P90X Adventures: The falloff... Weeks 2-8 in review.

Yeah, I fell off in a MAJOR way...

But at least that was only with keeping up with the blogging (I really am bad at that I suppose, sorry).  It's just been "life" both in it's positive and negative forms.  Things get too much to want to go and take time out to write about them.

Thankfully, I at least haven't done that with P90X3...  Zu and I are still going strong as we're closing in on our last "block" of the program.  We've been steadily improving through all the routines and with that the results have been positive.

It's been pretty tough at times, but we keep doing what we're supposed to do.  Keep pressing "Play" and doing our best and forgetting the rest.

Block 2...

The 2nd block seemed like it stepped the game up, but in a lot of ways still felt like the phase 1 to 2 changes from the original P90X.  Where Phase 1 focused on quantity of reps during resistance exercises like push-ups and pull-ups; Phase 2 would focus on quality and form of the reps, slowing everything down.  This same change is echoed in Block 2 of P90X3.  The program introduces Eccentric Upper and Lower into this block.

Eccentric Lower

Eccentric upper focuses on push-ups and pull-ups with eccentric motion rather than concentric motion.  For instance, when you do a push-up, you're usually focusing on the "push UP" motion you're making.  That's what's building those muscles in your chest. With eccentric upper, your focus actually goes to the "down" motion of the push-up.  So you move slowly down to the bottom and then spring up as quickly as you can. These kinds of movements works on lengthening the muscles as well as strengthening them more so that you can increase your range of motion and not end up with T-rex arms.  Eccentric lower then focuses on squats and various lower back exercises.

Then there's Triometrics...

Just when you thought shit got tough with Plyometrics in P90X, Tony finds out a way to amp it way the hell up with Triometrics.  This is a beast of a workout to try and complete in 30 minutes but I can say that I don't feel completely destroyed 2 days afterward.  Of course, I can attribute that to NOT SKIPPING A SINGLE DAY!!  That's really critically important.  By continuing the workouts on a regular basis, it doesn't leave much room for pain to remain.  The body is used to the work and with proper amounts of water, rest, and nutrition there's not a whole lot of heavy pain or soreness to deal with afterward.

MMX... or a creative way to fool people in to doing "combat burpees"...

I'd been wondering what Tony had in place of Kenpo X.  I figured it would've been MMX.  This one is NOT messing around.  Gone are the days of setting up moves with singles, then maybe doubles, then eventually getting to combos and stuff.  Tony jumps right in doing combos, and then those combos just get crazier and more complicated. 

Then there are sprawls... a hole shitload of em.  They're basically just falling down to a quick plank and jumping back up.  Add a push-up and a jump to it and you're basically doing burpees.  Instead, now you're doing like elbow swipes and ground punches in between them.  My god, these things get ridiculous.  Though, I do feel like if Zu takes these moves to heart and needs to use them for self defense, she better be in the right because she's likely going to seriously maim or kill the guy for real.

Getting the Fix...

So there's a new program that dropped from beachbody just last month called the 21-day fix.  What makes this program special is the nutrition plan.  The program centers around portion control and comes with a group of containers used to portion out your food.  You start out by calculating your daily caloric intake and based on that you're given a daily allowance of each types of foods to have each day.  It's meant to allow you to basically have what you want, so long as you portion it out well and work according to that.  We haven't "officially" started it up yet, but I took it for a test spin this week just to see how it works.

When I was trying to convince Zu to get interested in it, I was having trouble because we couldn't tell what the containers were supposed to represent.  Did they each represent the size of a meal? if so, they looked pretty small.  We were finally sort of shown that they were to represent servings of particular food groups. (green for veggies, purple for fruit, red for protein, etc)  Also knowing that you had a certain allotment of each color throughout each day set us a lot more at ease as well.  So we grabbed the challenge pack.

I'd finally decided to give Shakeology a try.  If you know me by now, I haven't been too keen on things that come in boxes or bags for the last few years, but all of the things I kept hearing about shakeology and the research I did on it was kinda too good to ignore.  I figured at the very least I needed to give it a shot and see if I experience the same awesomeness as everyone else.

