before doing my yoga. Ahh, but there's still a lingering question... what have I been doing?

In case you haven't noticed I decided to add a few little features to the blog. If you ever delved into custom templates in Blogger you know that it can be somewhat confusing. They have their own template tags that you need to become familiar with, and you also need to understand where all the little bits and bobbles are. I got a pretty good lay of the land when adding the "Read More..." piece to the blog. It's a rather simple hack, but I'm surprised it's not a standard feature since it seems like every other blog program out there has some type of read more function.

As we continue with our P90X journey and I'm getting back into web development and other things, don't be surprised if you start seeing posts that are a little off-topic. While I'm loving P90X, sometimes I want to write about more than just workouts and what I'm stuffing in my face. Obviously we're geeks so posts will probably have the usual nerd-like flair, and I promise I'll try and make them relate to P90X at least a little. At the very least it's the P90X program that sparked this entire blog, so that makes everything P90X related... right?

Finally, I want to thank Antonio Lubetti for his code snippets at his Woork blog. His examples were clear and concise and enabled me to put in the deli.cio.us and Digg links with little trouble. My next larger project is going to be a full redesign of this template since it's driving me nuts. If you see changes and something breaks, just let me know :)
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Frustrated, but why?

With day 40 came back and biceps. Since last week was my first time doing the workout I spent a lot of time figuring out what everything was and jockeying weights, but today went much smoother. Having a record to look back on makes everything much easier. I moved up my weight across the board which was great, and I kept pace almost 100% with Ab Ripper X (which I'm sure I'll pay for tomorrow). Despite doing relatively well over the past few days for some reason I'm not feeling good about everything... so my question is why?

I've actually been kind of bummed about my workouts for the past week or so. Even though I'm increasing my weight each week, keeping pace much better, and obviously losing weight, I still feel like I'm not on track. Taking pictures today on day 40 didn't really help much - I just looked at those and said, "Are you serious? I still look like absolute shit!" I know that I need to be fair to myself since I don't have comparison pictures to day 1, and if I had those I would probably see some distinct differences. Regardless, for some reason things just aren't clicking.

My first thought is about my workouts. Yesterday I mentioned how I felt like I wasn't "Bringing It" enough, so I made sure that I pushed through as hard as possible today. I pushed higher weights on pretty much every exercise today which is no small feet since there's so many, and I banged out Ab Ripper X until I was ready to cry. By all accounts I had a solid workout day.

Most sane people would probably be saying right now, "Alright, I did a good job... and tomorrow I'm going to keep it up." Unfortunately the perfectionist in me is coming out right now screaming, "Why don't you have a six pack? Why are your arms so small? Why do you look chubby?" It's the most frustrating feeling right now because the rational side of my brain tells me to be happy with my work, be proud of the fact that I'm sticking to the program, and look at tomorrow as another day to make a difference. Unfortunately the irrational, muscle-headed, jock wannabe in me is screaming that nothing is good enough. I'm sure I'm not the only person that has dealt with this conundrum - I'm smart enough to know that my insecurities, misgivings, and frustrations are probably shared by a good number of people in this world. I'll never sit here, bitch and complain, and make it seem like I'm the only person in the world that has had these problems. However, that still doesn't get me any closer to figuring out how to make it better.

Besides my workouts the other place I have to look is my diet. While I'm not being nearly as strict (i.e. boring) as last month, I've been getting as close to my 40/40/20 breakdown as possible without international standard weights and measures. I've stayed away from pretty much everything you would consider bad. Even my "treats" have been nothing more than diet snowballs (basically ice and fat/sugar free flavoring) and some fat free, low calorie sorbet. Unfortunately my brain seems to want to keep yelling at me that I'm not eating right. I go over my daily intake in my head, know for a fact it's okay, but I find myself wondering, "Was there too much oil in that? How much fat did I take in today? Did I count my breakfast right?" I really think that I'm starting to go insane. I know the equation makes sense and the numbers add up, but for some reason I keep looking for errors and mistakes where there probably aren't any.

I can be very honest in saying that looking at other results photos, while motivating at first, is not nearly as motivating now. Sometimes it's downright disheartening. Now this is not a knock on anyone who has gotten great results - I'm proud of all of you because I know what it takes and congratulations on a job well done. However, I'm looking at 30 day photos thinking that I don't look nearly as good, and I see 60 day photos thinking there's no way in hell I'm going to do that in the next 20 days. It's probably not fair to try and compare myself to someone else like that, but it's bound to happen with so many before and after pictures floating around.

While Muddy has his "girlie" moment a little bit ago, consider this to be my "crisis" moment. In reality there's nothing wrong - I'm on track and doing well. But, my brain is screaming just the opposite which means I need to use that as motivation to work even harder. I guess sometimes you just need to have a moment of self doubt so that you can keep yourself centered. It's the being okay with your lot in life that allows people to become fat slugs anyway, right?
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Day Number... Uhh...

