I really love this work out program!

We’ve been going for almost 7 weeks now. We started out a little rocky – taking one day to rest every 3-4 days, but now were going full strength – 6 days on, 1 day off.

It’s all about creating the habit. We work out in the morning, first thing, before getting to work. Some days are harder than others due to schedules, etc. but it’s finally become part of the normal morning routine.

We did have one little oopsy around Easter. The girls were out of school on Friday, we went out of town for the weekend – and then we looked up and some how had not worked out for 10 days! How does that happen?!? Anyway, we picked it back up where we left off… At the beginning of week 6, we decided to go ahead and move up to Level 3-4 – the cardio was getting easy to me and the sculpting for both of us…

Lets just say that Level 3-4 is way more intense! In a good way. The sculpting routine added more reps and more intensity especially with the push ups and lunges/squats. It also added an entirely new set at the end for smaller muscle isolation – forearms, calves, and upright rows. The cardio routine got way faster and added more sets of the exercises. We’re both dripping with sweat by the end. And abs went from 100 reps to 200! I’m feeling that one…

One of my favorite parts of the cardio work out is the power yoga in the beginning and also the kick boxing moves. I’m thinking of ordering the entire kick boxing workout at the end of this program.

Oh, and BTW, we’ve grown to LOVE the bands!

We were unsure at first, but they’re so easy to use and to store that we’ve bought several more levels of resistance. They take up very little space in the storage chest in the living room. Couldn’t do that with dumbbells! It’s also very easy to adjust your resistance on the fly – rather than having to change out dumbbells.

To date, both Dan and I have seen a dramatic increase in muscle tone, strength, and endurance. In the beginning, I could barely do 4 push ups on my knees – now I’m doing 20 and getting ready to do full push ups! yea! Dan’s challenge has been the cardio, but he’s actually starting to make some real progress.

The only side effect that we’ve seen from the program is that we’re both quite tired after the intense workout. I’m wondering if I was to quick to judge the supplements? I still don’t think it’s a good idea long term, but maybe a boost until you get into shape is not such a bad idea.

Having said that, we have decided to add a protein supplement to our post workout smoothie to see if helps to speed the recovery. BTW – I learned the difference between protein concentrate and protein isolate… In summary, Protein isolate is higher quality protein (the concentrate has more milk fats, etc – less pure), so make sure to read the labels when buying a protein supplement. We got the Nectar Sweets (Vanilla) – It’s really good but too sweet and uses artificial sweeteners. Next time, I’m going to try one without the added sweeteners…

Here’s the smoothie recipe, which by total accident happens to be (almost) perfectly balanced 40-30-30 (Carbs-Fat-Protein) Zone proportions rather than the normal60-30-10):

Banana Almond Smoothie

2 cups of rice milk (or regular milk)

3 frozen bananas

2 scoops of protein powder

2 tablespoons of almond butter

1 tablespoon of Udo’s 3-6-9 blend

Here’s the nutritional data for the smoothie. BTW – if you’re not using www.NutritionData.com to track your food intake, you should be. It’s the best tool I’ve found! You can track everything you eat and enter custom foods and recipes. It just rocks!

We have also added a Taurine supplement (500 mg) for added energy during and after the workout – Basically Red Bull without the drink – especially if you have it with a cup of tea to add a little caffeine.In case you’re not aware, Taurine is an amino sulfonic acid that occurs naturally in the human body. I did a lot of research and really didn’t find any negative side effects – other than drinking way to much and overdosing – similar to drinking too much coffee. It’s used to treat many different ailments from diabetes to high blood pressure. Many of which have not been proven – but why would the pharmeceutical companies recommend a $5 cure when they can recommend a $500 ‘management’ plan. Anyway, that’s another post all together… But isn’t it funny how all of the ‘natural’ remedies are ‘unproven’ and all of the ‘pharmaceutical’ rememdies are FDA approved? (points to ponder…)

The one BIG thing that has been frustrating to me is that I have not lost a single pound since the very beginning and one of my goals going into this was to lose 15 pounds. And compared to most people, I eat a very healthy diet – very little junk food or fast food, very little break or pasta, very few sweets, etc. So, you can see why this is a little frustrating to me. Dan thinks I worry too much about that and in some ways I agree with him, but I also obviously have plenty of body fat to lose… (left over from a few years ago when my diet was more typical American junk…)

In addition, in my attempt to reach my goal weight more quickly (and yes, I know I’m being impatient!),  I am also adding a fat burner energy supplement (I’m the one who drags the hardest after a workout). I’ve only been doing this for a few days, but have noticed a HUGE increase in my post workout energy with no negative side effects (like being jittery or not being able to sleep). So far, so good, but I will be paying close attention to my body because I’m quite sensitive to those things – any adverse feelings and I’ll stop. The one recommended to me was the Viper Fat-Burner. It’s definitely a stimulant and I’m not going to take it for more than a month, but I just feel that I needed something to get me through the initial intensity of the workouts and help me burn a few extra calories.

