• 8 egg whites (120 cal)
• Mushrooms
• Green Onion
• Half a medium Tomato
• Light Cheese (30g – 100 cal)
• 1% Cottage Cheese (75g – 50 cal)
• Splash of Chicken Broth
• Cooking Spray

My nutrition level on the P90X nutrition scale is level two.  If you’re level one or three adjust the eggs to six or 10 accordingly.  I like to use the liquid egg whites.  Its just a lot easier =).

Chop and Sauté the Veg

First cut up the mushrooms, green onion and dice the tomato.  Heat up a frying pan on high.  I like non-stick.  Once hot, add a splash of chicken broth.  Next add the mushrooms, green onion, and tomato and sauté until they’re tender.

I like to remove the vegetables from the pan and give it a light spray with the cooking spray.  Reduce the heat to medium-medium high.  Eggs cook better on lower temperatures.  Add the egg whites to the pan and then add the vegetables.  Mix them around to evenly distribute them around the pan/egg.  Let this cook.

Now, I’ll grate my cheese measuring with my uber scale.  Wait for the eggs to form little bubbles in the top layer, there should only be a bit of liquid egg left.  I like to loosen the edges of the egg by gently running the spatula around the edges.  Next, add the cheese and cottage cheese to one side of the omelet.  Spread it out on one side.

The Flip

This is the hard part.  This could result in you making scrambled eggs for the first few times =).  Gently slip your spatula under the side of the omelet you didn’t add cheese too and wiggle it around to get everything unstuck.   Flip that side of the omelet over onto the cheese!  If your egg is cooked enough, this should make the perfect omelet shape!  If not – it might break.  No worries – it might not look as nice – but it will still be tasty.  As you can see from the picture above – mine didn’t turn out so well this day =)

Cook for a bit more, maybe flip it over completely and remove from the pan.  270 calories, 9 grams of fat, 42 grams of protein, 8 grams of fat, 6 grams of carbohydrates.

Enjoy!

I was really itching to get back to running and riding.  Instead of doing the 45 min Cardio X workout on Mondays and Wednesdays – I added running and cycling.  Of course my OCD and desire to push myself harder – I don’t run and ride for 45 minutes – I have to go for an hour =).

The weeks looked a little like this:

• Monday AM – 1 hour run
• Monday PM – Chest, Shoulders & Triceps + Ab Ripper X
• Tuesday – Plyometrics
• Wednesday AM – 1 hour bike ride
• Wednesday PM – Back & Biceps + Ab Ripper X
• Thursday – Yoga X
• Friday AM – Cardio X““““““““““““““““`
• Friday PM – Legs & Back + Ab Ripper X
• Saturday – Kenpo X
• Sunday – Take it easy!

The only change I made to my diet during this week was to add a serving of the recovery drink after the each workout on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.   This increased my caloric intake by 440 calories a day – so not huge especially considering the extra cardio would burn between 700 and 1000 calories.

On Friday I tried doing both the session back to back.  I was able to complete it – but it wasn’t pleasant.  I was hoping to cut down the time and showers – but unfortunately it seems to be best to keep them spread out.

So be sure to have flexible employment, be the boss, or have a very supportive boss if you plan on doing the P90X doubles program =)

P.S. Ab Ripper X still kicks my ass…

I did a 5 mile run around 9:30 in the morning, it was a nice cool morning – great day for a run.  Let me assure you, my running endurance was not affected by skipping the runs for a month.  In fact, I was able to run faster and felt significantly stronger.  I noticed my heart rate was 10 BPM higher than I used to run at before I started P90X – but I didn’t seem to get tired like I would before.  The hill of doom was easily defeated – without going much over 180 BPM.

I took advantage of a lot of the great new warm ups, stretches, and yoga moves phase 1 of the program showed me this morning, both before and after my run.  Once cool down was done I came in and whipped up a recovery drink.  I had not been using this before now because I just didn’t think I needed to take in the extra sugar.  With another hour of resistance training coming up – it seemed like a good plan today to help rebuild glycogen.  Shower and back to work with a protein bar for a snack.  Total time for this was about 1 hour 15 minutes for warm up, run, cool down and shower.  The 5 miles took about 50 minutes to complete.

Had a hefty lunch of tuna salad + tortilla.  It sure is nice to be eating a bit more of the carbohydrate.  I had really been missing the bread based products the past month =).  After a couple more hours of work I did the “Chest, Shoulders and Triceps” + Ab ripper X.  Ab ripper is still effn’ evil – though today I made it through 40 “Mason twists” without stopping which was a first for me.  Another recovery drink, some more cottage cheese, and some almonds.  The only thing I noticed is my muscles felt a little weird.  A little twitchy.

Worked late into the evening tonight – and I was a coding machine!  Not sure if its a coincidence that my efficiency was up like this on the first day of doubles.  I guess we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks.

