Week in Review April 1 – April 7, 2013

Beginning Weight: 195.8

New Weight: 195.2

Weight gain or loss: -0.6 pounds

Total Weight Loss Since January 1, 2013: -4.0 pounds

What went right, what went wrong

Last week was full of mixed results. I only got in 4 workouts, I like to get in 6, possibly 7. I also ate terribly on the days that I didn’t work out. It’s always hard to maintain my discipline with eating when I don’t exercise.

On weeks where I don’t get as many workouts in as I would like, I have decided to make the Insanity portion of my routine the priority. Of the fours days, I did Insanity 3 days and P90X once.

Goals for the week

1. Get a full week’s worth of workouts in. Holidays throw me off a lot, and I am still seeing that from when I was out during Easter.

2. If I don’t get a workout in, I want to really practice being more disciplined when I eat. I nee dot get better in that area.

3. Just pay attention to the way my body reacts to the reintroduction of weight lifting. Adding weight to my body isn’t a bad thing so long as it is muscle. That being said, I also have to pay close attention to the way I eat because if I eat poorly all week and my weight goes up, then it probably isn’t muscle.

One other thing, I am going to try to blog as often as usual (1 or 2 times a day) but we are getting really close to State tests so my time will be really crowded during these last few weeks of school.

Have a great day ladies and gentlemen, and may all of your fitness dreams come true!

Justin

Week in Review March 24 – March 31, 2013

Beginning Weight: 195.8

New Weight: 195.2

Weight gain or loss: -0.6 pounds

Total Weight Loss Since January 1, 2013: -4.0 pounds

What went right, what went wrong

Last week was full of mixed results. I only got in 4 workouts, I like to get in 6, possibly 7. I also ate terribly on the days that I didn’t work out. It’s always hard to maintain my discipline with eating when I don’t exercise.

On weeks where I don’t get as many workouts in as I would like, I have decided to make the Insanity portion of my routine the priority. Of the fours days, I did Insanity 3 days and P90X once.

Goals for the week

1. Get a full week’s worth of workouts in. Holidays throw me off a lot, and I am still seeing that from when I was out during Easter.

2. If I don’t get a workout in, I want to really practice being more disciplined when I eat. I nee dot get better in that area.

3. Just pay attention to the way my body reacts to the reintroduction of weight lifting. Adding weight to my body isn’t a bad thing so long as it is muscle. That being said, I also have to pay close attention to the way I eat because if I eat poorly all week and my weight goes up, then it probably isn’t muscle.

One other thing, I am going to try to blog as often as usual (1 or 2 times a day) but we are getting really close to State tests so my time will be really crowded during these last few weeks of school.

Have a great day ladies and gentlemen, and may all of your fitness dreams come true!

Justin

Week in Review March 18 – March 24, 2013

Beginning Weight: 194.2

New Weight: 195.2

Weight gain or loss: +1.0 pounds

Total Weight Loss Since January 1, 2013: -4.0 pounds

What went right, what went wrong

The week went pretty well for me. Monday through Friday, I stayed within what I had planned. The weekend was my undoing. I munched a lot and really didn’t track what I ate very well. I am pretty certain that is where the extra pound came from.

The one thing I am considering with the small gain this week is that I have gone from strict Insanity workouts to a hybrid workout of Insanity and P90X. That means I have gone back to weight lifting. When I was doing P90X by itself, I had some pretty wild fluctuations with my weight. If the added weight lifting adds a significant amount of muscle, my weight may not go down much, or it may actually go up. That doesn’t mean I need to stop doing it. It means I need to pay close attention to my body and see how it changes.

Speaking of the hybrid workout program, this was the first week that I got a complete week in. If you are wondering what exactly I am doing, this is what I am striving towards.

