Round 2 has begun (finally!)

I started back up again! I'm modifying the program in the following ways:

• Less strict on the diet in general (in moderation, of course):I'm incorporating either a cheat day on Friday/Saturday, or a little snack here and there throughout the week. If this is for life, it's got to be something I can stick with! The fact is, cheese is delicious; it's worth having it every once in a while. Also, changing foods with regularity and carb cycling seems to be effective for my body anyway.
  

• No cardio: I'm really struggling to put on weight. After speaking with many people, it seems that all the cardio built into P90X is great for those who are trying to lose body fat AND weight, but for those trying to gain weight, all that cardio may be causing me to metabolize muscle. I'm thinking that for now, the best course of action is to cut the cardio and maintain a rigorous strength training routine. Strength training puts your body in a lowered fat-burning state anyway. It's a shame, because cardio is my FAVE, but I've got to see if this causes some positive changes.
  

Did Chest and Back on Sunday for day 1. Today is day 3, and even though I'm in DOMS-land, it'll be fine. No pain, no gain!

FINALLY: day 90 pics! (turned out really shiny :\)

Sorry these took so long. <3

Slacker says what?

Okay, so I have been working out and logging calories, I swear. I'm also going to be putting up my day 90 pics in here--that day is coming SOON! Know when day 90 is? 6/26--that's FRIDAY BABY!

That is all. If you're REALLY curious about what I ate, check out my public diary at myfitnesspal.com.

What happened?! A whole week went by without a post?!

Well a lot has happened, I guess. I went to Pride this weekend. I missed a party. The beachbody forums came down and then back up. I finished my grades and field trips. I have 1 week of school left.

Other than that, it's the same old grind.

I thought I cheated like CRAZY but it turns out I was actually low on calories on Pride day! So weird.

Anyway, no pictures yet. I'll try to take some after Tuesday's workout. Here's all the nutritionals ever. You're in for it!

Plyo/I HATE COLLEGE LOANS

So yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, I went in to get my loan at the teacher's credit union.

For the record, my tuition went up by a little more than 700 dollars this summer. NO JOKE!

I'm bitter and angry, but whatever, it's not going to change. I'll just have to work harder to pay it off! Besides, doing the classes will get me earning more money at school so it's... worth it? Maybe. Still sucks!

Plyo was today. I worked it, man! I sweat like a freakin' beast. It's fun following Dominic and doing the double-time jump knee tucks.

Burger night--always brings the fat over 20%. I think I'll survive, heh.

Kenpo/Yoga/Chest+Back+ARX/Irresponsible me

Oh my goodness! I'm so remiss when it comes to posting recently.

Today I went out kayaking at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis with my friends Eileen, Gena, and Karen. It was a blast! I made sure to wear pleeeenty of SPF one million all over my exposed parts. I got soaking wet. We managed to steer around tons of other boats and stopped in a remote little body of water to eat and look at herons. It was quite awesome and such a clear, warm day!

Afterward we went to Buddy's Crabs and Ribs where I proceeded to butcher an order to get clean foods. Ready for it?

"Hi, I'd like a Make-Your-Own chicken sandwich with nothing on it. I don't need the bun because I'm not going to eat it. Instead of fries I'd like a sweet potato with no butter and I'd like an extra order of your seasonal vegetables, steamed, not sauteed."

What a PITA moment!

Another chance to catch up on my nutrition. Here goes:

No workout Wednesday?!/Legs and Back

Last night was my final Spring Concert with my kids and people went out afterward so I could absolutely not do Yoga last night. It's the first time since week 2/3 that I missed a workout so I'm not worried. Calm down guys--I'm switching my Saturday rest day and Wednesday's Yoga so I'll be Yogaing out of order on Saturday to make sure I get my 6 workouts this week. No slacking!

Things have been utterly crazy around here with all the field trips, concerts, and lack of sleep. I can't wait for a restful couple of weeks so I can tackle my grad school assignments ahead of time.

(By the way, regarding nutrition for Wednesday, there's NO WAY that 4 ounces of homemade beef stroganoff is 200 cals and 6 grams of fat. That's definitely wrong! Regardless, I was still very low on calories that night.)

Have a great night, all!

