P90X3: Day 9 of 90. Agility X. Feeling Awesome.

Yes!! You'll have that day after you start P90X.  It's usually in week two, right about now.  You do those routines, those damn killer routines, a second time.

"Wait.  What the...?"  My chart says I did 5 and now it's 8.  Really?"

Or, as you start an exercise...

"Crap.  I was awful at these last week.  This is going to be...what?  30 seconds to go?  That's when I stopped last week.  My legs hurt...and TIME!!!  What the...I finished?  Man!! I finished!!"

This is the week where you find out that you are going to do well.  This is where you get that first jolt of motivation to keep going.  As you look as those instructors, and you did the same (or almost the same) reps as they did, keep this one thought in mind.  They are never getting any better than they are, on that DVD, right now.  That's it.  They'll never improve.  But, you will.  There will come a time when you are doing those exercises and you realize that you have passed them.  It's coming.

For me, this week, it was those damn lunges.  For those of you reading this blog, as you will recall, last week at this time I was sitting with an icepack on my muscles.  Not this week.  This week, I crushed it without a twinge.  Not ONE twinge.  I felt great.  No, I felt awesome.  I bet you are all feeling a little awesome this week.  And, this little dog knows it too!

"What's Left to Say...Except that Chemicals Really Stink!" Insanity: Days 48-50 of 60

First thing left to say is that there is only 10 days left.  Just like P90X, this program went fast.  It really flew.  Of course, it’s 30 days shorter than P90X…and the routines are shorter for the most part until the second phase.  It more than makes up for shorter routines with routines that just don’t stop for 45 to 58 minutes, depending on the day.

The program is definitely working.  I have seen great improvement in my FitTest performance.  I have also experienced more endurance through the various circuits.  That’s pretty cool.  I would love to be more excited except, I expected it!  This is, after all, Beachbody.  The products are pretty tested at this point.

I have stopped my criticism of the people on the DVD’s, especially Akeel and Frankie.  Akeel seems to have gotten a little more energy and Frankie got a better haircut so they are easier to take in Phase II.  Still is tough watching Shaun T’s fascination with pulling up shirts and touching people’s abs though.

I also have actually figured out the form (which could have used much better explanation somewhere in the program) for many exercises.  Like, when you do the squats, make sure you concentrate on keeping your heels on the floor.  It ensures that your knees don’t swing out over your toes.  The squatting form came in the first couple of weeks but it took a lot of weeks to figure out some of them.  I will give you some examples.

The High Knees.  Anna is a great example of how to do them.  The key is, make sure your chest is up and your chin is high.  Why?  It elongates your abs and makes the exercise more comfortable.  She hops right into that exercise for a reason…she is one of the few doing it right.  Her form looks awkward…but try it.   

You’ll see.

 The 1-2-3 Heisman.  I learned how to do these in P90X.  In Insanity, they’re not the same.  If you try to do them the P90X way, you are way off step and there is NO WAY you are going to do them at a high speed.  It took me a while to get the steps down…I kept falling back on my P90X which I could do in my sleep.

Some of the things I still don’t like is that I don’t know if one person can do the circuits all the way through.  Shaun T doesn’t, because he stops to instruct.  Everyone in the DVD, when the camera is off of them, seems to be taking shortcuts.  Just some examples on this.

The Suicide Squats.  There is a leap in the middle of it.  A LEAP!  Look at the DVD…too funny.  NO ONE in the back is doing them the right way.  The Jump-Punch and Squat, some are squatting and some have lightly bent knees.  The Jab and Squat?  I laugh every time I do it.  No one does it the same way.  It looks like an exercise you make up for kindergarten kids.

The last thing I will say about form is that I wish there was more emphasis on this during the exercises and less on the speed.  Everyone is so focused on the rhythm and tempo that the form on most of them is really terrible.  I wouldn’t care except that I watch the people on the DVD so that I can have proper form…and their form isn’t right.  Oh, and we haven’t been completely told the proper form either.  So that makes it tough.

This weekend was fine.  I had to exercise on my off day…Friday.  I had to go at night and then do Saturday at noontime (only about 15 hrs later).  So…I did AbRipperX and Insanity Fast and Furious on Friday night.  Then I did Max Interval Plyo on Saturday, followed by Max Interval Circuit last night.  I tossed in 25 minutes on the treadmill for kicks.

CHEMICALS REALLY STINK.  I got nabbed once again by the food industry when I assumed a company like Gatorade actually cared about my health.  I have been drinking these G2 Low Calorie drinks with my Protein and Creatine now for a couple of weeks.  I noticed that my fat loss around my mid-section had slowed down.  Fat is processed in the liver and when you are taking in the chemical additives, your body spends a lot of time breaking that down…and less time on fat.  So just for yucks, I looked at the label. There it was, Sucralose!!  Crap.  You know, G2 has only 40 calories in a 20 ounce bottle.  So, to make it taste like the other G2 and still be low-cal, they crapped it up with chemicals.  Thanks a lot.  Now I have a case of it in my fridge that I won’t be drinking.

You know, if it had NO sweet taste, I would drink it.  I just want to drink what’s good for me.  Is that asking too much?

See you tomorrow.

“Holiday Speed Bumps and Getting Back on Track” Insanity: Days 46-47 of 60

It happened in P90X, it just makes sense that it happened in Insanity.  I missed one day of my workout schedule in P90X.  Okay, I didn’t really miss it…something came up that day so I moved it.  I used my off day and moved the workout.  So I still did it.  Same here in Insanity.  I had some personal stuff to do yesterday.  I got caught up in a few things and blew by the workout.  Now I have to pay the piper and do the workout on my Friday ‘off day.’

I love my Friday off day.  If you are going to have an off day during a workout, Friday is the best.  You take it off, sleep in on Saturday and then get a good breakfast in on Saturday and get right back to the grind.

Using the Friday off day to work out means I have to pay for the day I took off.  It’s real too…having to pay for that day.  First, I work out on Saturday about 11AM.  If I do a Friday night workout, that Saturday routine will be about 15 hours after the first one.  That’s not a hell of a lot of time to recover.  Let’s be honest, it’s practically NO time to recover.  Second, Insanity pounds the hell out of your body.  Working out on Friday means I have to do four days in a row.  That hurts folks.  Tuesday recovery day just can’t come fast enough.

