Shoulders & Arms – This is definitely my favorite workout. I don’t really dread any part of it, I enjoy all of the exercises.  My reps did go up so I know my strength is increasing. I did not do ARX afterwards so I will get that done tonight.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I think I may just eat a plate of turkey and vegetables. I do not really crave all the other food that is served with a Thanksgiving meal so it shouldn’t be too hard for me to be good! I did decide on my adult beverage dilemma (red wine or light beer)…I am going to pick up some Miller 64 on the way home tonight. It’s a light beer that only has 64 calories in it. I figured I can have up to 4 without feeling guilty so I am going to give it a whirl.

Plyometrics – After the first few exercises, I felt like I was going to kick butt on this workout. The first couple of rounds, I had plenty of energy and hop in my jump. Then, I slowly lost my hop and I was fighting to remain strong through the end. I did see an improvement from last week but this workout caught up with me about mid-way.

 Nutrition – I can’t believe I am saying this but I love being on the P90X nutrition plan during the week as it’s not difficult to maintain….yes I know, it’s only week 2 but I figured it would be more difficult at the beginning?? The hardest part are the weekends, it’s tough maintaining any sort of nutrition plan when you are used to having a few drinks and going out to dinner. I know I have to “live” but I am trying to do my best at the beginning. My goal is to be very strict up until Christmas Eve and then allow myself to cheat a bit when we host a family party at my house. Seeing that I have a long weekend (thanksgiving) this week, I may go out and purchase some red wine. I am a beer drinking and on occasion, I will have some white wine. Everything I have read points to red wine being the best choice for an “adult beverage”. It doesn’t hurt to drink a couple of light beers either so I am up in the air on what I am going to do. It’s funny, when you follow a nutrition plan you tend to dissect everything that you eat and/or drink. Three weeks ago, I was buying some pale ales and light beer as well as trying to figure out if I wanted chinese food or pizza.

This is pretty much what I eat during the week, I do change it up a bit at dinner…

 P90X workout – 5:30am
7am –   P90x Recovery Drink
8am –   FiberOne Bar
8am –   Protein shake w/skim milk
10am – Banana
12pm – 6oz chicken, 1 oz feta, 2 cups lettuce, 2tbl low-fat dressing
3pm –  Yoplait lite yogurt mixed with flax seed
5:30pm –  3oz turkey breast strips, 1 1/2 cup broccoli, 1 1/2cup asparagus
6:00pm – Veggie burger w/ mustard on light english muffin
7:30pm – Protein shake w/ skim milk

Total 1783 calories

Chest & Back – I pretty much improved on all of my reps when compared to last week. It’s important to fill out the “track sheet” to know where you stand. Doing this, I was able to determine if I did better or not. I did struggle will the pull-ups again, my reps stayed the same. My back was still a bit sore from Friday’s “legs & back” routine so I am not sure if this played a role on not improving.

ARX (ab ripper x) was very tough again. I am going to do my best every time but I will be shocked if I can complete this workout by the end. It’s just so hard and I feel like I am far from completing it 100%.

Kenpo-X - Once I got going, I really enjoyed this workout. I am not used to doing kicks or even punches so I am working muscles that I do not normally use. My calorie counter also claimed I burned 815 calories so if that is accurate, that is great! Even though I burned just as many calories with kenpo-x than plyometrics, kenpo-x seemed to be a lot easier for me.

Week 1 complete! I love how each workout is so different and I think this is the main reason why so many people see fantastic results.

Also, the nutrition plan went very well this week. It was a bit strange Friday night drinking water and having baby carrot sticks for a snack…I am used to beer and pizza. I am taking this nutrition thing one day at a time and Friday night was my first true test but so far so good.

Legs / Back was another tough one. I would say both legs/back and plyometrics are the hardest workouts to date. I did not use weighted dumbbells during any of the lunge exercises. I only used them for calf raises. I definitely cannot keep up with the video when they do pull-ups, they are all freaks of nature so do not feel bad if you can’t either…at least I tell myself that  I am not a big fan of putting my foot on the chair  to ease the tension during pull-up so I do as much as I can (usually 4-5), take a 10 second break and try to do another 2-3. If there is time, I do pull-downs. Pull-downs can be achieved with the resistant bands and door adapter. My legs were junk after this workout but it felt good when I completed it.

ARX (ab ripper x) – This is only my third (actually 4th)  ARX workout but by far it was my best. I still only did a little bit more than half but I felt a lot stronger than the previous two times I have done it. I have never done abs consistently before so I am very curious on how my midsection will look after 90 days of this!