It’s been a while since I last updated this blog. It’s been so long that I wouldn’t be surprised if all of my followers (all 4 of you lol) thought I gave up. Nah, it’s not that. I have just been lazy to update, haha.

But anyway…so yesterday, I finally finished off the P90X program strong! After doing my last meditation pose last night, you know I felt like a champ. After I popped out that DVD from my PS3, I just stood there amazed that I stood this progam for 90 days. I remember before I started when I read about how most people stopped after the first month. I didn’t want that to be me. No lie, I was so determined to hold it out all the way to the end. And if I can just sum up the whole thing in just two words: It Works.

Now as for my results, I just want to say that I am highly satisfied! The after pictures might not be as epic as the ones you see on the infomercials, but I can definitely say that it’s a huge improvement from when I began (well, that’s a little subjective, but you know what I mean lol). My body structure actually looks a lot like the “typical” people who start the program. Meaning to say, people who didn’t have too much fat to begin with. As you can see in the before pictures, I sure did have a lot to cut.

My diet has improved and my cravings for the junk that I’ve always drooled after during the program are nearly gone (not to say that I don’t want to eat that cheeseburger or burrito every once in a while). I am more aware of what I eat and how it affects me physically and mentally. Now, this may or may not come as a shocker to some of you, but I’m going to say that the diet is probably the utmost important part of the P90X program. Just think about it: your performance and how that performance changes your body is based on how and what you eat. The better your diet, the more better you’ll perform. It’s that simple. I’m sure there is a more in depth explanation to what I am saying, but let’s just keep it to this: if you want results, you have to eat right too. Many people even say that the diet is way harder than the workouts themselves and I’m gonna have to agree. It was difficult for me to eat the same thing everyday, but I knew I couldn’t get anywhere if I didn’t eat right. Just remember this: abs are made in the kitchen.

Now for you guys and gals who want to give the program a try…let me give you all a few tips that you can keep in mind (some that I wish that I could have listened to myself):

1) If there’s a beginner’s option/method for a particular move (e.g., using a chair for pull ups) then, by all means, use it/do it. You want to make sure to get reps in so that you can shine in later stages without using handicaps.

2) Don’t try to be a hero. Do as much as you can to failure. You’ll hear Tony Horton talk about this a lot. It’s not about hurting yourself. “Do your best and forget the rest.” If you feel like it’s not enough, trust me…it’s enough.

3) Make sure to follow the diet guide (here I go again with the diet). Get your protein shakes. Buy all your needed groceries. Keep a copy of the allowed fast foods list with you. Get your vitamins and supplements (I highly recommend the Kirkland Daily Multi-Pack from Costco). You want to make sure your body is getting what it needs.

4) Don’t miss more than one day. You’ll lose your momentum. If you miss one day, then either do two workouts in one day or save the one you missed for your rest day. If you must miss more than one day, then just tack on the missed days after the 90 days.

5) Speaking of rest day, do X Stretch if your muscles are all cramped and whatever from the week. If you have a hard time hitting those Yoga stances, it’s a good idea to do X Stretch on rest days.

6) Do your workouts when you absolutely know you’ll have time. You don’t want to stop in the middle of a workout and then find out you have no time to finish it.

7) Have fun/be enthusiastic while working out. You don’t want to be all grumpy or sad while doing your workouts. It’ll negatively affect your performance a lot. Trust me, bad days are not the business.

Now that I’ve said all that, let’s get to what you’ve all been waiting for…the before and afters! Oh no…here they come…

If anybody has any questions, ask away! YUP!

So today was the start of my recovery week in Training Block 1 and I’m pretty happy with the progress I’ve made so far, particularly in Yoga. So starting Yoga today, I went in expecting that I was just going to get super tired and sweat bullets, but surprisingly I felt that kept up even better with the stretches and stances. I still got tired and all, but it took longer for me to get to that point. Let me just tell you about some of the things I did that I couldn’t do before. First of all, my endurance for this stuff has gone up. I can retain a healthy breathing rhythm which helps me to further better the stretch/stance. Second, one move that I never thought I could do (crane, which is similar to doing the crab in breakdancing), was something I managed to do today! Even though I stumbled, that doesn’t ruin the fact that I was actually doing the move! Even if it was for only a second. Third, before, I could never do the shoulder stands. Today, I maintained the stance for a good few seconds before falling out. I had to really push myself to get to the standing part and I fell out, but I did it! Fourth, I could now put my head in between my legs in the final move of the standing shoulder sequence. That part kind of got me trippen out. Lastly, I now have the energy to do a pushup in between my upward and downward dogs. I used to think you’d have to be kind of crazy to do that. But now it’s cake.

Now my favorite part about blogging in here. So on the weekend, I kind of just had an “eh” attitude toward my diet. I mean I still made somewhat wise decisions, but it wasn’t as “controlled” as it usually is. I mean, I had mayo in my sandwhich. I ate a steamed burger patty. I had pasta, mashed potatoes and garlic bread. All of these were things I just kinda ate throughout the weekend. Something tells me that the extra carbs I took in helped me to have the extra endurance that I had in Yoga today. But hey, I’m not mad, lol. On a side note, I can’t wait to start phase 2 in the nutritional plan because they’re allowing 3 servings of carbs! YES! I have been really deprived of rice lately and being Filipino doesn’t help at all. Haha.

