Workout at the Gym

I had an awesome workout today!  I took my book over to the gym at school and used their equipment for Arms and Shoulders.  It was great!  I only have up to 8 pound weights at home, so it was really nice to kick it up a notch at the gym.  I did ARX there as well and finished up with a 20 minute jog.  Love it!  It made me realize how much I miss working out at a gym sometimes.  I'm glad I have the option to do both!  I have two more weeks until my internship starts, and I have a feeling that I'll utilize hotel gyms here and there to do my workouts.  I think I workout a bit harder in public!  Like people actually care what I'm doing or something!

All in all, an excellent workout!  I burned over 1100 calories!  Woo hoo!  

Spending the weekend in NYC... be back next week!

The home stretch...

Today started off my 3rd week in Phase 3.  Craziness!  I've started doing the workouts almost exclusively without the DVD.  I just do enough reps to the point of exhaustion.  Sometimes I feel like I get too much break time in the videos now that I'm in better shape.  I'm considering taking the book with me to the gym even so I have access to better weights.  Mine are too light!  Today's triumph was a Dive Bomber Push Up I can be proud of!  I was actually doing it!  My how things have changed over the course of the program!  

I've also started logging my food more religiously today.  I had always been a user of myfooddiary.com, and I cancelled when I started grad school.  It's only $9 a month though, and I really feel like I need it.  It's great!  It even has a mobile app so I can log things from my Blackberry.  Fabulous!  If anyone is looking for a good food diary, I highly recommend it!

Yoga X - ahhhh

I just finished up Yoga X, and I'm so happy I did it!  I was definitely feeling blah today and a little bit contemplative, so yoga really was what I needed.  I'm much more flexible than when I started.  I absolutely love the Triangle Pose!  That feels amazing.  I could hold it forever.  The twisting version is another story!  I really concentrated on my breath today and tried to clear my thoughts.  So helpful when you're feeling a little off!  I just needed to focus inward and that's exactly what I did.  I'm definitely at a more calm place than I was when I started it.  Still in a contemplative mood... but it's not making me blah.  I'm quite relaxed!  

Now I have to get ready to go to the Penguins game.  I won a ticket from school, so I'll be sitting in our school box at Mellon Arena watching the game.  Fun!

Back and Biceps complete!

Just finished up back and bis.  I used bands for the biceps because my weights are too light right now.  Woo!  That was tough.  Sometimes I could only get in 12 reps.  I can definitely tell I was using bands for pullups over the last 2 weeks too.  The pullup bar was tough!  I also got in a 3 mile run (in 26 minutes!) today too.  Awesome!

Fitness Magazine Shout Out!

I was reading my Fitness magazine before bed last night, and what do I see but a shout out for P90X.  I love it!  They had a section of celebrity Tweets that were related to health and fitness.  Most of them were completely wrong, like John Mayer saying that almonds were mostly fat and suggesting they were bad for you.  Demi Moore however had a comment about how all she had done was YogaX and it kicked her ass!  I love it!  They also had commentary from experts, and the expert said that the workout is awesome and really works!  Of course though, they did mention that it's not for beginners.

Speaking of this not being for beginners, anyone else get interesting comments from people about the workouts?  I find that there are people out there who assume this must be easy or beginner because I'm doing it.  Before I started, I had a guy from school warn me not to do it because he couldn't make it through Ab Ripper X.  Ummmm, what makes you think I can't do this just because you're out of shape?  Or people who don't workout at all who say they're going to do it too and then you have to explain that this is not something you go into lightly.  That doesn't always go over well!  

Now I'm not saying that I'm this incredibly physical specimen or that I'm an amazing workout person.  I think I'm pretty normal, and I absolutely love working out, so this is something I can focus on and work through.  It's great!  I'm already getting excited for my round 2 this fall.  I'm going to get some heavier weights because mine are too light now for some of the exercises.  I think I'll really be able to focus and kick it up a notch the second time around!

Plyo and Abs

I just finished up Plyo and I actually did Abs today as well.  After jogging and doing the chest workout yesterday, I just didn't feel like doing the abs!  So now I'm a day off on those, but that's okay.  Plyo went well!  All the switch squat things are the hardest for me... I did really well with them today though!  Sometimes I sort of modify them because I need a bit of rest but today I was jumping as high as I could.  Fun!  

Abs on the other hand felt tough!  I'm happy when I feel it working, but it felt harder today.  Not sure why, but glad I did it!  Tomorrow I plan to get in a job before I do my other workout.  I'm hitting the home stretch here.... crazy!

Total cals burned today: 868!

Chest, Shoulders, Tris, etc.

I am officially back on the wagon... not that I had fallen completely off, but I made it through my workouts with the DVD today.  It felt great!  I had been using bands since I was away and I was back to my weights.  Much better for some of those moves!  I still love the pushup with one arm balance.  I'll never stop doing those!  I did 10 clap pushups today too.  Woo hoo!  I also made it out for a run with a friend... it was kind of tough!  Pittsburgh is uber-hilly and we went up a MONSTER.  While I have off work, I'm going to be a workout fiend!  And hopefully a cleaning fiend... ugh.  

I'm still here!

I just got back from vacation... was gone for almost 2 weeks!  The good news is that I worked out!  I brought my book with me so I did my workouts in the morning before we went out.  Some of the workouts are great via the book... I like doing the cardio ones that way.  Some of the others are not as great!  I was really missing my pullup bar too.  I'm definitely a little behind but still doing well.  I'm planning to take tomorrow as a rest day because I have a little bit of moving to do in the morning and then I'm driving back to PGH.  5 hour drive!  On Sunday I will pick up where I left off with the second week of Phase 3.  I have 4 weeks until I start my summer internship, so I plan to really work it!!!  Doubles and everything!

After I'm done, I am thinking of taking a break from indoor workouts and focusing on my running.  I have Slim in 6 so I'm going to use that on my off days.  I'll be traveling for work, so I need something portable to do in a hotel room.  Slim in 6 will be perfect!

I'll be a better X'er and Blogger from here on out!

Half Marathon!

I made through my half marathon today, and I'm really happy with the results!  Because of P90X, I have not been running at all.  I literally ran 4.5 miles a couple weeks ago, and that was it.  I've done a full marathon before though, and this was my fourth half.  The weather was actually perfect in Pittsburgh today for a long run.  It was in the 50s, and it ended up raining a little bit.  It kept me nice and cool the whole time.  My slowest half ever (when I even trained was around 2 h and 25 min).  Today I finished in 2 h and 26 min, and I even stopped on the course to use the bathroom which easily took up about 8 minutes.  My HRM claims I burned over 2500 calories!  I have to say that I think P90X had a lot to do with my ability to do this.  I think a lot of it is mental too.  

My fabulous friends came out to see me, so that was quite nice!  One of them even wrote my name in huge yellow letters on the road.  So cute!  I'm definitely going to run it again next year, but I plan to train.  My fastest time was 3 years ago or so and that was 2 h and 8 min.  I think I can beat that next year, especially if I keep X'ing!  Of course, I might want to try other beachbody workouts so we'll see what happens!