I swear Monday's are easily the most ego boosting workout because that chest pump is just ridiculous.  I was thinking about doing some quick bench press work on Thursdays for this last four weeks, but I don't know if that's just being silly or not.  I was also thinking I might do some cardio during this last part just to get a little bit more out of it, but yea, finding time for that should be easy peazy.  Maybe I'll write a book too.  And build a sailboat.

I did Ab Ripper right after the main routine and that was tough.  I'm holding my legs up in front of me for most of the pullups, which is a bit of an ab ripper in and of itself, so the ab work felt really tough.  That's a good feeling though and after all was said and done, I felt quite beastly.  It's nice not feeling like I can complain about much of anything at this point since this is the last real push.  60 day pics in three days!

So, this ends recovery week and I'm on to the first of four last weeks of the intense stuff.  Pretty crazy.  Home stretch and all.  I dare say I feel a little giddy.  I was out grilling hot dogs today and I jumped up on to the deck covering and did a few pullups just because I could and it was wild.  Stuff like that is crazy.  It's still unbelievable how much more capability I have to do things and I swear I enjoy it every day when I'm flinging the kids around.  And, shoot, it's safer for them too.  I haven't dropped one in quite a while.  Well, not unintentionally at least.  They love being dropped on the couch over and over again.  I suppose I could have just made a routine out of that and it would have naturally gotten more intense as they got older.  I guess it would be a little odd once they were in college and their spouses would have to be very understanding.

I'm excited about tomorrow and kicking off the last big push.  Here's to making it all worth it.

Whatever the reason, I felt like my form was pretty good throughout almost the whole thing and I really felt the difference in flexibility as a result.  I was able to make a decent 'L' laying on my back with my legs up in the air, which is a ridiculous level of flexibility for someone as boardlike as I tend to be.  It was also quite nice being able to do (and hold for the most part) the poses that I used to consider impossible.  The warrior three, half moon and twisting half moon sequence is the only thing that I still chortle at, but other than that, it was pretty good.  Now, this is mostly guesswork since I don't have someone telling me if I'm doing it as well as I think I am, so I could just be delusional, but since I'm not planning on entering any Yoga competitions, I guess it doesn't really matter so much.

So tomorrow, Core Synergistics.  I don't mind that so much.  The we kick back in to gear for the final set of four weeks of really pushing it.  The end is in sight.  I'm going to have to seriously start thinking about what I'm going to do when this whole thing is done.

I didn't mind the routine so much and felt like I was able to get through it without mentionable event except for one minor detail.  Bow/Boat and Superman/Banana are impossible.  I simply cannot balance on my stomach with my feet and chest up in the air without significantly uncomfortable side effects.  Generally it's just a feeling of nausea that stays with me the rest of the routine.  It doesn't help that Tony is at his most obnoxious when he's flipping people over with a mere word.  I'm sure all the power would go to my head, too, but seriously.

So I was realizing that the next "building" part of the whole program is four weeks and then one more week of "recovery" and that'll be it.  That seems a might crazy.  It makes the end seem much more imminent.  I guess it's also helpful to think that I have less days then I've been through.  Anyway, all said and done, I'm feeling really good about it right now even though at times it does still feel like P90X is all I'm ever doing.  Somehow, life doesn't seem to have suffered too much, though that's in large measure thanks to Heather's awesome support. 

Now the trick is to find out how else I can better myself/the world for an hour and a half a day now that I know I can apply discipline to my life on that scale.  Meanwhile, I'll just get pudgy while enjoying the after pictures of back when I finished P90X.

I will take this opportunity, however, to mention that the extra protein I'm drinking really seems to have made a significant difference in my energy levels.  Lately, for about the last two weeks I'd say, I've had a significantly higher level of energy and it's been absolutely awesome.  I've been getting a little bit better sleep too, but it seems I had been getting good sleep here and there without the expected energy dividends here for the last couple of months.  So, good news on that front.  If you're interested, I'm drinking the Jay Robb Vanilla Whey.  Here's the delicious recipe Heather invented:

• 1 1/4 Cup of Kefir or Whole Raw Milk
• 2 scoops of Jay Robb Vanilla Whey
• 4 Tbl of Organic Peanut Butter
• 6 Ice cubes
• 3/4 Cup of Water

Blend until creamy and enjoy the energy you've just infused.

I'm not sure if it was because of the nap or what, but whatever gave me the ability to perform with such intensity also made me more sore than I have been since the beginning of this whole endeavor.  I remember on those first few days being absolutely shocked at the devastation that this program wreaked on my poor body.  I am now re-experiencing that annoying inability to sit down with any semblance of control.  I can't imagine how effective it would be if I could work out with that level of intensity every time but I don't know how to make that possible.