After my workout today I decided to snoop around the internet and see what some of the other P90X blogs were saying. Many of the sites, much like this one, track progress on a daily basis. Muddy and I have been doing the same thing (well, for the most part) but we have not been nearly as strict in the tracking of the actual day. With a calendar in hand, an abicus, and some creative math, I was able to figure out that we are finishing up day 39 (woot, woohoo, OMG, ROFLMAO, GG... whatever floats your boat)!

Alright, so maybe I didn't need the abicus... it wouldn't have been very helpful anyway. It doesn't have nearly the date math functionality of Excel, but I digress. In thinking about the past 39 days and how we've been doing I was on one hand very pleased with myself and on the other hand a little disappointed. Some of the blogs are really great with the people doing the fit tests, pictures on the appropriate days, and so on. I'm kind of kicking myself in the butt for not doing what I consider to be the ancillary parts of the program, but at the same time I'm also looking back and realizing that for 39 days I've been working out, following a diet, and while you may not have photographic evidence of how I look I can absolutely tell the difference.

Some of my disappointment, or perhaps frustration, comes from how my schedule gets in the way of things. I normally find myself at work relatively late (say until 9:00pm) which means I'm not home until about 9:30 or 10:00pm. On those days I really need to workout in the morning, but I've been struggling with that for the past two weeks. Some days I can do it, and others I would rather read War and Peace while listening to death metal played by a polka band then workout. The willpower to workout in the morning has been the one challenge I have not met, so I really need to "Bring It" to make sure those morning workouts get done. The main reason they need to get done is that I wind up dropping workouts which means doubling up on another day. I know in the end the fact that I'm working out is the most important, but I've also completely missed two workouts so far. While I know missing two workouts will not make or break the program, I'm pissed at myself for allowing that to happen.

What helps me stay positive is being able to feel and see the differences in my physical condition. Physically I can see the differences - the belly fat is going away, there are new muscles in my arms that I didn't know I had, and my abs are starting to show themselves. My cardio has also increased pretty significantly because I find myself getting through the workouts without feeling completely wiped. However, there's an unintended consequence from this higher performance - I feel like I'm not doing enough! At the beginning when I finished the workouts I was done - the last thought in my mind was doing anything else physical. As the weeks have progressed I've recovered much faster after the workouts to the point where after finishing plyo today I was spent, but about an hour later I was ready to go. I started thinking to myself... did I go hard enough? Was I being lazy?

Yes, I know the answer is that I'm in better shape and I'm recovering faster, but it's still a weird feeling. What I've also noticed is that the program has started to become more of an integrated part of my life versus this giant puzzle piece that I need to force into place. I still have trouble getting workouts in on certain days, but I find that the thoughts of figuring out my workout, making my menu for the week, food shopping, and so on are much more automatic. When I go to the food store it takes about 15 minutes to grab what I need, making lunch is virtually automatic (my lunch is now as essential to running out the door as my wallet, keys, and cellphone), and thinking about when I'm doing my workout is more of a logistical issue than a, "Oh crap... I have yoga today. I don't want to do that." To me that's a major mental leap because now P90X takes minimal thought. I know how I am and I like to be lazy. If I can get in shape without having to think about it then I'm all in :)

From what I've seen, people fail at workout plans and diets because they can never seem to make them work with in their daily lives. The somewhat over-intensive format of P90X almost solves this for you because there are no off-days or cheat-days. You have no choice but to make it work in your everyday life, and that's what will ultimately lead to P90X being a life change versus just another workout.
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Outgeeked Myself

In the spirit of posting off-topic I'll tell a little tale. A tale that involves my border brother revamping the blog.

We were both in agreement that the old template was lacking. Hell, if you have to make a post telling people that they can post comments on what is essentially a social networking site you're doing it wrong.

So yesterday FT says "Hey, let's add AdSense". I've got no issue with that. While I generally can't stand inline advertising, Google does it right. No screaming Flash ads, nothing too intrusive. What the hell, let's see if anybody actually clicks through. So he works out the inline code while we're on the phone and declares "Cool, we have ads!"

The ensuing dialog was like an excerpt from "Abott & Costello, the lost on purpose routines."

"Where?"
"Up top, near the login box."
"On the main page?"
"Yeah."
"Where?"
"Near the login box."
"On the main page?"
"Yeah."
"Where?"

I refreshed the page and figured my Firefox cache was FUBAR so I switched to Safari and we did a rinse and repeat on the previous dialog. What the hell?

Then it hit me... "Hang on, let me turn off my ad-blocker."

Duh.

Sad as that was, then I got home today and noticed more changes. Since I whitelisted the blog now I could see the ads but the login box was gone. Hmmm.

