Quick Blurp

Morning Weigh In: 203.6

Not much loss on the scale this morning but I ate a little more than usual yesterday. All good stuff so no worries (had some sweet potatoes and yams with dinner last night). Did my KenpoX last night and sweated a ton. Tonight is a 2 mile hill run and stretchX (low intensity). The menu plan is all planned and packed, i already have 500-600 cals in my morning and mid morning eats so got to scale back a little.

Anyway the thought to these daily posts where I talk about what's on tap is to form somewhat of a accountability for myself. It helps knowing I have a few readers too, so thanks to those of you who comment. Here's to hitting Onederland sooner than later. Then I have many more pounds to fry after that. Have a good Thursday.

I Did What I Said

This Mornings Weight: 204

Last night was a good night in Ripx land. I ate healthy, did my p90x workout, and road the stationary bike for a hour last night while watching The Biggest Looser. I want to get a new polar heart rate monitor to better track calories burnt in the P90x workouts. *Note to "polar" watch owners--The battery is pretty easy to replace but takes your watch out of warranty. It also messes with your water resistance if you don't get stuff put back in snugly. I washed my hands with my polar watch on and fried it = $90 dollar mistake. My stationary bike has a heart rate monitor that is pretty accurate if you don't let go. It put me in the 130-140 bpm and said I burnt 800cals in my 60 mins of pedaling.

I have my healthy food all packed and ready to roll for the day. Tonight is KenpoX which is a really good cardio workout. No stationary bike tonight as its "Game Night". A couple work friends and myself play Call of Duty 4 or 5 on the PS3 on most Wednesday nights.... good times.

Anyway this post has got to end cause I need to get back to work. Have a good Wednesday Y'all

Fat Fry February...

Well I decided I needed a cool name for February like Billy & Jay had for January. That way its not just another month right? So this morning I weighed in at 205.3 which is right about were I expected I would be after Sundays not so super food choices. As I proclaimed yesterday I am still shooting for sub 200 by the end of this month. I think its very obtainable or doable. Really short term goal is to make it through the weekend unscathed by shatty food and bad dietary decisions. If I can do that the world will be my oyster (that reminds me of a mid 1980s song, name that tune)... I am in phase two recovery week of P90x this week. That brings up Core Synergistics tonight which i really like. Dinner will follow (turkey meatballs over veggies). Then later in the evening while watching the Biggest Looser I will be pedaling my recumbent bike (which I moved out to the living room). I figured if I am going to be watching tv I can at least be pedaling. I am shooting for at least a hour or somewhere near that (nice slow fat roast).

Anyway all my blogger buddies its time to pick back up the blow torch and scorch some fat in February. It has seemed way too quite around the fitness blogs lately. I would really like to see some posts from Kristen, Jason, Will, Melissa, Gene, Susie, Craig, and hell even "Swankywanker" who black balled me from her blog. ;). Its been great to see Billy, Brian, and BrothaJay ramping back up into ultra fitness land. Anyway, lets here some chatter...

Not SuperBad or SuperGood

Superbad the movie = supergood (freaking hilarious)
Superbowl = supergood but wish the Cards could have pulled the win out.
Superbowl food = supergood but superbad for the guy on a healthy diet (do I love chicken wings? - I stopped myself at 7)
Superbowl halftime show = superbad.... I only recognized one song.
Superbowl commercials = supergood "I'm Good"

Anyway, enough Super Ripx180 analysis...

Well can you believe that January is already gone? The first 1/12 of 2009 is in the books. Let me get one thing strait, I have high hopes for 2009 and my fitness goals. 2008 was good to me, slow and steady. As I reflect back on my blog I have been pretty much maintaining for the last 3-4 months. Loosing and gaining the same 5 pounds. That's a great place to be if you are were you want to be weight wise. Not so great if you have been busting your azz doing P90x for the last 8 weeks. So its time for this guy to put on the slicks and let the rubber hit the road. No more spinning the wheels its time for some traction and results. I think for any of this to stick I have to lay down some new goals. This leads me to my #1 short term goal....

1. I will reach Onederland by the end of February......

If i don't post every couple days start heckling me via the comments. Its time for some forward progress.

I have some other goals that I am working on to so there will be more to come via my sidebar.

I would also like to give some kudos to my P90x coach on the beachbody website. I believe he has done more than most people ever thought possible with his body and he is a stand up good guy. Pics speak a thousand words so check Redswarm out.

Its time to up the intensity... what's your goal for February???

Somewhat Normal

Hey bloggers, I know its been a while since I last wrote.  As you know from my previous post I had a couple really busy weekends in a row.  PDXLan was allot of fun and I minimized the bad food and drink as well as possible.  Had a ton of fun and have registered for PDXlan 14.  This weekend we are in Sunriver with a bunch of friends.  Having a great time but I have ate way to much, drank too much, and exercised too little.   With that said I will get back to the reason for this post.  A friend of mine took a bunch of pictures of all of us out playing on the slopes.  I realized when I looked at them that I looked pretty normal and I wasn't disgusted to see myself in those photos.  To me that is another little concession for doing the right thing diet and exercise wise.   Here is one of the shots of me and my youngest son Evan.  On Thursday morning before we left I weighed in at 203.  I was happy to see the scale heading back down but I know I have some bad eating and drinking decisions from this weekend to make up.  Hope you are all having a great weekend too.

