P90X Adventures: Week 7 day 5 Legs & Back

So I've been up here since Wednesday night.  I had my first full day of Decibel Festival yesterday.  It was awesome.  I was bummed in the morning though.  I neglected to bring a yoga mat and attempted to do Yoga X without one.  I made it about 10 minutes before I just gave up because I was too afraid of slipping in downward dog and like hell I was gonna injure myself again this week.  Wed night I'd went out to dinner with one of my friends I'm staying with.  I forgot my fedora at this irish pub and when I called, they couldn't find it anywhere.  I was crushed.  I literally felt sick to my stomach.  I mean, this hat is like my favorite hat in the whole world right now and somebody just walked off with it?!  I probably looked like I was about to cry when that lady saw my face.  I mean, I was pretty much ready to.

Zu tried to come to the rescue and found the hat since Meyer the Hatter has a website and ships, but I really didn't wanna drop another $70 on this hat until I just absolutely knew it was gone forever.  I think the lady felt for me and she asked for my number and told me she'd talk to the manager from last night to see if they saw it.  I had to get the apt key copied so I could get it back to my friend and I still needed to jet down to Decibel to check out some of the talks.  I hadn't had breakfast and man I was feeling out of it. I finally got all that squared away and managed to get down there around 2pm.  I caught a couple of really cool talks and workshops and just as I was about to head out dying of starvation, I get a call.  THEY FOUND MY HAT!!! YAY!!!

Later last night, we celebrated at the Orbital show.  It was awesome.  I was determined not to fall into that no breakfast trap again so I stopped at the store on the way back and picked up some apples and bananas. I got up this morning and promptly set out to do Legs & Back.  This was the first time using the Resistance Bands. It was pretty interesting.  Not sure I had enough tension for the pull-ups but the same bands seemed pretty intense on the back lunges.  Either way, I just tried to maintain good form and I increased the reps until I felt something so that worked out.  I was amazed at how I was able to blast through legs & back this week.  I mean last week was even the first time making it all the way through!  I barely paused through it too.  No sick stomach feeling either.  I'm so glad I made a plan to stick with P90X while being gone this time around.  I may not have gotten to the yoga X stuff, but picking it back up with today's stuff made a difference.    Now I'm off to check out another conference talk and later tonight's gonna be Erykah Badu and Carl Craig. Hell yes!!

There was no juice or smoothie yesterday or today.  There was, however, a rather sad looking subway salad.  When I asked for spinach on it, I think the lady literally put like 5-6 tiny leafs...  I wolfed it down for "brunch" so I could make it to the conference.   The picture does it more justice than it deserves, though, there wasn't much consolation for me when I thought my fedora was lost.

Sad, sad salad :-(

oh yeah, and last night This happened:

Whatever that guy behind me is doing, I'm blissfully unaware...  Until next time folks...

Later
~Mike

P90X Adventures:Week 7... getting over the hump.

This is the Hump... I'm halfway through P90X.  Here's what it looks like so far.

Week 1 Day 1

Week 1 Day 1

Week 7 Day 2

Week 7 Day 2

There's a little less marshmallow there and some definite hard lines happening... wow

You sold yet?

It's been a rough few days... I've had to help a friend who's going to Hong Kong for 6 months get his condo prepped for sale down here.  I've got a ton of really boring audio work I'm doing for someone and it's eating up pretty much all of my time.  Then there's audio "favors" or "auditions" for gigs that have been sinking a lot of time.  Add to it all, friends who are really bugging about gaming and there's barely any room left for P90X.

I'm not settling for that.  I've definitely come too far to let these things stop me.  When my day runs to an end, I make sure to do my workout before anything else.  Monday was definitely tough for making it through the routine.  Chest, Shoulders & Triceps is still a tough one to get through and since I'd gone through the day with little to eat and just completely drained from a recording session that seemed to go on forever, it felt like I wasn't going to make it.  I found the drive and pushed through, barely.  I must've got sloppy with my form on one of the exercises because later that night, my right arm was killing me.  I'd injured myself and it felt so bad, I could barely lift it.  Thankfully, I think it was just a pulled muscle or ligament.  It felt increasingly better as yesterday went on and I was able to do plyometrics without much problem from it.  Right now, it's back and that makes me happy.