Could I skip it.  Yes.  Will I?  No.  I will find some way to get this workout in.

Can it get worse.  Oh yeah.  You know which one I missed?  Max Interval Circuit.  The longest one.  58 minutes of grinding work.

All of this is because Fourth of July happened mid-week and I had a day off to do some things that needed to get done.  I know, “priorities.”  Well, I took care of personal business and now have to take care of my physical business.  The bumps will happen to everyone.  The question is, “How do you make sure you get back on track?”  The other question is, “Will you?”

One place I really need to catch up is my Body Beast 9000 commitment…that really got messed up.  I still owe 300 pushups for yesterday.  In case you are wondering, the Body Beast 9000 is 30 days of 300 pushups per day.  I count the pushups I do in Insanity too.

Oh yeah, you may have noticed the blog got messed up too.  I combined two days into one for this.  Ahhh, holidays.  Gotta love them.

Okay, today is a normal work day Friday.  It will NOT be my day off.  It will be a catch-up day for almost everything.

How will your day be?

“Haunted By Beachbody Body Beasts” Insanity: Day 45 of 60

Today is supposed to be my recovery day for Insanity…not my off day, my recovery day.  It is July 3^rd, the day before the holiday and, unfortunately, a Tuesday.  Having a major holiday at midweek of a workout program can really mess things up.

So Tuesday is my normal recovery day.  I was challenged today to do Bodybeast 9000 by the Facebook crew I do my workouts with.  It actually started Monday but they pushed me into this.  It didn’t take much.  I did about 140 pushups to catch up for Monday and then did my 300 for Tuesday.  It’s not hard, just something you continuously keep your eye on.  It’s a 30 day commitment on top of my Insanity stuff.  Should be fun.

I did not even do the Recovery workout today and here is why.  Wednesday is the 4^th of July.  I will do my AbRipper X, a normal Insanity workout and then go to a family picnic where I will be running around playing for a lot of the day.  I will more than make up for Tuesday.  The Bodybeast also had me burning more than my share of calories on Tuesday.

Okay, once again, a short blog.  It’s a really busy week but I want to keep the old blog commitment.

Watchword for Day 45…just keep going.  You will need breaks.  We are all human.  Being super-human also means being smart.  Take care of your body.

Also, eat a lot of fruit and salad on 4^th of July.  High nutrient density, low calorie density and good fiber as my grandfather used to say.

Happy Fourth of July!! 

“Pounding the Body” Insanity: Day 44 of 60

I did my Day 44 workout, which was Max Plyometrics.  I am doing better each time, which is really the goal.  I have noticed, however, that Insanity is pounding my body.  I finished the routine and sat in my recliner with my recovery drink, mixed nuts and a mango.  I fell asleep.  When I woke up a couple hours later, I was stiff.  Real stiff.  I have been taking my protein in food and powder form.  Also creatine.  And Glucosomine and MSM.  I am still hurting after every routine.

When I start into the next night’s workout warmups, I always feel like I am banging off the rust from the previous night.  I don’t have the bounce in my step that I had in P90X…that is a little depressing.  I am looking forward to finishing this and then observing the after effects.

I’m sure some of it is due to my age.  Beating the crap out of a fifty year old body is not exactly the brightest thing to be doing.  Oh well, I said I was driven, not a genius.  That’s sarcasm.  I’m smiling here.  The part of this that keeps me optimistic is that, after my Off Day, Friday, my Saturday workouts seem to really kick butt.

The good news is that once I get warmed up, everything seems to snap right into shape.  That’s the good news.

I have a heavy workweek in front of me (my real job).  Lots of work and only three days to do it…so my blogs will be short this week.

The watchword for Day 44 is that, “If you hurt, you are not alone.”

"July Workouts in New England" Insanity: Day 42-43 of 60

I started my P90X program this past February and finished early in May.  Then I went right into Insanity.  In my neck of the woods, in Southeastern Massachusetts, we have a very dry climate from the Mid-September/October range to  about late May.  Right around the end of May there is a dramatic shift in climate where it gets exceptionally humid.  You go from needing a humidifier to needing a de-humidifier practically overnight.

Home workout programs, like we have in Beachbody, are very convenient.  That said, you really have to do them for a whole year in Massachusetts to see what kind of lifestyle the ‘home workout’ will really require.

I was doing well in Insanity those first two to three weeks, the air was still dry and exercise was pretty good from the environmental perspective.  About the first week in June, we went to high humidity.  I will tell you that my workouts are now hell.  In addition to moving to the next level of Insanity, which is a feat unto itself, I now have to find a way to deal with more sweat than I thought a human could ever shed from a body.  There is zero evaporation in my basement at this point and puddles form from just having deep thoughts.

This past weekend was just unbelievable.  As I pushed through a third round of Max Interval Circuit last night, I was drenched.  When I did the last circuit and had to do the high kicks from floor position, I left a puddle under my butt on the mat.  When I was doing the Leap Frog Squats, every time I flung my hands up to leap, droplets of water would fly across the room.  I have a mat that is about 6 feet by 8 feet.  I use it to cushion the jumps and to catch the water.  I spend more time wiping the puddles than I do getting a drink.

I really can’t wait for this to be done and I have to think about what the next level is.  I am considering going back to running at the air-conditioned gym for mid-July and August and compliment it every other day with some Insanity/P90X hybrid.  I do know that I have to get out of the basement and into A/C for the summer or I am going to die of heat stroke.

Okay, short blog today.  Time to start thinking about the NEXT thing! 

“What’s Up With All The Contractions?” Insanity: Day 41 of 60

Okay.  Stand with your feet slightly more than shoulder width apart. Bend at the knees and rest your hands on your knees.  Now go into a squat.  Now, contract your core and round your back up.  Now release.  Keep doing it.

I don’t get it.


Contracted hip raises.  What's up with these stupid things?

