Just hit a huge motivator today, I weighed in at 200lbs.

That also means I lost 3lbs in the first 8 days of P90X (on my own diet).

 

Keep in mind your body can fluctuate by a few lbs. Weigh in during the Mornings before anything is ingested every week =D.
And this is P90X. Take your picture every other week too =)

 

For me, adding more things to my schedule is definitely NOT the key. Just the way my life works I guess. My wife and I eat pretty well, we have a basic rule of doing as much preparation of raw materials ourselves. We eat hardly any packaged foods (a couple cold cereals, Columbus roasted turkey, Tillamook cheese, Philly cream cheese, Mountain High plain yogurt, Adam's peanut butter and the occasional Nature's Valley bar) and do not even own a microwave. My wife makes bread on the weekends and lunches for me which is pretty sweet. My lunch today: Turkey Sandwich (turkey, tomato, lettuce, pickle, with a light spread of cream cheese on the bread instead of mayo), 3 oranges, a banana, and a sack of sliced raw veggies (carrots, red, yellow and orange peppers, cherry tomatos). For breakfast I had a smoothie made with frozen fruit from Trader Joe's (mango, papaya, berries, bananas and some yogurt) and a piece of toast. Probably have a pint of ale for dinner.

I have not weighed myself in several years because... It really doesn't matter. How I look, feel and more importantly how I feel after exercise are what matters. When I was in high school I weighed around 160lbs and was my same height today - 6ft. I wore 30/34 trousers and such. Now it's more like 34/34 when I am at my best - our bodies change. When I lived in England I got fat and weighed around 210 or so. I joined a gym, worked out - lifting and cardio - for about a year and was the best I ever was for the most part except when I lived in Hawaii in '05 and worked construction. I settled around 190-195 or so and like I said have not weighed myself since.

Earlier this year I got back into mountain biking - mostly because I could. I have been doing IT work for years which kicks any kind of schedule in the face. MTB was out for the last few years since most of the places I like to go do not have cel signal. So, last year I started to get stagnant again, and picked up my bike. Hit the trails hard and felt good again. Now, back to maintaining which for me personally is doing my best to eat right and good, get a little excercise along the lines of regular life (ie, walk instead of drive, take the stairs, etc) and I do Bikram Yoga 2x a week which is like yoga, but longer and in a sauna. I do this mostly because I am getting older, and things hurt if I don't. I have some back problems and always feel sore - if I do this, I feel great and have sooooooo much more energy in every aspect of my life.

So that is what works for me - but I realize this probably wouldn't work for most people. I do not know why, but I do not need much food to run. If I eat with my co-workers for a week, I feel like absolute CRAP, have constant digestive issues, am noticably fatter and damn that's expensive every day. What REALLY gets me is the people that have a personal trainer, go to the gym religiously and do not change what they eat. I know people like this, in fact there is one in my family. This guy must get 10x the exercise I do, yet he still clocks in over 300lbs. There is no possible way I could finish ONE of the plates he makes for himself at family shindigs...

I realize this is not some fitness program that you can go buy, but I put it up here to contrast those sorts of things.

All that said, I have heard great things about P90X and I would like to see if I could do the fitness test where I am at now.

 

13 days down, only 77 days left!

Hope you all are still pushing towards your goals.

 

Weighed in on the same scale. Last time it said 165, now I'm at 160. I think I went over 165... as I didn't weigh myself for a while after 165 and I believe I gained a few lbs. Overall, I think i lost 5-7lbs, which is pretty exciting in 3 weeks. I'm not as big so I won't be droppin' things like 3lbs in a week! However, I'm hitting the recovery week of the first phase, can't wait to start my next phase! (especially because the diet allows for 2 sets of carbs!). Plus I do different routines...

Ab ripper X still pwns me, especially the scissors and v-pulse ups. I can pretty much most of the other routines, but I still struggle with the pullups. Anywho, great program, just keep going as much as you can! GL with abripperx right after legs... (just destroyed your legs, and your legs are apart of your core... talk about ouch!)

What are your meals for veggies? Sucks to eat 3 small salads, or 2 big salads a day? So far it's only been chicken salad for me. Chicken everything in fact. Salads get boring though =P, any suggestions?

 

Ab X on legs & back fricken sucks!

As for the veggies, I don't go with the prescribed diet plan. I'll incorporate carrots or celery into my snacks/lunch and steamed veggies with dinners. Occasionally I'll have a chicken salad as a meal. Sometimes I only manage to get one serving of veggies in a day, sometimes three. That's why I take my supplements to help out (multi-vitamins, green tea extract, fish oil).

My diet is far from perfect, but I've also averaged over 1 lb lost per week for the last 15 weeks and I rarely "crash" during a workout. It seems to be working for me so far.

 

I weighed myself after finishing my 4th week (1st phase recovery) and I'm 155lbs!! That's insane, I lost over 10lbs in 4 weeks?! I actually notice myself lookin' different in the mirror! Pretty psych'ed out and shocked of the amount of weight I lost, especially over the 4th week!

 

Honestly i've gotten lazy since i came back from bct. But when I do exercise I do pushups and situps till musscle failure then the next day run a couple miles. I alternate days with upper body then lower body.