So this schedule is sustainable IF I’m able to get up before 8am every day.  Not sure how achievable that will be when I work until 10+ pm but I’ll give it a shot and see what happens.  Looking forward cycling on Wednesday…

I’ve decided to do the P90X doubles program.  The book says:

The Doubles plan of attack is for those who want some extra cardiovascular exercise, either for performance or weight loss.  Keep in mind that P90X is stressful within the realm of its standard schedule. Those attempting Doubles should be completely injury-free and have plenty of energy to add another workout to the schedule three of four days per week.  The Cardio X workout is the least intense of the P90X series, but it’s still a serious calorie-burner.

Basically this adds an extra set of cardio workouts on days one, three, and five for phase two.  Phase three adds four additional cardio workouts a week.  It’s been a month since I’ve gone for a run or a ride and I’ve really been missing those activities.  I sure hope my running endurance didn’t suffer from the month off…

I need to figure out if I should be eating more to compensate for the additional exercise.  The book is not clear on this.  A fifty minute run burns close to 800 more calories for me – add that to the 600 the P90X resistance workouts consumes and you’ve burned more than half of the daily intake of someone on the level II meal plan.  I have a feeling that recovery drink is going to be crucial for this…

The next thing I need to figure out is how to effectively slip two and a half to three hours worth of time into my day.  It getting an hour and a half of a normal workout (workout + shower) in was pretty easy.  Yoga’s 1.5 hours + shower was a bit of a pain in the ass.  Two one hour sessions and two showers might be a challenge.  Kudos to all you guys who actually have to go to an office and manage to fit in P90X – let alone doubles.

Let’s see what happens =)

The only thing sore today is my butt – but aside from that life is peachy.  I’ve lot six pounds since starting P90X – not a lot but I’m into those “hard last few pounds”.  Muscle tone is definitely changing.  I’ve decided to try the Doubles program and see if I can fit that into my day with out messing up work too badly.   I kinda miss running so I’m thinking of swapping one some of the extra cardio for some running and cycling – might as well get outside once and a while =)

Week four is a “recovery week” – YogaX twice in one week sounds like cruel and unusual punishment though…

Initially I kept the container of almonds in the cupboard and would just grab a few here and there.  I started to get concerned that a couple here might have been adding up into something more measureable.  How do you account for a couple almonds here and here?  So instead I started portioning out a small bowl and leaving that on the counter.  I would plan to eat the entire  potion throughout the day – but only a few nuts at a time. 

Give almonds a shot…

This week was pretty good.  The big aches I felt on various days last week were mostly gone.  This week I just felt enough to remind me that I had been working.  So it does get better…

Also, my wife has started joining me on some days.  She’s not doing the nutrition portion but she has finished plyometrics!  Chin-up bar should arrive this week, and I’m going to pick up some dumbbells to replace these bands.

Here is trick I learned while checking out my order.  After submitting my order for JUST the vitamin supplements – I was offered the protein powder, with a roughly 12$ discount and no extra shipping charges!  Sure I’ll go for that.  Surprise – next screen offered me the protein bars – no discount on them but again, no extra shipping.

Not sure if these results are repeatable- but if you’re considering ordering more than just the one product – give it a shot!  You may need to add the bars and the powder to your cart – and remove them during checkout to replicate these results.

Here are some coupon codes that came in my confirmation e-mail:

Coupon Code: BBHOME_CONTROL_P90X
Coupon Code: P90XNEWS_005_ART_356
Coupon Code: BBHOME_CONTROL_PBARS
Coupon Code: P90XDOTCOM
Coupon Code: BTN_CONTROL_P90X_HOME_FAKEPOP

Day 1 – Chest and Back + Ab Ripper X

Not to bad, the workout was Chest and Back + Ab ripper X.  I had no problems with the chest/back.  After 55 minutes of that though,  the 15 minutes of Ab Ripper X resulted in me just flopping around on the floor in a pool of sweat.  =)

Protein bars from Safeway are insanely expensive I might add.  They taste wayyy better than they did ten years ago too.

Day 2 – Plyometrics

Back and shoulders are sore today =)  Started off the day with a monster 8 egg white omelet, mushroom, green onion and tomato, the recipe called for three ounces of low fat cheese – but I stopped at 1.5 ounce!  This is the most food I’ve eaten for breakfast on a work day ever.  Its a bit rough throwing cooking into my morning routine.  It was hard enough for me to add a bowl of cereal or something in every morning.  Lot more tasty and filling than cereal though.  

Today’s workout was Plyometrics.  The video says if you can handle this one, you’re good to go for P90X.  My years of work have paid off – I pretty much owned plyometrics.  The only problem I had was a terribly cramp like pain in my feet – which I suspect might be from my shitty mat not absorbing as much of the shock.

Lunch was a protein shake with frozen raspberries.

