Tips and advice for losing weight, getting fit and staying in shape with P90X

Benefits of eating slowly – Eating slow to lose weight

2010-03-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

Did you know that it can take up to a half hour for your brain to process that your stomach is full? Give yourself a little time before going back for seconds, or better yet, serve your food restaurant style and avoid seconds altogether. When you go out to eat, your server brings you a plate of food, you eat it and that’s that. Do the same at home. Put your leftovers in the fridge – out of sight, out of mind.

Also, only dish yourself out healthy serving size portions and then give yourself time to really digest what you have eaten before you give yourself a chance to overeat. You want to feel satisfied, not full. This is the best way to prevent yourself from overeating.

Here are 5 easy tips that will help you lose weight by not overeating:

1. Serve your food restaurant style – put leftovers away before you eat your meal
2. Eat slowly – chew each bite of food completely, don’t just shovel it down
3. Put your fork down between bites.
4. Have a sip of water in between each bite of food - doing so will help you feel full
5. Use smaller plates – a small, full plate looks like a lot of food – and is probably more than enough to meet your needs

How to calculate your target heart rate zone for P90X

2010-02-26T12:05:00.000-07:00

To get the best results from your P90X cardio workouts, you must keep your heart rate within 65% - 85% of your heart rate zone. Figuring out your zone is very quick and easy to do. To calculate your heart rate zone:

1. Subtract your age from 220. This will tell you your maximum heart beats per minute. (220 - 33 (age) = 187 max beats per minute)

2. Multiply your max beats per minute by 65%. This will be the minimum range of your heart rate zone while working out (187 max beats per min x 0.65 = 122)

3. Multiply your max beats per minute by 85%. This is the maximum range of your heart rate zone while working out (187 max beats per min x 0.85 = 159)

So my heart rate zone is 122 - 159. Now I know that I need keep my heart beating between 122 - 159 beats per minute if I want to be "in the zone" and have the most efficient workout possible. Exercising at the lower range of your zone enables the body to take up enough oxygen so the cells can utilize stored fat.

If you workout within the higher range of the zone you will burn more calories; however, for most overweight people, the majority of energy used will be in the form of carbohydrates and less used up from fat storage.

To figure out your heart rate without a heart rate monitor, place your index and middle finger on the inner part of your wrist. Now count how many beats you have in 10 seconds, then multiply that number by 6. For example, if I count 25 heart beats in 10 seconds, I multiply 25 by six for a heart rate of 150. If you find that you are exercising inside or outside of your zone, decrease or increase your intensity level accordingly.

Thanks for Wendy for posting about this on her HEALTHY LIVING BLOG

An alternative to the P90X Meal Plan - the 8 Week Transition Diet

2010-02-18T22:23:00.001-07:00

There are lots of us that have questions about what we can/can't eat with P90X. Do you really have to follow the P90X meal plan? Is there an alternate plan? Can I eat whatever I want to? Steve Edwards from Beach Body has come up with this alternative meal plan to follow for those that can't, or don't want to, follow the regular P90X meal plan.

The following was taken from the P90X Facebook discussion page; a link to the discussion board is at the end of this post.

"The 6-Week Transition Diet was one of the first things I ever wrote for Beachbody, and it's remained fairly popular ever since. But that was a long time ago, when our readership was just a fraction of what it is today, and chances are that most of you have yet to see it. So here we go again, though this version will be vastly improved from round one. In fact, it has grown to be 8 weeks long, allowing a more leisurely transition into healthy eating.

In its conception, we only had one diet plan available. Nowadays, we've got quite a few, as you know if you happen to own many of our products. But it's always nice to have options as no one eating plan works for every individual. Diets that are conceptual can be easier to follow because you're only given a short list of "no-nos," leaving your available diet to anything else you can find. Of course, that isn't the attitude you want to have for success. Any diet, no matter how easy it seems, will take some willpower on your part if you want to see results. But what's more important is that with this type of plan, your long-range goal should be to eat well, period. If you can accomplish this, results will become a natural extension of your lifestyle, instead of something you need to pursue.

