W̶e̶e̶k̶ ̶2̶ Week 3 review: Tantrums, Resistance, and Results

While I meant for this to be a review for week 2, I'd just been too distracted with life's general struggles to talk about the week.  Now we're prettymuch finished with week 3 so I might as well try to cover it all.

Week 2 was tough.  It was the overall week of soreness that I had to get through due to not having done P90X in a long while.  That wasn't actually all that bad, but Zulema presented an entirely different level of toughness...

Kicking. And. Screaming.

Usually without fail, the beginning of the routine I'd sort of see her go through most of 5 stages of grief right before we'd even start.  Although, a little out of order.  It would start even while she's at work before we'd even be about ready to get going.  She'd sort of hit her own personal stage of denial.  I'd get a message like "what are we doing today?" sort of as if one time, I might actually magically say

"Nothing Zu!!"

Of course, this never happens which sort of starts her on her path to anger.  By the time she gets home she always attempts to bargain.  "Can't we just skip today and make it up tomorrow?"  She only gets one of those a week and it usually means she gives up her 1 day off from working out on the weekend.  I can imagine that raises the anger some.  Her depression about it may happen some time before even reaching home and maybe briefly while I walk in and start up the PS3, because at that point she knows there's no escaping.

The anger usually tends to rear it's ugly head while we're in the workout.  I don't know what it is with her, but it seems to be amplified on the day we need to do Yoga X.   On one hand, I guess I can kinda understand.  Yoga X is very, very uncomfortable.  The Moves are tough and it feels like it just goes on forever in the beginning.  On week 2's Yoga X, she hit full tantrum again.  I mean like flailing and losing her shit.  Now usually, when something like this happens, I'm just expecting that she's done and I probably wouldn't see her again until the workout is done.  So I just take that into account and continue on.  What happens next surprises me every time.

She calms down, grabs some water, or gloves, or socks, or whatever that was driving her nuts.  She gets back into position, and then she's back usually by the next move even.  Even after verbally saying "I'm done with this... I can't do this".  She breaks through to that last stage and accepts that she needs to do this.  I don't really show it well (probably because I'm nearly dying myself) but it fills my heart seeing that happen.  Every. Time.  Once she finally breaks that last barrier down (it happens on every single day) she actually starts enjoying the workout.  She'll finally start to push herself and then she amazes herself with something she's done.  For that week 2 Yoga X, we were finally into stretch positions and right after being angry at the chick on screen doing the hamstring stretch holding a yoga block beyond her foot, she goes for her foot...

...and actually reaches them!

I'm sitting here going "holy shit!"  I decide to give it a try because I figured what the hell.  I was totally able to touch my toes!  I've NEVER been able to touch my toes in a seated position.  I was not always an overweight kid.  I was pretty average up until about the 3rd grade I'd say.  Even so, there was never a point that I could reach down and touch my toes without having to bend my legs.  Just couldn't do it, and now here I am touching my toes.  Then Zu reaches a bit further and grabs the bottom of her foot...  You little showoff!!  :-P

Week 3 after Shoulders & Arms.  Check the definition forming!!

It's good seeing her push herself on these routines.  She always ends them way happier than when she started.  I think she's starting to get it.  We just finished Yoga X again yesterday, and she went through without any tantrums.  That's awesome!  She still had the sour mood at the start though, but I knew that Yoga X would take care of that, and it did.  She even skipped using the yoga block for a lot of the bent over and balance postures.

I'm improving a lot still as well.  My weight is on the rise, but I'm pretty sure it's all muscle at this point.  I'm happy about that.






With our 3rd week of P90X pretty much out of the way, Zu's going to get her first taste of the recovery week.  Hopefully it feels like a recovery week for her.  Maybe not with Core Synergistics, but I know she's got it in her.






I'm gonna end this with a smoothie recipe.  I call this one "Peachy Greene"

 Peachy Greene Smothie:
1-2 handfuls of greens (I used spring mix)
1 cup peaches (frozen)
1 cup blackberries (frozen)
1 tbsp peanutbutter (or favorite nut butter)
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 cucumber (juiced)
2 granny smith apples (juiced)

P90X Adventures Round 3 Week 1 Review A triumphant return!

