The 90 Day Renovation

The P90X is a 90 Day Renovation for the hubby and I. There are no false expectations here, we are very well aware that the product is geared at already fit individuals who just want to go the extra mile to get toned. I have talked to my doctors prior to starting the program and the only caution they had was for me not to perform the exercises on the Plyometrics CD due to a high amount of jumping and it could cause stress on my back and joints. The interesting thing is of the three program schedules my husband and I opted to do the "Lean" and it does not call for us to use the Plyometerics CD.

 

Of the two of us, I am the one obvious that is less fit. There will be changes in our physic but I firmly believe the hubby's will be closer to the pictures advertising the P90X product. Me on the other hand, I just want down to single digits not looking to show off any beach body any time soon.

 

You usually hear the term "transformation" when you see pictures posted about individual who have taken control of their health and have re-sculptured their lives and in turn their bodies. I don't see the next 90 days as a transformation. I will be the same person, just some of the parts will be renovated. Lets face it, just because someone has become a smaller  or more toned person doesn't mean they are a different person. The world just sees them differently. If they are a good person they will always be one, and if they were an asshole before odds are they are still an asshole (I know a few of these).

 

By making the blog posts about my 5ks it kept me motivated so I am planning to do weekly updates to this post. Thank you to all our wonderful friends who are motivating us along the way!

 

 

Week 1

Day 1: Synergistics:

 Or should we say "get on the floor and flop like a fish" that what it felt like with most of the exercises. Lots of down on the floor and up and wow the exercises look simplistic but really they are not and I figured out real quick I have minimal muscles. everywhere. Some things I had seen before and do, others have seen but couldn't do but tried and then others I had not seen before was able to do them

Day 2:Cardio X:

First of all, would like to know when I rode out on a pose, because really felt like I had been riding a horse for hours. Hurting in muscles where I didn't realize there were muscles. But I was not alone in my discomfort. Hubby was just as sore.

 

CardioX; the warm up exercises (which consisted of some Yoga) was a bit more difficult than the. Banana roll hurt my port so I need to roll the other way

Day 3: Shoulders & Arms + Ab Ripper X:

 

 Not as stiff as I thought i would be but still a bit sore. Left thigh most of all but by mid day was just to the basic aches of a work out

Arms& shoulders & Ab Ripper

We did the arm and shoulder exercises first using bands. Focused more on getting the forms, next cycle I will need to go up on band tension

Ab Ripper: no kidding. wow I knew my ab muscles were severely lacking but didn't realize how much of a hole I have dug myself into. I couldn't do one sit up! I was literally in tears. ONE sit up! Just makes me angry. Not the type of angry where I am going to quit because I cant do it, angry that I will be able to do sit ups .

 

Day 4: Yoga:

 Arms and from of shoulders ache a little. But other than that feel fine OK with the exception of the aches on inner thigh.

 

Yoga, an hour and half! We were puddles of sweat within ten (10) minutes. What a workout, even though it was low impact it was one of the hardest workouts. I am just not flexible enough (yet) to do or hold a lot of the poses. The most difficult part was doing the transitions between the poses. They make it look so fluid. So twelve more weeks to work on it.

 

Day 5: Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X

 

We really could only do the legs part of the first CD because we didn't have a proper way to rig up the use of the bands and pull up bar upstairs. Good news on the Ab RipperX, was actually able to do some sit ups. Not sure what made today different than two days ago. But I will take a few over none!

 

Day 6: Kenpo X

 

For the most part felt pretty good. Legs were sore, exceptionally the calves. Going to have some great muscle tone in a few months. Then again isn't that the idea?

Now kenpo. Yeah not a fan of it at the moment. I was OK with doing the punching and kicking motions individually but combined multiple styles of each, yeah not so great at it. And the hubby tried to show me how. It was a good thing he was a few inches out of reach because as frustrated as I was there would not have been "mock" punches. Worst part was once I thought I had the rhythm down I would see him out of the corner of my eye and we were out of sync and it would just mess me up further. Well I have twelve more weeks to get it down.