I’m also using nutrition data to keep a closer eye on what I’m eating over the next month… I do understand that it took me 10 years to get so out of shape and that I’m not going to get all the way back in 90 days! LOL

We’ll keep you posted on our progress and we’d love to hear your experiences with the P90 program and any supplements that you have had good results with… Leave a comment below.

Ok, well we successfully finished the first 2 weeks (of 13 weeks) of the P90 in home fitness bootcamp.

We took our before pictures and weighed in on the first day.

We chose not to take measurements.

My Goal For This 90 Days

My goal for this 90 days is to lose 15 pounds – 10 of those I’ve never quite been able to lose since having my two beautiful daughters and the bonus 5 pounds because that’s my ideal incredibly sexy body weight.

I can’t believe I’m going to share this in a public forum but here goes…

Current Weight: 140 lbs

Goal Weight: 125 lbs

That means that I need to lose about 5 pounds per month. Shouldn’t be too difficult – yeah right! – If it were that easy, I would have lost that first 10 pounds long ago. My biggest challenge will be eating consistently – I eat pretty healthy, but then I’ll go on a carb kick for a week and gain 5 pounds – yes, 5 pounds! Carbs are really bad for me personally so I really have to watch it. I don’t believe in dieting and do I believe we all have different body chemistry and eating requirements. Some people need a lot of carbs to feel good, others need meat, others feel best as vegetarians  - me, I need lots of vegetables and protein. I could never be a total vegetarian – especially when I’m working out, I literally crave protein!

So my eating goal for this 90 days is to create new eating habits, to retrain my mind to make healthy choices more often than not, and to allow myself 1 free day per week to satisfy those cravings that will inevitably show up…

The First Two Weeks

The first two weeks were really tough. I found muscles that I didn’t even know I had. But I survived and feel much better for it. I’m getting stronger every day! The workouts are getting easier and I’m able to complete more and more each day.

The P90 program basically alternates between two workouts (approximately 35 minutes each) - one day of weights/bands and one day of toning/cardio. I love the fact that these are short workouts that work every area of your body rather than a separate workout for each muscle group.

Also, there are two dvds – level 1-2 for beginners and then level 3-4 for more advanced excercises. I started with level 1-2 and lets just say that it was the right choice.

A Quick Note On Supplements

Oh, one more thing – they strongly recommend taking their special formula of supplements to increase metabolism and speed up recovery time.

I’ve never liked fitness supplements because I have no intentions of taking them for life and I feel that they will jack up my metabolism above normal so that when I stop taking the supplements, I will gain weight back and maybe even lose some muscle (even if I don’t eat differently).

Similar to certain diets that require a drastic change in what you eat – they all work short term, but then when you start eating normally (or stop taking the supplements), you typically gain the weight right back…

This is just my personal opinion, not based in any fact, but because they do recommend the supplements I wanted to be completely honest and tell that I’m not taking them.

Day 1 – The “Circuit” Workout

The “circuit” program consists of 3 set of different weight exercises – if you don’t have dumbbells, you can use bands – they demonstrate how to use either one. The grand irony is that when we moved in October, I sold a full set of dumbbells because I never used them! So for now I’m using bands – it’s a little awkward because the range of motion is not the same and the weight distribution gets more difficult toward the top of the exercise.

I really like this program because each set uses a different exercise to work chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps and leg. You work each muscle group in each set, but with a slightly different range of motion. I personally would get really bored if I had to do the same exercise 3 times – so with this one, I don’t get bored.

Oh, and I hope you like push ups! You’ll get to do them a lot with this program… I was really nervous about that at first because on day one – I could do exactly 3 push ups on my knees – not even full push ups! But I’m getting stronger every day – yea!!! Now, at the end of 2 weeks, I can do 8 reps (still on my knees) for three sets of each type of push up – regular, fly, and close in (can’t remember what they’re called).

Day 2 – The “Sweat” Workout

The “sweat” workout is a low impact, yet very effect cardio and toning workout. It’s not all about how fast you can go or how high you can get your heart rate. This workout can be as easy or as tough as you want to make it. It combines the best of power yoga, low impact aerobics, and even a little kick boxing. Once again, the workout is broken down into 3 segments – yoga (warm up), low impact aerobics (kneed lifts, jumping jacks, and ‘x’ work which you’ll have to watch the video to see), and kick boxing (controlled kicks and punches). I love the kick boxing – I was a huge fan of Tae Bo back in the day.

This workout helped me to realize just how out of shape I really am!!!

Something very few people know about me is that I was a fitness instructor (before kids ), so I’m thinking piece of cake – never mind the fact that I haven’t worked out seriously in more than 5 years… I was huffing and puffing before the first set was complete!

As with the “circuit”, this gets easier every day, but I do find that on low energy days, I have more trouble with this workout – not sure why – but I just lower the intensity on those days and keep going.

