The Beginning

My very first post... :-)

This story began a couple weeks ago when I woke up early on a Saturday morning. I was still sleepy, and I didn't feel like getting out of bed, so I turned on the TV. There was this infomercial on about this crazy workout routine called P90X that guaranteed an amazing body in 90 days. At first, I didn't think much of it, but the more I watched it, the more I wanted to try it. Now, I've never bought anything from an infomercial before, but somehow this seemed like a good idea. So later that day, I googled P90X and found a lot of blogs and reviews written by people who had completed the 90 days and had great results. I decided to go for it. I ordered the DVDs.

I'm a second-year medical resident training in pathology. During college, med school, and my first year of residency, I tried to stay active by going to the gym, but it's been pretty tough. Right now, I consider myself to be in decent physical shape--meaning that my strength, endurance, flexibility, etc. are reasonably good--but I've gained weight over the past several years, and I'm now at least 20 lbs heavier than I'd like to be. I don't think I look like someone who is in good shape, and I have lots of clothes in my closet that don't fit as well as they used to. I also don't have the level of energy that I'd like to have, especially given the stresses of my job. I'm the kind of person who needs structure and organization to do well, which might be part of the reason why P90X appealed to me. There's a set workout that you have to do each day and specific foods that you should eat. With some extra willpower to stick to it, I'm hoping this will work for me.

I decided to jump on the blog bandwagon to track my progress as I go through the intense workouts that P90X promises. I'm not expecting to be a supermodel by the end of this, but I'm hoping that I'll stick to it and end up losing some weight and being in better shape. And I'll probably end up talking about myself and my life other than P90X on here, which should be cool too.

I looked through the different materials that came with the DVDs, and I found that there are 3 different workout regimens that you can do. I was torn between P90X Classic, which is the one that's advertised, and P90X Lean, which is a modified version designed for more weight loss and less muscle building (they say many women do this one). The Lean version seemed pretty appealing, but the Classic seems more intense in the types of workouts it has. So I think I'm just going to go with the Classic. I won't use heavy weights to build too much muscle mass, and if I'm working out and sticking to the diet plan, I'll lose weight anyway.

I took the fitness test and did pretty well, which is great. Here are my results:

Pull-ups: I didn't do this one because I don't have a pull-up bar and don't think my doorframes can handle one. When I was younger (and lighter), I could do 6 or 7 pull-ups, but right now I'd be surprised if I could do a single one. I'll be using a resistance band for the pull-up workouts on the DVD.

Vertical leap: 7 in (recommended minimum 3 in to start P90X)

Push-ups: 10 (recommended minimum 3)

Toe touch: +3 in (recommended minimum -3 in)

Wall squat: 1 min 10 sec (recommended minimum 1 min--this one was tough!)

Bicep curls: 20 curls with 15lb weights (recommended minimum 10 curls with 8 lb weights)

In and outs: 29 (recommended minimum 24--another hard one for me!)

So overall, I think I'm ready to start the program. I know that my abs are going to be a problem area, but we'll see how it goes. I've read enough about P90X to know that this is going to be really hard in general. I'm happy about that, though. If I'm going to work out, I might as well make it count!

So as long as I'm not at work ridiculously late tomorrow, I think I'll start Day 1 then. Otherwise it will be on Saturday definitely. I'll also take my initial measurements and (ugh) pictures and post them when I start the program.

That's about it for tonight. I'm going to relax a bit and make a grocery list--and come to terms with giving up junk food for the next 3 months!