Insanity Day 22 (Cardio Abs) complete... this was tough!

So this weekend at Duke was marked by a little something that is commonly known as Campout.  Essentially it's a 36-hr party in a parking lot, where you are required to be present for periodic "check-ins" throughout in order to qualify for a lottery for Duke basketball season tickets.  That said, doing my workouts the past few days has been a challenge, and unfortunately not one that I accomplished successfully.  I briefly toyed with the idea of doing Insanity in the parking lot and getting some other folks to join with me.  Seeing everyone though in the morning looking half-dead told me it would be easier just to run home to do the workout and then come back to Campout later.


Yesterday was supposed to be BOTH Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs.  As of this point I hadn't actually done the latter (instead, Katie and I have swapped in less cardio-centric ab workouts on days that called for ab work); and since Campout had left me exhausted already I decided to just do Cardio Abs, which ended up being a welcome change of pace, still quite a challenge, and a great yet unique ab workout in about 15 minutes.


Warm-up
This wasn't TOO different from the warm-ups for previous Insanity workouts...just a bit shorter since it didn't involve repeated circuits, and perhaps a bit more ab-focused in terms of the exercises chosen.  The trick is to keep your core engaged throughout!


The following moves are each done for 30 secs

• Run in place
• High Knees
• High Knees with Twist (cranks on the obliques)
• Jump Rope 
• Tuck Jumps (jump up high from a starting squat position and bring knees into your elbows at peak)
• Wide Tuck Jumps (similar to above, but is done with a wide legged stance)

It may not look like much, but you'll probably be sweating pretty decently afterwards

Workout

Shaun T's cardio abs revolve quite a bit around what he calls the "C-Sit" position.  Basically you sit on your butt, legs slightly bent in front, with back/core leaned backward at a 45 degree or so angle.  Just holding that pose for a while can work the abs on it's own!

• C-Sit Twists (arms in front of you, twisting side to side)
• Twists with Knee (same as above, but bring in opposing knee to your forearm on each movement)
• A-Frame Ab Twists (similar to the twists, but you put your arms extended above your head instead of in front of you)
• A-Frame with Knee 
• Hold C-Sit Pose
• Single Leg Raises (in c-sit position, extend one straight leg off the floor a couple of inches; now lift it up and back down to the starting position for the duration... then switch legs)
• Double Leg Raises (same as above, but do both legs at same time; THIS IS NOT EASY!)
• High Plank Position 
• High Plank w/alternating knees (while in plank, use your core to bring your knee up/around towards your shoulder)
• High Plank w/fast knees (same as before, just faster)
• Low Plank Position (go down onto your forearms)
• Low Plank w/alternating knees
• Pulse tucks (in plank position you're basically performing, dare I say, pelvic pulses to contract your abs; sounds silly, but it really starts to burn pretty darn quickly)

That's it!

Diet Update

My diet is actually going very well, and I'm extremely lucky to have such a supportive spouse.  Part of the reason I decided to to cut out certain things (dairy, gluten) was that I determined that these might be aggravating my skin a bit.  After being on this for a while, I can fairly confidently say that's true since there has been zero issue since.

Also, a note on Campout since I attended as a gluten-free lackey.  Obviously, my choice of brews was limited to the gluten-free variety (mostly sorghum based), and here are some very brief notes on those I tried:

• Redbridge: fairly decent Bud-like beer, falling somewhere in taste between Bud Light & Bud.  At the very least it tastes most like normal beer compared to the others I tried, even if it's not all that good.  I give it a C+
• Bard's Tale: has a somewhat "off" note to it, but definitely has more flavor than Redbridge.  I actually kind of liked it after a while.  B-/B
• Green's: I had three different ones of this brand over the weekend. A dubble dark ale, a golden ale, and one other I can't quite remember.  The Golden Ale is way too sweet and medicinal for my tastes but the dark ale was actually not TOO far astray from a decent tasting craft Belgian.  I'd give them a C+/B- and B/B+ respectively
• St. Peters: by far my favorite of the weekend.  Strong flavor and body without too much of that "off" flavor that seems to go along with most of the gluten-free brews.  I'd give it a solid A-

Almond Milk: a few reviews

Hi All,


So as most of you know I've been experimenting with a rather stringent diet regimen lately that includes the restriction of "no dairy."  Sadly dairy is one of my favorite things since I love cereal, but I have been tiptoeing into the waters of almond milk recently.


