Days 2 & 3

Day Two: The day 2 workout is plyometrics, or jump-training for those of you not familiar. After the hundreds of push-ups and pull-ups we did in day 1, I was looking forward to something more active and not so isolated. Besides, years ago when I was a personal trainer I did get certified in Speed, Agility and Quickness training, which incorporates a lot of plyometrics - so I figured day 2 would be easier than day 1... Big mistake! The plometrics DVD is essentially an hour of jump-squats! Amiee and I were both panting with our legs burning after the 8 minute warm-up, and then the real pain began!

For the second day in a row I wanted to throw-up immediately after the workout. But I rested, enjoyed another recovery drink, and moved on. I'm pleased and proud to say we did make it through the entire session - we took a few jumps off here & there but overall it was a solid effort.

Day 2 on the diet was also ok - we went grocery shopping to buy a variety (as much variety as you can get) of the different portions of food groups and sorted them into portion sized packages. The lunch I packed to take to work consisted of 1 banana, 1 powerbar, 1 oz. of almonds and cashews mixed together, 3 oz. of non-fat ham and non-fat turkey, and two 3 oz bags of baby carrots. I ate throughout the day and was never hungry nor full - and I guess that's the point so that was alright. For dinner we made a taco salad with low-fat hamburger that I grilled and then broke apart into the salad. We each had to put 4 cups of leafy greens in our salad, which completely overwhelmed the hamburger and tiny ass 1 oz. portion of cheese that we were alloted, but we made do.

Day 3: Both Amiee and I got hungrier throughout day 3. I was at work and she was at home with Mackenzie (age 5), whose primary diet consists of Oreos, pizza, Pepsi and chocolate. Amiee made it past the temptations and supposedly kept her self-control - I'm taking her word for it with no questions asked at this point since she's being such a good sport with the workouts!

We enjoyed an egg-white scrambler for breakfast and I had prepared foods in portions to take to work for lunch so again we got by. For dinner we made a shrimp stir fry from a recipe in the P90X nutrition guide that was actually pretty tasty. However, in our excitement to prepare this experimental dish we forgot to pull the tails off of the shrimp so it was a bit more challenging to eat than it should have been!

The day 3 workout was arms and shoulders, which we both completed successfully and had no urge to throw-up after! We're definitely making progress - or we didn't push it hard enough with the dumbbells we were using - we'll step it up next time to be sure. We also had to do the Abs DVD again today, and I made it a little further in this time. I still can't get my body into the starting position of half of the moves, but I think that will improve over time - Amiee again did much better than I with that one.

We are wearing heart rate monitors during the workouts - that's recommended to make certain you're not "dogging it." For the time being we're using them to ensure we're not on the verge of death, but hopefully they will be used for their intended purpose in future weeks!

We each enjoyed the recovery drink after the workout this time - either the taste is growing on us or we're so dissatisfied with the other foods that we're eating that this wins out by comparison.

As far as results go, I am down 2 pounds but that could simply be a weight fluctuation, although my watch was sliding on my wrist today and I swear my pants felt looser and baggier. Could just be psychological but we need every bit of encouragement at this phase in the workout! I asked Amiee if she had lost any weight yet and she made some sort of groan and gave me a look that I only see when I've pissed her off. I think I'll wait a couple more days before I ask again.

Bottom Line: The workouts are ridiculously tough, you definitely have to be an athlete to get through them, and the diet is an adjustment - but pretty reasonable as far as diets go. Overall we're pleased with the program and anxious to keep moving forward after the first 3 days.

Day One: Chest and Back, and Abs

So we just finished the first workout - Chest and Back, and Ab Ripper X. Chest and Back was about an hour, and Ab Ripper is 16 minutes. I'm not sure what I want to do first - throw-up or pass out! Maybe I'll do both and I don't even care if it's at the same time (after all I think I did that in college a time or two).

I made it through Chest and Back ok - if you can keep up with the idiots on the screen you'll probably do about 400 push-ups and 200 pull-ups during the video. I think I did about half. I had to substitute resistance band moves in place of some of the pull-ups as I wasn't able to keep up. I can do a few sets of 8 or so, but the variety of hand/grip positions and the constant moving was brutal to keep up with so I bailed and went to the bands a couple of times. Amiee started and successfully finished with the bands - we'll incorporate more pull-ups as we move along.

I didn't make it more than 10 minutes into it before I started mocking the guy on the video, and I was swearing at him several minutes after that. Death threats eventually ensued at about the 25 minute mark. Overall it was very tough - but we knew it would be.

Ab Ripper was much harder for me - I kept up for the first 2 minutes but after that I couldn't even put my body in the beginning pose for most of the moves. Amiee did much better on that one. I'm going to have to figure something out because I'm pretty sure that lying flat on your back while panting and swearing at the TV because you can't do the moves doesn't burn all that many calories.

After the workout we enjoyed the "delicious" post-workout drink that was included in the program. We couldn't decide if it tasted more like powdered baby aspirin or the remnants of a warm, melted creamsicle. It was certainly drinkable, and perhaps it will grow on us...

Tomorrow is plyometrics - yeah!

Introduction

Amiee and I decided to try P90X because both of our current workout regimens had become a little stagnant. Amiee has been working out regularly 3 times/week, doing mostly cardio - and I had most recently adopted what I labeled the "24 Workout." I had purchased all the seasons of the TV show "24" and would watch two episodes each night (4-5 nights per week) while on the elliptical trainer (approximately 90 minutes of action packed fat burning). We've both successfully shed 10-15 pounds or so in the past 18 months, and have been maintaining fine, but we wanted to take it a level further.

We chose P90X because we'd seen it on TV several times, and most recently all of the ESPN Radio hosts that I listen to have tried it and had good results.

We ordered it last weekend and it arrived within a few days (free rush delivery was a special offer!). We added the pull-up bar and resistance bands to our order, so I think the grand total was somewhere around $300. The pull-up bar was harder to put together than it should've been (the shape of it was slightly off) but after smacking it with a hammer a few times it fell nicely into place!

We read through the nutrition guide and we're both scared to death about the eating regimen for the first 30 days - known as the "fat shredder" phase. We can only have one portion of carbs (e.g. two slices of wheat bread) each day and we're both huge carb lovers so that could be trouble. We also aren't big fans of a variety of vegetables so that could also be an issue - but we'll see.

Our Goals:
Jason - drop from approximately 200 pounds to around 180 or so, take 2-3 inches off of my waist, and increase overall energy levels.
Amiee - drop a couple of clothes sizes.

With that we're off & running! We plan to start day 1 on Sunday - that will give us time to get our menu in order and to make sure we have a relatively free day to fit a solid workout in. Wish us luck!