Day 1 vs Day 90

After starting the program April 6, we finally reached the end.  Although it took us over 130 days to complete the program and realistically only did 3/4 of the workouts - it's over.

Luke lost 12.5 lbs and 3.25 inches off his waist.  I lost 6 lbs and 3.5 inches off my waist.  

Some of you have made comments about the "posing."  There are 6 recommended poses to do each 30 days - this wasn't something we put together!

We are going to do the program all over again, but with a new approach.  Each day we are able to do a workout will be the next scheduled workout.  No skipping, so by the time we complete this round we will have done all 90 workouts!

Final Week!

Day 82 - 90
The last week of the program is a Recovery Week which includes X Stretch, Yoga X, and Kenpo X, and Core Synergistics.  During the last week we were headed to MN and traveling, so we pushed it back a week.

The next Monday we thought we would start up the week as scheduled, but Monday turned into Wednesday, and the next thing we knew the week was over...  We did measurements and took our final pictures.  I will post them next!

Believe it or not I did yoga!

Day 81
Absolutely nothing special happened today.  I did yoga while the dogs slept and didn't do the last 10 minutes because I got so bored and had to shower.  Tonight I had an MREA meeting on campus, so I unfortunately caved to chips, guac, and enchiladas.  But I tried to keep the portion small and only had one eclair.  The plan was to go to Laguna for the ArtWalk and have some wine and apps as we walked around, but a neighbor called and said our dogs were barking non-stop.  We basically got to downtown Laguna and had to turn back around.  Oh well, at least that meant I didn't stuff my face full of anything else unhealthy!

10 more days!

Day 80
I wasn't feeling good yesterday, so I didn't do any jumping around for PlyoX.  Today I had to choose two of three: Plyo, Back and Biceps and Bellydance.  I went for a Back and Biceps workout and Bellydancing.  I wasn't able to match most of my numbers because my triceps were so sore during all of those pull ups and curls.  Not much going on in the fitness center except for the lady wearing flip flops doing cardio on the bike and a going-out-top while sweating.  All in all an uncomfortable look for the gym.

Bellydancing has been more entertaining the past couple weeks.  We are learning a new routine with a lot more belly circling and butt shimmies, so I feel like I am getting a better workout.  I don't break a sweat, but after Ab Ripper today my abs felt it.

where can you even buy a fanny pack?

Day 78
I can't believe this is our last week of resistance training.  It seems like it's been the longest program since we had to keep rewinding, but at the same time I can't believe we have been working out for so long!  I wasn't feeling great this afternoon and wanted to ditch out on Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps, but after a quick stroll with the dogs in the fresh air I felt much better.

I'm really glad I decided to wait to work out because I got to see some interesting people.  One lady was in the studio looking really good - both physically and what she was wearing.  She was like a commercial for nike with her gear on.  I was doing my free weight work, when this other guy creeped up behind me while I was jotting down my numbers.  I stood back up for my next exercise and he gave me this look like I was in his way in front of the mirror.  I was obviously there first.  This same guy then looks at me at the Asian guy next to me and asks if "we" are done using something.  As if we were together.  Why do white people assume when two Asians are near each other they are either dating/married or related??  Oh well, this white guy was wearing a fanny pack, so now who gets the last laugh?

here we go again...

Day 72 RE DO
Obviously we are not keeping on track here and decided to do Day 72 PlyoX all over again... not that I even did Day 72 PlyoX in the first place.  So Luke did his Plyo workout in the morning to help motivate me to get mine done before he got home from work.  This seems to work better than him waiting to do any workouts after work.  As long as he works out in the morning I am determined to get mine done before the after-work-fitness-center-rush begins.  Once again I jumped around our living room while the dogs tried to stay out of my way.

Day 73
I had a really weird shoulder pain on Friday where I could barely lift my right arm without getting a shooting pain beneath my shoulder blade.  I tried Advil and Luke tried to put pressure on it, which seemed to help a little.  The next morning it was much worse, but ended up loosening up during the day and was fine by Sunday.  Since today was Shoulders and Arms I was a bit nervous.  So far so good.  My shoulders were definitely more sore than normal and got tired pretty quickly. 

I was a little disappointed in how empty the fitness center was and the lack of activities. I thought something exciting would happen when a woman came in to do her workout with her baby.  I saw her push her stroller through the door and do a lap around the cardio machines and then whip around and leave.  It all happened so fast and I don't know why she was in and out so quickly, but I felt like the fitness center really let me down.

Why does butter have to taste so good?

Day 73
Luke jumped around this morning and I danced my belly instead.  I had a really bad headache all afternoon, but pulled myself together to go class.  I'm really glad I went because the instructor taught us a few new things and a whole new routine.  Apparently, she teaches a new one every 8 weeks and then they have a "show" to perform at the studio.

