My P90X Story: Day 31

Man do my arms hurt....but it feels good. I felt like my biceps were huge doing the Back and Bicep workout tonight. They probably weren't, but it felt that way. I am definitely getting back into the groove of everything, though I'm still a bit sore from Monday's workout. We shall see how tomorrow goes.

I still think the diet is the absolute hardest part about this, especially when I don't always eat a prepared lunch (there are lunch appointments for work, and quite a few lately). The diet part definitely takes a lot more planning, and I'm not even sure that we are actually doing it all right, but I think we are at least pretty close. I will keep pushing forward and we will see what becomes of all this in another 59 days.

My P90X Story: Day 30

Just kicked some plyometric butt....I think that I really like the workouts that are a bit more cardio. Maybe that is because I feel like I have way too much fat to burn still and it feels good to get my heart rate up and feel like I'm actually doing something to get rid of the fat. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the other workouts. They kick my butt. But I definitely feel like I am only working certain aspects of my body and not burning a lot of fat (which is understandable because of the type of workout we are doing).

I know that the pictures on the side are not very large, so I am going back in and creating a post with the pictures in it so that you can see them better. I was a little disappointed that the front and back poses didn't seem to reflect much change, but the side pose and the flexing poses seemed to show a significant difference. My belly has definitely gone down, and my neck and face look like a totally different person.

Got to keep going. Not going to let up. Going to prove to myself and everyone else that I know that didn't finish that I can finish. I will do all 90 days.

Pre-P90X and Post 30 Day Pictures

So, I was a bit hesitant to put my before pictures up, especially before I really started the workout. I figured nobody really wanted to look at my fat white body. Well, after 30 days there is a visible difference. I didn't really see it until I looked at the pictures. I am a bit amazed at how big a difference there is in so little time. Please let me know what you think.

.............Before P90X.............................After 30 Days

.............Before P90X.............................After 30 Days

.............Before P90X.............................After 30 Days

.............Before P90X.............................After 30 Days

.............Before P90X.............................After 30 Days

My P90X Story: Day 29

The beginning of phase 2.....really wish I had been able to do the core/cardio/ab workouts during the "off" week. I am really feeling it after finishing today's workout. I cannot believe how hard some of those workouts were. Crazy. I feel so incredibly weak. I could barely do 3-4 push-ups on some of the different variations. My arms are so dead, that halfway through the workout I wasn't sure if I could keep going.

Feels so good to get back into exercising though. That week off for the wedding was crazy. Total lack of sleep the whole week, no exercising, eating poorly. Just a horrible weak.

Took the post 30 day pictures today (because the book says to do it after phase 1 is done, even though it is only 28 days). I will try to get those posted either in a separate post or on the sidebar with a side-by-side comparison to my pre-P90X pictures. Haven't even compared the two myself, so I can't say if the pictures show a difference. I'm hoping they do.

Trying to get back on track this week. I can definitely say that the hardest part about all of this for me has been the diet portion. I can proudly say that when I weighed myself today I was down to 248.8 lbs and 28.8% body fat. That is down about 1-2 pounds from the beginning of last week, and down about 3-4% in body fat.

Goal by Christmas is a visible 6-pack and right around 200 lbs.

My P90X Story: Day 28

Day of rest....I love these days, even though this past week we pretty much took the whole week off. Well, sort of. We were supposed to be doing cardio and stretching workouts the whole week. Instead we did decorating and staying up late, then getting up early. I feel bad for not doing the workouts we were supposed to be doing, but at the same time I don't entirely feel like we are behind. I think the time off was good.

We will take pictures before we do the workouts tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing a side-by-side comparison. I think there is a noticeable difference. I have dropped about 15 pounds in the 4 weeks we have been doing the workouts. Today, I put on a pair of shorts that I got in May that are a size 38 and were quite tight at the time (around the waste). Well, I was able to pull the waste out about 2-3 inches from my waste. It was a great feeling. I may even take a picture of that just to prove it to everyone.

We have seen benefits from doing the workouts outside of the actual workouts. This past week when we were spending tons of time decorating and doing stuff for the wedding we noticed that we were able to keep going when most of the other people helping were running out of energy and needing to take a break. We have had several at Church and otherwise who have contact with us comment on how much better we look since starting. It is great to have people notice a difference.