Yesterday was even more busy than Monday.  I had to sink a bunch of time at the DMV and struggle to get Plyometrics in.  I'm so glad I did though.  I just love the feeling when a workout is over.  It's great sense of accomplishment... often times accompanied by an overwhelming sense of needing to vomit, but even so, it would be the most victorious vomit ever.

Today, I'm headed up to Seattle for Decibel Festival.  I bought a full pass so I'm up there the rest of the week.  As soon as I'm done writing this, I'm going to whip out my Back & Biceps to get it out of the way before heading up.  I've got the rest of the week's routines ripped to my laptop so I can do them at my friend's place.

Today's juice was actually made on monday, but stuff was way too busy for me to blog that day or yesterday for that matter.  It's a beet juice... perhaps I'll call it "Red Horror" since I'm wearing my H.P. Lovecraft shirt.  It's also aptly named based on what you see before AND after drinking it :-P.  I was making a youtube video for it but lost some footage due to technical problems.  I may still try to Frankenstein one together... we'll see.

Red Horror:
3 small beets or 1 large beet
1 grapefruit
2 oranges
beet greens (optional)
5 carrots
1/2 pineapple




See ya tomorrow (hopefully)!!
~Mike

P90X Adventures: um... uh... maybe not today.

So yesterday I did Legs & Back and right after blogging about it I went out to a club with a friend of mine It was a reunion party of this old club called "The Arena" it used to be the happening spot for kid's in Eugene through the 90s and is now a place called Diablo's. Anyway, they were bringing it back for one night and the old DJs were back at it. The set was awesome, classic pop, house, hip hop, techno and industrial from the 80's and 90's. It was too much fun.

I started dancing around 10:30 and didn't stop until 3am. By the time things were wearing down, I could barely walk. God, I'd just done P90X Legs & Back for crying out loud and then I went jumping around on them all night. Needless to say, I was friggin sore today.  I think I did enough cardio for the rest of the weekend last night so I think I'm satisfied with dancing as an alternative to kung fu-ing it up today.  My lower back is so sore, but I'm so happy because that has to mean it's getting stronger!! Tomorrow begins the 2nd half of P90X!!

P90X Adventures: Week 6 Day 5 Legs & Back

I'm writing this on Saturday which is technically Day 6 for me, but yesterday I had to help my friend move and decided to take friday as my "rest" day.  So tomorrow I'll be on with Kenpo X and straight into week 7!

Let me start by talking about yesterday...  A good friend of mine is heading back to Hong Kong for about 6 months to take care of his mom.  He's finally getting around to putting his place down here in Eugene on the market.  He hasn't been living here for the last 2 or so years but now that he's leaving the country for an extended period, he doesn't want to have to deal with a property anymore and I don't blame him.  He still had a bunch of stuff left behind in this old condo, basically books, comics, and things he just felt too lazy to drag up to Seattle with him.  He grabs a uhaul and I head with him to move it all to storage.  These boxes he has aren't light.  They're not incredibly big but they are completely stuffed with manga.  If you don't know, manga are like smaller than western style comic books, but they're way more densely packed and thicker.  So they tend to weigh a lot more than the average comic book.  So I'm just grabbing these boxes and tossing them in the van.  Running back up the stairs every time.  At one point, I don't feel like I'm getting it done fast enough and I decide to stack a couple of these boxes.  He's like "holy shit man, you got that?" 

I just simply reply "P90X baby!!" and hauled them on down to the van.  A little while later, he comes down with another box and he's mad winded.  He goes "I hate you and your goddamn P90X! You're not even winded!"... I had to laugh, but then I actually had to stop and think about it.  Here I'd been picking up and hauling heavy boxes nonstop for at least 45 minutes.  Running up and down the stairs between his condo and the cargo van, and at this point, I'd barely even started breaking a sweat.  I started the day with my upper body sore from Back and Biceps on wed, but I'd knocked all the soreness off about 5 min into moving.  I mean, here's the proof in the pudding right now.  I'm lifting these boxes and the stress isn't on my back.  Hell, it isnt even really on my legs.  Sure, the things were heavy and I could tell, but what was amazing feeling was the fact that it just didn't phase me.  Wow.  So, I finished blasting through loading the van with his stuff, including his incredibly heavy couple of boxes stuffed with DVDs I guess. I swear those boxes had to be somewhere between 70-100lbs.  Drove the van to the storage facility, and unloaded it even faster than I'd loaded it.  I'd contemplated just going ahead and doing the routine after that, but we were supposed to be meeting some other friends for dinner in just over an hour so I left it to today.

