Day 92 - I'm officially a Yogi

I. Love. Yoga.

I really can't stress that enough. I love it. I love the stretching, the holding, the pain and the willpower it takes to get through that pain. The shaking muscles, the huge increase in flexibility from start to finish. Love, love, love! I can't wait to start looking into yoga classes in town. I have no idea what it'd be like to do yoga with a room full of other people. Plus, I'm pretty stoked on learning new poses. P90X has turned me into a yogi! This is good since, according to Women's Health, yoga practitioners tend to eat mindfully, eating when hungry and stopping when full - they think it's because yoga teaches calmness in the face of discomfort, which might make it easier to cave in to cravings.

Speaking of Women's Health, their January issue has a few delicious looking soup recipes. I made one tonight, Savoury Moroccan, which has chicken stock, diced tomatoes, zucchini, chickpeas, artichoke hearts, couscous, parsley, raisins, scallions and spices. YUM! I added chicken myself, boiling it and cutting it into little pieces. The end result? To die for. We had it with a delicious Blue Menu whole-wheat baguette. WH says to make sure that whole wheat is the first ingredient (check), it has no trans fats (check), and it has at least 3 grams of fibre per serving (check!). This recipe definitely made the books. I can't wait to try the other four recipes - and I intend to!

This isn't my final result - I stole it from WH!

And a gratuitous photo of me in Warrior Two.

Day 74 - 82% done!

Tonight was Yoga X, and I felt great doing it throughout the whole workout! The only part I struggle with now is that damn Warrior 3 sequence. I can't - for the life of me - balance during those poses! Maybe someday I'll get them..

Before Yoga though, we went for supper at Chris's grandparents. It was his Nanny's birthday today, so we went and spent time with the fam jam. We had haddock (the best I've ever had, hands down), carrots, broccoli, and potatoes, followed by a (little) piece of cake and ice cream. It was a great time!

As I'm sure I've said before, I have a subscription to Women's Health magazine. I saw this photo online today, about Men's Health magazine, and I was embarassed for them. Sooo humiliating.. Bet they thought no one would notice!!

D'oh!

Day 73 - Plyo, plyo, plyo

Oh, how I've missed Plyo! I love it (I know I say that about every workout)! It's definitely in my top 5 favourite workouts. During the Hot Foot exercise, I always used to switch feet every 15 seconds instead of every 30 like Tony does. My calf and foot hurt too much, and I couldn't stand it. But today I managed to do the whole 30 seconds per foot, both times! I was so excited! Nothing else has changed - I still have to take mini-breaks near the end of most workouts - but I'm still feeling great, and I'm still impressed that I can do both 1-minute sessions of the Swing Kicks. Love those!

A few days ago during Legs and Back, Chris took a video of me doing Lawnmowers.. Check it out, I look like such a gym buff!

During my workout, Chris was busy in the kitchen.. When I came out, I was served this: chicken breast with honey chili sauce on stir-fried veggies with walnuts sprinkled on top. Heaven!!!

Mmmmmm tastyyy

Day 71 - Dive bombers

I have a confession: I love dive bomber push-ups. Sure, I do the more easy 'modified' version, but they're still awesome. I did 15 my first set and 11 my second set (in contrast, I did 13 then 5 diamond push-ups). I actually enjoy the dive bombers!

We had a friend over for supper last night, and she loved the Island Pork Tenderloin that Chris made. We got a little cherry cheesecake as a treat, and we each had a little piece. Now we have five pieces of cheesecake in the freezer. I'm thinking we might have to give that away so it won't get eaten! Maybe I'll take a few pieces into school. Everyone loves cheesecake!

Hard to believe we're so far into the program. I was looking at our schedule yesterday. We X off every day that's gone by, and they're almost all marked off... Getting there!

Next up: plyometrics!

Day 68 - 22 more days!

Chris just had this epiphany - 22 more days of P90X!!

I think, when we're finished, I'm going to have some sort of crisis. I won't know what to do with myself! We had planned to start it over in preparation for our trip to the Dominican in March, so that's an option.. Hmm. At least we have 22 days to decide.

And we'll be taking a few days off for Christmas. ;)

So we just finished legs and back, and even though it hurts like hell, it remains one of my top 3 favourite workouts. Then we did Ab Ripper, which I've come to hate. Even though I've been doing it for 68 days now (not consecutively, but still), I still struggle with every single exercise and I can only finish about two of them without stopping for a mini break. That's kind of frustrating. Still, I keep trying, and that's all I can do.

I got a message today from a girl I went to high school with. I closed it before I had a chance to save it (dammit!), but she basically said that she reads my blog and that, because of me, she and her boyfriend started doing Power 90. She said they want to do P90X but thought they'd start with Power 90 and see how things went. Then she congratulated me on my progress and called me an inspiration! I was so happy. I really appreciate messages like that. I'm doing this program for ME, but if I can motivate and inspire people along the way, it makes my experience that much better. So, thank you for that message!

And now, I have to go.. Pork tenderloin is calling :)

Day 4

Since starting P90X and its strict nutrition plan, I've been offered candies and donuts and treats every day. Mind you, it's only been four days, but it's interesting because it seemed like an odd coincidence until I started thinking about it. Then I realized that, likely, I was offered treats before starting P90X, and I would always accept them. Hard sugary candies, chewy sour candies, leftovers from bake sales.. I would have been fine without them, but I would take them to be gracious, and only harm myself in the process. One of my favourite treats were passed around today - the mini chocolate bars for Halloween - and I said 'no thank you, I have a banana'. My friends laugh, but they're all really supportive, which is great because no one likes the "Oh, go ahead, surely YOU can afford to have a cookie" friend.

Which gets me on to another topic. I've noticed something. When I mention to someone that I'm following a strict workout and nutrition regimen (using those words), they're fine with that. But the second the word "diet" leaves my lips, their jaws hit the floor and they look me up and down and say, "Why do YOU need to DIET?!" First of all, I'm not dieting in the classic sense of the word, and secondly, thank you for judging me outright in front of (presumably) all these people and putting me on the spot to defend myself.

Seriously! This happens all the time. Yes, I'm thin. No, I don't think that just because I'm thin I should forget about keeping myself this way. Why praise a 170lb woman for dieting, yet discourage me from doing it? I just don't get the double standard.

Sorry, that was a little tangential.

This morning for breakfast (at 5:45am) I tried a soy sausage muffin, and I hated it. I keep saying that it was too early for meat, and Chris is quick to correct me and say that they're meatless. Fine, but it's still too early for simulated meat. Chicken bacon I can do. Soy sausage patties, not so much. They did last me until 9:30 though, so bonus points for that. Lunch was a chicken breast sandwich with a yogurt, banana, tomatoes, a small can of tuna, and half a protein bar. Now, supper.. was.. amazing.

There's a recipe in the nutrition guide for Island Pork Tenderloin Salad, and I HIGHLY recommend it. We kept the pork separate from the salad (because it was so delicious it needed to be savoured alone), and it's kept me full all night. It's bedtime, we ate at 5:00 and I'm not hungry in the least bit. My god, it was so delicious.

I finished my first ever yoga workout tonight, and I'm really happy with it. There are some crazy advanced moves, but for the most part, they were manageable and I was covered in sweat by the time I was done. Tony says this is a good thing. I felt it most in my quads and glutes, which makes me sad since they were just starting to heal from my first core workout. BUT! It's the weekend, and it's bedtime, and I'm sleeping in tomorrow - yessss!