Day 74
I thought we would do Shoulders and Arms after work today, but as soon as I mentioned a movie to Luke our plan changed.  My caloric intake was awful today.  I forgot to eat before going to work and forgot to bring anything with me to work.  So I had to scrounge around for a dollar for the vending machine before my noon presentation.  I bought a bag of baked lays.  Luckily the lady who comes around selling lunches out of her coolers came by.  I tried to go healthy and opted for a fresh strawberry, granola, yogurt combo.  After I got home I snacked on carrots and croutons.  We made a healthy whole wheat spinach tomato pasta for dinner... you're probably thinking so far so good... then we went to a movie and got a free popcorn.  Movie popcorn = pounds of melted butter and some popcorn. It's a do it yourself button!

Only day 72?

Day 71/72
Monday Chest and Back?  Nope.  Tuesday Chest and Back.  Monday was a bad day for me with work and life, plus I was starving by 5 pm, so working out took a back seat and Luke was nice enough to not workout because him working out probably would have made me feel worse (what a nice guy).  We thought we would take Monday on a rollerblade until we got to the garage and found mouse poop and pee in our rollerblades.  That quickly turned into taking Monday for a walk.

Tuesday after work we pushed through our workout.  While we were in the fitness center we ran into a few of our neighbors who we had not seen in a while, so that was a happy surprise.  I upped my weights for my back exercises and did more push-ups than last time around.  Still eating pretty healthy these days which is a big plus since I've been slacking on the daily workouts!

I heart couch.

Day 67
Instead of doing Thursday Yoga X after work, we decided to give Monday some exercise and jog her around our complex.  It's 1 mile around the outside.  I hate running, but just seeing the joy on her face/tail she pushes me to go further.  By the time we were about 1.5 miles my chest started getting pretty heavy.  I haven't been using an inhaler for asthma in a long time, but the humidity and heat of the weather was a doozy.  I had to walk the rest of the way, but felt I got a better workout than I would have doing Yoga anyway.

Day 68
Since we were up so late Thursday night, Luke and I decided not to workout before work.  But then when I got up Friday I saw that Luke had already done his Legs and Back.  To say I was not happy was an understatement.  I thought we agreed to do the workout after work.  Once he came home from work he was full of all sorts of ideas about what to do that did not include any working out for me.  A friend came to stay with us, so we decided to make some healthy dinner and just catch up on some TV.

Day 69
The original plan was to get up and do some Legs and Back while Luke did cardio and then do Kenpo on Sunday.  However, we had to be in downtown LA at 9 am for a full tour of the downtown area - bars, restaurants, lofts, what's new, what's for sale, where to live, etc.  It was hosted by CREW-LA and we learned about how Downtown LA is trying to become a Work, Live, Play city.  That finished at 2 pm and we were exhausted.  By the time we got home, all we wanted to do was sit on the couch.  So we did.  We sat and sat and kept telling ourselves we were going to be productive since we needed to stop into Luke's work, go to the pet store, etc.  But we didn't.  We cheated and made a frozen flatbread pizza (which I don't regret) and sat some more.  We were productive in a stationary way - catching up on emails, organizing our MN trip and organizing more of our Awaycoming trip.

Our friend came and stayed with us again for the night (she was in OC auditioning for The Bachelor!), but we were all so tired we went to bed pretty early.

Day 70
This morning we had to rush around and prepare for the OC Badger's annual summer picnic.  I created Badger Bingo boards at Luke's work while he ran to the grocery store to pick up our contribution.  By the time we got finished it was time to get to Doheny Beach.  The picnic was great and for the most part I was in control.  Minus the red velvet cake slice that I couldn't resist.  I tried to manage the portion control and stick to 1 brat, which was pretty difficult!  In fact my mouth just started watering thinking about brats again.

We left the picnic around 5:30 pm and headed directly for the couch.  We sat on the couch so long that we ended up sleeping on it until about 4 am after watching a movie and some TV.

Rewind 7 days

Day 66/73
Well a lot has happened the last week.  Technically we should be on Day 73, but we haven't done a P90X workout since Day 65.  We ended up taking a full week off because I started Bellydance Class, we had to pack for WI, took a red eye to Milwaukee Thursday night, hung out in Madison and Wisconsin Dells all weekend and came back at about 3 am Monday morning.  Needless to say I ate, drank, and was VERY merry!

Good thing Luke and I took Monday off - we unpacked and ran errands like crazy and decided to start getting back on track after grocery shopping for some healthy, fresh food.  Tuesday we ran the dog and Monday and Tuesday we made some healthy recipes and I feel better already.

Back and Biceps went better than expected today, but oddly I felt like I was doing a hard cardio at the same time.  While I was doing Ab Ripper I found myself falling behind.  Did I lose my cardio ability in that short amount of time?  I don't even remember being this out of breath when we first started the program.