 

If you don't mind, I'd like to make a few suggestions to your routine:

Push ups are a great upper body workout, but there are some other simple workouts you can do to incorporate a wider range of muscles. For quick upper and lower body workouts, I would do something like this:

Upper Body

Stretch

Round 1:
Standard push ups (pause 1 second at top and 2 second at bottom, 30 total)
Dips (just use a chair and kick your legs out, 20 total)
Switch Grip Pull Ups (Palms out for 2, palms in for 2, repeat until failure)

Round 2:
"Wide-Tri-Die" Push Ups - (7 wide @ round 1 pace, 7 close in @ round 1 pace, then standard push ups normal speed till failure)
Single Leg Dips - (just use a chair and kick your legs out keeping one in the air, till failure)
Pull Ups - (whatever form you prefer till failure)

Stretch



Lower Body

Stretch

Round 1:
Squats - (30 squats, feet shoulder width, keep back heels on the floor and chest up)
Lunges - (12 lunges [2 forward then 2 back] *don't let knee go beyond the ankle*)
Calf Raise - (30 calf raises feet parallel and at shoulder width)

Round 2:
Lunge/Squats - (first lunge, bring fee together and 5 squats, then lunge again, turn and repeat 10 times)
Single Leg Calf Raises - (15 slow, 10 fast, repeat for other leg, total of 25 each leg)

Stretch



Abs *no more than 3 times a week*
Leg Raises - (lift feet 6" from the ground, raise to 45dg angle, repeat for total of 20)
Toe reaches - (lay on back with straight legs and arms to the ceiling, reach for toes keeping legs straight for a total of 20)
Standard Crunches - (total of 30)
Mason Twist - (sit up, legs off the ground and hands clasping each other, hit floor on your right side with clasped hands then your left side for 1 rep, repeat for total of 30 reps)



Cardio

Stretch

Your choice of exercise, just keep your heart rate up for at least 20 minutes

Stretch


That hits most of the major muscle groups with no weights and does it quickly. Plus you have a day of upper body, lower body, core, and cardio.

Hope you don't mind the critique. Let me know what you think. Feel free to change it around to your liking. I just threw together the very core parts of what I've been doing for the last 4 months into a really condensed workout.

 

I'm halfway through the program, 6 weeks in, halfway through the 2nd phase. I noticed I'm sitting around 155 and not losing anymore. I think on weeks 8-12 I might try doubles and see how that works... (doubles on weeks 8-12 is doing Cardio X in the morning on an empty stomach, then doing the other workouts later in the day). This routine is estimated at another 600 calories burned. So I'm hopin' for more fat to be burned off. I think I'm optimal around 140-145.

Chest days are still difficult (more than I could imagine) but because of all that yoga, my shoulders are getting stronger and I can push out a lot more military pushups. The slow downs and ups on pushups are insanely difficult, even for pushup veterans! Then the slow pushups + fast pushups = killer!

Back days I still suck at, I still do assist pullups, but I'm close to doing a full pull up. Right now I still do negatives (jump up, hold my chin over the bar for a couple of seconds, slowly let myself down).

Good on Plyo (gasping for air in the final couple of reps), YogaX (still workin on some of those balance postures.. and that 3 part touch the sky is like wtf?!?) , KenpoX. I can do the ab ripper full out, just gotta work on the form now (straightening the legs kills the quads like no other!).

I think I'm going to lighten my weights and work on getting the 100% proper form down. Remember, it's that extra isometric hold/pinch at the peak of contraction that really gets it down... ie doing curls, you really want that weight all the way to the top and flex hold for a couple of seconds.

Anyone know how to cook chicken good? Do you recommend throwing any veggies? Like broccoli or something onto the frying pan before/after the chicken is cooked? Eating chicken salads are boring. I want to throw some chicken/veggies onto some rice.

 

Just remember the P90X program is designed to have you peak on day 90. So your body could still be adjusting to the second phase routine and diet.

BTW, how long were you sore in your biceps after your first Back & Bicep day? I did that one on Thursday and I can still feel it when I straighten my arms out all the way. That routine is nuts!

 

I just realized I'm 6 lbs lighter than the weight I posted a month ago in this thread. PROGRESS!

 

^^Holland, you look really good. So da skinny lol.. I'm jealous.. seriousllyy... You lost a lot of weight though. Good job & keep up the good work

My goal is to lose 70lbs. I'm at 190lb right now and i've always wanted to get down to 120lb. I've had a lot of difficulty losing weight. I've never been that weight.. I've always been considered overweight. The lightest I have ever been was 150lb. my senior year in highschool and that's when I weighed my heaviest (180lb). After I noticed I racked on a lot of weight, I decided to go on a diet but of course after highschool I gained it all back and then some..

I've been going to the gym 2-3 times a week whenever I can.. I go to the 24 Hour Fitness on Jacklin in Milpitas (if anyone else goes there). I've been trying to do mainly cardio since I have to drop the lbs first before I can do anything else.

I've also been trying to manage what I'm eating but it's really difficult for me. I need more will power. But, I know I definitely need to not eat out all the time. Maybe 1 cheat day out of a week but I swear, it's hard..

I need a gym buddy to help keep me motivated lol

Well, wish me luck! Hopefully by the end of next month I'll start to see some progress?

 

^^^

The important thing is to keep trying. If you put in the effort, you'll get the results you want.

Eat several small meals a day, mostly plants. When you do eat meat, keep the portions small and stick to white meats or cold water fish.

Avoid processed foods. They are packed with sodium, sugar, and fats. Turns out, those are the 3 things we crave the most, but they aren't common in natural foods. That's what is keeping America fat. Read the labels.

Also, balance out your cardio with resistance training (weight lifting). Muscles burn calories. More muscles = more calories being burned. Don't be afraid to try new exercises. Continually changing your routine is good.

 

Abs *no more than 3 times a week*
Leg Raises - (lift feet 6" from the ground, raise to 45dg angle, repeat for total of 20)
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Y do you say this, I am just curious. I was always told you have to do abs everyday, because those muscles take much longer to build and can handle it.

I workout a lot (almost everyday for the past 5 years or so) and other then my gut i am in good shape (I also run 5miles a day) but unless i count every calorie I eat I still cant shake the belly so I was thinking maybe you might have a better insight to this that i can try.