• First Four Weeks

1. Monday – P90X Chest and Back
2. Tuesday – Insanity Max Interval Circuit
3. Wednesday – P90X Arms and Shoulders
4. Thursday – Max Plyo Circuit
5. Friday – P90X Legs and Back
6. Saturday – Insanity Max Cardio Conditioning and Insane Abs
7. Sunday – Insanity Max Interval Sports Training (This is one I just try to get in, if I don’t I won’t try to make it up)

• Second Four Weeks

1. Monday – P90X Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps
2. Tuesday – Insanity Max Interval Circuit
3. Wednesday – P90X Back and Biceps
4. Thursday – Max Plyo Circuit
5. Friday – P90X Legs and Back
6. Saturday – Insanity Max Cardio Conditioning and Insane Abs
7. Sunday – Insanity Max Interval Sports Training (This is one I just try to get in, if I don’t I won’t try to make it up)

• Third Four Weeks

1. Repeat the first four weeks, this time only doing it for only two weeks this time around.
2. Repeat the second four weeks, this time only doing it for only two weeks this time around.
3. Between each round, I will do Insanity Core Cardio and Balance for the week to recover.

Goals for the week

1. I want to get back into the swing of things with weight lifting. I was so focused on lifting big the first time around with P90X, that I paid less attention to my form then I should have. I need to do better with my form, even if it means lifting lower weights.

2. I should do okay with my eating, but I do need to be careful this weekend. It is Easter weekend, and we are headed to my in-laws for the weekend starting Thursday. It’s great for us to relax, but sometimes I relax my discipline when I eat when I go there.

3. Just pay attention to the way my body reacts to the reintroduction of weight lifting. Adding weight to my body isn’t a bad thing so long as it is muscle. That being said, I also have to pay close attention to the way I eat because if I eat poorly all week and my weight goes up, then it probably isn’t muscle/

Have a great day ladies and gentlemen, and may all of your fitness dreams come true!

Justin

Week in Review: February 11 – February 17, 2013

Beginning Weight: 193.6

New Weight: 191.4

Weight gain or loss: -2.2 pounds

Total Weight Loss Since January 1, 2013: -8.0 pounds

What went right, what went wrong

This is exactly the type of week you need to strive for in losing weight, especially if you are close to your goal. A 2.2 pound loss is a healthy weight loss. Ideally, I would have liked to have dipped below 190, but that would have been pretty remarkable. I did have a minor hiccup on Valentine’s Day and I continued to eat too much candy on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough to offset what I did the rest of the week.

If your week was better than mine, great! Keep it up! If not, take the same approach I am and remember that you can do better this week.

Last week was the first week that I spent on Phase 2 of Insanity. If you have read any of my Fitness Updates from last week, you would know how hard it has been. With the increased intensity, I had to up the number of calories I eat. I was a little nervous about doing that, but it seems to have worked. I plan to continue that pattern this week.

Goals for the week

1. I want to continue to improve my ability to do the movements in Phase 2 of Insanity. It’s hard, so I just need to continue to pay close attention to the form. The movements are so intense that you still get a solid workout even if you don’t go lightning fast doing them.

2. I have a number of places where I could ruin my diet this week and next week. My birthday is Thursday, so there is going to be some eating out and birthday cake. I will repeat the process again next week because my son’s birthday is exactly one week later. I want to enjoy them and eat what I want, but I also don’t want to throw everything I’ve worked so hard to achieve down the toilet.

3. Try to get at or below 190. This is not as ambitious as it has been the past two weeks. It’s definitely doable, but I have to be really disciplined on the days that I am not doing anything for my birthday.

Have a great day ladies and gentlemen, and may all of your fitness dreams come true!

Justin

Week In Review: February 4 – February 10, 2013

Yeah, I got my butt kicked this morning.

