Day 57-Do not count chickens

            Last night on my drive home my son had a screaming fit from being in the car for well over an hour before he fell asleep. I did everything I could to calm him but he just wanted out. When he finally fell asleep around 9:00 we were shocked when he did not wake up until 8:30 this morning. You would think this kind of sleep would provide the happiest baby in the world and he was until he woke up from his first nap. Then for some unknown reason he needed more attention than he has ever wanted. I could not get anything done. I think he might have read yesterdays post and thought it was funny I had goals. This made for a stressful day simply because I could not get anything done. Then around 10:30 I finally got to p90x but was so exhausted I was probably running on 60%. I know to reach my goals what I need to do but for that to happen my sons schedule needs to change.

            Ok for the all you frequent fliers who noticed I have not weighed in yet well I did but I was just avoiding it. The magic number is 193.8 about the same as last week and I know exactly why. Besides my failure to track calories from the hotel I am sure my date night did not help. But I also have an idea why I did not gain weight; the hotel workout from Tony Horton. It may not be a strength-gaining workout or one I could loose weight on but it is good to know that if I am ever in a tough spot I can do it so I do not back track. Listen to me talking about back tracking before I even reach the end. I need to stop counting those chickens before they are cooked.

Day 56-TIme to light fire

             Ok so i had a great weekend but being in a hotel and not doing my normal thing got me way off track. I am saying now to the world tomorrow I am kicking things into gear. This not only goes for workouts and eating but the house, Ben, and school. I need to refocus and get cruising if i want to keep pace and make changes. Any ideas on how to keep things up? I am worried me slowing down is a sign of laziness sneaking in. AHHHHHHH!

Day 55-Just cause

            Today was a run around kind of day and I am now getting very tired. I even thought about not writing today but I wanted to post some words so I can say I have not missed a day.

Day 54-Date night

            Today grandpa asked if he could take Ben for the night so my wife and I could go on a date. We took him up on his offer and decided to take the opportunity to do as much as we could. We could not choose between two restaurants so we went to both and then ended the night at a haunted house to keep with the season. Now I could go into more details but this is taking away from my date night.

Day 53-No invite, but I have a baby

            My day started earlier than I had planned when my son woke up this morning and lasted longer than planned as well. After Ben woke up and had breakfast I decided to tackle my first issue of the day; how to workout in a space barely big enough to do a pushup because of the crib we had brought in. now I figured I was not the first person to have this problem so I looked up what others have done and sure enough Tony Horton, Mr. P90x himself, wrote and article about it. In the article he as a basic outline of a workout you can do in an area the size of your body both standing and laying but no moving around. It was perfect, lots of running, jumping, squats, pushups, ect. It was over pretty quick but that was probably because I went as fast as possible and forgot to take breaks. Now I am sure yoga would have been better for me today but there was just no room for it and I got a decent workout in and feel good about that but my issues were not all solved yet it was still early.

            My second dilemma I thought would be much tougher, food. If you remember I am too cheap to eat out all the time and thought I had few other options, but after I was done working out Ben and I walked to the car and headed north through town looking for a solution when it hit me. We are not in a small town where options are few and prices are high this is the big time. So I pulled into a grocery store and bought breakfast and lunch for two days for less than seven bucks and that included the dollar for breast cancer. Now these were not creative meals, fruit bagel and tea, but I was happy about it. Now I still had to figure out dinner but I had time. Ben and I visited my mother at her work then went to my grandma’s around eleven. I assumed I would be back in the hotel before two. The next thing I know my aunt and dad drop in and we go to dinner at my favorite Thai place and I score an awesome me provided my family. Well even though they paid I think Ben should get the credit because having a new baby in the family is like an open invitation to all meals and gathering. It is a bring the baby and sure we will feed you deal. Perfect.

Day 52-Zone out

            Remember how I was worried about a space to workout in the hotel room? Still a problem, we got into the room late tonight and even though I had not finished my second workout I am going to bed and I will figure out where I can workout in the morning. It is odd being in this room even though it is nice it is still a hotel room and I know that a short drive away is my parents house where I would be able to workout even this late and not bother anyone. Now I would love to stay up ad write all the details of the craziness that was today but I am mentally drained and am going to zone out before I pass out.

