A strange week so far!

Seems like we have both been going non-stop, and it has been challenging getting workouts to fit in. Jess has been doing pampered chef parties and I've been helping our neighbor remodel a bathroom on top of everything else.

Monday was Chest and Back - I skipped it, but ended up doing it on Thursday morning - Jess did it on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday was Plyo - we both did an evening spin class for an hour, and I did Plyo afterwards - major burnage!!! I don't think Jess has done the Plyo as of yet.

Wednesday was Shoulders & Arms - again - skipped it, but did it this (Friday) morning.

Thursday was Yoga, again skipped it, but plan is to do Cardio instead over the weekend.

Tonight is Legs and Back - and we will for sure have to do it tonight to fight to get back on track.

Diet has been OK, but not the best - still having a tough time not just falling into the routine of cereal for breakfast - I must admit I love it when I take the time to make turkey patties or egg scramble, but sometimes it comes down to not having those extra 10 minutes.

I'm going to try to pre-make some things this weekend to make next week a really strong eating week before moving into Phase 2.

To Jessicas credit, she has been going to the club and doing other exercise classes most every day - it's actually harder for her to do it at home with me as Adri (2 months) doesn't giver her much of a break until after 10:00 at night, and by then she is exhausted, especially if she already did a couple of hours of workouts earlier in the day!

I think it might work better when Adri is 3 months and we can bring both kids to the club for an hour or so and just do our workouts there....we will see...she will also get easier and easier as she gets into a better sleep schedule.

Just a funny pic that I found!

End of Week 2

Just finished Kenpo, was able to do Shoulders, Arms and ARX before church this morning. So I managed barely to get all my workouts in even with being sick for a few days. I'm pretty pleased with that and look forward to bringin it a bit more next week when I can focus more and am not stressed about doing 2 workouts in the same day or back to back.

Also, looking forward to getting going on some more running and biking if time permits. I desperately need to get in the pool for a swim, but it's hard to make time for that with everything else.

I'm hoping this snow melts soon, it is more fun to get outside!

Day 12: Legs & Back - Friday

So I'm still behind on my workouts but Jess has been doing great. It is now end of Saturday and we both still have to do Kenpo tomorrow after church, and I still have to do Leg & Back as well.

I did have a good spin workout this morning, and then did Shoulders & Arms this afternoon along with ARX. I would have got Leg & Back done but instead was over halping our neighbor demolishing their bathroom - taking a 16 lb. sledgehammer to walls of tile and cement board was another workout all on it's own!

Going to try to do Leg & Back before church in the morning - better get to bed!

Just having some fun! I need to get to the pool to swim!

This is how to train for the swim leg of a triathlon!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_6tOzt-nfM

Day 11: Yoga-----Cardio X instead

So I'm feeling much better - I'm officially a fan of NyQuil now!

Jessica did her Shoulders & Arms workout this morning (make-up) and then did step aerobics with our neighbor at the club when I got home from work. When she got home I went down to do my Plyo (make-up), and then about an hour later after ER and the kids were tucked in we did Cardio-X for the first time.

Just the right balance of Yoga, Kenpo, Plyo and Core - favorite burn was definitely my obliques while doing wacky jacks. We will definitely be doing more Cardio-X, probably should be doing it 2 times a week. We are doing the Classic program and probably should be doing Lean to burn more calories----as soon as the Minnesota weather starts to improve we will both be out biking a few days a week so that will help burn those calories.

I plan to do 2 workouts tomorrow to get all caught up this week - I must admit that I had to take in a few extra carbs the last 2 days being sick, nothing really bad, just Kashi cereal and english muffin, but boy oh boy after going a few days with only one serving of carb, my body sure did respond well to it. Best advice: go slowly when taking carbs away from your body or body gets MAD!

Looking forward to Friday - and a great weekend!

Day 10: Shoulders and Arms(another missed day)

I really wanted to try to do the workout, but as the evening progressed I just started feeling more and more ragged. We both skipped the workout and plan to do a few 2 a days as needed to get caught up.

I am feeling much better today, so I hope to be able to do 2 workouts this evening. Tonight is supposed to be Yoga, but I know Jessica would like to try the Cardio X. So I think I'm going to do Plyo first and then join her in Cardio.

