P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 84 - Rest

I'll be hanging out with my friends tonight for a dinner birthday party.


Not much to post today. Rest day.

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 83 - Kenpo X

Why did I almost want to sleep in this morning instead get ready to do Kenpo?
Because the weather was so cold and it was still dark. Who wants to get up and do exercise, instead just snuggle under the warm blanket?

Anyway, I BEAT THAT! Kenpo X was fine, but like I said before it starts to bore me and I might not include this workout in my next round. Maybe I will do it once in a while when I feel like I want to punch & kick someone do some fun cardio.

Rest day tomorrow and it'll be RECOVERY WEEK!!
Tomorrow night I'll have a get together with my friends at some Thai restaurant.

Happy Weekend everyone and try to eat clean :)

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 82 - Core Synergistics

I always wonder how much weight usually people use to do Leaning Crescent Lunge, Squat Xpress, and Lunge-Kickback-Curl-Press, because I struggled a lot with 5 lbs adjustable dumbbells. I had to take off all the weight plates and just left the speed lock collars on both sides. That makes each dumbbells weight about 4 lbs but for some reason made a HUGE difference for me. The handle itself weight about 3 lbs, and the speed lock collar is about 0.5lbs each.

This is how my dumbbells look like

Anyway, Core Syn was good as usual, still kicked my butt.
Kenpo X tomorrow and week 12 is almost done!

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 81 - Yoga X

One thing I can say for today: I DID WHEEL!! Woohoo!! I managed to lift myself up for at least 5 seconds then I came down and did bridge. All these times I have never even wanted to try to do Wheel in fear of I might fall out so badly. Today, I told myself to give it a try, especially I could feel my arms are a little stronger than before. I could do the Chaturanga a bit lower, while keeping my back straight.

Still have to work on Crane. I have plenty of time to achieve this, especially Yoga will always be part of my exercise routine, even after P90X routine is done.

Currently: Enjoying a glass of warm almond milk and Odwalla® Super Protein Bar. Yumm.

Forecast today said we might get some rain until tomorrow. It's overcast now and the weather is a bit cooler since yesterday.

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 80 - Back & Biceps, and bye bye Ab Ripper X

Back and Biceps gave me a good sweat today, which means I know I pushed myself hard enough. Majority of the time I used 8lbs dumbbells, and some 5 lbs and 10lbs for lawnmowers only. 8 lbs is pretty tough for me, especially after going nonstop for 6 reps. Since my goal is lean muscles, I always try to hit 12 reps at least.
I thought I couldn't get up this morning because I had a little hard time going to sleep and it was a bit late too (maybe around 10:30 pm).

Abs went well and I did out most of the reps along with Tony and his gangs, except for the evil Oblique V-Ups. Also, I did the Cross Leg sit up instead of Wide Leg Sit up, Leg Climbs with only one reach as Audra did. I did 25 reps for the right side, but only about 15 good reps of the left side. To compensate that, I did 20 extra reps Mason Twist at the end. Guess what? Today is the last day of P90X resistance workout and that means no more Ab Ripper X after this. I kind of get tired of Ab Ripper X moves and need some time off from it. After doing Ab Ripper X for 3 months straight plus almost a year prior this Lean routine, I think I deserve it. It's time to search for other ab move variation, not just the ones doing the crunches on the floor.

I had my protein shake after this workout and I think I am still not fond of the protein powder taste, with the exception of soy protein powder. The only way I can drink the protein drink is to mix some mashed banana into it to cover up that "weird" protein taste. Speaking of which, I am running out of my protein powder. I still have the soy protein powder, but I figured its sugar is a little too much. 12 g of sugar for 3 scoops (30g) with only 14g of protein is a bit too much, compare to the regular 24g whey protein with less sugar. Maybe I should look into the unflavored soy protein?

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 79 - Cardio X

Good sweat, good workout, even though I had a little hard time to drag myself out from the bed this morning. I didn't do the Squat X press because my concern on my knees that will act up later on. "Safety first, boys and girls" as Tony always says.

Can't believe this is my last week of the workout and next week will be recovery week and I'll be DONE with Lean phase!

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 78 - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps & Abs

CST kicked my ass as usual, but I started to get a hang on the push ups and I'll keep continuing on P90X resistance workout even after this Lean phase is done.
Abs was ok, I just cruised through it. Among all of the moves, I only could manage to complete 15 good reps Oblique V Ups.