I AM doing Insanity right?  What the heck is this exercise supposed to accomplish?  I’m not even sure if I am contracting right.  I have listened to Shaun T more than a dozen times and have done this exercise more than twenty times.  I keep doing it because somebody somewhere put this in the routine and it must be doing something, right?  I am doing this completely on faith.  It doesn’t feel like this is accomplishing anything at all.  Every other exercise feels like you are exerting yourself in some way, shape, or form.

Not this one.

Up.  Down.  Up.  Down.  Yawn.  Breathe.  Yawn.  Breathe.

Maybe I’m just not doing it right.  Maybe it’s just filler so everyone can rest…but we’re only stretching here!  I mean, yes, I’m sweating.  But, that’s because the warm-up really revs your metabolism.

There was a movie in the 80’s called Perfect.  It starred Jaime Lee Curtis and John Travolta and was based on a Rolling Stone article that talked about gyms being the disco bars of the 80’s.  it was crap.  The one thing I do remember is a very young, hot, and in shape Jaime Lee Curtis as the fitness instructor who used to be a gymnast.  When I watch Shaun T do these damn exercises, that’s what I think about.  She did them a little differently.  With her, it looked like work.  It also looked like training for some other profession…which was kind of the point of the movie.  Anyway…I am either doing them wrong or they are filler.  Either way…I like to work out.  I want sweat and I want to keep moving.  I want exertion.

I’m just not feeling it with these exercises.

Okay, I took a video of me doing the Ab Ripper  X.  This is for all you late-forty and early-fifty folk who think it’s too late to get in shape.  It’s also for you twenty and thirty-something folk who think it’s too hard a workout.

Why is this in here?  In my Insanity blog?  Because this is how I spend my off-days of Insanity!  I do this.

So this is an Insanity off day!

“Max Plyometrics” Insanity: Day 40 of 60

When I did P90X, Plyometrics were my favorite of all the exercises, with the exception of the old Ab Ripper X.  I loved them.  Insanity’s Plyo is a bit different.  My constant criticism of Insanity has been that the order of the exercises in the circuits do not allow for enough muscle recovery within the circuits.  In P90X, the exercises seemed perfectly ordered to allow for the various muscle groups to be cycled.

The whole Insanity gig is that it is high on Cardio.  That’s my real issue with the order.  You can’t be burning cardio calories if your muscles physically cannot move because you did three exercises in a row that shot the hip flexors (or any other muscle) all to crap.

I proved my theory last night.  There is a circuit sequence that has you do (and my names will not be exactly the same as Shaun T as I am doing this from memory) (1) Reverse hop-squats, (2) Squat Pushups, (3) In and Outs, and (4) PowerJumps.  Now, the hop squats have you in a contracted state with the hip flexors most of the time.  Same for the Squat Pushups.  Then you do the In and Outs and completely fry the hip flexors.  Now, you are supposed to do the Power Jumps.  Even in the DVD, everyone stands around looking at each other because no one can get through the damn circuit.

Last night I rejiggered the order and did (1) and (2) as instructed…but I reversed the Power Jumps and finished with the In and Outs.  I did the whole circuit and got a real good cardio workout to go with the muscle work.  Putting the Power Jumps at (3) allowed me to give the hip flexors a slight rest while going to an exercise that allowed maximum motion to the flexors (and allowed them to stretch from their contracted position) while also using a considerable amount more of the abs, glutes and thighs to get the jumps going.  I finished with the Ins and Outs, which went much better with stretched out hip flexor muscles since now I had to rely on them a lot.

You may find that it’s completely different for you.  You may love the order.  I don’t.  My goal is to get through the routine with as much muscle use and intensity as I can and it works better for me if I order the circuits the way it works best for me.

Tomorrow is my break day, which means Ab Ripper X in the morning and then nothing else until I ‘push play’ on Saturday morning.

Saturday is Max Cardio…this is another circuit I may adjust.  I KNOW.  I sound like some kind of pompous ‘know-it-all.’  I assure you, that’s not the case. (stop smirking)  It’s just that when I did this routine for the first time on Monday, we pushed like crazy in circuit one and then the whole thing just kind of fizzled out slowly.  In my mind, the energy expended wasn’t balanced.  I need balance if I am going to maximize the intensity.  The whole Insanity thing is based on circuit training, which is intensity, break, intensity, break, right?  The intensity should actually kind of ramp up to a peak and then tail off slightly…not drop off.  Anyway, enough bitching.  I will let you know when I adjust and let you know how it works.  That’s our deal, right?

Tomorrow, break day.  It feels good to have that.  The normal Tuesday Recovery Day was (for me) actually taken up with the Fit Test and then I did Fast and Furious (not the current Obama scandal, the exercise).

Have a great Friday!!

"Max Interval Circuit. Again. Hell" Day 39 of 60

Today was my second time around for Max Interval Circuit.  I would love to say I was prepared for it this time, but the best I can say is that I was “ready.”  Unfortunately, “ready” and “prepared” are two different things.  “Ready” means I know and expect what’s coming next.  “Prepared” means I have done everything necessary to complete the task.  Seriously, there’s no way to “complete the task” in Max Interval Circuit.  Hell, even the people in the video are dying.  This is a survival game.  Can I make it through?  That’s all you need to ask yourself.

So what does it mean to be “ready?”  It means I knew the pace generally.  It means I knew where the breaks were.  Some circuits actually stick to the ‘3 minute active/30 second break’ rule.  This one actually sticks to the rule.  I have found, incidentally, that if the workout is labeled ‘Cardio’ you should be ready for there to be no breaks.  Take them as needed.  Being ‘ready’ means also that I know what exercises are coming in which circuits and which circuits are really hard.  It is something you have to experience for yourself because everyone has unique strengths and areas of weakness that will affect the circuits.