As your healthy eating behavior becomes a habit, you will find the other intangibles (such as weight loss, energy gained, etc.) falling into place. For many people, the easiest way to accomplish this is a gradual transition from food choices that hinder human performance to choices that help you perform better. By making this transition gradually, you'll find it isn't all that difficult.

Week 1

No junk. Eliminate junk food from your diet. That's it, just junk. Other than this you may eat whatever and whenever you like. Now how hard can that be? Guess this depends on what I mean by "junk." But all I'm concerned with this week is the obvious stuff like potato chips, candy, ice cream, cake, etc. You may be stricter if you'd like, but for week one don't be too hard on yourself. For many of you, this step alone will reap huge benefits.

Cheat Days: 2

Since no one is perfect, you get two days to cheat. That's right, two days where you may eat anything you want! A trick on these days (and, yes, this means there will be more) is to listen to your body. At first, it will probably tell you it wants whatever you've been denying it. However, over time it will start to crave nutrients that you're deficient in. Learn to read its subtleties. If you're craving ice cream, you may be short on essential fatty acids. If you crave a hamburger, your diet may lack protein. This way you can make better food substitutions. It's a way of getting in tune with yourself that will benefit you for your entire lifetime.

Weekly focus: Water. Not swimming in it, though that's good too, but staying hydrated with it. You should drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of flat water per day. Diet sodas and such are no substitute as they contain ingredients that alter your body chemistry, even though they may not contain calories. Drinking a glass of water when you feel the oncoming of hunger pangs will not only keep you hydrated, but will stave off your hunger to some degree.

As for other drinks, sodas fall into the junk category. And alcohol should be kept to a minimum. We tend to forget that alcohol has calories. A lot of them: 7 calories per gram. It also can slow your metabolism since it is metabolized like sugar and causes an insulin spike. Mixers can be even worse—not only can they add calories, but they can greatly influence the way the alcohol reacts with your body. When you do drink, red wine is the alcohol of choice, with beer or white wine running second.

Week 2

Each week carries over, so the "no junk" rule from week one will apply until the end, as will each subsequent week's rule. Remember that this is a learning and conditioning process. It's like you're in a school and the subject is your own body.

Get your timing down. Eat four to six small meals a day and no eating for 3 hours before you go to sleep. If you make yourself space in your eating schedule, the size will control itself because you won't get ravenously hungry. Following these rules will keep your blood sugar levels more static and your energy level will stay consistent. Try to keep each snack or meal balanced. Keep a 30% protein, 40% carbohydrates, and 30% fat scale in mind, though you don't need to worry too much about it. Just realize that you need a bit from each group. Eat based on what you will be doing for the next few hours (if you're working out, eat a little more; sitting at a desk, eat a little less). The 3-hour-before-bed rule is important, especially for fats and carbohydrates. By allowing time for all the carbs you eat to get into your bloodstream; your body will sleep in fat-burning mode, rather than in calorie-storing mode. This is important because undigested carbs in your stomach at night are stored in adipose tissue (fat).

Cheat Days: 2

Weekly focus: Carbs are not the enemy. Your body needs them, just like it needs proteins and fats. The trick is to choose the right carbs. As a society, we eat too much refined sugar. Complex carbs, like whole grain breads, whole grain rice, sweet potatoes, and legumes are outstanding foods. Even fruits, which have simple carbohydrates that are wrapped in fiber, are very good for you and hard to overconsume. While you don't want a diet based on nothing but carbs, making the right carb choices will maximize your body's potential. Try and avoid white rice and flours. Read labels and try and avoid products that use the word "enriched" on the label, as this means they've been stripped down and overprocessed.

Week 3

Eat colorful, nondense foods. These are foods that take up a lot of space without a lot of calories. Veggies are the most extreme examples. You can eat a salad bowl overflowing with lettuce and veggies and you'll most likely not exceed 100 calories. By eating low-density foods, like veggies and fruits, you will keep your portions under control naturally because they have very few calories for their size. Conversely, high-density foods, like chocolate and butter, are loaded with cals even in the smallest amounts. So beware of salad dressings and other things you add to salads and veggies. Only add enough for flavor; don't fill up on them. When it comes to live foods, the richer the colors the fresher the products tend to be. Try and eat a variety of colors in your diet. This rather simple and somewhat random act will help ensure that you're covering the basics, nutrient-wise.