My P90X Story: Day 27

Well...we finished off the week in style. Another missed workout. We were not completely inactive this week. I feel like we should have been doing something, but with so much going on there just wasn't time or energy to spare for working out. Tomorrow is our official "Day of Rest" and then we will start in on week 5 on Monday. Need to get things back on track. Should be taking post 30 day pictures tomorrow. Hope they show how I feel. I feel different, I feel thinner.

My P90X Story: Day 26

Well....the wedding and reception all went very well. Glad that it is over with. Maybe now we can get back to our regular schedule and start getting some exercise in. I was actually looking forward to doing the workouts. Should be able to do day 6 and then start up on the 5th week next week (or first week of round 2).

Need to take the post 30 day pictures. I'm actually very interested to see how the pictures compare. I think that I look quite a bit different. I hope that the pictures show that I have changed. I feel like I have.

My P90X Story: Day 25

Day 4.....Again, no workout. We were actually home relatively early tonight (comparatively). Had to feed the kids and get them in the bath so we could get Hannah in curlers for he wedding tomorrow. Can't believe it is all finally almost here and over. It has been a lot of work and late nights this week. I'm sure we won't get a chance to workout tomorrow night, but maybe on Saturday we will.

My P90X Story: Day 24

Well.....I can see that this week is going to be very difficult to get the workouts in. We spent pretty much all night in Fremont again tonight helping decorate and get ready for the wedding reception. I wish that we weren't spending so much time down there. I wish that we could do our workouts. I was actually really looking forward to this week to get some new workouts in.

My P90X Story: Day 23

Day 2 of the fourth week.....I got the Yoga X workout in this morning. Got up at 5:15 AM to be able to do it before needing to leave for work early/on-time today. Only got about 5 hours of sleep because I was up late last night cleaning.

Did not get home in time from helping to set-up/decorate from the wedding reception until after mid-night, so.......No Core Synergistics on Day 2 for me. We'll see what happens tomorrow. We shouldn't be in Fremont as much tomorrow, so maybe I will be able to do double workouts. If I don't get up in the morning though I probably won't get both in.

This week is not starting off very well workout wise. We will have to see how many I can make up so I can hopefully get all the workouts in still.

My P90X Story: Day 22

First day of the recovery week.....and I failed. I didn't get to the workout this evening like we have been doing. Spent the time cleaning up the house/kitchen instead to try and make things easier on my wife. We have been a bit behind on the household choirs lately because we have both been too tired to do them and we have used to do them at night.

I did not make up the Kenpo X workout either....and I probably won't make it up either since I am now two days behind. I will try to get up in tomorrow and do the Yoga X workout (Day 1) as well as the Core Synergistics (Day 2) workout.

My P90X Story: Day 21

Ahhh.....Day of rest. Well, it wasn't exactly a day of rest. Went down to Fremont today and spent 4-5 hours helping partially thaw, cut, marinate, and re-freeze chicken that will be used for the sister-in-law's wedding reception on Friday.

We'll see how this next week goes. Luckily we planned ahead on the workouts so that week 4 (Rest and Recovery Week) would fall on the week of the wedding. For those who don't know the program, this does not mean that there are no workouts. There are still six workouts to do during the week, but they are more cardio, core, and stretching related as opposed to the heavy lifting type exercises we have been doing. Wish us luck. This will be a busy week.

My P90X Story: Day 20

Today was very busy.....and with the Bachelor party I was hosting tonight, it made it impossible for me to do the workout this day. I didn't do the Kenpo X, but I did still get some physical exercise. For the Bachelor Party we did Highland Games. We did the caber toss, open stone, braemar stone, stone for distance, and hammer throw. It was a lot of fun, and a pretty reasonable workout.

It was a lot of fun. I will make up the normal workout on Monday morning. I will do a double workout, even though it is supposed to be the "rest week". Can't keep my eyes open anymore. Good night everyone.

My P90X Story: Day 19

Can't believe we are almost done with 3 weeks, which really means we are almost done with the first 30 days. It really has flown by. Just crushed the Legs & Back plus Ab Ripper X workout. Upped my weight for the few lifts with weight by 10 pounds, did all the reps on the workouts that we have a set number of reps to do, and did more pull-ups in their different variations than I ever have, and the chair was farther away than ever. Also just killed it on the Ab Ripper workout. I don't think I have ever done that good at that workout. Only missed a few reps in the Pfifer Scissors and took a couple breaks on the mason twists, but other than that I actually was able to do every single rep of every other workout, and with far fewer breaks than before.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we just got a new scale. I am glad to say that I am down between 10 and 12 pounds since we started P90X. Unfortunately I don't know what my body fat percentage was wen we started, but it is just under 32% right now. I know that is still really high, but when you consider that it runs in my family and I haven't really exercised (other than basketball maybe once per week) for several years, I think I am still doing reasonably well. Don't get me wrong, I want to see that down. In fact, I am hoping by the end of P90X I will see it under 20%. If not, I'm going to have to keep going and do another 90 days (or get the plus workout or something).

