I’ve heard this comment quite a few times and never really paid much mind to it….until recently. As you know I have been doing P90X for well over a 100 days. I am in my 2nd Round and despite Ab Ripper X , Ab Ripper 200 and Core Synergistics I don’t have abs. Well, let me rephrase that…you can’t see my abs. I have lost over 6 inches from my waist and I can feel them, but they are trapped under a disgusting layer of gooey, flabby, fat….lovely image eh?! (Obviously, that is not me in the pic featured here either…sigh)

The other night I was on Facebook and found this article from Tony Horton:

“In the land of last hurrahs, the infamous 6-pack is high on the list. The feeling out there is that if you’ve got a 6-pack, you’ve arrived. I have a 6-pack and love handles. What does that say about me? I’ve arrived at needing to eat my cake/cookies too. Owning a 6-pack (or even an 8-pack) is a result of three key components: diet, cardiovascular exercise, and core/ab work. What most people don’t realize is that the core/ab work is last on the list when it comes to how your abs rise to the surface. That’s right—last! Once they begin to show, the way you work them will influence their aesthetic appearance.

If you had stayed active and ate well early on in life (and stayed that way), your stomach muscles would be as easy to see as your head. That stuff covering up your abs is fat. Fat that has accumulated from a life of poor diet and inactivity. Your abdominal muscles are buried far beneath the surface. Ninety-eight percent of humans who attempt to bring the 6-pack to the surface with just crunches, ab lounges, and any other silly low-calorie-burning repetitive motion will fail. That fat is unburned fuel. Cardiovascular exercise involving your legs and a diet low in fat, sugar, and sodium is the way of the 6-pack.

Talk to anyone who has had great results resurfacing the 6-pack from doing Power 90®, and they’ll tell you that eating in the top two tiers of Michi’s Ladder and three solid cardio days a week (done consistently) had more to do with it than crunches alone. Do your Ab Ripper routines, Cardio, and Sculpt three days a week. Eat the kind of food seven days a week that doesn’t add to the unwanted fuel that keeps “The Pack” from rising to the surface.

Reading this made me step back and really think about my nutrition. I’ve been working at it but I don’t think I have been giving it my all. Yes, I just recently started the 21 Day Clean Eating Challenge and I think this may help to get me closer to the 6 pack I have always dreamed of…..hell who am I kidding…I’ll be happy with flat at the this point. (You know its sad when you look at the Beachbody product guide and say hell I’d be happy with her before photo!)

If you have also been working hard and not seeing results in your abs it may be time to step into the kitchen and up the cardio you do instead of doing 100’s of crunches a day.  I also found this while doing some web searches….maybe it will help you! Flat Stomach Food Guide

It is now officially May, which puts me at almost the one year mark since I started this fitness journey (I only wish I started this blog sooner so I could have looked back at my year of progress…sigh). Along the way I have hit many forks in the road, a lot of bumps and a few fallen trees that could have stopped me in my tracks but I have managed to navigate through all of them and kept pushing on.

One of the biggest challenges for me as someone who has  always been overweight is food. I never  learned balanced, proper nutrition as a kid. My mom has always had weight issues, and as a single working parent she always just stocked the fridge and freezer with what was quick and easy. I grew up on pizza rolls, frozen pizza, microwavable hamburgers, taco night and all kinds of soda, chips and junk. I am sure this had a huge impact on my eating habits as an adult and now as a mom, I myself face the fact that while these quick and easy options may help me daily, it is not going to help my children. I do not want them to go through life as I did and have to face the same issues.

Last May something clicked in me. I did not like the person in the mirror and I decided it was time to make some changes. I started by cutting back on my sugar intake as I was a huge sugar junkie. No more Pop-tarts (which I love and I swear they stare at me when I walk down the aisle they reside in at the grocery store), no cookies just cause they were there, no more late night ice cream and no more snacking out of boredom after 7pm. I was never a big chip eater so I had no issues cutting that sort of stuff out. I also cut back on my caffeine intake which was TOUGH but I survived it and rarely feel the need for a late afternoon pick me up anymore. (However this past week I have my fair share of late night coffee and I have been paying the price for it with a wacky sleep schedule!)

After a few hard weeks of sticking to these diet changes I added daily exercise to the mix. I have NEVER been an exercise person. The idea of getting up and driving to the gym never appealed to me and the thought of purposely making myself sweat and become sore didn’t either. If it wasn’t for a friend of mine who was doing P90X at the time and busting his butt daily I probably never would have done this. He was an inspiration to me and I felt that  if he could do an hour of hardcore intense exercise everyday I could at least do some yoga and cardio.

Oh, by the way….did I mention that I am a part-time cake decorator at Coldstone Creamery and we get complimentary cups of ice cream on every shift? Yeah…tell me about it….major challenge there!

A few weeks in my changes & hard work began to pay off and soon enough the weight started coming off. I was feeling good about myself for a change and I liked it! I found new ways to keep myself motivated, like an upcoming to trip to Disney and a friendly bet with a friend as to who could lose more weight before the trip. I found I was able to go longer on the bike and the treadmill and I began adding new workout dvd’s to keep myself challenged. I didn’t crave the same types of foods I once ate but I would occasionally over indulge on a weekend or feel that I earned a major “cheat”.

Looking back now I think those cheats were stupid of me but it’s because of how much I have learned, how much I have changed and how much I value the importance of nutrition now. At the time I thought I needed those cheats to succeed and you know what….I probably did. I am so glad I took baby steps so I didn’t psych myself out and set myself up to fail as I did so many times in the past.

