Day 30. I did it!

I'm totally psyched.  I completed the 30 days and am feeling great.  In the 30 days I saw tremendous progress.  I've lost five pounds and a total of 5.5 inches from all over my body.  In addition to that, the fitness test really showed results and big differences from day 1 to day 30:


Exercise: day1/day30
Agility Heisman                            6.5/7.5
In & Out AB Progression              18/28
Push-Ups                                       15/22
Mountain Climber Switch Kicks   45/80
Agility Shoulder Taps                    3/4
X Jumps                                         26/35
Moving Push-ups                           3/3.5
Agility Lateral Shuffle                   10/13.5
Agility Bear Crawl                         2/5

Day 19 - Game Day plus Overtime.

Overtime???  Really?!  Was that absolutely necessary?  Today's workout was hard and the lactic acid and burn in my legs took me to my absolute limit.  An hour and fifteen minutes of intense cardio and strength training.  The result?  Two people mentioned today that I look fit.  I feel it too.  My weight is staying down, or starting to drop even further, my eating is under control, and I am in the zone.  Today I am absolutely starving, so I am going to try and stay within reasonable limits of food, eating a little bit more since I burned so much more. My total calories burned for today workout was 975 calories, which is almost my entire days worth of calorie intake.  I can't believe there are only 11 days to go and I can say I did Asylum, and 11 days to go and I can sit my skinnier arse on a beach for a week. :)

Day 16 - Starting to countdown

Today's the first day the number of days to completion are starting to go down.  16 completed, 14 to go.  Today was verticle plyo and it's still very very hard - at least the warm-up/jump rope piece of it.  Jump roping was intended for the very well coordinated!  The good news for today is that I weighed myself and I'm back down to where I was before I went away last weekend, down a total of 1.6 pounds since I started 2 weeks ago.  I took my measurements today too, and I am down 2 1/4" in total.  My left arm seems to have grown a bit, but the rest of me either stayed the same or reduced.  The biggest reductions are in my thighs - each one is down 3/4".  It's all that jump rope lactic acid burn that is doing that!  I feel them tight and strong too.  Go me!

Yesterday Maria and I decided we would share our food logs with each other daily to make ourselves accountable to lose those last 5-7 pounds.  Seems like just one day of it worked for both of us, and the scale proved it for me this morning.  Weekends are tough, but I'm going to stick to my 29 give or take weight watchers points.  I am committed to losing those last few pounds.

Still going, almost half way there

The biggest challenge of Asylum for me seems to be the warm-ups. Jump roping and jumping jacks are no joke. My legs are literally burning in the first five minutes of each day and I'm thinking i want to quit. But that ends and the rest of the workout is manageable challenge. Today was back to core again, and muscles burned throughout the workout, but in a good good way.

As for diet yesterday, i stayed on track within the weight watchers limitations. I was actually quite surprised how many "points" I ate given I really held back on the nuts throughout the day. I can't even imagine how many points I normally consume in any given day. So, this morning I was down 1.6 pounds from yesterday. Point 4 to get back to where I was on Friday.

Day 11 - Game Day and more than 1/3 done

I'm totally psyched after today's workout.  The workout was called Game Day, and it was 60 minutes long.  Just it's name and duration scared me, and I was really intimidated by it.   I was totally psyched as I watched the clock fly by, felt my blood pumping, and got into the workout.  I did it!  Of course there were some things I couldn't do, or had to drop to the floor on even though Shawn T was screaming at me to keep going, but I pushed myself beyond what I would have thought were my limits and I'm feeling great.  I haven't taken any measurements yet, but I feel like things are tightening up.

We went away this weekend and while on Friday I was down a total of .8 pounds, today I was up for a total of 2 pounds up.  I was bummed, but I'm 100% sure it had to do with the too many very salty pistachios and the beef jerky I ate due to not eating enough and being on the road.  I feel confident I can get those two pounds shed today and get back on track.  I really do want to lose 5 pounds in total by the end of my 30 days, so I now have 20 days to do it, well... 20 days now to lose 7.    I know I can do it, starting right NOW.  My commitment to myself is to eat 5 meals a day - meals to include protein and vegetables, and to limit the amount I eat to within the weight watchers point system allocated to me.  I have to give up the nuts, or limit them at least.  I eat WAY too many.  Here I go...

Day 8 - Back to Core

When I first saw the name of this workout "back to core" I assumed it would be all core body exercises.  What I didn't realize is that "back" part was about working your "back", and it's a great workout for that!  Today was my second time doing this workout, and this is the one with the reverse planks.  I am happy to say that today I was actually able to do some, not all, of the reverse plank leg lifts.  I did about 15 on each leg, and about 10 on each leg of the 2nd variation (I can't remember now what that was). 

