Day 58+ Back and Bicep

Seems like a repeat title from yesterday. I ended up doing chest/shoulders/tris yesterday because I wanted to give my back a break, since I did legs and back the day before. So TODAY I will be doing back and biceps - my favorite workout.

Going to do more work on the kitchen this weekend. Hopefully we can get some primer up. It's going to be a bit of a challenge with the kitten running around. He already tries to eat just about everything smaller than him, lets hope he doesn't have an affinity for latex paints. I'm sure he does.

I've pretty much kicked my coffee problem at work. I think it was just a matter of getting it through my head that I didn't need it. Plus I reminded myself that for every coffee I drink, need to drink 2 more glasses of water to recoupe the dihurettic effects of the caffeine. That, and I know the water is filling my muscles and I'm TRYING to get bigger and if the water is being wisked away, that just means more work for me in the long run. So I'm trying to hold back on the coffee - it seems to be working. Eventually I'll crack down and have another. But I've been doing great all week!

Day 57+ Back and Biceps

Yesterday's leg workout was quite nice. I actually did it with a co-worker. Something tells me he'll be sore today. What is it with me not taking it easy on the rookies and then they're not interested in working out with me ever again? Perhaps I just get TOO into it.

I weighed myself this morning, after I fed the cat and myself (we ate different food, trust me). 151lbs. Right about where I thought I should be. Since being off the chemicals, I've lost a bit of weight. Partially because I was being so wishy-washy with the working out. But hopefully I can put some bulk back. Day 30 pics I think I weighed close to 155lbs, so gonna be hard to gain 3-4lbs in a couple days, especially muscle.

Without having too many posts about powerbars, I had a question about the sugar content. I believe the carb content of powerbars are 21g of sugar ~ 14% or 15% of one's daily sugar intake. I'm not sure if that constitutes high or not, but a yogurt is typically in the 18%-20% range, and I'm sure an apple is also in that 15-20% range too. Plus powerbars have 9 or 10g of protein, which is fantastic. Some of the Harvest bars have 12g, but I won't go into that until I do a more detailed post on their differences.

No I am not being sponsored by Nestle or do I have an affiliation with them. But it sure does seem that way doesn't it!? Maybe I should. I wonder if I'm photogenic enough to be their "poster child" Dreams of grandeur. In the mean-time, I'll keep plugging away at my 8-5job. I hope everyone is doing well in their own fitness world!

Day 53+: Back and Biceps

I like this cartoon. It says a lot about "quick-fixes" and "miracle fat-loss" I think it's all rubbish. You wanna lose weight? You wanna be healthy? Put down the twinky and pick up a dumbbell. It's that simple. Speaking of twinkies... turns out they don't last forever and actually have a shelf-life of 25 days! I've been duped! You're trying to tell me there's actual food in there? All this time I thought it was some chemical by-product that resembled a pastry. But hostess does produce 500million of them every year, so they might as well be infinite.

Okay, that was random. My apologies.

Coming up on Day 60. Only a week away. I don't feel this phase 2+ has been my best (by any means). Took a lot of days off, slacked a lot with the diet and coffee (mainly coffee).

Going to a bachelor party this weekend, speaking of which, since when did bachelor parties start lasting 2 and 3 days? From my understanding it was a drunken night of men doing stupid stuff often times with hired female entertainment. If by the end of the night, if you were sober enough to drive home, that was the end of it. Otherwise wake up in the morning, shower, have some scrambled eggs, shower again, drive home feeling like you want to vomit, and then sleep until 4pm. But seems like everyone I know has been doing these Go to Vegas bachelor parties or spend the weekend at my cottage/summer home deals.

Okay, that's enough complaining for 1 day. I am back on the creatine monohydrate. I haven't re-started taken the hulk drink yet. I want to kick my coffee habit first.