A year ago I would have never imagined myself working out for an hour a day let alone being a P90X graduate. I would have never even entertained the thought of trying Insanity, or a 21 day clean eating challenge. You would have never caught me reading books about Crossfit or Paleo eating and I NEVER thought I wouldn’t mind bathing suit shopping (well…I still don’t like it but it’s not as awful as it once was). I also never thought I would be helping others to reach their fitness goals by sharing my story and what I have learned along the way.

I still face temptations on a daily basis and I suppose I always will. I’ll be at work and think about having a cup of ice cream or eating a left over Kit-Kat or Oreo cookie.  I have to stop and think about how far I’ve come and realize it isn’t worth it. It’s so easy to just mindlessly eat. (That’s not to say I don’t every now and then….I’m human afterall!) Those darn Pop-tarts have been taunting me lately as well but I’ve told them to “fuck off” cause my ass doesn’t need them!

Before you think I deprive myself of everything or have this super strict diet I don’t. I enjoy pizza and beer and stuff like that. I just try not to have them often and limit how much of it I have. I’ve also become a fan of thin crust veggie pizza and light beer which allows me to enjoy the stuff I love but be smarter about how I eat it. I’ve come to love and enjoy new foods that are actually good for me.

I love to cook and have been making a better effort to cook healthy meals for my family instead of ordering out all the time. The best part is that by my eating healthy items it  makes my kids want to try them too.  They have even begun taking an interest in exercise which makes me so proud!

The lesson here is that there will always be an obstacle in the road to reaching your goals. It may be a fork in the road, a few rough patches or a bag of Doritos screaming for you to eat them. Don’t let them trip you up and stop you from reaching your destination. If you stumble and fall along the way, dust yourself off and keep moving forward. Take baby steps, pace yourself and every now and then look behind yourself to see how far you have come.

The Good…

Yesterday was a killer workout day! (and I mean killer in a good way!) I had P90X
Shoulders & Arms which is one of my favorite upper body workouts in the program.  The
only annoying part of it is how Tony ooo’s and aahh’s over Dreya through the whole
thing…..GAG! I teamed it up with Ab Ripper 200 from the Power 90 series which I LOVE
and have begun seeing results from already…plus the FABULOUS Dreya isn’t in it so it’s a
plus :P

I definitely need to get myself some heavier weights for this round as the ones I have are not cutting it anymore. I also started doing my workouts in my bedroom because my closets have full length mirrors so I can watch my form which has improved my performance greatly. I feel a better burn by being able to focus on what I am doing as opposed to what Dreya they are doing on the DVD.

The Bad….

Today is another story….SIGH….I need to switch YogaX to another day or double up somewhere or wake up earlier…I don’t know….SOMETHING!

Every week Thursday comes and I find excuses to put off the 90 mins of yoga Tony requires of me each week. Now in my defense I do the 10 minute trainer yoga everyday or a Rodney Yee AM Yoga DVD that I love because it helps my back. It’s not like I’m neglecting yoga totally but I feel guilty for not doing YogaX like I’m supposed to. I have a habit of skipping through the vinyasas and just doing the balance section of the DVD through to the end to make it shorter.

I know…I’m supposed to do the whole DVD but 90 mins IS kinda long, especially after working all day. (Excuse….I know….I’m hanging my head in shame as I type!)

I guess there is a dvd in this program that everyone dreads….YogaX happens to be it for me. All I can do is try my best (and forget the rest…..hahaha…sorry….had to do it!), stick with it the whole 90 mins and at the very least continue doing my shorter daily yoga sessions to increase my flexibility and improve my balance.

Today I made it through the warm up section before the vinayasas and the first 5 balance poses before my son kept calling me into his room and I gave up. My plan for tomorrow is to at least do the Patience Yoga from Tony’s One on One series as soon as both kids get on the bus. Legs & Back plus Ab Ripper 200 will be done at night after the kids go to bed.

Wish me luck!

During my fitness journey I have made huge progress in changing the way that I eat, the types of foods that I buy and how I eat. I no longer eat out of boredom (I press play on a workout, read or tweet for that) and I no longer crave sugar like I used to. However there is still room for improvement so 2 days ago I joined a fellow tweep (Maria365) in her 21 Day Clean Eating Challenge.

Here are the details:

Press play at least 5 or 6 days per week; eat clean daily; one cheat meal per week (not a cheat day); just one cheat meal per week; No alcohol; Report daily; take your measurements.

Definition of clean eating: 4 to 6 small meals per day, breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. Eat every 2-3 hours. Follow a balanced diet 40% carbs, 40% protein and 30% fat.

To access Michi’s Ladder here visit my facebook fan page HERE.

**** ADDENDUM: Shakeology, Protein powder (your choice) supplements, coffee, natural almond/peanut butter, and almond milk are ALLOWED. *******

I am also adding the Shakeology Summer Shakedown to this which involves replacing one meal per day with a Shakeology shake. (To purchase Shakeology or find out more about it contact me – yes, it’s a shameless plug…sorry!)

Now I will tell you right off the bat that the no alcohol aspect of this will most likely not happen. My birthday falls during this 21 day challenge and after a long week or working 2 jobs and working out I enjoy a beer or two with a friend if I happen to go out. I guess I could consider that my “cheat” for the week though.

My plan is to do what we should be doing anyway…eat  foods with as few ingredients as possible. I’m tired of over processed foods that claim to be healthy for us but when you look at the ingredients you are faced with words you can’t pronounce and all kinds of additives you don’t need.

To prepare myself I went to the library and picked up a book on Paleo eating for athletes that has some recipes in it as well as an Organic food guide. I also have a great book that my buddy AJ loaned me called The Body Fat Solution by Tom Venuto that I plan on looking through again. There is also a movie called Food Inc. that I have heard a lot about and plan on checking out.

Wish me luck! I will try my best to either blog about my progress or I will have Facebook/Twitter  updates.