Remembering yesterday's adventure I immediately jumped to turning off all my browser add-ons... Adblock Plus, Greasemonkey, whatever. Still no good. Switch from Firefox to Safari again. Still no dice. What the hell?

Okay, jump to the Blogger main page and I can sign in. Good enough, I'll work out the details later. I spend a little time reading some other stuff and then jump into my email. Got a message from FT...

"You can't login to Blogger anymore through the site since the nav bar is gone, so you have to go to www.blogger.com to sign. Everything else works fine."

What ran through my mind immediately following was every variation and combination of Carlin's seven dirty words that I could think of, and then some.
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Death of a Genius

It's been a few days since George Carlin died, and since it wasn't a P90X or geek related event I didn't write about it. Then I realized that if it wasn't for Mr. Carlin's enlightened "Seven Dirty Words" routine, the colorful vocabulary that escapes my lips during tough workouts wouldn't be nearly as educated. So, my hat goes off to George Carlin for giving me the ability to curse out, swear at, and be a general expletive spewing maniac during my P90X workouts.

Please note this video is NSFW or in the presence of small children. For everyone else, enjoy 10 minutes of laughing your ass off.

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Other things to do while you're here

This is a public service announcement from your favorite blog writers Force Trainer and Muddy Bulldog. When visiting our site you will notice at the bottom of each post a link to comments on the page. I know that some of you may have missed it because the template we are using is not the best and it's hard to see. Unfortunately most of the other templates are quite ugly (and when I say quite I mean hideously), and I have yet to find time to put together a new one.

Anyway, comments are always welcome on our posts - it's always good to know that people are reading our site! It's also your chance to show off your wit in a public forum and generally make fun of us for being morons.

Enjoy :) Read More...

My "girlie" moment

My morning routine as it relates to P90X is always the same, get up, take a whiz, weigh myself, shower, eat and go to work. Not much to it though the weighing and the eating were steps I never had to deal with before. When you a snooze button junkie like I am, the act of eating breakfast in the morning really screws up your pace. The weighing doesn't take long, but it's something that I have to think to do, can't autopilot it since you actually have to read and remember the numbers.

This morning I got to the weigh myself part and had a bit of a surprise. When we started this adventure I weighed in at 212lbs. This morning the scale shouted back at me 191.4 which was awesome, it would have put me past the 20lbs off mark. I actually looked twice because having gotten accustomed to dropping a half pound or so every few days since week three, this drop would've be 3.2lbs since yesterday, a hell of a downward surge.

I stepped off the scale and the digits turned to the letters reading ERR. This signaled that the scale is off balance and needs to be reset. It's a simple matter that only takes about 5 seconds, but I knew immediately that my last reading was now suspect. I fixed the scale and stepped back on and the display kicked back 193.4. A net gain of 2lbs in 10 seconds. I was bummed.

Then it hit, me, WTF?! I call this my girlie moment not to be rude, I realize it's a pretty sexist comment, but you simply don't hear men concerning themselves with weight in such minute amounts. You can see women talking about weight loss and diet on shows like Oprah and Tyra Banks where they encourage each other and are thrilled over the three pounds they lost in the first week and the two pounds the next of their new workout/diet/activity/etc.

Walking into a meeting or down the hallway at work you'll never hear "Looking good, Billy Ray!" -- "Feeling good, Louis! Dropped two pounds last week!"

When men talk about losing (or gaining or lifting, pushing or pulling) weight it's always in mass quantities (and usually multiplied by some random number between 1 and 5, for effect). "Dropped 35 pounds with the new workout" or "I'm looking to put on 15 by the start of slow-pitch softball baseball season". Certainly anything less than a 10 pound variance isn't worth mentioning and two pounds, hell, two pounds is a decent whiz, right?!

Now it's not like I'm walking around with my head hung low over two pounds but I did feel a little bummed and I can't help but make fun of myself a little for it.

Now, Tyra would tell me (I'm sure) "Chin up, man! You still dropped another pound AND you're almost at the 20 off mark in only a little over 5 weeks. You look good, you feel good. By the way, you really need a new belt. Don't worry, keep it up and tell all the naysayers they can kiss your ass!"

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CRUSHED!

I've got two words for ya (no... not SUCK IT) - HOLY CRAP! By now I'm sure you know that I'm not a workout newbie. At the very least the first four weeks of P90X took care of that. Anyway, when I came back for my legs workout on Saturday I was tired, cranky, and just in an overall bad mood. I decided to bang out the workout like a madman and boy have I been paying for it! Here I was thinking that I crushed the workout, but in the end the workout crushed me. I'm happy that I pushed myself the way I did. I'm especially happy that I was able to do full pull-ups for all of the exercises.

