Weight Loss

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Thanks. It actually is easier than I thought. I still have a long way to go but I know it will be worth it in the end.

I just have to stay motivated.

Yesterday I registered on BeachBody message board. Hopefully some of the coaches there can give me tips on how to stay motivated and focus.

Also, THANK you all for your input about eating and exercising. It has been helpful and I have further modified my diet since my last post. It is around 1200-1500 calories (depending upon the protien I'm eating) a day. I am averaging around 110g of protien daily and plan to keep that even after I get my body down to 250lbs or so.

---------- Added 18 hours, 54 minutes and 46 seconds later... ----------

Almost made it all the way through power yoga. I got weak on the last set. The rest of the workout I was able to complete but I had to go grab my inhaler as I was starting to have a hard time breathing 1/2 through it. If it was not for those two little things I would have done my first completion of 100% of the cardio video.

 

Sounds like you are starting to make progress. Good. Hope the program goes well for you.

I shudder at the thought of doing daily exercise on those calories though- I'm pretty sure that I'm not cut out to be a dieter; I'd get far too hungry. Last time I checked, I was eating about 3500 - 4000 calories a day. Probably just as well that I'm not in a position where I need to lose weight!

 

Age, metbolism, and physical activiy all play a role in how many calories you should intake daily. Since I'm older, have a lower metbolism and am trying to loose weight I have to manage my total calorie intake. I have to make sure that 40-50% of my calories are from protien, 35-45% is from carbs and the rest fat.

Since you are 12-13 years younger than me you don't have to worry about calorie intake just yet. When I was 20 I easily lost 10-15lbs in one week if I watched what I eat and took a 20-30 minute walk every day. As you age your metbolism slows down. Instead of waiting until I'm 40+ to take control of my health I'm doing something now. The last few years (2008-now) I just couldn't do the things I was able to do when I was mid to late 20's. I know I'm getting older and I would rather do something now before it is too late for me.

I still know there are many more days left until I hit day 90 (May 29th) but I'm looking forward to the challenge and the change.

 

Go Munchkin Blender!

 

I need to shift some timber too. I'm getting a real gut on me, as my missus keeps telling me!

 

Friday night I received a huge boost to my ego and my drive to get through all 90 days.

I was out shopping with my wife after hitting up Ruby Tuesday. I love their salad bar with their mini burgers. Instead of a fries I got a baked potato. I also made sure I eat my greens with my meal. I cheated as I had the burgers on the buns but it was the first time I cheated in 2 weeks.

So after we had dinner we went shopping. Since all of my jeans fall off my waist, literally, I decided to get a new pair of jean. I was going to go with a 42" waist, 2" smaller than the size I was wearing 2/28, but I decided to go with a 40" just incase I loose the extra inches. Once we got home I tried on the jean to see how much more weight I had to loose before I could even buckle them. Well, none. I was able to buckle the jeans up without any trouble at all. They were a bit tight but I was shocked I fitted into a 40" waist pair of jeans. I haven't worn a 40" pair of pants since well, I honestly don't remember.

I looked at my wife and told her my goal is to make those new pair of jeans fit me comfortably. This means I have to loose about another 1" or so. Seeing as I fit into a size 40 has me ready for day 15 and beyond.

This week is going to be really tough because at work we have 2 good bye parties after work. So being able to get the exercise in along with staying later for a party will be my biggest challenge yet since I started.

I plan to change how I exercise this week. Instead of doing Cardio on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I will do the sculpt video since it is shorter and does not shake the house. I hopefully can get up early Wednesday and Friday morning to get the exercises out of the way since those are the days the parties are going to take place.

If I can make it through this week the next few shouldn't be as bad, hopefully.

 

This week has been the toughest of the three weeks I been working out. I been having issues doing the push ups; in fact I barely made it through the first 8-15 reps. The next set I barely could get 6 off. And the final set where you are suppose to do 7-7-7 (I usually get 5-2-5 or 6-3-6) I could not even get one off. I had to go with the knee style and even than I was beaten up.

I can't wait for this week to end. I'm just glad I have one more day to go as I was able to get today's exercise done early this morning.

 

I'm curious: how can you get 5 or 6 reps in the last set if you get 2 or 3 on the previous set

 

The 7-7-7 push set are 7 wide, 7 narrow, and 7 normal. I have no problem doing the wide or normal pushups. It is the narrow that kills me. Each set works a specific group of muscles and the muscles used for the narrow group are not that well developed on me yet.

My goal is to get myself doing all 7-7-7 by the middle of April. I thought I could get through by the end of March but I don't see that happening right now.

 

Ok, now it makes a lot more sense . I agree, narrow pushups are much harder than regular, since most of the work is done with triceps.

 

So I'm on week 4 now. Here is an update.

I'm excited about the next three weeks because I will be pushing myself each day. I now know the routine of both Sweat 1-2 and Sculpt 1-2.

To improve upon my current status quo for the muscle toning, I'm using the 20lbs resistance bands that came with P90 I purchased. I'm going to do 15-20 reps off for each exercise for the next 3 weeks.

To imrpove upon my current status quo for the cardio exercises I'm going to complete an extra rep or two of each exercise to help me reach the next level.

There are three areas where I still have issues between the cardio and sculpt video. My goal is to be able to do them all the correct form by day 45 in the program.

