DAY NINETY TWO

Welcome to my free week!

I get to do whatever I want this week! Today, I am going to go for a walk. It's gorgeous weather. Why not?

I allowed myself to sleep in this morning after my busy weekend. But tomorrow, I'll be up bright and early to do a video or something. I can't lose my early morning superhero abilities. Especially not when I'm starting Turbo Jam next week!

DAY NINETY ONE

Wahoo!! The end!

Well, just like I suspected, the super busy day at my parent's place made doing any kind of working out difficult. It was B2X's birthday! And, we had two church services to go to. So, it was a jam-packed day.

It was appropriate that the last StretchyX day was spent as a rest day...

All in all...this was a great program. I really liked how it varied the focus from one area of the body to another with the blasts of cardio in between. But there are some things I would change... You have to do the ab video three times a week and yet there's only one video to choose from? Same with the cardio ones. They are the same all the way through - there is a cardio X video - but if you are sick at the start of the first rest week (like moi) you never get a chance to do it again... Seems odd that you only do that video once in 91 days.

I am really impressed at the amount of push-ups I can do now. How my legs have shrunk down. At my ability to tackle some of those moves that just made me stare in awe at the beginning. And of course, my ability to get up every morning just after 5 to fit my workouts in. I think that is one of my favourite "gifts" from this program. I would have never believed that I was a morning workout person if I wasn't forced to try it for 90 days.

I'm going to miss Tony and all of the other P90X kids in the videos. But, on June 1, I start Turbo Jam, where I'll "meet" a whole new group of BeachBody kids.

So, happy birthday B2X! I'm glad your birthday coincided with this big day. B1X, get all healed up so you can do P90X again with me next year sometime. Salz, I hope you made it through and were as impressed with your abilities as I am with mine! And for all you readers out there - thanks for checking in, following along and witnessing this X-formation.

Air-in-X

p.s. Since I'm not done my total transformation yet, I think I will maintain the blog. It will be awhile until I reach my goal, but hopefully we'll all find it rewarding in the end.

DAY NINETY

WOOT WOOT!!!!!!

Day ninety!!!

I did YogaX with B2X this morning. I am SO glad I did this video with him today. We were like 1/2 way through the vinyasa series and I was ready to stop. Not give up. Just take a break for a day or so... But we did it! And I'm REALLY glad I hung in there. I did the SHOULDER STANDS!!! I haven't been able to do them this whole time. It was super impressive. I am still impressed with my accomplishment.

And then, I did the best yoga belly 7 I could muster. It was the final dash to the finish line...

Yahoo!

The plan is... do Fountain of Youth tomorrow. It's a stretchyX or rest day tomorrow. We had planned all along to do FOY with B1X tele-connectedly (yes, completing 90 days of P90X DOES give you the power to create words). But with his broken back situation and our busy schedule, I think we're going to have to do it without him. We can't be the ones responsible for making his back worse...

DAY EIGHTY NINE

Feeling fine on day 89...

Got up this morning and did Core. Ah-yeah. Superman Banana all the way. There are some moves that I despise in this video. But there are also some that I love. I do not like Prison Cell Push-ups. So much so, I am going to try my absolute best NEVER to go to prison. And the Dreya Roll-ups. I wish. For some reason - either I don't have much trust in the whole rolling on to my back from a standing position, or it's my difficulty jumping back on to my feet after having my feet over my head... something in there just doesn't jive. But Dreya...way to go. You can definitely rock it.

Some of the moves I love... Superman banana, squat/shoulder press - when you raise your hands (with weights) above your head so you're in an X formation and the side hip raise/push up. I like those ones because I couldn't do them before. And now, I can keep up with all the kids in the video. I'm one of the cool kids now.

This is one of the videos I might do next week in my "free" week.

DAY EIGHTY EIGHT

It feels great to be at Day eighty eight!!

Today's workout was StretchyX. Now, as some of you keen readers may have noticed, I haven't done this workout much throughout the program, opting for the "rest" day instead of the stretch. But, this morning, going through the stretch video was very calming, soothing and a FANTASTIC start to the day. If my "stretchy X/rest" day fell on something other than Sunday, I probably would have done it more often, and really enjoyed it. Next time...?

All in all, today was a very busy day for me. I am SO glad that tomorrow is Core and not Yoga, which I was worried it would be. I don't think I could have handled a long workout, early morning AND a long day tomorrow. Phew!

Looking forward to some "Superman! Banana! Superman! Banana!"