I'm incredibly happy and proud about today, because it's the first time I made it all the way through the Legs & Back routine!!  My legs are pretty damn strong as it is right now, I mean think about hauling 350lbs on the daily.  That's going to build it's own strength.  Even so, this exercise for me seemed so intense.  I'd go at it hard and always without fail, I'd end up feeling like I'm about to puke around halfway through the exercise so I'd bow out then.  Well, not today!  I still got the feeling, but thankfully, it wasn't nearly as intense as it had been in the previous weeks.  I'm always getting better as the weeks progress and it never ceases to amaze me.  I counted up all the reps from the various pull-ups and I totally did 105 pull-ups.  Now they were all chair assisted, but even so, I've gotten to the point where I have the chair pretty far away and straight legged so I'm kinda barely using my leg at this point.  I might try to see how many I can do non-assisted soon, but as long as I'm feeling it right now, I'm all good with what I'm doing.

This morning, Zulema caught me flexing in front of the mirror :-P.  I was checking out the progress since I'm nearly halfway through the 90 days and I'm just like wow at what I see in the mornings.  She came up behind me and said "You're nice to look at back here."  I thought maybe she was being sarcastic.  It's not something I can see in a mirror really.  At least I haven't done enough Yoga X to turn my damn head around far enough to see my backside in a mirror.  So I had her take a picture.  Now, my only envisioning of my back is from a picture back in '09.  I still kinda felt like that's probably how I look. 

Then she showed me the pic...

Damn...

Man, talk about a self-esteem boost. I swear it jumped like 1000% that moment.  We ran to the store to pick up some things and I decided to finally get a new pair of pants.  Size 38... I haven't worn 38 since the 8th grade.  This was my first pair of size 38 pants in 17 years.  Hooo-Lee-Shit!!  I kinda still have a bit of a unique situation with my legs though.  Since I came from such a large size, my muscle mass in my legs hasn't really decreased, so I have a really irregular shape in them now.  I basically still fit best in 40 for pants, but if I have cargos, relaxed or loose fit jeans in 38, I can get by okay.  I had this problem when getting a suit for my friend Rob's wedding.  I basically had to get the suit one size up because the damn pants didn't fit my thighs right.  I'm not angry though, the fact that it's mostly muscle makes me happy as a clam. I can probably attribute it to riding that beast of a cruiser on a professional level haha.  Oh well, I guess they're like body builder style.

Today, I didn't have a juice.  Since we ran out to the store, we ended up looking for somewhere to find breakfast.  I didn't really wanna deal with the places that just make your average unhealthy type breakfasts and the couple places we knew that had pretty decent vegetarian fare are always so incredibly busy and SLOW on saturday.  We ended up at Laughing Planet.  Zu's never been to this place but I had.  Now this was a place my friends and former co-workers Walker, and Ian would drag me to and I'd always bemoan the place.  "Oh no, not this hippy-dippy vegetarian bullshit again..." would be something the me from that time would utter.  The fact is, their food was pretty good. I never had anything that I hated, but then again a guy like me would pretty much eat anything.  That was my problem in the first place right? :-P    Man, how I've changed.  I love it.  That place was amazing.  I only wish I'd known what I know now back then.  Hindsight's always 20/20 I guess.  So far, it's one of the best vegan spots we've been to in this town and there's a lot.  It's now probably at the top of our list.

I had this Marrakesh Bowl: A grain medley of barley, quinoa and wheat berries, grilled veggies, spinach, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, caramelized onions & fennel served with a Moroccan sauce

Zu had This Soylent Green: Sautéed kale and steamed broccoli on a bed of quinoa, local wheat berries, and barley, topped with house marinated tempeh and  Spanish Romesco sauce.

So that was saturday...  Kenpo X is tomorrow.   By the way, if you're feeling like you need to get active and change what's going on in your life and start getting healthy, I can certainly help you out.  I know I'd like to have more people working along with me.  It keeps me motivated.  Nobody likes working out alone.  So if you wanna find out what I can do for you, go check out my website at http://poweredbyjuice.com.  I'm a Beachbody fitness coach, and I can help get you going in the healthy direction whether it be with a program like P90X or just something simple like getting up and going for a walk a few times a week.  I'll be there to help get you motivated to get going. 

Anyway, until next time...