As an example, I happen to be very strong in the oblique areas and the pushup areas.  I am not so great in things like the Ski Abs and the In and Outs.  So, if I know the exercise is moving pushups, I am good.  I can give my all the exercise before that one because I know the pushups won’t crush me.  Certain exercises that I am weak at, done in sequence, can really mess with a circuit.  I know I have to go a little slower and be more deliberate with my form.  I don’t like leaving sets and reps on the floor.  I like to do them all.  I almost never hit pause unless the water runs dry or there is an odd level of exhaustion.  Pausing usually happens in the first week of new cycles because I have to adapt to the rhythm of the circuit

What makes Max Interval Circuit such a drag?  First, it’s 58 minutes.  I will tell you that when you put on the DVD, and right after Shaun T in the opening montage yells, “Let’s GOOOO,” you see that 58:00 in the lower left of the TV and cringe.  It’s three, three round circuits, not two.  After you have done it once, you have an idea how to pace yourself.  But when you do it the first time, you just pray for it to be over.

The second reason I find it to be a drag is, so many of the people on the DVD fall out and take breaks.  None of them seem to be able to sustain both form and energy for an entire circuit.  There is a lot of “COME” in this DVD.  That is “Camera On Me Energy.”  The exercise starts and Shaun runs to a certain person.  They get a burst of energy because the camera is on them.  As soon as the camera moves, they drop out or stop.  You’re at home and you just know that doing the whole thing with great form is practically impossible.  I mean, they chose these people for the video.  They must be in decent shape.

Let’s take Akeel (spelling?).  He looks to be in the best shape of anyone.  If one person looks like they are the poster child for ripped abs, it’s him.  I have yet to see him complete a circuit.  I’ve seen all the DVD’s at this point, so I think it’s safe to say he won’t be completing one.  How am I supposed to get psyched at home to be able to do all of these?  I’ll be honest.  That’s my goal.  I want to do them all, non-stop, with energy.  I am completely uninspired by everyone except Ashley.  I don’t know what she’s doing but she’s doing something right.

In my mind, I have altered my thinking so that I can be successful.  I have made it my goal to be better than the ones who fall out.  In my mind, I laugh and berate them.  It’s not nice, but it gets me through.  If I can do it and they can’t, I’m doing something.

That’s all for today.  Tomorrow is the last day of Phase II, Week One.  I need an ‘off day.’

“Insane Days” Insanity: Day 38 of 60

Today is my third Fit Test.  Day 38 is the first ‘recovery day’ of the Max Phase of Insanity, or Phase II.  I didn’t do the Fit Test on Saturday when it was due because, after reading some of the experiences of people who did the Fit Test and Max Circuit…they were trashed.  I also read that the weekly Recovery workout was very light.  So I opted to do the Fit Test on recovery day.  I then did Fast and Furious just to round out the 40 minutes I wanted to devote to the exercises.

The Fit Test went real well.

Insanity: 36 Day Fit Test
0:15:36

SwKcks: 58:61:65
PwrJks: 63:70:65
PwrKns: 86:118:120
PwrJmps: 44:54:65
GlbJmps: 12:13:13
SuiJmps: 17:19:21
PshUpJks: 39:48:40 (no break day yesterday burned this one I guess)
LowPlnkObl: 61:73:75

Not bad. I don't think I can Globe Jump any faster without falling down. Next time there is a break day before the test and I WILL hit 60 PushUpJacks. And I am going to go back and personally count the PowerKnees for that little girl because she must be breaking form or added 10 when I didn't look....damn!! lol

I am powering along on Insanity but have a few observations.

I don’t like how many of the routines are laid out.  The exercises don’t mix well in terms of allowing for recovery from the last exercise.  If there was more focus on that, the workouts would be more efficient.  At some point, I would love to do a mash-up of the routines and re-assemble the order.  In fact, let’s put a little ‘to do’ check mark next to that one.

Another annoyance is the exercise circuits themselves.  If no one in the damn video can do them, how are you supposed to get through them at home?  I am in pretty good shape.  My fit test kind of shows that.  With that said, why structure a circuit that no one can finish?  If the idea is to really plow through, recover, go intense, and recover…wouldn’t it make sense to have exercises that people can actually do?  It’s a little frustrating.  So…in typical fashion for me, I have made personal adjustments to the routines that allow me to finish and maximize each one.  I think it’s working, it’s showing up in the Fit Test.

Lastly, the people in the video are so focused on going at Shaun T’s pace (not the pace he actually ‘does’, the pace he sets when he is walking around) that they all routinely violate form.  It’s hard to do the exercises in proper form while watching people with such BAD form.  I’ll give you an example.  There is one exercise set where you go Sprint and drop to low plank.  When he is not doing it, he literally gives you no time to sprint and you spend the routine dropping to low plank and hopping back up.  That’s just one example, but there are many.

Look, no routine is perfect.  The bottom line is, do the work, follow the form, sweat, and modify so that it is right for you.

Til tomorrow!

"What the hell am I doing? Part 2" Insanity: Day 37 of 60

(from yesterday)

I had to take some drastic steps to rehydrate.  I immediately sat down and slowly got about 12 ounces of Gatorade in me.  I ate half a banana and a kosher pickle with it.  I needed to get the sodium and potassium levels up.  I then made up my usually recovery drink of Creatine/Protein and had that too.  All of this over an hour’s time…you can’t just pour this stuff into your body.  I sat in front of a fan and waited for everything to absorb and my body’s heat to go down.  It did…but it took time.  When I walked around, I was a little light headed and seriously out of steam.  I headed up to take a cold shower.

I stripped off my sweat soaked clothes and turned to look in the mirror.  I could see my cheek bones and my face was drawn tight.  My skin was white…drained of blood.  My body was still sweating.  It hurt me just to stand up.  That’s when it hit me.

I looked at the fifty year old man staring back at me and said to him, “What the hell are you doing?”

(continued)

It was a real question.  I was really at a physical breakpoint.  I don’t think there are many times when I have exercised so hard that I literally depleted my system.  When I was in the Army, back in 1985, I went to the NCO Academy in Bad Toelz, Germany.  It was a two week school for future Non-Commissioned Officers.  The final day, we did a road march in full gear plus packed ruck sacks.  It started at 6AM and went to 8PM.  We did over 30 miles that day.  That may have been the toughest outing of my life.  This was kind of close to that but not entirely the same.  That day was long and physically tiring, but I never thought I had passed a physical endurance point.  I was just physically tired.  Saturday morning was different from the perspective that I pushed until I couldn’t give anymore.  Why?