DAY EIGHTY SEVEN

I am writing RIGHT after completing Kenpo this morning, because I just want to capture for you the level of energy I have right now... On the second last move, Tony (good ol' Tony) says, "I just got my second wind." I usually roll my eyes that it even matters that he has his second wind when we're two moves from the end... Well, I take back all of my eye rolling today. I got my second wind at the end of the workout today. I could do a huge, intense dance-off in my kitchen right now... If it weren't for the fact my sister and brother-in-law are still deep in sleep upstairs.

A couple of times I was losing my intensity, but then I'd remember that this is the last time I doing this in the program, and I'd dig deeper.

Kind of hard to believe that I am done KenpoX and PlyoX after doing them once a week the whole way through...But I believe it and I have to admit, I'm looking forward to new cardio.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

DAY EIGHTY SIX

This one is dedicated to B1X.

Months ago, B1X mentioned that a move in the Core Synergistix video really hurt his lower back, "steam engines." Both B2X and seemed to have no issues, but did pay attention to the exercise more closely to see if we did have any pain. Nothing. So, then his pain got worse. And finally he got in to see an English speaking specialist in Tokyo (very cool, and hard to get). Turns out, he's broken a pieces off a vertebrae. In the exact spot we twist from when doing "steam engines"... Of course it hurt!!! He was agitating the exact weak spot of his back. Poor guy!

The crazier part is - they don't even know how long he's had a "broken back"... Could have happened when he was young. This is the brother that has done everything - serious weight lifting, marathon running, football! He's just lucky it's not worse. Anyway, they're still investigating to see if his back will be able to heal with the help of a back brace. Otherwise he may be able to get surgery or he'll have to live with the pain for the rest of his life. Which, will hopefully subside if he stops playing tackle football and doing steam engines...

For me, the workout was good today. I was TIRED! After my big workout day yesterday I was in bed by 9:30 and my alarm still went off too early for me! I should be sleeping right now. Tomorrow is KenpoX again. I'm looking forward to it.

DAY EIGHTY FIVE

Are you paying attention??? DAY EIGHTY FIVE!!!

So, the other day, when I was chatting with B2X, I told him that I was hoping to get in YogaX yesterday instead of Stretchy (for those of you who haven't read yesterday's post, I didn't do either). I felt bad that I haven't done Yoga X in like three weeks because of time constraints. You can imagine my excitement when I saw that it was TODAY'S workout! On a long weekend! When I have plenty of time!

I am being honest here, I was excited.

I did the entire thing, well, minus the shoulder stands - which I attempted. It was good to go through the whole program again. I believe I'll have one more opportunity to do it this week.

In the afternoon, I had another tennis match - this time it was for real - not just rallying for fun. (I'm in a league, I have a division ranking to at least maintain, if not beat) Anyway, I decided that since it was beautiful out, I would ride my bike. I don't have exact kilometers, but it's more than 8. So, I rode to the tennis courts, 45 minutes. Then, I sat for 5 minutes, meeting my opponent (sizing up the competition - which was bad when she said, "I played against a woman yesterday, she was good, she returned almost every thing I threw at her." That wasn't an optimistic moment for me.) Anyway, we played for an hour - and it was intense. I did a lot of running and very little scoring. Then, since I was hungry and worried about the ride home, I got on my bike immediately and headed home. Another 45 minutes with the last bit up a VERY steep hill. Over 2.5 hours of very intense working out. But, at least it wasn't my "day of rest"... Suddenly that does seem restful!

DAY EIGHTY FOUR

As you know, I like to choose the "rest" option on my Sundays instead of StretchyX. It's never that I don't want to do StretchyX, I just love having a day when I don't have to plan around a workout. As you'll see from my recap of today, "rest" doesn't always mean rest, more like, a "rest" from videos.

Today, I met up with Mini-Mon (she doesn't even know this new nickname exists! I'm inspired by her new dark blue Mini), we went to play some tennis. Side note: It looked really pretty when I was getting dressed. And since it was still fairly early when I was leaving the burbs, I thought for SURE it would get warmer... I was FREEZING in my cute little tennis skirt! Anyway, we rallied for an hour, getting back into the swing of things. And then Mini-Mon recommended we go for a run. She wanted to get a run in anyway, so I figured, why not? I haven't run in well over a year, let's see what I've got in me... Well, apparently over 3 km of running in me... I was pretty impressed with both of us taking that on after an hour of tennis.

See, "day of rest" is just another day for me. ;)

DAY EIGHTY THREE

I got up a little early today (8:30 on a Saturday of a long weekend - and it was rainy) and did KenpoX.

Today I really challenged myself. I wanted to make sure I was holding tension in all of the areas that needed tension through the moves. I was definitely more aware this round and I know the tension paid off in the series of blocks at the end. I felt like the Karate Kid. Wax on. Wax off.

