DNA Removal

I can't sit on my furniture currently, so the post is being written on the floor of my living room. I am literally too sweaty to sit on my couch. My current concern, however, is that I will not be able to get back up OFF said floor. Tony Horton calls this "DNA Removal". You don't just get a little "moist" doing Kenpo- you get damn near soaked from head to toe! I am having to ice my knee, so a shower will have to wait and I figured, what better to do than to write a severly overdue blog. This weekend amongst my fun I decided to give running a shot because it has been a while and I wanted to see how my improved leg muscles helped my ability to run. I did 2 miles, running 30 or 60 second intervals, and was able to do the whole thing with minimal discomfort. THAT day, anyways... My legs were barely on speaking terms with me yesterday and were still giving me the cold shoulder today. Last night was Core Synergistics and was not as harsh as it has been in the past, but towards the end, my core was getting a little week and I had to really watch myself so I didn't tweak my back. Today, about 15 minutes in to Kenpo, my right knee started to hurt pretty bad and I almost stopped the workout. SEVERAL times. But, every time I almost did, I thought about how I'd have to say so on here and I kept going. I made sure to modify enough that I could finish and not so much that something else suffered. It was nice to "feel" my body enough to know how to do that and even better to see that clock tick all the way down. :)

Tonight's Motivation

Tonight's re-energized need to "bring it" was brought to me in part tonight by my.... drum roll.... NEW HAIR CUT! :D As my reward to myself for making it half way thru P90X, I decided that I would get the hair cut I have been wanting for YEARS. I called today to make an appointment and she had an opening this afternoon, so I paced around the office for over an hour, full of nervous energy. Usually when you are about to do something drastic with your hair, you have time to adjust yourself to it, but since all the signs pointed to me doing it today, I went with it. I loved it and then hated it for about 5 minutes, then took a shower and washed out all the styling products and re-did it myself and loved it again! :) I almost wish I had gone dark with it, because if I had, it would be the perfect Audrey Hepburn pixie cut. But, the very few blond highlights I had put in make it the perfect spring/summer do for me. As for my workout, tonight was Legs & Back and I really kicked it's ass. Out of all of the changes I have found from this program, the strength of my legs now is pretty amazing to me. I may have, in my youth, had slight areas of firmness after a lot of activity, but now my quads and my calves are rock solid all the time. Now, if it would just conquer the inner thigh, I'd be one happy girl... ;) I wore a shirt today that didn't close all the way when I bought it, so that was awesome. And I wore pants that I bought from American Eagle almost 10 years ago, so that was pretty cool, too. I'm am totally stoked with my new attitude and my new commitment to finishing and kicking ass and changing my body for good. Lol, and while my chiropractic adjustments cost $40, my attitude adjustment cost twice that. :D

HALF WAY DONE!!!

This is going to be a short post because I am doing it on my phone, but I wanted to share that I am HALF WAY DONE with P90X!!!! Day 45 is done! I can assure you all that I fought heavily with myself because after the day I had, I did NOT want to work out. But, I did and I am happy to say I kicked it's ass. :D I love that I can do way more reps than I did before, but still have a ways to go. Lol, 45 more "ways to go", to start with. I have also switched to the Lean version because even though I have gained a lot of muscle, I still need more cardio to get rid of some flab. :) Anyways, half way thru, totally stoked, ready to keep going!!!

Battle of Wills

Tonight, my inner lazy-ass and my inner i-don't-want-to-be-a-lazy-ass got into an enormous fight. It was an epic battle, a clash of their wills.
My inner lazy-ass said, "Dammit, I have been slammed all week at work, haven't even had time to come home for lunch, I chased the kids around, played with them, and bathed them. Now I want MY time to lay on the couch and watch something mindless."
In response to that, my inner I-don't-want-to-be-a-lazy-ass said, "Listen, I get it. I was there too! I was right there with you last night while Audrey was awake coughing. I was right there with you while you spent all day in front of your computer moving 100mph. I get it. But I want to stop averting my eyes when I walk in front of a mirror, pretending I didn't see what I knew was in there... I want to wear shorts and tank tops and feel comfortable and not like everyone around me is wondering what possessed me to leave the house in that. I want to get in shape!"
So, on went Kenpo X and out came the beads of sweat and the shortness of breath and the inner lazy-ass got quiet. For 10 minutes. The two of them went back and forth and back and forth and looked at the time remaining on the work out and said, "We could stop now!" and "There is only 15 minutes left; we have to keep going!". The inner I-don't-want-to-be-a-lazy-ass won because the real me would have been so disappointed in myself that it wouldn't have been the visible cellulite and flab that made me not want to look in the mirror.
While I did tweak my back a bit (got fatigued and stopped keeping my core tight) and had to modify a little bit, I still completed the entire workout and that puts me one day closer to being done. I am feeling major results in my muscles. My legs (minus the inner thigh that seems to remain just in case I get lost in a blizzard and need some extra fat) are solid, I mean, suuuuuuper firm... My arms have toned up a lot and both my triceps and biceps have come a long way. My chest and back are noticeably changing and I can feel some major improvements in my core and buns. It is so disheartening to me that my stomach (and I am sorry for the TMI here, but...) is so stretched out from having kids and gaining so much weight that it folds over. This is not anything that is going to tighten up and go away. This stuff is here to stay until I can afford a tummy tuck and I hate it because I would be able to do so much more if this stuff wasn't there! So, until that gets taken care of, I am never going to be as excited about my progress as I would like to be, but I am still going strong and I am still going to finish this thing up. :) Monday, I will be on day 45... Half way thru P90X! :D