Day 31+ Back and Bicep

Random story I heard on the news on my drive to work: 5hour Energy has taken on a lawsuit of $105million because there is a claim that the energy drink has caused a heart attack in a young-man. Insane! I always see the ads on the internet and see them at the checkout counter as I'm leaving the grocery store. Hard to imagine those little bottles of vitamins + caffeine could give somebody (without a pre-condition) a heart attack. That's like having a morning starbucks coffee give you a heart attack... could you really file a lawsuit against coffee? Oh wait, they did back in 1994 Liebeck vs Mcdonalds for 2.86million, and that didn't even involve a death. The joys of the judicial system.

In other news, trying my best to bring my weight down back to normal P90X graduate weights (below 150). I'm hanging in there from my binge weekend, but only by a thread. The last two days workouts were tough ones, although I thought I did an exceptional job yesterday with CST. One handed pushups anyone? Managed to muscle out 12 per side, a new record.

I've swapped out leg climber for scissor climber in abripperX. I learned it from Ab-core Plus. You do a leg climber, then while in half-boat, swap legs and come down with the opposite leg up in half-boat. It's quite nice. Very ab-tastic. And I have been adding some hanging leg-raises to the tail end of the AbripperX, just because I think they are good for my lower abs, which have been the last things to really show. We'll see how that all works in a couple weeks.

All my fallen trees/branches have been picked up. Thank you town traffic department.

Been playing starcraft 2 in the late afternoons, been a lot of fun so far!

Day 2+ Back and Biceps

I've decided to mix things up for round 2. First, I went ahead and changed the layout of my blog, some of you have already noticed. I'll probably play around with some of the gadgets in the near future to provide links either to other blogs I read, or a counter, or current pictures (all of which are from other blogs/people and I want to give you all credit for giving me design ideas).

Second, I have decided to get away from the "Au naturale" approach to P90X. What I mean is I will be introducing a little more chemical-engineering into my second round in hopes to boost my performance through supplemented protein, caffeinated workout drinks, and creatine monohydrate. I guess the idea here is to give these products a try, do they work, which work the best, and which taste the best.

I did a little shopping at vitamin shoppe (a good store for many reasons - especially if you are into organic things) and I purchased:



Designer Whey Protein (chocolate): Regular whey protein for mixing with milk/water. This had the highest servings per container of any whey this size (67 servings) and it wasn't terribly expensive ($19.99)



















Jack3D (lemon flavor): designed to supply caffeine and energy for your workouts. It's like a recovery drink, but supposedly it's the best ($24.99) for 30 servings.



















Creatine Monohydrate (flavorless): This, like the Jack3d, I have never used before. I'm very interested to see how it will work. Dissolve in water, consume daily. ($19.99 for 40 servings)













and a Shaker Cup: Because I will be consuming so many different beverages, I needed something to mix on the go ($7.99 for infinite servings).

I am pretty excited about P90X+ and my new chemicals! But again, this week is going to be odd because I want to start on a Sunday. Plus I need to watch the videos!

Day 80: PlyoX + Back and Bicep

"Give me the double-double... doot-doot" -Tony Horton- PlyoX

Two stories today, both kinda short, but both kinda funny.

1. On my drive to work, I was eating my powerbar breakfast (keep in mind at 78degF/24degC powerbars tend to have a consistency of playdough). I got to a stoplight and needed to unwrap the packaging a bit more to gain access to the bottom half. Well in my haste, the powerbar slipped out of the wrapper and landed on the car floor. I picked it up a little saddened by the event. I looked at my now fuzzy powerbar and continued eating.

2. Yesterday I had a PlyoX workout buddy! It was fun doing it with somebody else, because NOBODY wants to volunteer to do Plyo. About 25 minutes into the workout, he started to struggle and then said "It's a lot easier reading about P90X on your blog, than actually doing it!" It was funny, but I was dying too. It was dry and I hadn't done Plyo in a while. We paused a couple times, but he made it through! Well done Dr. P

Day 47: Back and Bicep (post-poned)

"Time for crunchy frog, EVERYBODY gets their hands off the floor!" -Tony Horton- AbripperX

I woke up this morning, after yesterday's Apheresis adventure... and my arms just were not up to the challenge. So I decided to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep. I'll go home this afternoon and do my back & bicep before Survivor @8:00pm.

