P90X, day 23

Week 4 for P90X has started strong! 

Yesterday morning I really had to push myself out of bed to make the 90 minute yoga before starting the morning routines with kids. My son has had a cough for a week now, and of course it always gets worse during the night. I'm noticing that I can't stay as focused myself with the lack of sleep and it's also harder to get up at six when the alarm rings. 

But as I've noticed earlier, you never say after the workout "man, I wish I hadn't worked out!". So off the bed I got and headed to basement. The 90 minute yoga is a real killer, and I couldn't wait to see the "last vinyasa" on the screen (after that it's "only" 42 minutes to go). I like challenging my self with the different Yoga poses, even though there is still a lot to work on. One of my missions is to some day master the "crow posture". I found a page (http://allspirituals.com/kakasana-crow-pose-in-yoga/) with some tips on how to make it, I will keep on practising! Hopefully by the end of this 90 days, I will be able to post a picture of myself doing crow :)

 This mornings workout was Core Synergistics. I was happy to notice, that I was able to do couple more reps in push-ups than last week. Even though I can do the tricep -push-ups better, there is still two sets that give me a hard time in the Core Synergistics -workout: the push-up -tricep -pushup run and the static plank- tricep push-up. Luckily I still have two more months to figure them out :)

Getting ready for week 4

Wow, time really flies! I though I would never survive my workout schedule with P90X, but it's already the end of week 3 and so far I have not missed one whole workout. Couple of times I have had to cut a little short or skip the bonus-round, but I'm really surprised how easily the change from 30 min workouts back to 60-90 minute workouts has been!

Week 4 will be recovery week with P90X. The workout schedule is looking a bit different:

Monday: Yoga X

Tuesday: Core synergistics

Wednesday: Kenpo X

Thursday: X stretch

Friday: Core synergistics

Saturday: Yoga X

Sunday: REST

I'm looking forward in doing the X Stretch, since that will be a new workout for me. Having the 90 minute yoga twice a week makes me a bit nervous (since my sleep hasn't been as good lately do to sick kiddo), but I will push through :)

After next week, it'll be also time for the 30 day pictures and measures, so next week I will try to ficus on sticking with my meal plan. I know, that I can stick to it and I don't need all the extra carbs I've been having this week.

Here's my meal plan for next week, time to tackle the carbs! 

Sleep quality vs quantity

Week 3 is almost done! Can't believe how fast this time has gone!

Yesterday I felt like a zombie the whole day. My son has a bad cough and I was up with him for several hours in the night, trying to settle his coughing. I couldn't get up, when my alarm went at 6 am, so I continued until 7.30. I've used FitBit Flex since last May and I like tracking my sleep with it. 

Do to regular workouts, my sleep quality has improved a lot. I'm not as restless and I get over 7 hours of sleep most of the nights. I've also noticed, that the more I'm restless during the night, the harder it is for me to wake up in time. And vice versa: if I sleep well, even less than seven hours is enough. 

For me, the quality of sleep is more important that the quantity. Even if I sleep 9 hours restlessly, I may feel tired all day, but with deep sleep, even 6 hours may be enough. This was again proved this week. Wednesday morning I woke up at 5.30 without alarm. I though about trying to get some more sleep, but then decided to just get up, put my workout gear on and head to do my workout. I had plenty of time to finish my P90X Shoulders and Arms workout plus the Ab ripper X before rest of the family woke up. Accordingly to my Fitbit, it said I had slept only for 6 h 19 min, but yet I felt energetic whole day. the next night was horrible! I woke up to hear my son coughing very badly and spend the next couple of hours to get him to calm doing, sitting with him outside in the cool air and trying to nap on the couch sitting up with him on my lap. Finally I took him to sleep beside my in our guest room (didn't want to wake the rest of the family up). When I woke up at 7.15 am, the Fitbit said I had slept for 7 hours and 18 minutes. It of course counted as sleep the times I was sitting outside and on the couch awake with my son. But being up that long in the middle of night and missing my deep sleep, made me so tired! I felt that I didn't wake up the whole day! I don't even know how many cups of coffee I had (usually I drink 1-3 cups/day), but I felt that there was not enough coffee in the world, to keep me up. 

There's also studies made of this and they also say, that sleep quality is more important than quantity. I can so relate to them! Here is a short article about one sturdy:
http://hub.jhu.edu/2015/10/30/quality-of-sleep-more-important-than-quantity

Week 3, let's bring it!

Time really seems to fly, can't believe I'm already starting week 3 with P90X!