Day 51-Plyo Repeat

            Eventful today was not. On one hand having a normal day is great but on the other hand it leaves little to write about. Today was a double plyo day and when it came to the second round this evening I took it a little easier because I do not really want to find out my knees limits. I still have not found a solution for my problems with this conference. I am hoping to find enough friends to take me out to lunch or maybe I can sneak through their fridge. And yes I am cheep enough to do that rather than go out. Then I really hope this hotel room has enough space for me to workout. I do not think I have been in a hotel room big enough to workout in since my honeymoon and even then I would have had to move furniture.

Day 50-Retirement requirments?

            This week is going to be unusual and potentially very stressful and I can tell already and it is only Monday. My wife has a conference in the same city we just left where both of our parents live. Since she would leave Wednesday for the conference and be gone until the weekend we decided to go with her and the conference is even putting the three of us all up in a hotel. All great things but I smell issues, like will there be room in the hotel for me to workout? Where do I eat? She is getting fed at the conference but if I eat out all day I am going to back track hard core. And even though the conference is in the same city as my parents they are nearly 40 minutes away from the hotel, that is a long way to drive for a PB&J. I want to eat healthy and I hate spending money and these two factors will cause me loads of stress during this conference. I am hoping I can let people hold my son in exchange for food, I think people will go for it he is pretty cute. You do not have to take my word for it, check my Flickr.

            Now onto today, as promised I stepped on the scary scale and came up with 193.6. Not bad but truth be told I was hoping for an even 193. I have shed a little less than 13 pounds so far in the first half and if I am to keep that pace up I need to really buckle down and get cracking. I have been keeping up on the workouts but slipping on foods. I have been snacking at night and my breakfasts have been way to small. I need some focus in my life but my random schedule makes me want to just ride out the waves until retirement.

Day 49-2,280 pieces of temptation

            Here is a question for you, do you know how much space 2,280 donuts takes up. Answer the back seat and trunk of a mini van. I know this because my every year my wife’s school sells Krispy Kreme donuts as a fund raiser and then someone has to go pick them up. Since we travel to the “big city” quite often we got the short straw. I did not complain because they give us a van to use and pay for the gas. What I did not expect to be a problem was the fact that I would have to spend nearly four hours in a small space with 190 dozen donuts that smelt amazing. I am not sure what the science is behind inhaling calories but I am sure I did and gained forty pounds sitting there. By the time we made it home I did not have the courage to face the scale so I am going to wait until tomorrow to see this weeks number.

Day 48-Reward if found: "Lazy Saturday"

            Today was supposed to be a “lazy Saturday” according to my wife when we woke up this morning. So I went slowly about my day ate breakfast did kenpox and was relaxing when out of the blue the events turned. The next thing I know we are heading to the local apple festival where there are more pumpkins than anything else and then from there off to dinner. We went out to a place called Tomato Street, which serves great food in great portions, and I have always ordered the same thing. The problem is I have also not been very health in the past but this was an after thought to how good the food sounded. Now if you are a health nut look away because I am about to tell you about my entre. It is called a Baked Lazoni and it is there famous lasagna wrapped in honey calzone dough and baked then covered in sauce. Carbs gone mad and delicious I tell you. I decided to save on calories I would order the salad on the side and not eat the whole thing but I still know I went a bit over board.

Then when we got home a friend was over with her son so our children could hang out or more so we could tell them when there are older they have been friends since birth and we got to pumpkin carving. My father and I got out our tools of choice, him a kitchen knife and a metal skewer and me a Swiss army knife, and began carving. Our pumpkins actually turned out pretty neat and I will try to post the pictures on Flickr but that was not my favorite part. My favorite part of carving Pumpkins is roasting and eating the seeds, a great healthy snack and one that will make a great road companion on the way home tomorrow. And I should point out quickly I finished core cardio and balance quickly late tonight after all the craziness. Today definitely did not turn out as planned and I am not complaining because I love getting out and having a good time but as I sit here at the end of the day I am wondering where did my lazy Saturday go.