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 77 - Stretch/Yoga

I combined X Stretch and Yoga together, with a nice mellow music as the background. It's a nice change from listening to Tony's instruction over and over for the past 2 months. Besides, I have a full control on how long I want to do the pose. Majority of the poses are from Yoga (minus the moving Asanas) and only a little bit from Stretch. I didn't incorporate the arm stretches and other non Yoga moves from X Stretch.

Towards the end, I felt very relaxed, especially with the nice mellow music in the background.

Today is a total rest day so I didn't even do any house cleaning.

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 76 - Kenpo X

I attempted to skip this one and jog/run tomorrow Saturday morning. However the thought that I could sleep in a bit tomorrow conquered it. Did Kenpo X this morning. This workout started to bore me and I even skipped the Star blocks and did extra jumping jacks/X jump/jump rope/run in place instead. Those rise my heart rate more than the Star blocks.

Can't believe Week 11 is almost done and there'll be only 1 more week of resistance workouts and will be recovery week after that and guess what...DAY 90 is coming closer!

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 75 - Core Synergistics

It's love and hate relationship with this workout. I love it for its combination of cardio and resistance and I hate it for not be able to do a lot of it even until now. I might incorporate this workout into my custom workout schedule after my P90X Lean routine done.

My custom workout schedule will be pretty similar to the Classic version with some differences. I might substitute the Ab Ripper X to some other ab workout. I am not sure if I am ready with Plyometrics yet but majority of the Cardio workout will be any outdoor activities such as jogging, running or hiking. I might not do 6 days workout per week anymore as it gets pretty tedious and tiring. Getting up at 4:30 am every single day is a total dedication. The workout will be every another day, with the exception of weekends. So total Saturday and Sunday will be back to back cardio workout. It's the only time I can do outdoor activities. I don't want to jog in the early morning during weekdays, where it's still dark at 4:30 am.

Roughly here's the idea of my workout after P90X:

Sunday - Cardio (choice of jogging/running/hiking), Ab workout
Monday - Shoulders & Arms, Abs
Tuesday - No workout
Wednesday - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Thursday - No workout
Friday - Yoga
Saturday - Cardio (choice of jogging/running/hiking)

It's not quite definite yet. I'll keep working on it. Weekday workouts will still be done in early morning, as it's a very convenient way to get it done.

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 74 - Sleepy Yoga X

The title says it all. I felt very sleepy towards the end of Yoga, especially after Yoga belly. Those relaxing poses really relaxed me that I almost fell asleepy while on Corpse pose.. *LOL*. I even had a brief dream, while still heard Tony's voice from the video. Maybe I'll do Yoga during evening time after I finished my 90 days.
I haven't had an outline how my post P90X workout schedule will be yet, but already have some idea.

By the way, I didn't expect Yoga made me hungry afterward?

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 73 - Shoulders & Arms, Abs

OMG, I almost forgot to update my blog today. This is why I prefer to do my posting in early morning, so I can get it done, just like how I like to do workout.

Anyway, Shoulders and Arms was ok. I managed to crank up more reps and using 8 lbs, 10 lbs and blue resistance bands. Also I managed to do 20 reps of side rise triceps :D
After S & A, I cranked up Ab Ripper X, despite my abs muscles already got used to it.

After the workout, I made my protein shake drink. Guess what? I guess I know the trick to drink that whey protein powder. Gotta mixed some bananas in it, so the banana taste will mellow that nasty whey protein powder. Mixed with almond milk, mashed banana, all good! Yumm!! It was my first time enjoying protein shake!

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 72 - Cardio X

I woke up way before my usual 4:30 am alarm went off, meaning I got enough sleep! Checked the time and it was only 3 am!!! That was way too early to start a workout. So I tried to go back to sleep, and it wasn't happening. I was totally awake and finally I decided to jump out from the bed and got ready around 4:25 am. I turned off the alarm so I won't wake up K, my hubby.

After drinking a couple glasses of water, I was thinking if I should try to eat 1/2 of banana so I won't feel crashed later. But, surprisingly, I felt energetic and didn't feel I will crash at all. So I went on did the workout in empty stomach.

I got a really good workout. I wasn't even that tired after 2 Plyo sequences. Usually, I would feel a bit of drained after those, but not this time! Maybe having 9 hour sleep on Saturday night helped me a lot.

After the workout, I had my recovery drink and finally I found a decent taste of protein powder! I mixed Jay Robb™ Brown Rice Chocolate Protein Powder with my almond milk and a medium banana in Jay Robb™ shaker cup. It was pretty good! I finished all of them, but had to dig out the banana pieces at the bottom of the cup because they weren't mashed by the wire whisk "blender ball". But it was all good!