After bellydancing class tonight we met up with a bunch of classmates at Kimera - food everywhere.  We caught the tail end of a dinner and made it just in time for free apps.  I had enough french fries to feed 4, a slider, and snacked on someone's pasta shell leftovers like it was a bag of chips (keep in mind I already had a dinner salad).

I got to meet Tony!

At Muscle Beach near the Santa Monica Pier!

Is it day 90 yet?

Day 65
Once again I did not feel like working out.  By lunchtime I wanted the day to be over.  I get pretty bored sitting around at home all day working with no interaction except when Luke comes home for lunch.  Luke did his workout this morning, but didn't do abs.  I planned on working out in the afternoon as usual, but I volunteered to watch our neighbor's dog, Chloe, for a playdate with Monday while Chloe's mom went into work for the afternoon.  She thought she would be gone for a couple of hours, but it turned into more like 4 hours. I didn't want to leave for the fitness center and leave the two of them alone since I told her I was going to be home all afternoon. Instead I did a make shift workout in my living room using wine bottles for dumbbells. I was able to do almost all of the exercises except for the tricep ones.  The wine bottles didn't weigh enough so I resorted to chair dips each time I had to do a tricep exercise.

Neither of us did Ab Ripper today and agreed to do Back and Biceps tomorrow and do the abs then.  I'm feeling pretty good about my food today.  I ate healthy all day with a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a turkey sandwich for lunch, and grilled cedar plank salmon with corn on the cob for dinner with some healthy snacks in between.

A long weekend of failing.

Day 60/61/62
Luke did Yoga early Thursday morning.  Friday evening Luke and I were going to do Legs and Back, but I convinced him that we should do that workout on Saturday morning and do Kenpo later that afternoon.  Eric stayed with us until Friday, so I really didn't feel like working out much after playing host for the week.  Friday night we caught the movie at our complex theater and watched Fast & Furious at home.

Saturday at 11 am I went to the FOCHP event since we didn't have an event on Sunday due to the 4th.  People were asking about Tommy, so I wanted to make sure I got to the event on time.  We ran errands that afternoon and had a late lunch, but Tommy got adopted and I had to do the home check that evening.  Saturday night we ended up staying up until about 3 am beating Sonic 3 on the Xbox... There goes Legs and Back and Kenpo! 

Day 63
Saddleback changed their evening services to one service at 5 pm, so we had more time to squeeze in a workout after being lazy all day.  We finally did Legs and Back and good thing because I ate salad and breadsticks like it was my job at the Olive Garden for dinner.  Luke and I didn't feel like running around town, parking, etc to see the fireworks, so we sat on top of our complex wall with Monday and got to see about 6 different fireworks shows from around the area.

Day 64
My legs have never been this sore.  Ever.  I was sore just being awake getting out of bed was a challenge - physically.  I can't sit, I can't stand, I can't walk, I can't go up or down stairs.  Forget working out today.  We will do Shoulders, Chest and Triceps tomorrow since there is no way we can do PlyoX in this pain.  Instead we went to Yao's house where her mom made us authentic Chinese cuisine!  This was a funny 4th of July - spent it eating Chinese food made by a woman who doesn't speak English hanging out with the Lu's and neither one is a US Citizen.

This week will be a short work week since there was no work today and we fly out Thursday night to travel to Madison!

feeeeeed meeeeee

Day 59
My calves were really sore today and wearing high heels made them feel even worse.  Good thing I only went into the office for the morning.  This afternoon I did Arms and Shoulders.  I actually remembered to bring everything, including my new weight lifting gloves.  Can I just say that I am so excited that Luke thought it was a good idea.  They made all of the curls seem much easier because I was focusing on my muscles instead of trying to minimize the pinching in my hands.  The calluses are not attractive and I don't like the way they feel.

I started out eating better today since Luke and I split a shrimp stir fry for dinner, but then I just couldn't get full.  I snacked on crackers, strawberries, and string cheese after dinner to get that full feeling, to no avail.

Doot Doot.

Day 58
I woke up this morning pretty sore, especially in my chest from all of those push-ups.  Eric is staying with us and woke up earlier than I want to think about to do his workout and Luke got up at 5:30 am to do his PlyoX workout as well.  I woke up much later and did my PlyoX in the late afternoon.

I decided to do Plyo in the living room since I am convinced that I work my calves harder trying to stay "quiet like a cat" jumping around barefoot - but really it was mostly because I was too lazy to walk over to the fitness center only to probably forget something.  The workout was just as hard as I remembered and even harder since my chest was so sore.  Squatting jumping jacks hurt my sore body more than my quads.

Favorite line of the day came from Tony after the workout. "Double double."  The only double double I am familiar with is at In 'N' Out, but his version may be better.  It is a two handed fist pound twice while saying (in an awkwardly high pitch) "Doot, Doot."