Day 47-Freddy vs. Forgetful

            I might have forgot something at home but I should probably tell you what happened before I left first. My day started off with a shocking surprise, my son slept through the night and was happy as a clam when he woke up. Not sure how happy clams are or why their joy is so comparable but he was one cute kid. Then on with my day of trying to pack for another road trip to the grandparents for the weekend on school errands I will get to on Sunday and trying to get at least one workout in. I managed to finish more than half of cardio conditioning during Ben’s nap before he woke up from scratching himself across his face and drawing blood. With my workout cut short I spent the rest of the time at home wrestling with Freddy Krueger to shorten his claws. Then we were on the road.

            Now it was not until after a couple hours of road thinking until I realized that in my haste to leave the house I forgot my workout videos and my resistance band. My worries were short lived when I remembered my mother has the same videos but I still had no way of doing my pull-ups for Legs and back. And after getting in late and looking for alternative methods I simply fast-forwarded through the pull-ups. Now I wish I did not have to but there was little that could be done so I did my best and forgot about the rest. Then I remember abripperx and finished that up late into the evening before my weekend truly begins.

Day 46-50/50 Failure

            Today was odd. I got a lot of things done around the house and even got new tires put on my car but this did not seem to give me much time to workout. It was not till after I had gotten home from supervising a volleyball game at the high school that I realized I had not done a workout yet. Now any other day this would be a panic but not Thursday. Thursday is a non-cardio day and not vital. I realized I had only enough time for one workout so I decided to do max recovery, which turned out to be an error. This workout is an hour of slow awkward moves that seem to go nowhere and work very little. I have yet to come across a workout I truly cannot find the point of but there is always a first. So now I am about to go to sleep and I by body is wishing it had done yoga and now I will have to wait a week before I can correct my mistake.

Day 45-Half Way

            Whoa whoa I am half way there. Today was the official halfway point of the challenge and I am beginning to see some problems with the challenge itself. By having to complete two programs at the same time I split my energy between them and am not getting the full effect of either. Now I still am getting stronger and my cardio is getting better but, I do not expect to be on the next infomercial for Beachbody at this rate. I do not want you to think that this means I regret taking the challenge I do not. I know that if it was not for the challenge I would have quit a long time ago. Today was biceps and back along with max interval plyo and I was able to complete both but not without issue. The fact that I am still using resistance bands to do pull-ups instead of a proper bar is hindering my progress. I did try something new today with my diet, something called reverse eating. Basically I ate something you would have for dinner for breakfast and something you would have for breakfast for dinner. It might work if I took it the long run but to tell you the truth I am hungry because of the small meal I had for dinner so I do not see this happening very often.

Day 44-A Bed for the Cure

            I love my bed! I realize most people wake up each day with back pain but I went to bed last night with my lower back killing me. I expected it was from abripperx and was either severe soreness or I pulled something. I hoped it was just soreness and as I laid in bed last night trying to fall asleep I hurt every time I moved. But eventually I fell asleep and when I woke up this morning I was pain free.

            This was great news because I of course had workouts to do today. I was able to complete both plyo and max interval cardio circuit but my afternoon smoothie helped. I dug threw the freezer and threw some mango, bananas, and strawberries in the blender and then opened the fridge and saw a bag of spinach. Now without thinking I threw it in the blender. This was a great decision because not only could I not taste it but I got all the nutrients of the spinach as well as the fruit. I must admit though it was a great drink the color would made a weaker mad puke.

Day 43-Hot potatoes

            I felt like I got off to a good start for the week today and was able to complete chest, shoulders, and triceps along with ab ripperx this afternoon and max interval cardio conditioning this evening. My strength is definitely increasing even with my weight decreasing and I hope I will be ready to take on those wrestlers next month. Now I am glad to report that since my son and I got into a routine this weekend he has only woken up once around 430 before going back to sleep each night. This has put both of us in a better mood and gave me a ton more energy. Now since this has been a less entertaining day than most last week I want to share something I did for dinner. Now I love sweet potatoes and yams, and I have cooked them liked baked potatoes and fries but tonight I roasted them. I cut them into small cubes coated them in truffle oil and added salt and garlic, then 30 minutes on 350 and another 30 on 400.  I am aware there is an up and coming controversy about truffle oil because some is made by perfumes but, people need to get over this for two reasons. One, not all is made by perfumes some has real truffles in it and this is the good stuff. Secondly, it taste amazing is way cheaper than buying truffles. This may have little to do with fitness but sweet potatoes and yams are healthy and there is nothing like a little truffle oil to liven the party.

