P90X Program Attempt 3

On July 28th I relaunched for the 3rd time!
This time I asked Gab and she agreed to help out because it's a ton more work for her because I can't help when I get home from work. So unless she supports me I can't do it.
I built my pull up bar and have the work out bands.
I've worked out how to stick to the diet. Basically I have 2 slices of brown bread in the morning with jam, then 11ses snack of fruit, lunch I stick ready prepared stir fry mix in microwave with soy sauce and slices of ham or chicken (it is mainly bean sprouts and cabbage with peppers, onion etc.) afternoon snack of yoghurt or cottage cheese and then have the lunch deal again ideally at work before I start heading home. At home I might have some dried fruit instead of biscuits with a cup of tea. As you can imagine the diet is the hardest part of this. I have to turn down going out to Nandos with Ryan from work, we might be at mum and dads and they order a curry and I have to stay away while they eat it, going to a supermarket is a nightmare - especially the bakery section.
I have also been sticking to the exercise routine. I've missed 3 days from illness and will try and make them up or will extend the 1st phase by three days.
The hardest part of the excersizes is the time it takes - yoga is 90 mins! By the time I've commuted back home I have to start straight away and then go to bed after - if I can get to bed after 90 mins of excersize.
I have some photos of me at the beginning which I will post. They are very embarrassing.
The results so far (3 weeks and 1 day in) are I have gone from 81.8kgs to 75.6kgs this morning - so lost 6.2kgs. But I'm cheating a bit because 81.8kgs is at night and I seem to weigh a lot less in the morning and I've had my hair cut. I think a chunk has come from my neck and cheeks. I can see my cheek bones and I don't look as fat in the face. Gab thinks I've lost weight around my tummy - but I can't see it. I feel a bit fitter but nothing special - although I sometimes do things that surprise me - like I'll run up the stairs and get to top and think - I don't normally do that. I certainly don't look super fit. But then again I'm only 3 weeks in to 13!
The other thing is I am permanently thinking of food and where I want to go to eat as soon as the program is over. (Belgos & Bodeans & Wasabi Pringles).
I'm feeling a bit wiped out now - and not sure if it is diet and weight loss or if it's this chesty cough and sore throat I've had the last few days. I think it's the illness and I'll be tip top in a couple of days.
Challenge coming up is that I have a stag do to go to at the weekend. Booze is not in the plan and I don't want to wreck 3 weeks of food hell. I don't want to let Rob down but hope I don't have to get drunk to celebrate his stag do - and hope I can not go too far from my diet.

How to memorise a pack of cards

I managed to memorise 37 of the 52 cards (numbers not suits) on the way in to work this morning. That's about an hour journey.

I'm quite pleased with that - although there's a long way to go to get to 52 cards, then add the suits then get it down to 5 minutes!

My first 4 points on my journey were, my bed, Max's bed, Lauren's bed and Zach's bed.

I have found that if I assign numbers to Gab, Max, Lauren and Zach it is more powerful than assigning to their beds - I guess it is obvious. But then I can also place them in other places on the route. It cross references numbers and enables me to re-use my strongest memory place holders.

P90X Program Cancellation, Restart & Cancellation

So after getting really sick (nothing to do with P90X as far as I know) I had to stop. But I restarted again and kept going until my IKEAing up the house took over. I had to give up on everything else to finish the IKEA work before Gab and the little ones got home. In the mean time I bought bungie rope things to use instead of weights and a pull up bar - downstairs and yet to be assembled. But I have the tools now and plan to relaunch again.
The second time I did it I found I was eating better and had more energy and felt loads better.
But it takes up loads of time - it's only 7 hours a week - but with my commuting that's a big share of the amount of free time I have.

How to memorise a pack of cards update

I shelved all projects for a while while I IKEA'd up our house with the help of mum and dad while Gab and the little ones were away in Australia.

I did keep going with the memorisation project for a while and I managed to memorise a pack of cards - but only the numbers and not the suits. It also took about a day to do!

The first time I did it I managed to memorise about 20 cards, and worked my way up to 52.

I worked out the 52 places to put cards. It's my journey to work. At the moment I have to sit with my list in front of me as I memorise the cards.

The 100 Things Challenge - Day 1

This is a new project.

This is my inspiration: http://www.guynameddave.com/100-thing-challenge.html.

I've always appreciated minimalism and I try not to buy tons of stuff but boy do I have a ton of crap.

But thinking of the stuff I need I can't see myself getting to 100 things. Tennis stuff, running stuff, gym stuff, skiing stuff, surfing stuff, work clothes, winter and summer clothes, without thinking too hard I can think of loads of stuff I need.

