Day 36 - Fit Test and Max Interval Circuit

Holy crap.  That was humbling.

I don't know if you are supposed to do the Fit Test and Max Interval Circuit back to back.  I'm guessing not but I wasn't planning on getting up at 4:00 in the morning to do one of them.  This update will focus more on the Fit Test and my weigh in/measurements as I'll be doing Max Interval Circuit many more times over the next 4 weeks.

Fit Test Results:

As you can see I improved with all the moves except the suicide jumps.  I think my problem with those is they come too close after the globe jumps.  Globe jumps kill me and there isn't enough time between the two to recover.  I doubt I'll be able to improve much more with the switch kicks or the power knees and I'm going to go ahead and call bullshit on Tanya and Chris's results on the DVD.  I think they were in the hundreds for the switch kicks.  Maybe when I'm bored I'll watch them and count.  Hopefully I can catch them red handed with their lies!  Or I'll be proven wrong and shut up about it.

Weigh in/Measurements

More progress!  Though I would like to weigh less than that, losing 3.5 pounds while gaining some muscles isn't a bad thing.  My BMI is also finally in the normal range.  If I wanted better weight results I could have put in my weight after the workout.  I lost two pounds of sweat and my weight was actually over a pound lower than 173.4 but I'm trying to be consistent so I will always be going with my Monday morning weight.  Numbers are going in the right direction but they only tell you so much.  I do look much better in the mirror compared to day 0 and after seeing what a month 2 workout is like I'm guess that will improve dramatically this month.

I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of the workout today.  I've spent the last 1.5 hours working out and I am hungry.  I will tell you that it was longer than a month one workout and much more difficult.  I stood in disbelief as I watch Shaun T. demonstrate some of the moves he expected me to do.  I am curious how tomorrow will go since I won't be spending all my energy on the Fit Test before it.  

I have almost an 1800 calorie deficiency for today so I am going to eat eat eat now.  I'll be back tomorrow with Max Interval Plyo!

Day 35 - Rest

I get one rest day before month two starts.  I'm an IDIOT and agreed to work part of my coworkers shift today so I'll be at work for 4 hours.  If I had remembered that the Seahawk's first playoff game was today I definitely would have come up with an excuse as to why I wasn't able to work.  I guess I'll record the game.

I'm a little disappointed in myself in the diet department this past week.  More than once I was over my calorie limit, usually do to booze.  I guess starting Insanity in December isn't the best idea with Christmas and New Years in there.  I do feel I need to double down on my efforts to eat right.  I read somewhere that you can't outrun a shitty diet.  Same is true for Insanity.  There is no reason to put myself through this torture if I am sabotaging my results.

I guess I should comment on how I've been handling the diet portion of the program.  Insanity does come with a nutrition guide that gives you certain "food blocks" that are recipes for meals you are to eat 5 times a day in order to meet a broad caloric limit that is based on the Harris-Benedict equation.  That seemed too inaccurate and wasn't really realistic for me to do with the career I'm in so I'm handling it different.  I do eat 5 times a day but they are meals or snacks of my own creation.  I log everything I eat in the free app Myfitnesspal as well as my calories burned during exercise.  I have Myfitnesspal set to have my calorie limits equal to losing about one pound per week.  I'm not sure if that's been happening since the muscle recovery and growth from the first month of Insanity has kind of thrown off my weight.  I think it will be more telling if my strategy has been working with how my weight changes during month 2.  We'll see how much I've lost so far tomorrow with my weigh in for the fit test.

Speaking of tomorrow, I'm scared!  Fit Test AND Max Interval Circuit.

Day 34 - Core Cardio and Balance

Well, Recovery Week, its been fun but it is time I bid you adieu. The workout went exactly the same as the last ones but I burned over 100 more calories.  I'm guessing that since today is my day off from work, I did the workout at a different time of day and it threw off my internal circuitry.  I definitely did not work any harder.  In fact, if anything, I put in a lot less effort.

I had a lot of plans for the rest of my day including seeing the King Tut exhibit in Seattle (sold out), seeing Django Unchained (too lazy) and checking our a new retro barcade that opened in the town I live in (don't want booze and again, too lazy).  Instead I will take a healthy chunk out of season one of Homeland and try to talk myself in to binge eating tomorrow for the last rest day before month two begins...

