Workout
Today’s aerobic workout (the same as two days ago) took 40 minutes start to finish. My warmup might be longer than the suggested “March in place (30 steps),” then jog, then run. For some reason I think I would be more comfortable having a DVD (or audio) lead me through the warmup and stretch.
As for the workout itself, I had a better calorie burn this time, and made better transitions from one exercise to the next. I lost count during the knee/front kick, which was supposed to be 15 reps per leg, so I did some extra ones. There is a plyometric exercise called the line jump, which is really just hopping forwards and backwards across an imaginary line. I find that one pretty challenging. Another exercise not found in P90X, called the Briggs Ram, involves standing with wide feet and moving side to side as if you are pushing and pulling a battering ram. It can be pretty tough if I put some effort into it.
I found myself remembering some of the pointers Tony made in P90X about using my core muscles, landing on my toes, and so on. I would need to check the exercise descriptions to see if that level of detail is available to the people who are doing these exercises for the first time.
Most important of all, I was tired and sweaty at the end, which means my 30 minutes of actual exercise time was well spent.
Nutrition
First thing this morning, I was a little hungry, so I had a Zone Perfect Peanut Butter Cookie Dough bar. A clear violation of the nutrition guidelines in the book! This is another one of those “leftovers” which I could do without for a month, I suppose. If I am going to consume a packaged food with sugar in it, I suppose it’s best to do it as close to my workout as possible, right?
Other than that, I did well with my food choices. Of course, it takes about 20 minutes to pack up all my food for work, which is sort of a hassle. Even assembling a salad using packaged mixed greens takes some work. I was a little nervous today because I ran out of protein bars (my usual mid-morning snack, especially on resistance training days). I did fine with a serving of unsalted mixed nuts. We’ll see how I do tomorrow after some pushups.
I had my cup of coffee mid-afternoon, with some cocoa and stevia (actually, Truvia). I am not technically supposed to “cleanse” from that until next week. 🙂
My snack was hummus on a rice cracker. Rice crackers have such a “diet” stigma, but why not have one, if it has something tasty on top? I also had my apple left over from lunch. No dessert again. Maybe the cocoa helped.
In the nutrition section of the book, Tony says he doesn’t count calories, and he doesn’t worry about formulas for various food groups, and yet, his list of recommended foods is accompanied by portion sizes and servings per day (or per week for certain foods). For a detail-oriented person such as myself, that translated into “How many proteins, healthy fats, whole grains, etc. am I eating today?” At first, I started a spreadsheet to track this, in addition to my Calorie Count food journal. That lasted about a day. I am sticking to the food list and portion sizes as much as possible, following the suggestions I have read elsewhere for a calorie breakdown of 30% protein, 50% or less carbs, and the rest from healthy fats. It’s hard to hit that 30% protein without whey powder or bars. Well, I guess I could eat lots of chicken, or egg whites.
Health and well-being
I went to bed at a reasonable hour, then woke up earlier than expected. The coffee helped me through the afternoon, and I got tired and grumpy as the evening progressed. My family was milling around until 10 PM, which meant it was going to be another short night for me.
My impression so far is that I am not losing any fitness since P90X, but I am having trouble making any improvements.
