Hah! Did I say that I was just starting this new lifestyle? Err, I meant I would later next week...
So I only say that because of course, the day of posting my blog, I didn't work out. And then, it wasn't until tonight (Sunday evening) that I finally got around to it. Woops. Overall, the reasoning was that there was a football game on Saturday, I woke up a bit too late and then after the game, went to dinner with Ryan (roommate), as well as my dad and aunt (who came down to Corvegas to go to the game). And then I had a busy Sunday and didn't get around to it until about 11 PM.
So before I get into my plans, just to discuss today. First went off to Jiffy Lube to get my oil changed, and of course they found that my transmission desperately needed to get flushed out (costs $120), and I had a license plate light that was out (apparently, cops around here are sticklers about that kind of stuff) so had to get that replaced ($20), on top of the $25 oil change. Well the guy was nice, and took off 10% from the total purchase (the 10% was just for the transmission (one of their deals) but he decided to take it off the total, taking a few extra dollars off, woo!). Ventured over to Goodwill to look at black sports coats for my choir (changing from navy blue to black, thank god, but means I need to get a new one, and with my body structure, I need to usually get one fitted to me, yay more money). Then I headed over to a Verizon store, that was closed (thought I read that it was open today online), but luckily, I had to go downtown anyways to deposit a check. So I went over to the other Verizon store (not the official store in Corvallis, but still sells all the stuff. I forget what their deal is with Verizon, they're like an outlet store for convenience, but don't do much in terms of contracts and replacements, etc.). I checked out cases for my new iPhone (I love it!), didn't see a great selection, and they were busy, so I didn't wait around to ask them for any recommendations on what they prefer, or what's the most popular. Decided I'll buy it via Amazon for $14 for a decent case, although, I will check the OSU bookstore first, see if they have any good deals (HAH good deals at a university book store, classic joke), but specifically for any cases that may have the OSU/Beaver logo on it. That'd be sweet. Then came home for a bit of chillaxing and eating some "healthy" food... And by that, I mean 2 hotdogs with some chili on top...
Crap, there goes healthy eating. Not really though, right now, my aim is to pick the healthier choices. Instead of getting fries with a burger, get a salad. Rather than getting fried food, get something grilled or baked. Rather than eating out, or getting something on campus or right off of campus (from a restaurant), eat something at home, or bring a sandwich. That kind of thing. Plus, I'm going to be implementing challenges (I forget if I mentioned this in the previous post) for each month. They are mainly going to be revolving around food and exercise, but I might do other things as well. I have November planned out, albeit I will have a few exceptions involved due to Thanksgiving, I still think it should be the first one I try out. Hopefully it will help me in the future if I get this one out of the way.
So what else to talk about... Oh right, how will I be working towards these goals of mine? How am I going to be losing weight and getting in better shape, eating healthier, etc.?
Well I am going to be focusing on my exercising the most. Now, this alone will help, but will not be the best way to tackle this obstacle of mine. So that's why I want to add in the food, sleep, as well as other aspects of my life that will help me emotionally/mentally. But, once again, exercise will be my main focus. I want to be in better shape physically, not just to look and feel better, but also so I can continue to exercise. Hell, one of my biggest goals is to be able to run from the Zoo down to Washington Park for Ultimate Frisbee, every Tuesday during the summer. Sure, I could run down now, but it'd leave no energy for the actual playing. I want to do BOTH. So hopefully, by June 2012, I'll be good to go! I also would love to be able to run with my brother sometime. He's a big runner, last I talked to him about it, he was running about 70 miles a week. Now, that's a lot, but I would love to be able to run with him, even once a week, or at least the ability to. Or even the least, be able to run half way with him, I'd even take that. One day.
Well, you might hate me for this, or you might cringe, but I'm using P90X to workout.
Yup, I can hear the groans from the vast amount of followers that I have on this blog. Yeah, it's that program from the infomercials, and Tony Horton sounds/looks/seems like a bit of a D-Bag, but face it, nearly any program that works on every aspect of your body, with both weights and anaerobic exercise/cardio-esque workouts will work, as long as it's frequent enough, and you stick to it. So you know what I say to that?! I say I'll do the 6 day a week workout program for 3 months, and I will even add in my 7th day workout, although, it will be a half workout, so I get a bit of a rest.
Just so you know how the program works, here's the lowdown. There are 3 phases (4 weeks each except for the third, which has 5 weeks, to even out to 90 days), and in every week but the final week of each phase, the layout of the week looks like:
1. Weights/Abs
2. Plyometrics (a type of cardio which works on jumping and agility)
3. Weights/Abs
4. Yoga (90 minutes, pretty intense, I collapsed and fell asleep the first time I tried it! Ryan quit it after 20 minutes and tried the Stretch video instead, smart move, but I encouraged him to try his best with the Yoga. It works your body very well, and also helps you emotionally/mentally)
5. Weights/Abs
6. Kenpo (martial arts that is filled with punches, kicking, and blocking)
7. Rest, or the stretch video (I'm choosing now to do this stretch on the 7th day, as I'd rather do the half workout.
However, the final week of each phase is labeled as the recovery week, to help your body recover from the weights, while still working out.