Now I'm a second day soreness person which means that the first day after a workout if I'm a little sore that means I'm going to be in pain two days after. Well, on Sunday I was pretty sore which meant I knew I was in for some serious pain on Monday. I wish I didn't know my body so well because when I woke up this morning I was a hurtin' puppy. Normally I would complain about being sore, but this time I was actually happy (weird, huh?). My upper back has always been my weakest spot, and I've had problems getting it worked properly because I've never been strong enough to do full pull-ups. Thankfully that's no longer a problem because my back felt that workout!

Today was the wonderful chest, shoulders, and biceps. My arms feel like jelly making typing this entry a bit tough. I like the workout because not only does this do wonders in making me sore, but it helps build flexibility in my shoulders and triceps. Normally triceps extensions really bother me, but that's slowly been getting better. I'm hoping that by the end of this I'll see a significant increase in my weights because my shoulders are able to keep up.

Photo of American Gladiator Crush (Gina Carano) Read More...

The missing P90X warning

While I may harp on Tony for many things - such as annoying repetitive comments, referring to Drea as someone who "flies through the air with the greatest of ease" a million times, or shouts "HELLLOOOO" a little too well - now I have a major gripe. There is a missing warning for people out there buying P90X. What is it? DON'T GIVE BLOOD WHILE DOING P90X!!! Alright, that's really not the case (actually, give blood whenever you can, people need it - go to http://www.givelife.org/ to find a donation site near you), so here's the probably way too long and not nearly funny enough story behind the comment.

One of my training centers had a blood drive this past Friday, and since I'm the one in charge I figured I better be there to pony up a pint. Seeing as I was already behind a day because of a nutty schedule this week I figured I could do my yoga in the morning, give blood, hit a movie, and then do my second workout in the evening. It seems logical, right?

So I do my yoga in the morning (yes, I still hate it... don't worry, you won't convince me otherwise), take a shower to smell pretty for the ladies with the needles, and head out to donate. While I'm sitting in the chair, sipping a coke (diet of course), and waiting for the nurse to jab the McDonald's straw size needle into my arm she starts going over the post-donation instructions. Here's how the conversation went:

Nurse: "Please stay in the cantina for at least 10 minutes after you donate, do not take off the dressing for at least five hours, and no strenuous physical activity."

Me: "Well, how long until I can do strenuous physical activity."

Nurse: "Oh... no strenuous activity for the rest of the day."

Me: "So you're saying I can't workout at all today?"

Nurse: "Yes."

Me: "What if I wait until 9:00pm?"

Nurse: "Well that would be still be today, wouldn't it."

Me: "..."

So I managed to get my morning workout in but I was screwed for my second workout. DAMN YOU RED CROSS (oh wait, I'm supposed to be blaming Tony for this). DAMN YOU TONY!!! In all actuality the reason that you're not supposed to workout is because they just poked a giant hole in a vein and a spike in blood pressure could cause you to start spouting blood like ol' faithful. My workout time instead got replaced with going through some Dreamweaver tutorials - wheee!

Oh... yeah, I did work out today to make up for it. I had a 10-hour day at work, so a double was out of the question. Good thing since today was legs and back - it's one helluva workout. I was exhausted, but I pushed my way through and made some good improvements. For the first time I did all of the pull-ups without the chair! I may not have done a lot, but I did do all sets with at least a few off the chair. I then doubled up with chair assisted to make sure I burned myself out. In closing today was good and I had a fun workout. I'm actually even starting to enjoy Ab Ripper X - go figure. I think that's because I'm starting to see the beginnings of what you would consider "abs."

And for the final comment of the day we go to the ol' tape measure. My pants have been fitting a little loose lately and I realized that I was using a new hole on my belt, so I pulled out the tape measure. The result? I've lost an inch off my waist in the past 5 weeks! Giddy up! Read More...

I'm not dead, yet!

Blah, blah, busy. Blah, blah, time.

Has been a rough week. Same symptoms as FT. My week started out easier because Monday and Tuesday workouts were the same as Phase I. Wednesday would've been my first new workout but I got stuck at work late and was forced into the same double up situation as FT. So today was Chest, Arms and Triceps (or something like that) rather than yesterday. Since I don't have the room in my schedule to double up during the week, Yoga X gets pushed to tomorrow and Saturday will bring Sumthing, sumthing & pull-ups in the morning and Kempo in the afternoon.

Admittedly my motivation is a little down as well. Between the new workouts and the bumpy schedule I'm not feeling "in the groove" like I was at the end of Phase I. Plus along with the new phase comes a new diet so I'm being forced to think again when I'm making planning my meals for the day.

