2 Days into Week 8

Reluctantly did Yoga X Monday morning. I still hate it, but am growing to tolerate it. It is hard. The human body can only do so many vinyasas. Had a hockey game last night. First 2 shifts were tough after not playing in 3 weeks. I could hardly breathe, but after that I felt really good. I had really good energy. Some of my teammates commented after the game that I had some jump in my step that had not been there for quite awhile. I did not notice it so much myself. But if those idiots give you a compliment either they are yanking your chain or in the rare instance being serious. Since I had not done anything to provoke a ball busting, I will take it as a compliment.

Woke up this morning and could barely move. I was sore from head to toe! I did get a welcome surprise. I weighed in and discovered I had lost a total of 8lbs. I have lost 5 in the last two weeks which means I am back on track. I have lost 3.5 inches in my chest, and 4 inches in the gut/waist! The belt is down 1 to 2 notches depending on the water retention.

The inches are falling. I can only explain the lack of weight loss to the continuous build up of muscle.

Back to today. I held off on the workout until lunch and then knocked out Core Synergistics. I was able to do the plank to chaturanga run to completion for the first time. That was my 8th time doing this workout, and I get better at it every time. I also sweat my ass off more each time.

Got my fingers crossed for a Salmon dinner tonight.

Kenpo X tomorrow.

Look for another update in a week.

7 Weeks Down, 6 to Go!

It has been awhile since my last post. Week 5 was mostly entirely vacation. It was a crazy Planes, Trains, and Automobiles trip. Flew to St. Louis spent the night. Amtraked it to Springfield Ill. Spent 2 nights in Clinton at Ashley's Grandparents. Drove to Dayton Ohio for 3 nights at my Dad's. Back to Clinton for a night and Amtrak to St. Louis for 2 nights.

You may ask how in the world did you exercise? Well.......................
Flew into St. Louis on Saturday, so I did Kenpo X in the Morning at home.
Sunday in St. Louis - Rest day
Monday and Tuesday: in Grandma Lois' Garage. Nothing like the smell of gasoline and grass while sucking wind, doing ab work with the lawn mower 6 inches from your nose in an uncirculated garage.
Wed, Thur, Fri: In Dad's basement. Had to rig something up to use the stretch bands for Back on Friday. It is not nearly the same intensity as the pull up bar. I feel like it actually set me back a week not having the bar.
Saturday in Lois' garage for Kenpo X
Sunday in St. Louis was rest, but got in a lot of walking around town sightseeing.
Monday - early flight home. I had my mind made up to skip Core that day. We unpacked, and I sat down in front of the tv around 3pm. I thought to myself, "Screw this! I committed to do this. I am going to work out!" So I did. That was probably the closest I came to skipping a day.

I was now into week 6. I had not weighed in since week 4. I weighed myself on Tuesday and found I had gained 3lbs. Needless to say I was pissed, and I mean real pissed. 6 weeks of busting my ASS and 3 total lbs to show for it. May have been one of my top 10 angry moments of all time.

After I calmed myself, I realized I have been on vacation for 10 days. Eating out and drinking everyday. I wrote it off to sodium/water retention and not the best diet.

Even though the weight loss is not what I would like, there are a LOT of positives:
I can see and feel the changes.
- I feel tighter. It is hard to explain but I don't feel flabby all over. There is a general tightness.
- My shoulders look 100% better than when I started. As much as I hate Yoga X, I can see drastic changes in my definition when I look in the mirror during that workout. I can honestly say I have ever see my neck to shoulder area that well defined. That may not be saying much, but I am more pleased with that than anything else.
- Ashley tells me my back is much more defined, and "I appear to be elongating". Not sure if that is a word. She also says my love handles have diminished. My belly is still there. EVERYONE that has done this says that is the last to go.
- I have never slept so good in my life!!

Some of the negatives:
- Obviously the weight loss for me is not where I would like, but then again my diet is not exactly the best.
- Soreness. I am sore every single day. Yesterday was really bad for the legs. I believe a lot of this is because I am doing the exercises "more correctly" than when I started. You unknowingly tend to cheat in the beginning, because you are not used to the workouts. That is the only way you can get through them. After your body adjusts, you are able to do it right and really work the muscles. I also think the "Muscle confusion" process they use keeps you sore. Your muscles never know what is coming next. All that along with the fact I am not 25 anymore!!

Week 8 starts tomorrow. It is the so called rest week, which is tougher to me than the the normal weeks. Yoga X bookends Kenpo X, Core Synergistics, X Stretch, and Cardio X.
I will take some measurements tomorrow and see how I am doing.