Well... I guess it's been a while.

I sort of trailed off toward the end of my Round 2 of P90X.  I never did quite complete the final week with as strong a finish as I'd been hoping, but I stayed active nonetheless.  I ended up switching gears back to biking and starting to get prepared for STP.  I got all signed up at the beginning of February and was stoked.  I just couldn't wait to get out there.

The weather started to get a little bit more favorable, albeit still cold as hell trying to bike in 45° weather and all.  Every day that wasn't raining, I was taking full advantage.  I managed to put about 465 miles on the bike in about a month.  There wasn't much ramping up this time.  The first couple rides, I was doing about 15 miles. By the last week of March, I'd been habitually doing 36 miles a day.  In fact, that week from sunday to saturday, I'd put 200 miles on the bike.  Definitely a good place to be when I have a 2-day 200 mile ride on the horizon.

Well, my knees didn't seem to think so.  After that ridiculous amount of amazing biking weather, my knees were beginning to revolt so I decided to give riding a break for a bit.  I think it was because I literally went from zero to hard training, doing 15-20+ mile rides every day without actually ramping up like I'd done last year.  I was just trying to resume my biking fitness level of where I was post STP last year which was pretty ridiculously good and my body was totally not in the conditioning for that.  I guess it was just as well because April brought in it's famous showers and I still don't have any rain gear.  So, I opted to do the next best thing... P90X!!

I managed to actually net my wife this round!  I'm pretty stoked about that.  She wasn't as stoked as I was but at least vowed to make an effort.

Me after Plyometrics week 1

Zu after Plyometrics week 1

Starting this last week was rough.  I was there mentally.  I was ready for it, but my body was struggling to keep up.  It's nothing short of astonishing how quickly muscles atrophy when not really being used.  The month I took off of P90X really showed on that first day of Chest & Back. Man, I was struggling to catch those numbers from the last time I did it.  Didn't even come close.  However, I was still doing a lot of things unmodified so that still felt good.  What really impressed me was Zu hanging in there.  She wasn't really nailing the moves all that well most of the time, but was I really on my first week?  There were a few moments where she lost it and I thought she was going to just give up then and there.  I wanted to tell her that she shouldn't get frustrated over not being able to do something the same as I do.  I did when I could, but a lot of the times when she was losing it, I just didn't say anything and kept going.  Partly because I figured she'd push onward if she really wanted, but mostly because the move was really freakin' hard and I was too out of breath or focussed.

She'd have her little fit, dust herself off, and join back up.  She'd really impressed me each day as she made it all the way through each routine all week.  I never did that my first 2 weeks even.  I think a lot of what makes it better for her is having me doing it with her.  I didn't have anybody doing it with me so if I was giving up, who was going to stop me?  Who was really going to encourage me to keep going in that moment?  Even though, a lot of the time I wasn't saying much, just me being there and doing the moves with her I think gave her the motivation to keep moving.  It definitely felt great to see her finish and see the look on her face of satifaction... after the look of pain and death wore off first.

This time I've taken more of a look at the nutrition plan.  I'd basically ignored it my first 2 times through the program and being where I am now, I was still a little hesitant on some aspects of it but I really did wanna see just how I could nail the results this time around.  I decided to google around looking for some vegan alternatives.  I figured even if I'm not 100% vegan, I could still find some alternatives to things that would work for me better than eating a ton of meat since I wasn't really into that anymore.  And I found it!

http://www.beachbody.com/product/p90xnl_058.do#article1

This has been pretty awesome and following a sort of traditional/vegan P90X nutrition hybrid method has definitely led to it feeling better of the bat.  Tonight, we just started week 2 and wrapped up our 2nd round of Chest & Back.  My strength is coming back rather quickly.  So that has me a bit excited.  Not sure if I'll be all that prolific with these updates, but I'll at least try to do a weekly recap or something of this round's adventures.  Until next time!