Doing this at night has been very difficult at times, but I have to say that most days I look forward to doing the workouts. I have to say that the hardest part is definitely the diet, not the exercise. I think that we did a really good job the first week to two weeks sticking to the diet very, very strictly. This last week we have let it slip a little, and I feel it. We are going to do a colon cleanse next week in addition to getting back to sticking to the diet better.

I had several more people this week mention to me that I look thinner. That always feels good. One more week (the "rest" week) and then we I will post my pre-P90X fit test results and pictures along with the 30 day fit test results and pictures. I can guarantee you right now, the pictures won't look pretty. I have a real "nice" farmer's tan going, but I'm pretty sure you will notice a difference. I know that it is always hard to believe the testimonials and stuff you see on websites like beachbody.com or p90x.com, but I can add my testimonial to them now. This really does work. I have seen a difference, but most importantly, I can feel a difference.

My P90X Story: Day 18

Did Ab Ripper this morning and then Yoga X tonight. I cannot believe how much I sweat doing yoga. I thought yoga was supposed to be relaxing and everything. I guess that is why hey call it Yoga X.

We got a new scale tonight, and I weighed myself in the morning. We are not 100% sure what my weight was before we started nearly 3 weeks ago since our old scale some of the numbers didn't show up completely. However, it is safe to say that I have probably lost close to 10 pounds in the almost 3 weeks. The new scale also uses an electrical current to measure body fat percentage. Not sure how accurate/reliable that is, but it is a place to start. Unfortunately it said my body fat was just under 32%. That is not good. Gotta keep working hard so I can get that down.

My P90X Story: Day 17

Shoulders and back....and Ab Ripper X. Well, almost. I didn't do Ab Ripper X yet, I'm just too wasted after the day and after doing the first part of the workout. I know I should really push through and do it tonight, but I can't find the motivation. I will do Ab Ripper in the morning and then do the yoga tomorrow night.

Tonight was pretty frustrating. I think this is my least favorite workout logistically. It is the one where we change the weights the most often, and since changing weights right now doesn't mean just picking up a different set of dumbbells.....it takes a whole lot longer. We really need to figure out a better system for the weights. Just don't know if we have the money for it.

I think the yoga workout is probably my least favorite, either that or the Kenpo X. Haven't decided yet. Yoga is by far the longest workout. I feel awkward doing it, and I can't even get into some of the poses or positions. Kenpo X just makes me feel uncoordinated since I have a hard time keeping up with and doing the right moves on that one.

My P90X Story: Day 16

Plyometrics X......I actually really love this workout, even though Tony refers to it as the mother of all the workouts. I don't know what it is, but I actually look forward to this 60 minutes of jumping and squatting and lunging and jacking my heart rate up.....it just feels great.

Good workout tonight. Felt great, though pretty dead afterwards. Just relaxed and watched some Smallville Season 9 from Netflix after we finished. I love this workout. I think it is by far my favorite one. Maybe that makes me weird.

My P90X Story: Day 15

Wow!!! Can't believe we are at the beginning of week 3 already!!! Time is really flying by. It has been pretty hard to feel motivated some nights to do the work-out, especially after a long day. But, we are pushing through and trying to make the most of it. I feel like I am definitely getting stronger, and my "love handles" are disappearing already.

I feel so much better about the way I look, I may actually post my pre-P90X pictures in addition to my post-30 day pictures when I get there. I think you will see a big difference already. Pushing the weight for the work-outs up. Trying to push the reps up. Still not quite doing pull-ups without without a chair, but I think I'm getting closer. I am staring to do more and more with them. I am trying really hard to focus on not using the chair, but I know that I can't do it without the chair yet.

Plyometrics X tomorrow. Excited!!!!

My P90X Story: Day 14

Man I love the day of rest. Not just because there is no workout and we get to take the day off. But also because its the Lord's day of rest. Even this Sunday was a good one, and I had to speak in Church this morning. I think the talk turned out well.

