Day twenty out of ninety [20/90]

Week three complete!

Did Kenpo X today and had a blast. Went back home to bellevue and did a fun workout session in my bedroom. Funny thing was that bubbles was watching while i was working out and was pretty confused, haha.

Anyway, the legs and back workout yesterday was really good. It burned while I was doing it.. as well as feeling it this morning.

I have been eating pretty well so far, keeping most of my diet comprised of protein as well as veggies. Last night, I ate some great Malaysian food, and you can read more about it on my amazing girlfriend's blog post =)

Tomorrow's a break day for me and I will be doing my last week of Phase 1.

I've never been this far in a p90x workout so I'm definitely motivated to hopefully see good results.

I'm also feeling a lot better lately, and I think I can attribute that to all the good food I've been eating as well as all the daily workout sessions.

I had great home cooked food tonight!

-Matt

Day seventeen out of ninety [17/90]

What a great day. Week 3 has been fantastic on me so far. While the first two weeks were brutal, I can definitely say that I'm noticing a change in the third week. For instance, I am able to go harder and longer on the workouts in comparison. Today's workout (Shoulders & Arms), I was wasted by the end when I first did it in Week 1 and didn't do the "bonus" round. This time, I pushed through and still had a lot of energy left in me. Also, it was great because I am able to do a lot of the workouts cleaner and with better form. So far, so good on P90x. Really happy about that.

Yesterday's workout was solid as well. Plyo is a killer cardio exercise and I am really liking it. It was the first day when I reached a "workout zen". Near the middle of the workout, I was just following Tony & his crew on TV and just pushing myself hard without even thinking about how difficult it is or how tired I was. It's quite a rush of a feeling and makes the time melt way.

I've been eating well too. I won't post what I've been eating for dinner as it is the same stuff as my last post. Finished the bag of asparagus risotto (lasted me 3 dinners!), and getting some good sources of protein from the chicken and soy meatballs. I'm excited to end this week because it's recovery week coming up and I've never actually been that far in the P90x workout program before.

I'm definitely pumped to see if there's noticeable changes at the end of Phase 2 =).

Caloric count for yesterday (1/25): 920cal, 98.9g protein
Caloric count for today (1/26): 1614cal, 167g protein

Day fifteen out of ninety [15/90]

Major lack of updates!

Sorry about that, was busy all weekend. I still kept up with my workout routine though, able to get all the workouts in on week 2 besides completing fully the legs & back routine. Went about half way through.

In any case, this week is looking good so far. I found the Chest & Back better on the third week and definitely see improvement in the # of reps I am doing this week versus when I started. So pretty happy so far and I will definitely stick with it. I'm half way done with Phase 1, and still have 2 more full weeks to go.

Bring it!

Anyway, on to some other stuff... I decided to show how I normally cook/prepare my meals as well as show how that ties in to how I keep my food journal.

In order to hold myself accountable to the food that I am eating, I am using DietOrganizer. Pretty great program that I've had for a while and I really like using it as it makes entries very quick. I definitely do think that recording what you eat is critical to combine that with a strong workout routine due to the strong link between them. So as such, I've committed 90 days to recording to the best of my ability, what I eat, as well as trying to cook at home more as it is easier to know what you're putting in your body (versus eating out @ restaurants).

Today, I decided to prepare Asparagus & Chicken Risotto with Soy Meatballs for dinner!

These are all purchased from Trader Joes, very affordable. Altogether, I think all 3 packages together should cost around a total of $8. The great thing is that I only ate like 1/3-1/4 of the chicken, 1/3 of the broccoli and 1/2 of the Asparagus risotto. Who said eating healthy is expensive? =) [when compared to alternatives]

A general rule of thumb is that I measure all the ingredients for dinner so that I can record them into DietOrganizer and get a really clear indication of the calories that I consumed. It does not take me a long time to measure what I eat! With a digital scale like you see in my pictures, it takes seconds as I just pour in the contents, and memorize them to enter them into my program later. Plus, once you do it very often (such as eating 4x Trader Joes meatless buffalo wings, you kinda know that it's 67g).

Ta-dah! Cooking time was about 10ish minutes. Spiced and salted to my liking and it was a delicious meal! I'm really beginning to enjoy cooking at home more often and will explore some funner (but healthy!) dishes in the future.

