I've been successfully dieting for about 1.5 years now. Always before I'd start diet + exercise, get discouraged on exercise, and forget the whole thing, resulting in never losing more than a few pounds.
This time I decided I'd stick to one thing - diet - because I hated changing my diet less than exercise. And, with a few road bumps, I've done pretty well. I'm now confident I can and will stick with the diet aspect whether or not I manage to stick to exercising, because I know it works and I don't want to gain the weight back!
That said... man, I am not looking forward to exercising.
I started P90X today. I'm sure it's overkill, but I have two reasons for choosing it:
I'm going to be in a bathing suit at the end of April, which is almost exactly 3 months away. This is very motivating for me to find a high-impact program and stick with it no matter what, at least till then. Ideally, I'll continue working out forever, but, like dieting, I need to get over the initial hump and make it a habit.
I need to see results to stick with it, which means walking 5-10 minutes a day isn't going to do it. If I can't tell anything has changed within ~30 days, I'm going to be ridiculously discouraged. I have the free time to spend on the workouts, and I'm going to keep telling myself "Just try it for 3 months, look awesome in your swimsuit, and then go from there."
So, we'll see. Some of the exercises I can barely do (I did not know that many varieties of pushups existed, holy crap), but my goal is to do modified versions as much as I can. I'm keeping track of reps and weight in the P90X app as well, so I can carefully watch progress, and I'll be taking all my measurements and "Day 1" pictures this evening. I've also figured out how to do a push-up like move with bands and am adding a few reps of that each day, so hopefully I'll be able to handle more 'real' pushups soon.
Anyway just thought I'd post here for a little accountability... and maybe as a human interest piece for other folks who are thinking about starting P90X from scratch.
A little more about me:
I've never regularly exercised, and I work at a desk job.
I've lost 55 pounds in the past 1.5 years, exclusively through dieting, and am just inside a "normal" BMI for my height.
I'm in my late 20s.
I'm using bands (3-piece mix and match set from Wal-mart) and 2 pairs of weights (5lb and 10lb) for all exercises, so my equipment costs were pretty minimal. Under $25 I think.
Post-Day 1 Report:
My arms feel very weak. I had trouble opening a push-door (just kinda rammed it with my body ). Also while driving I just gripped the steering wheel and let my arms hang there. But, nothing horrible. No pain or anything, just weakness.
I am letting myself 'pause' in the middle of the videos for now. This may be considered a bit of cheating but I really cannot do 10 different kinds of pushups in a row. It's all close enough to the same muscles that after about 2 kinds, I'll just be lying on the floor. So today I worked through DVD 1 in 3 sections. 1/3, went and did some other things, came back 2 hours later, did second third, went out and grabbed dinner, couple hours later finished up final third.
I'm now starting on Ab Ripper but about 3 exercises in I had to pause it because my thighs were burning so badly. Not entirely sure why I'm feeling the burn in my thighs instead of my abs unless I'm doing it wrong (I do carry a lot of my weight in my legs, so maybe that is why?), but I'll keep on keepin' on. It doesn't feel like bad pain, just like it's not working my abs. But I suppose my thighs can use the workout too. I'm going to finish up Ab Ripper after this post.
Anyway, I probably won't check in EVERY day. But I'll post my thoughts, and progress, and maybe eventually progress pics if it happens. And sometime in April I hope to be buying the first swimsuit I've purchased in over a decade...
I just started p90x myself about a week ago... it's tough! I love exercise, but have always been a cardio junkie. p90x is unlike anything I have ever done. All last week, I couldn't sit without groaning, haha.
Good luck! I have friends who have completed it and they have gotten fantastic results, so I have faith that if we stick with it, we'll be happy with how we look in the end.
Thanks for the motivation guys! I just paused Plyo and am sitting here feeling like death. I have 17 minutes left. I already had to pause it twice before.
I'm sure it's not ideal that I'm letting my heart rate drop, but my goal is just to get through it.. in pieces.. and keep doing it till I don't have to pause it. I keep thinking "Screw it, let's just quit." but then I think how unhappy I will be in April in a swimsuit, and I hit Play again.
Some of it's fun (I like the small jumping around exercises and the leaping - I can do it, and keep up), but the really deep lunges are death.