The first stage is counting what I think I need - the rest I am going to put in the loft or ebay. Once they've been packed away and untouched for a year I can throw away.

100 things may not be sensible for my life - but I want to come up with a sensible level and stick to it.

Need - Obviously I don't need almost anything - the plan is to keep stuff I use. And get rid of the stuff I don't. I do not want to have to get rid of stuff for the sake of it and make my life harder in anyway. So I could get rid of my palm pilot - I don't really need it - but I use it often and don't want to get rid of it to hit an arbitrary target.

P90X Program Day 3 Disaster

Today has been a bit of a disaster.

Apart from my body aching from jumping yesterday I have come down with something. My neck hurts, hurts to swallow and no energy. I will be off to the doctors tomorrow morning for anti-biotics.

I think thins means I am going to have to restart the program.

I guess the silver lining is the diet part has been easy - hardly eaten anything today.

I was meant to be doing Shoulders and Arms today - but reading the book almost all the excersizes need bands or dumb bells.

P90X Program Day 2

Last night I did Ab Ripper and this morning I did Plyometrics.

Plyometrics is basically 1 hour of jumping up and down lots.

But each excersize is different so it's fun as routines go.

And as ever the instructor dude doesn't stop talking which helps keep you going.

The thing I loved most about this one was they had a guy with one leg doing it.

I kid you not. I thought the instructor was joking when he said one of the backing group would do it on one leg, and then I realised one of his legs was plastic.

Anyway the dude with one leg kicked arse. The only thing he couldn't do was hop on his plastic leg - so he didn't get to switch legs on the hopping bit. So the whole way through I'm thinking christ if the guy with one leg can do it I need to "Bring It" as the instructor says.

I was dripping sweat and my shirt is saturated. I didn't think I could keep going with 30 mins left to go but made it through.

Diet is still going to be a night mare for the week while I am at work. I'm going to try and prepare food for tommorrow today and take it a day at a time. I'm going to have to try and eat dinner on the way home. So cold dinner eating on the train - Mental.

P90X Program Day 1

So I'm sticking to my diet - but it's a bit weird.

I have a list of categories and units I have to eat. Eg 1 Carb and 2 Condiments and 5 Vegetables and 1 Fruit.

I then have a list of things in the categories and have to stick to the things each day.

It means you have to plan out what you are going to eat each day - not something I am used to. And it is really time consuming.

So today I have eaten:

2 slices of bread, 2 tbls of jam, 1 glass of milk.

1 yoghurt

1 apple

2 cups of peas and a piece of fish

1 yoghurt

3 cups of peas and 2 pieces of fish

5 cups of water.

So weird writing down what you eat - I've turned in to a nut job.

Any way I have no idea how I am going to cope in the centre of London and commuting.

I'm going to just plough on and hopefully it will be easier.

Second part is the work outs.

The first was back and chest and mainly push up variations and pull ups. I don't have the dumb bells needed or the pull up bar so could only do the push ups. They are way hard. I hate push ups. I did my best but after the 5th round of push ups I was struggling to do 5. Any way the guy on the video is really motivating. I'm about to do the Ab exercise video now.

P90X Program Intro

So while I was in the US I noticed the adverts are either for fast food or fast buster pills and fitness programs.

I saw an advert for P90X and thought why not give it a go while Gab is away.

I bought the pack on Amazon and it comes with 13 DVDs, a guide, a diet book and wall planner.

There are same problems:

1. Obviously a 90 day program and Gabs only away for 45 days.

2. The diet/nutrition side is not optional. Not a problem except:

You have to eat regularly through the day. Dinner has to be at least 3 hours before you go to bed.

Well I commute and unless I go to bed at midnight I can't cook the suggested food.

I'm wondering if I can eat dinner on the train home every night and prepare my lunch and dinner and mid snacks for the next day every day.

3. I have just finished the first DVD. Mainly variations on push ups but you also need dumb bells or resistance bands and a pull up bar.

I am 6ft tall and 180 lbs at the start and am quite flabby around the tummy. Lets see how I get on.

How to memorise a pack of cards

Today is my first day of learning to memorise a pack of cards.

I took a pack of cards with me in to work on the train and tried to memorise as many cards as I could - just the numbers not the suits.

I got to 26 cards. It took about 40 minutes

I used the method where you think of a journey and memorable places along the journey and put a card number in each place.

My biggest problem was that I got to 24 places on my chosen journey and then ran out of places. I tried places on the way home but it's a return trip and I couldn't put multiple numbers in one place - my brain couldn't do it.

So my next tasks are:

1. To find more places on the route.

2. To memorise faster.

3. To add in the suit.

My first Blog

I have entered the blogosphere.

I want to use this to capture my projects.