 

Day 7: REST

 

Oh good lord! I feel like I was in a real fight yesterday. My whole body hurts. I am not the only one hurting, the hubby got out of bed and he did more than a little groan and cursing. Once we got moving for the day the soreness and stiffness subsided.

 

We survived the first week! Truly an amazing workout week. The hubby usually has pretty bad back pain through out the week stated that his normal back and shoulders pains had subsided by day 3 or 4 of the work out. He has amazing determination during the work outs. I can only do about 80% of most of the work outs but I am trying to do them and I know that eventually I will be doing the whole work out.

 

Eleven weeks to go!

 

 

 Week 2

 

 Due to the plague that has hit the household Week 2 has been delayed.........

 

2013...What Resolution? P90X, Why Not?

I met my goal for 2012 now what?  I am really not where I want to be weight wise it is time for another challenge/goal. Since my husband completed my 5K challenges with me why not continue his torment into the new year? He claims he has found some of the pounds I lost. Lets me honest, I didn't  lose them, I got RID of them. When you say you lost something it implies you want it back. Nope. No Thank You!

Last year the hubby made it a point to say that the 5K challenge was my goal. Even though he did all twelve with me. This year the focus is on "our" goal. In the last few years, like myself, his medical aliments have increased: High cholesterol, sleep apnea, back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain and his knees and ankles. These aliments are due to lifestyle, military and sports injuries and the extra weight is only making it worse as he gets older. I have never really been a fit, but he was extremely fit. He was very active when he was growing up and early in is military career.

Now as we have aged and bad habits have accumulated he is starting to suffer the consequences. I know he would like to be able to do the water sports and other activities he did when he was younger, at first I was the deterrent because I was not fit enough to do them and I was the catalyse to his fitness downfall. Time for me to be the catalyse to him being fit again.

What could will the 2013 challenge be? Why not P90X? Since we see all the cheesy infomercials with showing before and after pictures we did them...awww you wont be seeing them for a while. They are quite scary! Down 50 some pounds and I am still a pile of flub. Eww. The hubby? He has a body of a god, granted at this point it's Buddha. Yes rubbing it for luck. Funny thing is if he called me that he would get a black eye among other things. I love him no matter what he looks like, but like me getting a little more fit will help with some if not all of our ailments.

P90X is intense we realize that but we also know the limits of our bodies. The first 12 weeks will be low-key,  then we reboot again in 13 weeks and do the program as its designed. Looking over the suggested menu plans they are very similar to what I am already doing so that part will be fairly simple to follow.

We also did our measurements, here they are:

Him:

Neck: 17.5 inches
Waist:40
Belly:43
Thigh: 24
Chest 42
Biceps: 15


Me
Neck: 16
Waist: 47
Base hips/belly: 52
Chest: 52
Thigh: 27
Biceps: 14.5

It's bad enough posting measurements I really can't upload the pictures. I know I have come a long way, being down 50 some pounds, but the journey is not over yet. I have almost 100 pounds to go but at least I know I am not doing it alone.

DID IT!! Twelve 5Ks in 2012

"I am going to do Twelve 5ks in 2012" OK I admit it my co-worker and dear friend kind of looked at me as if I really needed to be medicated. I had made this announcement at the end of 2011. Funny I can't remember if it was before or after my bariatric surgery. I emailed my husband and told him the plan, the response. OK. I know what was going through his mind. "Yeah right. Another of her great "ideas" but like so many others she won’t follow through".

On January 1, 2012 just three weeks after my bariatric surgery I participated in the first 5K. In addition to my husband four friends were also participated to support me. Motivational is an understatement. I mean to realize that you have set this goal for yourself and others are there too. Well it was great gesture and I wish they had completed all the 5Ks with me. But life takes us down unexpected paths. Along the way I lost motivation, but I found it again.