As a general note, almond milk holds WAY more promise for me than any other dairy substitute I've tried.  Store-bought coconut milk is too thin and has an almost medicinal taste, soy milk tastes indescribably "off" to me, and rice milk tastes almost burnt.  Almond milk, however, is by far the closest non-dairy substitute I've found for actual cow's milk (at least skim).


A few mini-reviews:

• Trader Joe's Unsweetened Organic Almond Milk
• Solid choice.  A little thinner than cow's milk, but very close to skim milk.  The only real differentiation is that it has a somewhat toasted flavor to it, although it's not really off-putting and certainly isn't noticeable in a bowl of cereal.  There's also traces of what I can only assume is some sort of almond sediment.  Make sure you shake this up.
• Trader Joe's Vanilla Organic Almond Milk
• Not terrible, but this stuff is pretty dang sweet (and it's quite an "odd" sweetness at that)!  Not my cup of tea at all.  
• SILK Unsweetened Almond Milk
• I had already tried SILK's chocolate almond milk before, so I had a good feeling about this.  Easily the closest approximation of true skim milk in the bunch (both in terms of consistency and taste): highly recommended. 

Insanity Day 14: Rest Day

Ok, just to fully round out the first two weeks I thought I should at least reference today's rest day.  Very needed!

I'm still extremely sore from doing the Chest, Shoulders & Triceps P90x workout the other day, but today it was all relaxation.  Spent most of the day at school actually, but the evening involved some end-of-day networking/hanging out, and then finally a night out with friends to celebrate the 'ol birthday...complete with ANOTHER gluten-free/dairy-free cake courtesy of the Mrs.  I am extremely lucky!

Till the new workouts come to the Insanity rotation in a couple weeks, stay tuned.

Insanity Day 13: Pure Cardio (ugh, take this out of the rotation!)

Ok first of all, today was the big 2-9 on the 'ol birthday meter!  And what better way to start the day than with an early morning bout of Pure Cardio????


Katie and I were back at it again, and for those just now joining us (as they say) this is easily the toughest of all the Insanity workouts as far as the first month is concerned.  Just a beast!


Anyway, not much to report today since y'all should have a good idea by now of what to expect from this one: ~11 min of killer warmup; stretch sequence; and then 15 min of non-stop, 100%, keel over and try not to pass out, cardio intervals.  


Again, we have pretty much got this warm-up thing down, but today (because of the extreme resistance stuff I did yesterday with P90x) I was very very sore.  Doing "pushup jacks" when your chest starts off the workout already fried is not an easy proposition.  With that in mind, there were a few more of the pushup exercises than normal where I had to modify due to sheer exhaustion.  And I'm actually STILL sore as I type.  Oh well.


I do have to say though, as hard as this workout is, it gives you a VERY satisfying feeling after you complete it.  


Diet Update
Not too too much to report today, but there were still some pretty delicious items had throughout the day that fit the diet plan:

• Breakfast: green smoothie
• Mid-morning snack: almond milk & gluten free puffins
• Lunch: Udi's gluten free artisan bread, avocado, sliced chicken breast, mustard.  Delish, but a bit messy.  Those avocados do not want to stay on the sandwhich!
• Dinner: Katie took me to La Residence in Chapel Hill.  Scrumtralescent tuna tartare and pork tenderloin.  Pork isn't technically on my diet but is still "more" allowed than red meat
• Dessert: Katie made a homemade dairy-gluten free "ice cream" cake with peach sorbet, Pamela's cake mix, and caramel frosting.  Wowzers it was good!

Going Forward

Just as an update on where my little reviews will go from here.  Since the workouts don't really change for another two weeks, I'm going to take a brief hiatus and pick back up when the new workouts start hitting the schedule.  If I can make it that far :)

Insanity Day 12: P90X's Chest, Shoulders and Triceps (aka, too much cardio = let's do some P90x!)

