Countdown to Lean - 4!

So I actually spent more time yesterday reading the P90x nutrition plan yesterday and I realized I may have overreacted a bit... (shocking, I know!)

It seems that I would only have to try the 1-carb/day plan as long as it worked for me. If I found myself not doing well with only one carb portion a day, I could transition over to the next phase. Apparently the third phase is very high carb, for the endurance athlete. They explain that if you are already somewhat athletic when you begin, the first phase might not work, and as long as you try it for a day or two, you can move onto the next phase.

Well, I'll get off my high horse now and give this nutrition plan a serious whirl. In the meantime, since my horse is still right here and all saddled up, I'll get right back on it to bitch about this: what is up with Dean K and his neanderthal diet?!?!?! OK, some of the stuff he says makes sense to me, the whole eating organic, fresh fruits and veggies and lean meat. Avoiding refined sugars and simple carbs makes sense too. However, perhaps Dean was unaware of this, but there actually already is a neanderthal diet that was around a couple of years ago, near the height of the Atkins craze. It goes by many names, Paleolithic diet, Neanderthin, Eat like a Caveman... These diets promote completely avoiding grains, beans and dairy.

It's the reasoning that kills me! That cavemen didn't suffer from the plethora of ailments that plague modern woman. "Long live Neanderthal Man!" says Dean in his post. Well, guess what?! The average Neanderthal didn't really make it past his twenties, so it's no wonder he didn't get heart disease.

Bah. Anyway, I'm getting psyched to start the P90x - and not only is Tamsen doing it with me, but so is my husband, Big E. I created a google calendar for us (in red) and as Big E said when he saw it, that's a lot of red!

Today, Tamsen and I went for a little lunch hour run downtown, which was really fun, and then I had my tasty leftovers for lunch: butternut squash soup, a lettuce, garbanzo & sweet corn salad*, a carrot, and an apple. Delicious!

*can you believe we're still getting corn in our CSA box?!?

PS. Thank you, Dr. Weil!

Countdown to Lean - 7!

Seven days to go! Tamsen and I went on a 9 mile run (the beginning of our taper) during which we hit 3 of the 4 monster hills the Nike Women's Marathon has to offer. It went pretty well and I feel just fine today.

I started doing some reading up on the P90x nutrition plan. Now I know I've mentioned this somewhere before, but I really don't get diets. I like to focus on healthful, balanced nutrition that's tasty without being excessive (which is why I'm working on a cookbook for athletes). But that's not really the point here: I'm supposed to give this thing an honest evaluation, and I guess I can't just evaluate the workout plan without checking out its diet plan.

Right off the bat, I can tell you what will not work for me: the first week's carb plan. JUST ONE CARB UNIT A DAY?!? Are they kidding me? OK, I know that the low carb is still (sadly) all the rage and that it's a proven (albeit perhaps unhealthy) weight loss technique. Athletes however need their carbs, or at least, that's what I firmly believe. My stomach does as well. When I'm working out regularly and don't get any carbs at all, I feel ill most of the time. My stomach has trouble digesting my meals and I'm usually low energy. Of course, that doesn't mean that just any carbs will do... I make sure to have the best possible carbs in my diet, low on the glycemic index, as whole grain as possible.

Now I know some of you out there are die-hard believers in low-carb diets, but I just don't see this working for me. I'll have to check out this plan and look into possible substitutions, because I think it's highly unlikely I'd make it through phase one otherwise.

Countdown to My Next Challenge

Nine days!! woohoo!

Ok, I have to apologize... I've completely disappeared for quite a while. So I decided to do the P90x Lean, and kept trying to figure out when to start it. I was able to recover enough from my cough two weeks before the Portland marathon to go for a medium long run and try to recover my training loss, when WHOMP! Smacked again, this time by a stomach virus. And it took me out of the game for over a week.

Sometimes, I feel like my body is sending me messages: don't do it! You need rest! But of course, I ignore it. After a while, my body gets fed up with all the ignoring, and shuts my system down completely, leaving me no choice but to hide in bed, with a fever, incapable of moving.

Ok, fine, I get it. So I rested for a whole two weeks, and then I bailed on my full marathon (on strict doctor's orders) and only ran the last 14 miles to keep my running buddy company. The good news is, it went pretty well. I didn't feel so ill anymore and it actually made me truly hungry for the first time in a while!

So I'm back to working out - still easing my way - and with the Nike Women's Half Marathon next week, I've finally set a start date for the P90x Lean: two days after that race (one full day of recovery from the run, then begin my Cardio X on Tuesday the 23rd). And even better, both Tamsen and I are doing it at the same time, and will compare notes on our respective experiences.

To ease my way back into working out, with my system as weakened as it's been, I started with just an easy 30 minute run, here and there. I also did a couple of ab workouts and lower body workouts with Maya. Those have been more interesting lately because we bought a step and that's expanded the range of new workout moves that I've been able to do. I also got a heart rate monitor for my birthday, and learning to use this has been fun. Then lately, I've added some hill training and have a 10 mile run tomorrow.

