Day 10 - 14 Recap (Dec 10-13)

I'm almost never able to update this over the weekends, which is fine because I seldom do an Insanity or P90X workout then (although I think I'll try and start doing that again at some point if I have time), and was too busy at work yesterday to throw one up - so this is a real quick recap from Friday-Monday.

Friday I didn't do Insanity at lunch but instead played a really fun game of pick-up soccer over in Tyson's, even though it was super cold out (about 40 degrees). Was still a good workout. Went out for dinner to some Dim Sum restaurant in Chinatown but wasn't hungry after eating a late lunch (turkey sandwich, chips and drink) so just had some beers there then more later at Fado's Irish Pub across the street.

Saturday I rested until heading over to Wawa for lunch (sandwich, soft pretzel & iced tea) then out for the night for a Bar Golf Crawl in Arlington, VA then a Christmas Party in NW DC. Good times but the drinks add up so I did well to keep my food portions low.

Sunday morning I had some homemade hash browns for breakfast from fresh potatoes, so I'm going to guess that those are way healthier than the ones you get at restaurants. Played pick-up basketball for about an hour and a half in the late morning then had Subway for lunch (tuna sandwich). Picked up Katie from BWI that evening and she made a really great tilapia dinner with wild rice and fresh broccoli. VERY healthy.

Monday was back to the grind. Very healthy breakfast and then Insanity Pure Cardio in the middle of the day and salad for lunch. I decided to have Shakeology for dinner (smoothie style with the blender, 1 cup of milk and some OJ). Was at least edible this time, although still not great. Also polished off the remainder of the cheese and crackers (not much). All-in-all would say I was well under 2,000 calories for the day and probably burned an extra 600+ with Insanity. Good stuff.

Day 9 Results

No morning workout after a late night, but had a very healthy breakfast and morning snack (Kashi GoLean cereal with sliced up fresh banana, then an 8oz V8 and Activia Lite yogurt for morning snack). Had a great Insanity workout at lunch (Cardio Power & Resistance). After work I had a Big Brothers Big Sisters event at Tyson's Corner and then took my little brother Marcus and Kyle to Alexandria, VA for their 8:45pm basketball game. I kept the book at the game (harder than you'd think because basketball moves so fast) and then went to DC to meet up with my girlfriend and her mom. I finally got Shakeology (Greenberry flavor) in the mail on Wednesday and had it for an afternoon snack just mixed with water yesterday (no blender in the office yet). It tasted TERRIBLE. Not sure if I can get myself to do that again until I can mix it with milk, ice and fruit. I could hardly keep myself from gagging on it. Had a piece of leftover steak and mac & cheese for dinner. Not terrible and small portion.

RECAP:
workout - Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance at lunch (hardest part - moving pushups for 30 sec then transition straight to floor sprints for 30 sec with no break)
diet - I'll give myself a 8.5/10 for today.... lot's of healthy food but had a small bag of chips with lunch

Day 8 Results

I had a client lunch on Wednesday this week so I knew I wouldn't have time to workout during the day. I brought Insanity to the gym before work and did a great Pure Cardio workout. I even had my friend Adam do the warm up and stretch with me. Not a great diet day for me though. The client lunch was at Big Bowl in Reston, VA and we had a lot of Asian/Indian food there. I didn't eat much but it made me feel like crap for the rest of the afternoon. After work I went to DC for the Bill Simmon's book signing (awesome) and then back to Fairfax, VA for the GMU/Loyola basketball game (Mason won by 14) and then Brion's Grill for post-game dinner (chicken wrap and fries - tastes great but not good for you).

RECAP:
workout - Insanity Pure Cardio in the morning (hardest part: suicide jumps aka burpies)
diet - not good, ate out for lunch and dinner and had soda

Day 7 Results

When I start eating really healthy for dinner, that's when I will really see results. Just hasn't happened yet. We had our company holiday dinner/happy hour at Clyde's in Ashburn, VA (really nice place) and the food was just too good, too much and too free to resist! The apps were fantastic. The dinner was buffet-style with Salmon, Filet Mignon and Chicken/Pasta as the main courses. How do I choose between my 3 favorite entree's??? I couldn't. Had 1 of each :)

With that and the beers, I was filled to the brim! I could not eat 1 more ounce of food last night. No way. The good thing is I had an apple and PowerBar for lunch because I knew we'd have a big, early dinner. I still managed to get in a good Insanity Plyo Cardio Circuit at lunch to make up for (some of) it.

RECAP:

workouts - Insanity Plyo Cardio Circuit (hardest part: Level I Drills (4 pushups, 4 mountain climbers, jump up, repeat), Ski Abs (from plank position, jump feet in to right hand, back to plank, jump to left hand, etc), and In-And-Out Abs (from plank jump feet in, back to plank, in, back, etc) back-to-back-to-back with no rest. This is an impossible task that I have never been able to complete without taking a short rest at some point. Super hard.
diet - very healthy breakfast and small lunch then dinner was terrible. I must have had 2k calories at dinner. Terrible.