The package came in the mail and when I opened it up all I could think was "OMG these containers are so friggin small... WE ARE GOING TO STARVE!"  

I was shocked to say the least.  I thought the containers looked way bigger in videos where I saw Autumn Calabrese measuring things out with them.  Well, then it dawned on me that perhaps Autumn is a pretty small girl... yeah, duh.  Once the initial shock sort of wore off and I started using the containers over the last week, things started making a whole hell of a lot more sense.  It's actually a lot of food.  It's all about how you plan it out and what you choose to have, but I've been pretty damn happy so far and I can't say that I've really been super hungry.  If I turn out to be, I still seem to have containers that I hadn't had for the day so it all balances out.

Breakfast under the 21 day fix.  1 red container (yogurt) 1 yellow container (granola) 1 purple container (strawberries)  adds up to be a decent amount of food.  And delish plus this looked really pretty.

Shakeology...

I was finally excited to give Shakeology a shot.  I've heard all kinds of hype about it since becoming a coach.  It's injected in between every routine on the P90X3 DVD.  Hell, it's even given a huge nod and recommendation for use in conjunction with the 21-day fix and has a number of recipes in for it in the Nutrition guide.  I took a scoop and to it added, 4 frozen strawberries, 3 ice cubes, 1/2 cup of almond milk, and 1/2 cup of water.  I blended it together and...

HO-LEE-SHIT

It was thick, creamy and had the consistency of a Wendy's Frosty...

Are you kidding me right now?!  I'm having a milkshake for breakfast!  THE HEALTHIEST GODDAMN MILKSHAKE ON THE PLANET!!!

Seriously though, they should change the "healthiest meal of the day" slogan on the bag to "THE HEALTHIEST GODDAMN MILKSHAKE ON THE PLANET"  people might get the message.

Oh man, it was ridiculous how good it tasted and how I was completely sated after that.  It wasn't like "OMG NEED MOAR SHAKE NOW!!" which is something you'd feel if you had a normal milkshake... (okay maybe just me then?)  But for me, it was more like "OMG, I can't wait to have one tomorrow!". 

It's been over a week and I've been generally way less hungry through the day. I have a lot more energy, and I've just been feeling great.  I feel like it's only going to be getting better because I think I have actually started losing pounds now.

Last weekend, I gave Zu shakeology for breakfast, same as I'd been making for myself and her first reaction was "OMFG, I'm having a milkshake for breakfast!!!"  It's really funny she said that out loud, because I did the same exact thing a few days before.  I remember I blew up her google talk with exclamations on how this thing was like changing my life.... HAHA.  Anyway, if you're curious about Shakeology check it out over here

On the same theme of a tasty chocolate smoothie that isn't Shakeology, here's a recipe for something I'd come up with the day before it showed up in the mail.  I called it Chocolate Mexi-Berry.

Chocolate Mexi-Berry:

2-3 handfuls of greens (I had 1 handful of Kale left and threw in about 2 more handfuls of mixed greens)
5-6 Strawberries (frozen)
1 Banana
1/4 cup of almonds (or 2tbsp almond butter)
1 tbsp hemp seeds
1 tbsp raw cacao powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cup of almond milk
1-2 tbsp maple syrup, honey, or sweetener of your choice to taste.

Until next time...

P90X Adventures: P90X3 Challenge Days 4 & 5: "The Challenge" and CVX

Last weak, I got beat the hell on this routine.  I tried to be wise out the gate picking 15 pushups and 12 pull ups.  I knew I was capable of busting those numbers out easily in the past.  What I hadn't anticipated on just how many sets of pushups and pull ups there were gonna be.  I wasn't ready for just how wasted I was gonna feel after the 4th or 5th set let alone, the complete changeover in pushups or pull ups working completely different muscle groups.  Needless to say, I didn't maintain those numbers last week.  I suppose, I didn't think I was really going to, but nonetheless, I had high hopes after the first set when I decided to do 19 pushups, going strong out the gate.  By the end of the routine, I was just a mess. I could barely lift my arms to wipe the sweat off my face.  I had to wait a couple hours to eat because I felt like I was gonna puke, I'd worked so hard.