Don't get me wrong. I will always remember those awesome people for being there when my journey began, and a few ran additional 5Ks with me. I really do understand that things change. But what is amazing, my husband participated in everyone with me. A few I knew he didn’t want to, but he kept saying “I will not be the reason you didn't reach your goal."

Your goal...he never said Our Goal. It made it all about me. What you need to understand the significant of this. In the twenty years of marriage, this may have been one of the hardest for him, but he was always by my side for the 5Ks. No matter how angry he was at me or vice a versa. He always said he supported me with things over the years, but it was the little things that tore down that support. He is not a saint, nor am I by any means, But in 2012 he showed his support for his wife on her insanity quest of completing twelve 5Ks over the year. Not sure there are many men that would do that for their wives.
Now that my husband has been placed on the pedestal, I need to reflect on the other people. The runners and walkers we encountered over the past year.

To say I was intimidated by the 5K athletes is an understatement, it was unneeded. What an amazing array of people. Yes there were the fit competitive runners but there were more of the middle of the road athletes. They were amazingly supportive and positive. The whole year I can only remember one negative incident and it was not aimed at me.

The incident happened during one of the 5Ks in the Fall (when I regained my motivation). A family was running, the “father” was goading his son as we came up a hill. “Come on keep running don’t you dare stop. Are you a quitter, not my son? Don’t you dare quit, all the fat people will out run of you. You should be ashamed of yourself”.  Wow really? The boy was maybe eleven years old. You could see the agony on his face and the blood running down his knee from a fall. You could also see the mother and younger sister’s painful expression of embarrassment. The mother took her son to the side and dabbed her son’s bloody knee with her shirt.  We didn’t hear the rest, but the father soon passed us in a gust of furry. A few minutes later the boy, his sister and mother passed us. He could be proud that at least this fat person didn’t pass him.  As I stated, this was the only negative incident we encountered. OK other than the 10 people who cheated in one race when they didn’t do a final mile loop.

It was amazing to see how supportive people were and how others accomplishing goals alongside us. Such as the woman who ran her first 5K on New Year’s Eve. She ran the whole thing, didn’t walk once and her sister was alongside her the whole way cheering her on. No matter the race you would hear jovial comments and encouragement.  “Almost done” “You’re doing great”  “Keep going” . Perfect strangers becoming your personal cheerleaders, not something you would expect.  It was a key reminder that you were not doing it alone.
Of the twelve…ok thirteen races; there were a handful we would not d again if we had a choice. The ones we will do again: The Color Run (so much fun), the Breast Cancer fundraisers (great cause that is very personal for us) and the theme races like the Jingle Bell run.
Before each race I would tell my husband “We are only going to walk this”. Never walked a full 5K, we always ran at the beginning and finished running, depending on the race we ran/walked at various points in between. It’s a bit frustrating that I didn’t run a full 5K yet. If I had not lost my motivation for 6 months I think it would have been easily accomplished. But the goal I set out was to participate in twelve 5Ks and I did that as well as an extra tacked on at the end. I am pretty sure more are in the future and this time next year I should be writing about finally running a whole 5K (or more).

I know this, I didn’t do it alone. Not only was my husband by my side during each race. But there was tremendous support from my fellow racers. I cannot forget the wonderful friends that have blessed my life. I would have faltered again and again. But knowing so many people we supporting me and sending words of encouragement it was the little push I needed to keep going. At some points the encouragements were not just a push, they dragged me to the races. In an odd way it kept me accountable.  I thank you all.

And with parting words let’s not forget: I SURVIVED TWELVE 5KS IN 2O12!!

“Encouragement from any source is like a drop of rain upon a parched desert. Thanks to all the many others who rained on me when I needed it, and even when I foolishly thought I didn't. (Acknowledgements in The P.U.R.E.)” ― Claire Gillian