Happy New Decade, P90X'ers and Wannabees!! Also, I'm Nude.

2009 was an interesting year, to say the least.  I welcome all my usual new New Year's traffic.  I direct those of you who are new to the site here and then here first to get an idea of what I'm all about.  Oh, also here.

Let this be the year you make good on your promises to yourselves to get in shape and start living a healthier lifestyle.  It's really worth every second of the pain and sacrifice (I make it sound so nice, don't I?).  So don't be afraid to take a measly 3 months out of your entire lives and eat clean and workout.  Just 90 tiny little days.  Worried about your friends giving you grief when you pass on the beer and wings?  Just nonchalantly inform them you are "on a program" (keep a good attitude about it and you just might get some allies).  90 days.  12 weeks.  3 months.  It goes by so fast and at the end of it you are a different person.  Isn't it worth trying that just once in your life?  You might be surprised at what other things improve in your life when you improve your health.  I'm just saying. 

Give it a shot.

In other news, I was looking at myself in my living room mirrors naked this morning, and I have to say I'm rather pleased.

Looking back over my training log from December, I weighed 177 on 12/17/09.  Today, 01/06/10, I weighed in at 184.  I know I gained some weight from xmas indulgence, but 7 pounds?  I guess it's possible.  And I took a week off from lifting Christmas to New Year's Eve so my muscles were able to fully recover and grow.

Anyway, I decided to really take a look and see if I can notice any gains.  Nudity required.

Sure enough, I was looking at my quads, glutes, and hams in the mirror and dudes, there's some size and definition there that definitely wasn't there in October, especially in my already fine ass.  Also, my arms are getting bigger.  Nothing huge, but I can definitely tell I'm filling out.  Yeah, there's some extra fat in the spare tire area, but not much.  How much of that 7 pounds is fat and how much is lean muscle?  I really have no idea, but it's definitely not all fat (or all muscle for that matter).

My long-term question is, of course, what will happen next time I do P90X?

I started P90 at 190 pounds.  I ended P90X 6 months later at 164 and a nice 6 pack.  I'm almost back up to where I was before weight-wise, but I'm definitely not chubby like I was.  I can still see 4 of my 6 abs and my face isn't all doughy and round like it was.  My arms and legs are hard, too, not flabby like they used to be back then when I started P90.  My guess is, and this is purely guessing, that if I got P90X lean today, I would weigh somewhere in the 169 to 172 range.  Again, just guessing.  But I don't think it's too far off the mark.  The key will be to lose the little bit of fat without hurting my overall mass gains once I'm ready to cut up.

I still have a little less than 3 months left to go in this first 6 month program.  See, if you had just started P90X when you read my first post about this program...

You would be done.

Comments

[Mario]

Thanks for all the posts. I just started P90, I'm at the beginning of my third week and it's getting easier. But I wanted to thank you because your blog and story got me motivated to start it up again. I have tried in the past to do p90 and got through a couple of days or maybe a week and quit. However this time feels different and not to mention I have already lost 9lbs in 2 weeks. If thats not motivation I don't know what is. I've read a couple of your posts twice now just cause it inspires me. Keep the great work man.

Thanks again,

Mario

[Prophet]

9 pounds in 2 weeks?!?! Dang, great job, Mario! Making this lifestyle change was pretty much the hardest thing I've ever done for myself (especially the diet).

It's no small task so be proud of yourself for what you have accomplished and stay motivated to see it through the whole 90 days (and then keep going).

Keep it up!!

Matt

[Mario San Miguel]

Hey Matt,

Thanks again man for all the inspiration! I finished P90 yesterday and lost a total of 43lbs! Weighing in at 197 down from 240. It might have even been more if I didn't blow it a couple of saturdays and drank alcohol. The diet was the hardest things for me to fix, mostly portion control and alcohol was my problem not so much the choice of food. I still would like to lose a 20-30 lbs more or turn some of it into muscle. So I'm taking a rest week of cardio with fat burner express and then plan on "brining it" with P90-X standard!

I was planing on sticking with the pure isolate whey protein I have been using during p90 and buying some creatine from my same supplier. I'm also using a multi-vitamin already that's from vegetables, as well as fish oil 3 times a week. Do you think that's ok or should I use the P90-X recovery formula instead? And what about the protein bars? I was looking at some others and was wondering if you recommend any cheaper alternative to the peak performance bars?

Mario

[Prophet]

I think you will like the P90X Recovery Drink and you should drink it no matter what. It's important to avoid muscle catabolism so I try to eat as much protein as possible (up to 1 gram per pound of body weight). I'll drink a shake in the morning with my breakfast and then another one after I workout on workout days. It's a chore to get that much protein on board, but it's important to not destroy what I am trying to gain if I don't have enough of it.

Currently I am drinking GNC's Wheybolic Extreme that has also has branched chain amino acids and glutamine in it. The chocolate is pretty tasty. The cookies and cream, which the dude talked me into buying, is not so much tasty.

As far as bars go, I don't really make them a part of my daily diet but I will grab a Clif's Builder bar in a pinch.

I'm excited to hear about how you like P90X so keep us posted. I would even suggest taking a week off from working out of any kind before starting, just to give your body some time to heal before you really brutalize it with P90X.

43 pounds?!? Great results!! Keep it up!!

[Music_master]

Congratulations! You have so much useful information, write more.