90 Day Transformations

Onward..

So, I have formulated my plan for Round Two of P90X.  Goes a little something like this:

1. Finish this break week (doing some yoga and cardio x every day).
2. Do another break week (doing same as above) 
3. Restart P90X the following week, which will be Monday, November 10th - by the way, if I start on this day (which I will) my last day of P90XR2 will be New Year's Day 2009!! 

During my break weeks here I am going to reboot my diet.  I left my nutrition guide at home and have been eating the same thing almost every day for like 100 days.  Time to change it up a little bit.  I can only eat so many dang turkey sandwiches.

My next big question is whether to incorporate P90X Plus or One on One with Tony into my next round.  Or both?  I am having trouble finding more information about the One on One dvds.  It definitely doesn't look like a standalone program, but how do you mix it in with P90X?  Or do you?  I don't get it.

For all the rest of you out there who made the commitment to P90X and are having trouble finding time to fit your workouts in (and you know who you are), just remember that everything you are involved with and everything you do starts with you.  Take care of yourself first.

Round One Fit Test Results

So I rolled out of bed this morning and did the fit test.  I was a little surprised by some of the results - in a couple of them there was little change.  I can attribute that to one or a combination of three things:  I was in better shape than I thought at the beginning, I dogged it in that aspect of fitness in P90X (not likely), or my measuring technique was faulty the first time (or, hell, the second time).

Here are my fit test results.  And by the way, crap.  I don't have my measuring tape here so I can't take my measurements until I either buy a new tape or I go home and use the one I have there.  I don't think they will change much in a few days.  I've included the before results for comparison:

Body fat percentage:  before 9.5%  after 8.5%

Resting heart rate:  before 48  after 51  I used a heart rate monitor after and just took my pulse before so I think the before number is suspect.

Weight:  before 164  after  ???  I don't have a scale and I don't really care, as long as it's not less than 164

Pullups - before 5.5 - after 15 
Vertical Leap - before 22" - after 22" (this one is the same!?  I think I took an extra cheat step when I did it pre-P90X)
Pushups - before 43  - after 57 (oh, this just will not do)
Toe Touch - before +2"  - after +5"
Wall Squat - before 1:03  - after 2:07
Biceps Curls - before 29 reps with 20lbs  - after 15 reps with 35 lbs
Ins & Outs - before 54  - after 100 (on the nose)
Heart Rate Maximizer:  Again, I don't exactly know what the point of this exercise is, but I am pretty sure I wasn't doing it hard enough the first time.  I wasn't "bringing it" in the fit test!  Also, I was using the good old fashioned carotid pulse method and the microwave timer the first time around and a for-real heart rate monitor today.

Heart rates:

Immediately after:  pre 128 bpm - post 171 bpm
1 minute after:  pre 100 bpm - post 121 bpm
2 minutes after:  pre 92 bpm - post 110 bpm
3 minutes after:  pre 82 bpm - post 104 bpm
4 minutes after:  pre 78 bpm - post 83 bpm

There you have it.  Pre and post fit test stats.

Freedom Isn't Free

This has been a transformative year.

I ended another relationship (that's a whole other blog), put my house on the market, lost 45 pounds of fat, and have gained about 5 pounds of lean muscle.  In short, I finally made the decision to take control of my life.  It certainly hasn't been easy - some things have been sad and others joyous and all represent some kind of loss, even sacrifice (see below).  But it's been a journey and the journey is what's important.  I know myself better now than I ever have before.  Despite all of that, I have learned that I have so much more to learn (deep, eh?).

The word freedom has so many connotations for so many people.  Most people think of either "America" or "an escape from something else" (a vacation is freedom from work, a later curfew is freedom for a teenager, etc.).  At least that's what I used to think of when I saw or heard the word.  But over this year my view of that word has changed.  

Freedom is so much more than an escape from something else.  Freedom to me now is something that I must earn through sacrifice, discipline, and hard work.  

