Social Workout

MEH90X

A baloo is a bear. A sad, sad bear.

If I'm being honest, so far I'm a little underwhelmed by P90X at least as far as weight loss goes.  I'm halfway through week 6 and thus far I've only lost 3 lbs. doing their workouts 5 days a week (I skip the Yoga X workout because it's really pretty basic and I have continued my hot yoga practice at the gym 2-3 times per week throughout this on top of P90X).  It's not like I was sitting at 7 or 8 percent body fat before I started either; I definitely have some fat to lose, 20-25 lbs. by my most conservative estimate, but it's just not coming off. 

Now don't get me wrong, I did not expect to look as ripped as the people in the P90X commercials do after 90 days as most of them were thinnish to begin with and just needed to tighten up here or there.  I figured I'd have to go through the program at least twice to get those kind of results.  However, I did expect to at least break through this plateau I've been on for the past 2 years or so and start finally getting down to my goal weight, but so far I've been really disappointed by my results.  (caveat:  my pants are a little looser and my face does seem to be slightly thinner so there HAS been some fat/muscle exchanging going on, but I've been yo-yoing like that for the past couple of years every time I try something different workout-wise so it's nothing new)

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not following the P90X diet plan as it has a lot of semi-complicated meals that I just don't have the time to make and it also contains a lot of supplements and protein powders that A.  I can't afford and B.  I don't really trust most supplements to begin with that aren't strictly vitamins and minerals.  However, just because I'm not following their diet plan does NOT mean that I'm eating pizza and ice cream every day all day either.  I've tightened up my eating habits quite a bit from where they were before I started all this (which weren't that bad to begin with); not as extreme as they recommend, but not bad at all. 

My typical day consists of 3 eggs with hemp seeds and/or goat cheese for breakfast, a yogurt or some almonds for a mid-morning snack, lettuce wraps (lettuce, tomato, turkey breast, goat cheese and maybe some avocado and light mayo) for lunch, yogurt or similar again for a mid-afternoon snack and an 8 oz. chicken breast with some veggies for supper.  There are other healthy things mixed in there as well, but that's just an example.

Have I stuck to this all day every day?  No, of course not.  We've had Independence Day and my birthday during the course of the last 6 weeks and I'll be damned if I'm not eating some brats and drinking some beer on those days, but in general I've kept my diet fairly clean.

Also, on top of the P90X 5 days a week and the hot yoga 2-3 times per week, I was also playing softball for my company once a week when I started this and am now onto company sponsored soccer.

The thing is, I don't know if it's the P90X or if my body is just retarded or something because I've been doing anything and everything to get rid of the last of these unwanted pounds over the last couple of years and none of it seems to work aside from the couple of times I got really sick and dropped a bunch of weight, but it all came back after I started eating again.  :o)

P90X seems to be a great workout as far as it gets my heartrate up and keeps it up over the course of each DVD and my muscles are generally shaking at the end of each one so I know it's having an effect.  I imagine this system would work really well for anyone who wasn't me.  At the rate I'm going (or not going as the case may be) none of you will be seeing my 90 day pictures.  You can start thanking your lucky stars now.  :o)

And so I find myself asking if there's any hope that I'll ever be able to get to where I want to be physically.  In general I'm in good shape with a resting heartrate at or under 60 bpm (44 bpm at the time of this writing), excellent blood pressure and cholesterol levels and I generally have decent energy levels.  Which is all well and good, but I'd just like to be able to take my shirt off at the beach or the pool without feeling embarassed.  That's all.  I don't need to be Joe Six-Pack, but I really don't want to remain Sparetire McGillicuddy either...