Day 42-Alls well

            Being all alone today should have given me a chance to get a lot of school work done but instead Ben wanted to play. His grandparents had spoiled him yesterday and so he thought I should play with him all day instead of doing homework. I did get some done and even remembered my big mistake from previous Sundays; do not over eat. I kept my calories in check even without any exercise which was good because I also remembered it was weigh in day. The magic number of the day, 195.6, definitely not sad about this. Over all even with the exhaustion I feel like this week has ended well and I am ready to kick butt and take names this week.

Day 41-Rest is the cure

            A night of sleeping without interruptions felt unnatural in some great way and I can only wish the event would become more common. My parents took care of Ben all night and I had to fight to see him today while they were here. It was nice to have others in the house and see Ben playing with someone besides me in the house. There presents gave me enough time to finish Insanity’s max interval plyo this morning and they made Ben so tired I got Kenpo done while he napped right after they left. Getting some extra rest today has me feeling a million times better and I hope I will now be able to get into a routine that will not kill me.

Day 40-Ironicly pleased

            Now today was a very long day preparing for my parents stay for the night but it will al be worth it tomorrow. My day started by sending my wife on her way to a school conference, which is normally not notable but this will be the first time she has been away from Ben for a night. This is the reason my parents came up, I had to announce at the game and someone needed to hold Ben. It did not take much convincing to get them to come up after all they are grandparents. Now I should probably point out that I did my workouts today and even with some left over pizza for breakfast kept under my calorie count. Tonight’s game was homecoming and though the opponent was not much of a challenge the amount of announcements grew exponentially. I had to announce different plaques, royalty, fundraisers, and raffles with only a moment’s notice. Now I can talk, this is why they give me a mic, but I am less a fan of reading out loud and that was my night on speakers. But if it is true that all is well that ends well then all is well because my parents offered to take Ben for the night and take care of him so I could sleep. This is the best gift I have been given a while and that is why I am not sure what I am doing awake now. Must be to excited to get a full nights sleep, ironic.

Day 39-Breaking rules and Breaking down

            I got a lesson in exhaustion today when my son went down for a nap today I thought it would be a good idea to join him. I thought this would be a good idea because he usually only sleeps for an hour but after almost three hours I woke up first. This is one day to ruin your day’s plans. I was not able to finish any workouts today and on one hand the word failure comes to mind but on the other hand I needed to catch up on some sleep. When I was writing yesterdays blog at 12:30 Ben woke up and wanted to play again. Long story short some time in the midst of the volleyball game I was supervising tonight I decided to break my rules and not workout today. This could be looked at as a back choice but as long I finish my workouts tomorrow I will not regret it.

Day 38-Buff Puff

            Another day in paradise and they have yet to create a font for sarcasms. Today went all right considering Ben thought it would be fun to wake up and want to play for an hour at three in the morning. I have had better starts to a day to say the least. But I was able to rock out biceps and back this morning and get some stuff done around the house. But before I could fit in Insanity we had a homecoming event to attend.

            First event of the night, powder puff, and for those who do not know this is flag football for girls. Now the teams were split into grade levels and they competed until there was a victor and the prize? Playing the staff team. Now this was a “friendly” game that would only last one half, but seeing as my wife was on the team things got intense. My wife is a competitive person and it came out strong during the game and I am fairly sure that some students are afraid of her. Long story short they lost 0-1 but if there had been a second half they would have won, they also might have hurt a few key players, but they would have won.