• Sacrifice, of course, is giving up something good now (sitting in front of the TV for hours eating delicious nachos) for something great later (six pack abs and no GRD).  
• Discipline is the self-control required to make that decision between hitting play on Die Hard 3 and hitting play on an exercise video.  
• Hard work, naturally, is doing more than just showing up for the workout - it's pushing every set to failure, holding every yoga posture as deep and long as possible, cranking every cardio workout to 11 on a 10 scale, pushing hard through the plateaus and lactic acid burn, and following the diet plan to the letter.

And if you think about it, this concept of freedom can be applied to all other areas of a person's life:  social, financial, artistic, spiritual, in one's career, etc.  A good example is the person who can play the piano.  At any time this person can sit down behind a piano, play music, entertain, and make themselves and others around them feel the full range of emotions that only playing and listening to music can provide.  But this person is not "gifted" or "naturally talented" with the ability to play the piano.  Nobody is.  This person first of all had to like the piano enough to want to learn to play it, and then had to earn whatever level of proficiency they have with the instrument.  If we use the good old "pushups" analogy, the pianist had to sacrifice their time, discipline themselves to show up to practice and learning sessions, and do the hard work necessary to be able to do just 20 piano pushups.  More than that, the pianist can't go from zero to 100 piano pushups without earning every single pushup from 1 to 99 in between.  Professional musicians and successful recording artists have made the sacrifices and disciplined themselves to do the hard work necessary to do 1000, even 10,000 piano pushups.  

Now, apply that to one's career.  What would it take to achieve 1,000 career "pushups?"  10,000?  One's love life?  Tired of not dating much or always ending up in dead-end relationships with people you aren't very compatible with?  Look inward and see how many relationship pushups you are capable of right now.  Same goes for money and every other aspect of an individual human's life.

Philosophical and motivational musings aside, most of you are here to see what I have done with P90X so let's get to the good stuff!

I took just one "after" photo this morning, right when I rolled out of bed (so I still look a little sleepy).  I considered doing a big chest and arms workout before taking the photos so I would be all pumped up (I pick up about an inch of pump on my biceps, typically) but I decided to just show my actual gains.  Before we get to that, let's start with my first picture from near the beginning:

 

I was not a happy camper in this photo.  In fact, I was mad.  Mad at myself for letting things get so far out of line with how I wanted to live my life.  I decided that I had to start at the bottom and work my way up.  Buying P90 and following the program was the very first step in this journey.  I weighed 190 here, but I had started dieting about 2 months before and was at 205 when I decided I was done being overweight and out of shape.  Yeah, I lost 15 pounds just by changing my eating habits.  Diet is that important.  Working out doesn't mean a person can eat whatever they want because they'll burn it off - that's a myth.  A strict and clean diet is even more important to a person who works out.  Some people don't like that idea, but that's why they call it sacrifice.  Eating pizza whenever one wants to is not freedom.  The flavor of food is not it's value.  The purpose of food is to fuel the body, nothing more.  Can I eat stuff that tastes good?  Absolutely everything I eat tastes good.  Can I eat pizza?  Sure, but I just don't do it very often because the gastric distress it causes is not worth the flavor.  But moving on...

 

90 days later, I am a much happier person and honestly would be content to stay here.  But I am looking for so much more than contentment in my life.

Fast forward another 90 days (we're up to 180 days of focused fitness and 240 overall).  Finally, this morning I am truly in the best shape of my life after P90X.  The sacrifice and hard work is paying off with the incredible freedom that only a high level of physical fitness can provide.  Look at it this way:  I am not only protecting myself from injury and disease, I am building an insurance plan that will produce a dividend of high quality middle-age and senior years, and more of them.  Freedom for a person who is in good shape is the ability to get out and do fun physical things and try new sports.  You actually want to get out and see what you can do with your new body.

It's been a long road and I have felt it physically and emotionally every step of the way.  I have earned every pushup and pullup.  And I am not even close to being done.  Round Two of P90X will start after I do one or two more recovery weeks (I haven't decided yet).  My goal is to do two more rounds of P90X (probably going to have to add in some P90X+ in there to stave off repetition), pick up about 10 pounds of lean muscle (optimistically), and then see where I'm at.  So this is going to be more than a year of transformation and after that, it will be maintaining what I have.  I will leave that open, of course, because my goals may change in 6 months - maybe I want to add 20 more pounds of muscle instead of just 10.  Who knows?  Right now it's 10 by April.