Times Flying

David thanks for the question about P90x and for helping me get motivated to write. This is actually my second round of P90x and it is kicking my a$$ more this time than last. In the first 90 days I did the "lean" rotation which has more cardio days than resistance days. This time around (just starting week 7) I am doing the classic rotation. Like last time around week 6 or so I started feeling pretty run down. I haven't missed any workouts in the last 2 weeks but the moves are getting harder to perform. I feel like my body is bonking especially in the push up, pull ups, and triceps department. I definitely know I am getting stronger cause I can do 4 un-assisted chin ups now and my weight amounts I am lifting are going up. But like I said a few sentences ago I am feeling flat energy wise. My diet has been good on the weekdays for the most part but I am still struggling some on the weekends here and there. I weighed myself this morning and I am still sitting at 206. So I am still doing the workouts but haven't really made any huge changes diet wise since my last post. I know if i want to loose weight I have to eat less but for some reason I am having a hard time with that right now. I guess mentally I need to get frustrated enough with not seeing much progress to change my diet. I have no excuses its just what it is. We did Plyometrics last night which has to be one of the most taxing workouts in the P90x program. I think towards the end I started to feel a little asthma which I haven't felt in decades (since I was a kid, kind of freaked me out). I do have the a little bit of a cold hanging on and wondered if it contributed to is slightly. It wasn't like this was the first time I have done that workout. I think since I have a friend doing the X with me it has helped me up the intensity which is a good thing. We also help keep each other accountable making sure we get our workouts done.

The rest of January is a pretty busy month for me. I have the PDX lan this coming weekend (3 solid days of computer gaming). This is the first time I have ever attended something like this so it should be interesting. I know I wont be able to pull the hours all the youngsters will be pulling. Plus I have a family to be with too. I wont miss any workouts cause the guy I am working out with is attending the LAN also.... The following weekend is our annual friends trip to Sunriver and Mt Bachelor for some snow skiing. Its going to be interesting trying to get my workouts in while I'm in Sunriver. I am sure diet will be tuff both weekend too.

Well I guess I have rambled long enough. Hope everyone else is doing well.

The Longest Ripx Post Ever...

Will Someone Pull the Trigger???

For the last few weeks I have been madly searching for a plan diet wise. I am very happy with where I am workout wise and I will touch on that later. I think I am settling in on a Low Carb/Low fat/High Protein diet. I did the Atkins thing before but just can't stomach the high sat/trans fat thought mentally or physically. I know that lower carbs works for me cause I have done it in the past with the most success. The only question in my mind is the possibility of it working because I wasn't eating enough. Last time I got so sick of eating just meat and veggies that I would just skip meals. I don't really want to do that again but I really want to loose weight. I am also afraid of loosing the lean body mass I feel I have put on if I get too low calorie wise. The crappy thing is its a catch 22. I totally agree with Will on the subject of loosing weight and gaining lean body mass not going hand in hand. I think I am a perfect example of that over the last 3 months or so. As I have said before even at my lightest I have the skinny fat look (just soft). With that said I think I need to touch a little more on my last 6 months....

The Workouts...
So for the last half year or so I have been using some beachbody workouts to get moving. I didn't really say much on this blog cause I didn't know how it would be received. I was skeptic about any workout dvd program being a gimmick. Anyway I saw the P90x infomercial ( yeah infomercial I know ) up late one night and thought it looked pretty good. I liked the fact that it appeared to use large body movements allot (squats, lunges, pull ups, push ups etc). It's what I already believed worked and it produces the type of body I would like. A defined not overly large sport physic. This workout was something I could do at home also, which was important to me. Anyway I felt that given my current condition P90x was probably too extreme so I went the P90 route instead for the first 90 days. I followed there diet and exercise regiment to a T for the most part. It worked and I lost 29 pounds in 90 days which was really good for me. The only bad thing about the P90 workouts is they get very repetitive (not allot of variety). After those 90 days I ordered the P90x. Let me tell you these workouts are some of the hardest workouts I have ever done in my life. They are not a joke in any way shape or form. I was having to pause several times during the workouts or else I would puke... The beauty of the majority of the workouts (12 in total) is they are scalable. Meaning you up your intensity or weight depending on what you need. They are very hard but very good I would highly recommend them.

Back to Diet.
With P90x the diet is very laid out too. The only difference is they have you eating way more than when you doing your P90 workouts. So I adjusted thinking I would just try and follow what they said. I have very slowly lost another 8-10 pounds (the ones I keep going back and forth on). So my thought is I need to get back in a calorie deficit but they strongly advise against that. I agree that working out 6 days a week is going to take substantially more calories but I am not loosing as fast as I would like too. I want to be at 1.5-2 lbs a week weight loss until I hit my goal weight. I guess to their credit they don't market P90X as a weight loss routine but more of a get in great shape routine. I know at this point its not a goal weight but most likely a body fat percentage. As I mentioned in my last few blogs, my current body fat is around 30% which is absurd in my eyes. That high of body fat percentage is not good for anyone and it says to me that I am still very un-healthy.

What does all this mean?
I don't know... I feel like a racer standing in the gate waiting for my own stupid brain to pull the trigger. My diet is what is holding me back and the reason I cant get out of the starting blocks at this point. So I guess at this point I need to suffer along with a low carb/low fat/high protein diet and get on with it. I really feel like I can maintain my weight well with exercise. I just cant reduce it with a sensible diet and exercise. I am really scared to loose the lean body mass I have gained forfeiting my last 3 or so months working out. I don't know what all this rambling means to any of you, if anything at all. To me its what's been rattling around in my head for some time. I need to piece it all together and get out of the gates. What do you all think?