This week... a completely different story.  I figured I'd keep my 15/12 numbers and since every routine had improved vastly this week thus far, I'd have similar improvements on this one.  I was right!  It didn't stop the routine from kicking my ass though, it just meant that I managed to always do 15 pushups (sometimes on my knees, which was still better than last week's sometimes on my knees and STILL less than 15), and 12 pull ups (with a chair of course).  Military pushups still get me.  They're damn tough, but I'm getting more in before having to go down on my knees and that's progress!

Zu on the otherhand... She championed that shit like it was nobody's business.  It could be the fact that we don't have any real decent resistance bands for her to do pull ups with at home.  Even so, she chose higher numbers for that reason which was smart.  She still made it work and got the work in.  When it got to the burnout round, she actually did one more round of pull up and pushups than me.  Impressive!  She also doesn't have pushup bars yet, so she's just doing them regular style.  I'm really glad that she stepped up to the challenge.  I'm not sure what number of pushups she picked.  I never asked.  I think she may have told me once and I forgot, but it's all about getting in there and giving it all you got, and she definitely did that.

At the end of the routine, Tony lines everyone up and they all flex to show off the pump they got in the routine, so I figured I wanted to do that too.  Zu was having none of that though, so I was alone in it.  I tried... really I did, but in the end I just kinda looked like I shat myself haha...

I was hoping that CVX would also just sort of complete the cycle of everything being easier to do.  I was wrong! To be fair though, I chose a higher weight this time, and it took a lot longer for me to finally give up and drop the weight down.  We're talking small numbers but they make ALL the difference.  Last week I had a 7lb weight and after the first or second break, I jumped down to 5lbs.  This time I went 8lbs and after maybe the last break near the final round, I had to switch to 5lbs.  I felt like my arms were going to fall off!  I suppose I did have better form this time on all the moves so there's definitely improvement.  That's always good.

Zu, gave it a good effort, but she was just kinda flopping around for the majority of it.  Can't blame her though, I think there were a couple times where I might have just not been moving trying to catch my breath.  She was still flopping around, so kudos to her for keeping some kind of momentum!

Zu's work has a small workout facility that's available to employees and family, so we started going there on some days when we need to use a wide breadth of weights because my little 40lb set wasn't really cutting it for me anymore.  It would take way too long between moves to have to pull off weights and put on new weights.  There wasn't really all that much room for two people to really comfortably do stuff at home, and also, what if I get anybody else involved.  A third person wouldn't work at all.   Anyway, while we were there doing CVX, there was a group of young people also working out and after we got done, they were asking us questions about P90X3 and giving us props on doing it.  A couple of them were familiar with P90X and had done it sometimes on their own at home.

I think getting the props really lifted Zu's spirits.  It definitely feels good when someone else acknowledges the obvious hard work you're putting in.  It doesn't happen very often so it definitely feels great when it does.

I had more bitter melon, but I also wanted to get some more protein in to recover from CVX.  I decided to make a smoothie with it rather than a juice.  I called it:

 BitterBerry Smoothie:
1 Bitter Melon *juiced*
1 pear (or apple) *juiced*
1 Banana
2-3 handfuls of greens (I had mixed salad greens on hand)
1/2 cup of blueberries
1/2 cup of blackberries
2 Tbsp chia seeds

Last time, I talked about the benefits of bitter melon for diabetics.  Blueberries and blackberries are also friggin' amazing.  Blueberries are considered a brain food and are often referred to as the healthiest berry ever.  They've been known to improve brain cognitive function and slow and sometimes reverse the effects of age on memory.  Blackberries are also chock full of antioxidants that are good anti-cancer measures.  Blackberries also have benefits for skin and eye health, digestion, cardiovascular, you name it!  Throw all that in with Chia seeds as my source of complete protein and I was all set this morning!  This all masks the bitter melon incredibly well also.  I've yet to try it on it's own.  It may not even be all that bad, but I keep reading that it can be a really strong and hard to handle flavor. anyway, until next time!