            The second event was buff puff which is where the guys play volleyball. This is more of a round robin tournament and the winner gets to face off against the staff team in a full game to 25, and I got to play. Now my performance was not notable even though we won but what was notable was one move done by the superintendent. When the ball came down in front of him in an “unreachable” way he stuck his foot out to keep it off the ground. Now this normally would not be notable except someone face was in the way of that balls return to the air and their glasses were broken and they were out of the game. I thank God I was not this person. We finished the game went home and I thought I could sneak in Insanity while Kelsey put Ben to sleep. But after a while of trying he was not having it and she needed her rest so I took him and we played until he fell asleep around eleven. This gave me just enough time to finish Insanity’s max cardio conditioning before midnight.

Day 37-Permission to rest?

            Have you ever had a day where not only are you out of coffee beans but your coffee maker is broken? Well if I drank coffee that is how my day would have started. I got up tired from yesterdays workouts and after having the worlds most boring breakfast, a bagel, I sat down and fell asleep. In fact the only time I was awake before one o’clock was to feed my son or put him down for a nap. At one point I went into my room to get my phone, sat on the bed, and woke up an hour later face down. This is exhaustion to a point I did not need today. I had plans to clean and cook and do all kinds of things but I just kept waking up. It was not until around two that I got to P90X’s plyo and after dinner I did Insanity’s Max Interval Plyo. These new moves in the max interval videos are going to be the death of me, I am sure of it. Just when I was keeping up on the last phase I spend more time on the ground then doing the move in this phase.

            As promised there is always something fun going on during homecoming week in a small town and today for whatever reason my wife dressed up as a candyland character. Now I did not have enough school spirit when I was in school too dress up but my wife had enough to flow into her work life and when I was awaken this morning by her so she could asked what I thought this is what she was wearing. Jeans, a short blue dress with pictures of cupcakes everywhere, a crown, and a bright blue wig. She was queen frosting and even in my slumber I think I smiled. It is amazing what people will do when they will be given nothing but permission.

Day 36-Back to back to back

            Today did not go completely as planned. On the positive side I feel much better and I think my cold is almost completely gone. But the negative side seemed bigger today. I was only able to finish P90X’s chest, shoulders, and triceps, abripperx, and half of insanities max interval cardio circuit. Now the reason I could only finish half is because I did them all back to back to back. Why? The in-laws were visiting and since they do not visit much I thought I would entertain instead of workout. In hind sight not my smartest move. I need to make sure to split the workouts tomorrow so I will have the energy to finish. Just a heads up this week is homecoming week in this small town and it is bound to be full of fun stories I hope I can share.

Day 35-Meals on wheels

            Sometimes Sundays off do not feel like much of a break. We headed home from our weekend and a day of traveling is not a break. Between a crying son and road food I feel as sluggish as ever now that I am home. I have not even weighed myself yet because the in-laws are over for the night so that will have to wait until tomorrow. My cold feels better again today but I coughed through the whole night last night and that’s not a way to start a day. I must tell you though that my aunt Karen premade dinner for us to take home and it was amazing. Her homemade pasta sauce was amazing as usual and she even gave me a box of quinoa pasta, which is not only delicious but very healthy. If you have never heard of quinoa I would highly suggest you look into it.

Day 34-Cut short

            I feel like I am reaching the end of my cold but I do not want to get ahead of myself. I decided to stay safe and just do kenpo today and plan on getting back to business as usual on Monday. Now I would love to share what adventures I had today but I have been worded about putting negative things on the internet especially if someone I know might read it. This means my blog is going to be cut short and I would rather have that then a fued.

Day 33-Short less sweet

             Another day of being sick and it did not help the workouts. I finished legs and back and abripperx during my son’s nap but that is all the time I had. I had to leave for the coast and after a long drive where my son screamed for half of the trip I cannot even think about Insanity. I would love to write a bunch more but I am a guest in a house tonight and do not want to be rude.

Day 32-Limits

            If you remember, my son had a cold yesterday and nothing has changed for him today, but I on the other hand am now sick as well. This has made for an interesting 24 hours and not a good workout day. My cold kept me up most of the night and then kept me from finishing Yogax. I did finish core cardio and balance and that made me feel better for about 12 seconds. I am less than pleased about not completing yoga but I know that if I did I would be useless for the next day at the very least. I found my limit today and a 4 month old gave them to me in the form of a cold.