I will do my post-90 day fit test tomorrow morning and post the results.  I don't have a scale here so I will just guess I am probably right around the same weight I was when I began P90X.  I will say that I checked my body fat this morning and I have lost about a percentage point from when I started (it's around 8-8.5%, give or take).  Can't get much lower than that, and who would want to?

You know what the best thing about all of this is?  Being in shape just feels really, really good in every way imaginable.  All of the time.

That's freedom.

Shannon - 90 Days

 

Wow.

Shannon included some words about his experience and his plans for the future:

Starting weight:  235
Final weight:  208

My 90 Days have been a mixed bag of situations, emotions and physical ailments. I'm not going to have a full-on puff piece on how great I feel or how awesome this whole experience has been. My words are not going to be put on any testimonial pages on Beachbody.com. What I have  for you instead is my real experience with actually working out solid for 90 days...for the FIRST time in my life.

I didn't know if I would last. I didn't know how much I wanted to work to get to this point. All I knew was that I was tired of being fat.  Tired of my knees and back hurting for no reason. Tired of feeling depressed. And most of all, tired of being tired.

PAINS
Ignorantly, I thought that doing this program would be a cure-all for my body aches. I didn't expect to have even MORE ailments throughout this program. To its credit, my knees do hurt far less, but I think my back problem needs to be looked at professionally. I think it will take more than just exercise to fix it. I didn't plan on a hip problem six weeks in to the program though. It created a situation to where I couldn't do a good amount of the leg exercises in the cardio or the lower ab routines without severe pain in my hip joint. SO, I had to be creative with my workouts. I ran, biked and swam for cardio as an alternative to some of the exercises on the program.

RESULTS
Now, I don't know if switching up hurt or helped but i knew I was plateauing on the last 30 days and I found it very difficult to lose weight as fast as I did during the first 60 days. As you can tell, I only lost 5 pounds this last 30 days as compared to 10 pounds each prior 30 days. However, like Dan and Mat have been telling me and what I have witnessed is that I noticed little changes everyday in my physique.  I wasn't losing the weight but I was still changing for the better.

MINDSET
It was hard, invigorating, painful, redundant, annoying, satisfying, and ego-boosting at the same time. You get out what you put in.  Everyone around me would make fun of me while I was working out because I was growling, grunting, howling with every rep I took. I took it to the max because I didn't want to cheat myself. Others around me kinda sorta jumped on the band wagon at some point or the other, but never stuck with the routine because they maybe didn't want to sacrifice the food or didn't want to really  "work" when they exercised. But I think, they didn't have the mindset. If you don't want the change, you won't get it. If you do this program and just go through the motions, you won't get the satisfaction and results you want. Like I said, it's hard, it will hurt, and you have to want it.  Period. If you can't handle that, then you will always be stuck.

FOOD
Growing up, you get so used to eating a certain way and eating certain foods. You get used to tons of sugar, salt, fat and you rely on them as flavor gauges. Doing this program, all that you know gets stripped from you. No sweets. No fatty, salty cheeseburgers. Just pure, bland good for you healthy whole foods. Yuck. At lease, that's what I thought at the beginning. Now, I can tell how much salt and butter and sugar is in something just from smell. Eating a bell pepper is more satisfying than a chocolate chip cookie. A banana is a dessert. AND ITS GOOD! Your taste for food changes. You realize how good natural food tastes once you are stripped of your dependance from fat, sugar and salt. PLUS, you don't feel like crap after you eat a banana. Will I stop eating cheeseburgers? Uh, no. I will treat myself to whatever I crave. If I crave a cheeseburger, I will eat it. If I crave ice cream, I will eat it. The good thing is that I know I don't crave those things nearly as much, if at all.

RESULTS
Am I happy with the results? Heck yeah!  Would I do it over again? Every time!  Do I think I could have done more? Looking back, probably. But that would have meant more time away from my family. Getting fit is one thing, not everything. My family comes first.

FUTURE
Will I do P90X? Probably not. I can't sacrifice the time it takes to be dedicated to the program.  What will I do? I will continue to workout. Lose the rest of my tire belly. I will be doing Tony's 10 minute Trainer workouts as well as working on building up my chest and back. I will continue to post updates and results because I am not finished with my physique and most of my routines and diet plans are still based off P90.

