Phase 1 - Day 3

Shoulders & Arms! I love this one because it's almost like a rest day. It's still hard, but it involves really isolated movements, so you're not in the full-body, shaking, sweating exertion that is required by... just about every other workout. Ab Ripper X, however, was just as brutal as I remember. It's not so much abs pain as quad and hip flexor pain, because the WHOLE THING has your legs raised and there's some form of drawing them into your chest. Then there is indeed some ab pain. It's so hard.

I'm doing P90X with resistance bands rather than weights, and for most exercises it doesn't really feel different--I find that it's actually harder for some things, like shoulder presses--but on some exercises contorting the band to get the proper tension and position is just too weird and difficult. I end up not really doing the exercise because I'm trying to figure out how I'm supposed to be doing it. And then I have to rewind and do it again, once I've figured it out, and the last thing I want is to have extra Tony Horton time. I straight up changed one of the exercises because just absolutely could not figure out how to make it work with the band. They always have one dude demonstrating, but the camera doesn't show him enough or give us enough time to get the band situated before starting.

Speaking of Tony. Wow. Some great soundbites tonight. First, we have him relentlessly hitting on Dreya. This isn't the workout with the "skin like a baby" comment that I remember, but he's still creepy. Then at one point he starts screaming "BRING IT! BRING IT! X ME! X ME!" in what I'm sure he thinks is a motivational way, but it's just freaky and cracked out. Shudder. He looked pretty good in this workout, though. His hair was in a flattering style and I liked his sleeveless grey shirt. And it's not like I blame him for hitting on Dreya Weber. She's really super pretty and fit, and also blonde. I do blame him for being creepy, though.

Today was a pretty good food day, although it was another day where I just wasn't hungry and probably didn't eat enough calories. Black coffee, water, and some tea before 11:30; I had some of the crustless quiche for my morning snack, then I had some mini heirloom tomatoes and carrot sticks, and only got halfway through that before I was full. Then I wasn't hungry again until about 3-ish, and I wasn't so much hungry as just really aware that I needed to eat so it could settle before my workout. So I had some of the chili I made, which was really freaking good. I was too full to eat my stuffed pepper that I brought; it'll be tomorrow's lunch. At home I had nothing until my post-workout shake.

Which, by the way, consists of:

1/2 cup Trader Joe's light coconut milk (let me just say that I have no qualms about the fat in regular coconut milk, in fact I welcome it, but the TJ's milk is the cheapest available and has no funky chemicals or preservatives in it)
1/2 cup water
1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
1/2 cup frozen spinach
1 egg

It perfectly fits in my Magic Bullet shake cup and it's delicious. I only ever have it post-workout for recovery. Well, and this one time when I was really craving dessert of some kind, so I made a shake of coconut milk, whey powder, sweet potato, and cinnamon. Tasted like pie, totally killed my craving, and I think it was all of 15 or so grams of carbs. GOOD CHOICES.

As far as shakes go, I really recommend getting a Magic Bullet. Not only are they easy to use and relatively cheap (mine was 30 bucks), but they inherently restrict the portion so you don't find yourself gorging on a whole blender pitcher of shake.

Today was pouring rain for the ENTIRE day. Except, somehow, the hour in which I took River to the dog park. I was totally prepared to get soaked, but somehow the rain let up just enough for a little while so that I could let her get her energy out at the park. She chased that ball for a solid hour until she was panting and exhausted and the rain started coming down again. Now it's pouring again, so no nighttime walk. Needless to say, there was no running today. Siiiiiiigh.