Special Workout Contest on November 1 and 11

Just a quick note to let you know about an opportunity to win some money just for logging your workout online. Normally if you log your workout at teambeachbody.com, you are entered to win $500 each day. On November 1 and 11 there will be two additional drawings for $1,111. You don't need to be doing a Beachbody program to qualify.

You can get the details at promisetobefit.com.

Good luck.

First Week Insanity Impressions

I made it through the first week of the original Insanity program, so here's some impressions so far. It's going to be difficult for me to talk about the program without comparing it to Insanity: The Asylum so I'll get a couple of things out of the way first. Insanity is broken up into two 4-week segments with a recovery week in between. The workouts from this week have been easier compared to Asylum, but I have a feeling that after this first month they will get harder. Plus the Asylum is meant to be a sequel to Insanity so I expected it would be harder. There is also a definite timed structure to the Insanity workouts that is not as apparent in the Asylum. Alright, no more comparisons.

Each workout in the first 30 days has the word cardio in it. There's a good reason for this. These are all cardio workouts. There are no pullups or resistance moves. For folks without weights, bands, and pullup bars this is appealing since there is no equipment needed. The program starts with a fit test that you take every couple of weeks to track your progress. I like to be able to look back at numbers to see where I have improved so it's nice that it is incorporated into the program with specific days assigned to take the test.

There are five DVDs that you rotate between for the first 30 days.
Fit Test
Plyometric Cardio Circuit
Cardio Power & Resistance
Cardio Recovery
Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs

You start out each workout with a warmup. So far the warmup has been the same for every day except  for the Cardio Recovery day. I have yet to make it through the entire warmup without taking a break, but I'm working on it. That will be my goal by the end of week two. That's sad to say, but it shows how intense this program is. I don't see a lot of difference right now in the types of exercises for the different days except for the Fit Test and the Cardio Recovery day. The Cardio Recovery is kind of a stretch and balance day, but there is still a fair amount of cardio work. I expected it to be a pretty easy workout and ended up having to take a couple of breaks.

I ended up missing a workout on Friday night unexpectedly, so I did two workouts on yesterday. I did one in the morning and one around 5 pm. I really wanted to play basketall today and didn't think I could get in an Insanity workout and basketball. I don't want to get behind on my schedule and I know it will be hard enough with the holidays coming up to not miss days. My plan is to do two workouts on any days that I need to make up a workout or shift my off days where needed. I'll just have to keep a check on my my body so I don't overdo it.

My plan is to post some short thoughts on the workouts a few times a week as I go through the program. So look for updates throught the week.

"Don't hate me, because I'm going to make you look good." - Shaun T

http://teambeachbody.com/shop/-/shopping/Insanity?referringRepId=111635

Vacation Time

I've been out for the past week at Disney World in Florida. I chose to take a break from most online communications during that time. I'm back now and writing my first blog post since getting back from the trip. I knew it would be difficult to work out so I didn't plan any workouts, but I did get the Insanity program ordered in time so I would have it by the time we got back. I started with the fit test today.

I didn't have the best diet when we were there and did not bring any shakes with me, so I am planning to double-up on Shakeology for some of the days this week to get me back on track. I wouldn't say my diet was terrible, but it could have been better.

I don't want to be too hard on myself so here are some good things. I did plan to take the week off from structured workouts so I did that successfully. That was the easy part. I did purchase snacks at a grocery store that were not that bad for me. I also walked quite a bit each day with a backpack that had two full bottles of water. I went swimming with the kids one morning and did some laps in the pool. And one morning I did 100 push-ups. It's not much, but it was something.

I also know that there were some things I could have done better. The place we were staying had a blender, so if I would have done a little research I would have known to bring some Shakeology packets with me. They would be easy to pack and don't take up very much space. I also could have ordered a little better at some of the restaurants. There's always that part of you that says, "I'm on vacation so I'm going to eat whatever I want." I think that's fine, but there were a couple of times I went a little overboard. I think our eating schedule just got delayed enough that I was so hungry by the time we got to our meal. Then it is easy to overeat or make poor food choices.

I do think the best thing that I did was make a commitment to start up 60 days of Insanity for the week after getting back. It's good to give your body a break now and then and this will take me right through the holidays and give me a running start for P90X2 in January. So I should be back on track this week.

As Tony Horton says, "Cheeseburger bad, fries bad, Coca-cola...oops I said it. Drink your water people."

What are you dying from?

