P90X Days 7-14: Man of Steel...and Chips and Syrup

That's right. I have a Superman shirt. Several, in fact. What's cooler than a 31-year old fat guy working out in a Superman shirt? A 31-year-old fat guy posting pictures of himself after working out on the Internet, that's what.

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I still don't want this to become strictly P90X pictures of myself, but I almost feel guilty posting about much else when I'm several days behind posting on P90X and I'm getting texts and emails asking for updates. Not much new to report except that my battle with Tony Horton (the P90X guy) continues. He really seems like a nice guy until he taunts you that there's a guy with a prosthetic leg in one of the first DVDs that is kicking your butt throughout the entire workout. Stupid Tony Horton and his gang of super-powered friends.

This post is mostly for the pictures to half-way prove that I haven't quit, but I confess that with company from out of town over the weekend, I got a little off schedule. For those of you that have a financial stake in this thing, I'll leave it up to you if you disqualify me for moving my second "rest day" up a couple days in the schedule and powering through 9 or 10 workouts before my next rest day. Sorry if I've let you down by not following the schedule exactly, but I felt the need to be honest and am pressing on in any case.

After Day 7's rest, I rested a little more with my good friends TV and Tostitos. Mmm...they never fail me.

Day 7: Rest. Not much to say here except that this is my favorite workout so far. I had an option to do the "X Stretch" DVD, but I figured I should pace myself. I think I handled this one nicely.

After Day 8's Chest & Back and Ab workouts, I was so disappointed in myself, I couldn't even face the camera.

Day 8: Chest & Back and Abs. Honestly, this was about a week ago and I don't remember much except the feeling of disappointment at the end. It's not that it was any harder than last time and it's not that I didn't make some small improvements. I guess I'm just not sure if I did my best that day. I could probably use more sleep and better nutrition. Though I'm closely monitoring caloric intake via Lance Armstrong's "Live Strong" Daily Plate website, I'm not really eating much better. Just less. More fruits and vegetables and less meat and cheese wouldn't hurt. But boy, do I love some meat and cheese...

This is what a fake smile after Plyometrics on Day 9 looks like. Last time I did this workout, I almost died on my living room floor. This time, I just almost died face down on my coffee table after taking this picture.

Day 9: Plyometrics. I really don't like Plyometrics. I think this is the DVD with the one-legged guy putting me to shame. I'd put the DVD in to double-check, but I'm afraid the one-legged wonder will come to life and beat me up. I'll let you know next time I do it.

Day 10 taught me that wearing a Superman shirt apparently doesn't make you any stronger.

Day 10: Shoulders & Arms and Abs. Easily still my favorite workout. The Abs one is always tough, but Shoulders & Arms is refreshing because I can actually do a lot of it without crying.

Day 11's late night Yoga apparently gave me a lazy eye.

Day 11: Yoga. P90X hits the road. Definitely the most difficult time I had getting started on a workout. As a busy weekend of work and out-of-town company began, I found myself doing Yoga at someone else's house well after midnight on Friday night. Under less than ideal conditions, I pried my eyes open with toothpicks, put the Yoga DVD into my laptop, and got to work. Still very challenging, but I was happy with some progress here and there.

Clearly, I did not enjoy my first workout after Saturday night's Bad Band session (if you don't know about Bad Band, count yourself lucky).

Day 12: Legs & Back and Abs. Not so terrible if I had been better rested. I do assure you that one-legged wall squats are more torturous than reading this or looking at picture after picture of me sweaty and miserable. I find myself getting better at the abs workout and enjoying a fair amount of it, but I HATE the very last exercise (Mason Twists I think they're called). It might not be so bad if it was the first one, but after 15 minutes of other ab stuff, it is KILLER. To make matters worse, I forgot about it this time and thought I was done after the leg climbs. I should have snapped a picture of my crushed spirit when stupid-face Tony Horton reminded me that not only was I not done, but that possibly my least favorite minute of the entire P90X experience (to date) was still ahead. Stupid Tony Horton.

Not much to say here. Tired and sweaty, but glad Day 13 wasn't Plyometrics.

Day 13: Cardio. Still no Kenpo DVD, so I subbed in Cardio again. I found out another friend of mine has the Kenpo DVD, so hopefully I'll see one of the two again soon and give it a shot. In the meantime, cardio is a welcome "break" only because it's 10 or 15 minutes shorter than everything else (30 shorter than days that include abs). The variety of activity wasn't as novel this time, but I did get better at it and I was thrilled to not be doing abs afterwards.

Knockin' back a few Auntie Js and watchin' some "Glee" as I rested on Day 14...I mean 12...I mean 14.

Day 14: Rest. I'm really getting the hang of this "rest" day. I could get used to this. Okay, so I really rested on Day 12, bumped everything up in the schedule, and took this picture today, but you get the idea.

Two down, eleven to go. Week Three started today. Stay tuned for another update very soon. And hopefully some topics besides P90X will find their way between the pictures of me sweating in different shirts in different corners of my living room.