P90X Adventures: P90X3 Challenge Week 1 Day 3: X3 Yoga

Last week, X3 Yoga was one of the few routines that actually turned out to be way easier on me than I was initially expecting.  With the exception of that one pesky Crow move, I was pretty much able to handle everything at least in some fashion.

This week was even that much easier.  Since I'd already been through the routine once, I was able to keep up with all the transitions in time with everyone on screen.  This, of course, was Zu's first time at this yoga routine so she was doing all the typical fumbling one would do when attempting all this stuff for the first time.  She and Yoga aren't on the best of terms most of the time so there was a bit of angry flailing, but far less than she ever had with Yoga X.  I mean how could she? It's only 30 minutes... :-P

She got in there and hit most of the positions really well. I was impressed.  Of course, she's a bit more flexible than I so she can do stuff like touch her toes, but I'm just playing patient because I knew how much more flexible Yoga X ended up making me over time.  We stretched, we posed, we tried to balance... We both said "EFF YOUUU!" to Ted.  It was good times.

The real work is gonna come today with the return of The Challenge.  Man, I'm gonna soldier up and stick with my 15-12 numbers and concentrate on making those work I think.  We'll see how close I come later this evening.

Next up on my fancy juice exploration is Bitter Melon.  This thing is an amazing powerhouse of a food. Especially for diabetics.  Karela, often referred to as bitter melon, or bitter gourd, is good for digestion by killing off toxins that kill the good bacteria and flora in our digestive system.  It can be juiced or used in a tea to weaken just about any virus out there, even HIV.  But it's best property is that it can increase insulin sensitivity in diabetics.  This thing can naturally lower blood sugars which is great, but you have to be careful, because consuming too much can cause hypoglycemia easily.  It does have a strong bitterness about it which can easily be counteracted by adding fruit so this is where I came up with:

Bitter Melow
1 Bitter Melon Seeded (important* the seeds are toxic)
1 Cucumber
2 Apples
1 Orange
1 Lime
3 Sticks of Celery

P90X Advenctures: P90X3 Challenge Week 1 Day 2: Agility X

Yesterday's Agility X was another vast improvement over my first week.  It also happened to be Zu's first time experiencing it.

One of the new things that Agility X introduces that I hadn't explained in my recap about it last week is the target zones.  You essentially set down two parallel strips of tape about 4' in length and depending on fitness level, 3 foot lengths apart, or 5 foot lengths apart.  Then you draw "X"s along the strip so that you have 6 evenly distributed "targets" to focus on for moves.  This sort of ensures that you maintain a good solid form when going for these moves because Tony makes you go faster and faster and switches directions randomly which is really tiring.  This way, if you're zonked and start moving slower, hitting the targets at least forces you to maintain good form just at a slower pace.

Most of the moves are pretty easy to pull off.  What makes them difficult is Tony.  Tony gives the warning every time that he's going to change directions at a whim and therein lies the real work.  What results is a routine that's pretty dynamic and a lot more fun than Plyometrics.  Instead of just simply running in a circle, he'll have you run around the 2 strips facing forward the whole time, or run in a figure 8 pattern between strips while both changing direction, or the type of running in that figure 8 pattern.  Then he just goes faster, and faster, and switches faster.

There are still some plyometric moves thrown throughout this routine though, and they are TOUGH.  One of the first are a series of squat jumps that transition to side lunges.  You start out by just jumping up and lunging to each side.  Then you end up jumping 3 times into each lunge.  Or do side lunges, to skipping between lunges, and finally full plyometric jump lunges.