And to top it all off I got hurt today. I'm pretty sure it's not serious but my body is letting me know I screwed up. Today's workout was the first that had back to back triceps exercises which I wasn't thrilled with as triceps is my weakest link in my arms. I guess I pushed a little hard early on and my left arm gave way doing chair dips. When my arm twisted I had that sensation that I heard something pop even though I knew I didn't. Audible or not it hurt pretty bad. I thought I was done but after about a 10 minute break I was sure I hadn't torn it and I was able to get back to the workout (for the most part). I'm going to feel it tomorrow, but hey, it's just a flesh wound. Read More...

Week 5 - Workouts good, time bad

I guess I need to retract a statement from my current post - apparently Muddy is dead :) When was the last time he posted - 1989? Muddy is pretty much running into the same problem I am - not enough hours in the day. My schedule for the past two weeks has been absolutely insane, and it seems like I barely have enough time to brush my teeth in the morning before running out the door to a meeting, work, or one of 12 other things I need to do. Despite my overall lack of time I have managed to do two things: 1) stay on track with my workouts and 2) stay on track with my diet. Yes folks, no excuses for ol' FT here.

Coming into this week I was kind of bummed because I really haven't noticed any differences in my appearance or strength levels. Even though I know it's unrealistic to expect noticeable results in four weeks it's still a bummer, so coming into this week I decided that I was going to kick it into high gear. Unfortunately there was one slight snag to this - the strength workouts were new so I wasn't sure what I could or could not do. That was a little bit of a downer because your first time through a workout is usually slower since you're trying to figure things out and get used to it. Other than that though I've followed Tony's mantra of "Bring It."

Monday's workout was good, but the change in the workout resulted in something that reminded me of week one - soreness! While I usually get a little sore after the workouts the completely different routine made everything hurt again. I know most people don't like being sore, but it's a good indication to me that I worked hard. When I woke up Tuesday morning and felt that my chest and arms hurt I was definitely thinking, "Sweet!" I know, I know... I'm a masochist.

My Tuesday workout got boned because of work, so instead I had to double up yesterday. While on most days that probably wouldn't be too bad, yesterday it sucked because I had (wait for it...) plyo AND back/biceps. Having plyo as one of two workouts is never a good thing, but I didn't have a choice, so I made it work. The back/biceps workout was definitely solid, and I'm feeling it today. I feel like my back is never going to get strong, but I know it's just a matter of time. Pull-ups are my enemy, but I'm determined to be able to do a solid number before this whole thing is over.

The biggest casualty out of the lack of time has really been the blog. I'm going to try a little harder and log my workouts since I don't want readership to drop (actually, can it go any lower?). Today's a *gasp* yoga day, so I have 90 minutes of contortionist hell to look forward after work. Man am I lucky!! Read More...

I'm not dead!

That's right - despite what you may have thought I'm not dead (and neither is Muddy for that matter). While both Muddy and I have survived the first four weeks of this ordeal, this weekend was what you would call a complete pain in the ass. Take a regional event which celebrates the shedding of oppressive English rule, add a little bit of Father's Day festivities, and you get me and Muddy devising ways to make a beer seem like it fits in our diet. Depending on how you count carbs it works, and if it doesn't? Oh well. If I don't get a six pack because of a beer or three I've got bigger problems.

We actually fared much better than I thought, and that's because of our very awesome sister. Knowing that we wouldn't be able to eat most of the charred mammal flesh that everyone else got to enjoy she took it upon herself to research some P90X-friendly recipes. Muddy and I got to feast on some tandori chicken and this very yummy pork loin, so there weren't a whole lot of complaints in the food department. The cake and chocolate covered strawberries were beckoning, but Muddy's assurances of "bro, it's not going to be nearly as good as you think - so it's not worth it" kept me away.

I did manage to sneak a few beers (with the help of "ingenius" diet planning), and in the end I paid for it. It's been a solid month since having any alcohol, let alone a beer, and my body wasn't happy. My stomach was is knots at the end of the night, and I pretty much had a horrible night's sleep. I can't say for sure if it was the beer or not, but that's the only thing I had all day that was out of the ordinary. Since all signs point to the beer as the culprit I'm not going to be having any problems avoiding it for the next two months. It just wasn't worth it to feel like utter crap. I guess my body really does like being fed well - go figure.

So, this week start our second month of the workouts as well as moving to the second phase of the diet. Since I was at my Dad's today I wasn't able to hit the food store, so I'll be scrounging tomorrow morning/afternoon for food until I'm able to go shopping. Muddy and I are both ready to kick things into high gear this month, and more than anything I'm ready for some CARBS!!!