FAITH FOCUS FINISH - GET BETTER TOMORROW

Day 6 Results

Interesting day for the Fitness Challenge. Again, no morning workout because I had to drive home from DC before work to get work clothes and shower. Healthy breakfast but then the owner of my company walked by my desk and asked if I wanted to get lunch with him. How do you say "No" to that??? We ended up going to Masala Wok, an Asian/Indian Fusion Restaurant in Herndon. I got Chicken and Broccoli with noodles, which I thought was one of the "healthier" options there, but for the next few hours I felt like complete crap. I don't know what was in there but I could NOT digest it!

Anyways, I knew I had Yoga class last night and didn't want that to be my only exercise for the day, so I snuck downstairs to the gym around 3:30 while the office was having birthday cake and got in a good 40 minutes of Insanity Pure Cardio. I felt like poo during the workout but got a really good sweat and I was really glad I did it. Had a PowerBar and an apple after the workout and after work headed over to the last Yoga class of the fall semester (I take them at Mason, so they schedule them by Semester). Had a fairly healthy dinner (although the portion size was a bit much) and caught up on some DVR when the Monday Night Football game was no longer competitive.

RECAP:
Workout - Insanity Pure Cardio in Afternoon (hardest part: Suicide Jumps (aka "burpies") and Level II Drills (8 push-ups, 8 mountain climbers, jump up - repeat for 1 min), and then Yoga class for 1 hour from 6:30-7:30pm. Good Yoga class. I really think working out in the afternoon, although I thought I might throw up then, prevented me from indigestion during Yoga.
Diet - pretty good besides eating out at an Asian/Indian Fusion place. ugh

*oh yeah - I weighed in after Yoga and before I ate dinner... results: 206.2 (3.2 lbs lost in 1st week) - good start!

Day 3,4 & 5 Results

Day 3 - Friday, December 3rd
No morning workout here, decided I need to sleep an extra 40 minutes instead :). Planned on doing Insanity Pure Cardio at lunch but I ended up playing soccer for an hour instead. Soccer is a very good workout but Insanity is tougher. I knew I was going to play in a floor hockey game in the evening, so I figured 2 high energy and lots of running sports games would be good enough to make up for no Insanity. Healthy breakfast and lunch as usual (Kashi cereal, fruit and power bar for lunch). Dinner was not so good. Didn't get to Katie's until late after hockey and after 9pm there aren't many options. We ended up settling for Chipotle :(. Not to mention we had plenty of beers during and after. Such is life on a Friday night.

Day 4 - Saturday, December 4th
This weekend was filled with just travel and pretty much no exercise. Katie and I went up to PA at 9am and got there in time for lunch (tuna fish sandwich). We did take a nice walk around Washington's Crossing, which unfortunately served as the most exercise I would get all weekend. We got a slice of the World's Best Pizza (AKA Dominick's) for an afternoon snack and my mom cooked an incredibly healthy dinner consisting of Salmon, Wild Rice and Broccoli. Very healthy and VERY tasty.

Day 5 - Sunday, December 5th
I drove about 12 hours or so on Sunday. Insane driving day. Drove from Philly to Worcester, MA for a Hannukah Party at my cousin's then back to DC that night. Obviously no time to exercise, and I sure had my fair share of "Hannukah-party-food". It was a great time and I have no regrets, but I'll have to chalk this up as a lost weekend for this Fitness Challenge. A new week starts MONDAY!

RECAP
Workouts: Friday played soccer and floor hockey for 1 hour each. That's it for the weekend :(
Diet: Plenty of "cheating" the past 3 days! Chipotle and beers Friday night, Wawa pretzel and iced tea, pizza and 2 cookies Saturday and then Pepsi, party food and a cheeseburger at the rest stop on the way home capped off the weekend.

Every new day is a new chance for improvement! FAITH FOCUS FINISH!

Day 2 Results

When I did P90X almost a year ago from Jan-March 2010, I didn't have a girlfriend at the time and didn't have many responsibilities outside of work and firefighting. I was able to go home pretty much every day after work and cook a healthy dinner, stretch while watching TV and then go to sleep around 10-11pm every night pretty much. Staying focused was MUCH easier. I also worked in an office with a pretty good-sized kitchen with a blender so making the Shakeology shakes for lunch or afternoon snack was easy.

This time around, I'm finding it much more difficult. I now have a serious girlfriend and my social life is way more active. The past two nights I've gone out and had some drinks with her (Wednesday after the GMU basketball game and last night we went to a bar to watch the Eagles and Cav's/Heat game). So I've eaten out, drank some beers and stayed up past Midnight the 1st two nights of my personal fitness challenge! These are all good ways to fail in weight loss. I did chose "healthier" food options again - a chicken salad sandwich and side salad - but the 3 PBR's did well enough to even that out. I can see this being a challenge for the remainder of the 2 months, I just need to find a way to beat this!

RECAP:
morning workout - missed due to traffic :(
lunch workout - Insanity: Cardio Recovery (hardest part - concentration squats and lunges!)
diet - beers with dinner (again), chicken salad sandwich at a restaurant probably is not great