Day 31-Chocalate fever

            I am shocked when I have to write the day down for each of these. I feels like I have been doing this for ages. Another day of core cario and balance along with back and biceps. At this point I wish I had a place to install my pull-up bar instead of just using the bands. The moves in this one are nuts and I am sure I would only be able to do a few of each but I still feel like I would get more out of the workout. The bands do work great on the biceps though and it is great to be able to adjust the weight by simply widening my feet. Either way the workouts must be working because I am tired.

            I also could be tired because my son has a cold and even though it does not upset him that snot runs down his face like a waterslide he thinks he should stay up at night so we can share his sickness. This has kept me tired the last few days but for every waking moment I have craved one thing, chocolate. Now normally I take my chocolate in the form of chocolate chip cookies, but my suppliers have been out of reach for the past month. Now I could make my own but my skills are not honed in this market and my time is limited. I made a rather large skillet cookie last weekend hoping it would get me though this week but it was left out and got burned the next morning when the wrong burner was turned on. So what I have been doing for a quick fix is a tiny measuring cup of chocolate chips and I even put some chocolate syrup in my banana peanut butter smoothie. But what I wish I had right now? A gallon of rocky road breyers ice cream.

Day 30-Picture Day

            So I am officially one third of the way threw the challenge. I took a picture of myself today and compared it to my day zero photo. It is not a P90X success photo shot but some of my pudge is missing which is great. I was not able to get a workout done this morning so I had to do both plyo and core cardio and balance back to back. Not the best evening and very far from a recovery week. But after all this is the week I wanted to bring it and I tried hard to bring it today.

            I am struggling with the idea of posting before and after pictures on the blog because I am not sure when to do it. I could do it now and as I take them or wait until the end and reveal the whole result at once. What do my readers want, or should I say reader.

Day 29-Muscles?

            Today was my first true experience with the famous P90X muscle confusion. Ok I am now a believer in muscle confusion and it is day one of phase two. I was at the point in P90X where I was able to do the workouts and not be sore after and actually felt strong. This phase has brought me back to reality with moves that I would have never attempted otherwise. One handed pushups! I have never met anyone that could do these and yet they did over a minute of them in front of me as I spent most of my time on my face. I was also able to finish Insanity’s core cardio and balance. It was a quicker workout then normal and not as difficult as the others but for a recovery week still tough. Total side note but I made a mango banana smoothie today and it was the best 110 calories I could have had.

Day 28-The search for a reason

            Three weeks down and I hope to kick butt on the fourth. This week will be reverse of the last one with recovery for Insanity and a new phase of P90X. And today was weigh in day. I never feel great about this day because I never workout on Sundays but I do the weigh in today to get a real life change and not one with the workout factor. The total today came to 199.8, decent improvement from last week and not bad after a week of recovery from P90X’s harder workouts. I am hoping to not see a two in the hundreds place on my scale ever again so I will need to get things into gear this week.

            We are officially in the time of motivation loss. For me this is the part of the program where I forget why I am doing this and struggle to justify it. Now I have done enough workouts to recognize this and know that it is not time to take a break but instead work harder and get through it. Easier said than done and finding motivation is getting tough.

Day 27-First rule broken

            I should just get it over with, I only finished half of YogaX and skipped plyo all together. Now this wasn’t out of laziness more a combination of exhaustion and time. My wife and I went to en auction this evening that started at 5:30 and I still had not done a workout. I thought a couple hours there and I will have plenty of time when I get home. Well these small towns know how to throw a party and we didn’t even get home till 10 and there were still 20 items left to auction. This left me with a choice in which workout to do because yoga is too long to combine with another workout and still finish before midnight. Well I started yoga and about half way threw did not have the mental or physical energy to continue.

            There are a few reasons I think this happened. The first and most obvious is the overwhelming about of workouts I have been doing for the last month and the second is food. The auction provided finger food, which was not only not healthy but not filling. And as it turns out it did not provide me the proper energy to finish a workout. Now I do feel bad for not finishing my workouts and breaking a rule and I could have just said I did them and you would have been none of the wiser but I want to be honest. I hope I will be able to step things up this next week.