Afterwards, I called B2X and we discussed both of our KenpoX workouts. Not as much fun as doing Kenpo in the same room, but a close second. For him, this is the twilight of round 2! Wow. When I think I am getting bored of hearing Tony (good ol' Tony) shout out the same things, I think about B1X and B2X seeing all of these videos for almost six months... Way to go boys!

DAY EIGHTY TWO

This is it ladies and germs, the moment I've been waiting for... the last workout sheet. This morning I completed my last workout sheet and it felt awesome. I also finished my Recovery Drink (drink created by Beachbody that's awesome - for those of you who work out hard, go to Beachbody.com and order some through Blazingbrent, aka B1X. He'll hook you up) I love advertising. Ha!

Anyway, back to the workout... I didn't realize how many exercises in this video I'm happy to have a break from. It's not like I can't do sneaky lunges, I just don't like doing 24 of them... But I'm happy to take a break from them. I did pretty well through the entire "show", I made sure I was above all the numbers I tracked last time. And, just like B1X told me months ago - Tony DOES leave out a move at the end of the workout... I can't believe it took me until now to really notice!

See, still learning. Day eighty two and I'm still learning.

DAY EIGHTY ONE

May sweeps is killing me... All of these season finales are keeping me up until 11 or later and it's making my morning very difficult!

This morning it was even worse. There was a thunderstorm going on AND I didn't want to get out of bed... So, I gave in - slept in for about 45 minutes and then got up to do a quick 30 minute yoga video (with Bob from Biggest Loser). I rushed through the rest of my routine and was ALMOST on time for the bus. Until I opened the door and realized it was garbage day... You haven't forgotten that it's raining, right? It got worse as I got to work. By the time I was at work I was DRENCHED! And about two hours later - bright sunny day...

But the yoga - I have to say - it's pretty good stuff! A nice compact 30 minute workout that had me sweating. Don't worry, I promise that next week, for my last week, I will DEFINITELY do YogaX.

DAY EIGHTY

Today was an awesome day. At first I thought it was bad that I didn't get to do ab ripper x, but instead... I went to the ab class at work and afterwards I went to say hi to my former trainer, T. We're chit-chatting and she asked what I was doing after this and I said, I'm going to do Turbo Jam in June. And she said - I am doing Turbo Jam in June! She bought Turbo Jam off tv after seeing the infomercial and decided to try it over the summer! It was SO crazy cool. We're going to be workout buddies!

Although I'll miss working out with my brothers, I am VERY excited to have T on board!

DAY SEVENTY NINE

Jump! Jump!

For a couple of weeks, B2X has mentioned how Plyo has effected his knees as of late... and I experienced the same thing today with Plyo. My left knee was NOT happy. I didn't workout in the morning. Remember that grogginess I was expecting? Well, it hit me on Tuesday morning instead. I was SO tired. So, I slept in a bit and then did my workout after work. This meant that I had to workout in the living room - where it's all carpet. I thought that was going to be nicer on my knees because of the added cushioning, but, I think it hurt my knees more...

And, doing it after work made me SOOO tired! I was exhausted afterwards! Totally spent! Now I know why I work out in the mornings...

DAY SEVENTY EIGHT

The start of week 12...the second last week...

I was impressed at my ability to get up this morning! Normally after travelling for the weekend I'm groggy on Monday morning, but I was good to go!

It was the lots of push-ups day... For some of them, I was really strong - for other ones, it was really Monday morning... But - I have come a long way from the start when I did all of them from my knees!

This is my last weight-focused Monday... Next week it will be part of my "recovery" week with all of the non-weight workouts.

DAY SEVENTY SEVEN

Lucky 77...

Holy cow. 77. That's pretty awesome. Especially falling on a rest day... :)

Happy Mother's Day everyone - celebrate your mom! And your motherhood - if applicable.

DAY SEVENTY SIX

B2X - good times!

I was at home this weekend and had the pleasure of doing KenpoX with B2X.

I am still a little confused when I have to do back knuckles > front kick > back kick. But, I am getting really good at my kicks in general.

We were doing some jokes about Tony and crew. All of his repetitive comments and the little nuances between him and his teammates. It was fun to share this with someone who know the videos as well as me.

If you started watching the videos for 90 days straight, you would have enjoyed our "inside" jokes...

Actual DNA removal... See? You'd get that.

DAY SEVENTY FIVE

Sneaky lunges are going to kill me...

I still hate this move. I am almost done this round and I am done with this move. They are hard to do 30 times! However, I am sure they're part of my great results. But still... I am still doing modified pull-ups, but I can't imagine doing regular ones yet... I still have a lot of development to go through.