This week, I was definitely able to get more of everything in, and transitioning between moves was way better for me.  Though, I still have a lot of improvement on just about everything.  I can't get that close to the speed everybody's moving on screen, but that'll come in time.  I think I'll be there in month 3 maybe.  One thing that I actually did worse this week was the boat plow.  I couldn't, for the live of me, get into plow without feeling like I was going to hurt myself really bad.  Of course, if you see the move, you'd see why.

Zulema impressed me with her tenacity on this one.  It was giving her a serious workout and setting up some coordination issues that she was struggling with.  Makes sense... I was kinda in the same boat last week while she was across the room on the elliptical without a care in the world.  I'm sure there were more than a couple points where she was probably ready to throw in the towel, but likely figured I wouldn't have stood for it so she kept at it.  We had to stop and take an extended break at some point because the routine was kicking up some major shin splints for Zu. We stopped and I ran her through some quick stretches for that which we learned from X Stretch.  Seemed like it did the trick.

One of the things that kinda disappoints me a bit about P90X3 this time around is that while they have someone who's usually dedicated to demostrating a modification. a lot of the time the person forgets to modify, or they don't show it until the time for the move is almost completely over.  I had to come up with a couple extra modifications for Zu on a couple of moves that I figure could work out.  Now, it could just be that there's really no modification for the move, but the way I see it right now, we can ALWAYS modify anything we need to because it's all about moving.  We'll eventually get the right form and get the right move in time.

Anyway, at the end of it, she definitely felt like she'd accomplished something and that was awesome!

I'm not getting much activity from my challenge group.  So far, my buddy Todd has been the only one chiming in to report he's completed exercises.  He chose the "lean" path to go down and that one looked pretty damn hardcore so good on him for doing it.  I plan on stirring the pot here and see where people are at and if they're committed to getting the work done before week's end.

Since yesterday's routine wasn't a really heavy resistance routine, I went ahead an just made a juice this morning.  I picked up a few more "exotic" items for juicing when I was up in Seattle.  This time I started out with passion fruit.  Passion fruit is a seedy, pulpy fruit so It's not gonna juice well in a centrifugal juicer.  You're going to want to put it into a slow masticating juicer or cold press juicer. You could also blend it with a little water and then just strain it as well to get rid of the seeds.

 Beet Carrot Passion:
1-2 Passion Fruit - they're expensive, but the more the merrier (hence me only using one here)
1 Beet
1 Cucumber
3 Stalks of Celery
2 Apples
3 Carrots

P90X Adventures: The Challenge - P90X3 Week 1

So,  I didn't really get to blogging about each day's worth of routine as I'd planned to, but I got through it.  I figure in the very least, I'll review the days I missed here.  Besides, I sort of viewed this past week as the "practice" week of sorts since my own P90X3 challenge group began yesterday!

I've got a few friends set to embark on 90 days of awesome.  They're gonna kick ass and get fit 30 minutes at a time!  So far, the group that I'm learning from has been pretty awesome.  People there are really supportive and keep things positive for each other.  It's also a good way to see a bunch of people that are on your level in terms of finding difficulty in the program.  The program is tough, but just like anything else, you do it enough and it'll get a hell of a lot easier.

Last week was kinda brutal.  Then again, remembering back, the first week of P90X was pretty damn brutal.  Mostly brutal in the way that I wasn't coming anywhere close to some of what they were doing on screen, but when I did, boy did I know it.  They had changed up moves I'd excelled at before into things that looked really "easy" but get you fatigued pretty quickly.

Agility X
This was definitely one of those that looked easy.  It's really not that difficult of a routine to do.  Probably one of the easier by far.  It's about endurance!  Sure, the move is easy to pull of when Tony starts out, but then he's going to go faster... and faster... and change directions on a whim.  Pretty soon, I was like a babbling mess but I made it through and man did it feel good to be done!  I'll take this over Plyometrics any day!

X3 Yoga
It was interesting to see them try to "cram" Yoga into such a tight 30 minute time slot.  This was obviously the longest of the P90X routines before.  They do a nice mix of moves and still manage to work in the calming and relaxing poses at the end.  There's a guy in this video who's ridiculous though.
Ted...
HO-LEE-SHIT!!
This guy is straight Yoga Level: Wizard.

