Does That Hurt?

I’m surprised that I have been so sore since Sunday after doing the cardio 3-4 of Power 90. I complete Power 90 1-2 sculpt 3 to 5 times a week, sometimes more. I run three miles about as many times a week as I do the Power 90. I certainly would not have thought that there was much in Power90 Sweat that would push me to the point of getting really sore. It did, though. I have felt the pain primarily in my claves, but it was in my legs, arms and shoulders at first.
I went to run last night after staying at school late. I arrived at Peak at 10 PM. I tried to start my HIITs on the treadmill, but I didn’t get through the first round before I could tell that running could possibly hurt me more. I had muscles in several places in my legs feeling like they would pull if I increased my speed very much. I had to stop at about 7 minutes and leave.

My calves are still really sore this morning. My original plan for today was to go home and do Power 90 Sculpt and Sweat. The schedule for the day has changed some and I’m trying to decide whether to keep with plan A or to go to Peak after church. Even as I write this I realize that the best thing to do will be to stay with the first plan. I’ll wait to get a run in tomorrow, but I’m doing another Power 90 Sweat tonight at home.

The episode has convinced me that I need to add the cardio routines from Power 90 to my regimen. There are muscles that get worked in that routine that all those weight resistance exercises don’t touch. Here’s to even more progress.

Challenges, Challenges

My weight dropped just as expected. The challenge remains keeping the fat loss going. This morning I'm skipping the Power 90 work out. I'm still very sore from the workouts on Sunday. Its important right now to give my body a chance to recoup. Muscle growth comes during rest following challenging exercise, not during exercise itself. I also need to get more rest. Sleep is important to the muscle growth process.

There are some nutrition pitfalls I face today. The students are cooking a Thanksgiving meal. I will be around a lot of food today. The temptation will be to overeat and to eat the wrong things.

Also, I'll be at school late today doing stats for a basketball game. I plan to go to Peak late and get my HIITs in, but it will be late.

HIITs yesterday were fair. Nutrition was good. Got in 45 pushups. Making progress. Weight was 185 this morning. That's 13 lbs left to go. Forty-five days left. Thanksgiving and Christmas to fight through. I'm going to do it.

Hurts So Good

There are 47 days to go. Today's weight was 188. That is 16 lbs to lose until I reach my goal of 172 by Jan. 1, '01. That will require 1 pound of fat loss every three days. That is entirely doable. But it will require total focus on carrying out the plan: resistance, HIITs, and nutrition.

Today is planned out. I've completed resistance. I'll have fruit and yogurt for breakfast, salad and a few ounces of chicken breast for lunch and supper. I'll have fruit and yogurt for between meal snacks.

I may have to stay at school for a while at the end of the day, but I plan to go to Peak afterwards and do my HIITs. I'll also make a run to the grocery store to pick up some milk and other staples to keep me on the nutrition track.

For my cardio yesterday I tried the 3-4 level of Power 90. I did fairly well on all but the yoga. I've got to get back into that as I near the start of P90X. An additional result of doing cardio 3-4 is that I'm sore. That shows I need to be doing that cardio aspect of Power 90. I get sore a little from the weights, but today I am noticeably sore.

In spite of this flare up from my bad nutrition over the last few weeks, I had several comments directed my way by folks who were noticing that I had lost weight. Actually, I think they noticed that my body is changing shape. I'm getting some muscle in the right places and its beginning to show, even from under a suit coat at church.

Well, comments are the goal. The goal is to see what I have left to lose when I get down to 172. Time to get started on this week.

Why Does This Feel Good?

I'm loving this. The way my body feels after a workout is amazing. There's a slight feeling of tiredness in the muscles, but a great level of energy and satisfaction.

Tomorrow is the 45 days left to go mark. I've got to push this hard, really hard. And I've still got Thanksgiving and Christmas to get through. I need to be flawless in the execution of the program to make my goal. I have 16 lbs to go. A chunk of that will be gone in the next few days. Then I drop below 180.

At that point my basic caloric needs will be pretty low and my body could even shift over into famine mode since it will be a new low in body weight. It seems that adipose is ill disposed to be disposed of. Its like fat fights back to keep from being burned off. That's another aspect to be factored in.