I have to say that working my back and shoulders are my favorite exercises.  I love the way both look when developed, and I'm totally psyched at how my shoulders and back are developing.  Check this out:

Tomorrow is Vertical Plyo, which I remember really loving, then Sunday is a relief/stretch day.  Monday will be a new workout that I haven't done yet called Game Day.  It's the only workout that's more than 45 minutes and I'm a little nervous about it, but I know I can do it because I can do anything I set my mind to.  

Day 7 - Strength

I made it through the 1st week and feeling very strong.  I LOVE this program.  Today was a repeat of day one, total body strength training.  My favorite thing to do is the dumbell squats with curls and pushups.  Looking back to my entry from day 1, I was definitely able to more today than I did then.  I pushed myself much harder, and was able to do more reps throughout.   I also continue to be sore, but still in a good way.  I imagine I am going to be sore for the next 30 days.

There's a woman I work with who keeps complimenting me, telling me I look thin and lean.  It's a motivator and I'm excited about looking and feeling good.  As for diet, I haven't really been following a "diet" to lose weight plan, but I am following my insulin resistance program plan.  I've been indulging a bit too much on nuts, I think I'll tackle that one in a few days (when the cashews run out). 

Day 6 - Speed and Agility (take 2)

Yesterday was a rest day and I slept until 6:30!  That's far from the norm for me.  Normally I'm done and showered by then.  I took a look at the schedule for the next 25 days last night and realized that's the only rest day I'm going to get.  Yikes.  There are a bunch of "Relief" days, which apparently are just stretching sessions, so that's good, but there will be no sleeping in for me, at least during the week for the next 24 days. 

Today was a repeat of day 1, and I did better than I did on day 1.  It still kicked my butt, I was totally drenched, burned 670 calories, and there was no way I could do a single one of the criss-cross jump rope, but I had an amazing workout.  I LOVE ASYLUM.  I feel amazing, I feel tight, and I cannot wait for the next one to come.  Yay. 

Day 4 - Verticle Plyo

Wow, what a workout.  It was all in all less than 40 minutes, I burned 650 calories, and probably had an average heartrate in the 150's.  It felt great!  The jump rope thing is new to me, and I've managed to master the traditional jump rope, and even some of the single legged jumping, but the lung/leap both legs going in different directions???   Yikes!  I suppose by day 30 I will be there.  For the jumping over the agility ladder - I was ablet to jump 4 boxes vertically, and 2 horizontally - those are no joke.  Tomorrow is a day of rest, and my aching quads and back are looking forward to it. 

Now for the good news.  I went for a routine mamogram this morning and the technician asked me if I went to the gym because "you don't see muscles like that on a mamogram very often".  Ha!  I think I would have preferred if I walked in and she said "wow, I can really tell you work out", but I'll take a deep boob look to see my impressive pecks. :)

Day 2 - Strength

I was afraid of this workout going into it.  The warmup was outrageous and hard.  But I have to say I loved it.  I had a rock solid night's sleep, and woke up with all the muscles in my back sore from yesterday's workout, in a good way.  I burned 625 calories today in about 50 minutes, which is great. 

Post workout breakfast: 3/4 cup vanilla unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk, heaping scoop of healthy-n-fit egg protein powder, 2 tbs ground flax, 1 tbs cocao nibs, 1 tbs raw steel oats (today's the 1st day I added this - I felt like I needed a little extra after that workout), 1 scoop Green Vibrance all blended together with ice. 

Day1 - The Asylum

I completed day 1 and burned 650 calories in about 45 minutes.  I could hardly do many of the rotations, but at least I did some.  I feel good about accomplishing it.  After the workout I said to my husband (today is 10 years to the day of our 1st date), who was spinning in the same room that I did Asylum, that it was hard and I could hardly do a lot of it.  His response: "honey, if you thought you could actually do all that, you really are insane".  :)   I've decided to also follow Shaun T's eating plan this time, and to do it within the limits of weight watchers, so it's day one for that too.  29 days to go.

Insanity Asylum - Here I come

Well, I started this blog about 270 days ago, when I was just starting P90X for the first time.  I mentioned that others were doing it with me, but it seems I was the only survivor.  Since then I've watched my friend and coach Maria complete it, and others go through Insanity.  My friend Mark just did Asylum and he motivated me to do it.  So here I am.  It's 9:45 PM, and those who know me know that it's bed time, but I just got Asylum in the mail today and want to start tomorrow so I'll be ready for my vacation in exactly 30 days. 

The fitness test was hard.  Some of the agility tests I could only do two rounds of.  Yikes.  I've taken before pictures (which I will not share) and I've taken measurements (which I also won't share), but I will share progress, elation, fear and overall insanity.  Stay tuned, there's more to come.

Laura

PS - My six year old was dying to do this with me tonight but it was bed time.  I can fast forward 9 years and see us doing this together.