CoachBioArt

After P90X & P90X+, I was really looking forward to a more intense cardio program. Sure, P90X+ is more cardio and it’s great, but Insanity is something different, so I was looking for a break after 6 months of the other workouts.  I also was looking forward to a workout that used only your own body weight for a change.

I finally got the videos yesterday. I’ve been waiting for this program since I first heard about it a few months back and was as excited as a kid in a candy store… wait, that’s a bad analogy on a fitness blog .  Let’s just say instead that I was as excited as a runner making the final turn on a 400M run!.

Beachbody was smart enough to send everyone doing Tony Horton’s 1-on-1 a preview of the program (the full cardio/plyo workout) and I’ve been doing it once a week as part of my post P90X regimen. It has certainly helped my fitness and speed on the Rugby pitch.

Insanity is here, click to buy!

I will admit that I was a little hesitant at first, since I’m a big Tony Horton fan and wasn’t sure I would like Shaun T, given that I’m not a dancer and his other programs have more dancing/hip-hop moves in them.  Well, I learned that don’t have to worry about that, since there is absolutely no time for dancing in Insanity!

In any case, Insanity is designed to be a 60 day program, with workouts 6 days a week, including a weekly cardio recovery workout.  The workouts are about 30-40 minutes long at first (they get longer in the second month), but that’s plenty.  Your heart rate is >150 for most of that time

The first day is somewhat easy, since  it involved a warmup and a fit test that is taken every 2 weeks, but it is a good intro to the kinds of excercises you will do in the program.

Finally, I know the important part of the program is the content, but I have to say that BeachBody went above and beyond on the packaging.  Pretty impressive!

I will post my progress here, so keep checking in to see how it works!

It’s so simple and yet so hard to do right… I have been trying to keep track of what I eat for a long time. The problem is that many times you don’t really have access to the nutritional info or don’t have time to write things down. There are many tools out there that try to do this, but most of them are really not that useful…. why? limited built-in libraries. Most of them use the FDA food list. This list only contains about 7500 items and some of those are a little esoteric (Beluga whale anyone?)

The best one out there in my opinion is the Calorie King website (calorieking.com). They publish a book with over 50K foods and it contains info on most restaurants/etc. The best part about it is that you can use go on the website on your computer or you can use the fairly light-weight mobile site. They have a Mac/Windows app, but it does not sync the way I want it to. It can sync from the Win/Mac/PalmOS app to the website, but not backwards, so the website is the only one that is maintained current. I don’t use the apps anymore because of this, but by being able to update my food intake while at the restaurant, it’s harder to forget what I eat. The website is only about 10 dollars a month, but it is really useful. Adding custom foods and exercises is pretty easy and given their database size, it’s a rare occurrence.

I wish there was a native app for Windows Mobile that did this, but I can live with the website. I’ve looked at some of the Ipod/Iphone apps, but haven’t really used them as much. I believe there is one that has a large library, but since I don’t have an Iphone, I don’t want to rely on carrying the Ipod with me at all times.

I have learned that it is really important to keep track of everything.  I set my goals to have about 2000 calories a day, <65g of fat, <200g carbs and <200g of protein (trying to maximize protein).  The days I don’t keep track are the days I miss those targets… seeing it throughout the day helps me decide what I should I and should not eat for dinner (if I strayed during the day .  Before keeping track of my intake, I know there were days I would have >3500 calories… food is tasty and I like to eat!  Now I know better and make decisions based on my goals and not my cravings.  Sure, it’s nice to splurge every now and then and have some extra cheese, but it isn’t worth it on a regular basis.  The results I’ve gotten so far are much more rewarding!

As I share my success story, I will also talk about the things that worked for me and things that didn’t. Watch this space for lots of info on some of the web tools and equipment I use. In addition I plan on reviewing many of the things I have tried and liked or disliked. No sense in having people rediscover the wheel every time!

Some of the specific topics I will discuss:
-Food Tracking websites/tools
-Exercise tools/equipment
-Extra workouts
-etc

As an independent BeachBody Coach, my goal is to provide you with the tools you need to achieve your personal fitness goals.

I’m a P90X graduate having recently lost over 38lbs in the past 5 months.  My goal is to share what I have learned during my (ongoing) fitness journey and help you achieve your goals

I will be sharing my journey and many of the tips I learned throughout.  Stay tunned for much more!