Day 33 - Core Cardio and Balance

I decided to this one without the music to shake things up a bit.  It was WEIRD!  At first anyway.  Toward the end it actually kind of made it seem more like I was actually in the gymnasium with everybody.  I'll probably keep the music on in the future even though it isn't very good.

Anyway, today was a lot like yesterday so read that post again if you want.  I imagine tomorrow will be a lot like today as it is Core Cardio and Balance for the sixth and last time (this week, anyway).

Day 32 - Core Cardio and Balance

Wow, what a difference a few days makes.  I was feeling pretty good today so I actually pushed it when Shaun T. said I could if I wanted to.  I was even able to do the entire Shoulder Burners routine without stopping.  I didn't think that would be possible on Monday when I did this workout for the first time.  I doubt I'll ever be able to do the entire Hip Flexor Burner routine in its entirety but I think that went better as well.  My ankles were a little achy yesterday and today so I'll have to pay attention to that.  I'm hoping it's just the weather because it would really suck to get injured this far in.  Two more days of Core Cardio and Balance are left. I am missing the variety and intensity of a regular workout but I'm sure I'll miss recovery week when Monday comes around.

Day 31 - Core Cardio and Balance

Even after a month of doing this, I am still learning some very basic things.  The hip flexor stretch during the warm up and cool down stretching never seemed to do much for me.  Today I figured out that my back leg wasn't far enough back.  Fixing that stretches the ol' hip flexor nice!  The hip flexor has it's own website.  Learn all about it!

Anyway, third time is the charm I guess.  Core Cardio and Balance went much better today.  I imagine it has something to do with getting enough calories in my gut.  I always eat better on work days since I have breakfast before work, a big snack during my morning break and then lunch.  I usually sleep through one or two of those meals on my days off.  Tsk tsk tsk.  I also seem to burn less calories each day.  I think my metabolism was probably going a tad haywire from my indiscretions over the weekend and my body is working more efficiently as I detox.

The recovery week is starting to feel a little tedious.  The sun was shining today and I would have much rather gone on a run but as I've said before, I'm sticking to the schedule for my first round of Insanity.  I do think the recovery week would have been very beneficial as a pre-Insanity week before month one to give an introduction of sorts to some of the moves you'll be repeating a billion times over.

Tomorrow! Core Cardio and Balance!  Again!

Day 30 - Core Cardio and Balance

Happy New Year!  My first workout of 2013 went much better than the last one of 2012.  Not being hungover helps.  Today's workout still wasn't the best because my nutrition has been pretty crappy for the past few days but it is recovery week and I have four more days to really get this workout down.  Plus, life should be getting back to normal so I'll be able to get back in to my routine and get back on track.

As I mentioned yesterday, Core Cardio and Balance is much more laid back than other Insanity workouts.  It is still a decent workout but not nearly as strenuous as the regular ones.  I still managed to burn over 400 calories.  The entire workout is broken up into a few parts.  It starts with a warm up that consists of Switch Heel Kicks (kind of like jump roping), Mummy Kicks, Football Shuffles, Log Jumps (sprint in place and then jump like a log is rolling under you), High Knees/Power Jacks, and fast Fast Feet/Hooks.  I think each one last for a minute.  After the warm up is some light stretching, followed by the cardio portion.  This consists of Moving Ski Jumps, Hit the Floor, Level 1 Drills, Heisman's, Switch Kicks/Hop Squats, High Jumps, Moving Plank Walks, Elbow Jabs/Suicide Drills, 4 and 4 Hops and Jab Punches/Jump Squats.  Writing all those down makes it seem like a lot but it's really not so bad and I like the variety.  Next is the Balance portion.  This is tough and I feel sorry for the people on the DVD who aren't able to take as many breaks as me since Shaun T. is always right by them.  I think he calls these moves Hip Burners and Shoulder Burners.  Emphasis on BURN.

I don't have a transition to this paragraph.  At the New Years Eve party last night I found out that my friend has been doing Insanity for quite some time and really loves it.  He gave me some advice and shared some of his experiences with the program.  It is nice talking about it with someone because it is such a difficult program.

Tomorrow is day 3 of the rest week!