Jon's Power 90 experiment

Just dropping a note to say that i’ve been able to stick to my routine of walking, and im almost back down to my post-P90 weight.  For the month of May, im going to surpass walking a total of 100 miles for the month.  Its a great stress reliever and a great way to just enjoy being outside, which i love.

I still see that visitors are coming in, even though i hardly ever update this anymore.  For some reason, i have not been able to stick with Power90 again.  But, anyone who stops by for a visit, I urge you to give it your all for 90 days, it is definately worth it.  I have still been working out, but i seem to gravitate (is that a word?) towards things that keep my attention, and right now it is walking/jogging.  Im getting closer to the weight i got down to doing P90 doing this and it keeps me happy.  I think the key to being healthy or exercising, whatever you goal is, is to keep yourself entertained with something you can maintain.  Maybe it is the fact that i have already done P90 and it isn’t as interesting to me since I conquered it, i dunno, but it has definately given me insight to a healthier being and knowing what it takes to at least maintain a healthy lifestyle.  If nothing else, it is a great foundation.  So, I guess what I am trying to say is that if you are just googling and trying to find success stories or whatever for P90, you can’t go wrong with P90, as long as you keep at it and do your best.  I can definately say that, to this day, buying the P90 DVD’s was one of the best decisions i ever made because it taught me alot about how to get to where i want to be as far as a solid foundation.

Sorry if you had trouble getting to my blog today.  I had to change the DNS settings around and didnt get things quite right first time around.  Last week went really well and im glad to say that the BodyBugg is really helping me track where i need to be.  I averaged around 1,500-1,600 calorie deficit last week, and i was curious to see what the scale would say in relation to the BB numbers.  Happy to say that i dropped exactly 5lbs last week.  Thats more than i’d even hoped for, and not really a maintainable or healthy number to lose, but it is sure nice seeing numbers like that.  Hoping to keep a slow steady burn up and get back down to where i was at the end of my first round.

Man, today was a low energy day.  I ran out of my usual snack of almonds, so i didnt have an afternoon snack.  It really hit me around workout time.  Still did good in the workout, but until dinner i’d only had about 900 calories, so i was trashed.  Made up for it in dinner and still got in my target calorie range, but it definately effected my workout.  I hate this time of year when i comes to food.  There is so much good stuff floating around!  Today one of our departments had their christmas party and invited us guys over for what i call clean-up duty.  Tons of awesome stuff like pecan pie and sausage balls.  I had a small piece of cheese and watched my coworkers gorge on all the sugary fatty goodness.  Man is that hard!  Found something neat with the BB today.  I walked to work like i have all week, and my wife had a lunch engagment today, so i also walked home for lunch and then back to work.  On my walk home from work, my digital display started beeping and i looked at it and it notified me that i had met my goal of 40 mins of moderate exercise for the day, and i hadn’t even worked out yet.  I guess my brisk walking got me there.  Pretty cool stuff.

More of the same today.  Sweat 3-4.  Still not easy, but it feels good.  Im really enjoying wearing the BB and have found myself getting up and taking strolls around work just to see what effects it has on the device.  I also got the digital display in the mail today so i wont have to sync every time i want to see where i am at for the day.  It’s also a constant reminder that if i eat a cookie off the several platters which have been delivered at work, that i will be forced to log that, and it’ll mean i’ll get to eat less later.  Lucky for me, my wife is an absolutely fantastic cook and has made some really great dinners this week that were very filling and very tasty, and still very healthy.  My khaki’s which were starting to get tight are already starting to get a little more comfortable after not gorging on food this week, which is a welcome sign that im starting to lose some water.  Im at a 5589 calorie deficit for the week through Wednesday which will put me on target to lose 3lbs this week if the BB is accurate.  I wont weigh myself till Monday morning though, so we’ll just see how good this thing is.  Regardless of whether or not it is spot on accurate, it at least gives a consistent measure to go against when judging calorie burn vs. calories consumed.