And as far as bodily changes, not much has changed. It’s okay though as not a lot of people see major results until the end of the second month. A little fat was cut from my stomach and love handles and I’m pretty happy with that. I just hope that I will have lost at least 10 lbs by the end of the first month. So far I’ve lost 6 pounds. I hope to see a nice contrast from my starting pictures when I take my photos at the end of this week. I’ll make a comparison chart for you all to see. Don’t laugh too hard, lol.

Tomorrow will be Core Synergistics. I watched a little bit of it and it shouldn’t be too hard. I’m looking forward to it, ha. But yeah, stay tuned for more!

Omgah. Ok, so I once again had another friend who got all “car salesman” persuasive on me and somehow got me to agree on going to a sushi spot nearby that had recently added an ‘all you can eat’ service. Just like on my first cheat day, I was very hesitant. But, as I’m sure you all know already, I find it really hard to say no, especially when it’s a place like this.

So I went. However, I didn’t go ‘unprepared.’ Before I left to go to the restaurant, I wanted to see what kind of sushi Tony Horton himself would eat. Not much to my surprise, the palate he provided was very limited. The things he said to avoid are the very things I tend to eat all the time at a sushi spot. The things he recommended are the things you don’t typically see me eating. He gave pretty much just three options:

1) Sashimi - Now I didn’t have a problem with this one. I actually like to eat sashimi. It’s good and you don’t really need rice to make it tasty.

2) Veggie rolls- Now this is where I started getting worried. Veggie rolls? You mean people actually eat rolls with only veggies in it? I mean, I’m sorry if you do, but I just don’t roll like that. No pun intended.

3) Edamame - Now I know a lot of people like this stuff. But as for me, I don’t really have a taste for it. It almost kind of tastes like nothing with an aftertaste. I don’t know if that made sense.

So I went there expecting that I was just going to eat a bunch of sashimi. Boy, was I wrong. When the lady was explaining the “rules” she said specifically that sashimi is not served for lunch. Now that got me a little worried. I mean, we sat down already. We can’t just up and leave just because they weren’t serving the only thing I was going to eat. So what did I do? You guessed it: I ate what they had. What could I do? It was even worse because the only things available were the things that if Tony Horton were to see me eat it, I’m sure he would fight me. I ate tempura. I had a lot of mayo. I ate stuff loaded with cholesterol. And to top it all off, I had way too much rice for my own good. Talk about a carb overload. Just like my first cheat day, it felt so good to eat stuff like that. But that still doesn’t cover the fact that it was bad for my diet. I felt like I took too much of an advantage of the food served instead of keeping them to a low. Nevertheless, I was pissed, but in a good way. If you know what I mean.

So as for tomorrow, since I had so much carbs, I might just skip out on my carb serving for tomorrow. For lunch I always have a turkey/ham sandwich with low fat swiss cheese, lettuce and wheat bread. So I guess I’m gonna hold out on the bread tomorrow. It shouldn’t be that bad.

But as for the workout today (plyo), I once again had those little people come inside my legs and blowtorch my muscles, but I felt so good after! I felt like I could keep up with them even more. I still got tired and broke some reps, but I kept up a little better than before. Tomorrow will be arms and shoulders. I don’t know if you guys watch Spongebob, but I’m pretty sure it’ll feel like that time that Sandy made him go through the “arm cruncher.”

But yeah…I’ll update when something epic happens again. Hopefully I don’t get dragged into the new taqueria that was just built. Supposedly their burritos are bomb.

Stay tuned.

Alright, so a friend of mine suggested that I start a blog to log my P90x progress. This blog will mostly be about that.

But yeah…so far…at this point in P90x, I’m at day 14 and it’s my rest day. Everything has been going swell. I feel more energized and healthy. The only thing that really irks me is when I watch my friends and family eat succulent things like burritos, sushi, and things like that. I don’t think I’ve ever salivated so much in my entire life.

Speaking of the diet, it really hasn’t been as bad as I initially thought. When you combine the right things in just the right way, everything will taste pretty good. The only thing about it is that the grocery list can add up pretty quick and I find myself eating the same thing everyday. Perhaps I should try following the recipes. I should mention that I had one unintentional cheat day. My friend randomly called me up and asked me if I wanted to eat. I’m not really one to say no so I had to. I asked him if we could just go to Subway and he said yes. Once we got to the spot, he noticed a Chinese restaurant that he’s never been to and at once my mental alarm starts going off. I told him no, but he was so insistent. Remember, it’s hard for me to say no, so I went. It felt pretty good eating “dirty” food but at the same time I felt so bad. But it’s all good, heh.

As far as the actual workouts, they’re really not that bad. It’s the diet that really gets me. But don’t get me wrong, the workouts are difficult. Especially Yoga X. I mean c’mon, you wouldn’t think that something like Yoga would make you sweat like you ran 2 miles when it’s only been about 30 minutes in. Another thing is plyometrics. Wow. It’s no wonder that they call it ‘the Beast.’ Plyo workouts actually makes it feel like there are millions of little people inside your legs that are torching your muscles. It’s ridiculous, but man do I feel good.

So far I’ve lost about 4-5 pounds in 2 weeks. Before I started I clocked in at 182 pounds. I checked yesterday and I was at about 178.5 pounds. Awesome progress if you ask me. I mean there’s a lot less to mass to grab on my love handles. That’s dope.

Anyway, starting tomorrow will be my last week of my first training block and then I’ll have a recovery week before starting my 2nd training block. It’s actually passing by pretty fast! Considering the fact that there are 3 blocks. Make sure to stay tuned…whoever is reading.