Hey all,

So I had been warning of this, but the cardio overload is getting to me, and I can tell the upper body isn't getting near as much love in these Insanity workouts. To rectify this, last night I decided to swap in Chest, Shoulders & Tri's from P90x in place of Insanity's Cardio Power & Resistance. This being my first time to pretty much do a P90x and Insanity workout back to back, I can definitely tell a whole lot of differences in the way these two programs are designed.

Chest, Shoulders & Tri's is 1hr long, and rather than cardio it simply massacres your upper body with a seemingly infinite number of pushups, flys, shoulder presses, tricep extensions, etc. It was the first time in a long time that I've gotten that "pump" feeling in my muscles from exercise, and I like it! My arms and chest can barely move today, so even though Insanity has definitely been getting me in VERY good shape VERY quickly, there are still gaps in program in terms of its focus.

Plus, Tony Horton, in my opinion, simply does a better job of warming up and cooling down in a logical flow, whereas Shaun T's warmups are way too intense and his cool-downs jump straight into static stretching without taking time to let the heart rate come down.

In any case, here is a list of the moves from Chest, Shoulders & Tri's
(Any non-weighted exercises like pushups or dips is done to failure in terms of reps. Everything else is done as either 8-10 reps or 12-15 reps depending on whether you're looking to build muscle or just get toned)
- Slow Motion Pushups
- Shoulder Fly In & Out
- Chair Dips
- Plank Pushups
- Pike Pushups
- Side Tricep Rise
- Floor Flys (side moving pushups)
- Scarecrows
- Overhead Tricep Extensions
- Alternate Speed Pushups
- Y Shoulder Press
- Lying Tricep Extension
- Side to Side Pushup
- Pour Flys for Shoulders
- Tricep Extensions
- One Arm Pushups
- Weighted Shoulder Circles
- Throw the Bomb
- Plyo or Clap Pushups
- Slow Mo Throw
- Tricep Extension
- One Arm Balance Pushups (pushups w/ a yoga-esque rotation at the top)
- Fly Row Press
- Dumbbell Cross Body Blows


Diet Notes
I can actually say that 1) the diet is becoming a lot easier in terms of resisting temptation, and 2) it's helping dramatically with the results I'm getting from Insanity in terms of noticeable toning, etc.

Some of the goodies I munched on yesterday:

Sweet potato chips
Unsweetened Almond Milk from Trader Joe's with some multigrain Puffins (gluten-free)
cliff z-bar
An awesomely healthy yet delicious salad Katie made: greens, onions, some sort of oil based dressing, strawberries, nuts

Insanity Day 11: Cardio Recovery

So thankful for this!  The early morning cardio annihilations was starting to get to me.


Also, Cardio Recovery is a bit on the shorter side (~35 min), which ended up being great today since I ended up doing school related things (mostly AT school) from about 9am to 10pm.  As a recap of what this one is all about, there's no cardio, and it's mostly a series of stretches but also some deep power moves: squats, etc.  It's at times relaxing, but definitely tough on a few of the exercises.  Katie and I both had to come out of the held poses a few times!


For tomorrow I'll be doing P90x Chest, Shoulders & Triceps to shake things up a bit and give myself some more upper body work.  I posted about these way back in the day when I first did P90x, but I'll probably do a full review of the workout since I have somewhat of a new "audience" reading this blog.


Diet Notes
Breakfast: Green smoothie


Lunch: bowl of fruit, roasted almonds, Trader Joe's strawberry soy yogurt, gluten free sweet potato chips from Costco, turkey/avocado sandwich on gluten free bread (was actually quite delicious), Cliff Z Bar


Dinner: sea bass marinated in soy sauce in white wine and vinegar and mustard, encrusted with sesame seeds; cabbage, snow peas, carrots, onions with white wine and vinegar; brown rice

Insanity Day 10: Plyo Cardio Circuit (Katie's back!)

So Katie's back in action!  Mostly.