Cheat Days: 1

Weekly focus: Protein at every meal. This becomes even more important as you eat more low-density food because protein tends to be high-density. Many veggies have a lot of protein, but the amount you must consume starts to become prohibitive. Try and get some protein—meat, dairy products, or legumes—each time you eat. This is especially when you're working out hard as you need to repair broken down muscle tissue. Frequency is even more vital for women, who are able to digest less protein at one time than men. It's almost impossible to get all of your necessary protein at one or two meals, so try and get 10 to 20 grams of protein each time you eat. Reading labels is the best way to learn how to estimate your protein intake.

Week 4

Cook at home. One of the best ways to control your eating is to prepare all of your meals yourself. Eliminate all fast food and most other restaurant food. You may allow certain places where you can be sure of the ingredients (they'll advertise this). But avoid all fast-foods chains, even "healthy" ones. Restaurants need their food to taste good, so often times they use compromised ingredients even when they list low numbers on fats and/or calories. Fast food contains many hidden evils besides just calories. For example, check the sodium levels next time you see one of those nutrition charts. Most fast foods use ridiculously high amounts of salt. Avoiding fast food alone will often bring your body closer to homeostasis. This can be hard for many of us because we now have to plan our meals and prepare ahead of time but try and treat it like school—you don't learn new vocations without a little retraining.

Cheat Days: 1

Weekly focus: Fat is essential. Remember that fat is a vital part of your diet, not just something that makes you fat. What is not vital is a lot of saturated or trans fats. Trans fats are those that are artificial and, hopefully, they've been eliminated from your diet by this point since they're mainly found in junk. Saturated fats are found in dairy products and meats, and you don't need too much. For cooking, try and use olive oil when possible. Also, the addition of either flaxseed or hemp oil can have a pronounced effect on your life. These oils are loaded with essentially fatty acids, omegas 3 and 6. Be careful about that amount of fat. It is dense and has 9 calories per gram, opposed to 4 for both carbs and protein. A tablespoon goes a long way!

Week 5

Reduce starchy carbohydrates. Starches include rice, breads, potatoes, corn, beans, and other legumes. While these are in no way bad foods, they tend to be overconsumed; so what you want to do this week is cut way down on them, if not out all the way. Then add them back in when your body feels as though it needs energy, which it will at some point if you are exercising (and why wouldn't you be?). But don't add an entire plate of pasta; instead, add a serving. Starches are great energy food, but if overeaten they can actually make you sluggish!

Cheat Days: 1

Weekly focus: Sugar is best after a workout. Your body doesn't really need processed sugar. But if you really enjoy it and can't avoid letting some sneak into your daily diet, having it during a one-hour period after you exercise is the best time to indulge. During this window, your blood sugar is low since you've used it up to finish your workout (provided you pushed yourself). So sugar during this time will actually help you recover faster because it speeds into your system and initiates the recovery process. Adding a little protein, but not too much, will enhance this even further. The perfect ratio is 1 part protein to 4 parts carbs. You should avoid fats during this time period as it slows absorption—a good thing otherwise, just not during and immediately after working out.

Week 6

If people make it, don't eat it. This is likely to be the hardest week of your diet. You want to eat only whole foods and eliminate all processed foods for the week. This includes breads, most salad dressings, almost all cereal, luncheon meats, cheese, dried fruits, anything with preservatives, and alcoholic beverages. What you can eat are whole foods such as fruit, raw or steamed vegetables, meat (sans any type of sauce), natural grain rice, poached eggs, etc. Since your eating habits have been slowly changing it shouldn't be all that shocking, but keeping in mind that you only have to eat this way for 7 days will make it easier.

Cheat Days: 1

The 'cheat day' mentality is not a bad one. Rewards such as decadent desserts, a night of overindulgence, or drinking with friends, are good for you as long as you keep them in perspective. These are rewards for a life well lived and you should be able to feel good about doing them. Plus, there is some method to this madness as well in that you still tend to crave nutrients you lack. So if you are cutting the calories down in order to lose weight, allowing a cheat day will give your body a chance to take in what it needs to avoid being malnourished.

