P90X

I've waited to blog about this for good reason. I didn't want to blog and say, "hey, I'm starting P90X" and then not do it. So, its been a month. Or in P90xese, I've completed Phase One. I finished my last "Yoga X" of the first phase this morning.

Here's the deal. P90X is insane. After last semester and Truett's arrival I laid down and quit going to the gym and quit biking. Partly, well, mostly because of time, and I was also just tired a lot. Something had to change this semester. I knew I didn't have the time to go to the gym as much as I did in the past and I had heard about this workout from my friends Justin and Rossie (blog in the sidebar) and I had also seen the multiple infomercials on TV. You can find them on YouTube I'm sure. Its an at home workout but the results are supposed to be incredible. We were pretty skeptical especially at the cost of $120. That's money we don't have to spend on something that doesn't work, or worse, something that we're not going to do.

Solution? Craigslist (Atlanta, not Louisville). The cheapest we found the used DVD's in Louisville was $80. Not bad. But we when we were home over Christmas break we found the whole package, brand new, unopened, in Atlanta for $50! So, we used some of our Christmas money to buy it. We knew that if we didn't like it or it didn't get used we could resell it on Craigslist in Kentucky and actually make money on it. Nice plan.

It requires weights or resistance bands. I already had a good set of bands I bought a while back from bodylastics. The only other equipment we had to buy was a pull-up bar. We got it on the cheap from Wal-Mart. We were ready to go. Well, almost. This thing comes with a nice nutrition guide that's not insane, but actually well balanced and it makes sense. However, the hawk their own products like crazy. Protein powder, recovery drink mix, bars, vitamins, etc. All of this stuff is really expensive.

Solution? Homemade stuff. We got chocolate Muscle Milk protein powder from Costco that has more servings per container at a much cheaper cost. Shana made our own protein bars which are great. The only problem was the recovery drink which is supposedly great tasting. You drink it after a workout to recoup and build muscle quicker. Its expensive. Solution? Skim milk and hershey's chocolate syrup. That's right! Chocolate Milk! It has the exact same carbs, protein, and less fat than their stuff. The only thing missing is all of the vitamins. Solution? A multivitamin. I admit it doesn't have all the same stuff, but its close. And when you're on a super-tight budget, you make it work and deal with it. Most of the nutrition stuff is very doable, even on a budget. We shop at Costco a lot. I don't go strictly by the guide though. We just can't. But, we've cut out sweets, sodas, and eat way more veggies and do a lot of smaller portions.

Results? Well, you're supposed to take pictures all along the way. Which we've done. Which you'll never see. But after the first 30 days - I've lost 5 lbs. Toned up a lot. And feel great. I've missed a few workouts here and there. I think I've missed 3 out of 24. The workouts are 1 hour each and its 6 days a week. I admit its a big commitment, but they don't try to hide it. You have to work for it. It kicks my butt every time. But, I'm doing more each time.

If you have the time you should check it out. I'll blog about it again in 30 days.