THANKS
Mat has been a great resource for motivation and information throughout and he has always given me solid alternatives and ideas with each of my predicaments and I would just like to thank him for everything. You're a great man, Mathew Allen.  Thanks for motivating me to do this. I will never regret it!

Damn.  You look incredible, Shannon.  But I knew you would make it because you wanted it bad enough.  You are welcome.

Hey, Mom, Where's MY $2,300?

In his own words:

It's been an interesting 90 days for sure. I've worked out in hotels and borrowed living rooms in Indiana, Missouri, Colorado, Wisconsin, Indiana again, and on day 90, Florida. Once I got into a routine, I found I needed less and less motivation to get started. Once the clothes started falling off, I was looking forward to eating well and breaking a sweat. Everyone with fat pictures of me should hang onto them. They'll be collector's items one day. I'm just simply not gonna be out of shape again. It hurts and makes me sad. Those of you who have known me for long enough know there are times when I've had less body fat or bigger muscles, but I have never been this fit. So, time for the nitty gritty such as it is...

Before:
Chest:40"
Biceps: 14"R 13.5"L
Waist: 37"
Hips:37"
Thighs:22"
Weight:167#

After:
Chest:35"
Biceps:14.5" each
Waist:30"
Thighs:20"
Weight:144

Also, my mom offered up a hundred bucks per pound I lost, so protein drinks on me. Couple of things the stats don't show..haven't used my asthma medicine in over a month (savings of $185 per month), I don't make noises when sitting or getting up, my back doesn't hurt, I feel good all the time. Worth it. All of it.

And now for the photos.  Here he is on Day One, all soft and doughy:

And here he is today, Day 90:

Dude, you look phenomenal.  You really have to really want it to get here.  Congratulations on all of your hard work. 

I'm still going to beat you in the pushup competition, but you'll look good losing.. 

Stats Analysis

Looking at the difference between my before and after stats reveals some interesting information.  Okay, maybe it's just interesting to me and Dan. 

Clearly, I lost quite a few inches from my abdomen and I lost at least something on everything else.  Including arms. 

Which is interesting. 

But only for a second because even though it's obvious I am stronger and I have to have gained a little circumference in muscle mass in my arms (and quads/hams for that matter), I lost MORE fat there.  I can only assume that if I had done only cardio and no lifting that I would have lost more inches there than I did (only 1/2 an inch on each bicep).  The flipside to that is that had I not had much fat to begin with, I would have gained biceps circumference by the end of P90.  The reality is that there is really no way of knowing how many inches of fat were lost and how many of muscle were gained from this first go round.  So why am I even talking about it?  I dunno.

It doesn't really matter at this point because the important thing is that I don't have the fat any more and I have 90 more days to see just how much size and mass can be gained through this program.  I will also be curious to see what my weight does since I am not sure I have really any more fat to lose (athletic body fat percentages are 6-13% for men)  Incidentally, I used the Accu-Measure digital bodyfat caliper I picked up at GNC yesterday.  I took my body fat measurements about 8 times and they were all between about 9.1% and 9.9% so I just averaged it out to 9.5%.

Anyway, I'm gonna watch the Chest and Back dvd now to see what kind of punishment I am in for on Monday..

52:50 minutes later...  I think I need a bigger hotel room!

Mat - Final P90/Pre P90X Stats

Here are my stats on my first day of P90 (April 14th):

Weight:  190lbs

Measurements:
    Chest - 40 3/4"
    Right Arm - 13 3/4"
    Left Arm - 14"
    Waist - 40" (egads)
    Hips - 42"
    Right Thigh - 23"
    Left Thigh - 23 1/2"

And here are my stats as I have just taken them.  I didn't have the benefit of a fat caliper when I started P90, but I have one now and I am sure the Day One number was considerably higher (he chuckles to himself):

Weight:  164lbs

Measurements:
    Chest - 38"
    Right Arm - 13.25"
    Left Arm - 13.5"
    Waist - 32.5"
    Hips - 37"
    Right Thigh - 19"
    Left Thigh - 19"