This morning Katie, after using the past few days to rest herself a bit to recuperate from the stitched finger, joined me on Plyo Cardio Circuit.  Fortunately my school schedule this term works out perfectly for doing Insanity since my first class isn't until 10:30!  And from experience, I can say that doing the workouts in the afternoon is much more of a gamble; you're tired from the day and don't want to work out, and after school is usually when the extracurricular activities creep in.


Anyway, today was another solid, butt-kicking workout, but I think I probably did my best job on this one yet.  Nailed the warm-up, and got a good bit of the way through the interval portion before I started taking breaks.  Unfortunately, Katie wasn't able to keep up the whole time because Hattie, our new canine companion, was being a nuisance, and so Katie decided to run her outside to go the bathroom while I continued on.  And, to keep from aggravating her finger, she had to modify some of the pushup moves, etc.  But that still doesn't make it much easier!


In any case, I can definitely see a lot more definition in my legs and abs, and it's only been a week.  Like I've said before, the upper body isn't addressed quite enough in the program, but I plan to switch in a P90x upper body workout on Wed.


DIET UPDATE
To help with my diet commitment, Katie picked up a bunch of overpriced, alternative groceries today.  It's no wonder that people eat fast food all the time...it's a great deal!


Anyway, some of the items I tried today were:

• Trader Joe's unsweetened almond milk
• Great alternative to dairy, it has a slightly toasted, nutty flavor, and is probably just a bit creamier than skim milk.  Not bad.
• Whole Fruit coconut fruit bars
• Delish!...however, I just glanced at the nutritional info and it looks like we just assumed they were non-dairy.  Dang it!
• Multigrain Puffins cereal (gluten free)
• I love Puffins Original, but I have to say these aren't my favorite.  Maybe some more exploring is in order
• Indian inspired tacos that Katie made for dinner (awesome!)
• corn tortillas, barley medley, onions, chicken

Although I have to point out that Katie was making a delicious smelling bread pudding earlier tonight that I can't eat.  It looked SOOOO GOOOD!!!! :(

Green Smoothie

Insanity Day 9: Pure Cardio (Am I getting better? Yeah, but kill me anyway)

Pure Cardio.  Ouch.


Today was supposed to be a rather productive one, but it really ended up involving a lot of procrastination, church, and Insanity.  With this being the second time I've done this workout, I am now convinced that it officially wins the prize as being the hardest of the first month.  Fortunately, Katie is planning to join back in tomorrow to keep me company :)


As you may recall, unlike the other workouts that have periodic breaks, the intervals portion of Pure Cardio is 15 minutes of 100% intensity.  Granted, I take breaks anyway to keep from being sent unexpectedly to the ER.  


As far as how I've improved, I again did a really solid job with the 11 min warmup, which I feel pretty accomplished about.  However, the workout itself is nigh impossible to do in one go.  Just to give a bit of a taste of it, Katie happened to video a few seconds of the intervals portion (only a few minutes in).  Hopefully this will give you some sense of the masochism I'm subjecting myself to.

Thoughts for the day
Tomorrow I plan to swap out Plyo Cardio Circuit (which I actually just did yesterday too!) with one of the P90X upper body workouts.  Time to balance out things a bit and give some sanctuary from the cardio barrage of Insanity.


As far as the paleo-esque diet, I can tell this is going to be hard.   For some various health reasons I'm cutting out items like wheat, dairy, and even tomatoes.  After going to to lunch today at Foster's after church, finding something that I could actually eat and enjoy outside of a salad was a challenge!  But one that I think I'm up to.  Maybe :)

Insanity Day 8: Power Cardio & Resistance (aka "we've met before, haven't we?")

With Katie's finger still on the mend, today was another foray into the world of Shaun T. on my own.  And although I certainly feel as though I'm improving and can see some aesthetic difference since only a week ago, it's much easier (and much more fun) to push yourself when you have someone working out next to you.  Oh well.


Being Day 8, today called for some more Power Cardio/Resistance, which is definitely one of the hardest workouts in the program.  Oh who am I kidding?  They're all hard!!