Just got done doing Sculpt.  According to the BB the 40 minute workout of Sculpt 3-4 burns 287 calories.  I didn’t figure it would be as high as Sweat, but i figured it would be a little more than that.  I guess because your heart rate doesnt get as high, except during all those squats & lunges.  Its already getting easier getting back into things rather than starting from scratch.  I dont guess there is too much to report.  Max out on push-ups was 40, so i haven’t lost it all.

So last week I started back Power 90.  I did miss a few workouts due to being extremely sore, but i figure that was a break in period all over again.  Im going to go ahead and count today as Day 1.  Got the BodyBugg going and counting every single calorie.  I cant say the i will not miss any workouts like i did first time around, but im going to give it my best shot.  Its really cool being able to see just how many calories i burn in a day rather than just guessing.  One thing i have found about the BodyBugg is that it measures from midnight-midnight.  Im averaging burning about 2 calories per minute at rest at my desk or sitting at home, which will put me at my target goal for today at 3,600 calories burned.  I have also started walking to work rather than driving which i plan to do as long as weather permits. 

Here is a view of what you get off the BodyBugg website as a view.  Im still figuring out the somewhat complex (coming from an IT guy) system of entering your food.

BodyBugg website view

My BodyBugg came in the mail yesterday.  Im pretty stoked about it.  I think it’ll help get my on track and make me more accountable for what i eat.  I used it today alot to calculate what im actually burning doing physical activity.  My wife wanted to walk to the school she is going to be teaching at just to see how long it would take, and we ended up going for a longer walk and went exactly 4 miles.  Then a few hours later did Sweat 3-4.  According to my BB, i burn right at 500 calories doing the workout.  Im going to do the Fat Burner express sometime next week so i can compare the calories burned between the two, as well as Sculpt.  Im almost positive that FB Express burns less calories just because i dont feel like it works me as hard.

Admittedly, i skipped a few workouts this week.  After getting back into Sweat 3-4, i was doing good to be able to walk without looking like a 70 year old man because my calves were so sore.  It wasnt that bad once i got up and walked around a bit, its just the getting up and starting part that was painful.  Since i’ve been down this road before, i know it gets better, and i was definately able to push Sweat 3-4 harder today than i did earlier in the week.  At any rate, since i now have the BodyBugg, i can see exactly where im at and how many calories i need to burn to reach my goals.  We’ll see just how accurate it is.  If nothing else, it’ll be a constant reminder to not eat crap. 

I got my BodyBugg of the website which is on special right now for $199.  That is pretty damn expensive, i know, but if it works and keeps me motivated, thats all that matters.  Im somewhat humbled and ashamed to say that i’ve gotten back up to 260lbs.  I can feel it in my clothes and see it when i look in the mirror.  Its funny how every time you lose weight, you tell yourself you’ll never go back to the way you were before, yet once you get to where you are comfortable and start losing interest, the weight just creeps back on.  I’ll do a quick recap of where i got back to where i am.

At the end of Power 90 in May-ish, i had gotten down to around 240lbs.  I was pretty happy to be there, even though i still needed to lose more weight.  We went to Alaska on a cruise, and when we got back, we started P90X.  We did that for about 60 days or so, but missed workouts here and there.  P90X is definately extreme, and i found it strange that instead of losing weight even faster than with P90, i actually gained weight and went up to around 247 over those 60 days.  THEN, i got challenged by a friend to run a 10K with him, so i quit everything i was going and started training to run.  I ran on average of 3-4 times a week, and actually reached a max run of a shade over 10 miles, which is still amazing to me.  I hurt my hamstring running on the treadmill one rainy day, and started taking it a little easier to try and let it heal.  It didnt.  I ended up running the 10K in a little over an hour, but i was very happy just to be able to say i did it.  I had always wanted to run a 5K, and this was twice as far (obviously).  At that point i was about 252.  Yes, i gained weight while on my running regiment.  Then, i basically didn’t do shit for 2 months, and gained another 8lbs.  Embarassing?  Yes.  Defeated?  No.  I know how to lose weight just as much as i know how to gain it.  It isnt rocket science.  Calories in and calories out.  Its just doing it that seems hard sometimes.  I love food.  Alot.  I wasn’t blessed with a bland pallet, and like all the stuff that tastes good.  Not to say that healthy food cant taste good, i just doesnt taste as good as bad food most of the time.