Weekly focus: Nuts make great snacks. A handful of raw almonds or cashews are a quick and easy snack that goes a long way. Don't be put off by the high fat count of nuts. It doesn't take many to fill you up and they're loaded with essential fat and many nutrients.

Week 7

Be yourself. No rules—just try and eat healthy.
It might seem a bit much telling you to trust yourself, but you can handle it! Plus, it's an important step in your transformation. Consider the way you've been eating over the last 6 weeks, but don't worry about what you should and shouldn't do. Just eat. The point is to take a mental break. Relax and allow yourself to eat in a way that feels normal. You may be surprised to find yourself craving something healthy instead of a candy bar or a pint of Ben & Jerry's. You will be better at listening to your body because it will tell you what it needs to eat, as opposed to what you're used to eating. Your body should feel somewhat transformed. Does it?

'Reward for a life well lived' Days: 1

Weekly focus: If you are so hungry at night you can't sleep, try a protein shake before bed. You want nothing but protein powder and water. No carbs or superfluous calories. But protein at night, especially whey, will help the body repair damaged tissue and enhance the natural growth-hormone spike that you get while you sleep.

Week 8

Eat a perfect diet. Now it's time for a real challenge—are you ready? The perfect diet is strictly individual as there is no one diet that suits everybody. So who better to choose the perfect diet for you than you? Our bodies are all different and the key to your own perfect diet is learning about how your body reacts to different foods under different circumstances. You journey over the last 7 weeks should have brought you to a new understanding of how food affects your body, both for good and for bad. Now it's up to you to put it to the test. See how well you can eat for a week. In fact, see how well you can eat for the rest of your life. Live and enjoy.

Reward Days: 1, of course!

Weekly Focus: Don't bonk. Bonking is a state where your body runs out of stored blood sugar for energy. If you feel like your workouts are going backwards instead of forwards, this is a likely culprit. Use your energy level as you gauge. As soon as it starts to drop, start adding carbs back into your diet until you feel energized all day long. Then you'll be at a point you want to stay. Also, remember that as you body puts on more muscle, you will need to eat more. Muscle weighs much more than fat and as you gain muscle and lose fat you will shrink at the same weight. You will also require more calories in order to maintain your muscle. So when working out hard, don't be afraid to eat more carbs than you do otherwise."

You can read this article in it's original form on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=13770&uid=96636486820

Exercising while on vacation - How to stay in shape while you travel

2010-02-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a weeklong vacation in Maui and I’m already trying to figure out a way to get back as soon as possible. It’s tough to beat a nice vacation. Taking a break from work, bills and the daily grind is the perfect way to get recharged and ready to face real life again……at least for a little while. Exercising, however, is one thing that I don’t like to take a break from.

While it’s no fun to work out when you could be relaxing on the beach or doing some other relaxing version of nothing instead, it’s too easy for me to slip back into bad (lazy) habits if I don’t keep on some type of schedule, so I try and find some time when exercising doesn’t interfere with my vacation.

I personally can’t sleep in. Doesn’t matter if it’s a weekend or if I’m on vacation, I just can’t do it. So when I inevitably wake up before everyone else, instead of sitting in the hotel room trying to be quiet so others can sleep, I’ll grab my iPod and head off to the hotel fitness room. Everyone wins – I get to work out, others get to sleep in and nobody sacrifices their “play time” for exercise time.

Vacationing can also be brutal on your diet. Road tripping in particular is a sure fire way to wipe out good eating habits when you’re pounding three square fast food meals a day. I’ve never been a big calorie counter; I just try to use a little caution when ordering my food. Order grilled instead of fried. Have one less drink. Skip the soda once in a while and get water instead. Always skip the fries. You get the idea.

Making a little effort to eat semi-sensibly and to exercise while on your vacation always makes it easier for me to get back into my regular workout schedule. Doing so also helps me avoid feeling like crap once I get home, step on the scale or look at myself in the mirror and think “what have I done?”

Here are a few simple tips for exercising and eating right while on vacation.

