Nice, just checked the schedule…only 6 more MAX workouts to go!

I continue to kick as* with these max workouts. I completed max interval plyo yesterday and max cardio conditioning w/ cardio abs this morning…and brought a lot of intensity to each of them. I am at the point now that if I am not doing a MAX workout, I consider it a day off even though I am exercising.

Nutrition – First one to admit, I am struggling with this. My goal this week was to be very strict and I can’t say I have been. I am not eating terrible but I am far from where I was during the first 30 days of insanity. I am all for allowing myself a few cheat meals a week but I have been exceeding that. I think I know what’s happening…

I have been exercising extremely hard there last few weeks and lately when I have a moment (usually at night) when I contemplate about cheating…I just do it and think to myself “I deserve it, I worked out hard today”. I am actually fine having this mentality, eating whatever I want is a huge motivator with me getting up to exercise hard every morning. But a part of me thinks I should take full advantage of this extreme workout program by being as strict as I can with nutrition. I did lose 1.5 lbs last week (16 lbs total) and I pretty much cheated every day. I am not sure where I stand this week weight-wise…maybe I need to see a weight gain and just use that as motiviation to get back on track

So, on day 48 when I checked the schedule and saw Core Cardio and Balance….I was honestly bummed out. At the time, I was anticipating and looking forward to getting crushed by a max workout. I was thinking to myself that this feeling is a sign of insanity addiction….which I am totally fine with. Once I realized it wasn’t the usual max workout, I decided I was going to piggyback a P90X routine onto it to make it more intense. I was just about to head downstairs and something came up with work (on-call). Long story short, I had to push my workout to Day 49 (day off)….and what a difference with my attitude. I was just all set with exercising in general so at this time, it was quite clear to me that I am not addicted to these insanity workouts just yet. I did complete the core cardio and balance routine but no chance I was up for adding a P90X workout to it so I didn’t.

Max Interval Circuit (this morning) –If I haven’t been on such a mission lately with these max workouts, I would have called today a great day….but I have been so I am just going to call it a pretty good day. I found myself dogging it during 2-3 exercises but this routine is so long (59 minutes) you do have time to rebound. I finished strong but somewhere in the middle I found myself not focused enough. If you have done these workouts before, you know you have to be focused throughout to complete them at a high level. With P90X, you can just go through the motions and step up your game during the actual set. With insanity, pretty much every second is part of the set so there is no time to zone out. In my opinion, insanity can be just as mentally exhausting as it is physically…

This week has not been the best for me nutrition-wise. I was about to explain why but realized it would have been a list of excuses….so I am just going with “not a good week” on the nutrition side of things.

In regards to exercising, it’s the complete opposite…I am tearing it up. I have had some incredible workouts these past two weeks and I feel like my cardiovascular endurance might be at an all-time high. I know I was in great cardio shape during the triathlons but I just don’t remember pushing myself this hard day after day after day…and I have two more weeks to go.  I did complete max recovery yesterday and I banged out max cardio conditioning again this morning. The schedule also called for cardio abs this morning so I not only completed it, I did it without taking breaks. I always had to take 2-3 breaks during this routine since starting it….not today, and it felt great accomplishing that.

Again, my nutrition was pretty bad this past week so I  did expect to see a weight gain of a couple of pounds. To my surprise, I lost another 1.5lbs…so I am 3.5lbs shy of my goal weight. I definitely have to credit these ridiculous max insanity workouts for the weight-loss, I can’t give any credit to the nutrition plan I was on.

It’s the weekend so I might as well keep the cheating going another day or so but my goal next week is to not to cheat during the week. I am curious to see what my weight-loss would be following a strict nutrition plan 4-5 days leading up to my weigh-in….this is also assuming I continue to bring a high-intensity level to my workouts.

Whether it’s from work and/or family life, every so often I will have a day that is just plain hectic. Fortunately, I don’t have too many of these days or at least they are spread out enough that I don’t really noticed them…unfortunately, the last 5 days have been this way. I did complete Max Interval Circuit yesterday morning and I am glad I did as I did not have a chance to settle down until midnight last night so I would have missed it if I pushed it to the PM. I finally fell asleep around 1am and my alarm clock went off 4 hours later at 5:15am. I was prepared to skip my workout this morning but I found myself in cruise control and next thing I know… Shaun T. is yelling “Let’s Go”  during the Insanity intro right before Max Interval Plyo . I definitely treated the warm-up as just that…a warm-up. Once the core part of the workout started, I stepped it up and ended up having another great workout. Eight out of the last ten days I have had unbelievable workouts, I keep thinking I am going to dog one but it hasn’t happen yet. 12 more max workouts to go…

Nutrition - I can’t say I have been just as successful with nutrition as I have been with these max workouts. I haven’t been terrible either but I don’t expect to lose any additional weight this week.

Max Cardio Conditioning – Even though my goal was to bring the same amount of intensity to this week’s workouts as I did last week, I was unsure if it was going to actually happen or not. It’s one of those things that can be defined as “easier said than done”.  I can honestly say I picked up where I left off last week…so today’s workout was a success

I have 14 more max workout sessions remaining until I am officially finished with Insanity. I feel like each day it’s going to be a challenge to complete one of these MAX workouts at a high intensity level. I hate to even admit this but I am sure I will be dogging a few before it’s over. I am just going to take it one day at a time with a goal of bringing it each day…