So, here i am again.  Im starting to get back in the swing of things.  My ideal goal weight forever has been around 220lbs.  I was 260lbs when i graduated high school, and got down to 220lbs about 6 months after that without working out at all.  I dont know what happened, it was a weird deal.  Maybe it was just working hard and running around all the time, i dunno.  I do know that i’d like to be back there, and maybe more, but 220lbs is a realistic goal and it is attainable, its just a matter pulling up the bootstraps and doing it.  My busy time of the year is coming to an end.  The best part of hunting season is over, my beloved Arkansas Razorbacks football team is done with the exception of the bowl game in January, and our Razorback basketball team isn’t worth a shit this year, so that wont be distracting in the least.  Its funny, i started working out and trying to lose weight almost exactly a year ago, even though i didnt find P90 until around January.  I’ve gained about half my weight back, but on the bright side, im still 23lbs lighter than i was this time last year.  Hopefully i can lose a good 2lbs a week (realistic goal) and be back down to 240 by the end of January, which will be my one year anniversary of P90 start.

Thats right…its been a while.  I achieved my goal of running the 10K.  Unfortunately, those pounds dont stay off if you eat bad and dont work out regularly.  We started trying to get back into Power 90 again last week just as a teaser, and have kicked off full fledged Power 90 again starting today.  Last week we did the Fat Burner Express and Sculpt 3-4.  Its funny how hard Sweat 3-4 gets when you have a few months of slacking off.  Today was hard.  I remember how easy it was when we had finished up earlier this year.  At any rate, im glad to be kicking it back off. 

One thing to note is that i ordered a BodyBugg (the thing you see on Biggest Loser) today so i can more accurately track my input/output.  The input part is easy…count your calories and write them down, and you are set.  Obviously, tracking output is harder.  You can go by your BMR and estimate from there, but everybody is different so that isnt really accurate.  Hopefully with this device i can always see where i need to be in comparison to what i’ve consumed.

Ok, its been a while.  Well, i didn’t lift ANY weights for a few months when i started training for my 10K race.  Im happy to say that i did do the race last week.  I finished the 10K in 1 hour 7 minutes 58 seconds.  I kept a pace of 10:54 per mile if i remember correctly.  It was a lot of fun, yet very hard.  My longest run to date was 10 miles, so 6.25 shouldn’t have been that hard, right?  WRONG.  Turns out that running on concrete/asphalt and not doing any grass/trail running was a mistake.  The whole course was grass/gravel/dirt/MUD.  It was alot harder since the terrain was always changing.  Its ok though, i made it.  Unfortunately, my arches in my feet hurt every day now.  I think i screwed them up running long distances and still being pretty heavy.  Since i quit doing Power 90/P90x, i put on about 6-7lbs.  My lowest was 236lbs, but i usually hovered around 244lbs.  Im back up around 250lbs which im not happy about.

Today my wife and i decided to start doing Power90 again.  We started with sculpt.  I remember how easy this was when i went to P90X.  Taking 2 months off then starting again definately took its toll.  I lost a lot of my strength as far as pushups go.  The squats werent any big deal, probably because all the running i have been doing.  I’ll probably still run a little, but it is pretty hard on my knees at my weight.  Im gonna try to start doing P90 again on a regular basis and try to shed my weight back off and hopefully a little more than before.  I am proud to say that i’ve kept a pretty routine workout schedule for 10 1/2 months now, the longest i’ve ever gone.  I just need to keep it going.  Glad to be back!