~Mike

P90X Adventures: Week 6 Day 4 Yoga X

Well, I set out today, determined to make it to the balance poses.  I made it through the balance poses.  I didn't make it very much further past that. I think there was about 33 min left in the routine when I finally had to call it quits, but man... it certainly felt good to at least get to attempt those things.  They're tough as hell!

I'm definitely improving on the routine leading up to balance more and more as I go along each week.  I'm able to do actual upward dog instead of cobra.  I actually know the difference now too.  Cobra is pushing yourself up with your arms under your sholders but everything below your knees is still resting on the floor.  Upward dog, however, has only your feet resting on the floor and you're supposed to be holding the rest of your body up with your arms.  I can do that now... it's awesome!  My downward dog is getting a bit easier to maintain.  Before, man I could barely stand to be in it and would just wobble intensely and it burned oh so bad.  Now, it still hurts, but I can feel the strength that I've gained as it's easier to hold for longer periods.  Still uncomfortable as hell, but manageable.  I even managed to get through to Warrior 3 this time around! That felt pretty empowering because it was technically a balance pose and I executed it well... or at least I thought.  I'm sure it was great for someone who's never done it before but if the above images so far give you any indication, I still got a lot of work ahead of me.

Then came the balance poses...  Well, I was so super excited to make it to this stage, but quickly came to the realization that THEY'RE PRETTY DAMN DIFFICULT.  The one I could manage to do with relative ease and grace was aptly named "Royal Dance"  

And it also happened to look pretty cool in the pictures too ! ^_^

There was a pose I was so looking forward to attempting, and as I would've thought, I couldn't come close to doing it yet.  Next time, maybe but I think it's gonna  be a while.

So, this morning's juice was another interesting freestyle.  Zulema points at a small canteloupe this morning before taking off for work and just simply says "this needs to be used up today or it'll go bad"....

I'll name it Canteloupe Island, after one of my favorite Hancock tunes.  In it, we have:

1 small Canteloupe
1 entire bunch of Kale
2 Cucumbers (one large, one small)
1/2 pineapple
1 lemon
4 stalks of celery

It was pretty delicious.  So there ya go.  I know I missed a blog yesterday, but people were really bugging about Borderlands 2.  I'm assuming they're just leaving me behind right now but that's probably what I'm gonna go do right now anyway... See ya tomorrow after Legs & Back!

~Mike

P90X Adventures: Week 6 Day 2 Plyometrics

It's all about priorities...

Although I'm pretty busy these days and doing all of these things and fitting P90 X into my crazy schedule, I'm still very much unemployed.  That's partly the reason why my schedule is so hectic at times.  My roommate has just recently been laid off from the same game company I used to work at, but his priorites are a lot more lax.  I've been unemployed now over a year and clearly I'm trying to do everything I can to try to get back in the saddle before unemployment work out whereas he's just sitting back and enjoying his new found freedom.

I can't say I've ever had that in my time out of work but perhaps I have when I take into account my working to get fit.  Going out and doing bike rides every day gave me what I needed to unplug from the worry.  All that worry about where I was going to live, what I was going to do, where my next meal was coming from.  All that shit was adding stress.  All that stress was pounds.  It's definitely one of the reasons why I probably shot up at least another 40-50 pounds in the first place.  Either way, I've always felt to frantic about needing to secure myself before I could do anything like play games and just unplug for a day.  In fact, I don't think I've really taken a "day off" in that sense.  My roommate doesn't have that problem.

So yesterday, Borderlands 2 released early for those who pre-ordered on Steam.  Everybody's all super psyched about playing it.  I really wanted to play it but clearly not as bad as everyone else apparently.  We get started and we play some last night.  Today, I think everyone here got up thinking that we were all jumping back in and just rocking Borderlands 2 all day or something...

Not me.

I'm now stuck doing weird audio "odd jobs" for random people here and there.  It's definitely not as glamorous as I was hoping I could maybe carve out as an audio contractor.  I'm basically being stuck helping out "friends" or "friends of friends" with audio work for like 1/5th to 1/10th what I could concievably make doing that work in a professional setting.  It's awesome.  I'm pretty sure I've made more working in call centers or customer service.  More consistent too, but I digress...  I had my work cut out for me today.  Super long recording session with a lot of really tough edits and cleanups to follow.  I get back and everybody's like "GET YOUR ASS IN THE BORDERLANDS!!"