Starting next week I swear my food intake will be better.  It didn't help today with chips and salsa at Taco Tuesday and butter with popcorn in it at the movies...

Phase 3 again for me!

Day 57
After passing out on the couch and stumbling to bed I didn't even set an alarm for this morning.  Luke gently woke me up and asked if I would be joining Chest and Back.  I looked at the clock, set it for 8 am and quickly fell back asleep.  After eating way too many cheese puffs with lunch I was pretty tired.  That called for a 2 hour nap to get me energized.

Ironically I walked into the fitness center and the only person in there was watching an infomercial on P90X on the cardio machine.  WOW, I forgot just how hard these workouts are, especially after taking 9 days off.  I definitely fell off the workout bandwagon and I felt like it ran me over.  Ab Ripper was even harder than I remember, too.  I think I had to take more breaks during Abs than ever combined.

The whole time I was watching Tony Horton I couldn't stop thinking about how I met him (and about how I gained like 9 inches on my waist those 9 days I took off).  Ugh.

Phase 3 Take 2

We just got back from San Francisco late last night after a 4 hour flight delay.  The friends visiting for the weekend plus San Francisco added about 4 pounds on me, so I'm ready to kick it into high gear.  Since Phase 3 has been a disaster both with the workouts and food intake, Luke and I decided to start Phase 3 over on Monday.  Over the weekend we will probably do a Kenpo and maybe a Yoga, but no lifting until Monday. 

Last weekend I met Tony Horton!!!  Pictures to come when I get them uploaded from a friend!

Just read the highlights

Day 72
After a full night's sleep I was glad we decided to do the workout after work.  But by the time Luke got home I just wanted to lay on the couch.  So we did for about 2 hours until we convinced ourselves to do Chest and Back.

We watched the Laker game for a while, but seeing they were smoking the Celtics we made our way to the fitness center.  Oddly, it was packed even though the game was on.  The cardio machines were almost completely full and a few other people were doing their weight lifting.  Tuesday night it's bootcamp in the studio, so it was plump full as well.

Highlights: 1. An Asian couple came in to do a workout - and brought their 3 year old girl.  She wandered around the fitness center like her dad's shadow.  Asian dad kept clearing his throat obnoxiously loudly - like the kind of throat clearing when you are trying to get someone's attention.  2. A boy walked in looking like he was about 16, but had massive muscles.  It was confirmed he was young when his girlfriend came storming in to give him a hug wearing her cheerleading jacket.  She then tried to storm out and pushed on the wrong side of the door (always amusing).  The boy then proceeded to text the rest of his workout.  3. The security guard who walks around the complex at night "stopped" into the fitness center multiple times (in order to watch the Laker game on the cardio machines).  In fact, as we were walking out, he was leaning on the bike watching the game and before we were out the door he was sitting on the bike seat.  Glad we are paying for him to watch the game.

Brah and Brats.

Day 70
After struggling to get off the couch Sunday morning we summoned up the energy to finally do some Kenpo.  I'm so glad we waited until noon to do the workout for a couple reasons.  1. We got to the fitness center and had the studio to ourselves.  2. 'Brah" was back in full force (see Day 41) sporting his flip flops, shorts, unbuttoned button down, and a bonus - wait for it - sunglasses.  Today he was wearing his sunglasses while lifting.  Really?!  I didn't realize the fitness center changed their light bulbs to UV lights.

I found out there is a job opening at a company I am interested in, so we went back to Luke's office to work on my resume and cover letter.  We were there until 3 am.  So much for getting up Monday morning.

Day 71
To say that I was tired today would be an understatement.  I was in the office for a while and got pretty tired just sitting at my desk.  So I worked from home for the afternoon.  At lunch, Luke and I sat on the couch to talk about some stuff we need to get done this week and we both almost fell asleep.  Tonight we went to the Brewers vs Angels game and tailgated beforehand.  I. love. brats.  I tried to stuff myself full of yogurt, grapes, and carrots, but that brat and a half plus brownie were just too tasty!

Final = Epic Fail

Day 67
Let's not kid ourselves.  I didn't do YogaX.  Instead, I spent all day and night studying.

Day 68
Luke did Legs and Back in the morning and I tried to sleep and study.  I decided to take a 3 hour nap during the afternoon to rest up.  It was a good thing I did because we went to his office to concentrate and get my studying done.  I didn't finish studying and creating my page of notes until about 2:30 am.  By the end of the night I was super exhausted.

Day 69
I didn't even bother showering - just woke up, brushed my teeth, threw on some clothes and headed out the door.  Test day went well, but man was I tired.  Once I got back home I contemplated doing Kenpo, but napping won that battle.  Then we had to hit up the happy hour celebration, which pushed the lazy wagon even further.  I had onion rings and my mouth thought it was in heaven.  I can't even remember when I last had some awesome fried food.