Total caloric for the day: 1597/171g protein

Day ten out of ninety [10/90]

So this is an irregular post. Usually I will make my post after my workout. Today, I am going to post what I ate for breakfast since it was my first time trying this dish.

Also, you gotta cater your blog to your audience and my audience looooves pictures of food. So, I'll throw these in a little bit more frequently. Not everyday, but there will be food sightings once in a while!

I decided to have some scrambled egg with veggies this morning. It turned out fantastic! I had it with some soy meatballs as well and it definitely filled me up. It was very easy to cook and I actually used egg white mix from Trader Joes rather than a whole egg. The reason for this is that a whole egg can have high amounts of cholesterol and I want simply the protein (the egg whites, not the yolk). In any case, when salted & spiced, the scrambled tasted amazing! I initially had 2 servings (approx 80g) and was still hungry! So I just whipped up another batch in literally 4 mins and had another serving ready to go. Now I am completely full and ready to take on the day, and my Plyo workout when I get back from class.

Here are some pics!

Scramble #1!

Scramble #2!

Now on to the workout. This is week 2 of Plyo and man, it was a solid workout. I felt FANTASTIC afterwards. I'm really liking the whole working out 6 days a week routine. It gave me a lot of energy post-workout. I gave it a full 110% right from the start of the workout and found myself jumping and pushing harder compared to last week.

I also decided while working out that at the end of phase 1, I will review each workout routine as I should have enough experience by then. I will mostly look at the effectiveness as well as personal growth (in terms of increased reps + better form). 

Total caloric count for the day: 1022 calories.

Day eight/nine out of ninety [9/90]

So I decided to group these two days together as I decided to take my 2nd week "rest day" on Monday due to not being able to return home from Victoria till 10pm last night (due to weather delays).

So, I shifted my workout schedule to start on Tuesday this week and completed my Chest & Back workout after classes together.

Great workout! I was able to use the push up stands this time and noticed better form from my pushups. However, I did find that the reps I was able to do last week was better on some workouts. At the end though, my arm gave out and I couldn't finish the last set. Oh well, something to look forward to during next week's workout!

So I'm back on the regular eating routine from my indulgent weekend in Victoria and ready to commit for the remainder of phase 1 (as I won't be travelling). I'm trying to hit around 90-100g of protein per day for strong muscle recovery and as its one of the recommended # range for men around my weight trying to lean out.

I was thinking that there may be a misconception that eating healthy is expensive. Not so much if you have your own kitchen. I am stuffed (at the end of the day) and I believe that I've been eating well throughout the day. Interestingly enough, when I am eating a lot of veggies, I find that I can't get my calorie count up to the 2000's without feeling overstuffed. I'm simply eating till I'm content and we'll see if it helps me lose some fat down the road.

When I was not being cautious about what I ate, I easily ate takeout or foods from local restaurants and easily spend about $15-20 per day. (approx 7.50 - 10 per meal). From a week's worth of groceries from Trader Joes, I can spend about $40 per week and be in great shape.

I usually won't detail out my food schedule in every post as I am planning on showing what I eat per day at the end of the Phase 1 cycle. However, I'll show what I ate tonight! I cooked lots of veggies (250g worth) ranging from broccoli to carrots and a good amount of chicken strips, and soy buffalo wings (+ bbq sauce). Washing that down with a chocolate protein drink is delicious and fantastic. I also will generally drink about 24~floz of water during dinner as well. Spice & pepper it up to satisfaction!

It took me about 15 mins to prepare, not that much time at all and is pretty healthy in my mind.

So that's a lot of food. What's the damage, calories-wise?

596 calories, including the protein shake, which made up about 230 calories for this meal.

Not bad, considering a single BK Whopper is 670 calories ;)

Protein intake for this meal? 

72g. Yeaah, huge amount of great protein, mainly from the lean chicken, protein powder, soy wings and milk.

There we go, that's what I will usually eat for dinners and I'd say it's certainly an affordable way to eat and a much healthier alternative. 

Oh and I'm 10% done with the ENTIRE 90 day program!

And about 30% done with Phase 1. Here we go!

Total caloric intake for the day: 1320 calories, 125g protein

Day seven out of ninety [7/90]

Despite on a vacation in Victoria, I still went through with the P90X routine!

Started the day off strong with a great Kenpo X workout in my hotel room.

Fantastic as I definitely got a strong cardio activity.

While there was very minimal room to do some of the movies, I still had a blast.