PFK - That's funny, I really hate cardio. As in despise. Have never enjoyed it; weight training I don't mind so much as it's slow and steady, but cardio I just feel like I'm falling apart. Also I hate how my throat gets sore trying to suck in air and the iron-y/blood-tasting burn in my throat. Ug. I'm wondering if I'll ever get over that as I used to be pretty active as a kid - but even when I played soccer 3x a week and ran all over the field I was like a cheetah: fast but only for short distances. And I always felt terrible afterward. I would literally go home and stick my head in the freezer because my face and throat were so hot/burning. I'm pretty sure my parents thought I was dying.
I'm definitely sore from yesterday. Not excessively though. And I think this may be the first time I've ever had sore pecs, as I was walking around earlier going "why are my boobs sore??"
Edited to add:
Some kind of 'compression' shorts are an absolutely must for this too. I'm high-end of a normal BMI and there was skin and fat jiggling painfully everywhere (butt, thighs, stomach). I got my stretchy bike shorts out, and it's 100% better. I'm almost embarrassed to say this, but before I got the shorts out, I was literally holding on to my butt during some of the jumps...
Good luck! One of my male friends just started this program as well. He did the P90 last month and lost 36 pounds in a month, while eating healthy and doing martial arts as well. I assume P90 is similar to P90X
I never did p90 but did 30ds in november. I also had to pause the dvd a lot or just took breaks at the beginning. But i kept at it, and kept improving. By day 7, i did it nonstop. I started out barely able to do 1 pushup and at the end 2 sets of 20. Just keep at it and you too will improve. Good luck
Woo, that is crazy, Hidden. I can't imagine being able to do 40 push-ups. I can't even do one "regular" one, but I can do a fair few on my knees so that's how I'm starting out. Only the first couple are probably the appropriate deepness, but I keep chugging along as best I can.
I also set up my bands so I can face away from them and pull them over my shoulders, working the same "pushup" position standing up when I get tired, but with just enough resistance so I can keep going. I start with pushups since those are a lot harder, but once I'm barely holding form on those and about to hit the deck, I figure it's better to be doing some workout of the same muscles rather than just lying there.
And dang - 36 pounds in one month! I would be happy if I could get to 160 and tighten up my jiggly bits enough they don't sag in a swimsuit (mostly my thighs and tummy).
I am a little disheartened by the weight gain I admit.. last weekend I was at 169, but I was on vacation for 3 days and ate my way up to 174 (I assume most of it was water weight, but I don't know how much) and after two days of exercising I'm at 177. I'm eating 1200-1500 calories a day, and I know it's mostly water retention (I've also been eating salty foods - getting back on my regular low-sodium plan starting Tuesday; for now I'm just hitting my calorie range), but I'm having to try really hard not to freak out about gaining almost 10 pounds in a week. That's almost 2 months work! Ug!
10 minutes away from the end of today's work out - Shoulders & Arms.
This one seems easiest of all 3 for me so far. I think because we can choose the weight instead of it being based on body weight (like pushups). That said, I've been trying to go to "exhaustion", but I think I feel better about it because I can actually get through 8-15 reps before I get there, unlike Chest & Back where I might only be able to do 2 or 3!
I was pretty sore this morning (my arms from Chest & Back 2 days ago, and my legs from Plyo yesterday). Not an insane amount of soreness, but enough so if I stood up quickly and forgot, I'd flinch a bit. Also I'm walking a bit funny. You know that sort of loose floppy walk that happens when you want to use your quads as little as possible? Yes, that was how I went shopping today. :P
I was a little worried it would make the Arms workout hard or impossible, but after stretching the soreness worked itself out really well and the workout has so far been... mostly pleasant. I paused twice, and I didn't 'have' to, but I could tell I was getting fatigued and wanted to recover so I could do more reps. I've been using 10 and 5 lb weights for everything. Mostly 10s except the ones where I notice Tony is using 20s or 25s, and I take that as my cue to lighten up a bit and try with 5s.
I cannot do the side triceps lift to save my life - not even one. If I try, I can tell I'm just using my side abs. So for next time I need to figure out an alternate exercise that will help work up to that. Also I am not even sure how to get my arm straight around my boobs to quite make this work. And I'm not hugely endowed - C cups - but they definitely seem to be 'in the way'. I think between the girls, and my upper arm flab, this exercise might not be happening just yet (although my upper arm fat is probably still less than Tony's bicep, so maybe that's not an excuse... )
Ab Ripper coming up after this... that could suck, because my abs are still sore too (it hurts if I laugh, or sneeze). But it's only 15 minutes... right? Right?? Hehe. Well, we'll see.