I finished workout before 6 am! Woot!

Anyway, gotta get ready to go to my 8-5 office job.

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 70 - Rest & Day 71 - Chest & Back, Abs

I combined yesterday and today's post since not much to report yesterday.

Chest & Back went well, still have to work on my push ups and I think I could increase the weight for the weight lifting. 8 lbs dumbbells are a bit easy for me now, so the next time I do my own resistance training, I'll use 10 lbs instead.

I didn't follow the Abs Ripper X video anymore as I started to get really bored with it I couldn't even want to do it. Instead I just mixed up a bunch of abs moves from yoga, core and ARX and did my own sequence. I did it in fast pace and only took me 10 minutes and I was sweating and my heart rate was pretty high. I should have done it a little longer, but I was a bit in a pinch to go for a grocery shopping at this market before it gets too crowded.

Here's my food list from earlier for today:
Pre-workout:
1 packet of Jay Robb™ Egg White Protein powder (strawberry flavor) mixed in a glass of water.

I still haven't acquired the taste of any protein powder (except for the soy protein). It has that weird after taste, not sure if all of them are like that, or is it because of the brand. I know Jay Robb™ protein powder uses stevia as the sweetener, which is a natural sweetener, unlike the usual sugar substitute or aspartame. However, I still find it tastes like those artificial sweeteners. I'm still searching for the protein powder with a taste I like, otherwise, I might stick with soy protein.

Post workout:
1 glass of Blue Diamond Almond Breeze® with 3 scoops of Genisoy Chocolate Protein Powder

Breakfast (after come back from market- about 10:15 am- a bit late I know)
1 piece of naan bread with 3 small cubes of cheddar cheese - so good!
1 Bear Naked GrainOla Fruit & Nut bar
1 cup of tea

Lunch & Dinner will be posted later today.

I'll be doing cleaning today as part of my weekend chores. Might have to do the whole house since I skipped yesterday. Usually I break it into two days. The lower floor on Saturday and upper floor on Sunday. But yesterday I just didn't feel doing it and slacked off.

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 69 - Kenpo X

As many other P90Xers, I agree that this workout is the easiest among other P90X cardios. I had to go on faster pace in order to get my heart rate up. Actually the Saunders Cycle warm up is tougher than the workout itself. Same thing with the jumping jacks and x jumps in between. My heart rate only goes up when I do kickings, not so much on punching (unless I go really really fast nonstop that almost lost the sequence), and not at all on the blocks- especially star blocks. Up until now, I still don't get what's so intense on the star blocks.

Image is from Jay Robb™ website

After workout, I had my soymilk mixed in with 3 scoops of Genisoy chocolate soy protein powder and the last Jay Robb™ Yammit Almond Energy Bar. Since I am not a big fan of sweets, this bar is way too sweet for me, also too chewy. It has some weird taste in it I can hardly describe.

Image is from Jay Robb™ website

Among Jay Robb™ bars, the Peanut butter is still the one that I like. Other flavors not so quite.

Wow, it's already Day 69, and going to 70s soon! Can't believe I've come this far!
Rest for me tomorrow or Stretch if I feel really like it.

Happy Weekend!

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 68 - Core Synergistics

I think I started to get "bored & burned out" from this P90X routine as I wasn't as excited to get up early as before anymore. Or maybe because today's workout is not quite fun. It's not the workout itself, it's more like me who haven't get a good hang of it. Despite that I still dragged my ass off from the bed, grabbed my laptop and went to my workout zone downstairs.

For some reason I didn't feel much burn on my core as what Tony kept emphasizing. Most of the weight involvement, I could barely do 8 lbs and need to down the dumbbells to 2 1/2 lbs, and still really struggling. Prison Cell push ups or anything with arm strengths are still sketchy for me, but despite all of those, I was still drenched with sweat at the end of the workout.

For Lunge Tricep Curl Press, I had to take off the 2 1/2 lbs weight discs, and just used the sticks as my weight. I weighted the sticks on the scale (with the knobs), found out they were at least close to 5 lbs!! No wonder I had some hard time to lift 2 1/2 lbs disc b/c actually the total weight is close to 6-7 lbs! For biceps curls, 7-8 lbs are good for me to bang at least 8-12 reps, but not for anything that I need to raise my arms up.