Muscle seems to be willing enough to grow. I just have to keep pushing forward on increasing the weight I use. However, I have to watch out for injury. Right now there are some twinges in my shoulders that are telling me I'm pushing my limits.

I'm doing well with the resistance training, but I'm doing it every day. I'm supposed to do it every other day. And I'm not doing the cardio aspect at all. I'm trying to get to the gym most days (5 or 6 out of 7) and do the HIITs. By the way, yesterday's results were okay: I broke 100 calories at 9'30" and 1 mile at just under 10 minutes. That distance is actually .97 miles in 5 minutes. The first 5 minutes on the treadmill are for warm-up and are a series of graduated walking speeds. Then at 5:01 I start running HIITs. I get two rounds in before I reach the 10 minute mark. I did okay on the next 10 minutes, but then I slowed down the last ten. I did break 400 calories, but just barely. I think I was dealing with some dehydration. What makes me think that is the way my body seemed  bit slower getter down to a resting state at the end of HIIT rounds. Also my top speeds were lower. Still, overall, I'm continuing to show improvement in my strength for running.

Today I'm eating a meal at church while attending a meeting. I'll be good. This afternoon I need to do some painting (community service project) and once I get home I would really like to get to the gym. Or I may just try the sweat thing here (Power90). Gotta do something to make these last 45 days count.

O well, time to get ready for church. Later.

What A Week!

I should be shot. Weight this morning is 190. It should be 7 lbs lighter. What a week though: anniversary, late days at school, God interruptions (God's insistence that I minister conflicted with my plans and I didn't think I was up for a fuss-fess with Him).

It seems that I still have to fight battles with handling stressful situations. Here's what I see: I must get more rest, plan my meals in greater detail, make complete preparations for the morning workouts before I go to bed, and avoid snacking on the food the students snack on.

Again, most of this is not solid fat weight. I will drop a lot right away. But that is about a week lost to shed the first 5 lbs. Then starts the slow crawl to the final goal of 172 lbs.

I also see that part of the problem is I really have progressed this time. In comparison to where I was, I like where I am and he way I look right now. My overall body proportion is better. Shoulders are bigger (even if the gut stays biggest) and my face looks more normal (not so much like someone just rescued from a prison camp). Just being so much better is undermining my resolve. But this last twenty lbs has got to go and stay gone.

And notice also how easy it is to put it all on.  I have to dedicate myself to weight resistance, HIITs and great (not good) nutrition to really get the adipose to come off. I only have to give in to cravings to put fat back on.

Once again I'll start on my goal of doing 50 push-ups a day (not all at once right now, but in increments of 10 to 15). I didn't do all of them this past week by any stretch of the imagination, but I did do more. I can already see the increase in strength, and I see it in more than just my push-ups. I have a much stronger back fly set now than before.

So I'll continue with those goals, but I need to do better planning. I need to spend more quality time in planning and include in those plans what I will do when Plan A goes awry.

I have made such astounding progress! I am so pleased with where I am and I'm excited about where I'm going with my health. I look around at other men may age and think, "I'm handling this a lot better than you are." And I could do it so much better. I will do it even better. Goal: 172 lbs on the morning of Jan 1, 2010. Goal: start P90X the first week of January. Goal: buffest guy at the wedding on July 9. I'm doing this. I'm doin' it!

Update 11/10

I ate heavy but clean yesterday. Weight today was 186. Once again, I anticipate a large drop in the next 24 to 48 hours that will get me close to where I should be. I didn't try to eat very clean on Sunday, but I did over eat. Whether the calories are compact or just immense in number, they will get me.

We've got a jam-packed week and it looks like I can't get to the fitness center until Thursday. Our anniversary is Wednesday and we're celebrating during the weekend. So, there's some food issues to come.

Power 90 strength levels are coming up. I hope that means more muscle mass, not just muscle toning or better mental attitude. I still need to focus on doing extra pushups during the day and work on pull up technique as well.

The goal today is to eat clean. Fifty one days to go. Fourteen lbs to go.