Over the past 6 months, I've learned, that the number on the scale is just a number. It doesn't tell me, that I'm getting more confident in what I'm doing. It doesn't tell how good I'm feeling or how much stronger I'm getting. It's just a number, that on one day says something and maybe a week after another. I have an accountability group, that started on the same day as my P90X workouts. Yesterday I had my challengers share positive, non-scale victories they have noticed in the past two weeks.  Today I want to share with you my non-scale victories after the first two weeks of P90X:

• I feel stronger
• I can use heavier weights and keep up with the reps
• I can make it through the  60 min workouts
• I have more energy even though I wake up a bit earlier than before
• I'm having fun doing the new workouts
• Eating all the protein in the plan makes me crave less sweets

If this is how I feel after two weeks, I can't imagine how big the change will be after 30, 60 and finally 90 days! 

Work out to feel better

Week 2 with P90X is nearly done! I've been really enjoying the intense workouts and pushing myself each day to make it a little further. I'm also getting used to the longer workouts, even the 90 minute yoga on Thursday didn't seem that long.

I have been using the 10 lbs weights throughout the week and it's been amazing to notice, that even with the 10 lbs I'm able to almost the maximum reps in each move. That tells me, that I am getting stronger every single day, yeah! :)

This weekend we are celebrating our sons 7th birthday. I was a bit afraid about timing my Kenpo-workout and when I woke up this morning, I was thinking of switching the Kenpo to a rest day and do the workout tomorrow instead. But then once again I started to think of my health and fitness accountability groups. There are awesome ladies in each group pushing them selves each day and as a coach, I want to be a good example. And with no real excuses, I made up my mind, put on my fitness gear and headed to the basement to do some hooks, blocks and kicks. And guess what: I'm feeling great now and I know that I can focus on celebrating my son for the rest of the weekend!

If you are in need of accountability to get keep up with healthy nutrition and workouts, contact me at coachsusanna@hotmail.com and let's see what I can do to help you! :)

Tip of the day: eat enough

Week 2, going strong

Week 2 differs from week 1, since now you know what to expect. In P90X the same workout schedule runs for the first 3 weeks.

Today I had shoulder and arm workout, first time using the 10 lbs weights. And I was happy to notice, that I was able to do 10 reps in nearly all of the moves! Last week I did 15 reps with the 8 lbs weights, next week hopefully I can also use the 10 lbs weights for the triceps. Even though I know they are much stronger than they were a year ago, they are still clearly the weakest part of the arm :) This week I also took a piece of paper to keep track of which weights I used and the amount of reps I did. 

When I did my meal plan for the week, I tried to make sure I have enough to eat in it. But because I was out and running most of the date yesterday, I missed a snack and some protein. That affected my night, don’t know when was the last time I woke up in the middle of the night with stomach rumbling of hunger! Lesson learned: with P90X you better eat enough!

Week 2 on the roll

Wow, the weekend past quickly!

Here's a little recap on the last days of my week 1:

Friday:
For the next three weeks, Fridays will be my leg, back and ab days. For P90X they suggest to have a chin up bar. I don't have a place to put the chin up bar in our basement, so I bought the heaviest resistant band from Walmart and placed that over the metal bar in the basement ceiling for the back workouts.
My legs were on fire after the workout and so were my abs after the abs ripper x! Those certainly were no joke! 

Saturday:
 Saturday was a fun workout with Kenpo X! Years back I went to some Bodycombat -lessons at my former gym and I found it very efficient. I really liked Kenpo X, even though I had some difficulties in keeping up with Tony and crew with the different punches and kicks. But my heart rate was up through out the whole workout, that's for sure!
My meals were a bit of the plan with a glass of red wine in the evening. But since I was really strict with my nutrition from Monday to Friday, I let myself relax a bit during weekend. My aim is 80:20 in nutrition: if I stay on track 80 % of the time, I can give myself  a break for the rest 20 %.

Sunday:
Sunday was my rest-day. Rest days are important for the body to recover from all the hard work it's been doing. I had really been waiting for the rest-day, but once it came, I found myself thinking of P90X and wanting to head down to basement for some extra workouts. But instead I went shopping for a new fitness mat and a set of 10 lbs dumbbells. All set for a new week!

Week2, bring it!
The rest day did it's trick and I felt really energetic heading to my workout this morning. I'm starting to get used to the 60 min workouts and I don't really even watch the time any more. Now I also know, that I can make it through each of the workouts and I can't wait to see the results I will get after the first 30 days! I'm already starting to feel stronger!

Sweet stretching yoga!

Day 4 on the go!

Okay, so I'm sore all over! This week has sure been rough with the new workouts.

Yesterday was a total killer workout with Shoulders and Arms. I really pushed myself with every move. At the moment I'm using 8 lbs dumbbells and did 15 reps on most of the moves. But I noticed, that all the workouts I've done has made me stronger and I will need new set(s) of dumbbells soon to really move it up a notch.

