Day 4 - Recovery

Every Thursday is a "recovery day" on the Insanity workouts. That is, that you do mostly stretching and some yoga-type moves, but no cardio. It was actually nice, because it helped work out some of the soreness in my hamstrings. Because you do so much jumping and running, Insanity is very leg-intensive. The last time I did it, my calves killed for DAYS in the first week.

Still at 162.0 lbs. Down to 16.1% body fat.

Day 3 - Still Chugging Along

3 days down - 60 more to go.

I almost joined in on my friend Carmen's weight loss competition group, but realized it would cost money to join, so I said meh. I think I can keep myself motivated without the incentive of money. Which is why I decided to do this blog, to hold myself accountable to you, my (18 or so) readers! My friend Mont still thinks I'll drop out. I'll show him!

I was at 162.0 lbs. at weigh-in this morning. Body fat percentage fluctuated up to 16.2%. Like I said before, though, we'll see where I am after a week.

The end.

Day 2 - Food

Wanna know something really awesome about my wife? She makes me breakfast every morning. Well, almost every morning. But especially when I'm exercising, she'll make a special effort to do that sweet act of service for me.

I get out of bed around 7 a.m., then stumble around getting my socks and shoes on (nope - don't bother with workout clothes - sorry if that puts an unpleasant image of me in your mind, but it's the truth), get a glass of water ready, and turn on the day's DVD. At some point, I come back in the bedroom to wake up Kristen (usually during a "rest" period) and go back to exercising. She'll get ready while I work out, and then when I'm done and getting ready for the day, she'll make breakfast for me, as well as my "second meal" to take with me to work. Isn't she sweet? :)

I thought I'd take a moment to detail a little of what I eat. Based on the calculations they give you in the little Insanity food guide thingy, to lose weight I need to eat around 1500 calories a day along with doing the Insanity workout. And in addition to the number of calories, it's certain types of foods (a lot of protein and fruits/veggies, some complex carbohydrates, and no sugar/processed foods), and on a certain schedule. I eat five 300-calorie meals a day, spaced about 2.5-3 hours apart. So I typically eat at 8, 10:45, 1, 3:30, and 6. Surprisingly, the food I get to eat is pretty good. I got rid of some of the stuff I tried and hated (like the proatcake - protein powder, oatmeal, egg, and a little water - nasty), and added in a few things I liked from P90X. Check back for pictures later of some of the foods I eat.

Breakfast is probably my favorite meal on the program, because it has the most variety of meals from that I like. Breakfast gets your metabolism going for the rest of the day - it also makes you more alert. You've seen those Jimmy Dean commercials, right? And did you know that people who skip breakfast are much more likely to be overweight than those who don't? The reason is that your metabolism slows down because your body thinks it won't get much food. Then, when it does get food, it's already gone into starvation mode, so it stores that extra food as fat.

So you can get an idea of what I eat, here was my meal plan for today:

Breakfast: 1 piece of whole wheat toast with almond butter, and 1 cup of cottage cheese

Meal 2: I was supposed to have a deli sandwich - 1 piece of wheat bread, 3 oz. turkey, lettuce, 1 slice of cheese (I forgot and missed it, so I had some animal crackers instead)

Lunch: chicken salad sandwich (two toasted pieces wheat bread, 4 oz. chicken, cooked and shredded, then mixed with a dollop of mayo and a dollop of dijon mustard

Meal 4: brown rice bowl (half cup cooked brown rice, 2 oz. cooked chicken, 1/3 C. peas, 1/3 C. corn

Dinner: baked citrus chicken (4 oz. chicken breast cooked with paprika and lemon juice, 1 C. cooked broccoli

I add a little here and there to jazz things up, but not too much. I try to stick to the plan the best I can. Down to 162.4 lbs. after exercising today. Probably just the natural fluctuation, though, so the big test will be where I am after the first week is up.

Insanity - Day One

9.27.10 - Day 1 (62 more to go)

I'm doing it again.

Back in June, I started an exercise program called Insanity. Most of you have probably seen it advertised on TV by Beachbody (the same company that brought you P90X...which I also did, previous to this - I didn't really lose any weight/fat, though, so I decided I needed something with more cardio).

It went really well for about three weeks. I followed the eating guide and exercised five times a week (technically it was supposed to be six times, but I felt pretty good). And over the course of those three weeks, I actually lost about eight pounds (for you math majors out there, that's more than 2 pounds per week - not bad). I was starting to slim down, and Kristen kept telling me how great I was looking.

Then...I got sick (a cold or something), and stopped working out for a week or so. Then we started our last week of rehearsals for Pirates of Penzance, then we had the show every night, etc. etc. Anyway, long story short, I fell off the bandwagon and stopped exercising. Despite that, I've actually (mostly) kept the weight off.

Well, this morning I started back up on Insanity. And let me tell you - I hate it. Just like I did the first time. It seriously kicks my butt, and I'm drenched after every workout. But I'm determined to finish it all the way to the end. It's 9 weeks long (two sets of 4-week workouts, with a "recovery" week in between), so that's 63 days. I work out every morning around 7 a.m., then shower and weigh-in. My starting weight: 164.6 lbs. 15.4% body fat.

*originally I planned to make this one big long post on my main blog, but I don't think I can do that, because no one will read it (no one will probably read it anyway), so I've started another blog just to track my progress.