1) 7-7-7 Push Ups - I decided to go with knee push up until I can get 12-15 regular push ups with the other two push series

2) After completing power yoga on the cardio DVD there are two series in a row that has you using both your legs and arms. My arms get tired after the first series of exercises. My goal over the next three weeks is to use my arms for both series

3) Abs 100 - It has 10 various crunch set for 10 reps. I did 9 of the 10 sets last night, 90 crunches. It is my best result so far. My goal by the end of week 3 is to do all 100.

As for my results, they will be posted here on 3/29. I will provide total weight and inches lost on my body. Of those two stats the inches is the most important stat.

Starting 3/29 I plan to push myself in the morning to get an extra 20-30 minutes of cardio in my daily routine. I was hoping to start this week but I decided to sleep in on the mornings and allow my body to rest.

 

Taking the plunge

My wife wanted to try P90X, and she suckered me into doing it with her. She said it could be her "birthday present", and that it would a means of spending more time together.

We won't get the DVDs for about a week yet, but I can see this going poorly. My wife is hyper-competitive, and will want to do at least as well as, if not better than me. Which would be fine if we were at a similar starting point, but I'm already in significantly better shape than her, as I do weight training. While I assume that the cardio parts of the workouts will be equal opportunity in terms of arse-kicking potential, there are going to be parts where I'm more advanced.

Munchin gave an example of doing three sets of 7 pushups - the first set with a wide hand placement, the second with a close hand placement, and the final with shoulder-wide placement. Well, I know I can do that right now. I don't even do pushups routinely anymore, because I need more weight than my body to get a proper chest and triceps workout. But there's no way my wife is going to be able to do 21 pushups in a short amount of time.

The other concern I have is whether or not she is going to use the proper technique for the exercises, although that stuff can be learned fairly quickly. Again, because of my weight training, I already know proper technique for any weight-related exercise.

 

The 7-7-7 pushup-set in question is from the P90 program, the P90X is more challenging; pull-ups, exercises with dumbbells and such.

 

P90X is more advance and works on specific area each day. It also requires you to be 100% committed to their diet and supplements. It is also a very intense program. If you didn't take the pretest I do recommend taking it for both you and your wife.

As for pushup most people don't do them right to begin with. That is the one thing I try to do as I do them this way I get the full workout I need from the push up. Also, you need to go slow and hold yourself down for about 3 second before you push back up. Than you also hold yourself up for about 3 seconds before you push back down. It is challenging if you are out of shape like I still am and trying to push your own body weight which is more than I can handle at times when doing pushups.

 

I noticed that - in the package I ordered we are receiving 12 DVDs. They recommend that you go through 6 per week, and so you would only repeat a workout once per two weeks.

It definitely requires some dietary changes, but that is to be expected. You have to cut out the trips to McDonalds and the pizza parlor for starters, and we'll have to reduce the carbs we eat in general. My wife and I eat a fairly healthy and balanced diet to begin with, so we're not too concerned with that. With the supplements, not so much. I have never seen any exercise program where taking dietary supplements were required to see results.

We did not take the pre-test, but they are advertising the crap out of it on ESPN and ESPN radio, so if it were really hard to do the workouts, they wouldn't be advocating it for the general public. Besides, I have 30 days to decide whether or not I like it, and I can get my money back, less the $15 I paid for shipping. If we get in over our heads, I'll get a refund.

Yeah, I saw that - I'm covered with the dumbells. I have adjustable dumbells that can be set as low as 5 lbs, all the way up to 67.5 lbs per dumbell. I do not have a pull-up bar, but I can use my weight equipment to do pull-downs, in which I can mimic a pullup by setting the weight equal to my body weight. I haven't tried an actual pull up in a few years, but when I was doing them regularly (at a gym that had a pullup bar) I was able to knock out about 12 when the palms of my hands were facing towards me during the pull up, and about 10 with palms facing away from me.

 

P90X comes with a specific food plan and they are broken down into phases based off various factors. Most healthly individuals who can go full speed use phase 3 which is 3,000 calories a day and it is 50% carbs, 40% protien and 10% fat. That means 1500 calories a day are carbs. I eat around 1500-1800 calories a day which is exactly how many calories most P90X users consume in just carbs. The thing is that you are eating whole grain carbs and not junk white bread or enriched white flour crap.

 

Exactly - I should have been more specific when I said cutting down on carbs. It's OK to eat pasta, but make it the whole grain pasta (which although it is brown in color tastes surprisingly similar to white pasta), and whole grain wheat, not white bread.

It also depends on how much you weigh to begin with. My wife is 5 feet tall - there's no way she can possibly consume 3,000 calories per day, even if she wanted to.

 

I believe their is a forumla based on height, weight and exercise intensity used to determine calorie intake if you do P90X.

Before you start the program make sure you take all of the before measurements and photos.

 

I didn't think to do that - I was just going to weigh myself and track it that way, but a photo probably would do a lot of good too. The primary reason for us doing this is weight loss. I have no clue what my or my wife's BMI is, or anything like that. While I do not think either of us would be considered obese, both of us are definitely overweight. I'm 5-9, and weigh 195 pounds. While I'm fairly muscular, I was fairly muscular 10 years ago, but I weighed about 15 pounds less than I do now. My wife is 5-nothing, and she weighs about 150 pounds, and is also about 15-20 pounds over her playing weight.