Back and Biceps/NEW IPOD/Day 66 pics!

So Laura is awesome and this is why:

She wanted a new computer and had the money so we went to the apple store because she wanted a macbook. We got one and with all the educational discounts and deals she also got the adobe cs4 creative suite for CHEAP and a 20 dollar ipod classic 120gig. She was going to get the ipod for me by getting a ton of people together for my birthday anyway but the rebate made the ipod 20 bucks! NOW I HAVE A NEW AWESOME IPOD :D Thanks Laura!

Anyway, today's workout got all screwed up due to weird annoying shenanigans happening at my usual workout time (Loyola can't get my online signin to work so I can't sign up for summer classes and apparently my field trip tomorrow is totally ruined because the place we're going to called the school after I left and said "you're beat") but I got to it very late and even managed to get my day 66 pics in. Hoo-rah.

Here goes, friends:

Plyo X/The day after the 1000 pushup challenge

Plyo was today and I sweat like a beast as expected. Such a powerful workout.

I love blueberries. Had some today!

What I don't love? Doing 1000 pushups and then trying to do anything the next day. Oh well.

Oh yeah, and another thing. My coworker is really sick so I may have to do Wednesday's field trip by myself. EEK. I'm not organized enough to handle it. Fortunately I think the 4th grade IA will be tagging along and assisting either way. Let's hope she can pull it together for both of us. GET BETTER KAREN ><

Legs/back/Kenpo/Rest/ChestShouldersTris/Abs etc etc etc. I'm playing catchup!

LONG TIME NO SEE!

I've been really busy and down in DC so I haven't posted in a while. Get ready for a SLEW of accountability below this post!

Going high-carb has made it MORE difficult to hit my calorie numbers, believe it or not. This is because when I was using powder to get my protein numbers, protein is easy to ingest. Upping carbs substantially has literally added more meals (meal 7? meal 8?!) to my day because I don't have a powdered low-gi carb. Despite this, the scale is still looking good- I think I've made it to 144.

I'm going to start to ween my way off of 2800-2900 after I get somewhere between 152 and 153. I hope to settle in the 155-160 range and see how that fits me. We'll see!

Anyway, believe it or not, I have many places to go tonight before I sleep. We're going out to eat (custom restaurant ordering abounds) and then it's time for UP, the pixar movie. I'll let you know how it is. :)

Yoga X/Busy and tired

Hey kids. It's late and I'm posting after eating what feels like more food than I've ever eaten ever.

Today since I had sweet potatoes with dinner (lower calorie, lower carb than most dinner carbs that I eat) I ended up having a 7TH MEAL involving 2 english muffins, 1 tbsp earth balance, and 1 medium apple. CRAZY. Laura said to me "Wow, you really NEVER stop eating, do you?"

Anyway, today was Yoga. I was interrupted partway through by the trugreen lawn people who managed to get me signed up to get lawn treatments because my lawn sucks and is practically unmowable in its current condition. Meanwhile, I'm planning my concerts on FRiday and my observed lesson tomorrow.

SO TIRED. WANT BED. Good night friends!

Shoulders and Arms/CARB CRAZED

So I had a great workout today. Shoulders and Arms is so awesome :D I love the way that pump feels! I finally GET IT.

I'm still marveling at this super-heavy carb load. Is this how I should be eating... really? It's crazy eating 1 cup dry oatmeal (that's more than 2 cups cooked, by the way), 3 slices of bread, 1 cup of whole wheat couscous, plus all the carbs from fruit and veggie sources. WHEW.

Anyway, this is a busy busy week. I'm hoping things will calm down a little after this one!

-2 observations
-2 concerts
-mow the lawn
-finally sign up for grad school classes this summer

Talk to you later :D

Plyo X/Cheating is over now/Memorial Day

Sweat like a beast today!

I'm LOVING phase 3 so far CARBTACULAR. It's definitely strange not eating billions of grams of protein though.

All the parties and the baseball game and going out to dinner was fun, but I'm exhausted and tired of cheating. Back to it! All the cheat foods at parties and eating out at restaurants is going to stop finally and I'm actually excited about that! It's hard to keep track of food that way.

Happy Memorial Day!

