The X Files

Sorry about that title, I couldn't resist.

I'm currently on week 8 - but not really. Technically it's week 9, but remember I crashed. And restarted. Sometimes that's just what it takes.

Miscellany from the past 7+ weeks...

- Running replaced Kenpo for this 90 day period, so Kenpo will have to wait until 90².

- Hell yes there's a 90². I want to realize absolute potential. AbPotX.

- I've been using resistance bands rather than weights. Being no stranger to weight training, at first I thought this would be the wimp approach. Not so, not so. Despite the few occasions where the starting movement involves a slightly slack band to enable full resistance at the peak of the exercise, the bands are muscle-shredding torture monkeys.

- Muscle. Shredding. Torture. Monkeys. And today I just bought one more, a heavyweight one (max 72 lb resistance).

- Hell no I'm not going to 72 lbs. But at this stage it's going to make a world of difference simulating pull-ups.

- I know from the Beachbody message boards that I am not the only woman who wants to kick serious ass in pull-ups. I also know that there is no band that can replace the next step: I'm going to have to get my ass to the gym and pull up for real.

- The other day during a rainy run, my buddy and I came up on an Erie-sized puddle. My buddy circumvented it through the squishy grass. I lept over it with ease. Plyometrics: God love 'em.

- Still, after 12+ Ab Ripper sessions, that V-Up kills me. And I hate every person on that DVD who does it with ease.

- (I love every person on those DVDs. Can you say Dreya Weber?)

- Tony Horton's airborne plyometric push-ups are psychotic and riveting. After finishing my lame-ass 8 or 10, I'll back up to the start of the sequence just to watch him. Oh, and I just got a clap in for the first time last week.

- The greatest change has been in my strength, especially in my upper body. A little muscle definition ("Hey," I said to the mirror the other day, "I don't remember seeing that before...coooooool...") goes a long way toward re-committing to the process.

- Re-commitment had to happen every week. This is not one of those "once you've done it for 30 days it's habit." There is no habit to this, I had to church it up every single Day One.

Finally, I must be employed by Beachbody in a parallel universe because I have been talking this program up left and right. It's not a permanent approach - nothing can replace the cameraderie of a team of people sweating and screaming in pain simultaneously (ahhh, good times, my Performance Max friends, good times). As long as I keep setting physical goals, I'll be showing up and pressing PLAY.