Do something. Doesn’t matter if you’re only doing some pushups and sit ups in the morning and evening, just do some type of exercises.
Find the right time. Nobody wants to hit the treadmill when they could be out playing instead. So find a time when you can grab 30 minutes without interfering with your schedule. Mornings are always great. Evenings and lunchtime might work as well.
Fool yourself. Plan a little physical activity into your trip. Take a hike, walk along the beach, go on a bike ride. Instead of just sitting on the beach or lounging poolside, why not hop in the water and go for a swim? There are lots of fun vacation-type activities you can do that will also burn a few extra calories.
Not healthy – just healthier. No need to take carrot sticks and rice cakes with you wherever you go, but you also don’t need to order cheese fries with that double stacked burger – just eat healthier. Skip the cheese and/or hold fattening condiments (like mayo) on your sandwich. A salad is nice, but it doesn’t count when smothered in ranch. Drink water, not soda. Order grilled food.

I’m sure there are lots of ideas that I’ve left out so feel free to leave a comment if you’ve got a tip that you’d like to add.

Another P90X iPhone App

2010-02-15T14:22:00.008-07:00

Just stumbled on another iPhone app developed specifically for us P90X 'ers. It's called 12 Week Fitness and you can download it for a buck at .

A recent customer review of 12 Week Fitness by mynew3G reads: “This app is great for tracking my fitness goals! I love how I can choose which body part I have worked and how I can log my cardio time.” - mynew3G rated this app at 4 stars.

12 Week Fitness is $0.99, compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Requires iPhone OS 2.2 or later. It is currently rated at 2.5 stars in iTunes.

The product description on iTunes as follows: "12 Week Fitness is a simple guide to keep you on schedule with your workout routine and motivate you to continue. Seeing your progress on a daily basis will push you to continue! Every X means success! This is a good way to set a fitness goal for yourself and stick to it. This basic guide has already helped thousands lose weight, gain muscle, look younger and feel better.”You can download 12 Week Fitness for yourself at .

Read about another P90X iPhone app HERE

What is better for weight loss, swimming or running?

2009-12-12T16:41:00.002-07:00

Headed to Maui in 31 days and would like to make the most out of my exercise time from now until then in order to lose the most weight, but I’m not sure if I should spend more time running or swimming?

Monday – Friday I work out at the gym during my hour lunch break from work; however, between drive times to and from the gym, dressing, showering, etc, I’ve only got about 30 good minutes to work out.

Does running or swimming burn more fat? Where should I spend my 30 minutes? Your thoughts and comments on this are appreciated!

Found my P90X DVDs - well, my P90X MP4 files anyway

2009-12-07T15:53:00.000-07:00

Guess what I found one day after blogging about losing my P90X DVDs? Figures. They’ve been missing for 6+ months and I find them one freaking day after telling everyone that I’d lost them. I guess technically I didn’t find my DVDs, but I did find my workouts. After getting my DVDs I converted them into P90X MP4 files so that I could have them on my iPhone – What I found were the two CDs that I put these files on. So the quality isn’t that great and they don’t play on my DVD player, but they do work on my laptop so I’m good.

I was so pumped to find them that I did Kenpo X last night. I chose Kenpo since it was always the easiest workout for me to do. It was so easy that I used to complain that it was too easy and not enough of a workout. Uh, I must be in worse shape than I thought because I struggled through this hour-long workout.

Even though I’ve now got my workouts back, I’m not sure if I’m going to start the program immediately. I like the workout that I’ve got going on at my gym right now so I’ll probably just use the P90X cardio workouts (Kenpo, Plyometrics, Cardio X) as supplemental workouts that I do at night.

Lost my P90X DVDs – bummer!

2009-12-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

After finishing P90X for the first time, I was exhausted and decided to take a small break from working out, but I didn’t want to stop exercising altogether so I would go running for 5 miles every morning – I loved it! My 5 mile run took less time to than a P90X workout, I was outside breathing the fresh spring air and not stuck in my living room, and since I had just finished P90X, running 5 miles was a breeze! The only drawback was running with a rock in my hand just in case the neighborhood pit bull got loose again and decided to run me down! That’s right, I ran with a rock – and I was prepared to use it! Then, somehow, my daily run turned into an every other day affair and before I knew it, the only exercise I was getting was if I took the stairs at work instead of the elevator!

