P90X: Day 15 Update

I'm actually on Day 17 currently, but I figured I can get into the habit of making a blog post about my progress every 15 days equaling 6 posts.

This has been quite a journey so far. I've been following the fitness plan perfectly. I've been pushing myself pretty hard to get through each and every workout. It's not that I'm about to die, but an hour of each workout is a lot of work. You WILL feel the burn. You WILL sweat. You WILL get tired. You WILL hurt. Well, a "good hurt" as Tony Horton puts it.

I won't go into too much detail about each workout. That's what I have my P90X Video Blog for. The first 3 weeks consists of the following workouts: Chest & Back, Plyometrics, Shoulders & Arms, Yoga, Legs & Back, Kenpo, and Stretching. All of the workouts are at least an hour of intensity except for the stretching, which is a nice rest for the 7th day. The 4th week is a recovery week just focusing on Yoga, Core Synergistics, and Kenpo.

And oh yes, I mentioned Ab Ripper X in my last P90X post. This hell of a workout is done three times a week throughout the 90 days, except for the recovery weeks.

As far as the changes I see and feel, my upper body looks a bit more defined. When I tighten my abs, they feel as hard as they have ever been. I can actually see where the 6 pack would show up if I were to get my belly fat outta there. I notice a drastic increase in energy, which may also have to do with getting more sleep lately and working out in the mornings.

I must also mention that I've read most of the P90X Nutrition Guide. I'm not following it 100%, but I have drastically increased my protein intake and lowered my carb and fat intake. For the first 30 days, the guide recommends your calories to be split in the following: 50% Protein, 20% Fat, 30% Carbohydrates. As you continue the program beyond 30 days, you can incorporate more carbs in place of protein. For example, my breakfasts have been usually consisting of 6 egg whites, slice of cheese, 3 slices of turkey bacon, a banana, and a cup of skim milk mixed with some protein whey. Mmm protein!

I must also say, it helps to have some friends to do it with. It's great motivation! I have about 5-7 friends on Twitter/Facebook that are posting their daily updates on their P90X Progress. 2 of those friends are on the same day as me. It's like a competition to me. And if you know me, I'm VERY competitive.

Be back around Day 30. I should have some nice Before and After photos up! :D

25 Random Things

Thanks to Facebook Notes, I've created a list of random facts about me. Please feel free.

1. My mother lives with schizophrenia. A lot of people have no understanding of it, so it's hard to talk about it with people. It really takes a toll on the family.

2. I've lived in Jacksonville, FL for all 26 years of my life. I have never once been out of the country. I would like to do so someday.

3. I usually have phrases or words that I say in temporary phases. I used to say "You Lose" and "Mofo" a lot. Currently, I'm saying "WAT" a lot.

4. I grew up into Christianity through my childhood and adolescence. My current belief is agnostic, but sometimes I feel guilty about it. Overall, I think religion is a positive thing. Except for those crazies who try to shove it down your throat.

5. Throughout grade school, I rarely ever cursed. Never smoked. Never drank. Never did drugs. I was strict about not having sex before marriage. Looking back, I understand why I was so socially unaccepted.

6. I try to be organized in everything that I do. When things are planned, everything seems to falls into place better for me.

7. I used to LOVE video games. I wish I had the same love for it as I did when I was a child. In middle school, I once said that I wanted to be the president of Nintendo. I still love video games, but wish I loved it more.

8. I want to learn just about anything and everything that I feel that I can put to use. With this, it's usually hard for me to focus on one thing and becoming a master at it. I tend to learn enough about things just to get me by.

9. I am an electronic gadget freak. Cameras, camcorders, cell phones, laptops, tablets, media players, etc. I switch my electronics out pretty often. If there is a fast multitasking device with good battery life, I probably want it. Next on my list is the 64GB iPod Touch (unless the Zune HD makes a 64GB).

10. I don't really have a "best friend". I used to in grade school. As we grew up, our interests were not compatible and we pretty much went our separate ways.

11. I've always been shy. Some people think I can talk to anybody, which is absolutely not true. Depending on whom it is, if I see someone I recognize, I'll try to keep from being seen to avoid small talk. I get a bit anxious with small talk.

12. I hardly ever initiate communication unless I am interested in you, need your knowledge, or have a question. This means I don’t really call people to hang out, IM people to chat, text people to say hi, etc. I think my childhood set me that way in that I didn’t hang out with too many people outside of school so I really had no one to call. Don’t take this offensively please. If you ever want to talk with me, feel free.