I really dislike being behind by 2 workouts, but at the same time I know that I won't get much out of a workout if I'm sick as a dog.

Hardest part about being sick is not giving my wife and two kids all of the hugs and kisses that I normally am able to - it's hard to tell a 2 year old that they can't be jumping and wrestling with dad because he doesn't feel well - you hope that they understand and don't see it as rejection.

God bless!

Day 9: Plyometrics - sort of

I missed Plyo because I got sick during the day and instead spent 2 hours in the jacuzzi and the rest of the night resting and taking medicine.

Jessica did manage to do plyo, even after taking care of 2 kids and me....no easy feat!

I think it might have been the spin class I did over my lunch hour that did me in. I had eaten an egg scramble for breakfast and then a protein shake as snack before going, but then again I wasn't feeling that great even on my walk down to the gym.....so I don't know that diet or exercise had anything to do with it, for all I know maybe it was good that I went and sweat through what could have been a 2 day sickness and instead it only lasted overnight.

I'm feeling about 70% as of right now and so the plan is to do Shoulders & Arms still tonight - and I will make-up Plyo sometime during the week.

Just want to say thanks for those that read the blog - and give comments - we all can help keep each other motivated!!!!

Day 8: Chest and Back

We are at the beginning of another exciting sweaty week. Jess did 2 different ab intensive workouts during the day so she skipped Ab Ripper X, but did a great job with todays Chest & Back workout. I think we are both getting accustomed to the effort level this takes and are finding that our energy levels stay fairly high throughout the day since we are eating good food and at regular intervals.

I upped the weight from 35 to 42 pound dumbells for the heavy pants and lawnmowers and did 10/15 reps respectively which I was happy with. I lost 5 pounds the first week, and will be ecstatic if I can lose 3-4 this week to keep the momentum going.

I did not get up this morning to do any cardio - I was up until 11:30 preparing food for the few days ahead - so we will see if I can do better tomorrow morning!

Well....had my delicious strawberry flavored recovery drink and think it's time for bed - I must say I go all day just waiting for that recovery drink!!!!

No cheating on the diet this week since there are no birthday parties to go to and no Valentines day - maybe I can lose another 5 come to think of it....we will see!

Day 6: Kenpo

Being that Saturday was Valentines Day and we had Jessicas folks in from up north, we moved our Saturday workout to Sunday afternoon.

I went to spin class Saturday morning and had a good workout and felt great afterwords.

Jess and I both did the Kenpo workout and kept up pretty well. I think we have hit our stride and this second week should go much better in terms of the soreness levels that we feel post workout.

On the nutrition side of things we did very well by "our" standards, but the more we looked at what we ate we realized that some changes need to be made for week 2. We have setup a meal plan that is "by the book" so to speak using the portion method in the P90X guide.

Looking back at week 1 we were probably eating closer to Phase 3 - with the number of servings of carbs, even though we were doing well with portion control and eliminating sugars. So this will be a bit of a challenge for the next 3 weeks, but it will be worth it to get the body into fat shred mode.

I'm going to try to do 2 workouts per day atleast every other day - will likely keep the P90X workouts in the evening with added cardio like running or biking in the morning. We will see how that goes in Week 2.

Day 5: Legs & Back

OK, so I didn't get up and ride my bike this morning - actually I barely got out of bed in time to make it to my bus....so I ran most of the way there which seemed like a good workout compared to the great dream I was having only 10 minutes earlier.....

Jess made it to her class and had a good ab workout so she took off the Ab Ripper X tonight.

This certainly seemed like the easiest workout, but everytime I go and think something like that I wake up the next morning, or the second day after and I'm puttin' my foot in my mouth.

Oh well, to some degree the more it hurts the more I feel like somethings working then, like maybe new muscles are forming and fat is melting.

So we had good luck with both of the kids being good and were able to get the workout done before 7:00 which is a nice change....I know that it won't happen this way very often....so now we are off to buy more food - still getting used to the idea of shopping more often since the fruits and veggies dont last long and we're going through them more quickly then before starting the program.

Tomorrow is kenpo and that should be a fun one to end the week on - then we'll be off for an evening out while G-parents take care of the kids for a few hours.

Later!