I checked my weight this morning and I've come back to 154lbs which is about where I thought I was. My biggest problem about the training class I am taking is the necessary amount of coffee required to stay away. Each day I have easily 2 large cups of coffee. But it's the cream and sugar that have me worried. I shouldn't be adding nearly as much junk to it.

**Breakfast update**
I've been adding a spoon full of salsa to my eggs+mushrooms, and it's absolutely fantastic. I highly suggest spicing up your morning egg-whites at nearly no calorie cost. The spicier the better!

Day 45: Half-wayX

"You don't have to write anything down for that one, just showin' up does the trick!" -Tony Horton- Back&Biceps

Yesterday - not a good day.

1. Brake lines on my car broke (while operating). Thankfully no accident, and happened right near a Monroe Brake+Muffler... but still repairs will cost around $350 and I needed to scramble to get a ride home and to work today. (*Pic does not accurately represent the day's events...I only wish I could crash a Ferrari*)

2. IRS sent me a letter explaining that I forgot my HUD-1 form which qualifies me for the first time home-buyer credit. So now I need to wait another 6-8 weeks for my tax return to come in.

3. Stayed up late and nearly caved on doing today's mid-point workout, which now that it's over... was pretty good.

Let's hope I can have a better experience today!

Day 38: Back and Biceps

"I almost blew out my esophagus!" -Tony Horton- Back&Biceps

***Happy Hippie New Year*** 4/20/2010 something smells funny...

I've decided that I really like the Back&Bicep workout from P90X. It's a shorter workout, with plenty of opportunity to increase the resistance. Last week, I found myself doing lots of Red-Band (30lbs) exercises. This week, I decided I needed a bit more, except I don't have any heavier gauge bands. So to fix the problem I deiced to use two bands. It's a little awkward for the grip, and near impossible for hammer curls, but for the regular bicep curls and lawnmower style exercises, it worked fantastically!

My only gripe with the Back&Bicep workout is the girl in the video, Katie. She looks a little bit like Jenna Fisher (Pam from The Office). But she's so bubbly and cheery and Tony's little A+ student answering all his questions and seemingly so excited to be in the video. I don't know why that irks me, but it does.

I love what Tony says at the end of the video though, in the last seconds before it switches over to AbripperX...

"TIM-EE, BOB-EE, KATE-EE, and oh, by the way, I'm Ton-EE! *under his breath* don't forget to drink a recovery drink"

Almost a full workout without hearing about the damned recovery drink... but alas, he mentions it at the very last possible moment. What a salesman!

Day 30: Back and Biceps

The glamor muscles as Tony would call them. This exercise was amazing! It has to be one of my favorites! I'd say its right up there with chest + back. The combination of moves is just spectacular. 1 back followed by 3 bicep. It's definitely harder on the arms, but it feels spectacular!

** watch out for corn cob pull-ups **

I still haven't added carbs to my diet yet, and yesterday I denied my 5th cake... It gets harder and harder to say no to cake as the program progresses. I have been cracking real eggs into my eggwhites recently. It's just a matter of flavor and finances. Real eggs are like $1.99 for 18, eggwhites are like $5.00 for 12, and although I like them, adding 1 (or 2) real eggs makes them that much better.

Tonight is an apheresis banquet. I've never been to one before, so I have no idea what to expect, except dinner and dessert (which I'll likely pass on the latter). I'll let you know how it goes.

Weighed myself this morning: 156lbs (down 1 from last week).

If I can remember I will snap some Day-30 photos for your viewing pleasure, but I don't see how they will be much different from Day-28's.