After my summer of laziness, bad dieting and weight gain I’d had enough and decided to do P90X again. So I took the Autumn months to get myself mentally prepared to endure 3 long months of Tony Horton’s lame jokes (OK they’re not lame, but when you hear the same jokes 6 days a week for 90 days, well…). Finally, winter had arrived and I was ready to ‘Bring it!’ once again so I dusted off my pull-up bar, pulled out the dumbbells and grabbed my DV….Ds? Where were my DVDs? I specifically remember leaving them in my top-left desk drawer 9 months earlier, where could they have gone? After two months of searching I’ve finally given up. My P90X DVDs were officially lost, but hope was not!

I really was disgusted with myself for being so bad and lazy this spring. And Summer. And Fall. And early winter! So for the past month I’ve been using my lunch break to work out at a gym near my office. Running 5 miles is no longer a breeze, but it’s getting easier. I can no longer bust out more than 20 pull-ups at a time, but I’m getting close. I’ve also taken up swimming – I suck at it, but I like it. Instead of following the three phases of P90X, I’m now following my own workout plan. It doesn’t involve ‘muscle confusion’, but I am mixing up my workouts each day so that I don’t get bored. My new schedule is run, lift weights, swim, repeat.

So far it’s been great. I’ve lost 10 pounds in the first month. The only drawback to my new workout plan…….community showers!

New P90X iPhone app

2009-09-29T14:00:00.018-06:00

Each week dozens of people stumble on this blog after searching Google for ‘P90X iPhone App’ and, each week dozens of people leave disappointed because, until now, I wasn’t aware of such an app. However, I just found out about a new P90X-dedicated app designed to help you lose weight on P90X. It’s called Eat Right 90 ~~and it’s currently under development~~ by Steven Romej. (Update - Mr. Romej has completed the app and it is now available for download at )

According to Mr. Romej, “Eat Right 90 is a nutrition log iPhone app that automates following and tracking your diet during extreme exercise programs such as P90X.”

The app will allow you to adjust for whatever level, phase, and day of P90X that you are currently at. You’ll also be able to view and edit your own eating history as well as get information on serving sizes for different foods.

Eat Right 90 is optimized for iPhone OS 3.0 or greater - cost is a very reasonable $1.99.

You can download or get more information on the Eat Right 90 P90X iPhone app at

If you end up trying this app out, please be sure to come back and leave your review of the app in the comments section.

Read about another P90X iPhone app on my blog by clicking HERE

What to do after P90X?

2009-09-14T15:11:00.002-06:00

On January 4th of this year, I started P90X and ended up finishing the program 90 days later on the 4th of April. Loved it. Never felt better in my life. I was in the best shape I’d ever been in and I was feeling good! So how in the hell did I let myself get back to my pre-P90X shape? One lazy day at a time, that’s how.

It happened innocently enough. After finishing the P90X program I was tired and worn out so I told myself that I’d take one week off before starting P90X for a second time. My one week off has turned into 5 months and I’ve slowly put most of my weight back on.

But what really bugs me is that I’m once again eating like crap. Fast food for lunch and dinner with 3 - 4 Dr. Peppers mixed in – 7 days a week. Not only is that a colossal waste of money, but I feel so gross and disgusting all of the time. I’m so pissed at myself for letting all of that hard work go to waste!

Well, once again I’m publicly announcing my intention to start P90X on Monday, October 5th. I’m hoping my admission to start the program will give me a little public accountability and extra motivation to finish because I’m certain that P90X will be harder this second time for a couple of reasons.

First, I know exactly how sore I’m going to be and how tough the program is and I’m really not looking forward to it. And second, I now have a 2 month old baby that likes to interrupt my sleep multiple times per night so I’m going to be even more tired than before.

But I don’t care. I’m sick of feeling like ass all the time so starting today, I’m back on my P90X diet again. I’m also going to start doing some of the easier P90X workouts (like Kenpo) so that by the time October 5th rolls around, I’ll be ready to hit the ground running! Bring it!

Read other P90X posts HERE.

Blount punches Hout

2009-09-04T00:00:00.006-06:00

Glad that Ethan, my 8 year old boy who's playing his first year of football right now, had gone to bed and missed that clinic on bad sportsmanship at by two players at the end of the Oregon / Boise State game tonight.

