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I’ve done a horrible thing to myself. Last year I wrote bunches of posts about how I was exercising, eating right, and losing weight. In about 3 months I lost about 20-25 pounds. People were coming up and telling me that I looked great, looked like I lost weight. My motivation was my upcoming wedding and not wanting to look like a fat slob in my wedding pictures that I would look at the rest of my life.

I achieved that goal and I am happy with the way I looked in my pictures. And then I went on the honeymoon, and then I started grad school, and then my back pains started happening, and one excuse after another caused me to stop exercising.

Fast forward about 9 months, and after just celebrating my one year wedding anniversary, I have put back on all of the weight that I had originally lost. What I worked so hard for in 2-3 months, was lost in 9. I can not contribute everything to not exercising, because my eating habits went down the toilet too. I started drinking the occasional energy drink and soda. Fast food started creeping into the weekend meals. Overall is was everything I wanted to stop doing, and I started right up again.

So here I trying to get back into shape again, and this time come up with a better maintenance plan. The good news is that Stacy is working out with me. We just started this past Sunday, and have been very sore the past few days, but just as of this morning, the soreness has started to fade, and I am hoping that muscle memory kicks in and I will be able to resume what I used to lift in my work outs in a shorter amount of time.

On a popular P90X thread on bodybuilding.com, some posters were venting that they thought Kenpo X gets too easy over time. It’s one of the few workouts that you do every single week, no matter what phase or recovery week. Here are some pointers I gave in that thread and they were well received, so I figured I would share with more people.

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This was my ketostix result five days into my CKD

I have come back and re-visited this post with some more details. I started this diet a week ago, and have much more that I can share at this time than I initially could at the time I originally posted it. Some learnings I have so far:

• CKD is not easy for those who have a busy lifestyles, especially…
• If you do not have constant access to food, CKD gets even harder.
• CKD takes planning and execution of your plan. Without both, you can not succeed.
• CKD does seem to get easier as you continue on it, but only if you don’t mind eating the same foods every day.

My basic routine that I have been on for the past 5 months has been to exercise soon after I wake up. I do this on an empty stomach minus the pre-workout supplement(read: drink) that I take. After I work out, I have a protein shake and begin making breakfast as I watch CNBC to see what is going on in the world of finance and markets that day. Here is where the first change of CKD hits me. A typical breakfast for me would be a rotation of:
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I came across this the other day and it has stuck with me ever since. It’s from Tony Horton, the trainer from P90X. Yes, it’s an informercial.

Life with exercise creates a completely different journey than a life without it. Making the time for exercise means that you’re setting an intension to have a great life. Life without exercise means you’re setting an intension to miss out on a better life. The quality of your life improves with exercise and it will get worse without it. Period! Your weight lose is a minute piece to the overall health and fitness puzzle. Every time you exercise you improve your fitness, healthy and quality of life. You always feel good afterward and you allow your mind and body to become less vulnerable to illness and injury. Every day you decide NOT to exercise your health, fitness and quality of life diminishes. You become more vulnerable to illness and injury and the energy and enthusiasm (feeling good) for a better life is not there. This is true for everyone. No exceptions.

You can find the blog here: http://tonyhorton.blogspot.com/

Wow. I can’t even believe my progress on legs and back this morning. But that is why you write it down!

The assisted pull ups are with feet on the chair.

Reverse grip chin ups Week 3 11 unassisted, 20 assisted (1st set, 2nd set)
Week 5 18 unassisted, 25 assisted

Wide front pull ups Week 3 3 unassisted + 13 assisted, 20 assisted (1st set, 2nd set)
Week 5 6 unassisted + 15 assisted, 25 assisted

closed grip pull ups Week 3 3 unassisted + 12 assisted, 17 assisted (1st set, 2nd set)
Week 5 5 unassisted + 12 assisted, 21 assisted

switch grip pulls ups Week 3 10 assisted, 14 assisted (1st set, 2nd set)
Week 5 18 assisted, 19 assisted

I am officially done with P90X phase 1 as of today. Today is my last day of the recovery week and I am ready to get back into the workouts. I only have 1 week left before I fly home for the wedding. So I will have some sort of intermission in the program, but the good news is I will be able to workout at the world renowned Death Eater gym in Tewksbury, MA. It’s an invitation only gym, and I am honored to have worked out there in the past and it’s a life changing experience. I will be putting up my progress pictures later to show Day 1 compared to Day 30. I have made progress in my size, feel a lot stronger, and have more energy, but I know that I still have a long way to go until I am truly happy with where I am at.