I'm over here just looking at them do crow (used to be crane and you guys remembered when I tried that)

This friggin' guy... TED, he's already in crow and just casually stretches his legs up into a full goddamn hand stand.  Before that, we had a move called "Ted's Chair" which was like a leg up chair pose.  It looked pretty cool. I though I was awesome, then Ted goes and just floats up into some ted's chair-crane type move.

Goddammit Ted!! Stop Showing Off!!

So I (and probably everybody else doing X3 Yoga) have a new goal.  BE TED!!

The Challenge
This one threw me through a loop.  I've only ever done P90X. I'm used to the weekly format of resistance, carido, resistance, stretch, resistance, cardio, rest/stretch.  They're turning things on their ear already with Yoga going up to Wed.  Tony urges people not to skip it and I get it (because I used to skip it a lot too at first).  I wasn't expecting this routine.  On one hand, it's incredibly simple...

Pick two numbers.  A number for push ups, and a number for pull ups.

Then comes the challenge:  try to keep to those numbers for the duration of the routine.

...Oooh man...

I tried to watch all of these routines at least once beforehand so I knew what to expect.  When I watched this one at first I was like, Oh yeah, I can just roll like 20-15 or something like that.  By the end I was like... okay, uh, maybe 15-12.  Even THAT was wrong!!  I started out strong.  I'm like "okay, 15-12, I'll do more when I can". First set was standard pushups.  I banged those mofos out with ease.  I did 19, so I felt pretty awesome for starters.  Got my 12 pull ups done (chair assisted of course).  Boom! this is gonna be a cinch.
Then I had to do it over again... Ugh.  I made it about 2-3 round hitting my "numbers" and the rest of the time trying to catch them.  Sometimes I did, then the 2nd time around, didn't come anywhere close.  Oh man that thing got serious.  At the end, they had a "burnout" round where they wanted you to do 1 pull up (any variety) followed by 3 push ups.  As many times as you could within that last 2 minutes.

I mustered the energy and got at least 4 rounds of that done just choosing reverse-grip chin ups because those are a bit easier to do.  This was the first routine to really give me nausea from fatigue.  Push ups and pull ups are no joke.  Especially non-stop for 30 minutes straight.  Then came

CVX
So far, there hadn't been too much weight and resistance training for the whole week and now that it's practically over, I was thinking "okay, this must be some crazy serious leg day stuff"  I mean, chest and back was Thursday.  I was so used to that being a Monday thing.  This wasn't exactly a "leg day" routine in the traditional sense.  It was another cardio routine, except this time, there was a weight in the hands.  It was essentially like running sport drills.  It was kinda fun.  I got a lot of sweating in that's for sure.

Zu and I drove up to WA to visit some friends after I did this and took the dvds with me.  I was hoping to not miss Saturday's routine.  Things sort of worked in my favor as Zu headed down to Seattle to hang with her friends, my buddy Joe went off to watch the Sehawks game and Darrin wanted to get some more artwork done.  So we headed back to his place and I popped in:

The Warrior
THIS is currently the hardest routine I've encountered so far in the program.  I knew it was coming.  I'd been glued to Tony Horton's youtube vids and I hadn't seen the crazy assed moves he'd been throwing around yet in the routine, until now.  The warrior is basically a routine he designed for the military and then took that and put something together for P90X3.  Man, this was kicking my ass something fierce.  Then something unexpected happened.

Darrin decided to jump in somewhere past halfway just watching me attempt these ridiculous moves.

This move is EVERY BIT as hard as it looks!

We did our best attempts (with modifications) to do our best and forget the rest.  I mean really, sometimes we just sat there and watched jaws agape as they'd do something and I was just like "NOPE!".  Only to jump in when we saw something that looked really easy finding out that it became incredibly difficult so easily.  I think the thing that finally put Darrin down was one of the final moves where you do a squat jump and then come slowly back down to a squat on a 3 count.  Super simple move, but that come down.  He couldn't take it.  But you know what, he kicked ass and hopefully he'll decide he'll wanna get into it.  I assured him that everything else I'd done previously in the week was way easier.  That one is definitely one that doesn't inspire much confidence in people worried if they can pull off P90X3.  Although, you do feel like a total badass for surviving it!