Completely frustrated and totally out of control after failing to live up to his pre-game prediction of 'laying an ass whoppin' on Boise State, LeGarrette Blount, tailback for the Oregon Ducks, connects a pretty wicked right cross on Boise State's Byron Hout (after Hout showed some poor sportsmanship of his own by saying something to Blount and smacking his shoulder pads).

Blount's stats for the game: 8 carries for - 5 yards. Nice.

Check out the video of the Blount punch:

Around the 40 second mark of this video you can see a few BSU fans taunting Blount as he's trying to leave the field. Do you think those punk Boise fans realize how lucky they are that someone was there to protect them from this pissed off tail back that is twice their size? They would have been S.C.R.E.W.E.D. if he was able to reach them!

And while I'm mildly bashing on BSU fans - what's up with them chanting "over-rated" to the team they just beat? Um, good job letting the rest of us know that your win wasn't really that big of a deal!

Touchdown!

2009-08-27T23:56:00.004-06:00

For at least the past year Ethan has been asking if we would sign him up for football. This summer he was finally old enough to play and last Monday was his first ever flag football game. On his first rush attempt of the game he busted out this TD - his team's only score of the game!

Mandy, who was supposed to be working the video camera, was chit chatting with her parents who had come to watch E play, and didn't get any video. Luckily for you I was Johnny-on-the-spot and busted out these photographs.

Good job, Ethan - keep it up and get yourself a scholarship somewhere so that I don't have to pay for your college education!

Silly mommy, rabbits aren't for kids!

2009-08-20T11:22:00.003-06:00

Last night Mandy decided that it would be a good idea to surprise the kids with a cute and fluffy bunny rabbit. Check out their reaction:

Meeting the siblings

2009-07-02T11:04:00.006-06:00

Ethan and Olivia finally got to meet their new little bro this morning. They've been going out of their minds, semi-patiently waiting for their chance to hold the baby.

Ethan is ridiculously proud and Olivia's tiny little mother instincts are oozing out of her right now; she wants to 'help' however she can.

He's here!

2009-07-01T21:25:00.006-06:00

Luke Roberts
Born July 1, 2009 @ 9:04 p.m.
7 pounds 9 ounces
19 1/2 inches long

Mandy is doing well after her 11 hour delivery - 10:00 a.m till 9:04 p.m.! I also am well.

The first two kids......

2009-07-01T19:29:00.005-06:00

We knew that the hospital would be calling us in this morning to have Mandy induced, possibly as early as 5:30 a.m. So last night we packed the kids up and shipped them off to Grandma Roberts' house to spend the night.

Here they are all packed up and ready to go!

And here is the last known photograph as us as a family of four.

This morning both Mandy and I thought that 'he who cannot be named' would have been here by now and that I would be spending the night with Ethan and Olivia in our own house. Not quite.

This delivery is taking a lot longer than anyone thought so it looks like the kids will be spending a second night at grandma's house. Thanks for watching them, mom.

((crickets chirping)) ...... waiting.........

2009-07-01T17:16:00.007-06:00

Not a lot to update right now. Just waiting for this little guy to get here. Also, for those of you emailing and sending text messages, no - we don't have name yet. At least a name that we can agree on anyway. I like cool names and Mandy likes ridiculous names. Right now we are going by 'He who cannot be named.'

Anyway, to pass the time Mandy has been watching TV, chatting with me, trying to sleep (hard to do with nurses and doctors continually coming into our room), eating ice chips

and checking out the Internet on my laptop.

Ahhh, sweet relief!

2009-07-01T13:40:00.004-06:00

The epidural is in, the pain is almost gone and Mandy is just minutes away from being able to fall asleep for a little while. Mandy held out for 3 hours before getting the epidural; I'm not really sure why she waited for more than 5 minutes?

Both the anesthesiologist and her nurse were surprised/shocked that Mandy didn't show any emotion when the procedure was happening. She didn't squeeze my hand, grimace - not even so much as a flinch! This gal is tough!!

Sorry, no pictures. I was threatened with my life if I even tried. :)

Pitocin is flowing and doing its job (hopefully)

2009-07-01T11:28:00.005-06:00

Mandy is now hooked up to her IV and to the Pitocin. For those that don't know, Pitocin is the magic juice that helps to start the labor process. Here she is all hooked up. No turning back now!

