2011 Is a New Year: P90X Week 1 Complete!

That's right, 2011 is a New Year with new goals. One of my goal is to take this fitness stuff serious. Why is it that I continue to let my mind take over and rule my non-activity? I don't know. But that's how the year ended. Making up all kinds of excuses as to why I shouldn't work out. I was at a high point closing out October, and was on a roll in November. But that sickness at Thanksgiving threw me a one two punch where I took several steps backwards. Mentally, I shut down the workout routines and got plain and simple lazy. Everything that I had worked so hard for the previous year, totally wiped out. I ate all of the wrong things, drank lots of alcohol, sodas, and started back onto the candy routine. My weight rapidly increased and I stopped looking at the scale. My wife saw the spiral that I was getting into, and she basically said enough is enough. You've got to get back into the habits and routines that you'd tried to establish before. She talked to another friend of mine who was doing P90X and he mentioned that, when you follow the diet religiously, that you will have amazing results.

Now, I love P90X. The workouts are amazing, but the diet for me, was really hard to follow. I didn't use any of the recipes, and I thought I could do it myself being the super smart engineer that I was. It's just food right. Well, my wife, after her talk with Jason, was dedicated in helping me achieve my goals. 206.4 was not anywhere either one of us wanted me to be. My problem is, when I'm inactive.....I gain weight. I look at a doughnut, I gain 5 pounds from the smell of all those carbs in it. That's just how my body rolls. And speaking of rolls.....well.....Yes, I was starting to get that fat belly. Not cool in a bathing suit. So, on Saturday Jan 1st, my wife and I sat down and we went through page by page of the Nutrition Guide. We first determined my daily calorie calculation. We settled on the low end of Level 2 for phase 1 which was 2400 calories. We used the portions to come up with that first week menu. Sure it was a lot of work. But when we went through all of the ingredients to build a shopping list, we were pretty surprised at how much we already on hand. Sure I didn't have egg whites, things like that. As I said before, I followed the diet, but I used my engineering judgment. Instead of doing 8 egg whites, I use 4 eggs. Volume is about the same. Unfortunately, the fat count is NOT!

So January 3rd, I started my next round of P90X with an emphasis of leaning out and losing about 30 pounds. I want to go from that nasty looking 206.4 to somewhere around 175. Honestly, that would be a GREAT weight for me. It's not near my lower threshold of being "healthy", but it's where I think I will be the most comfortable. I really don't think I will ever see that 143 number that comes up in calculations. But, 175 is also something I haven't seen win WELL over 20 years, and it's 3 pounds below the 178 upper range. So my first goal is to start there. When I get there, I know everyday things will be so much easier. Carrying 30 less pounds will have that effect.

That's where I come to the Week 1 results. Let me preface this by, WOW. It's amazing how much fitness you can lose in a 6 week period. Or should I say...DAYYYUMMMM!!!! I lost a LOT! Push-ups were hard. Pull Downs on my Bowflex dropped 20 pounds from where I was before. I didn't even make it through my first two workouts, and I was ridiculous sore after both of them. And as for running. I didn't get in as many days or miles as my mind had planned for. But with that, I followed the diet. Measuring and weighing EVERYTHING! I ate a hot breakfast of 8 egg whites with some varying flavor every morning. Spinach Scramble HIT. Cheese Scramble HIT! Every single recipe from the P90X library was AMAZING last week. Hunger cravings, non existent. I didn't come home and go through a half bag of chips. It's not on the plan. So it's not going into my body. I didn't have that nightcap of Cran-Apple Juice and rum, or wine. I haven't had a single soda. I've logged everyone of my meals and followed it to a T. And I am so happy to report that after week 1, my weight loss was damn near Biggest Loser Esque! I went from 206.4 to 199.0 in the first week! A whopping 7.4 pounds or 3.6%! That's HUGE!!! It's a major victory for both Body and Mind. So much so that I have totally ramped up my efforts in week 2. Hit both target runs so far. ROCKED my chest and back workout. ROCKED AB Ripper X afterwords. I totally cannot wait to see how the weight loss progresses for week 2. Will I have that dreaded Week 2 Biggest Loser curse with a low number, or will I pull through and continue with the home run that I knocked out of the park last week. Stay Tuned!!!!