June 12th 2013

Ow.

Double ow.

For anyone who is unsure and wondering, P90X is brutal. Really brutal.

Last night I took my first foray into high intensity training. I chose workout 11 which is a cross of Yoga, Kembo and cardio.

Firstly, who knew that yoga could be so strenuous? (I appreciate half the world does, but this is my first time doing it). The warm up for this workout is 15 mins of yoga which made me realise exactly how inflexible I am. I did my best to match what they were doing on the screen but a lack of flexibility and poor balance meant I did struggle a bit.

I had better success with the Kembo workout. I had already done similar workouts to this on Your Shape: Fitness Evolved on the Xbox, so I was a bit more comfortable with the moves and combos the video was throwing at me.

Then lastly it was the cardio workout involving a myriad of ways for me to jump around, squat and run on the spot. This actually took less out of me than the rest of the workout, make of that what you will.

I managed the whole 45 minutes in one sitting, however, I did have to modify almost every exercise. Given this is my first ever time doing it, I'm not unduly worried, I'm just impressed that I managed to get through it without dying.

Here's a couple of pictures that Emma (my wife, for those who don't know) took of me while I was doing it and when I finished. They're not for the faint hearted:

Hot and sweaty doesn't come into it. I've woken up today stiff as a board and aching from head to toe. Fortunately, today is a kind of rest day. I'll still be walking but there's no gym and no P90X tonight. I'm back in the gym tomorrow and Friday will be a workout at home.

Hopefully all this effort will translate to more inches lost.

Fingers crossed

June 6th 2013

Boom, boom, BOOM!

I've been feeling great today. A bit more energy and a bit happier. I've still been hungry enough to want to chew my own arm off, but that's to be expected, I'm a big guy who is hardly eating, you do the math.

Today at work I only managed one walk out. This was because I've been incredibly busy being awesome so there was no time for exercise. I didn't actually mind this because it was gym night tonight, so I was going to make up for it.

Tonight's dinner consisted of a rather fabulous chicken stir fry. Lots of protein, lots of vitamins, hardly any carbs. Mint. In fact, despite my allowance of 100g of carbs a day, so far this week I've averaged less than 20g a day. Double mint.

Now when I got to the gym (remember, I like to gym in the evening when it's quiet), I decided that I would have a resistance day to try and balance out the masses of cardio work I've been doing. So I kicked off with 10 mins of cross trainer and set about the weights. 

How much strength have I lost in the last year? Turns out, a lot. Especially in my arms. When I was going to the gym in 2011 I was able to push about 70kg on the chest press, today I was struggling with half of that. 

Most people would be discouraged by a revelation like that, but I'm trying to remain positive in the face of adversity and I've set myself a little challenge. You see, I've never, in my 27 years, never once done a proper, full press up. I've done modified press ups where you arch your back slightly and pivot from your knees instead of your toes, but I've never had the upper body or core strength to do them properly.

So my challenge to myself is to do 10 press ups by September. Can't be that hard, can it?

Anyway, I digress. I'm starting to feel like this diet and exercise régime is beginning to work. I'm over the intense tiredness and I'm feeling good again. The post gym buzz is even better than it was the other day.

In total at the gym I managed a half an hour of solid cardio instead of the 20 mins I managed on Monday. Win.

I'm going back to the gym tomorrow night too but the hard bit comes after that... The weekend! The part of the week where I've always given myself a cheat or treat day. I have to be so strict this month, I can't afford any slips. It will be torture...

June 4th 2013, part 2

Evening all

So today I feel has been a fairly successful day. I've done a lot of exercise and I've eaten very well. However, the exercise has come at a price. I'm utterly broken.

Today I walked a total of about 5 miles around the business park where I work. You can see the walks I do on the runkeeper widget on the side of this blog. Today has been an utter scorcher with temperatures around about the 21 degree mark. Today I was power walking as hard as I could to maximise my potential calorie burn. When wearing business dress and sweating like a bastard in the midday sun, things aren't going to go to well.

Without getting into graphic detail (I appreciate many of you may be reading this at breakfast time), I've over exerted and the natural friction that comes from my thighs and a poor choice of boxer short for the day have provided me with an almighty and very painful rash across my inner thighs. Added to the gargantuan blisters I've got from walking in rubber soled shoes that aren't trainers, I'm a bit of a wreck right now. It hurts to even walk.

So, with that in mind, tomorrow I will probably still walk around work, but not as much or as intensely. Tomorrow's exercise I feel will need to be a touch gentler. This will probably be a great juncture to break out Your Shape on the Xbox again and do some Tai-Chi, Yoga and Boxercise.

Today was the first real day of my 30 day challenge and I think it has gone well. Granted, yes, I'm in pain and I'm uncomfortably hot, but I think all things considered I could be in a much worse state.

Lets see what tomorrow brings

Michael

June 4th 2013

Fasting sucks.

It really does.

Despite my grumbling, I made it to lunch time without caving, giving myself a good 16 hour fast with just water and coffee to keep me going.

Lunch consisted of this:

Chicken, ham, boiled eggs, pepperoni and spinach leaves. All protein and iron. Spectacular. Complemented with some cashew nuts its got me full and feeling satisfied.

I've managed to walk about 3 and a half miles so far today and depending on if my feet stop hurting, I should be able to make it out for another one before home time.

Right now though I'm going to dive into a pint of water because I'm red hot.

Michael