13. I love singing and dancing. I LOVE Karaoke as most of you already know. I’m pretty comfortable with my singing voice, but only on specific songs. I almost always have a song stuck in my head. Randomly, I’ll walk on rhythm with the music in my head. When I’m in an elevator, I’ll sometimes bust out into a dance and I’ll stop right before the door opens.

14. I love to play sports. I played intramural baseball from 1989 to 1996. I also played high school football in 10^th and 12^th grade as a runningback. I want to play more sports, but it seems the friends I have nearby are not interested in doing so.

15. I rarely let my depression show to anyone. People view me as a strong person and I liked to be viewed in that respect. At the same time, I don’t stay down in the dumps for long. I tell myself that I don’t have time to be down about anything. There are too many things to do and not enough time in life to waste on dwelling.

16. I LOVE puns and corny jokes. I LOVE jokes that people take a few seconds to understand. For example… *ahem* “NEXT TIME MY NECK IS DIRTY, IMMA USE KLEENEX”…GET IT? (If you didn’t laugh, U GAY GO WAY)

17. I’ve never been attracted to girls with dark skin. No offense. It’s just not a preference for me. This doesn’t mean I’ll never date a dark-skinned girl, but chances are pretty low.

18. I’ve come to the conclusion that a girl has to be somewhat dorky for me to be interested in them.

19. I don’t take medicine, ibuprofen, aspirin, etc unless I absolutely have no other choice.

20. I’ve never dealt with the death of a close friend or family member. With this, I have a small fear of how I will react when this happens regardless of whether it would be a breakdown or feeling absolutely nothing.

21. I’m a lightweight drunk. I like it. It’s cheaper that way.

22. I have never broken a bone in my body. (knocks wood)

23. I absolutely HATE being wrong about things. A lot of my friends know that, so I believe some of them push me until they drive me over the edge. In fact, this causes me problems in relationships, definitely. Talk about arguing over something so dumb! It’s probably because of this. I’ve been getting a little better about it.

24. One of my hidden talents as a kid was the ability to fold my ears and make them stick. I just tried it. I can still do it for a small amount of time.

25. DDR. I fell in love with it at first sight. If it was not for this game, I would not have the many friendships that I have developed over the past 8 years. I really think that it saved my social life from going down the drain. I never found to myself to fit with any crowd or clique in high school. I was so involved with DDR that I set a goal to run my own tournament. After running the very first DDR Storm, I KNEW that I had found the perfect group of friends. Ever since then, I’ve used my tournaments to meet new people and keep the community close.

26. (BONUS!) Even though I rarely give thanks, I appreciate my friends and family! Thank you all for being there! :D

You Got Goals to Get, so Get Going!

The 2 main goals that I'm currently working on are the following:

• Completing P90x.
• Forming a habit to read more.

I just started the P90x program yesterday. For those who don't know, it's basically a 90-day fitness program to get your body in the best shape it has ever been. Don't let my description fool you. It's a PAIN. It's not easy. I'm loving it. :)

Yesterday consisted of an hour of rotating among different types of pull-ups, push-ups, and chin-ups. That's right. One whole hour of it. I was really struggling after the halfway mark, but I pushed my way through the entire hour. The abs workout (Ab Ripper X) was right after, but I couldn't even hold myself up for some of the exercises. I decided to complete it after I got home from work.

Ab Ripper X really tries to murder you. It's only 20 minutes, but it's nonstop and it BURNS. In fact, I think I worked out more of my very upper legs than my abs. Don't exactly know why that is. Maybe I cheated? I'll try to figure it out when I'm doing it again tomorrow.

I continued today with the Plyometrics workout, but unfortunately, there is a lot of jumping around. It's not a good idea to do at 5:00am on the 3rd floor in a condo. So I will be completing this after work today.

My reading habit is definitely kickin! The biggest influence I came upon was a free e-book reader on my T-mobile G1. It's an application called Aldiko. It's linked with hundreds of free downloadable books on http://feedbooks.com. I decided to give it a short trial and downloaded a book. I completed the entire book in the same day (being about 120+ pages). It was a very relaxing and comfortable read. I decided to try it again, and again... and at the moment, I am definitely in the habit. Within the last week, I've completed 4 books and a short story:

• "How to Disappear Completely"
• "Black Silk"
• "His Robot Girlfriend"
• "The Man Who Could Not Forget"
• "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

With this done, I was at Target and purchased "I Am America and So Can You" by Stephen Colbert. I've always wanted to read that book, but never dedicated the time. Now that I own it, maybe I'll be able to swing through it. :)

I'm not quite saying that this goal is complete. These books I've read were small in size. I'll give it a shot on some bigger books and I'll get back to ya. Who knows? Maybe I'll even give the Harry Potter series a try... *GASP*