Its Week 3 already!

And I'm on fire. I am addicted to P90X like no ones business, and as I sit here writing this, I can just feel a surge of energy inside of me bursting to get out, the drive to do something active and physical is insane.

The dieting has been going on for a few weeks longer now, and the change in me is something quite crazy. Weight loss is happening, and at a nice steady rate now. While the initial loss was quite rapid, now through choosing carefully, and maintaining a fair calorific intake, I have managed to slow the loss to a crawl. A pound here and there, rather than a whole bunch of weight a week. Not to say that rapid loss isn't a good thing, when I did Lighter Life I was thankful to get all the excess weight off me in one quick hit. But this time around is different. Both my goals, and my methods are very different.

Ketosis is an amazing and quite natural occurrence in the body, but not one I would call upon too many times in my life. This new approach for me is about fitness, flexibility and lifestyle, rather than BMI and target weights. When I started this time around I was approx 245-250lbs, feeling the strain a little, and really wanted to shed some weight while building on my weaknesses. A few weeks into the dieting I heard about and took up the P90X challenge, and my god I'm glad I did.

Week 1 was without a doubt a very sharp learning curve, and by Week 2 I was starting to understand the commitment that P90X would require. By the end of that week I was sure this was what I wanted to do, and now here in Week 3 I really cant get enough of it. Finding myself almost in a state of exercise deprivation, and with the urge to do more with my day.
I love that feeling of 'I just worked out'. The tired muscles, the slight ache, and energised feeling that you get when you call on your body for more energy. The following morning, that tightness, and the reminder that you trained as hard as you could the day before. Without a shadow of a doubt my 2 favourites of the Weeks 1-3 routine are Arms, and Plyometrics. The reasons are quite simple, they feel the best and have the highest impact on my body. However the most surprising one for me, and I have to say pretty pleasing too has to be Yoga.

Yoga is something I have wanted to do for years, but as part of a routine, not as a stand alone exercise, and thanks to P90X, there it is, right in the middle of my workout week. Balance, posture and core strength are all hit, and far harder than I ever realised yoga could. The most pleasing part for me has to be flexibility though. Never have I challenged myself like this, but it is something I have always craved. Being able to bend in directions I never knew I could. Its a strange feeling, that after just a couple of weeks I am already enjoying the freedom of movement I have found, and the stiffness that always seemed to possess me has gone. That's not to say there are not still some aches and pains around my body.... My god there are !

So all together, a lower calorie, low fat and carb intake, and I have to say a somewhat limited and sparse diet, put with a decent increase in general cardio exercise with the dogs (6-10 miles daily), and the introduction of P90X 6 days a week, that's one heck of a sudden change of lifestyle. A change that is both positive, and quite simply life changing to me. When I started out with my tag of #Fit4Forty it was always serious for me. However I didn't realise how tightly it would grip me, and how much drive i would find within myself to come this far, let alone to still feel SO motivated at this point.

Seeing ab muscles starting to appear, realising that definition is back in my arms, and feeling the tightness in my bum and legs like I have never done before are not things I was expecting. However all of them drive me on further, and challenge me to find out just how far I can go with this all. Wondering how much further I can go, how much definition I can get out of my body is a real driving force with me now. never have I been particularly vain about my body, but today I can quite honestly say vanity is taking me over, just a little bit.

So here I am right now, Day 2 in Week 3 of a pretty gruelling yet somehow rewarding program, and all I can say right now is, if you don't have a proper routine, you NEED P90X in your life.

I cant wait to post up some progress pictures, and more info on how I am doing.
What I can say for now is, 2 trouser sizes dropped almost now, and approx 30lbs. I am reaching my first proper weight goal of 220lbs, and from there I will consider if I want to lose much more weight in itself, or if the physical gains of P90X will start to cancel out the fat loss with increased muscle bulk and tone. Time will tell. For now, at just 1lb away from the goal, my intention is to just consider 220 my ceiling, and aim to stay below it. If more weight is lost, so be it, but if I start to gain again I will just need to be sure its for the right reasons. 220lbs is my new mooring post, and I shall try and stick around that the best I can.

Roll on the next 10+ weeks, and keep reading, one day I might write something interesting.
For more info and updates, I can be found on Twitter @therealslimsnaz