And, I did Ab Ripper X - but I had to skip a couple of my least favourite moves...due to time constraints.

DAY SEVENTY FOUR

Ommmmm.....

I did Fountain of Youth again instead of doing YogaX.

It was gooood times... I still can't get over how much I sweat through that 48 minutes... I love the flexibility I have gained. I can almost put my hands completely flat on the ground, pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

DAY SEVENTY THREE

The money muscles

This morning was all about biceps, shoulders, triceps. Good times. And - I got to complete another sheet!!! That's two sheets completely done! I haven't really been thinking about the end - but running out of weeks to track - what a huge milestone!

And - I've really improved since the start! I did a quick glance across at each exercise and there's a big difference from start to finish! I started using 3 or 5lb weights, then I moved to a blue resistance band, and then to the black resistance band - which is much tighter. There was a dip in the number of reps I could do when I first switched to the black band - but now I am above all the numbers.

At the end of the video, there are these tricep side raises. Tony makes a big deal about how many Dreya can do - and I did just as many as she did today!!! Yay!

I am supposed to be doing ab ripper x right now... however... my stomach hurts. So, I can't move myself to do it... I don't even know why it hurts... but I feel like puking... Oh... was it the watermelon I consumed an hour ago...?

DAY SEVENTY TWO

Lateral leap frog squats - everyone go!


It was plyo day today. Good times. Like all videos, there are some items that I totally rock - like lateral leap frog squats - and some items that I do SOOO poorly - like rock star hops. This is an issue. Seriously. How am I to become a rock star if I can't hop across the stage doing windmill strums and jump tucking my feet up to my butt...? These things keep me up at night.

Overall, I'm really impressed at how I've improved on most items. I'm a plyo machine!

At lunch, they were offering a "tester" Pilateez class. It was good to sample - and did make me think of all my ab ripper moves. Mostly it had me thinking about how weak my hip flexors are...

DAY SEVENTY ONE

Chest and back... the first workout sheet I've completed! I want to frame it.

I did over a hundred push-ups this morning and over a hundred modified pull-ups. Hello? That's freaking amazing! I was a little scared after I went all out in the first round... But I hung in there for the second round. I was SO proud of myself. 30 standard push-ups? Amazing.

I was running behind this morning, so I did ab ripper X after work. Another milestone! I only whimped out on the v-roll ups and didn't do this bonus Mason Twists. But otherwise, I did the WHOLE thing. Including reverse bicycle AND crunchy frog.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm bringing it.

(Weighed in this morning - no change. I'm a little surprised, after my steady -2lbs a week, but staying neutral for one week is totally fine by me!)

DAY SEVENTY

Can you feel it??? The Homestretch!??!

And the joy of having a day of rest... Today was really a day I should have done StretchyX... However, my day was full. I did enjoy a long walk through the park with a friend. So, I was active all day - I just didn't get the stretch in that my body wants... My muscles are feeling so strained today... At first I thought I'd mention which ones, but there's too many!

I'm heading to bed RIGHT now to have my body repair them!

DAY SIXTY NINE

Oh my poor legs...

I don't think my legs liked having just more than 13 hours between workouts... they are VERY sore right now. I hope they aren't worse tomorrow...

Kenpo was good this morning. I brought it and felt great about my energy and focus. It was a great workout.

I guess I don't have much to say about it today... I just want to go to sleep...

DAY SIXTY EIGHT

Oh my poor little calf muscles!

So my friend MQ has this theory. Both of us are a tad vertically challenged... and she believes that we both have such strong calf muscles because we go up on our toes far more often than those taller than us... That being said, it came as quite a shock today when I felt like I was on the verge of pulling my calf muscles during Legs & back today. I don't remember ever having issues in my calf muscles. Soreness, yes. Muscle spasm pain, no. I don't know what I did yesterday or today to really over exert them...

Regardless, I got through the entire workout - even all of the calf raises with your feet in three different positions (toes out, toes straight, toes in). And then I did ab ripper x. That workout STILL kills me. But, I am getting MUCH better at the toe touch one and can complete ins & outs, front bicycle, crunchy frog (although I almost die), cross-legged sit-ups, toe touches, hip rock and up, and I'm up to 30 Mason twists at the end.

Ladies and gentlemen, I know that for most of you that bears no meaning, but trust me, it's an incredible feat. Trust me!

Anyway, after my workout, I had a bath in Epsom salts to help out my calf muscles. I do not want to wake up at 3 am with a Charley Horse. Charlie Horse? Ah, Wikipedia to the rescue... Charley Horse