"OKAY OKAY!"  I say, but really I'm getting kinda bummed because I know if we start now (at 3:30pm) We're probably not going to stop until like 1:00-2:00am... So I'm sitting there in the game menu waiting to start it up with everybody and I think to myself...  I'm going to miss my P90X...

I'm going to miss my P90X...


I'm going to miss my P90X?!   FUCK THAT SHIT!!

Since we were waiting for someone to get off work I told them that they could go ahead and I'd just join when the friend got off work.  Then I went to go do my Plyometrics.

A year ago, I'd never thought I'd see the day where if I wasn't able to do my workout that I'd get upset.  So upset, that I'd would almost move mountains just to be able to do it.  It's been happening to me for the last several months.  I could never understand those types of people until now.  I've become a different person.  I feel like it's made me a little more of a responsible person.  A little bit anyway :-P

Plyometrics is getting awesome.  More and more, I'm getting to be like the guys on screen.  I still get worn the hell out at some specific parts, but man, I'm able to do just about every exercise now.  I paused half as much as last time.  It's great.  It's something I look forward to.  Biking is easier.  I guess if you ride like I do, it's pretty hardcore, but it's easy to look forward to doing something like that.  The fact that I'm looking forward to doing this crazy insane workout routine on a daily basis... I never would've thought.  Not the current me, and certainly not the me from a year ago.

So... It's really all about priorites.  I've made my health and well-being a priority.  I tried making serving and working for people who take advantage a priority and it got me nowhere.  Hell, it almost got me killed if you think about it.  But if I focus on myself and get my stuff right, then I'll be that much stronger to help people who actually need and deserve my help.  The ones not simply out to just take advantage.


Anyway for this morning's juice, I went for the O.G. Mean Green

1 Cucumber

2 Granny Smith Apples

4 Stalks of Celery

6-7 Leaves of Kale

1/2 Lemon (I do whole)

1/2" piece of ginger

P90X Adventures: Week 6 Day 1 Chest, Shoulders & Triceps

Oh man... I was determined to make it through this since last week, I basically HAD to cut it short since I'd spent too much time getting back to Eugene from WA and I still had to do my HD Monday weekly event.  I figured I'd just squeeze as much of this routine in as I could last week and really that half wiped me the hell out.

Well, today, I got halfway and I wanted to die.  Holy shit I thought I was gonna puke.  But I kept going.  "I'll push on a few more exercises" I thought to myself.. After each excercise, I found myself taking longer and longer breaks.  Pausing between every single exercise.  Trying to hold back whatever in my stomach was fighting to expel.  The pushups were quickly getting harder to pull off.  I skipped the side pushups.  I was surprised that I even pulled out 4 One-arm pushups on my knees.  For some reason, I just kept going.

I took what's basically supposed to be a 1hour routine and probably made it more like a 2 hour routine, but the way I see it, that's what I needed to get it done.  The one thing about resistance over cardio is that once you're warmed up and in the "zone" you're burning and stay warm for a really long time.  As long as you're still lifting and have the strength to lift, you can kinda afford slightly longer breaks.  It's not really dependent on target heart rates.  It's not really a cardiovascular workout.  So I guess the moral of the story here is... KEEP GOING.

At one point, I think I felt a tweak in my right shoulder/rotator cuff.  so I paused, did some pot stirs and other excersizes to be nice to that muscle group.  It worked.  It got me through to the next exercise.  So, where I thought I was going to miss like 12 excercises because I didn't wanna puke myself.  I just took my time and only really missed 2 excercises and got done with the 22 out of 24.  That's badass.  Sure, I felt like shit, but that went away without too much time.  Thing is, I was already gonna feel like shit when I was gonna quit halfway, so really the whole "I don't wanna feel like shit" thing was a moot point because I was already there.  At that point, best thing to do is just suck it up and push onward.  Definitely glad I did.  Those pics above were taken today.  Pretty awesome seeing the progress when I was uploading them and could actually compare with the photos of previous weeks.  It's a little hard to notices nuances in progress when you look in the mirror all the time because you're just seeing yourself.  It's not like you're noticing the changes being as dramatic until you compare snapshots anyway.  And I definitely like what I'm seeing these days.


So this morning... I made a juice but I hadn't come up with a name for it.  A friend of mine, Michelle, told me to call it "Genius" so here it is...