1. Yoga
2. Core Synergistics (I'm assuming this works on your core... I don't know much about it yet, plus isn't that word made up!?)
3. Kenpo
4. Stretch (required this time)
5. Core Synergistics
6. Yoga
7. Rest or stretch
For my 7th day half workouts, I focus on muscle groups that either the program sort of lacks, or that I would like a bit more definition on. Mainly biceps, chest (pushups), lower back, and upper/middle back. I should really add in some triceps in there as well. I'll see about that. I also do some core work as well, working on abs and obliques. Now, this will take me about 20-30 minutes, and still breaks a pretty hard sweat. But I want to make sure not to push it out on this. If I need to quit, or lower my reps, then I'll do that, days 1-6 are the hard ones, the 7th should be my easy day. Now on top of this, every day I do 2 or 3 sets of biceps on my left arm, and 1 or 2 on my right arm (I incorporate different types of curls, rather than just the same thing over and over again), and I also do a single set of triceps on both arms, and do an extra on my left arm. I do this, because my left arm is very inferior to my right, due to being on my high school's bowling team for 4 years. When you use your dominant arm for everything, and then bowl A LOT using the same arm, you really bulk up on that arm. So I want to help catch up my left arm. I also will sometimes do some core work, such as 50 crunches and 25 or so reps of a few other things focusing on abs or obliques; just depends on if I feel like it, or remember.
Alright, I think that covers the program pretty well, this post is getting long so I'm going to be wrapping up. By the way, I didn't fork out $150 or whatever on this program (videos and other stuff); I just downloaded it online. No way I'm paying for that and falling into their scheme. I did, however, buy a pull up bar (unfortunately cannot use it at my apartment due to poor molding on the door frames, but can use at my house in LO, so I incorporate other back exercises instead of pull ups) and some adjustable weights off Amazon for fairly cheap, and they get the job done. Ryan is also working on the program, and we started on the same day, but he is a bit behind, due to not doing a few days. He's still adamant about it, but not as strict as I am about keeping on schedule.
That reminds me! My deal about if I miss a day due to being busy, forgetting, or whatever the reason, is that I must catch up to the schedule. That means that I do have to do 2 workouts in a day if I miss one. I did it last week and did Plyometrics and Arms/Shoulders (weights) in one day. That SUCKED. Bad combination. And the best thing? I'm going to do it tomorrow, since I didn't have the energy or time to do 2 workouts today, and missed Saturday. Oh well, I won't try to make it a habit though. However, if I do get sick, or something like that, I am willing to miss 1 day and be 1 day off the schedule, but only if I really could not workout that one day. After that, however, I MUST keep on schedule (can't miss more than 1 day, and won't need to catch up if really sick, basically). Even if I half-ass the workouts because of an illness, I need to try.
My last paragraph, and then my wrap up. I will also start implementing a new sleep schedule tomorrow. I was going to start it tonight, but I remembered I needed to work out when it was too late to keep to the schedule, and I really wanted to get this written up and posted before Monday morning. I also needed to rest a bit before going to bed. So here's the deal, on weekday nights, I must be away from a screen (computer or tv, phone and DS is okay, but I need to be careful about how long I'm playing. I'd rather not, except for texting and the like, but we'll see) by MIDNIGHT. And I must be in bed by 12:30. Exceptions: Homework that is taking me longer than I anticipated, or if I'm reading a really good book and want to finish another chapter or two (not likely, and I'll probably already be in bed if I'm reading). Hopefully, this means I'll be asleep no later than 1 AM, and I will set my alarm for 9 AM (maybe 9:30 if I'm really restless and have a hard time sleeping). On weekend nights, everything is extended an hour, unless there's some sort of get-together with friends that takes me away from my bed. I need to get on a schedule where I can workout in the morning (earliest classes are at noon), and still get 8 hours of sleep, while being on a routine schedule. This starts tomorrow!
Alright, and I'm going to bed finally, long overdue. I do like doing this kind of thing before going to bed. Makes me feel good prior to sleeping, takes me a bit of time so I'm actively engaged in something besides a game. And also, even if I am in front of a screen, at least I'm not playing a game. My next post will be talking about how I've been doing thus far with my workouts, and how I've been feeling about it all, but also some of my plans with food, and what I'm changing things from. With that, I bid you adieu, and leaving you all with a nice little video, just to show why I implied that I'm not a fan of Tony Horton.
Tony Horton 'Isms'
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