Ah well, back to the video I suppose. I paused to try and figure out how else to do a side triceps lift, but I think I'm just going to let it go for today since my triceps got quite the workout 2 days ago as well.
Edited to add - Oh and I mentioned to a friend I was sore.. which led to a P90 discussion.. so now I feel pressure to continue because I'm sure she's going to ask how it's going. Oy. I guess that's good. But I'm going to feel like a loser if I drop out in a week.
P90X is awesome. I've done it once all the way through and am about 2/3 of the way through a second round right now.
My one piece of advice is- the very first week, do half of everything you think you can do. So if you think you can curl 20's, curl 10's. If you think you can do 20 pushups, do 10. I guarantee you'll be sore anyway, but a lot of people overdo it the first week and quit from being so sore.
I really have no idea of my level of fitness - I hadn't tried to do a pushup in a long time before this. And would have said I couldn't do even 1 or 2 if asked. If anything I've been surprised that my arms seem stronger than I would have expected. I guess I do carry things around, lift heavy things etc, but not on a regular basis, so I guess I'm lucky to have retained what muscle mass I have. Who knew the "1 trip from the car with all the groceries or bust" attitude may have had benefits besides fueling my laziness?
I've read the soreness mostly gets better by Week 3, so I think I can handle being pretty sore till then - if I get through Phase 1 and I still feel sore all the time, that would be disheartening. But frankly, I just want to be able to look back at the end of 90 days and legitimately say I did everything I possibly could (in terms of both diet and exercise), whatever the results are.
Also when I get discouraged.. I google before and after pictures of P90X. Not the official ones, but bloggers and other 'out of shape' folks who seem to have a little more realistic (but still impressive!) results.
Finished up Shoulders & Arms, now getting ready to do Ab Ripper... oy.
Aaand done with Ab Ripper X. I did not do as much as I did Monday - too sore - but I was pleasantly surprised at what I was able to do once I got started. Some of those are just brutal. I don't know how I'm supposed to get my legs off the floor for the V-Up. It's like they don't even move in that direction. So I just kind of do a crunch and get my upper body off the floor.
Here's a success story I love for P90X. Realistic and mirrors what I'm hoping to get out of it. I especially love her before/after pics because my tummy does the 'sadface' squashed belly button similar to hers, and looks amazing and slim in the final picture. I can only dream.
I just started P90X about a week and a half ago. I do what I can, but it's definitely a challenge! I think my favorite is the Kempo. I like the Plyometrics, too. I'm not a fan of the yoga! Week 2 is a little easier than week 1, but I still struggle to get through everything. I also have to skip days here and there because my girls have cheerleading and other activities, but then I make up what I missed the next day instead of skipping it. I had legs yesterday, but didn't get a chance to do the ab ripper, so I guess I'll throw that in when I do Kempo this afternoon.
Good luck!! Just keep going, even if you don't want to!! The results will be worth it.
I really don't like Yoga X. I'm only 15 minutes in. I'm not sure why - it's hard, but I also feel bored? I'm going to force myself to get through it, but between the length and the boredom it's difficult.
I don't feel peaceful because I keep having to look up at the TV to figure out what the heck is going on. I also don't have enough room to do the leg kicks (I almost took out my glass-top desk). So I'm kind of meh on the whole thing right now. Easily my least favorite video so far. It feels hard but also like I'm not getting anywhere. Hard to explain. Plyometrics was tough but I felt a sense of achievement. This I just feel awkward and ungainly. I may try to shift my workouts back a day so I can do it on the weekends when I have more time to split it up and not have to do 90 minutes at once.
Never exercised, but here I go... (P90X Beginner)
And I always felt terrible afterward. I would literally go home and stick my head in the freezer because my face and throat were so hot/burning. I'm pretty sure my parents thought I was dying.
I'm eating 1200-1500 calories a day, and I know it's mostly water retention (I've also been eating salty foods - getting back on my regular low-sodium plan starting Tuesday; for now I'm just hitting my calorie range), but I'm having to try really hard not to freak out about gaining almost 10 pounds in a week. That's almost 2 months work! Ug!
