Day 12

Day 12: Feels Like Jesus

This morning was legs and back and then of course the ab ripper. I was really proud of my work out today! Some milestones for me were that I did 7 reverse grip pull ups unassisted, I was able to hold the back-against-the-wall-seated stretch for the full 90 seconds, I used 12 lb weights on all the lunges, and I finally took my time and really did the full ab ripper, which is 25 reps of everything, equally around 350 reps altogether. It was intense, but it was awesome. I figured this must be what Jesus felt like.

For breakfast I had a spinach and onion scramble with a glass of soy milk. I'm getting ready to hit the road Vegas, now, so my plan for the day is to get Subway for lunch on the road, and then figure out a healthy option for dinner. I'm planning to do my absolute best to maintain my nutrition plan this weekend, finding healthier options with every meal. I also have decided that I will drink this weekend (gasp!), though probably only on Saturday night. I don't really want to drink tonight and then wake up and play hours of frisbee tomorrow. For those a little confused, I stopped drinking after New Years Eve and haven't had one drop of the juice since then. And I don't plan on having more til maybe my birthday. I figure, aside from the obvious consequences, drinking leads to having soda, which I haven't had since Jan. 1, and even worse, binge eating afterward. Not to mention it's an expensive habit!

Anyway, in case I'm unable to blog until I get back, wish me luck in the tournament and with maintaining my nutrition plan while in Sin City! I'm sure I'll have a fun post on Monday...

I'll just leave you with this little photo I snuck in after my work out today...

Day 11

Day 11: Yoga Yoga Yoga

Today, of course, was Yoga X. As usual, it still kicked my ass, but I'm definitely seeing improvement! I'm interested to see if I really do become more flexible by the end of this program. For those of you who knew me in high school, you know I was a dancer, but even then I was never really very flexible. I can see myself getting closer and closer to putting my hands on the ground (which I used to be able to do...), so that's good. I also held myself up in crane for even longer today!

For breakfast today, I had a soy sausage and egg wrap with a little bit of reduced fat cheddar in a whole wheat tortilla. For lunch, I had a salad with chicken, spring greens, bell peppers, cucumbers, and onions with a light Caesar dressing. For dinner, I made an awesome shrimp stir fry with broccoli, onions, bell peppers, and soba noodles. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as flavorful as I would have liked, but nothing a little sriracha couldn't fix.

I took a pic of my new haircut for you all... hmm... I guess some bicep slipped in there...

(sorry about the toothpaste-spattered mirror...)

Day 10

Day 10: What did I eat, eh?

This morning's workout was shoulders and arms. If you remember, last week I used 7.5 lb weights for triceps and shoulders and 10 lbs for biceps. Well, today I used 10 lbs for tris and shoulders and 15 lbs for biceps! And it felt awesome! I was really proud of myself and pretty excited about it! The Ab Ripper X is still kicking my ass, but I'm getting closer to being able to do the full 25 for each exercise! Overall I was really happy with today's workout!

Since I still hadn't gotten more egg whites, I decided to go with another protein shake today. The protein powder I use was on sale at the gym today, so I bought some more, this time chocolate instead of strawberry. So I made a strawberry chocolate smoothie using fresh strawberries, the chocolate protein powder, and vanilla soy milk. For lunch, I went with my coworker to a small industry event to try to do some networking. It was a showcase called Canadian Blast put on by Creative Control, a music supervising company. Basically, there was all you can eat chinese food and live music by artists looking to get represented or placed. Oh and they were Canadian, eh. We watched Steph McPherson, and I have to admit, she was really good! Check her out! Anyway, I made a tuna salad and brought it for lunch, and I was going to get some salad greens and vegetable soup at Trader Joe's to go with it, but since we went to this at lunch time, and I really needed to eat then, I had to eat at the event. I know what you're thinking... "You gave in! You pigged out!" Well, basically, I made the best of the situation.  I ate almost only proteins (chicken, beef broccoli, shrimp) and honestly did not eat a lot at all. The only "give in" was that I had a little bit of vegetable chow mein, but I just can't eat Chinese food without chow mein! I ate so little there, in fact, that I was still hungry when we got back, so I ate the tuna salad, just not with anything else. For dinner, I left out carbs since I had them for lunch, so I improvised a strange salad consisting of turkey and my usual SMOs (it's a thing). It was good, though!

Can you believe this is what it looked like when I opened the brand new tub of protein???

In other news, I got a hair cut tonight. In keeping with all these changes I'm making, I decided to try something new. It's cool that I'm friends with my hair guy. We discussed different options, and I even changed directions a little midway through and decided to be a little adventurous. So here is a glimpse at the new do. Basically, it's short on the sides and long on top. I'm still going to play around with different styles, but this is pretty much a basic comb over. I'll try to get some more pics later.

Day 9

Day 9: 10% Complete

Things I learned today: 1) Don't stay up blogging until 12:30 when you have to be up at 4:45, and 2) Plyometrics is that much harder on 4 hours of sleep...

So today I did plyometrics on 4 hours of sleep because I stayed up catching up on my blogs posts. Sheesh. The things I do for you people. YOU'RE WELCOME.

The workout definitely kicked my buttocks, and I was a little bummed that it seemed tougher than last week, so I'm a little disappointed in myself for staying up so late last night. But I still pushed through and got an awesome workout! My groin muscles haven't been too happy today, though. All those squats really agitated them. I also have a bad lower back, and all the impact from jumping agitated it a little. And also my left ankle is a little fragile since all that frisbee on Sunday, so I had to be a little careful. Basically I'm falling apart today, but I just ignore it. That's what the X is in P90X! At least that's what the guy keeps telling me in the video...