Body Fat Percentage:  9.5%

Resting Heart Rate:  48 bpm

I also just finished the P90X Fit Test to see whether I am "ready" for the P90X challenge.  Let's see how I did:

Pullups - 5.5 (needed to pass - 3)
Vertical Leap - 22" (needed to pass - 5")
Pushups - 43 (needed to pass - 15)
Toe Touch - +2" (I can reach 2" past my toes.  Needed to pass - no less than -6")
Wall Squat - 1min 3 sec (needed to pass - 1min)
Biceps Curls - 29 reps with 20lbs (needed to pass - 10 reps with 20lbs)
Ins & Outs - 54 (needed to pass - 25)
Heart Rate Maximizer - Can complete 2 minutes of jumping jacks, last 30 seconds as fast as possible to maximize heart rate (needed to pass - complete 2 minutes of jumping jacks without dying).  I'm not sure what the point of this exercise is, but it can't be to see what my max heart rate is because I know it's much higher than what I got it to here - and I did the first minute and a half at twice the P90 3-4 pace and the last 30 seconds were as fast as I could go without losing an arm.

Heart rates:
Immediately after:  128 bpm
1 minute after:  100 bpm
2 minutes after:  92 bpm
3 minutes after:  82 bpm
4 minutes after:  78 bpm

Hmm, I'd say I'm ready to, you know, "Bring It."  N'stuff.

Here are my stats on my first day of P90 (April 14th):

Weight:  190lbs

Measurements:
    Chest - 40 3/4"
    Right Arm - 13 3/4"
    Left Arm - 14"
    Waist - 40" (egads)
    Hips - 42"
    Right Thigh - 23"
    Left Thigh - 23 1/2"

And here are my stats as I have just taken them.  I didn't have the benefit of a fat caliper when I started P90, but I have one now and I am sure the Day One number was considerably higher (he chuckles to himself):

Weight:  164lbs

Measurements:
    Chest - 38"
    Right Arm - 13.25"
    Left Arm - 13.5"
    Waist - 32.5"
    Hips - 37"
    Right Thigh - 19"
    Left Thigh - 19"

Body Fat Percentage:  9.5%

Resting Heart Rate:  48 bpm

I also just finished the P90X Fit Test to see whether I am "ready" for the P90X challenge.  Let's see how I did:

Pullups - 5.5 (needed to pass - 3)
Vertical Leap - 22" (needed to pass - 5")
Pushups - 43 (needed to pass - 15)
Toe Touch - +2" (I can reach 2" past my toes.  Needed to pass - no less than -6")
Wall Squat - 1min 3 sec (needed to pass - 1min)
Biceps Curls - 29 reps with 20lbs (needed to pass - 10 reps with 20lbs)
Ins & Outs - 54 (needed to pass - 25)
Heart Rate Maximizer - Can complete 2 minutes of jumping jacks, last 30 seconds as fast as possible to maximize heart rate (needed to pass - complete 2 minutes of jumping jacks without dying).  I'm not sure what the point of this exercise is, but it can't be to see what my max heart rate is because I know it's much higher than what I got it to here - and I did the first minute and a half at twice the P90 3-4 pace and the last 30 seconds were as fast as I could go without losing an arm.

Heart rates:
Immediately after:  128 bpm
1 minute after:  100 bpm
2 minutes after:  92 bpm
3 minutes after:  82 bpm
4 minutes after:  78 bpm

Hmm, I'd say I'm ready to, you know, "Bring It."  N'stuff.

A 90 Day Transformation: Looking Back and Moving Forward

What an interesting and surprising journey this has been.  Even though this isn't my first time losing this much weight, I still learned quite a bit about the process of getting lean and getting in shape.

I've also become a little more philosophical about my own overall health.  I've always known, as I am sure everybody reading this knows, that for a million reasons "exercising and eating right" is very important. I think too many of us, myself included, have given that concept plenty of lip service, but we've never really taken it that seriously.  If we did, we wouldn't have so many overweight and out of shape people in the world, right?