Today was definitely a cheat day when it came to eating, haha. Had a wonderful time, but definitely not excessive eating.

It's alright though as I am going back to my regular routine starting tomorrow.

I hope to complete my chest & back workout late at night, so I really do hope I have the energy then.

Day six out of ninety [6/90]

So, today I am off to Victoria B.C.!

I am completely exhausted but I'm struggling hard to find every ounce of energy that I have. For the past few days, I've been getting around 4 hrs of sleep on average. Combine that with the low amount of calories/food that I've been getting, p90x and adjusting to muscle soreness... I really could use extra sleep.

In any case, I am taking my rest day today instead of tomorrow and doing  Kenpo tomorrow. I'm planning on getting some solid sleep as well as rest up for the upcoming vacation that I have.

My food intake also will be a little different here in Victoria, but I'll be using my "cheat" days while I am here and go back to eating lots of veggies/high protein when I'm back in Seattle.

See ya!

Day five out of ninety [5/90]

Today was legs & back, and certainly, the first week is the hardest.

About 1/3 of the way through the workout, I almost decided to stop doing the blog and just relax with p90x completely.

But I stuck through it and realized that it's definitely doable and I'll be getting doubtful thoughts like this, all the time. Especially in the first few weeks of doing p90x.


Regardless, it was a great workout day. Sweat my butt off.

Caloric intake for the day:

Day four out of ninety [4/90]

Phew.

Yoga sure kicked my ass. Barely finished it, with a lot of fumbling around.

Next week, I'll definitely give it a better shot since it was really difficult to do the poses and look up at the TV to see what the heck to do. Oh well, over the course of the entire period, i'll be doing this 13x.. so maybe i'll be better by the 7th time around, haha.

It does help with the muscles feeling better though! So huge kudos to that.

Note: there were a LOT of poses I couldn't do haha.. especially the ones after plough. Man they are flexible..

Feeling pretty good overall but man, it really made me sweat.. almost as bad as Plyo.

Day three out of ninety [3/90]

Day three.

Shoulders & Arms! Started the day off strong by working out after I woke up.

Despite brushing off the grogginess, it felt great to start the day off with a lot of energy.

I'm sore all over but I'm hoping this feeling will subside a little after the first week.

My legs are definitely killing me from yesterday's Plyo workout. That seems to be the one that everyone hates, haha.

Anyway, I got my protein powder in today so I should be able to get my daily protein count in pretty easy now.

Caloric intake for the day: 1155 cal.

It also just occurred to me that I am 10% done with Phase One. Not bad...! Just have to keep it up =)

Matt, signing out-

Day two out of ninety [2/90]

And so begins the second day...!

As I close the end of the day, I have to say that it was quite taxing.

I did the Pylometrics training portion for P90x and man, is that a workout.

I was sweating from the brow at 15 mins into the workout! And it goes until 62 mins :)

My workout comments include: Definitely a great workout, and showed me that my legs can be a LOT stronger. My calves were definitely burning by the end of it.

All in all, a great workout that made me feel like it was worth it in the end.

I also helped a friend move a couch into his place, as well as did some heavy redecorating around the house.

All in all, definitely a great workout day.

My caloric intake for the day: 1183 cal. I also had some "bad" food for today: had some kettle chips. I had to cave though as I was having a pretty bad morning (44 ballard bus.. grr) and needed some "comfort" food before my capstone presentation. 300 calories worth it? Definitely.

Day one out of ninety [1/90]

Well, it's the first day of my quest for ninety.

What do I mean? I plan on going through all ninety days of the P90X workout.

We'll see how it goes! I'll be monitoring my progress on here and seeing the changes I (hope) go through!

Started with the chest & back/ab workout today and man, it's brutal!

The workout was good, and feeling motivated for the upcoming week!

I'm excited though. I finally have some time this quarter to dedicate to getting fit and I can't think of a perfect way to start the year.

Let's hope I make it on my Quest for Ninety.

So one of the harder challenges for this quest is the food/diet. It'll be hard to scale back the amount of food I eat, but also what I eat.

I will be eating a LOT more vegetables as well as more protein. I am going to try my best at eating 3 meals a day, as well as snacks in between. In addition, I will be drinking a lot of water.

My total caloric intake for today: 913 calories (with breakfast, lunch, dinner & two snacks!). Veggies = low calorie food ;)

Will be updating this post later on food/start pics.