Rest day/ Chest and Back/Phase 3

Today's the first day of phase 3. I'm back to Chest and Back for the first time in 5 weeks and holy CRAP... I rocked it. All the weight has increased by at least 10-15 pounds in each hand and I far exceeded reps and quality of form. I'm glad it's actually WORKING!

Anyway, this is day two of cheat weekend extravaganza so I'm not logging foods simply because I don't know what's in all the foods at the parties I'm attending. I made sure to do clean eating for all other meals prior to the festivities. I'm back on track after Monday!

I attended a birthday party for Tom's roommate yesterday and I'm going to a sing-a-long party (yes, you read that right) tonight. Tomorrow's a baseball game. After that I'm clean eating in phase 3 of the diet (50/30/20). I'm looking forward to eating even more bread xD We'll see if I gain some more pounds that way as well!

(no logs. Sorry kids, I couldn't find little froofy homemade appetizers in myfitnesspal)

Yoga/BALANCE EEK

So I had a randomly bad day with Yoga. I was falling all over the place. I wonder why? I haven't really changed anything too significantly. I guess I should expect some days to be off days but it was quite frustrating.

Anyway, this is a quick post because I'm heading down to Tom's for a couple days. I'll try to post nutrition tomorrow. :)

Core Syn/Field Day

Today was Field Day at school. What was my station? You guessed it: the DDR station. I spent the entire day playing DDR and sweating like crazy. Then I went home and what did I do? Core Syn. By the time I drank the recovery drink and showered I must've exuded 5 pounds of sweat.

I'm all ready for this weekend. Two parties though--I sense a little bit of cheating on the horizon. I'll keep it to a minimum, I swear!

X Stretch/Found a new restaurant to add to the OK List

Well, tonight I went to Houlihan's unexpectedly and was treated to dinner as part of helping out with the band and strings concerts.

I ordered this "low calorie" item called "herb grilled chicken" on the menu. I had no idea what the nutrition info was but decided I'd just tweak when I got home--I ate clean for the rest of the day so no prob.

I was shocked to find out how good the stats were: 472 cals, 31g carbs, 18g fat, 43g protein. Not bad for eating out! I'm adding this to the list of "P90X approved dining out foods" along with Noodle and Co's house marinara with whole wheat fettucine and subway's double turkey 6" sub with veggies and mustard. The only issue is the sodium!

This is a list that I'm constantly trying to expand so I'm not constantly chained to the stove, so any suggestions are always welcome!

Stretching tonight was good. I'm off now to get some well-deserved sleep. Field Day tomorrow!

Kenpo/Sleepy

Hello hello!

I'm home alone and trying to vegetate as much as possible after Kenpo. I may go to bed early--feeling really tired! Definitely a day to read/relax.

I'm considering upping calories again because I'm not really gaining weight like I want to. I think I may hold off until my percentages change at the end of the week though--that way I'm not taking liver-destroying levels of protein to exceed 3000 calories! The percentages go to 50/30/20 (carbs/protein/fat) and at that point I'll be an oat-eating machine. Watch out!

I hope you all have a great night!

Day 51 pics/Core Syn

Not much to report today. Core Syn was hard but fun as ever. I took pics finally! No rehearsal tonight either, so we're making burgers! WOO.

Anyway, I'll keep this brief. Enjoy the pics. I may look somber in some of them but I'm quite chipper, really!

Concert in Reading/Lost my keys!/Recovery week

Well, it's recovery week, and I did Yoga today. Went well in general;Yoga Belly 7 is still the bane of my existence! I'm still plugging along and getting better with the half moon poses. Even held crane for a VERY short time!

Yesterday was a concert in Reading, PA--it's about 2 and a half hours away. We rode a bus there and the rehearsal, dinner, and show including bus rides took us from 11 am to 12:30am that evening. I had to eat a WHOLE LOT before I went to bed, so weighing in today didn't seem as accurate as it may have been otherwise--I had 142, but 2 pounds in 1 week? Maybe, but I'll have to see.

I LOST my house keys; it's been a huge fiasco to say the least. I'm going to have to dawdle at school to make sure that I'm here after Laura gets home. What a bummer!

Anyway, here's the nutrition for the weekend. Expect a post tomorrow or the next day with pictures (finally). I know I've been slacking on those!