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.