Woot Phase II Begins!

If you’re wondering what happened to Day 28, it’s a Recovery & Mobility day… lots of foam rolling so there’s nothing exciting to report. I took a couple of extra rest days before starting Phase II because of wrist issues. My core wasn’t as strong as it needed to be when I started P90X2, so many of the balance moves put more pressure on my wrists than normally would. Instead of modifying to keep my wrists safe, I pushed myself and ended up with some wrist pain. Nothing major, but I listened to my body this time and took the couple of recovery days that I needed.

I still had a tiny bit of wrist pain going into today’s workout, so I modified quite a bit just to be safe, to give my wrists just a little bit more healing time. I also didn’t have a pullup bar yet (yes, yes I know… bad!) so I had to modify the pullups as well as the pushups. That being said, I can’t pretend I’d have been able to do the pullups WITH the bar lol … when I say CRAZY pullups, I mean CRAAAAZY pullups!

Lever Pullup .... WTF right?! Bananas.

I’m so happy to be into Phase II already. It’s going so fast, and I feel SO strong. Getting there… getting there

Today’s “Surprised My Own Damn Self”:

Elevated Stability Ball Pushups - I cannot believe I was able to do 5 of these! I didn’t have as much depth in my pushups as I’d like, but I kept my balance (promise you it’s not as easy as it looks) and was able to pull off 5!

Elevated Stability Ball Pushup

Today’s “There’s No Way” :

Chattarocker - Uuuuuuh, hmmmmm, ok! I couldn’t even do one of these properly. I laughed at myself the whole time, can’t even try to describe what these devilish little things are, and pictures can’t possibly do it justice. My goal is to do at least 3 REAL reps, (without flopping on the floor like a fish) before I move on to Phase III.

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YAY! Today was my final workout day of Phase I: Foundation! I feel SO much stronger than I did when I started. I can’t believe (actually I can because Beachbody programs just give you phenomenal results) how much I’ve improved in every single exercise, every single routine. Today was bittersweet because I did have to modify some of the moves because my wrist is still hurting (less), so I didn’t exactly get to go out in the blaze of glory that I wanted to, but wow… I’ve improved so much it’s hard to be disappointed. So I won’t be!

Biggest Improvement Today:

Forearm Alternating Side Plank AND Crawly Crab Press - It was so hard to just pick one, so I chose two! I always keep notes about my workouts, each week, so I can look back and see my improvements. I literally could not do ONE of either of these moves in good form during Week 1. They were both so hard that I wrote about each one, and I was angry! lol … Today, I did both exercises, in perfect form, right along with Tony & the team.  I feel proud… proud and motivated for Phase II woot!

Forearm Alternate Side Plank - Crawly Crab Press

Today’s “I hate this stupid exercise!” :

Decline Sphinx Plank Press - Yes… it IS as hard as it sounds! I started off in Week 1 not being able to do this exercise at all. I could think about it, but not actually move in the exercise. Today I was able to do 3, and by 3 I mean really, REALLY horrible reps. My wrist pain did not help, but I can’t pretend I would have made it to 4 with perfect wrists. You begin the exercise in the position shown in the picture below, then you raise yourself into a plank position from there… and repeat. HARD!

Decline Sphinx Plank Press

Below are my personal measurement results. I was late on recording them after I started, so they’re not my actual 30 whole days results; those would have been quite a bit better. I’m so looking forward to my Recovery & Mobility day, and I can’t wait to see what surprises & challenges Phase II holds. Bring it!!

P90X2 End of Phase I Results

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I’m keeping all my friends on Facebook up to date on my weight loss progress. Embarrassing yes? No way I don’t mind at all! One of the reasons I post my progress is because I give up on things so quickly, even if they’re working for me. So this way, ppl will go “so hows that weight loss coming along?” and if I have to say I gave up lol really embarrassing and a personal letdown, so it keeps me going

I’ve honestly tried just about everything to lose weight for years now: diet pills, eating really tiny amounts, downright almost starving myself… I guess everything except dieting and exercise because I just wanted the easy fix you know? Ugh I hate exercise about as much as I love good food. And trust me…. that’s a LOT.

I did finally reach a breaking point though, and for the past (almost) two months I’ve been trying to lose weight the RIGHT way for once, and it’s working. I do watch what I eat and exercise. I guess it’s not so much a diet as it is eating what I’m supposed to, not a bunch of junk. I eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks all that… I just eat different things.

I found this free site called www.livestrong.com and I really and truly appreciate it SO much. I added in my height, my weight, how many pounds I want to lose a week (up to 2 because anything else, we both know is unhealthy), and it tells me how many calories I can consume a day to reach that goal. You can track everything you eat and it tells you exactly how many calories, fat, protein etc is in it, so its super easy to keep track of. I personally never learned to do this so at first it was like “Holy crap! There’s that many calories in what I eat?!” LOL But I’m slowly learning healthier foods and habits and I can’t thank that creators of LiveStrong.com enough, I really cant.

I never really exercised before either. I’m tethered to this box (my lovely PC) all day long. I’ve been wanting to try Yoga, so I looked up on LiveStrong to find the best yoga routine to lose weight. Everyone highly recommended Jillian Michael’s Yoga Meltdown DVD so I found it on amazon and read all the customer reviews. It seemed like most were happy with it so I thought what the heck can’t hurt to try. It’s what I do almost every day, and oh my god was it was HARD at first. But my muscles are getting stronger, my fat is coming off, so it keeps me proud and moving along the trail ya know?

If you want to check it out you can read the reviews and stuff here: Jillian Michael’s Yoga Meltdown

And if you DO join livestrong even to check it out or whatever, please add me as a friend (winterperkins is my screenname), and you can see my whole page, my daily foods my exercise everything

I’ve lost about 16 lbs so far and still have hmm probably 50+ to go. But I can see feel the changes in my body inside and out, and I’m not giving up this time!! Wish me luck, and if you have any questions, please let me know.

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