Beginning Weight: 193.6

New Weight: 193.4

Weight gain or loss: -0.2 pounds

Total Weight Loss Since January 1, 2013: -5.8 pounds

What went right, what went wrong

This was definitely a good news, bad news kind of week. The bad news is I had three really bad days in terms of how I ate. I had pizza on Thursday and Sunday and ate about three more pieces each night than I intended. That’s not good, especially with pizza. On Friday, I probably ate 30 Cookies n’ Creme Hershey’s Kisses. That’s not good either. Couple those poor eating totals with the fact that last week was my recovery week on Insanity, which meant I wasn’t working as hard, so it isn’t surprising that I only lost .2 pounds. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I still went down, slight as it may be. The lesson here is that just because you don’t do exactly as well as you may have intended, you can still have some progress. You don’t have to beat yourself up over it. This week wasn’t as great as I would have liked, but I am going to keep moving forward.

If your week was better than mine, great! Keep it up! If not, take the same approach I am and remember that you can do better this week.

This is week number 5 for me doing Insanity, which means I am starting the second phase of Insanity. Today was the first day, and all I can say about it is ARE YOU SERIOUS!! The workouts are about 10-15 minutes longer than the phase 1 workouts, and are about twice as strenuous. Shaun T says during the workout that he is going to kick your butt on the warmup for Max Interval Circuit, and he wasn’t kidding. The awesome part about it is I burned 1,063 calories. I could hardly believe it when I looked on my heart rate monitor.

Goals for the week

1. A lot of the moves in today’s workout were the similar or the same as the previous phase, but he combined a bunch of them into one. It’s going to take a little time to learn some of the new twists that he throws at you.

2. Handle the temptations a little better than I did this week. Same as last week, got to do better.

3. Try to get at or below 190. This one is ambitious to say the least. Getting to or below 190 means losing more than 3.6 pounds which is a lot. It’s been about a year since I was under 190 and I really want to get back there. We’ll see how that goes. Also the same as last week. I think I can get there if I can push through the workouts.

Have a great day ladies and gentlemen, and may all of your fitness dreams come true!

Justin

Week In Review: January 28 – February 3, 2013

Beginning Weight: 194.2

New Weight: 193.6

Weight gain or loss: -0.6 pounds

Total Weight Loss Since January 1, 2013: -5.6 pounds

What went right, what went wrong

Kind of a mixed week. I had some fall backs and challenges this week. While I did a decent job of handling those, there were a lot of ways I could have improved my eating this week. All that being said, I still came down by a little over half a pound, and that is the most important thing.despite the fact that I had some set backs, I still lost weight. Even though it isn’t the amount that I wanted, it was still a good week overall.

I hope that you are getting closer to your goals. Remember, as long as the weight is moving in the right direction, you are doing what you set out to do. Also remember, the closer you get to your goal weight, the amount lost each week will get smaller as well.

This is week number 5 for me doing Insanity, which means it is my “recovery” week. There is a video called Cardio Recovery, and it is an interesting way to recover. It’s not as intense but the leg work is crazy tough. It’s supposed to be done 6 days a week, but that could get kind of boring so I am contemplating doing Max Sports Interval for three days just to break up some of the monotony. I will try to have a breakdown of my thoughts on the first four weeks of how Insanity has gone later on.

Goals for the week

1. Focus more on not pushing as hard so that my muscles aren’t as tired. Shaun T says on a number of occasions that he wants your heart rate to stay up during this week, but doesn’t want you feeling like you are so beaten up as you always are since this is a recovery.

2. Handle the temptations a little better than I did this week. .

3. Try to get at or below 190. This one is ambitious to say the least. Getting to or below 190 means losing more than 3.6 pounds which is a lot. It’s been about a year since I was under 190 and I really want to get back there. We’ll see how that goes.

Have a great day ladies and gentlemen, and may all of your fitness dreams come true!

Justin

Week in Review January 21 – January 27, 2013

Beginning Weight: 198.8

New Weight: 194.2

Weight gain or loss: -4.2 pounds

Total Weight Loss Since January 1, 2013: -5.0 pounds

What went right, what went wrong

Finally, starting to see some real results after pushing myself through Insanity for the past three weeks. I was happy to go down the first two, but I was hoping to get a full pound each of those weeks. I believe my body is starting to get used to the workouts and I will see some real results from here on out. My only caution is healthy weight loss is considered 2 to 3 pounds a week. Obviously, I went over that amount. I don’t think this will continue, but if it continues, I will need to up the amount of calories and points I am using each day. I would rather not do that because I don’t like the idea of eating just for eating.

