Take 3!

Decide. Commit. Succeed. That's the Beach Body slogan. It's short, sweet, and most definitely true. 



With this being my third attempt to tackle the grueling 90 days of this workout regimen, I knew what I was getting myself into. I must say, having that slight advantage this time around made it some what easier to get in to. Today is Day 16 and I feel like I can navigate through the morning's workout with greater ease than my last two failed attempts. I was told by a friend of mine, who is also immersed in the pursuit of P90X success, that with time the workouts begin to get easier. And I use this term "easier" very lightly. By no means is this home fitness routine easy. A better way to describe it, I guess, is that you become more accustomed to it.

Eager to begin my workouts I overlooked the guide book and mistakenly forgot to take the suggested photos. They urge you to take 6 different pictures of yourself in order to have something to look back on and compare your results at the 30, 60, and 90 day marks. Since I don't have a picture to look back on I'm finding it slightly harder to motivate myself. I don't perceive ANY difference at all in my body and I practically overdose on the false hope the scale feeds me. It's kind of disheartening to think that I've been working my butt off for almost 3 weeks and nothing has changed. Not even a little bit. When I get into my "this stupid thing isn't working" mood, Matt brings me back to reality. God ol' Matt. He's my rock in this whole debacle of an experience. :)

Going through the motions of the everyday work out has become a piece of cake. Crunches... lunges... squats... push ups... dips... curls... downward dog... etc.. That's all becoming routine, as it should be. But just going through the motions isn't enough. Where's the drive to do more? Where's the need to accomplish one more sit up than the prior week, or go lower on your lunges? Or even attempt to do the crane pose in the Yoga X DVD? To me you don't plateau when you can't do more... you plateau when you choose not to do more. This is something I need to practically beat into my own head. Once my body starts to hurt my brain automatically screams, "Abort! Abort!" And I oblige. I never imagined that a workout routine would throw so many hurdles in my path to success. Did I mention I quick the cross country team after only 1 practice because of hurdles? ha ha.

Right off the bat I cut my success rate down by at least 25% since we're not using the nutrition book verbatim. We, Matt and I, decided to try a generally healthier method by cutting out certain types of food and opting for generally less caloric and less fatty foods. In essence it makes sense to do things this way since we're looking for a change is our diet that will be long lasting. Becoming accustomed to, for example, drinking fat free milk rather than whole milk will be advantageous in the long run. Moderation is key. Were we to drastically change our daily dietary routine, it would probably fall by the wayside and we would be back to square one.  

The end result is still a long ways away so for now I'll strive to come out of my zombie-like trance of crunches, dips, squats.. and the like and push myself to work harder. The 30 day mark is fast approaching and that is a prize in and of itself, for it shows that I've overcome my "commitment" hurdle.

"Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you see."

- Mario Adretti