Workout (44 min)
The warmup, like with Day 6, was actually very doable this time.  I'm pushing as hard if not harder than the folks on the DVD, and just as a reminder, the warmup isn't like any other you've ever tried before.  It's an all-out sprint for the last 1/3 of it.


Following the stretch I jumped into the actual workout, which, as you'll recall, puts a lot of emphasis on power and resistance moves like squat jacks and plyo jumps for the legs and v pushups and moving pushups for the upper body.  Unfortunately, despite my feelings of accomplishment in the warmup, this part of the video did me in again.  Lungs burning, muscles fatiguing.  During these intervals it's almost impossible to envision myself ever being able to best this workout.  Shaun T, you have made a monster of a program.  This becomes clear enough in this workout in particular when Shaun T asks one of the background exercisers how she feels: "I feel like sh*#."  That pretty much sums it up.


Thoughts for Today
To go along with my hardcore exercise regimen, Katie is going to help me on the diet portion of this as well.  As a matter of fact, I'm going a little extreme with this (might as well since I'm already killing my body exercise-wise) and am going to try my hand at venturing towards the paleo trend some people are moving towards.  The real emphasis here is on whole, raw foods (although I won't be 100% paleo here), and I also plan to cut out dairy and a few other things at least for the next few weeks.  The real trick though is to make sure I'm getting enough calories with the diet.  I sure as heck need them!  Katie and I are already pretty regimented in our intake (green smoothies every morning, etc.), so I feel like this is at least doable.


Will keep everyone updated on how that goes.

Insanity Day 6: Plyo Cardio Circuit (this again??)

Today was a bit unique (and perhaps a bit scary).  Katie and I had planned to do today's workout after I got home from school, but as fate would have it, she sliced her finger really badly while cooking today and one of our close friends had to rush her to the ER!!  She apparently was doing ok, but I received a string of texts and pictures of the wound from our friend to confirm.  Fortunately, Katie got stitched up and should be back up and running in no time, but this meant that today I was on my own for Insanity (Katie instead took a walk with the dogs and some friends this afternoon after a little bit of recovering; I find that pretty impressive since I probably would have been curled up in bed nursing my finger!).
In any case, today's workout was the first repeat we've had so far: Plyo Cardio Circuit, which if you remember, is the first actual workout you do following the initial Fit Test Day.  The first time we did this we almost passed out.  Today, however, I feel like I can definitely say there was some marked improvement, which I am pretty excited about!


Workout
The warm-up, around 11 minutes of non-stop running in place, jumping jacks, heismans, and more, was certainly no walk in the park this time, but I managed to do the entire thing (really pushing myself) without stopping once for a break!  I'll go ahead and give myself a little pat on the back for that one because that was no easy feat.


The stretch section, 8 minutes, was a much needed break, and I felt fresh enough to think that I could go through the whole workout this time without stopping (which would of course be a first).  Well, let's just say my successful warm-up was causing some delusions of grandeur.  This "no stopping" did NOT happen.


The actual workout, as you may recall, consists of suicide drills (aka mini shuttle runs), pushups, mountain climbers, ski jumps, power squats, and a whole lot more...delivered via some intense interval cycles.  The first cycle or two I was fine, feeling good even.  But by the last three, I mentally and physically derailed!  Plenty of breaks, and lungs burning in the most brutal of ways.  And even though I tend to be pretty decent at pushups, I was face-planting during some of the latter sets.


All in all though, I have to say that I am starting to see some real progress.  It's only been a week and Katie and I have both started seeing some noticeable improvement, both physically as well as, well, aesthetically.  And at least as Shaun T puts it: "Why do I work out so hard?  To look good!"  That's a bit of a simplification as far as my reasons go, but it's certainly a nice benefit to hold onto.


Latest Thoughts 
Nothing new to report.  After today, it just more confirms the fact that 5 days of agonizingly brutal cardio a week is probably overkill.  Instead, I think swapping in some upper body resistance (whether it's P90x or something else) once a week will be very beneficial.  As I may have mentioned before, sometimes guys haven't been as ecstatic with their Insanity results because there's such little upper body focus.  I mean, I might come out of this program looking my legs could kick a football across my entire apartment complex, but you need to balance it out!