Well, anyway - nine days to go! I plan on spending some time this week figuring out my schedule and examining the eating plan. Who knows how closely I'll follow that though...

Posts by Sara

Coming soon!!!

Posts by Tamsen

• Where Fashion Meets Fits - February 24, 2010
  
• The Mental Starting Point - February 15, 2010
  
• Sickness and Fitness - February 10, 2010
  
• Reality Hits the Mat With You - February 18, 2009
  
• Move It and/or Lose It - January 18, 2009
  
• The Wall and The Moment - January 5, 2010
  
• Blog Action Day - Poverty Awareness - October 15, 2008
  
• How to P90X When You're Not Sure You Can P90X - August 2, 2008
• The P90X Manifesto - April 28, 2008
  
• First Ever P90Xpert Contest - January 14, 2008
• The Rightness of the Right Tools - January 6, 2008
• New for P90X Lean: PlaChatQua - November 1, 2007
• P90X Lean and The Dreya Roll - October 23, 2007
• So Slacking - July 31, 2007
• Switch it Out - July 12, 2007
• P90X Food - July 5, 2007
• Where to Find P90X - July 5, 2007
• In Praise of Chest and Back - June 23, 2007
• p.p.s. - June 11, 2007
  
• p.s. - June 7, 2007
• P90X in Balance - June 7, 2007
• P90X: Lessons, Progress and The One Thing - May 27, 2007
• Mistake of Enthusiasm - May 18, 2007
• The SickFreak Thing - May 4, 2007
• Ups and Downs of Upper and Lower - May 3, 2007
• The X Files - April 26, 2007
• 80% of 90 is Showing Up - April 8, 2007
• Om-Ow-Om-Ow - March 25, 2007
• Failure, the P90X Way - March 19, 2007
• P90X - Week 1 in Review - March 9, 2007
• Sick to Fit - February 23, 2007
• Damn the box - February 8, 2007
  

*Cough Cough Cough*

I finally made my decision last week about my next 90: P90X Lean! I figured with the intensive running I'm doing, gearing up for the Portland Marathon on October 7th and the Nike Women's half a few weeks later, I should stick to a less intensive start. Plus, the Lean program seems to have more cardio that I can easily add or swap in my running for.

There it was - was happy with my decision, planning the best day to begin. Then I ran my 20 mile training run two sundays ago... It went pretty well, considering this was a jump up from 16 and the longest I'd run in a long time. Then I went to Oakland for a concert (Pink Martini... fabulous!!) and came home with a strange warmth in my chest, not brought on by the greatness of the show. A little bit of a wheeze, a tad of a dry hacking cough. Not good.

Sure my immune system was a bit low (I really need to start taking multi-vitamins and immune boosters after my really long runs). But I blame Oakland! Rumour has it a cough has been "going around" there, whereas all my SF friends have been cough free.

So I took a few days off, figuring it'd be best to take it easy with this, what with the marathon coming up so soon, and another 20 miler due this past sunday. But by sunday, the cough was not only still there, it was worse. And I'd been so good, too! Taking my expectorant regularly, drinking lots of liquids... So finally today, a week later, I called to make a doctor's appointment. And I haven't run, let alone started my P90X Lean at all. I feel terrible.

*cough cough*

Getting Back On Track

I've been gone for so long and completely lost my second 90 day set finale...
What can I say, despite my unwillingness to believe it, weddings really do swallow up your life. From the Sunday before our wedding (when the family members showed up) till two and a half weeks later when I got back from the wedding continuation trip (no honeymoon for us), all I did was two runs: one hard angry 30-min run on rehearsal day (can I just say I run harder and quieter when dealing with family wedding-related crazies?*) and one lovely sunny hour long run on the day of the wedding.

That's it. No strength and no cardio even once the initial wedding dust settled. OK, there was one night of regular dancing, one night of belly dancing lessons and a full night of obligatory belly dancing as part of my second wedding celebration. There was also some frisbee throwing in the sea and some recreational swimming. But that's it!

So now I'm back in town, ready to get back on track, feeling a bit heavier after 2 weeks of feasting and the lighter workout load. My main question is what do I do? For the rest of this week, I'll just ease my way back into working out with a run here and there and some visits with Maya (hopefully she'll be understanding). But then what? I dropped the ball on the Women's Health Magazine plan, but aside from the one week kick off, that workout plan didn't do much for me.

People who've noticed that I lost weight this past year keep attributing it to the fact that I was getting married, either as in "When I was a bride, I was so stressed I hardly ever ate!" or "Trying to get in shape for the wedding, eh?" Which is totally fine, if that's what my motivator was. But it wasn't. My motivation stemmed from a number of things, but primarily developing a good research foundation for the athletic cookbook I've been working on.

My goal for 2008 is to run 8 races (half marathon and up). And for that, I'd like to be in as good shape as I can be. So I will continue to ponder what my next workout plan will be...