The other reason I asked myself that question is, simply, I’m fifty.  What am I trying to prove?  No one else my age is doing crap like this.  Other than me, who really cares?

So I took my shower and went back downstairs to relax.  As I started to come around, I started to really think about the questions.

I thought about the workout on that DVD.  I bet the oldest person was 35.  I saw a lot of them not doing the exercises.  They were dropping out along the way.  There were moments when I looked up and they were standing still.  But not me.  There I was grinding away.

Who cares?  I guess it was a good question.  I thought about that one for a moment.  I’ve spent the better part of my life trying to achieve things with very little regard for ‘who cares.’  I set a course and give it my all.  Work or play, it doesn’t matter.  I like putting the goals in front of me and then testing myself to see if I have the discipline and drive to complete them.  It’s a challenge.  I’ve always been of the mindset that, if we are not challenging ourselves, then what are we doing here?

It would be real easy at this point to just not do this anymore.  Seriously, I could get about 6 hours of my life back every week.  When you consider prep and recovery and shower, hell, maybe I could get closer to 12 back.

The problem with those hours are, I like them.  I look forward to them.  I’ve gotten to the point where exercise is something I love doing for the sake of doing it.  I like talking with people about their health.  I like sharing the experiences with those who also have had life changing transformations.

That’s really it.  The transformation.  I like the new person.  I like the new person a lot better than I liked the old one.  The new person is actually a bit more reserved.  A bit more tolerant.  Not completely, but changed a little.

Who cares?

Who cares about this damn blog?  I know there are many who follow it and read it…and there are some who read it from time to time when the title strikes an interest.  But, who  cares what I think?  I have to look back at the hours I’ve spent doing them and say, “I don’t care what anyone thinks.”  I honestly didn’t do them for anyone but me.  I did them hoping that they could help others but really, you do it because you like (or love) doing it.

Which brings me to the answer to my question, “What the hell are you doing?”  The answer is, I don’t really know.  I know I like it.  I know I am getting healthier (in spite of Saturday’s results) because of it.  I know I feel better than ever.

It feels great, so I am going to continue.  I’m not going to be one of those who sits back and talks about his ailments.  I am going to be moving, I hope, for a long time.

I may have overdone it on Saturday, but I’m still here.  I also made it through Sunday’s workout in much better shape than Saturday, because I was ready.

I am going to just keep doing what makes me happy.  In the long run, if it makes me happy…well…good.  Sounds selfish but it I don’t make sure I am happy, being the opposite way for the rest of my life sounds downright dreary.  So I choose happy.  Happy and fit.

"What the hell am I doing? Seriously." Insanity: Day 35/36 of 60

This past Saturday, about 1PM, for the first time since I started Beachbody programs, I was asking myself that question.  I did P90X for 104 days and then got right into Insanity.  The last five weeks of Insanity have been hard but they are what I’ve come to expect from the products.  I started Week 6 (or day one of Phase II) of Insanity on Saturday.  Let me tell you something, that’s what had me asking myself the serious question.

I started the workout knowing it was going to be harder.  I’ve learned my lessons about starting new programs and went to Team Beachbody to look at some message boards.  I knew the routines were longer.  The DVD said, “Fit Test and Max Interval Circuit.”  The time on it was something like 63 minutes on the schedule, so I thought that was for both.  It was a stretch but I figured that I could handle it fine.  I also thought, since the Max Recovery was reviewed by so many as being very light, I would do the Fit Test then.  So, since I was doing no Fit Test on Saturday…I’m thinking, “That time for the whole routine should be considerably shorter.”  So, like I had been doing the last 5 weeks, I did my Ab Ripper X routine first.

ARX took about fifteen minutes.  I have actually been able to do it so well that I don’t even pause between sets.  I put the DVD in and start into the routine…by the time the DVD gets set and goes through the normal pre-workout junk, I am already on the Cross-legged Situps.  So the whole thing takes me about 15 minutes.

That done, I popped in the Insanity DVD for Max Interval Circuit.  Two routines on the disc as I expected.  I wasn’t doing the Fit Test, so I hit the hit the regular program.  Oh God.  I think it says 58 minutes.  What the hell.  Okay, no sweat.  I have been working out for 15 minutes already…I can do this.

Mathematically I was about to exercise for an hour and 15 minutes.  Insanity is about 40 minutes in Phase I.  Today was going to add 35 minutes to that pace.

My breakfast had been my usual Oatmeal mix and I had drunk about three cups of coffee…which was more than usual.  The heat has been brutal, so my hydration felt low and the temp in my family room basement was unusually high at about 74 degrees.  The dehumidifier was going non-stop and was adding to the heat.

So, given all the elements, I dove right in.

The workout started fine.  I kept up with all of the routines.  I will say, from a muscular perspective, this routine was a lot more physical than the cardio intense stuff we had been doing.  I enjoyed that part, but I hadn’t been expecting it.

I was sweating like crazy.  More than usual in Insanity, and that was saying something.  I went through a 24 ounce container of water in the first 30 minutes.  I had to push pause just to run back upstairs to get more water.  That’s when it hit me.  As I went through the door to the kitchen upstairs, it was actually cooler than the basement.  That NEVER happens.  The basement has always been the coolest room in the house.  I grabbed the water and quickly hopped down the stairs.  Oh my God.  The thermostat said “78.”  The temp in the room had gone up 4 degrees in thirty minutes.  My body temp and the intensity of the workout actually was raising the room temp!

I pushed play and just kept rocking.

Another 15 minutes went by and I started to notice something.  Even though I had taken in another 24 ounces of water (total of 48 now), I had stopped sweating.  I was in the middle of an exercise and I could feel the heat coming off of my face.  I looked at the room thermostat.  81 degrees.  My body was tingling from my head to my waist…a very weird sensation if you have never experienced it.  I was more burnt out at that point than I had ever been in 139 days.  I recognized the physical signs though…I was experiencing heat exhaustion.  The tingling was because my electrolytes were gone.

If you ever get to this point, you need to be concerned.  This is the point  at which your system begins to shut down.  It can actually cause your heart to palpitate oddly and can be very serious.

Okay.  Enough.  Time to stop.  I left about three minutes of the routine out.  I dropped the last set of the last circuit.  I went straight to the stretch and cool down and finished. 