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A week from absolute hell

I know I sound like one of those whining babies, but this week has been absolute hell. Between regular work, part-time work, and everything else in-between I feel like I've had absolutely zero time. Again I missed a workout, but I'm pulling a double tonight to get myself back on track. I've realized lately that missing a workout is more than just a slight letdown - it makes me grouchy, makes me feel fat, and gives me the overall feeling like I haven't worked out in ages. It seems kind of weird... it's just a day. But I guess when you're working out six days a week not working out feels like you missed something that day. So, to catch up for this week - I did yoga on Monday, missed Tuesday, Core Synergistics Wednesday, and Kenpo this morning. When I get home in a bit I'll be doing Stretch. That will get me caught up and then I can go through whatever my standard workout is tomorrow.

Like Muddy I feel like my diet has been a little off. The past week has been tough on me food wise. I've been out of the office a lot at various meetings, and unfortunately a giant chef salad and cottage cheese is not going to fare well in a car that probably gets up to 105 degrees. Couple that with meetings going four hours long and you can guess that I'm falling behind on my diet. On the plus side when I do eat I'm sticking to the diet. The problem is that I'm missing some of my snacks, and I know that's a bad thing.

Believe it or not my biggest problem has never been eating too much - it's always been forgetting to eat. I'm one of those morons that gains weight not because he eats too much. Being catabolic is bizarre because you basically put your body into starvation mode which means you store everything you take in as fat. For the coupe de grace when I get really busy my main source of nutrition usually comes from fast food which turns my fat storing body into a weight gaining powerhouse. The word tubby comes to mind.

I also have a slight obsessive-compulsive side to me. When I'm working it's very easy for me to get caught up in what I'm doing, and this getting "caught up" can last for... oh, five or six hours sometimes. Yes, it's bad, but unfortunately that's how I get things done. I probably going to have to start charting my food on fitday.com so that I keep myself on track (thanks to Muddy for mentioning it). I've actually had an account with them for a while, but it escaped me to use it while on this diet. It's actually the perfect tool because it not only charts calories - it breaks down your proteins/carbs/fats, give you percentages, and lets you set goals. So, say I want to eat at least 2000 calories and 100 grams of protein... I can plug that into the system and it will let me know when I'm not doing that. I'll add that to my list of things to do every day :)

Muddy did do something I've been meaning to do for a while - look up Dreya Weber. Tony always mentions her "flying through the air with the greatest of ease," which made me wonder - what the hell is he talking about? The stuff she does is pretty cool, but her wikipedia entry was the most interesting. While you can't trust everything you read on the internet, the entry lists that she is a self-proclaimed omnisexual. Whether it's true or not, I at least learned something new - I now know what an omnisexual is :)

P.S. My Spy vs Spy picture would've made sense if I wrote about what I had originally planned, but apparently I went off on a tangent and then completely forgot why I got the picture in the first place. Oh well, shit happens. Read More...

It's not the heat, it's the humidity.

Core Synergistics tonight. This was my third time through and the first that I didn't have to take a break partway. I even managed to double time through Steam Engines (think standing crunches) when Tony picked up the pace. This is the next to last exercise in the workout and previously I had to maintain normal speed not because of exhaustion but because I was just physically incapable of moving that fast. Score 1 in the "improvement seen" column. 

This one always ends on a high point because the last exercise is a  flamboyant, high-energy move called Dreya Rolls. It's named for Dreya Weber, the amazing athlete/gymnast/dancer who introduced it to Tony. I know I'm not alone in thinking how ridiculous it is, as a Google search reveals, but it's a great way to finish out the program. I'm convinced that it's designed to make you feel as sick as possible but if you put your all into it you end up with a great euphoric exhaustion upon completion. Of course a minute later that wears off and you swear you're going to puke. I think it's worth it.

What was a real bear today was the humidity. The current heat wave on the east coast has brought a lot of moisture and in spite of maintaining my workout area at a cool 73F I was sweating harder than I have during the entire program. During a couple of exercises I kept my towel in-hand because I kept getting blinded by the sweat pouring into my eyes. I like sweat during a workout, it validates the fact that I'm pushing hard, but having a soaked shirt before finishing the warm-up stretches is ridiculous.

photo: Dreya Weber & Pink

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Recovery Week.. Argh.

Supposed to be the "easy" week with no strength training. Bullshit. Yesterday was yoga again and I'm coming to realize that I just don't get it. I've been through the routine three (four?) times now and there are still a few positions that I have to stop and stare at the screen and figure out what it is that they're actually doing. You would think I would remember what I did last week. Glad to hear that FT is having a bit easier time mastering it than I have been (see I can be supportive of my brother once in a while). He must have some kind of extra contortionist thing happening in his genetics that I lack.

By yesterday evening I was grouchy and exhausted. I'm realizing now that I may have been bonking and it's probably time to look at the diet. After tonight's workout I'll probably head over to fitday.com and calculate my last few days worth of calories. One I got through the first few days of the diet I started eating more by feel than by precise measurement. It's possible I may actually be eating too little at this point.

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New iPhone!!!