Day 4: Yoga-X

Made it through about half of the yoga tonight, it felt good, but with the last 4 nights of working out all taking place at 10:30 or later at night, we decided to call it short and try to get to bed before the next day for a change.

Jess plans to go to a cardio dance class at the club in the afternoon, and then in the evening we have Legs & Back. I'm going to set my alarm to get up a bit early and see if I can get on my bike for a quick spin.

We both ate well today, but only did around 1900 calories - I keep wondering what specifically to add to the diet to make significant improvements in overall success - for me building muscle mass in the upper body while carving away 10 pounds is the goal, and for Jess the goal is weight loss and overall toning.

I might need to post my nutrition spreadsheet online for people to give me feedback on it. I'll save that for the weekend when I have a bit more time.

Hope everyone has a great Friday!

Day 3: Shoulders and Arms

Tonight we celebrated my fathers B-day and thusly we both took in about 400 calories of cake and ice cream that we wouldn't have otherwise consumed - so we needed this workout if for no other reason to redeem ourselves.

Started out very sore throughout the shoulders, but started loosening up as went and actually feel pretty good at the moment, just finished up recovery drink and some water - all is well!

Ab Ripper X flew by tonight - Jess wasn't loving the idea of doing it but she conquered that thought and gave it her best effort, which is always enough - I must say I'm excited to be half way through the week, and am sooooooo looking forward to our Sunday rest day!

Tomorrow will be Yoga-X and I have heard of so many people that dislike it due to the difficulty of some of the moves, and others say they sweat buckets, so who knows.....we will find out tomorrow.

Time to get to bed - sweet dreams.

Total Soreness

So, can I go back to last night when I was actually feeling pretty good after a tough workout - NO?

Bummer....I thought I was going to be feeling good this morning, but oh no, total soreness came and beat me up in the middle of the night, leaving me in pain from head to toe. We have Shoulders & Arms workout today as our main entree, with Ab Ripper X served up for dessert.

I have not previewed the S&A dvd so we will be going into it blind - I can only hope that my arms don't fall off.

Debating on how to get more calories in the daily diet, so far I'm averaging just over 2,000 cal. but I should be closer to 2,400-2,900 range. I could start drinking a protein shake or two during the day just to bump it up, but I worry about how my stomach will handle it.

Probably going to just keep going the way I am to finish out Week 1 and then test a new strategy in Week 2 - Tony talks muscle confusion, I'm talkin' digestion confusion!

Fellow "X" ers, be sure to bring it!

Day 2 Complete - Plyomaniacs!!!

The fastest 55 minutes of exercise that I've ever done. Simple, easy to follow moves - and I only hit my head on the ceiling one time - I'm 6'-0" tall and the ceiling is about 6'-8", so nothing to brag about when it comes to vertical!

Just finished a strawberry with soy milk recovery drink.....deeeeeelish!

Time to shower and get to bed, it's a little past midnight.

I do plan to do this workout somewhere with more ceiling height next time around so I can push myself a bit more with the explosive jumps.

Flabulous!!!

OK, so these are not the type of photos that one wants to post of themselves on the internet, but in order for us to remain motivated and hopefully motivate others on their journey it is time to bite the bullet (only 5 calories)

Jessicas starting weight is 197 and Travis is 194.

We will update weekly with pics and weight to see what happens!!!

Feeling good so far and looking forward to tonights workout.

Worked it!

Jello Jiggler Arms!!!

Sippin a recovery drink, barely enough energy to type this entry - only did 2 legitimate pull-ups and the rest were some sort of chair assisted or incomplete (half way up sort of thing)

Ab Ripper wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I was surprised that there were a few that absolutely torched the tops of the quads. I thought I had pretty strong legs from running and cycling, but this Ab workout found some part of the leg muscle that I didn't realize was there!!

I was super proud of the wife - she pushed herself hard the whole way through!!!

Tomorrow is plyometrics - Will we be ready to "Bring It"????? Stay tuned to find out!

Gettin ready to "Bring It" with P90X

Went and ran errands - got 2 big containers of GNC protein powder, and also went to Play it again sports and picked up additional plates for adjusting the dumbells.

We should be all set to do the first workout tonight - Chest and Back!

I watched the dvd already and am a strange combo of scared, nervous, and worried!!

I hope to be able to lift my arms well enough to post a follow-up blog to the first workout.