I had to take some drastic steps to rehydrate.  I immediately sat down and slowly got about 12 ounces of Gatorade in me.  I ate half a banana and a kosher pickle with it.  I needed to get the sodium and potassium levels up.  I then made up my usually recovery drink of Creatine/Protein and had that too.  All of this over an hour’s time…you can’t just pour this stuff into your body.  I sat in front of a fan and waited for everything to absorb and my body’s heat to go down.  It did…but it took time.  When I walked around, I was a little light headed and seriously out of steam.  I headed up to take a cold shower.

I stripped off my sweat soaked clothes and turned to look in the mirror.  I could see my cheek bones and my face was drawn tight.  My skin was white…drained of blood.  My body was still sweating.  It hurt me just to stand up.  That’s when it hit me.

I looked at the fifty year old man staring back at me and said to him, “What the hell are you doing?”

(to be continued tomorrow)

"The Best Weight Loss Product : Motivation" Insanity: Day 34 of 60

A new diet drug.  A pill.  An artificial sweetener.  A diet book?  All carbs.  No Carbs.  No Fat.  All meat.  All vegetables.  Cardio.  Spinning.  Kick boxing.

Which one will help you lose the most weight?  Any of them?  All of them?  None of them?

Do you know what the answer is? The answer is: “IT DOESN’T MATTER”.

The one thing missing on that list that’s necessary to lose weight and get fit is motivation.  You either have it, or you don’t.  No one thing guarantees weight loss success like motivation.  You could have the worst program and have picked the craziest diet…but if you are motivated to lose weight, you will eat less and exercise and SOMETHING will happen.

I worked with a guy once who lost about 75 pounds.  It came off quickly too.  You’re always a little afraid to ask the ones who lose weight, “What diet were you on?”  It’s like asking a really large woman, “When are you due?”  You’re playing with fire.  The answer may not be what you expect.  With weight loss, you always fear some form of illness.  It’s not completely insane to have that fear.  The number of people who experience big weight loss compared to the rest of the population need to be counted with a calculator…or something else that can handle decimals.

So I asked Doug kindly, “What’s with the weight loss?”  He responded with a smile (whew!), “I’ve been on a diet.”  “Really, what kind of diet?”  He laughed before he told me, “You’re not going to believe it.”  So I pushed, “Okay…and?”  He smirked, “It’s the Peanut Butter and Jelly Diet.”

Wait.  Hold the phone.  I’d never heard of that diet and I had heard of a lot of them.

“I have one Peanut Butter and Jam sandwich, four times a day, and I do five miles of fast walking on my treadmill every single night.  I am actually to a point where I can jog.”

That’s it.  That was his diet.  Now, I could go over this and dissect it…but that would be meaningless.  IT DOESN’T MATTER.  He restricted his eating and exercised but more important than that, he had the motivation to make it work.  He stuck with it because it was working.  A person that motivated, even if the PB&J diet failed, would have looked for another solution.  It’s not the diet that worked, it was the drive inside the person.  It was their motivator.

Your motivator is the little engine inside your head that creates dreams and then negotiates with the rest of your psyche about how hard you are going to go after that dream.

If you are trying to get other people to think about their weight, fitness and general health, stop trying to show them new products.  Stop telling them how to do it.  Stop expecting them to want to do it because YOU did.  It doesn’t work.  Ask them questions.  When they make exasperated statements, follow up with questions.  When they comment about how good you look, ask them questions.  Drop the breadcrumbs.  They will follow if they have that special ingredient that will help them get healthy…motivation.

If they don’t follow…they don’t care.  They might care a little, but they don’t care enough.  The drive it takes to change your life is not to be underestimated.  It has to be substantial.  It has to be selfish.  It has to be able to push some of the other things in their life out of the way.

Eating right 90% of the time (a recommendation from Dr. Joel Fuhrman), requires a discipline that comes from the motivation that the outcome will be worth the decision to go with the veggies rather than the potato salad slathered in Miracle Whip or opting for the roasted chicken breast over the Prime Rib.

Making exercise a part of your routine requires effort.  How many times have you circled a parking lot looking for the closest parking space?  “I’m not taking that spot all the way out there!”  Let’s face it, they have shopping carts.  It’s not like you are going to have to carry your crap all the way there in your arms.  It also isn’t about time.  I know that because people will spend 20 minutes stalking people leaving the store to get that treasured spot.  It only takes five minutes to walk from the spot ‘way out there.’  It’s a mindset.  It’s about not wanting to move.  It’s about moving as little as possible.  To look at life’s situations and say to yourself, “No thanks, I’ll walk” is a completely ass-backwards violation of our existing social standards.  It means you have to be motivated enough to be different and make better decisions.

So fine.  Motivation is needed.  We all get it.  Where do we find that?  Ahhhh.  Good question.  The answer is a tough one.  That depends on how important that thing you are trying to achieve is.  How hard is that motivator working to push out the other things?  Pushing out the other things simply means that you are pushing the thing you want to the top of your personal needs list.  So if that ‘thing’ is health and general fitness…what will make it a top priority?  Sometimes you make it a priority from fear.  Fear of the next heart attack.  Fear of high blood pressure.  Fear of getting old maybe?  Fear of ‘looking old?’  Sometimes it’s just the challenge of achieving the goal.  If you are a celebrity, maybe you fear not getting the young roles anymore.  Maybe you fear not getting the phone calls.  If you are a model, maybe you fear that being five pounds overweight means no one wants you…unless you are Kate Upton.  So what is the motivation?

It’s in each person uniquely.  If you want to lose weight, you better find your motivation.  Not the diet, the pill, the drink, the program…the motivation.  The tools to get the goal will always be here.

If you are trying to help people get fit…you better ask them insightful questions.  Find their motivation.  Otherwise, the only fit that you will experience will be the tantrum you throw when they don’t get it!!