I was also able to continue my pullups.  I did six of each set (eight all together) but on one set, I did seven!!!  I know, shocking, but somehow I was able to eek it out.  I was pretty delighted with how realistic it is for me to pull my body into the air consistently and that is a really good feeling.  Pullups have always been tough, but with the toe tap at the bottom, I'm feeling pretty good about my progress.  Soon I'll have to have a kid hanging on my legs to make it a challenge at all.

Though I know it's a good workout and I feel good after having done it, that's what yoga makes me feel like in a nutshell.

3/4 of 2/3 DONE!!!!

Also known as half way done.  Pretty dang exciting, but a little discouraging too.  I mean, it feels like I've been doing this forever and I'm only halfway done?  But on the other hand, I've seen so much progress and I'm only half way done?  So, as usual, it just depends on how you decide to look at things as to whether or not they are going to bring you down or not.

I'm really into doing biceps.  For some reason it just makes me feel so powerful, like a superhero or a 18v lithium drill.  So, needless to say, I enjoyed today's routine, but hate trying to do pullups when my biceps are blasted.  It's very demotivating.  But, I'm sure my back will be sore since I can't rely on my arms as much to help get me up there.

Ab ripper was as expected and I don't imagine there will be much surprise on this one moving forward.  I might actually add some reps on the last weeks, but we'll see.  It's still causing me pain in both the short and long term, so no need messing with things now.

It's hard to see progress on plyo, though I was able to keep up with the double time jumping even when it lasted for the whole 15 or 30 seconds, and that's just tough.  I'd be very interested to play some volleyball to see if I've improved my jump height at all.  I gotta believe I'm jumping a couple of inches higher, but since I haven't played volleyball in a couple years, I don't see it happening any time soon.

Tomorrow is half way.  Hard to believe.  I'm going to celebrate by doing another 45 days.

Today was the first day with a real protein drink.  Heather is amazing.  She can make the healthiest stuff taste incredibly good.  I'm not sure how someone can be so good at something that is supposed to be a science (cooking), but if we could compare cooking to an art, like dancing, surely she would be Ginger Rogers.  The protein shake she makes is supposedly some of the best Whey protein, and she makes it taste like a tantalizing treat.  Amazing.  We'll see if it makes a difference in the ol' energy levels.

Ab ripper was ab ripper.  The only difference today was that I kept in pace with their counting instead of going a bit faster.  I think it was a little bit of a better workout and by the time we got to the mason twists, my abs were pretty useless.  This is the best workout to go look in the mirror after.  When Heather saw me, she just said, "Dang!"  That will get me through another couple of weeks.

Today, we were playing Uno Attack as a family (I highly recommend it).  Kaitlyn, being a bit too young to participate as a player "helps" either Heather or me.  We were all sitting on the floor around the coffee table.  This time she was helping me, but instead of the normal card putting down and button pushing, she decided it would be more fun to stand on my shoulders and sit on the top of my head, of course.  It was all fun and games until she overshot on one attempt to sit on my head and went tumbling forward toward the table.  Instantly, my arm shot out and caught her mere inches from the table.

And that, my friends, is how P90X saved my daughter's life.

Today was the first Yoga day I could do each pose (at least momentarily).  At one point after the hardest stuff, Tony says, "Now take a moment to appreciate what you just accomplished" and I did.  It was a pretty cool feeling.  I've never been flexible (well, at least since I turned 25) so it's nice to regain some of that range of motion.  I'm still far from a Yoga champ, but it's another encouraging indication of progress.

I've been pretty tired after starting p90x after about the second week.  Today Heather and I were thinking about it and we came to the conclusion that it might be because of a lack of protein since I've been working out almost every day and not eating a bunch of protein.  She just got some protein powder to boost her levels in late pregnancy, so I'm going to start taking it too, which I never in a million years thought I would be doing.  It'll be interesting to see if it has any affect.

As far as legs are concerned, it's not a workout I really enjoy, but my knees aren't super strong, so it's nice to get a little more capability there.  I'd love to play some volleyball or ultimate and see if I'm able to get up a little more.  Maybe we can get a game going this Friday before Heather pops.

I skipped abs today, so I'm going to have to do them tomorrow along with Yoga (bleh).  I'm so tempted to skip Yoga, but it's a significant sweat inducer, so there's got to be some good value in it.  I don't think I'm in any danger of getting so bulky I lose flexibility.  I hit the 40's today.  So close to half way.

And bring it I did.  After getting going for the first 10 minutes or so, the energy kicked in.  I don't know if my body is getting used to the effort it takes or what, but I felt great while I was doing it.  I think I could have been believably superimposed into a Bruce Lee (not Steve Back) movie, and not as one of the guys in a white gi that's just there to get hurt.

So, I have a little motivation back, and that's nice.  Tomorrow is a real workout, and I need the motivation to do legs and back since I'm not crazy about that routine either.  Come to think of it, once Wednesday is done, I don't have much to look forward to until Monday.  Ah well.  It's all good.  I'm not even half done and the results are awesome so I'll hold on to that until this whole crazy thing is behind me.