Work Out, Weigh In, Write It Down

Today's weight: 183. Power 90 Sculpt done. I gave blood yesterday. Probably ought to consider that as part of the weight loss. I was really weak the rest of the day. Maybe I felt that way because I'm used to feeling stronger, where as in the past, hey, I was weak.

I am a week ahead of my schedule, not 5 lbs like I said yesterday. That means I'm only 2 lbs ahead of schedule. That's one plateau from failure to reach my goal. I was 10 lbs ahead of my projection a month ago and 13 lbs ahead of schedule on Oct. 3. On Oct 22 I was back to only about 2 days ahead of schedule and I stopped blogging and weighing in daily by October first I was 1 lb behind schedule (weight 190, goal 189/188). Is there a pattern here?

I caught back up by Saturday, but that was a loss of a nearly 15 lb lead in one month's time.

I think the answer to the question is "yes". I need to make a promise to myself to weigh in and blog daily. I did keep my journal most every day, but that's my journal and its not posted. There is something effective, motivating about posting this blog. I know most all of the fitness guru's out there suggest that weight be taken once a week. I understand that they want to keep people from getting discouraged. I can see that. But it doesn't discourage me. I can take the day-to-day fluctuations. And weighing daily helps me identify the plateaus when they come and gets me started fighting them early on.

I just need to make sure that no matter what, if I'm here and I'm not sick or running late getting ready for work, I need to work out, weigh in, and write it down. That helps keep me on task.

Here's a past treadmill HIIT I didn't post.

Do I look angry or what? I'll try to smile next time.

Late Update

Between being excedingly busy and wasting the little bit of descretionary time that I had, I haven't posted much lately. Here's a quick catch up on all that's been going on.

Progress is right on top of projection. If I fall off the wagon any more I could get behind the projections and miss my goal. So this is "fish or cut bait" time. Current weight is 187. Nutrition has been clean. I've kept up with the weight resistance and the HIIT routines. Sooner or later I'll have to start interspersing the sessions instead of trying to do one of each every day.


I was interested in watching what would happen to my appetite when I started getting my exercise regimen up to par. And it has happened as I thought/knew that it would: as I settled into a regular exercise routine, my appetite abated. It is absolutely necessary that I exercise just to keep appetite in check, not just to lose weight.

I've also seen a problem with the HIITs. Slowly they are turning into cardio sessions and not just intense intervals. The problem arises from trying to meet certain goals of time and distance. One of the easiest ways to reach the time/distance goals is to run longer, and that leads to sacrificing intensity to do longer runs. I will have to think through my HIIT goals to get myself back on track to focusing on intensity. The purpose of the HIITs is to burn fat and specifically to burn belly fat.

Monday, Monday

Been a bad boy. But I'm past Halloween. I've got a couple of days here by myself where I can focus on exercise and good nutrition. Once again, the first 10 lbs will fall off quickly. My goal is to be in the 170 range by 12/1 and at my goal by 12/31. I can do it. I will do it.

I have developed a problem here of making promises to myself that I'm not keeping. Not good. I actually should have already been at my goal weight of 178 if I had kept the original track.

I have a co-worker who is trying to lose some weight right now. That will be a help. We can hold each other accountable. Also we have had a coupled of schedule complicators: Dad's surgery and Judy's flu. Both of these put me in situations where I was not being very careful about nutrition and had to neglect some of my exercise. Hopefully that's out of the picture for now.

It also points to a problem I have of not handling the un-routine very well. I'm failing for lack of a rut. I'm a train in dire need of a dependable track. That's an issue I need to address.

I've been reviewing P90X. Yeah, it finally came in. I've decided (for some of the very reasons I addressed above) that I will wait until I return from the Christmas trips to start P90X. So, I've got two months to get ready for it.

So here goes a new week and a fresh start. I've completed Power 90 1-2 Sweat this morning and I plan to run this evening, though the thighs are still a little tender from the Friday run. I think if a person pushed hard enough on Power90 1-2 it would be enough to do amazing things. And what I've seen from my review of P90X is that it's Power 90 on steroids - very do-able while simultaneously very challenging. I can see from some of the routines why the people who do it are so confounded ripped when they get finished. Looking forward to March 31 (end of first P90X round). 2010 is the year of P90X for me. It's been three years and 160 lbs coming, but its here.