P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 51 - Core Synergistics

I'd say I have to skip this one today and make it up on the day I'm doing X Stretch.
Today I went to Big Santa Anita Canyon to take my parents for a hike. Even though we went to the easiest hike, we didn't get to the waterfall since my mom couldn't handle the hike. I was thinking I could substitute Core Syn with this hike if it gave me enough workout, but apparently not. We spent about 2 hours there, but only walked on the paved roads before heading to a Chinese restaurant for a dim sum.

After we got back, it was already around 4pm and almost time to start dinner. I decided to skip Core Syn and make it up on Thursday, where I'll be doing X Stretch. In some ways it'll be good since my parents will be away to San Francisco trip so I'll have more time to squeeze in the workout.

Lately, my knees have been feeling very tight and stiff, especially after I stand up for a long time. Hopefully it's not something serious. :( I hate it if I have to skip more workouts. Good thing is, this week is my recovery week, so the workouts are "less intense".

Anyway, I apologize for not uploading any pictures lately since my parents are staying in my office room, I can't use my desktop computer and this laptop doesn't have the graphic program that allows me to resize the pictures.

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 49 - Rest or X Stretch

Definitely my rest day for today. I got to sleep in until 7 am *yea I know, for some late risers, 7 am is NOT considered to be sleep in time for weekends*. But hey, I usually get up at 4:30 am every day.

I will be taking my parents to the City Lights Cruise tonight at Newport Beach. Basically, you are boarding on a yacht and cruising along the coastline, and watching the city lights from there. They provide an appetizer buffet and 2 drinks which you paid in advance. If you want additional drinks, you need to pay in cash only. No credit cards accepted on the boat. The admission price for each adult is around $80, but since I got these deals from my workplace, I got to pay only $40 for 8 tickets (that's $5 for each $40 prepaid ticket value!!) The only thing is I have to pay additional $36 for the boarding fee and 2 prepaid drinks. So if I don't have the prepaid tickets, I'd end up spending up to $400 for 5 people. With these prepaid tickets, I only spent about $180 for the boarding fee and the 2 drinks (for 5 people) and 5 prepaid tickets (which are $20!!), so grand total $200. It's still a good deal for me.

Hopefully they'll enjoy it. From the pictures that I saw on their website, seems like the cruise is more like a nightclub where they play different type of dance music from meringue to reggae & swing.

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 48 - Kenpo X

I feel I wasn't as intense doing Kenpo X today compare to last week, probably due to my lack of sleep. Some of my relatives came by to visit last night so I had to postpone my usual clean up until they left. Regardless, I still drenched so no complain here. I found it become more challenging to raise up my heart rate, especially at the beginning of Kenpo, when we were doing the punch series. My heart rate didn't go up until I reached to the kick series. I was starving after I finished the workout so I gulped down my usual "recovery drink" and ate 1 medium banana. Those bananas are getting riper so I better finish them off before they go bad.

Here's my day food for today

• 2 slices of whole wheat bread with peanut butter
• 2 chinese pastry puffs
• 2 medium bananas
• 3 sticks of carrots -cut into matchstick size
• left over hummus - I gotta make more later
• Boiled chinese broccoli, some steamed fish meat, steamed chicken meatball and some white rice (all in that rectangular container, sorry can't really see much)
• 2 peeled oranges & 6 oz. blueberries

Tomorrow is rest day and I'll get to sleep in a bit. And another exciting thing is I will be off from work for the whole next week so I can spend more time with my family and to top it off next week is P90X Phase 2 Recovery Week, so no resistance workouts *yay*. I don't have a particular plan with my parents yet but for sure I will bring them to Big Santa Anita Canyon, the hiking place that I used to go when the weather gets warmer. Another plan will be going to museums and parks.

EDITED @ 8:53PM
That Chinese pastry puff was not that good so I only ate 1/2 of it and tossed the rest. I didn't bother to eat the other one so I gave it to my brother after I got home. I only ate 1 banana, which was getting really ripe and couldn't eat the other one. Finished the oranges & the blueberry in the afternoon then munched on the carrot sticks after I got home, dipped into the hummus before dinner. I guess I brought a little too much food for my daytime meal..hehe.

Btw, my parents went to my relative's place this whole day so I had a regular dinner with my brother and my hubby.
Lightly fried tofu with oyster sauce & onions, mixed vegetable soup (bok choy, carrots, tomatoes and fish cakes) and left over soy sauce chicken & eggs.

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 46 - Yoga X

The weather starts to warm up since a couple days ago. I started to break some light sweat prior the Vinyasa sequence. By the time I reached Warrior 3, I was dripping in sweat already.

If you've been following my blog (sometimes I wonder if anyone reads my blog haha), my parents are currently staying at my place for 3 weeks. They've been seeing my food intake and said that I don't consume enough carbohydrate. It's true that I don't eat much white rice, as I keep hearing bad impressions about it. However, I'm confident enough that I eat enough food throughout the day. I don't eat a big meal at one time, but spread out my meal by snacking healthy stuff like fruits and some crackers. Not sure how I explain this to them. Just because they don't see me eat a big meal, they assume I don't eat enough. Don't get me wrong, they are happy to see me exercise and it's a good thing that I am healthy but getting too skinny. From their observation, my workout looks very intense, thus they keep telling me to eat more.

I try not to argue too much with them, especially I haven't seen them for 3 years. But I do want to give a better picture on what I eat throughout the day. I might start documenting my food intake again. It's been pretty busy days for me that I don't have time to take every single picture of my food.

Enough for my rants. Tomorrow is Legs & Back, and Abs. I might be wrong with ARX. Today I feel something on my upper abs, perhaps from ARX yesterday. I did it with my shoes on. It did the trick!

EDITED (MARCH 17, 2010)
Here's my daytime food:
After workout : the usual "recovery drink/meal"

Breakfast:
2 bananas (I only had 1 for breakfast and took home the other one & 1 whole wheat french roll -not pictured)

Lunch

White rice, boiled broccoli, 1/2 piece of salmon steak - boy this kept me full for almost the whole afternoon.

Afternoon snack:

I didn't find a chance to take picture of my dinner. Kinda awkward to do it in front of my parents.

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 42 - Rest

Not exactly taking a rest since I have tons of chores to do before my parents arrive tonight. Shopped some groceries this morning, paid the bills, will do house cleaning shortly, prepare a room for them and will be busy cooking later.

Busy busy day. No X Stretch for today.

Tomorrow is Spring Forward. Gosh, I'll lose an hour. But on the bright side, I can go home when it's still bright!

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 41 - Kenpo X

I woke up around 4:11 am, about 20 minutes before my cell phone alarm went off. It seems like my body knows that today is one of my favorite workout. I stayed in bed about 10 more minutes before got up and got ready. After drinking some water and put away the dry dishes into the cabinets, I started Kenpo X.

I had to go a bit faster than Tony and the gangs to raise up my heart rate. It felt really good. I was amazed that I managed to do jumping jack and X jump even towards the end. Before I always ran out of energy after the third part of Kenpo.

Tomorrow is the rest day and also house cleaning day. My parents are coming from our home country and will be staying at my place for 3 weeks. In some ways it's good to see them again, since I haven't seen them for 3 years. On the other way, I hope it doesn't mess up with my P90X schedule. I just don't like if my routine got disrupted once I got on the groove. But hey, parents will be here that means more decent meals for me to enjoy and also more cleanings to be done.