WOOT!!! The new iPhone dropped today! Alright, so it may be on AT&T's network, but they did buy Cingular and I really did like Cingular. It's thinner, has GPS, is a lot cheaper...

Oh, wait. This is a P90X blog isn't it. Screw it - I can't contain my excitement! This is me at my absolute, gadget-loving, geekdom embracing worst. I became a complete Mac convert a few months ago after buying an iMac (thanks to Muddy) and the iPhone has always given me squishy feelings in inappropriate places. Does it have it's problems? Absolutely. Does it lean just a bit to the form side of function, yes. Regardless, it's still cool as hell. For me it's not a status symbol - I just like fun gadgets that I will use everyday. Thankfully my reasonable side has kept me from spending $600 on one of those silly things. However, the new $299 price point for the 16GB model might be a bit hard to stay away from.

Alright, so back to the workout. Knowing that WWDC was today (and with my new morning workout mantra guiding me) I managed to get my lazy ass out of bed in time for.... wait for it.... yoga. Blech... talk about a let down. It's recovery week so there's no strength training, but why in hell does Tony need to torture me with this yoga thing? When I realized what my workout was I threw a temper tantrum like a two-year old, cursing up a storm and stomping around as I got all my required yoga paraphernalia.

Despite my seething hatred for everything that is yoga I did manage to get through the workout. It was a little bit better today since I know the routine and I finally figured out how to get through the workout - loud, screaming, angry music. Yes, Tony says relax... I say @*#& it! If I'm going to be uncomfortable and feeling pain in places I didn't know I have I want the soundtrack to reflect that. So with Disturbed, Theory of a Deadman, and Saving Abel running in the background I got through my most hated of workouts.

Tomorrow should bring with it some relief since I think it's Cardio X. Since I'm feeling fat I'm actually looking forward to it.

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Real life sucks

Whew... week three was definitely tough. The first two weeks went by relatively easily because my schedule was consistent and pretty much empty. I was able to get my workouts done exactly when I wanted and there were no outside pressures (extra work, seminars, time with friends, etc.). Week three brought with it pretty much everything extra I could think of. I had to stay late at work a few times, my workouts got moved and I taught a seminar this weekend that completely drained me. Now don't worry - this isn't a set of excuses. Week three for me was a reality check and made me answer the question - how do I make a hardcore workout regimen like P90X work into a busy schedule?

In the end I wound up missing one workout - Kenpo X. I'm not really too concerned since on Saturday I taught for six hours and I'm pretty sure I got my calorie burn there. However, it's not what I wanted to do. Moving forward I think I have a pretty good plan to make sure I can keep up with my workouts. Mainly I must, must, must do my workouts in the morning. At times it's just too difficult to know exactly what my evening is going to be like and if I have to stay late a few hours it can completely throw off my workout and then my dinner. So, for the next 69 days it's going to be morning workouts for me.

I also had to eat out a couple of times this week. Part of the reason was that I just ran out of time to make lunch, so I was forced to eat out. No worries though - I managed to stay within the bounds of the diet. I kind of looked at this as somewhat of a triumph because in the real world I can't always make every single meal. It did take some time to figure out where to eat though... with McDonald's and Wendy's on the no-go list I had to be a little more discerning. My normal standby, Chipotle, is also well off the radar since my typical meal there tops over 1000 calories and god knows how much fat.

As far as meals moving forward what that means is that I will definitely have to plan a little more. I may have to make some of my lunches the evening before just to make sure I can get squared away. I also have to turn into a morning person (which sucks), but I guess it's all for the cause. Here's to a 11:00pm bed time! Read More...

Mr. Spock Does Yoga, You Can Too!

I'm glad that FT got around to acknowledging my shot at his missing a workout because now I can more easily making a joke out of the fact that I missed my very next one. Essentially for the same reason, I just ran out of time in the day on Thursday. I didn't completely miss it, but it ended up being an abbreviated form. Even a little Yoga is too much in my opinion.

I hate to keep bashing Yoga, there are thousands of people who enjoy it everyday. I just can't get into it. It's not a stupid macho thing, I got over crap like that back in the Marine Corps. The potential benefits of it are obvious and there's no arguing that it's a great workout.. just measure the sweat.

Problem is that it's BORING. The ability to clear your mind is mandatory because once it kicks in the only thing through it is "damn, this is boring". It's not a balls to the wall high impact, alpha male workout like Plyometrics or Cardio X. It's slow and methodical and requires a high degree of discipline. There's very few positions that are actually hard to do, it's the tedious approach to get into and then hold them while the burn sets in that's the killer.

On top of that, it never gets easier. While you can get better at it. By design you are constantly forced to push harder so it always hurts at least as bad as it did the last time.