Got a great boost of confidence today. As I walked in to Church, someone commented...."Looks like P90X is really working for you." That felt nice. I have just been beginning to realize and feel like P90X is making a difference. It was nice for someone else to recognize it and comment on it.

Had my daughter's birthday party this evening. Actually, today was a pretty difficult day for the diet portion of all this. Today was a "fail" day for that. Didn't take anything to Church for snack, didn't get home until about 2:00 PM so I ended up only have a left over turkey burger for lunch. Helped the wife make the cake for the party as well as the dip for everyone else. Ended up having some of the dip for snack 2/dinner. Then had cake and Coconut milk ice cream. I think based on the amount of food that we ate we may have stayed under the calorie portion of the diet, but we totally failed on the high protein low carb portion of it.

My P90X Story: Day 13

Got up this morning and did the Day 12 workout (shoulders and back) minus the Ab Ripper X. Couldn't do it this morning. Did not have enough energy without breakfast to do all of it before eating. Ended up doing Ab Ripper as part of the night workout.

Did the actual Day 13 workout tonight as well. That's right....I'm an animal. Did two workouts in the same day. Felt so dead by the end of it, but still stayed up and helped do more to get ready for my daughter's 4th birthday party.

Shoulders and back was pretty difficult to do this morning with the kids around. Couldn't get up early enough. Just felt too tired. Wonder if I'm getting enough. Kenpo X was also pretty hard tonight after spending the rest of the day cleaning, shopping, and cleaning for the birthday party.

My P90X Story: Day 12

Well.....There was a tone of stuff going on this day....and we got home too late and didn't do the workout. I will get up and do it tomorrow morning. Just had too much going on today and no energy by the time we had time to do it tonight (around 10:30).

My P90X Story: Day 11

Did Ab Ripper X this morning as promised to make up for missing it last night. Can I just say that fatigue must be part of the effectiveness of that work out, because it was waaaay easier this morning than it is doing it right after some other work out.

Had a rough time getting the kids in bed tonight, so I didn't get started on Yoga X until almost 9:30 PM which means I just barely finished it an hour ago. I feel hungry. Don't know if that is because I am know not getting enough to make it through the work outs or if I am just staying up too late and so I start to feel hungry.

Legs and Back tomorrow. Should be fun. Almost done with Week 2. Excited because the workouts seem to be easier, even though I am doing either as much weight or more and the same number of reps or more for pretty much every workout. Amazing, but there seems to be a difference even after just one week. No real visible difference yet though, but I definitely feel different.

My P90X Story: Day 10

Shoulders and arms today. Pretty difficult, but I pushed through it. Feel a little like I'm cheating though. I am doing Ab Ripper X tomorrow morning instead of tonight. I got off work late, and didn't get to have dinner before I started the workout. Eating dinner now at nearly 11:00 PM. Really feeling too weak to do Ab Ripper tonight. I will do it tomorrow.

I feel pretty good about the workouts. Feel like I am able to push a little harder this week than I could the first week. Still annoyed about the weight situation (having to change it so often), but knowing what I did the time before makes it a little easier and less time consuming.

Don't know if I can see a difference yet in my appearance, but I feel different. This week is definitely not making me as sore, even though I am doing as many reps or more and often with more weight. I just feel like my body can handle it a little better. Already 1/9 of the way done.

My P90X Story: Day 9

I don't know why, but for some reason I was really looking forward to this workout. I was actually kind of excited. It was still killer, and I'm sure that I will feel it tomorrow, I think the Plyo X workout is my favorite even though they say it is probably the hardest.

We kept pace pretty good. Only paused for a few extra seconds a couple of times. Pushed all the way through. Sweat so much it was like I had taken a shower with my shirt on.

The biggest thing that I have noticed so far about the second week compared to the first week: I look forward to the workouts and we do them faster because we know for the most part what to expect. We'll see if that holds up as we get to some of the more "technical" workouts like Yoga X and Kenpo X. For some reason those were just really hard to me the first time through.

My P90X Story: Day 8

Felt great this morning after the day of rest. So good in fact that I decided to go and play basketball for an hour and a half with the fellas. It was good, I played okay, especially for having not played for several weeks now.