If you had a really good week and it showed, great! Keep it up. If the scale didn’t reflect what you thought it would, then try to think about why it didn’t. How accurate were you when tracking? Are you getting an accurate count of the calories you are burning? Could it be that you replaced some fat with muscle?

If you went down  or up and you are using a heart rate monitor when you exercise, you will need to adjust the weight on it so it accurately reflects the amount of calories you are burning. If you go down, you are going to notice that you will have to push a little harder every time to burn the same amount of calories. It’s normal, and it is a GOOD thing.

Goals for the week

1. Continue to improve my form when I exercise. It gets better with each day, but it also makes it harder. Keep trying to last through each exercise longer.

2. Watch my portion size. I did great with it this week, I want to continue it this next week.

3. Watch my hear rate closely. I have noticed it peak over 90%, and I need to make sure it doesn’t do that too often.

Have a great day ladies and gentlemen, and may all of your fitness dreams come true!

Justin

Week in Review January 14 – January 20, 2013

Beginning Weight: 199.2

New Weight:198.8

Weight gain or loss: -.4 pounds

Total Weight Loss Since January 1, 2013: -.8 pounds

What went right, what went wrong

The week was going great Monday through Friday. I was doing really well with Insanity, watching what I eat really well, and just living as healthy as I possibly could. Then the weekend hit. We went to my in-laws on Saturday and came back Sunday night. For whatever reason, I never have any self-control there. I eat whatever I find. Normally, I gain weight from one week to the next whenever we go there. This week, I was able to still go down by .4 lbs. It might could have been a full pound if I had just done what I was supposed to while I was there. Regardless, I still managed to go down, so I am not going to beat myself up over that too much.

Goals for the week

1. I am getting a lot better with Insanity, and I want to maintain that progress. Cardio Abs got introduced Saturday, while tough, it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be.

2. Continue to find places where I am eating just because I am used to it. I discovered some of those places this week, and I need to figure out where more of them exist.

3. I have decided to start using Sunday to do an extra session of Upper Body Weight Training. I do it now on my rest and recovery day, but I want to get more in, so Sunday is the day to do it. I got off to a GREAT start this morning. I did the Fit Test and Upper Body Weight Training and burned 982 calories and accumulated 16 Activity Points on Weight Watchers! Woo hoo!

I hope you had a good week as well. If you gained a little bit of weight, that’s okay. Don’t get too discouraged and remember that getting yourself in shape is a marathon, not a sprint. If you lost, great! Think about what you did well this week and try to continue doing those good habits. Have a great day ladies and gentlemen, and may all of your fitness dreams come true!

Justin

Week in Review January 7 – January 13, 2003

Beginning Weight: 199.6

New Weight:199.2

Weight gain or loss: -.4 pounds

What went right, what went wrong

A good week. I would have preferred to have lost a whole pound or two, but I started Insanity last week and I have no idea how my body is going to react to it. It’s a ton of cardio, but most of the exercises are plyometric in nature so you are going to build muscle in the process. I don’t know if that is the case here, but time will only tell. Could I have eaten better? Absolutely. There were a few occasions when I ate more than I needed to, and that is always a struggle, but as long as I am going in the right direction, I normally am pretty happy.

Goals for the week

1. Continue to try to improve while doing Insanity. The more familiar I get with the moves, the more effective my workout will be.

2. Try to avoid eating just for the sake of eating. One of my goals in Weight Watchers is to ask myself every single time if what I am about to eat is worth the points. I have to get better about that.

I hope you had a good week as well. If you gained a little bit of weight, that’s okay. Don’t get too discouraged and remember that getting yourself in shape is a marathon, not a sprint. If you lost, great! Think about what you did well this week and try to continue doing those good habits.

Justin