WEEK 3: DAY 21: Progress... WHAT PROGRESS!?!

21 days ... Obvious musculature change...

... but no fat loss since week 2, and weight gain.

Looking at the progress pictures, I might be impressed with the frontal ... actually BIG HAOUUU!!
But the side view is killing me though, it looks like I'm quite bloated compared to last week. It's more the Stats and my general health that's the problem.

I'm not sure of what I wanna post today. Went up on the scale and it turns out I'm back to where I was a couple of weeks ago: 91.5 Kgs. I understand that a shift in diet can cause that – I've been adding around 200g of carbs during the training for more intensity and energy – plus I haven't been running like before but walked all week long instead... I am getting somewhat worried.
My goal is to get to 84Kgs. According to the calories I'm consuming versus what I'm eating I should be on a full weight free fall. But that's not the case apparently. I also know that for optimum weight loss, one should visit the toilet once a day, and weirdly enough you actually know how that's been going :S ... I know added muscle mass should vary the weight ... I'm still not sure of how to assess where I am now.

I've contacted Ricardo Yunis about blending intense physical training along his diet and apparently it works. Going to pay him a visit today (DAY 22), discuss the diet and see how things go. I can't take the risk to suppose things about the diet, although I'm a research maniac, and make wrong assumptions when all I have left are 43 days.
Especially that I actually took the decision of not doing cardio for the next 4-5 days – I'll probably swim, maybe even do the elliptical machine once or twice, I just can't put the strain on my legs anymore. Over-training obviously backfired as I didn't know that running would put my legs in such bad shape: my achilles tendons, shins (outer and inner) on both sides are a bit inflamed and kinda hurt.
Also, I am generally TIRED and not in tip top high energy, the way one's supposed to be when training... It must be my body recovering.

I happened to do Plyometrics with Jean, a swimmer and ex track and field athlete friend of mine and he pointed out that I'm exhausting myself by putting that much strain on my legs. He suggested I change my running shoes – apparently mine are crappy and haven't been relieving any pressure on my legs – which should be what running shoes do. It's weird because they're ADIprene technology, but I guess every shoe differs from the other. Mine was for indoor running (treadmill) as I just recalled now... I didn't know the whole running sport was that sophisticated and minute.
I guess I should end up getting these Nike MoonSliders I was telling you about a week ago; I'm definitely also getting the Nike + to monitor exactly the distance I'm crossing. I can't afford to over-do it and get injured and fuck up all of the challenge; although my intentions are good, I gotta face the music: I haven't trained for the past 2 years and my body is not conditioned for extremely intense training – anymore. It's really tough to admit this since my ego usually doesn't permit it but I need to suck it up and reorganize to keep on going strong even if that means getting my feet some rest. I had to stop Plyo half way yesterday and to be honest, got really demotivated to continue my Ab training.

Karly's expecting a walk today (DAY 22), it's obviously not gonna happen. I'm going to try to take him to the kennel to play fetch. That'll get him to run. I've pushed his body too, but he is a German Shepherd... He's MADE to run. His body's reaction to the training is completely different: he craves it – as I do – but can actually pull it off big time. He jumped from bench to bench on DAY 21. He leaped over road separators. He pushed me to over do it once again. I had to jog a bit, all hyped up by his contagious energy. We mostly walked for an hour, then I called it a day. Plyo came in the evening, you know how that went.

I need some Major restructuring. If I took a step back, the decisions I would take would be:
1. Add more fiber and vegetables to the diet to clean the stomach and see what happens with weight loss
2. Take 4 cardio off days – no swimming and elliptical. NOTHING but Ice packs, Voltaren, Aspirine and Calcium (long term effects).
3. Get the Running shoes for next week.
4. Keep up the intense fitness training (as long as it doesn't include the legs)

A bit more emotionally driven response would be instead to:
1. Go see Dr. Yunis and restructure diet as there's no time to lose
2.  For cardio: Swimming twice and Elliptical machine twice (4/5 days till the lower leg calms down)
3. Keep up the intense fitness training (as long as it doesn't include the legs) 
4. Ice packs, Voltaren, Aspirine and Calcium.

I could also:
1. get a Heart Monitor to be as efficient with my fat burning stages as possible and not walk or over-jog for nothing – If you work out at a specific heart rate depending on your weight, height, age, you can burn fat much easier. It's called Target Heart Rate. Click here to roughly calculate yours and here for a more precise answer.
2. ... I think that's already enough.

I had a talk with Dr. Anthony Keedi, a very sports oriented friend of mine who was actually the one who suggested P90x in the 1st place. He's also a great Psychologist and does great work with Kafa against violence and exploitation. I initially approached him because of my concern about the lack of weightloss and stopping cardio because of my feet. After he suggested swimming and the elliptical machine, he took the conversation to another level and tackled Motivation. Apparently, the number one reason people get demotivated and stop training – or whatever they're doing – is because they usually start up pretty strong and see results directly, but then they hit a plateau and the results become stale for a while, so they just get disappointed, demotivated and just stop. One of the best ways to surpass this is to visualize the desired results after a couple of months – in my case, pulling off one hell of a Halloween costume. I should just assess the situation, try to solve it rationally, and keep on going. As long as I'm doing what I need to do, things will be alright.

As cliché as it sounds, Tony Horton repeats an expression in every P90X workout. I actually hate it but have to admit that it makes a LOT of sense: "Do your best and forget the rest".

This challenge is supposed to be hard, but FUN. I shouldn't forget that.
To that regard, I'm going to end the post with this video. There's no need for that much seriousnes. It's a Halloween costume after all ... hummm ... Please remind me of that in case I go berserk. :)

 



HAOUUUU!