"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! 

Diet Infomercials Suck

I want to try to sound educated, I really do.  But I was at the gym yesterday morning, a Saturday, and as I did my 10K run on the treadmill in front of 12 ceiling TV panels, the infomercials marched on before my eyes.  Saturday morning must be prime sales time for these companies, and weight loss must account for 25% of them.  As I worked myself into a massive sweat burning over 1100 calories and watched these TV spots, there was the only way I could express myself..."Diet Infomercials Suck."



I was stuck watching this one called "Zumba!"  I pick on this one not because I hate it in particular, it just happened to be the one I had in front of my face.  "Zumba" (pronounced Zoomba) is weight loss by dance.  It is a cardiovascular exercise that will miraculously have you effortlessly losing massive amounts of weight.  You will look sexy, fit into your clothes, burn fat and sculpt your abs into 'model looking' shape.  By the sales pitch, this infomercial is targeting women.

At this point in my life, after 38 years of yo-yo dieting and two years after losing 85 pounds and keeping it off, I think I know something about weight loss.  I know about the discipline of developing a meal plan and making good choices, the rigor of exercise that it takes to lose weight and the lifestyle of exercise to keep it off, and I know the emotional triggers that will get you to make the right choices.  That said, this infomercial was so full of crap it had my complete attention.  I will never buy their product, but if their intent was to get me to watch, it at least did that.

The first thing that struck me was that there was not one overweight or obese woman (and again, not being sexist, that was their target audience) dancing on the infomercial.  These women had toned dancer bodies and probably half or more of them have never been overweight in their life from my observation.  I know what an obese woman looks like after weight loss and THAT was not it.  After they have lost 50-100 lbs, large women look like you just took the air out of a basketball.  They do NOT look like Julianne Hough of 'Dancing with the Stars.'  The goal of this commercial monstrosity is that YOU will do Zumba and untimately look like THEM.  That was the first big lie because to look like these people on the infomercial takes a concious diet plan and a life that centers around 'how you look.'  These women work out at gyms in Beverly Hills with trainers and eat salads all day long looking to get a modeling gig or, gasp! a spot on an infomercial!  Most of the people who are overweight today do not have that type of mentality...but they do have the desire to look like those ladies on the TV.

The second thing that struck me was that no one was sweating.  This is exercise right?  No one is sweating and every person is smiling?  Remember Mr. Roark from that 70's TV show?  "Smiles everyone...Welcome to Fantasy Island!"  The infomercial said you could burn up to 1000 calories per hour doing Zumba.  Sure you can.  If you do it with effort and if you do it for an hour.  Let me tell you something about exercising enough to burn 1000 calories per hour.  Back in the real world, as the infomercial played, I looked over at a woman who had got onto the treadmill the same time as I did.  I was running at 7.5 mph and had been going for 25 minutes straight.  I had burned about 550 calories.  She was walking at 3 mph and had been walking for 25 minutes too.  She had burned just under 100 calories.  You can wipe out that 100 calories by eating 1.5 apples.  Why had she only burned 100 calories?  Because 3mph is pretty much an easy stroll.  Because EXERcise takes EXERtion...and EXERtion equals SWEAT.  The woman next to me, while showing a very admirable desire to exercise, was not working hard.  To Zumba enough to burn 1000 calories would mean that these pretty, eye-lined, body make-up laden models with their designer exercise clothes would be moving their fannies long after this 30 minute infomercial was over and their make-up would be running into the audience.  Which makes one think...who the hell works out to an audience?  No one cheers me on at Planet Fitness!...and practically no one is smiling.

This brings me to my third observation.  Time.  This infomercial did show some overweight women...in their before and after shots.  Here is the sequence I watched.  Overweight Mabel, followed by trim Mabel, followed by sexy girl doing Zumba.  Where did Mabel go?  Did she have a heart attack doing Zumba?  My point here is that they show examples of people with 50-100 lbs of weight loss and they do it by showing you picture A, picture B and then the dancer.  First of all, the time it takes to get from Picture A to Picture B, especially to a dieter losing over 50 lbs is like an eternity.  I was on a 900 calorie per day (medically supervised) diet and exercised for 45 minutes every day.  50 lbs took me two and a half months.  It wasn't instant and it wasn't easy.  This presentation took you from fat to thin in an instant.  And it's easy.  And fun.  And miraculous.  These dancers on the video are moving, at most, for about 45 seconds.  That burns about 30 calories at maximum intensity.  Can you Zumba for 20 seconds if you are overweight?  Sure.  Can you for 45 seconds?  How about 45 minutes?  Per day?  For 4-6 months?

How does their product sound now?

Here is what the infomercial isn't telling you.

1) Weight loss for an overweight or obese person is difficult and takes a long time.  It requires a lifestyle change and commitment.  You can't lose that weight by dancing for three minutes.

2) To look like those dancers requires a life that has, as it's goal, to look like those dancers.  Their lives revolove around how they look.  Not their families, their jobs or their problems.  Those dancers' biggest problem is how to lose that last ounce of cellulite.  Does that feel like YOUR life?

3) As fun as dancing is, it is not a lifestyle change that will be long lasting.  Figure out an exercise plan and an eating plan that fits you and commit to it.

Losing big weight and keeping it off is not easy.  It is not a lot of fun.  It requires choices, concious ones.  It requires owning your life.  You can do it.  If you do, you will feel better than you ever have in your life.  You will have better self-esteem, better health and you will live longer than your current timetable is predicting.  I promise.

I found this on YouTube...the real Zumba for the overweight.  This won't sell their product like their infomercial but it is real.  If you are fighting and winning the weight-loss battle, my best to you.  Don't let these infomercials get you down.  I applaud your hard work and dedication.