I did ab ripper from memory this time.  I didn't feel like getting everything turned on to do it, so I just tried to do my best to remember the sequence.  I feel very confident that I remembered each set, but I'm not so sure about the order.  It's really cool being to the point that I can do 15 or so classic situps without feeling any discomfort in my midsection at this point.

I tried the green Gatorade recovery drink (as opposed to the red I've been drinking) and it was catastrophically horrible.  I could barely choke it down, so if you're looking to try it, I highly recommend the mixed fruit flavor.  I might just start eating one of these after each workout instead.

I'm starting to loose steam on the repetitive routines.  I have no heart for plyometrics, kenpo, and yoga.  Maybe I'm just sleepy, but it's getting harder to drag myself out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to do the tues/thur/sat stuff.  I'm still eight days out from the half way point.  I think next week I need to psych myself back up to really get in there and do this thing.  That, or I need a nap.

I went to a pool party on Sunday, and it was awesome to see how much farther I could throw the kids in the pool.  That right there makes all the sadness of rolling out of bed so early to sweat worth it.  I think I'd be happy to be done now if this was the end of the program and I'm still anxiously anticipating experiencing the feeling of ability at the end of the whole fiasco.

So tonight was my first attempt at doing all 349 ab reps in the ab ripper.  I didn't do 349.  Because I was too busy doing 359!  It was crazy how much easier than I thought it would be to do the whole dang routine.  I think I'd been skipping to each exercise faster than they go from one to the other because I was doing less of each one and then fast forwarding.  When I was keeping up with them and I got the little rest between each set, not only was I able to do all 25 of each set, but I did 60 mason twists at the end instead of the 50 they did.  Now, I know I can improve my form, but I'm still pretty thrilled to have made it to this point.  Can't wait to get to the point of having a real-life, undeniable six pack instead of a hint of one.

It was funny.  On the day I mentioned that I didn't see much difference in my 30 day pics, Heather pointed out how blind I was and showed me all the progress she saw.  And then, at dinner, I had yet to put a shirt on and was coming to the table.  Drew said, "Daddy, I can see your muscles!  I've never seen them before."  Both Heather and I cracked up, but it was pretty stinkin' awesome.  He then followed that up with, "Some guys have muscles so big you can see them through their shirts." 

Just you wait Drew Johnson, just you wait.

I don't know if it's because I'm lighter (having just gotten a hair cut) or what, but my pullups were much more encouraging today, too.  I found that if I give it a little toe tap at the bottom of the pullup to get past the dead hang arm lock, I can actually do better than I've ever been able to, and it was definitely encouraging.  It's just starting from a dead hang that's a killer for me.  Other than that, I was able to do about 40 (5 at a time) decent pullups and that felt pretty good.  Now of course, the guys on TV are doing something like 20 a set, but I can still hold on to my little victories.

I busted out 24 of 25 ab reps for each set (though I still had to take a break or two during the scissors).  That's only one shy of what they are doing for ab ripper AND I was able (to my shock) to do all 50 of the mason twists.  I had to look down to make sure I was doing them right because I couldn't believe it.  That means, next Monday I'll actually be doing the whole series of sets of ab ripper X, a milestone I'll be quite thrilled to experience.

Unfortunately, I compared my day 1 pics to my day 30 pics and could see no discernible difference.  Now, there's no doubt in my mind what so ever that I'm stronger and more capable, and that's awesome.  I think the lack of visible difference in the pics is because I've got some bad lighting with most of the light coming straight at me from the front, hence I can see little shadow and definition in my contours.  Heather swears there is a significant difference, so I'm holding on to that.  I'm getting more and more excited about seeing the results at the end of this whole thing.

I kinda felt like I was just going through the motions this morning.  I definitely got my heart rate up and produced a decent sweat, but I woke up just feeling so dang tired, it was hard to really bring it, as they say.  Nonetheless, I fulfilled my duty and kicked and punched my way to a slimmer, trimmer me but was quite delighted to be done.  I feel like I'm getting decent sleep, but still wake up a little tired.  I wonder if my body being in constant recovery is taking a toll.  I'm sticking with the recovery drink on weight days (Mon, Wed, and Fri), so we'll see if that helps out a bit.