“When Work and Weight Collide” Insanity: Day 33 of 60

I work at a company that has college students as its primary market.  When you think of weight and a college student, what comes immediately to mind?  For most, it’s the “Freshman 15.”  So my company is looking for Blog content for the summer, and they had a bunch of folks from the Marketing group all sitting around and pick up the various topics.  Oddly, no one took that topic.  Here’s the skinny…I am not in Marketing, I’m in technology.  I ‘overheard’ their meeting and picked up on the fact that no one took the topic.  So I emailed the Product Manager and asked him if he would mind if I wrote it.  There was a little skepticism, but he said, ‘okay.’

I try not to let my Health, Fitness, Coaching and Blogging life interact with my work life.  There are only a handful of people who even know how much blogging I do.  That said, today we discuss the Freshman 15!  PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND...I had to write this for a particular audience with a particular slant and voice.  So here goes...

The Freshman 15.  Fact, Fiction, the whole Freakin’ Enchilada.

It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?  Doesn’t it feel like just yesterday that you were starting High School?  It started out weird because you didn’t know many people, then, suddenly, it felt like home.  Then, in a flash, your boyfriend gave you flowers, you graduated, and now, you’re leaving  and doing this all over again.  In a bigger place.  Crazy, right!?

You pack up your pictures thinking, “Wow, that prom dress was gorgeous.”  Still can’t believe dad actually shelled out the cash for it.  Remember how you were so nervous and lost all that weight in the spring?  It cost $60 just to get the gown taken in so it didn’t fly off on the dance floor.  You grab the baggy sweatpants off the nightstand and jam them in the box.  You want to hear something scary? By Christmas, those sweatpants won’t be so baggy and that prom dress will be a memory.  Wait….WHAT!!??

That’s right.  Wrap your head around that for a second.  As you walk through the door of your new college around Labor Day, you’ll be greeted by your roommate and the Freshman 15.  What’s the Freshman 15?  It’s a term used, sorry, mostly for girls.  It’s the 15 extra pounds of flesh and cellulite you’ll be slogging home around Thanksgiving or Christmas time.  It’s waiting for you at college like a creeped out Facebook stalker.

No, no. Not me.  That won’t happen to me.  It’s a joke, right?  That’s just a myth.

Is it?  No.  It’s not.  You remember all those activities that you did the last four years in high school?  All of the sudden, that’s going to turn into studying and partying.  Sit. Study. Sit. Eat.  Sit. Study. Sit.  DRINK.  Sit. Study. Sit. EAT AND DRINK!  That’s a catchy little rhythm isn’t it?  Do you see ‘run’ or ‘exercise’ in there anywhere?  Uh…nope.

There’re a lot of reasons for the Freshman 15.  First reason:  no real activity.  Totally true.  You’ll be less active.  Second reason:  eating.  Eating everything.  Late at night, in the dorm room, in the cafeteria…it’s never ending.  Whenever anyone extends a slice of pizza, kiss it goodbye.  Don’t worry, you’ll see it again.  At Christmas.  It’ll be waiting at home in your bathroom mirror.  Last reason?:  Alcohol.  No.  Not that.  There’s no alcohol in college, the drinking age is twenty one!  I’m hoping you recognize the sarcasm in that last sentence.

So why just girls?  Why should only girls worry about this?  Because life’s not fair, that’s why.  It’s the ‘tough $h!t’ rule…you just have to deal with it.  Guys will gain fifteen too probably.  But fifteen on a guy looks rugged and it’s not that much relative to their total body size.  And guys wear baggy jeans, not booty shorts.  Get the picture?  Fifteen extra pounds on a chick has you going from Taylor Swift to Adele in four short months.  No one would notice the poundage if you looked like Adele and could sing like her, but you can’t carry a note, so you’re screwed.

No. C’mon!  Is fifteen pounds even physically possible?  Yes it is.  Let’s do a little math.  I know, you’re a psych major now.  You thought you would never do math again.  Bear with me.  There are about 15 weeks in a semester, so that would be a pound a week.  A pound is 3500 calories.  That’s 500 extra calories per day.  Decrease your activity levels, toss in some booze and add a donut per day (Dunkin Donuts Blueberry Crumb Donut equals 500 calories on the nose).  Still think 500 extra calories a day is hard?

All right.  Enough already.  How do I keep this from happening?  There are some things you can do.  Get the butt moving.  Keep the butt moving.  Find the gym.  Do pilates…yoga…aerobics…the dorm stairs.  Find something and do it regularly.  Do something that keeps your metabolism up and going.  Make some eating rules and stick to them.  Here’s a few for you to think about.  Stay away from the starch and fried foods.  No Pasta, white bread, hamburgers, etc.  Stay away from the sugar.  Avoid desserts and meat dishes wrapped in sweet sauces.  Eat salads, vegetables, and fruits as much as possible and have a good protein rich breakfast.  Avoid the booze.  The extra calories are killer and the munchies will kill any of the above mentioned rules because, frankly, once you are three drinks in, you won’t care.  Last, bring a scale to school.  If any of this matters to you, keep an eye on your weight.  You don’t want to go four months without standing on the scale.  At least, not without meds for depression.

Do you care about this?  Maybe you don’t.  But if you want to avoid remarks about the Thanksgiving Float (after you realize they aren’t talking about the Macy’s Parade) you should heed my advice.  The facts, the fiction and the whole freakin’ enchilada.  Just don’t eat the enchilada.

"Can Exercise Reverse Aging?" Insanity: Day 32 of 60

The comment I hear most often from people who have known me for years, but haven’t seen me in a while, is, “You look ten years younger.”  It feels vain to say this, but I do own a mirror, “I know, right?!”  I never say that.  But inside I want to.  I look younger.  I feel younger.  I feel great.

So, is the aging process changing due to my changes in nutrition and fitness?  The answer is a wholehearted “Yes.”  Just so you know that it’s not solely my personal opinion, there’s plenty of science to back it up.

Aging is something we all experience.  While it is a factor of time it is also a factor of activity.  As we get older, our lives change.  We get more sedate.  We sit more.  We eat more.  Whether you know it or not, the human body is constantly in growth mode.  Your cells regenerate over time and, in your early years when you are most active, your cells “turn over” quickly and at a high rate, causing you to maintain a youthful appearance.  Your cell regeneration is tied to your metabolism.  As we get less active in our latter years, our metabolic rate decreases.  We begin to “turn over” our worn out cells and replace them with new ones at a less rapid pace.  Our youthful appearances slowly fade. 