Inner Monologue

My inner monologue went like this tonight:

"I'm tired. I sooooo don't want to work out. Crap, where are my shoes. Dammit, I found them. SIGH! Okay, yeah yeah yeah, Tony, take your tip of the day and insert it in a highly private place. I did 10 minutes and I am really not wanting to do this; I think I will stop. Crap, why didn't I stop BEFORE the "Mary Katherine's"? Danny's right, that skinny dude in the back needs to be shoved up the same place that Tony's tip of the day went... If you stop, Anne, you will have to tell EVERYONE that you wussed out and stopped and were totally sorry. Well... Truly, I mean, maybe this will be one that no one reads... You have been pretty lax lately with posting. Maybe no one cares any more. Yeah, well, I CARE ANY MORE! I'm not going to be sitting here, 48 days from now, WISHING I had finished this. Yeah, I wish I could see more dramatic results, but hell, I didn't get my body into this condition in 40 something days, so why should it be magically transformed in 40 something days? I'm on the right path, I just need to keep pushing for that next milestone. Oh, thank the good Lord, it's time to cool down!"

I pushed through when the only thing I wanted to do was stay in my jammies and watch "That 70's Sow" from the comfort of my bed. I am feeling bogged down. I feel like my gung-ho attitude about doing this program just fell off completely. I attribute some of it to the fact that I still feel like crap. Stuffy, coughing, etc. I know it is probably taking me longer to get over my cold because my body is still trying to repair all the damage I am doing by working out, but logic doesn't yell as loud as the voice in my head telling me that the couch might float away if I don't plant my butt on it. I am finding solace in the fact that I am still putting one foot in front of the other and then jumping it back and then front and then back and then front.... Damn Mary Katherine lunges.....

Sidelined, but not derailed

The first work out into my 5th week of P90X and I thought I was in the clear, "Pff, if nothing has happened to me yet, nothing is GOING to happen to me!". But, what did happen to me was a double whammy, combo punch in the form of allergies/cold/my head is going to explode and a horribly pulled muscle (or whatever connective tissue it is) that runs from my neck to in the inside of my collar bone. I spent Sunday and the better part of Monday wadded up in a tight little ball of pain, clutching my left arm into my chest like I had on an invisible sling. Then, yesterday afternoon, I went to see my fantastically magically wonderful chiropractor and she pushed and pulled and tested and retested and adjusted and readjusted until she was sure I was all lined back up and then forbade me from working out. And she is strong, so I listened to her. :) So last night, feeling very sorry for myself that I had missed out on TWO workouts in a row, when I have only missed ONE since the day I started, I crawled into bed. My energy was all off because I hadn't had my endorphin rush for two whole days! So thiiiiiiis is what it is like to be addicted to something! :) This morning I still felt like crap (but was no longer sore in my neck/collarbone/shoulder) and even lost my voice when I got home. Since my head was so stuffy, instead of doing Yoga X, which was my workout tonight, I subbed out for Core Synergistics which I knew would give me some cardio and work my whole body. I did the whole thing and finished strong, albeit hacking a little bit, so I feel better having finally done something. Two days of not working out a month ago would have been NORMAL. I would have felt so flipping virtuous because I had worked out at ALL and would have laid on my butt and eaten some ice cream as a reward. Instead, after 4 weeks of dedicating myself to this program, I was pining to get up and sweat! So, the point of my rambling is that while I was benched for a couple of days, I am not giving up and I am back in the game, ready to kick some ass. To paraphrase from one of my favorite movies: "Wounds heal, (dudes) dig scars, glory is forever."

*insert witty title here*

Greetings and salutations from my Saturday. Today marks the start of my second phase of P90X. Today's work out was brought to me in part by a collaborative agreement between Satan and Justin Bieber. I mean, I can only assume such horror could be put together by those combined forces of evil. It began with the slow and painful torture known as the push up, but just in case a regular push up isn't hard enough, this one made you go from a plank position down to the floor in a slow, four count move, only to come back up at the same pace. That should have been my indication as to how the rest of it was going to go... Truly, it sucked, but I can see how helpful it will be in the change of my arms, chest, and back. Ab Ripper X, also known as "WTF?! Have you lost your MIND?!", went pretty well and I found myself actually doing the moves with the right form and that helped me really feel what they do to each area of my abdominal muscles and core. My recovery week was pretty awesome and my rest day (yesterday) was even better, but now it is back to the grind, and I have to say, I'm pretty stoked. :D