Plyo really killed my glutes last time I did them (Tues) and I'm still pretty sore from then.  And now, with my sore back and arms, I'm back to being pretty excited about feeling progress.  More pullups tomorrow =[ and mix that with legs (on top of sore glutes) and that makes for an unexcited Christopher.  However, I'm taking tomorrow (Fri) off work so I may just do the whole routine throughout the day, five minutes at a time.  =]

All the kids started along side me, so as we're stretching our necks, all four of us just stood there in front of the TV with our heads cocked to the left, like confused little puppies pondering a strange noise.  Kaitlyn (3) was the first to drop out, followed by Ashlyn (6) who went to go play with her, but Drew (8) stuck with it and did the whole thing, including abs.  His form was horrible, but his tenacity was flawless.  Pullups are my freakin' kryptonite and as strong as I feel in other areas, I still feel like the punk kid who's gonna get sand kicked in his face at the beach whenever I try to do them.  I think I'm biologically cursed by my long limbs to be inefficient with them (and it doesn't help that my knees almost touch the floor when hanging from the bar above the door frame).

I did 23 of each ab set for ab ripper, and felt pretty good about it (except the fifer scissors.  Hate them).  One more time this week, and then at the beginning of next week I'm committing to actually doing all 25 of each one.  That'll be an awesome milestone, and I'm pretty psyched to hit it.  Ab ripper is some sweetness, and even though I'm so close, I still can't believe I could ever do the whole routine.  I guess we'll see on Monday.

That's huge, and I'm not talking about the font size (snicker, snicker).  It's an awesome feeling to have come this far, and it's an impressive program that still feels fresh after having done it every day for 30 days.  I'm feeling and seeing undeniable progress and on both fronts I'm completely thrilled.  I'm even more motivated to completely commit to the routine each day, which will only improve things. 

There's something helpful about knowing that I only have 90 days in which to maximize the potential results.  The false sense of urgency that helps create is awesome and now that I'm 1/3 done, I'm feeling more ready than ever to really get the most out of each day.

That started today with Plyometrics.  I'd say this is the first time I've really kept up with them on a hard work out.  There's lots (LOTS) of jumping involved and I was able to get up pretty well throughout the whole thing.  My heart was going crazy and the sweat was flying and I was really into it.  I'm also fairly sore from yesterday's chest/arms/shoulders.  I didn't expect that, but it's a wonderful feeling when I've been at it this long.  When it's all said and done, I might just give Tony a hug.

Chest, arms and shoulders tonight, which was the first time seeing this routine.  Tony is in rare form, too, crackin' jokes left and right.  Come to think of it, he might even be a little high (likely on protein joints) because he can't seem to pronounce anything either.  I have to believe he is the youngest or only child in his family, though I don't care enough to try to find out.

The work out itself was awesome.  It had some ridiculous things going on, but afterwords, I was once again excited to see my future in the mirror and be pleased (as I was slightly pumped).  I also love the fact that there is no repetition.  Each set is a different exercise and I'm really into that.  I was able to keep up with the girl in the group, though she was about 45 I'd say (which is dang impressive).  It's embarrassing doing pushups on your knees, but when I'm constrained to only using one arm, I gots no choice.

I'm also trying out Gatorade's recovery drink (now with protein!).  That stuff is sickeningly sweet, but at least the aftertaste is horrible.

One of the things that made it more fun was that two of my kids were laying under my legs while I was in any pose requiring a lunge (roughly the first 45 minutes), and then when I went to downward dog, I would lay on them and they thought it was hilarious.  Ashlyn tried to do a couple of the poses with me, but she brought it to my attention that they were uncomfortable.  She's quite insightful.

So, tomorrow begins the first day of the second set of three week pushes.  I'm thrilled to be starting some new stuff, especially while I'm being more careful with what I eat.  I took a quick preview of the tracking sheet and saw some crazy stuff, like clapping pushups, one armed pushups, so on and so forth.  I'm not sure why they think I'll be able to do more than .5 of any of that, but we'll see.

I was totally going to skip today after spending five hours at my sister's house, killing, scalding, de-feathering, dismembering, disemboweling, and packing 21 rather large chickens.  Everything went quite swimmingly except some unexpected modifications required for the plucker to work as it was supposed to.  We thought we were going to have to pluck by hand, which if true would mean I would still be processing chickens almost regardless of when you are reading this.  Despite the amazing physical effort of all that, I still stuck to doing today's routine which certainly deserves an award of some sort IMHO.

Core synergistics is a beast of a routine, but I definitely like the fact that it's something new each set of the whole thing.  Can't beat that.  Also, I feel like it's doable and the tightness in my back would indicate it's going to make a difference.  Tony says I'm becoming more durable as a result of the core work, which is good since I've got a fourth kid on the way.  Tomorrow is Yoga again which is just 1.4 hours of annoyance and .1 hours of enjoyable stretching.  Ah, how fun.

So, I decided to cash in Sunday's rest day today and move core synergistics and yoga back a day to Saturday and Sunday respectively.  This week has been more dynamic than I expected, but if all goes according to plan, I will only have missed a Yoga for the week, a loss I feel I can handle given the trip and the ridiculousness of preparing to butcher 21 big fat chickens.  But, since I did skip Yoga, I feel obligated to refer to it as P89X from now on.