Crystal Madrilejos

Ok, I’m a jerk. It’s been a million days since I last posted. I’m the worst blogger in the world. I’m terrible.

Anyway, so my last post wasn’t completely accurate. The title of the post implied that I started this fitness thing on the day that I posted. But in reality I started taking real action at the beginning of February. Feb. 2nd , I think.

So, I had already progressed some by the time I started actually trying to keep track of my eating/weight-loss/fitness stuff. You may be wondering what exactly I am tracking. Basically, I’m trying to stick to these two key points:

1. work out 6 days a week

2. cut out as many carbs and sugars as possible without going overboard and taking all the enjoyment out of eating

And what are my goals? I know that actual loss of poundage doesn’t really tell much about a persons fitness since muscle weighs more than fat, etc. etc. So my main goals are:

1. fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes

2. build up an endurance to run for longer than 12 minutes without feeling like I’m going to keel over. I’m not a runner. I actually hate running but for some crazy reason, I feel like I should enjoy it. Stupid, I know.

3. feel better, in general

You may also be asking how and what I am doing to attain these goals, thus going back to the question of “what am I tracking?” So this is basically it.

I started P90X on Feb. 2nd. It’s so not the type of thing I would normally gravitate towards BUT (I’m going to sound like an infomercial right now) I know real people who have real results to show for it. Ok, so I know one person. Namely, my husband. So I decided to give it a try.

The things I like about it are that I can do it from home, there is a different workout every day of the workout week to ward off boredom, and it doesn’t require a lot of equipment. The things I despise are the fact that it’s really hard, it’s 6 days a week, and the workouts are long. I know, those are dumb things to hate because those are basically all the things that make it work. But whatever. I’m not one of those people that “loves the burn”. I love laying on the couch and reading. I love fresh strawberries. I love watching The Lord of the Rings. These are things to love. Not huffing and puffing and feeling like a failure for wanting the pain to end! Sorry, I just don’t.

So I keep track of every day that I work out. And by keep track I mean, I put a little check mark in my planner. Not very gratifying, I know. But I do feel bad if I don’t check off my requisite 6 workouts a week. Luckily, it’s only been once that I’ve missed a workout.

I am also following the P90X diet, if somewhat loosely. I was using Daily Burn and Livestrong: My Plate to track my daily food intake but that has sort of died off because I eat the same. thing. every. day. It got too redundant. I just wish there was a button or something I could check for “Ate the same things as yesterday”. But there is no such magic. Alas, now I know, in general, how many calories I eat a day and that it suits what I am trying to achieve. I also use Daytum to track my weight because I like pretty graphs and charts. There is a weight tracker in both Daily Burn and Livestrong, and just for the fun of it, I track my weight on those as well. Now my progress is official in 3 places! Yes!

So far in 2011 I’ve lost about 10-11lbs and can fit into some of my pre-pregnancy clothes. When it gets warmer out, my husband and I can see how I’m fairing on goal #2. If there is anything I despise more than running, is running in cold weather. It’s painful, like, literally painful in the body type painful.

Until next time!

-c.