In addition, we carry more baggage.  As we get less active, we pack on those little globules of energy storage known as fat.  The fat cells also contain particles from every known toxin you have ever ingested or been exposed to.  So, in addition to a slower cell regeneration process, we have to fight off toxic byproducts.  Those byproducts get into the many different cells of our body.  Because those cells hang on longer, we develop growths and tumors as well as have systemic disorders.  It’s easier for cells to get ‘infected’ when they are in your body for prolonged periods.  We begin to break down.

Certain hormones and processes in the body slow down due to time, that’s very true.  Organs that operate the body regenerate slower than does muscle and skin tissue.  But by keeping your metabolic rate up and staying active, you can extend the capability of those organs significantly.  This means that your naturally produced hormones and processes work for longer periods of your life.

We aren’t aging because of ‘time.’  It’s because we stopped moving and we stopped putting the right fuel into the machine.  If you have a car with 200,000 miles on it, but you did the maintenance every 3,000 to 5,000 miles, that car probably runs better than some that were poorly maintained and have 60,000 miles.  I always say, “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.”  With the human body though, it’s slightly different.  “It’s not the years, it’s the maintenance.”  Why?

The human body can be equated to a machine on many levels.  There is one quality of the human body, however, that makes it unique and special.  There is no other machine on the planet that, when fed and used, actually IMPROVES in ability to perform.  No engine’s mileage ever got 50% better because you put the right gas in it and drove it every day.  Every machine ever made gets more worn with use.  Not the human body.  If you fuel the body properly and if you exercise it, it gets better.  Better at processing the fuel..better physically and mechanically…better efficiency.  The human body is the greatest mechanical miracle on the planet yet we continue to ignore it and even destroy it.  How smart is that?  It’s your last car.  There’s no showroom on earth waiting to take a ‘trade in’ on your body after you have just burnt it up.

I am in better shape right now than when I was twenty-five.  I am fifty.  It’s not a miracle.  It’s scientifically possible...if you make better decisions around the care and maintenance of your physical machine.  You can’t reverse time, but you can reverse aging.  How else do you explain a 50 year old machine that performs better than when it was 25?  You can slow the aging so much that, relative to the ‘old folks’ who were born the same year you were, you look younger.  Much younger.  And when that happens, the perception is also that you reversed the aging process.

Hell, if it’s true that perception is reality, then “voila!,” aging has been reversed.

What condition is your physical machine in?  It’s not too late.  We are all fighting the same thing…the illnesses and physical breakdown caused by a lack of focus around our health and fitness.  It’s a war.  You can put the brakes on aging and your body can actually get better.  If you stay active, time chases you.  Don’t let it catch you.

Remember, it’s a war.  As we used to say, when I was in the Army, “Stragglers die in combat.”  Will you be left behind?  We’re waiting for you.

"What Do You Know?" Insanity: Day 31 of 60

Hey, guess what?  Someone who will not be named because she hates public exposure on the internet is down seven pounds since starting my June Challenge Group.  No Shakeology (shame) but just the workout DVDs for the Tony Horton Power Half-Hour and with something more than a casual commitment to some form of daily exercise.

Last week, the comment was, “Wow, I can see improvement.  I was able to finally do the whole workout.”  This morning, the comment was, “I’ve lost about seven pounds.”

Many feel that weight-loss and fitness management are difficult things.  As a culture, we seem to love the drama of putting obstacles in front of ourselves.  It’s as if some of our lives are so uneventful that we need to turn it into an X-Men movie or something to feel like we are alive and kicking.  The reality is that there are issues in everyone’s lives, but many (if not most) are completely manageable with very little effort.  It just makes us feel good to think we just cured cancer.

I actually created a name for it many (many) years ago in college…”Low Hurdle Syndrome.”  It’s when you take a really small obstacle and make it look big for everyone else by painting it as “awful” or “huge.”  Then, when one takes that little bitty hop over it, it makes the effort look like that person just tackled Mount Everest.

I listen to a lot of people talk about their lives as if they were a reality TV show.  Seriously, that's not a very high bar.  There's a reason that an entire season of the Kardashians lasts only 13 episodes at 40 minutes each.  It’s because their lives only have about 8.5 hours of drama a year.  They just make it look like a lot with reruns, plastic surgery and poor parenting examples.

When we hear about someone who actually has real tragedy and difficult issues in their life, we cannot even fathom what dealing with THAT would be like.  Why?  Because those issues are REAL!!  The real barometer to figuring out who is dealing with real issues and who has drama, is the noise level.  It is completely ironic that the people with the worst possible situations and the most in need of help are almost always the ones you NEVER hear from.  They endure it silently.  No drama.  How often have you heard something truly tragic about someone even as close as a good friend and then say, “Wow.  I had no idea.”   Why?  Because real issues are only made worse by drama.  To survive them, you need to feel like you can control them…and you can’t control them in a morass of noise. 

So when we talk about potentially losing weight and getting fit, the drama flies.  “I can’t possibly do that.”  “I can’t possibly keep that piece of birthday cake from going into my mouth and down my esophagus.”  “There is NO WAY that I could eat less.”  “Exercise for 30 minutes is SO HARD.  30 whole minutes?  Seriously, I hate to get all sweaty.”

Seriously?  I have heard all of those excuses and about a hundred more.  I have watched some of the folks with the excuses actually sweat while eating!  When you attack your food so voraciously that it makes you sweat…there’s a problem.  When eating actually has become your form of exercise, the vicious cycle has just devoured you.

So, from the first paragraph of this blog, you see it has been demonstrated (again, and not just by me) that with a little effort and consistent attention to the matter, weight loss will happen.  It doesn’t happen without the effort, but the effort is not as overwhelming as we all make it.

Smile.  It’s easier than you think.  You will feel much better when you have found out that how you look and feel is completely up to you.  It’s liberating.  It’s like when you first got your Driver’s License and realized that you could go anywhere you wanted.

Ready to hop in and go for a spin?  I have many new cars lining up just for the rest of you!