For dinner I made the Lemon Garlic chicken, wild rice, and more asparagus.  (I also managed to burn a pot while steaming this asparagus – my wife is not pleased)

By the end of the day my back, shoulders, boob muscles, and butt are mildly sore. =)

Day 3 – Shoulders and Arms + Ab Ripper X

Woke up a bit late today – started off with a chicken + egg mixture that was supposed to be a “scramble”.  Today still sore – but not enough to stop me.   After a couple of hours of work, it was time to get  into the shoulders and arms workout with another Ab ripper.  Ab ripper is still kicking my ass.

Tuna salad and salad/spinach for lunch.  mmm.

Day 4 – Yoga

This was rough.  I’ll never make fun of people doing yoga ever again =) Flexibility is not one of my strengths.  This DVD was also really long 1.5 hours.  I knew yoga was a lot harder than it looked, having done the little bit provided by the Wii Fit – but man… It was nice to see toward the end of the workout I was bending a little more, reaching a little further.  The hard part about this is going to be making time for it in the middle of the day.

Day 5 – Legs and Back + Ab Ripper X

Protein shakes are fast and easy for breakfast!  They also result in a huge drink.  1 cup skim milk, 1 cup fruit, half cup of ice, 1.5 scoops of protein powder and 1 whole banana (recipe calls for half a banana – but I don’t want to waste half!  I try to use small bananas..)  Combine and blend… this easily overfills my big ass 20oz cups.

The workout was pretty cool – back squat things burn real good.  More Ab Ripper X – but at least this time I made some progress.  I didn’t flounder nearly as much as the first couple of times.

Day 6 – Kenpo X

Saturday.  My wife has a ton of work lined up for us today.  The nastiest part is scrubbing our monstrous deck so we can re-stain it tomorrow.   Started off the day with a shake and an extra ounce of almonds and fruit.

Kenpo was very cool.  It got my heart rate up to a max of 165.  It was a little tough to learn the moves.  A lot of muscles memory is needed for some of the punch combos – especially when you start to speed up.  It was a little hard to keep the pace the first time around because of my lack of familiarity with the workouts.  I especially liked the 100+ punches at the end.  This is a great way to get some cardio in – WAY more fun that running for an hour.

I’ll also add that scrubbing the deck in the hot afternoon sun was hellish.

Day 7 – Rest / Stretch

Ok – we got up super early to stain the deck before the sun came around the back.  So much for rest hah!  Another protein shake for breakfast.  I’m sensing a reoccurring trend here..they’re just so quick and easy to make =)

After the deck was stained my back and butt were killing me.  Went in to do the stretch DVD and it was actually quite helpful.  A lot less sore afterwards.  Now its time to rest.

Summarization

I was surprised how much food the “diet” portion of P90X is telling me to eat.  It’s also crazy how much protein its telling me to eat.  It makes sense though, and the way my muscles feel – it makes complete sense.  My diet had been quite carbohydrate heavy – which meant I wasn’t getting to eat as much food to hit my caloric limits.  It’s actually a nice change.

As far as equipment goes, I had a mat, heart rate monitor, and resistance bands lent to me by my parents-in-law.  I definitely need to get the chin-up bar and some dumbbells.  The bands just didn’t cut it.  Replacing the bands with chin-ups is going to make the chest and back workouts significantly more challenging.  My mat is the Nintendo Wii one and it really sucks =)

The hour long exercises really seemed to go by quickly (well except maybe yoga…)  Most importantly – I feel surprisingly good (aside from the soreness) – energetic, even somewhat mentally focused.  I’m looking forward to week two. 

Finally, I now fully understand why they start with a fitness test.  Yes, this was a relatively “easy” program for me to start with.  I went into it able to easily run seven odd miles and having been doing plyometric circuits for the past six months.  If you’re just starting to change the way you live, and choose P90X please know its not going to be easy to do.  You will likely not be able to keep up with what you see.  Don’t be disheartened, this is an advanced workout.  Stick with it, and each week you will see improvements.  Don’t push yourself too hard – you will probably end up hurting yourself.  Again – I’m not a doctor.  If you’re just starting off and choose P90X you should really talk to yours first.

I am very interested to hear about your experiences with P90X.  Leave a comment, or contact me to tell me about how it went for you.

I also need for the first go around more of a hack – that is not physically modifying my desk and can be easily reverted back.  I’ve moved my treadmill into place and found that I need to raise my monitors up about 30 inches.  My first thought was some sort of adjustable hydraulic platform.  This would allow me to raise or lower my monitors around to revert back to a chair desk – but that looks like it might be some sort custom built deal right now.

Next I started looking into various monitor arms/stands.  The first problem I encountered is that my basement walls were put up using the cheap metal studs that don’t have much strength.  The other problem is that stands that will hold my 30” monitors look like they are going to run about 300$ a pop.  Not very cost effective for a risky trial.

It seems like I might almost need a desk to put on top of my desk.  Hmm back to the thinking board…