Totally hammered the workout tonight. Felt great. It was good knowing what to expect. It helped speed things up a bit. Pushed ourselves harder than we did the first day. Still felt good at the end of it. Just about died trying to do Ab Ripper X though. I struggle with that one. I am obviously not very strong in the core (or I just have too much weight?). I'm sure that I will be feeling it tomorrow. Looking forward to the rest of the week and seeing if any of the other workouts seem "easier".

My P90X Story: Day 7

REST....What a wonderful word. It was an amazing day of rest. No stretching, no workout, just Church and time with the family.

My P90X Story: Day 6

Can I just say that I feel extremely uncoordinated after doing this workout? I have never done any sort of "martial arts" before. This was a really hard workout, mostly in the coordination of moving hands and feet. It was very awkward at first, but I soft of got the hand of it by the time we got toward the end.

I have noticed that for the "cardio" days I definitely sweat a lot. I must be really out of shape. Not much to say about this workout. It was good. Taking day 7 off (not even any stretching). Start it all again on Monday.

My P90X Story: Day 5

I can honestly tell you...I was not looking forward to this workout. Legs....and back. My legs are still sore from earlier this week. Do we really have to do more legs? I guess that is why they call it P90...X!?!

This was a very interesting workout, but again I discovered something. I think that if you plan to work out with someone else, you need to have your own equipment as much as possible. It is just really hard, and slows things down a lot when you have to pause to share.

So....we got started late on this workout. We were trying to call my daughter who is staying the night at Grandma's house. Couldn't reach them...tried for nearly 20 minutes with no luck, so we finally gave up and started the workout....at 9:00 PM. Not too bad actually, but later than we would have liked. This was supposed to be a 59 minute workout. We didn't finish the workout until sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 PM...then we still had Ab Ripper X to do.

Since it was so late I decided that I was just going to try and keep up with the guys on the DVD as best I could, even if that meant not completing all 25 reps for each exercise. I think I did myself an injustice. I still ended up pausing for several because I wanted to do more than I was able to in time the DVD was doing 25. However, I short changed myself on a few of the exercises. Must do better next time.

Day 6: Kenpo X. I think I'm gonna sweat a lot.

Day 7: Rest.....The Lord's day. Sunday. Taking it off. Start it all again on Monday for week 2!!!

My P90X Story: Day 4

Can you say Yoga....X?!?!? I was actually looking forward to this workout. I thought it would be a little more relaxing and less strenuous since pretty much every muscle in my body hurts at this point.....I was wrong. Sort of.

This was a 90 minute workout. The first 45 minutes are pretty much constant movement from one pose to another. This was very difficult because I was unfamiliar with most of the poses, so I had to keep looking up to try and get it right, and some of the poses are hard to look up in. Also, I was getting tired. The first 45 minutes was pretty intense.

The last 45 minutes I felt was much easier, except for the whole balance part. I had a hard time balancing in a lot of these poses, so I don't know that I quite got what I should have out of the second half.

But, it was a good almost relaxing day in the middle of the workout week. Gave my legs a little bit of a rest, and when we got done, they didn't hurt as bad, even though we used them more.

My P90X Story: Day 3

Just completed Shoulders & Arms plus Ab Ripper X. I've gotta say I felt it a lot more on Ab Ripper x today. I decided to actually pause, and slow down a little so that I could do the full 25 on each exercise. It sucked I could barely do some of them, but at least I finished all of them (except for one of the exercises...I don't remember which one now).

Some advice for anyone who wants to d P90X that I discovered today...

1. Don't skimp on the weights. Make sure you have a good range.

2. Read through the exercise guide book before hand, and try to lift a weight for each exercise first.

3. Don't be afraid to have a really small weight for some of the lifts...it will make a huge difference.

4. Seriously consider getting the BowFlex Selectec dumb bells.

Basically, the Shoulder and Arm workout should have taken about 50-60 minutes. It took us 90 or a litter more because I had to keep changing weights on my dumb bell bars. Yes...I decided to go with the bars and adjustable weights thinking I would save a little money. I probably saved some money, but I made it much more difficult on myself. Basically, if you don't count the small bar I have a range of 5 to 35 pounds in increments of 5. This actually turned out to be a pretty good range, the problem is trying to change the weights quickly between exercises...or having to wait while my wife uses some of them as well.

Overall....very pleased with myself and my wife. We are sore and feeling it every day when we wake up....but we have 3 days down and 87 to go. We are gonna make it...and maybe when I'm done I'l post the before pics along with the after pics.