Kenpo X tomorrow, and thinking of skipping it and do a run/jog on Saturday. On the other hand, I like the idea Saturday being my rest day when I can sleep in a bit. We'll see...

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 67 - Yoga X

I think I started to make more progress on my Half Moon poses. At least I could hold it a bit longer, except for the Twisting Half Moon. It made me feel great that I started to accomplish something. Now if I can start on to hold Crane just for a couple seconds.

Not much to report today, so I'll keep this post short.

Core Syn tomorrow and weekend is almost here!

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 66 - Back & Biceps, Abs

Back and Biceps wasn't that bad actually, though I think my favorite is still Chest & Back. Back & Biceps is like a combination of Chest, Shoulders, Triceps with Shoulders & Arms and Chest & Back. It's a bit of everything from the other 3 resistance workouts, even though towards the end, it's a bit weird to do superman. I had to complement myself that I survived all superman sets and could lift up my arms and legs off from the floor without much problem. Does it mean my back get stronger as Tony mentioned? Oh well...

Majority of the time, I used 8 lbs dumbbells to do the arm workouts and blue resistance bands for the pull ups. Sometimes I wonder if I do the resistance bands correctly since I mostly felt the burn on my arms instead of my back. I felt stronger and majority of my sets were either 8, 10, or 12 with 8 lbs dumbbells. Some lifting I had to switch to 2 1/2 lbs. My left arm is much weaker than my right arm, which is normal, I think, since I'm right handed.

Taking the soy protein drink before the workout definitely gave me more strength to do the resistance workouts. Post workout, I gave Jay Robb chocolate whey protein a try, mixed into my plain soymilk. My impression? NASTY! *sorry Jay Robb, no offense!*
It didn't taste any chocolate flavor and I had this unpleasant after taste. The closest thing I could come up with is it had that beef/bone bone soup taste smell-like. It was my first time trying the whey protein and didn't get a good impression on it. Maybe it's the brand or maybe all whey protein taste like that? In the meantime I might stick to my soy protein and keep searching for the good whey protein taste.

I sped up through Abs and went on my own pace. I went faster and took less break and guess what, towards the end, I was so exhausted. I skipped Leg Climb since that was my least favorite and I don't really quite feel the burn and jumped to Mason's Twist with high speed. I still did 50 reps but twice of Tony's speed. It gave me a good sweat.

I brought lots of healthy snacks and food today for my daytime food. I sliced a huge carrots, 2 apples, and orange and 1/3 of papaya. I will have beef asparagus with white rice and 1/2 hard boiled egg as my lunch. Also I brought Jay Robb™ JayBar High-Protein Cashew Coconut bar as my snack.
For breakfast, I'll be having one plain bun and 1 slice of whole wheat banana bread.

Yoga X tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it!

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 65 - Cardio X

Not much to report, Cardio still gave me a good sweat. Jump shot still kicked my ass and raised up my heart rate a lot.
My arms, chest and back are sore from CST yesterday and made me feel good. At least I know that I did the push ups correctly and I knew I pushed hard enough, eventhough I did all push ups on my knees.

Breakfast was good. I made my recovery drink (almond milk with 3 scoops of soy protein powder) and ate 1/2 breakfast sandwich. Might eat another breakfast at work later.

Back & Biceps and Abs tomorrow. Back & Biceps is a total new workout for me.

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 64 - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps & Abs

I ended up spending 1 1/2 hour on CST because I had to hit the pause button to adjust my weight and to finish my own rep. Guess what, I started to get a hang on my push ups and I even managed to do one arm push up, even though I didn't go as deep as the peeps on the video. Even Laura went deeper than me, in my view. Also I managed to do the clap push up (on my knees of course!)

I guess taking the soy protein drink pre workout did the trick after all. I felt I had more energy to do the moves. I should consider this from now on prior my resistance workout.

I didn't quite do the Abs as on the video as I mentioned before, seems like my ab muscles have plateaued and I need to add more variety to confuse them again.

Btw, sorry for the delay but here's my *supposedly* DAy 60 pic.

I am kinda disappointed as my Day 60 pic doesn't show that much difference from my Day 30 pic. But oh well, I am not supposed to think that Day 90 is the end of everything, right?

Diet went well as usual. I had my protein drinks pre and post workout and also had Jay Robb™ JayBar Peanut Butter High Protein Bar. It tasted fabulous and despite its chewiness, it wasn't sweet at all! I might consider this to stash more of this.

Edit:
I felt a bit earthquake earlier...PHEW! Good thing it was only a little bit, but felt it.