I was reading through some of the success stories on the TeamBeachbody site when someone's story reminded me of this quote from Lance Armstrong in the movie "Dodgeball: A TRUE Underdog Story". There's an old saying from Homer Simpson that "it's funny because it's true". Whenever I start making excuses I think of Lance Armstrong's quote where he says "what are you dying from". Here's the script from that scene:



Lance Armstrong: Could I get a bottle of water. - - Hey, aren't you Peter La Fleur?
Peter La Fleur: Lance Armstrong!
Lance Armstrong: Yeah, that's me. But I'm a big fan of yours.
Peter La Fleur: Really?
Lance Armstrong: Yeah, I've been watching the dodgeball tournament on the Ocho. ESPN 8. I just can't get enough of it. But, good luck in the tournament. I'm really pulling for you against those jerks from Globo Gym. I think you better hurry up or you're gonna be late.
Peter La Fleur: Uh, actually I decided to quit... Lance.
Lance Armstrong: Quit? You know, once I was thinking about quitting when I was diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer, all at the same time. But with the love and support of my friends and family, I got back on the bike and I won the Tour de France five times in a row. But I'm sure you have a good reason to quit. So what are you dying from that's keeping you from the finals?
Peter La Fleur: Right now it feels a little bit like... shame.
Lance Armstrong: Well, I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn't have anything to regret for the rest of their life. But good luck to you Peter. I'm sure this decision won't haunt you forever.

We've Got a Situation

Since I'm not really following a specific program and I'll be heading to Disney World for a week I decided to try something a little different for my workout tonight. I played basketball yesterday and jammed my big toe so I didn't want to do much that would involve jumping around.

So I thought, what better night to try The Situation Workout with Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino.

Now keep in mind that if I had to pay for this I would not have done it. I already think this guy gets way to much attention and I don't need to put any money into supporting him. There are actually a whole bunch of workouts on Netflix instant streaming and this is one of them. I thought it would be just an ab routine, but I found that it is a series of 15 minute workouts for different body parts. I watched a little bit of the other routines and then skipped to the ab portion. There are actually two ab workouts. I'm not sure if they are meant to be done back-to-back, but that's how I did them. After doing Ab Ripper X these are pretty easy to get through.

I don't have a lot to say about the program. There are some good exercises and they seem to be done in a good order. It's not anything really new and you could probably just put together a bunch of ab exercises from a Men's Health type of magazine and get an equally good ab workout. But the thing you would miss out on is hearing the word "Situation" more times than you have ever heard in your life. It's pretty obvious that Sorrentino is not a fitness instructor. He stumbles through his introductions and explanations of the exercises and then hits on the girls in the video while they are trying to demonstrate the moves.

If you have Netflix instant streaming, feel free to check it out. But remember that you will not get any of the time that you spend watching this video back. I did get a small ab workout in, but I could have easily done half of the P90X Ab Ripper X for a better one.

Here's a little quote to leave you with for today from The Situation Workout:

"From my situation to your situation. Hope you have a great situation." - Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino

Without a plan

I've been working out without a plan for a couple of weeks now. I thought I would go back to P90X workouts for a few weeks, then take a week off for vacation, and come back to P90X until P90X2 comes out. But I started missing the Asylum workouts, especially the fact that they are usually 30 - 45 minutes long.

I find it is difficult to just decide at the last minute what I want to do. In fact, what I really want to do is lay down on the couch and watch a movie. That's why my brain must tell my body that it needs to push play on the workout video and do it. Once I'm started, I'm committed. It's starting that's the difficult part.

So tonight I decided to do P90X Back and Biceps mainly because I was looking for a good weightlifting workout. I am not as concerned for these next couple of months with keeping my weight down and I would like to increase my strength before starting P90X2. I did the Asylum Strength workout which mainly worked my chest and shoulders so I wanted to back off from that. In fact, I probably should have done a plyometric workout or yoga tonight, but I felt like lifting weights instead. I will probably be taking tomorrow off so I think this was a good choice.

I need to get back on some kind of a routine and have a plan so I don't fall into the danger of deciding not to work out. Take the decision making out of the equation and then there's nothing to it but to do it. I like these little quotes that Tony Horton and Shaun T use so I think I'm going to incorporate them into my posts from now on.

"Do your best and forget the rest." - Tony Horton

Who got the better delivery?

Today I came home to find yet another t-shirt waiting for me. This time it was the Insanity: Asylum - "I'm Committed" shirt for completing the Asylum program.

But this time there was another box waiting there by the door as well. A larger one with my daughter's name on it. We just had her birthday party this weekend so we opened them up at the same time to see what we got. It seems that we both received clothes. Hers were for Barbie dolls and mine was for me. Hers was a gift from her aunt, uncle, and cousins in Taiwan and mine was a reward for completing a month of some of the hardest workouts available on DVD. 

Happy birthday to my little girl.