You wouldn't catch Captain Kirk doing yoga and he'd certainly give his Vulcan first officer a certain amount of ribbing for calling it "a workout" (of course Spock does yoga). So, falling back on geek motivation, the reason to stick with Yoga even when it hurts like hell is the fact that Spock will kick Kirk's ass every time. Read More...

Pimp slapped!

In my rush yesterday to get posted and get some zzz's I completely missed Muddy's jab at my skipping of a workout. Normally this is where I would raise shield and put up a Captain Kirk like defense, but unfortunately there's no way I can make a good argument as to why I didn't work out. One simple word - SLACKER. I should've woken up on time to get my workout done... no excuses. I appreciate the very quiet, however resonating, pimp slap from my older sibling.

Since I'm a day behind on the workouts I went through yoga today. I can say that this time around it wasn't as bad, but it still sucks as much as a $2 hooker. I was drenched in sweat mid-way through to the point where I was sliding all around my yoga mat. I actually had to take a few minutes to towel off and wipe it down for fear of killing myself while trying to execute a proper crane. The workout ended without any mishaps and I'm thinking I may just be getting a little more flexible. Not a whole lot - just enough to where I can hold a twisting half moon for at least a few seconds.

Tomorrow will be fun - I get to teach for three hours, then run a four hour seminar, then come home and do legs and back! I wish I could build up some calorie credit and get myself a huge friggin' snowball, but for some reason I think Mr. Horton would disapprove. I'll just take some extra string cheese with me to work :(

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I'm in a rush...

Tired, sweaty, and ready for bed, so you'll be spared my normal exposition.

Yesterday's Plyo - Fine... standard fare. Of course I was tired.

Today's Arms - Good workout, weights went up across the board. Arms felt like jello when done.

Night!

P.S. Yes, I know... I should've made fun of Muddy's Word clipart that he used in his last posting. I'm just too tired...

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Getting Busy!

Been more than a few days since I tuned in to update my progress. Life has been getting in the way a little this week. A couple of out of the ordinary emergencies at work and a trip to NYC over the weekend to catch "Wicked" on Broadway has left me feeling a little short on free time. Unlike my brother I didn't let it get in the way of my workouts, but my desire to yak about it afterwards was non-existent.

Speaking of workouts, I LOVE ARMS. Turns out last week wasn't a one time shot of bliss, I really do like this workout. I was able to up my weights (bands) a class across the board over last week and was still able to keep form and reps up on everything except the triceps routines. Even lacking grace the triceps were still a success over my previous performance.

Fact is this week has been a good mental boost all around. I'm getting comfortable with the routines and I definitely feel it getting easier. Not easy, mind you, just not as hard as the week before. On top of that, I found I've dropped 10 pounds! Ego is feeling good all around.

Of course tomorrow is Yoga, the great ego deflater. Read More...

I've been bad :(

No, I didn't go and eat and entire pizza or down a Wendy's milkshake - I missed my workout yesterday. Yes, I know... I'm a worthless piece of crap and nothing but a massive failure to this entire process. My excuse? Well, I don't really have one. More than anything I screwed up. Tuesday is my late day at work and I normally work out in the morning since I get home really late. I got up a little later than usual and I had some problems at work I had to fix. Suddenly it was 11:00am and my managers were wondering if we were having our Tuesday meeting!

Basically I got wrapped up in doing work and just forgot. I guess honestly I'm surprised it took this long to happen. I figured I'd be able to do my workout when I got home, but I don't get home until 9:30pm on Tuesdays and jumping around getting pumped is probably not the best thing if I want to get to bed at a normal hour. I also had some personal things I had to take care of.

The solution that I have is that I'm going to shift all of my workouts by a day. This is not something I want to make a habit of, so it's my short term solution for my indiscretion. That would leave plyo for today, arms tomorrow, and yoga on Friday. Since I'm off Friday and yoga isn't the most intense (just boring as all hell) I should be able to do that in the morning and then legs and back later in the day. It'll make for a long day, but then at least I won't feel like a complete and total waste of space.

On a side note, Muddy is already starting to see some results which is great (he can proclaim his own changes... I don't want to ruin his fun in that), but I haven't been so lucky. Part of it is I just don't have as much extra weight as him (sorry bro... I love ya!), so there's not as much to shed. The only thing I can do is look in the mirror each day and hopefully see some differences. Between the bad workout on Monday and not thinking I'm seeing results I do feel a little let down, but I have to be both realistic and positive. One, I should stay positive throughout this entire thing because no matter what my results are in the end, I'm much better off then when I started. Second, it's only been two weeks. If people could get shredded in two weeks everyone would look like a body builder. This is a long process and most likely to get the results I really want I'm going to have to go back through the program again when I'm finished anyway.

So there's my confession. I obviously can't make a habit of this and instead of making excuses I'll just say this. I screwed up and now I can be classified as a douche :) Read More...