And Just When I Thought I Was Finished – The 100 Ab Ripper!

One very special little bonus on “sweat” days in the 100 Ab Ripper – and they mean it! It’s 10 reps of 10 different ab exercises. On day one, I couldn’t do half of them, but by the 3rd work out, I was starting to get the hang of it. I still have to modify the exercises where my legs are extended, but I’ll be there very soon…

Oh, and get this – the whole routine takes something like 4 minutes! No more excused not to do abs!

And Finally Day 7 – REST!

And on the 7th day there was rest! For the P90 program, you work out for 6 straight days and then rest for 1 day.

My Biggest Challenge

OK, I have a confession to make. In week one, I took a break mid-week. It was more of a scheduling conflict than anything else – I didn’t allow myself enough time in the morning to work out before going to an appointment and then the rest of day happened!

And about the middle of week two, I did the same thing again – sort of… It’s spring break for my kids, so I promised them that we would go on a long walk/scooter ride to Sonic for lunch (don’t get started – I know it’s not real food – besides, I only had a limeade!). Once again, I didn’t leave myself enough time to work out and by the time we got back I was too tired – did I mention that our walk to Sonic is 5 miles round trip. Given the long walk, I’m not sure if I really count this is a rest day but the fact remains that I skipped a workout…

My biggest challenge has been schedule – I learned from these two mistakes that I have to work out first thing in the morning before anything else gets in the way – otherwise I’m just setting myself up to fail. If you’re like me with kids, a very interactive boyfriend/business partner, and a business to run, it’s really easy to let your schedule control you!

I hold myself accountable for completing all 6 workouts in Week 3!

Stay tuned – I’m going to try to provide weekly updates going forward so that you can get a realistic idea of how this thing progresses from a real person – not a model or paid testimonial.

Is your tummy ready for the beach? Are your buns ready for a bikini?

Mine either! That’s why I just started this really cool work out program. I’ll tell you more about that in just a bit…

I’ve been looking all over for a 90 day fitness bootcamp to get ready for summer. I decided that this was the year that I’m going to get back in shape – finally! Know what I found? Every single fitness bootcamp in my area starts somewhere between 5:00 am and 6:00 am. I’m not even awake at that hour – much less ready to work out!

When we took a trip to Denver to hang out with some new friends of ours (Kasidie.com) – I couldn’t believe how great they looked! And how great their friends looked! I won’t name any names, but one incredibly hot guy that I met had pecs that felt as if they were made of granite! Dan had to pull me away… LOL

I asked myself if it’s something in the water in Denver? Do they all have personal trainers? What’s up?

So I asked and was very surprised to find out that they used the exact same workout to get in shape!

It’s Tony Horton’s Power 90 (lovingly referred to by it’s users as P90) – a 90 day IN HOME fitness boot camp. Now this is the basic model – if you’re already in shape, then there’s the P90X. From everyone I’ve spoken to, it’s just as awesome as the P90 program but much tougher!

I got so excited that I ordered it as soon as I got back to Dallas.

Stay tuned over the next 90 days to track our progress through the program. We’ll let you know if this program is everything it’s cracked up to be. (Yes, Dan and I are both doing it!)

Let us know if you’ve tried P90 or P90X and what you’re results were… Upload your before and after pics. Leave a Seesmic video comment. Or just leave a text comment telling us what you think.

BTW – The before pictures were very scary so we’re post them at the end – with the after pictures!

UPDATE: Here’s how it’s going: Power 90 (P90) – The First Week (And The Second Week)

We’ll be talking more about health and healthy eating on our new Personal Development site (Today Is That Day, which is officially launching in the coming week or so).

But in the meantime… As part of our “more” raw food plan for the first part of the year, we just purchased our first juicer, a.k.a. a “juice extractor”.

For our first ever juicer we went with the Breville JE95XL Two-Speed Juice Fountain Plus. After a bunch of research, this was the best value for a first juicer: good quality, fairly low cost for a good juicer. Here’s the new juicer beast – 13,000 (yes, thirteen thousand) RPM! Not to be messed with.

If a little plastic cramps your style and clashes with the Subzero and all the stainless steel in your kitchen, you can also get the stainless steel version for an extra $50 or so:  the Breville BJE510XL Ikon 900-Watt Variable-Speed Juice Extractor.

And if you have $500 absolutely positively burning a hole in your pocket, you may want to check out the “professional grade” Breville JE900 Juice Fountain Professional Juice Extractor.

Here’s a preview of the raw materials that go in, and how they end up looking on the way out… 

Yum! Breakfast AND lunch. 

 

 

 

And here’s what was left over from ALL THOSE oranges, bell peppers, tomatoes, and even kale…

   

In fact, we’re in a bit of a rush to head out this afternoon, but I have a serious fresh squeezed orange juice craving. Stand back, I’m firing up the juicer…