Intro and Pre Insanity info

Hi!  I'm Dan.  I recently decided to do the Insanity Workout and decided to blog about it!

My Fitness Background and Why I Chose Insanity
Everything I've read about Insanity says that you must be in decent shape before you even attempt it.  I think I am.  I started getting more active about two years ago when I decided I should probably lose some weight.  I did not realize it but I had a broken scale that would max out at 185 lbs.  I thought that was cool because I liked to eat entire pizzas a few nights a week and drink lots of beer.  It wasn't until I saw some vacation photos of myself from a trip to NYC that I could see how fat I had become.  I was shocked at a biometric screen at work when I discover that I tipped the scales out at 210 lbs.  That was by far the fattest I had been in my life and I decided then and there that it was time for a change.  I started practicing portion control and calorie counting with the food I ate and I bought a rowing machine.  The rowing machine kicked my ass for a few months but I eventually got strong enough to use it for 45 minutes straight on the maximum resistance and could probably go a lot further if the seat wasn't such a butt killer.  I decided to move on to a stationary bike with similar results.  I went from only being able to do 15 minutes on the lowest resistance up to 45 minutes on maximum resistance with the seat again being the limiting factor.  Exercise equipment needs better seats!  I think at that point I had gotten down to 185 lbs and hit a plateau.  At that point I decided take up running like I did way back in high school. (I'm 30 years old, by the way).  Running was hard!  At first I was doing half a mile and wanting to die.  Then I got injured.  Then I recovered.  Then I got even more injured.  Then I recovered again.  I gradually was able to add more and more miles on and managed to top it off at 13.1 doing my first half marathon last week in Seattle.  My time was 2:18:40. It was a great achievement for me but it doesn't feel like enough.  My long term plan is to finish a full marathon within the next year.  That's where Insanity comes in.

Running helped me lose even more weight.  At my lowest I was down to 163 but eventually gained some back and was hovering at around 170 for this past year.  My weight is higher now, I think from the carbo loading I was doing for my long training runs and the race.  Even without the carbs, my weight just would not go down.  170 isn't bad but I wanted to lose more to help me run. I could conserve a lot of energy not hauling around the 10-15 lbs of extra fat.  I decided to try Insanity after all the great reviews I read and other people's blogs about it.  I am hoping it can help me lost the weight I've been wanting to shed and also give me a nice cardio boost to help my running when I start that up again.  It'd also be cool to get some definition, especial in the abs, too!

Nutrition
Insanity comes with a nutrition guide that I'm not going to follow.  I think it would work great for people with lots of money, time and jobs that allow them to eat whenever they want.  I think I'm pretty good with what I eat so I think it will be okay.  They do stress that you need to eat a lot more on this program and that is advice I will take seriously.  I am going to track my caloric intake with the Myfitnesspal app and calculate my calories burned using my heart rate monitor (HRM).  The HRM I am going to use is my old model Garmin GPS watch that I use to track my running workouts.  Hopefully that works okay.  If not then I'll pick up a separate HRM.  Anyway, I will subtract the calories burned from the calories eaten and make up the difference by eating more.  Yay food!

DAY 0 Measurements
Chest: 41"
Waist: 38"
Hips: 36.75"
Biceps: 12"

I only really care about the first three but I did the biceps for the hell of it.  I ordered Myo Tape for the measurements.  It is handy!

Weight: 176.9
BMI: 25.4
Body Fat: 27.6%

My weight is probably falsely elevated from a very salty meal I had last night and from weighing myself in the middle of the day.  Future weigh-ins will be in the morning. I calculated my BMI and body fat percent from here.  That BMI is slightly in the "overweight" zone but I only need to lose 3 pounds to get back in the "normal" range.  The body fat percentage seems high.  I wonder if I put in the right numbers.  I'll look into that more in the future.

I made the decision to write this blog in hopes that it will keep me honest and accountable to help me stick with it.  I'm also hoping it may help others who are currently doing or thinking about doing Insanity and maybe Insanity veterans can pass on some knowledge as well.  I am hoping to update this as often as time permits in the next 60 days so stay tuned and join me tomorrow for the fitness test and probably me being very very humbled.