New Year... New Plan

Hello again - I have spent the past year viciously doing extreme things with my body including Supreme 90 Day, P90X, and Insanity. I learned a lot about fitness an increased my belief in myself. However, continuously banging my body without a significant break had taken its toll. I have a recurring pain in my left shoulder that I did my best to try and ignore for months. It is not new but I'm sure that I have irritated something inside. I want to change my focus. These things I know: I LOVE Yoga and Running.
This New Year I am rethinking the way that I do things. I want to eat a plant-based diet - NO MEAT OR DAIRY! Can you believe that? Me? The Meatman? It's been a long process of slowly weeding out red meat and pork and only eating fish and poultry. Slowly changing things. Instinctively I know that my body will operate better without these things. Besides I watched this video: http://youtu.be/pNxcylWLEH8 . I really feel strongly about what I saw there.
So here are the objectives: I want to develop a daily yoga practice. I own several different yoga videos and have access to hundreds of podcasts through iTunes (check out yogadownload.com they have some 20-minute yoga sessions you can download and take with you - enough to do one per day for almost 2 months without repeating). I also ordered a couple more from amazon with a gift card I got for CHRISTmas.
The other goal is to train for a half-marathon. I don't think that I will be able to start a real training program until march or so but I want to maintain/regain the ability to run for 3 miles w/o stopping. This is the basic requirement for the 10-week plan I found.
I want to keep my goals focused on the input not the results. The goal is not
To do yoga everyday am achieve something through that - the goal is to try to do yoga in the morning. And listen to my body. The goal is to increase my running through the structured training program with a benefit of being able to run 13.1 miles. The increased running, increased yoga and better food choices should also affect my body composition but I do not want to make weight loss a goal this year. I want to come from a place of loving myself, not from a place of lack or not good enough. I have an intention of becoming more "mindful" and aware of the present moment. I want to live my life and enjoy it.

Weigh, Whey, or Way?

It seems that we all go through a cycle. Let's see if you can identify yourself in this cycle: WEIGH: When we first get into fitness it's all about the scale. We weigh often. When we lose extra pounds we are elated. When we have a week when it doesn't show up on the scale we get upset. Everything revolves around the number we see every day or week or however often we step on it. WHEY: One day we read that we should ignore the number on the scale and focus on our nutrition. We read all that we can about supplements. We begin to drink a few extra protein shakes. It becomes about our macros - how much protein do we take in daily? Should I drink whey concentrate, or isolate, or the hydrolized? WAY: One day we realize that it is not a race to a date in the short future. We surrender, no to the scale, not to our protein intake, but to the process. We focus on form, we focus on the program, we focus on the way things are done. I am glad about each one of these steps, but I am truly excited to have reached the point where I workout becuase it makes me feel good. I drive myself to get better each time I do a particular workout. I push to get another couple of reps or to up my weights on this set. I am not in competition with anyone or with myself. It is not about how much weight I have lost or even how my clothes fit. Today - I like the way I feel knowing that I give my all to something and that I feel good when I am done. I can't imagine ever stopping following this new WAY of life.

May 26, 2012

Phase 2 Update

I am almost finished with my second week of Phase 2 and need to update my posts. First and foremost - I am working 2 jobs. My first job starts at 6 am, and my second jod begins when I get off there and often runs until 6 or 7 pm. Needless to say I can get bogged down very easily. I am currently getting up at 3 am and try to start my workout by 3:30. I have not been doing Ab Ripper X - I know, I know... It's important. The plan is to add it in when I can but I don't have the energy at the end of the day. Eventually I will have a couple of afternoons each week off and plan to slide in a little ARX time then.
I just decided to switch teambeachbody coaches. Although I get a lot from reading Coach Wayne's posts and accessing all of the information on his site, I need constant interaction. I have been part of a closed group on Facebook and one of the guys in there has been very supportive. He is in the same "family" and Coach Wayne is his coach so I still benefit from all of the wisdom but also get to have the daily interaction.
I wanted to share my nutrition and supplementation regimine for now.

Workout time - 3am
PWO - Jack3d White Blue Raspberry
GNC Wheybolic 60 Chocolate Protein (1 scoop pre- and one scoop 30 minutes post)
Creatine Monohydrate - 5g (1/2 pre- and 1/2 post)
Endurox r4 - post 1 scoop
Glutamine - 5g

Breakfast - 7 am
100% egg whites (3/4 cup)
tomatoes/onions/jalapenos
5 oz canned chicken breast
Baby spinach

AM Snack
Life Choice High Protein bar (cheap wal mart)

Lunch
5 oz canned chicken breast
salad spritzer ranch 10 sprays
sweet relish
iceberg salad mix
spinach
rice cake

PM Snack
Life Choice High Protein Bar
Gold Standard Casein - 1 scoop (before bed)

Dinner
Tyson Chicken tenders - 8 oz
Frozen vegetables - 2 servings
Shelled Edamame - 1/2 cup

The plan is to replace my breakfast with a breakfast shake made with Chocolate Shakeology, PB2, Protein powder and, maybe, a packet of oatmeal.

Phase 2 Day 1

Chest Shoulders & Tri's - Wow! This workout put me in my place. After preparing for pushups and doing the first month of P90X, I had no idea this was gonna kick my butt so hard. The pushups in this DVD are so different than the ones I did in the first phase. The slow-motion and different handy
positions really challenged me.

Recovery week - Wednesday

Kenpo today In the middle of my recovery week. I was thinking yesterday - I took an actual rest day on Sunday for my off day. I am feeling it. I wish I had done X Stretch instead. I have been doing X Stretch on my off days for a couple of months even before I started The X "officially" and I can definitely tell that I missed it. Glad it comes around tomorrow in this week's schedule. I need it. I was reading a buddy's post yesterday and he posted thAt he had done X Stretch and I was sooooo jealous. Have a great day everyone. Keep pushing play.

A New Day

So... It's the last Legs & Back day for
Phase 1. Brought it today. I've had a couple of days of no work and lots of eating. Yesterday I did some yoga but not P90X yoga. I did a 20 minute podcast (yogadownload.com - 20 minute yoga sessions - Sun Salutations #1).
Today I pick back up. Legs & Back and Ab Ripper X - 77 minutes and 1058 calories. Gonna eat my fat shredder diet today. I adjusted myfitnesspal to coincide with my goals. Time to buckle down.