So, for breakfast I made a strawberry-banana protein shake. It was delicious as always. I'm waiting for my roommates to attempt murder for running the blender at 7:30am twice a week... I say attempt, of course, because I do Kenpo now and can kick some ass! But I digress.... I made a steak with green beans and sautéed mushrooms and onions– you know what, I'm going to call them SMOs now cuz I seriously make them with everything– and took that to work for lunch. For dinner, I made salmon with brown rice and broccoli, which I topped with a bit of the absolutely delicious homemade salsa that Veronica made tonight. 8oz of salmon is a lot, btw. But it was delicious. It was SMO-less though.

It is pretty exciting that I'm 10% done already! Wow how times flies... seems like just 9 days ago I was just starting out...

Day 8

Day 8: It comes after Day 7

Alright, I've made it through the first week, so now I've cycled back to Chest & Back. The workout definitely went by faster, and I'm pretty sure I was able to do a few more pushups than last week, though I can't say the same for my back with pull ups. After exerting a lot of energy on my "rest day" yesterday, I think my body was still tired and recovering. But I made it through and did my Ab Ripper X as well. The abs were a little tougher than last week, but I also discovered that I'm supposed to do abs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and I was only doing Monday and Wednesday. Hopefully they will really start building up after this week when I start working them three days a week.

When it came time to make breakfast, I realized I didn't have any more egg whites... so I improvised a breakfast and had a bowl of Kashi cereal with soy milk and cooked a soy sausage. Not glamorous, but nutritious nonetheless. I decided I was lazy and didn't make a lunch, so Carrin and I went to Subway, where I got a 6" sweet onion chicken teriyaki on 9 grain wheat with no cheese. I know what you're thinking, and no, it wasn't enough. But it's all about control and portion size. Though I didn't make a lunch, I did however, slice up half a cantaloupe, so I had that after Subway.

After work, I went to support my dear friend and brother, Christopher, by attending the Stonewall Democrats meeting to vote to endorse the mayoral candidate for whom he works, Wendy Gruel. This meant postponing dinner... I thought I was going to pass out from hunger. It's amazing how much my metabolism has sped up in just two weeks. I feel like I get hungry just an hour after eating! Anyway, when I got home,  I got to cooking right away. I made a steak with sautéed mushrooms and onions (you'll start to notice that I love sautéing mushrooms and onions with just about everything) and brown rice. It was quite delicious! I couldn't finish the whole steak, which is good since I actually made a little too much (which I know because I weighed it on my nifty scale!), so Max was kind enough to help me finish it. He's such a good friend :)

Day 7

Day 7: And on the seventh day he played frisbee?

I need to go to the store again... I'm out of egg whites...

Since I didn't have enough egg whites today, I used what I had left, added egg white from an actual egg, and decided to make a ground turkey, mushroom, and onion scramble. I figure the turkey will substitute the protein for the missing eggs. I sliced some strawberries and had a glass of soy milk as well.

Then, come noon, it was off to play frisbee! Next weekend I'm participating in an LGBT tournament in Las Vegas called the Sin City Shootout, so we decided to all get together for one last practice. Usually we play for two hours, but we were all having fun, so we ended up playing for three. Did I mention today was supposed to be the day of rest? Whoops.

By the time I got home to have lunch, I was pooped and famished, but I don't think my brain was really working, so I just tossed together a big salad and had some of the Filipino pork soup (whose name sounds like synagogue) that Veronica made. I then proceeded to pass the f**k out on the couch for two hours. It needed to happen.

For dinner, I made brown rice and sautéed chicken with onion and chopped up asparagus. It was simple and delicious, and there was a strange smell in the bathroom later. Completely unrelated...

Day 6

Day 6: Ready to Kick Ass

Today was pretty awesome. I slept in til 9 which, compared to waking up at 4:45 everyday, is awesome! I made myself a mushroom, onion, and red bell pepper scramble and had a glass of soy milk. At around 11am, Veronica took me to Korea Town and introduced me to the phenomena that is Korean markets. I am never buying meat or vegetables anywhere else! I couldn't believe how cheap everything was. And they have anything you would ever need! It's ridiculous in the best way possible! After that, Jordan, who is also doing P90X, came over and we cooked lunch together. Following a recipe out of the nutrition book, we made huge turkey burgers, and I made a delicious (if I may say so myself) coleslaw. Who knew coleslaw was so easy to make?? Well, probably everyone but me. But anyway, it was delicious and filling, and so then we watched Pitch Perfect cuz clearly we haven't watched it enough times. Aca-believe it.

After some relaxation, it was time for Kenpo. Kenpo is another cardio workout and is somewhat similar to tae bo. You're constantly moving and it involves a lot of punching and kicking. After that workout I almost want someone to try to jump me outside cuz I feel like I can kick their ass. KENPO!! HUH! ...yeah something like that.

So for dinner, I finally got to make something from the book that I've been waiting two weeks to try: swordfish. I seared the swordfish and cooked some green beans and rice to go along with it. I even topped it with some of the honey chili sauce I had left from the other night. I was very satisfied with it!

That night was also CeyJay's Underwear/Pajama Birthday Party. No, I didn't drink. But I was pretty happy with my outfit!