Being healthy is about so much more than just looking great naked (although that is a major bonus by itself).  Being aesthetically pleasing is the very smallest and leastest of the many benefits of good health.  A fit and well-fueled body also lasts longer and has a higher resistance to injury and disease.  Many, many forms of cancer (not to mention diabetes and heart disease) are rooted in lifestyle choices - being sedentary, having a high fat diet, consuming excessive amounts of alcohol, and smoking chief among them.  The list maladies caused by simply not eating right or exercising is long indeed.  We all have choices to make in this life.  So why not choose to be healthy?  If those were the only reasons a person needed to stay healthy, they would certainly be plenty.

But there's more to it than that. 

The human body is an amazing thing.  It's far more durable and adaptable than most people in our Western culture give it credit for.  Isn't it interesting that the more the body is stressed and worked and abused in these workouts, the stronger, healthier, and better it gets?  And don't forget the fuel.  Having a daily fast-food diet is like pouring gasoline mixed with pudding and mud into your car's gas tank.  Sure, it will run for a while, but not for long and not very well.  But fill it up with high quality fuel in the right amounts and at the right times and it runs like a thoroughbred.

Properly cared for, the human body can last up to and beyond 100 years.  The number one thing that motivates me to continue beyond P90 and P90X is simply quality of life.  Quality of life now; quality of life when I'm 89, should I be so lucky.  It's one of the main reasons I quit smoking ten years ago:  I don't want my last 20 years on this planet to be spent in and out of hospitals and in pain.  And worse, causing my loved ones emotional pain as they watch me deteriorate before their eyes.  No thanks - I've been on the other side of that.  Health and fitness provide an excellent buffer against the ravages of time and it's the best health insurance policy a person can buy.  It's also the cheapest.  In fact, it's actually free - a little research at the library or the internet will yield all the information that was used to create P90 and P90X.  All of these workout plans are just the tools we use to achieve our goals.

I only get one body.  That's it.  It has a timer on it that will tell it when it's done here.  I don't know when that time will be, but in the meantime, I want to live and experience all I can.  That starts with me taking care of it.  And some day off in the future, when I decide it's time to settle down and start a family, they will benefit from me taking care of myself, too.

P90 was simply the very first step in a journey that ultimately ends when my timer runs out.  There is no finish line; there is no "destination."  This is it.  It's a part of my life.

The next step in this journey is P90X.  Since I've already lost the fat and built a good foundation in strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular capacity, this will be about building mass and taking my flexibility and conditioning to the next level.  It will also be about optimizing the diet even more.  The P90X diet plan is ridiculously precise, much more so than P90, and is designed to be tailored to each individual P90X recruit.

I will continue to track my progress on this blog through P90X and beyond, with weekly updates and some daily reports. 

Just an FYI to anybody who wants to get in shape but keeps stacking up excuses against it, hear this:  I have been on the road and living out of a suitcase for 98% of the past 90 days.  I have traveled far and wide and haven't spent more than about three weeks in any one place.  My job was the number one excuse I used to not get back in shape.  The real reason I wasn't doing it was because I didn't have my mind oriented correctly to the task and the ultimate goal.  This isn't about "finding time to workout."  It's about priorities.  My body is my number one priority because without it, I have nothing.  Everything I do starts and ends there.

The choice was mine and I chose longevity and vitality over excuse-making and the comfort of too much tasty fattening food.

I included the above photo for two reasons.  One, sailing is one of my favorite things in the world to do (note the moderate chubbiness when that photo was taken last summer - ed. that may actually have been the summer of 2006).  Two, sailing is a big part of my future plans and I think that the self-sufficiency and determination required in getting from point A to point B in a sailboat is a good analogy for great health.  You can't just point the boat in the direction you want to go and step on the gas.  You have to work for it and be active in the process the entire time or you won't get anywhere at all.

Jimmy - 120 Days

Jimmy, our intrepid trailblazer, continues to make impressive fitness gains.  He finished the Power 90 program about 40 days ago and has been using a variety of Beachbody videos, primarily the Power Half Hour program.

He took this photo this morning.

Jimmy

Jimmy has already completed Power 90 but he's the one who got all this started so I'll put up his before and after pics.

Day 1 Plump:

Day 90 Ripped: