P90X Day 50: Yoga X

Back on the train, no more repeats on the day index. Stayed up too late to get this one in before work today. Time for that to change.

P90X Day 49 (take 2): X Stretch

Stretch complete. Back on the train. Rebooted phone. FitBit still doesn't sync.

P90X Day...48, I guess. Let's do Day 48 again: Kenpo X

Re-doing kenpo went well today. Due to my break I had plenty of glycogen reserves and did bonus repetitions for just about every move in the sequence. Hit hard.

Two weeks is a long time. You need to exercise more often than that. While I've been...moving? during that time, I haven't kept to my workout schedule. I'll blame house guests at first and I'll blame a slight cold later, maybe I'll blame going on call somehow (which doesn't make any sense), but it's really, really, really, really important to not let myself off the hook too easily. In any case, the best way to get back on the rails was to do Kenpo today, go into the phase 2-phase 3 transition week next week, and rocket into phase 3 the week after. So my workouts are getting back in order.

Let's check up on everything else real fast:

• FitBit: MALFUNCTIONING. I need to try turning everything off and on again--I have no Phase 2 data from my FitBit tracker. I've still got the scale measurements, though.
• Photos: Luckily there are date stamps to reconstruct the history, but part of messing with my routine means I'm missing a few weeks of those, too.
• Sleep: Actually pretty good--though I'd rather let my FitBit be the judge of that. 
• Hair: Cut. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm irresponsible with long hair. I've resigned myself to always having a haircut that plays well with a bike commute with no maintenance. The marginal benefit of fancy-pants hair isn't worth the risk that it goes full-Goomba, unchecked, for weeks at a time.
• Food: The fridge is due for a cleaning again. I don't think I've cooked for myself beyond the microwave in a week. Sure, I can blame the cold again.

Me with long hair (artist's rendition)
nintendo.wikia.com

So there's a lot of work built up to get me fully back on the rails and I need the motivation to do it. This is in the midst of looking at buying my first home and ever-fancy plans at work. Plus there's a marginally-drivable car that I still need to get rid of. Priorities, priorities, priorities...right:

• Today: house BBQ, don't try any tough stuff
• Tomorrow: Morning: X Stretch, go to mass, Afternoon: clean fridge, Evening: Restart phone and FitBit, see if I can sync again. How have I gone this long without my heart rate data?

P90X Day 46 and 49: Yoga X, X Stretch

Forgot to post for these, but they happened! These workouts are resilient in the face of houseguests since I can do them in my bedroom just as easily as in my makeshift living room gym.

P90X Day 47 and 48: Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X and Kenpo X

The decent choice of a human being is to value the sleep schedules of guests above their morning workout, so I've had to get a little creative. I missed two consecutive days, so here's my plan to make them up (since I haven't been negotiating with myself about exercise. And I should stop negotiating with myself about food again):

Saturday: Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X, AND Kenpo X

These are days 47 and 48. Note that I'm missing day 46, which is yoga. The reason for this is that I can move that to Sunday, which should combo nicely with the X Stretch leading into the Phase 2 recovery week.

After the Saturday doubles workout, I felt amazing all-over. It would definitely be over-doing it to do these two workouts on the same day all the time. For now I feel great. But this is an extraordinary circumstance: keep to your daily workout schedule so that you can keep going and you don't feel tempted to resort to such measures!

Flew Saturday morning. Yay flying!

P90X Day 45: Back and Biceps, Ab Ripper X

I'm definitely way better at pull-ups than when I started.

My weight change has plateaued after "negotiating with myself" on the paleo diet since the end of phase 1. Or it could be mass built during the recovery week. But I think it's diet. I'm strong, which is great, but the path to ripped abs is forged in the kitchen.

This is the half-way point. Time flies!

P90X Day 44: Plyometrics

Having houseguests (August in Seattle!) has caused me to move my workouts to after work. Today's bike ride home was just a warm-up for plyo.

Plyo itself is actually pretty pleasant by now. I'm skipping the double-time jump knee tucks and rock star hops for now, performing them at normal speed because the last thing I want is to have to cut back due to over stressing my knees.

Sunday's amortized food prep paid off in tonight's dinner. It needed some spices, though.

P90X Day 43: Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps, Ab Ripper X

All of a sudden, this one was hard again. Probably because I got to bed late. I'll see it again in phase 3.

Rode my bike to work--glorious! So much faster. Just missed the omelette line. :-(

Biking home was easy in spite of weeks of a bus commute. I have no doubts about my fitness improvements. Zoomed up Belmont.

P90X Day 42: X Stretch

I waited too long to start the stretch this time and it bled over past my bedtime. Somehow, I didn't even quite stretch right. Probably because I was trying silence + cues while listening to podcasts again. Worked great for Kenpo, maybe not as well for getting a good stretch.

P90X Day 41: Kenpo X

Okay, I'm finally caught up to today. The kenpo routine reminds me a little bit of saying the rosary, since you're doing a set number of moves for several reps with very similar breaks between sets. I'm not sure whether combining the two would be brilliant or sacrilegious. I'll break the tie thusly: if it means you're praying more overall, it seems unlikely that God would object.

Today's workout was the first time I used P90X's audio option to play only silence and cues. This meant I could have my podcasts playing in the background otherwise, which is perfect for the kenpo routine.

Knocking out these posts in a short, time-boxed time is good for my growth as a writer. There's a strain of perfectionism that really slows me down with most posts. It's good to write mostly about exercising/diet/sleep habits with a few life observations thrown in. Getting in the habit of this pace of publishing should lead to less perfectionism, improving both the quantity and, ironically, the quality of my output.

Since it's Saturday and my siblings have left, I've been able to catch myself up to buy back my time. I didn't have ready-made paleo dishes and I had a flat bike tire. So I took the Saturday, bought new bike tubes and installed them (take that, bus 8!), and then I've got some stuff to cook before the opera tonight (Count Ory should be a good time).

A fixed bike tire probably saves about 45-60 minutes/workday for commuting. Taking an hour to prepare some microwaveable leftovers should save me another 25 minutes/day. Fixing the tire took about 20 minutes since I've done it before but I'm still bad at it, plus the 10 minutes to stop at the bike shop before grocery shopping this morning. Because the bike tire saves me more time, I made sure to do that first. Worst-case, if everything else falls off the rails, I immediately have that new time to right myself. This is an example of how the key to productivity is more about strategic thinking than about horsepower. It's fun to use your brain on decisions like this, it's rewarding that you've been so clever, and it's hugely beneficial to have the time back. I've gone from wondering how to do more with less to realizing that doing less (the right "less") is the path to more. And even this zeal for "more" is less about greed and more about being prepared for the rough patches in your schedule, like entertaining house guests during Seattle summers, which is both pleasure and privilege when prepared.

P90X Day 40: Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X

The ab ripper keeps getting easier, so I did cross-leg sit-ups rather than wide-leg sit-ups.

As part of negotiating with myself, I indulged last night in not only sushi but ice cream as well. So now I've got extra glycogen to burn, at least. The "Whole 30" program is a 30-day paleo experiment, which I had almost completed by the time I got to the wedding. Anyway, that's the sound of me negotiating with myself. Sounds weak, doesn't it? And when you're negotiating with yourself, how do you walk away? And what's your best alternative to a negotiated agreement? Do as I say, not as I do.

I'm re-remembering how good it feels to feel this good. A fit and healthy body is not for purchase; it may only be bartered for with exercise, wise food choices, and temperate eating habits.

P90X Day 39: Yoga X

I think for once I got to sleep at a reasonable hour, making my 90-minute Yoga X manageable.

This round of P90X has definitely focused me at work as well. I think that one of the reasons people who are already doing a lot are able to get more done is that they focus on eliminating time spent on things that don't move the needle. You cultivate an ability to be direct and to prioritize aggressively.

Charles Duhigg's latest book Smarter Faster Better is on productivity. It's a good one. I haven't done my GoodReads review for that one yet. I'm definitely behind on GR reviews. Because I read that book, I sidelined my Parallel Programming Coursera course in favor of this P90X round.

P90X Day 38: Back and Biceps, Ab Ripper X

Like chest/shoulders/triceps, this routing was much easier the second time around. Who knows, maybe the weight gain from the Pakistani wedding was really just overdue bulking thanks to the recovery week?

My legs and waist size are noticeably slimmer (thanks, pants!). I still don't know what to make of the fat percentage readings on the Aria scale. I'm not going to worry about it. I did, however, make sure to change the scale units from pounds to stone. Seriously, people: don't weigh yourselves in pounds.

The ab ripper was a bit easier today, so I went for single-grabs on the leg climbs.

P90X Day 37: Plyometrics

Okay, lots of catching up to do. I've been working out, but not updating because my siblings were in town. Let's see what I can remember.

So I did this round of plyo right next to my sleeping brother and sister. It was helpful to be on a morning workout schedule this week. It's much easier to leave an event early to go to bed than to come late or miss it entirely because you need to work out first thing after work.

I took the morning off to get breakfast with my siblings. It was at this point that I started negotiating with myself, which we all know is a bad idea. I slid shy of several paleo norms during the week, but for the cause of all of us siblings being united in Seattle, I'm at peace with this. There are many days left to the rad bod.

Oh shoot, that reminds me I'd better wrap up the rest of these updates quick so I can get out of this coffee shop, go back home, and try to cook virtually all of my food for the week (writing this Saturday afternoon).

P90X Day 36: Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps, Ab Ripper X

I'm amazed at how much easier this routine was the second time around. There's more room to go, but my improvement was dramatic. Possibly from good sleep last night after a great stretch. The ab ripper is becoming second nature again.

Oh, and I did the bus 12 trick again today.

P90X Day 35: X Stretch

I used the book to stretch the last few times. This time I used the DVD and it was after a day of walking. It was a great way to end the day. The DVD slowed me down so I was getting the most out of each stretch. Felt great. Got me ready for bed.