At about 11:20 a.m. the doc broke Mandy's water. Now all we have to do is hurry up and wait! I can see on the monitor, and Mandy can feel all over her body, that the Pitocin is now working because the contractions have picked up in frequency and force! Mandy, being tough as nails as usual, is holding off on getting her epidural until the pain is a little bit worse.

Off to the hospital to have Mandy induced for labor

2009-07-01T10:49:00.005-06:00

Talked to the hospital this morning and they told me that if we could be there by 10:00 a.m then we could be induced! Mandy is more than a little ready to have this baby so we made the 15 minute drive in about 6 minutes - including a stop at the gas station to fuel up!

Here we are in our labor & delivery room right before Mandy slipped into her hospital gown.

And here's the sexy patient in her gown:

The new babysitter

2009-06-27T13:50:00.006-06:00

The kids thought that we were just having some fun in the backyard. Little did they know that I was really testing out a new way to keep them "occupied."

Turns out that if you pile enough sand on top of them, it could potentially take a kid HOURS to get out! This morning I went and got a truckload of new sand; looks like Mandy & I are hitting a movie tonight without the kids!

How to make an entrance, by Cosmo Kramer

2009-06-17T20:34:00.001-06:00

Every single Kramer entrance, in chronological order:

P90X: Day 90 - I'm a P90X Grad!

2009-04-04T16:03:00.008-06:00

Well, there’s one New Year’s resolution that can be checked off of my list. This morning I finished P90X with a nice round of Yoga X. I’m officially a P90X Grad!

On January 4th I started P90X with a beginning weight of 183 pounds and this morning I tipped the scales at 169 (that’s 14 pounds lost with P90X for you non-math majors out there). Here’s how my weight has looked over the past 90 days:

I’m a big fan of P90X – it’s a great program that will help you get into incredible shape in a relatively short amount of time if you’re willing to commit to about an hour a day of tough workouts. I didn’t get the size or definition that I was looking for in these first 90 days, but I’m planning on starting all over again after a week off. I’m hoping to get much better results during round two because I’ll be using dumbbells from day one (I used resistance bands for the first 60 days this first time around) and I’ll be starting off in pretty good shape already.

Well, this is almost it for my P90X posts. I’ll post my phase 3 review a little later and then this blog will get back to normal!

Read other P90X posts HERE.

Free at last! Free at last?

2009-04-03T09:38:00.005-06:00

After seven long months, the Roberts family is officially a ‘2 car family’ once again! Last night we bought a used 2009 Dodge Nitro 4x4 with only 6,000 miles on it - all the benefits of a new car without paying for the depreciation. We really feel like we got a smokin’ deal! Here's the new set of wheels.

As much as I’m sure the kids and Mandy will miss it, no longer will they have to chauffeur me to work every morning. No longer will they have to pick me up from work and bring me home again every afternoon. No more being stuck at home without a car if and when Mandy has obligations to attend to. No longer will we have just one car payment. Our insurance payment more than just doubled. So did our gas bill. Another car to get registered and licensed and pay taxes on. More oil changes and maintenance expenses. Crap. Maybe this wasn’t such a good deal after all?

P90X: Legs & Back – before and after numbers

2009-03-27T15:40:00.000-06:00

I despise Legs and Back! It is my least favorite P90X workout by far. So it is just my luck that Legs and Back is the one resistance workout that you do every single week of P90X (with the exception of recovery weeks, of course).

Well today was my day 82 and that means that it was also my tenth and final time for Legs and Back (not to mention Ab Ripper X). So you can take your bloody wall squats and lunges and shove ‘em Tony Horton – I’m done!

For as much as I loathe this workout, it is also the one that I’ve seen the most progress with. In week one of Legs and Back I was somehow able to mange 30 total pull ups. Today I busted out 118 (one hundred and eighteen)! That’s a 293% increase! The guys on the DVD do 120 so I’m feeling pretty dang good about being able to match this DVD pull up for pull up!

But I'm feeling even better that (for now) I'm done with Legs and Back!

Read my other P90X posts HERE.