Genius:
2 Large Cucumbers
6-7 Leaves of Kale
1 Lemon Cucumber
1 Large Lemon
1 Lime
1/2 Pineapple
5 Carrots
1 Large Peach







Freestyling for stuff a lot of the time will yield tasty results.  I always try to get something green in there if I don't have a heavy amount of veggies going in.  Cucumbers are the magic to adding volume.  If you somehow think cucumber's flavor get in the way of juice, just simply peel it.  Trust me, it's mostly like water and such a miled unobtrusive flavor.  Also another piece of magic is Pineapple.  If you're someone that needs something to taste sweet and fruity... Man, pineapple will do the trick EVERY TIME.  Cucumbers and Celery are really awesome natural diuretics.  They'll keep you hydrated and help flush your toxins and keep your urinary tract good to go.  Celery also supplies you with a good amount of natural sodium which is why sometimes in large quantities it can make a juice taste a little more on the savory side.

Anyway, that's it for today.  I'll catch you guys tomorrow for Plyometrics!!

~Mike

P90X Adventures: Week 5 Day 6 Kenpo X

I always end up feeling like some sort of broke down Bruce Lee doing this routine, but I have to admit, it's getting more and more fun the better I get.  It's another one of those that just seems so innocent, but it friggin murderous once you really dig into it.

I mean, I even had to take a break typing just now because I was drowning my keyboard in sweat after just finishing this shit.  It's nuts.  The one piece I'm still missing for this and Plyometrics is a heart monitor.  That's a pretty important piece, because you need to be in your target heart rate for any of this stuff to really be effective.  If you're too low, you're doing nothing.  If you're too high, you're actually being counter productive to your body.  There's definitely a careful balance of where your heart rate needs to be in order to burn calories and not kill you or make you pass out or something.

If you're unsure what your target heart rate is, there's a pretty simple formula.  Just take 220 and subtract your age.  the remaining number should be your Maximum heart rate.  I'm 30, therefore my Maximum heart rate is 190bpm.  Your target heart rate zone is within 50%-85% of the maximum.  For me, my target heart rate is between 95bpm and 161bpm.  There's also a number of heart rate calculators out there on the internets.  If you go way past your target, just take a quick break, slow down a bit.  If you're too low, pick it up and go a little harder.

So, for the Juicing... Today, I went and made my "Biker's Mix" Juice. It's definitely my goto choice whenever I'm doing some serious cardio workouts.  I decided to make it this morning before Kenpo X and even made a video of the process so check it out!

~Mike

P90 X Adventures: Week 5 Day 5 Legs & Back

Man...

I don't think I've been able to make it through more than half a Legs & Back routine in the entire 5 weeks of my doing P90X.  I've got some powerful legs, don't get me wrong,  it's not that I doubt my legs' strength and ability, but clearly it's a weakness in my core and back I'd say.  Also, I clearly wasn't using all of my muscles and probably not all that efficiently.  I mean, biking is an incredible workout for your legs, but it's very specific and targeted at what muscles even get developed when doing so.

I can say that P90X legs and back has been making my biking more and more effortless.  I was already able to just casually ride my cruiser beast 18-20mph.  Now I'm breaking out 21-22mph out the gate.  Crazy!  My breaks during this routine keep getting longer and longer between routines.  I get the heavy feeling I'm about to puke.  That's clear signs I'm seriously working.  Perhaps even working too hard.  More often than not, if you over exert yourself doing any kind of resistance training, it'll definitely show in the form of you basically puking all over the place.

I'm not quite sure what I have to do to modify my actions to be able to complete the entire routine.  I'm just basically working at doing everything they do.  I'm not really losing my strength by the time some of these routines come around either.  It could possibly be a matter of what I'm putting in my body (or not putting in my body) before starting the routine.  I could not have the proper amount of fuel to get me going for the routine.  Possibly the case as I'm doing it fairly late in the afternoon.  I'm not worrying too much about it.  I'm definitely doing what I can and that's really all that matters.  I'm pouring with sweat which means no matter what, my body's working and responding to what I'm doing to it.

I'm happy to be improving on the routines I can get through.  Single leg wall squats... I actually made it through the whole thing without coming out of it.   Probably added a lot to why I felt like I was gonna puke today, but it was pretty badass to be able to do it.

Anyway, Since my blog is subtitled "Powered By Juice", I think it's high time I post a recipe.  I typically do a lot of freestyling when it comes to juicing.  Mainly because it's based off what's in the kitchen.  So, this is what I came up with this morning:

Green Grapefruit:

2 grapefruits, 2 apples, 2 pears, 6-7 leaves of Kale, 1 cucumber, 1/2" piece of ginger, 4 stalks of celery, 

1 Nectarine

This was actually a pretty tasty mix, though, a bit fruit heavy I'll admit.  It essentially is a small deviation from the ever popular "Mean Green" juice recipe from Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  The additions are the pears, grapefruits and nectarine and I didn't add the lemon.  It's good for a little extra pick-me-up to get the day started.

Well, I think that's what I got for today.  I'll talk to you guys tomorrow after Kenpo X!

P90X Adventures

I've been doing P90X for just over a month now.  In fact, I'm on Day 4 of Week 5 right now.  It's definitely been a challenge to say the least, but at this stage in my journey, it's actually become something fun that I look forward to.  The me from a year ago would've never even come close to fathoming such a concept, unless "P90X" meant something extreme I'd eat made with 90oz of barbecued pig.  I mean, the fact that that statement didn't just make my mouth water, is a true testament to how far along I've come physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Starting P90X was rough to say the least.  I'd come such a long way in a year anyway, I'm actually even surprised I was able to just jump in, but considering what I've been through already, I guess it makes sense.  In a short year, I've managed to start biking from out of the blue and start training for a 204 mile bike ride from Seattle to Portland.  I did that ride in 2 days, and went on to do a few other Century and Metric Century bike rides...  On a Cruiser...

This is my Cruiser... It glows in the dark

Now, if you know anything about bike riding, you might think that's pretty crazy.  I guess it's been likened to me driving in a drag race with a minivan... and winning.  In fact, while I was training for the Seattle to Portland Classic in particular, I'd many times get heckled by other riders out on the path or in events.  I'd hear things like "Man, someone stuck you with the shitty bike", or "You seriously got your work cut out for you today...". 

Then some people would be pretty cool and have tons of love and respect for me.  I'd had a couple people go "wow, you're badass man!", or "That's really awesome you're able to do this on a cruiser man, right on!". Thankfully enough, I got more of those responses which goes to show me not all bicyclists are assholes, but sometimes I wonder.  Most often than not, people would ask me "So why don't you just get a road bike? I bet that thing's really heavy.  Like a tank"

I wouldn't know, because this is the only bike I've ever ridden when I decided to ride.  Also, when I started riding, I was 100lbs heavier than I was at the point these people were heckling me, so as far as I'm concerned, the bike's never been lighter! 

                    

Anyway, needless to say, I'd made some huge strides so I guess starting P90X would've probably been my level and I'm glad I decided to go for it and not chicken out.  

When I got going I was almost starting to feel discouraged because I could only make it about halfway through really any of the routines that first week.  I was also letting "life" get in the way.  I'd run around ragged trying to do the things I needed to do on the daily and before I knew it, I was all out of time to work in a routine and I didn't want to just push my schedule out.  One important sort of pivotal point for me on this is where I decided:

 

"Fuck it, It doesn't matter what other people want today. It doesn't matter what needs to happen today.  I'm doing my P90X regardless and everything else can wait".   

I'm so glad I decided that for myself.  I know that if I'd let little stupid things get in the way, I'd just use them as excuses time and time again, and well, I wouldn't be anywhere.  Now, I've done tons of weightlifting and working out in the past, but I've also always been fat.  Even if I'd developed muscle, I'd never see results, because there were just huge layers of blubber over whatever "muscles" might have been there.  Also, I was so terribly inconsistent with working out that the first sign of soreness, I was pretty much done for the week, the month, and eventually the year.  P90X however... wow.  I've learned to try not to obsess over the scale. I've learned to try not to obsess over seeing results.  I've tried to basically take every baby step worth of improvement as a great victory because it is.  I mean, going from 1 diamond push up to 3 the next week, to 9 the following week is huge strides.  I'm starting to see muscle form on my upper body.  There's less and less flab on my arms.  My man-boobs are going away!!!   

P90X is pretty damn amazing and it lives up to the hype.  So long as you put in the work, you'll get the results.  So...   This is my first entry into my P90X adventures.  I guess you can expect to hear from me each and every time I do a P90X routine.  So I guess I'll see you tomorrow!!

~Mike