In the beginning I was worried about the lengths of the workouts. The workouts don't really seem so long (close to 60 min), the only thing I have to do is set the alarm a little earlier. Probably do to the darker evenings (and mornings) I've found myself feeling really tired, even though I get about 7.5 hours of sleep each night. However next week, I will set my alarm to 6 am so I have time to do my workouts, shower and get dressed before getting my son ready for school.

This morning I started with yoga X. With the first 45 minutes of Vinyasa I was really sweating. I again lost count of all the tricep push-ups that I made, but again I was happy to notice, that even they are getting more easy to do! Yey! After the Vinyasas it was time for some steady moves. this usually is the part of yoga I dislike, I need to keep going! But since my muscles are so sore, I really enjoyed the stretching poses. And of course the yoga came with the last surprise! Just when I thought I had made it and could relax in doing the stretches, it was time for some abs! 90 minutes of sweat first thing in the morning -what a way to start the day! :)

Kick it!

Day two on it's way!

In P90X there is three different ways to go depending on your goals and interests. I chose the Lean -version with a bit more cardio in it. For the first three weeks, the workouts are same for each day of the week:

• Monday: Core Synergistics
• Tuesday: cardio X
• Wednesday: Shoulders & Arms + Ab Ripper X
• Thursday: Yoga X
• Friday: Legs & Back + Ab Ripper X
• Saturday: Kenpro X
• Sunday: Rest or X stretch

So far I've survived my first two workouts: Core synergistics and Cardio X.

I totally lost count in how many push-ups I did and in how many ways in the Core synergistics! They were really though, and I couldn't make them all to the finish. But at the same time, I just love the feeling falling down to the floor knowing, that I gave them all I got!

As I mentioned earlier, I had bit of trouble making the meal plan and trying to make sure there was enough to eat. I really could feel yesterday, that I needed more energy than before. Could also be because I was more active throughout the day too :) After each meal I ate, I checked it off my meal plan. That way I kept track of what I had eaten and what was yet to come.

Today was my first P90X Cardio X -workout. It was so different from the programs I've done before and so much fun with all the kicking, punching and yoga! I really got my heartbeat up! Before starting the program I was worried about the lengths of the workouts, so it was a nice surprise that today's CardioX was only 43 minutes, instead of the nearly 60 I thought it would be.

New month, new workout!

Here it goes! Day number 1  with my new workout P90X!

As a gift from helping others start their healthier lives in September, I got a great workout bundle from Beachbody. The bundle had three workout set: P90X, P90X2 and P90X+, each including workouts for 90 days! Awesome, eih? This arrived last week, and I decided to make myself accountable and share with you my whole journey with P90X.

My WHY

If you want to keep your motivation going and be able to push through even when you don't feel like it, you have got to have your WHY. I've gotten many comments on how great I look and questions on why I'm doing this, since I don't need to loose any more weight. That's true, I have reached my goal weight. But the reasons I'm doing this, has nothing to do with loosing weight. I have realized that with almost daily workouts and clean nutrition I feel better and I have more energy. I also have more confidence in myself. I want to stay strong and also I want to give my kids a good example on how to live a healthier life. Also committing to a new 90 day program gives myself a challenge to show, that I have the strength to follow a program for three months, if I just put my mind to it! And starting in November is a great time: I'll be able to finish the year strong and also get a head start to the new year! 

And why am I sharing this all with you? Because I want to show you, that I'm just an ordinary mom, who wants to stay fit. Sharing my meal plans shows, that I'm not on any crazy diet, I'm just trying my best to feed myself with nutritious foods. If I can inspire you to start a healthier life, that's a bonus :)

The pre-works

I actually started to get myself ready for P90X already through the weekend. There were several thing to do, before starting the first workout: do the fitness test, make a meal plan and take before pictures and measures!

Fitness test

In order to make sure I could handle the workouts, I took the fitness test. Each move had a minimum that you should pass. I was happy to notice, that my past workouts have made me stronger and I was able to pass the fitness test clearly! 

Meal plan

The next thing to do was to make a meal plan. This one was a bit harder, since the nutrition guide differed a lot from the 21 Day Fix, which I found myself really used to. I also need to start eating more with P90X, giving there is 50-60 min workouts six times a week! I used some color coding in my plan, just to help me keep track of what and how much I'm eating and to help me figure what I'm still missing.

I need to start eating more protein and dairy. The hard part will be to cut the fruits to only one serving a day. For some days I had to put three snacks in order to get everything I need eaten. I'm still not sure if I got everything I need in the meal plan, but hopefully by week 2 I have more experience and I will know better what and how much to put in the meal plan. 








Before - photos and measures

One thing I have learned this year, is that it's not all about the number on the scale. Taking measures from your body and comparing them will give much better idea on how the transformation is going. Also, as it is many times said: a picture can tell more than thousand words. So that's why it's important to also take the before pictures.  Since I promised to share with you the whole story, here are my before photos.

  Ok, I'm ready! BRING IT!