On Sunday, I rested.  I was sore and beat to hell.  We drove back Monday and as soon as we got back after 6 hours of driving, I took Zu straight to Big 5 sports to get her a pair of cross trainers.  We stopped home long enough to change and then got to work on Total Synergistics.  This week was so much more improved over last week.  I doubled and in some cases tripled my rep counts for every move.  We had to take a bunch of breaks to get Zu up to speed on the moves as they showed up which made it a bit easier on us both. We had to work on a few further modifications for some of the moves because there are a few on there that really aren't all that modified, or the modifier in the group just forgot to actually modify.  Either way, she got through it and it wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it was gonna be.  I tried to tell her, but I think she just needed to experience it for herself.

P90X Adventures: P90X 3 The Prodigal Blog Returns!

Well, it seems as though I've fallen off a cliff and landed between a rock and a hard place.  The last time I wrote anything, we were getting ready to ride in the Seattle to Portland Classic...

...well...

Needless to say, we made it!  It's a little anti-climatic coming 7 months after it happened.  In fact, I had a rather large post I was in the middle of writing the day we got back.  I just lost track and then life reared it's ugly head.  The summer in general was probably one of the toughest financially, and as a result, emotionally.  I didn't get to do any big rides after STP and that really made me sad.  That was followed by a pretty half-hearted attempt to get back into P90X. Though some of it was cool, by the 3rd month, it just sort of completely fell flat.

Now that's all in the past.  The new year has started and I'm right back where I was this time last year...

...246.4lbs...

Last year, I did a 30 day juice fast along with P90X.  That was REALLY tough.  This time, I plan on actually following the meal plan and just going for a traditional attempt at the healthy thing.  I'm still juicing though!  Just as a meal replacement here or there, and smoothies.

This time around, we're doing the brand new P90X3!!!  Kicking my ass in just 30 minutes this time!

I'm hosting a P90X3 challenge group starting Jan 13th.  It's an accountability group for all of us to keep each other on track and motivated through the 90 days.  I've also joined another challenge group that started yesterday to give me a good idea how to run mine when it starts in a few days.  I'm also planning on starting up another challenge group in Feb and the hope is to just keep running these things and in the meantime, that means I'm basically gonna be doing P90X3 indefinitely for a while.  I'm hoping to get RIPPED!!

Day 1 - Total Synergistics
So, I decided to watch the program through once a few days before doing it.  Everything seemed pretty awesome and doable (they always make it look easy).  Then I gave it a shot...

Well... All things considered, I didn't do that bad.  It did whoop my ass like nobody's business though.  It took me more like 45 minutes to do because I was constantly having to pause to get things ready and go back to check form, so I kinda just flopped through it this first time.  By the end I was definitely fatigued and on the verge of either puking or passing out.  I definitely didn't have enough energy going into the routine, so I'll make sure to correct that for Today's routine.

Recipe Time!!
So, as a better breakfast start/ recovery continuance, I made a pretty tasty powerhouse of a smoothie.  I think I'll name it "Total Synergistic Powerhouse Smoothie"

3-6 Leaves of Kale (depending on leaf size)
1 banana
4-5 Strawberries
2Tbsp Almond Butter (I made my own from sprouted Almonds)
1Tbsp raw cacao powder
1Tbsp Maca Powder
2Tbsp Chia Seeds
1-2Tbsp Maple Syrup or Raw Honey
11/2 cups of Almond Milk

So, if you're interested in joining up in one of these P90X 3 groups and getting serious about your New Year's Intention (because resolutions always end up being broken.)  Then hit me up and I'll add you to the next one!  Come work out with me in your corner and we'll get you looking awesome!