Epic fail and a reboot

So yet again, it all went wrong at the weekend and I have come to a couple of realisations.

One, that I am starting to hate P90X, which is down to me not committing and having to restart over and over.

Two, that the P90X workouts that I really enjoy are the heavy cardio workouts. Plyo and Kenpo.

So I am going to try Insanity. We already have it in the house (my husband takes it with him to workout whilst travelling) so no outlay.

I think it will work well, shorter workouts, more cardio and a shorter overall programme. And I am not too worried about putting on muscle as I think (underneath an obscuring layer) I have a pretty good set of muscles.

Plus, I don’t have to start the week in hope only to end in despair.

So basically this is going to become a Insanity blog instead.

It’s on!

Day 5

Workout : Day Off

Yeah, the best laid plans…etc. On occasion, I become insomnia’s plaything and unfortunately Thursday night was one of those nights. When it is really bad, I can barely drag my shambling corpse through the day. Which was today. So no workout.

My challenge now is to make sure that the day doesn’t become a permanent break. So I am going to try and get my shit together tomorrow.

I am not going to track food today either as it seems redundant if I am not doing the workout.

See you tomorrow.

Day 5

Workout : Day Off

Yeah, the best laid plans…etc. On occasion, I become insomnia’s plaything and unfortunately Thursday night was one of those nights. When it is really bad, I can barely drag my shambling corpse through the day. Which was today. So no workout.

My challenge now is to make sure that the day doesn’t become a permanent break. So I am going to try and get my shit together tomorrow.

I am not going to track food today either as it seems redundant if I am not doing the workout.

See you tomorrow.

Day 4

Workout : Yoga, Calories burnt : 270, start time : 4pm

Every time I have done the yoga workout before, I have hated it. Mostly because I find to very difficult as I am not flexible in the least. This time though, I approached it with a “Do your
Best and forget the Rest” attitude and it was much better. As the heart rate doesn’t go up as high as some of the others, I suspect that my calorie burn was higher than this but who cares.

Food

Breakfast

Beans on toast, a British classic

2 Slices of Wholemeal toast

2 Tsp of Vitalite margarine

1 Can of beans (yes a whole one!)

Big pinch of Nutritional Yeast

See, I do have something other than a smoothie for breakfast sometimes. Actually, I was at home this morning so it was easier to organise something more involved.

Lunch

A big arse salad (for reduction of said big arse). This has lettuce, carrots, canned artichokes, courgettes and tomatoes. It is topped with Vegan Brunch Tempeh Bacon and Appetite for Reduction Balsamic Vinaigrette made with white balsamic vinegar. Generally, I grill (broil, for my viewers in the colonies) the bacon even when I am not worried about the calories as it gives a slightly more charred edge. 6 oz of tempeh bacon on the salad, fact fans.

On a side note about salads. When prepping a main meal salad, load that swine with veg. If you are chopping and think to yourself ‘Holy Fuck, this is a lot of veg’ then you are on the right track. Also, don’t skimp on the dressing. Yes, you might want to avoid covering the whole thing in oil like it was on the beach at St Tropez but you can find plenty of low fat dressing recipes around. If you skimp on the dressing having loaded the veg, you will succumb to lettuce ennui before you are even half finished!

Dinner

Leftovers of the Mac and Cheese from yesterday so no pic.

Snacks

Recovery drink as detailed before. Not because I really needed it but to keep me going before dinner. Plus a nectarine and some watermelon.

Food stats(from Sparkpeople) Cals: 1680, Carbs: 253 grams, Fat: 49 grams, Protein: 87 grams

Lower protein today (because breakfast was more carby than the rest of the week) but as I was doing Yoga today, I am not worried about it.

Day 3

Workout : Arms + Ab Ripper, Calories burnt : 380, start time : 6:30am

So something I have noticed is that some workouts use a chair for certain exercises and generally exercises using chairs are my nemesis. This one has Tricep Dips, Plyo has Swing Kicks and Chest and Back has Decline Pushups. The latter hurts my back so I don’t even attempt it.

Anyway, nemesis vanquished as I did the workout, rather than skiving! One thing I do notice on this workout is that I never burn as many calories as the others, I think because I am using smaller muscles.

Confession time, I fucking hate Ab Ripper. So much so that each time I do it, I think about having liposculpture like Darryn Lyons but eyes on the prize and all that, one day you will be able to bounce a pound coin on my stomach!

I modify Pulse Ups and Heels to Heaven as they make my lower back sore, so I just do a normal crunch. Still, it is done for today.

Food

Recovery Drink

I have taken this directly from the P90X Vegan Newsletter, apple juice and protein powder. Holland and Barrett Delicious Natural flavour! I take this directly after a workout. Always after a weights workout and sometimes Plyo if I have a good calorie burn.

Breakfast

Another smoothie. I swear I do eat other things for breakfast but this week has been hectic and a smoothie is quick. This one is made with:

1 Cup of strawberries

1 Cup frozen blueberries

1 Cup hazelnut milk

0.5 Cup water

Full scoop of Chocolate protein powder

Sometimes I can deal with bananas in a smoothie and sometimes they make me bring my hoop up. This was one of those days so no banana.

On occasion, I have found that a smoothie can quickly turn on you and bite you in the arse. Sadly this was one of those times. By time I got to work, it had changed from a delicious high protein breakfast into a colloidal nightmare and had set into the least appetising texture possible. I assume it is to do with the temperature and pectin content of the fruit. All I know is that my breakfast was minging!

I did drink it, because I had no options but it was not pleasant. Like Ab Ripper for the mouth!

Lunch

Same salad as before. New meals coming soon. Please check back often.

Snacks

An apple again and

1 oz almonds

2 oz pumpkin seeds

I sometimes toast the pumpkin seeds first in a dry pan but this is a lazy, lazy week.

Dinner

Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Sunflower Mac with extra asparagus as I love a green vegetable with mac and cheese.

With extra Franks Hot Sauce. As an aside, I have to tell you how amazingly delicious this is. Go make it now. Watermelon for dessert but I am sure you can cope without pics of that.

A pretty good day all told. Back tomorrow.

Food stats(from Sparkpeople) Cals: 1864, Carbs: 227 grams, Fat: 70 grams, Protein: 124 grams

Day 2

Workout : Day off

Stop rolling your eyes. No really, stop. Don’t make me come over there!

The simple truth is that I had always planned for today to be a rest day. I have an early start and late finish at work and short of getting up at 4:30am (NO!), I do not have time for a workout today. But I will be back with a proper workout tomorrow.

Food

Pretty much the same as yesterday. My smoothie was made using 1 Cup of fresh strawberries instead of frozen blueberries which gives it an appealing Elastoplast pink colour.

Everything else was the same apart from not eating watermelon for dessert. This gives me a fairly sensible calorie deficit without being hungry even on a day with no work out.

Food stats(from Sparkpeople) Cals: 1782, Carbs: 224 grams, Fat: 57 grams, Protein: 129 grams

Back tomorrow with real workout stories!

Day 1

Workout : Kenpo, Calories burnt : 560, start time 6:30am

As you know from my intro, I have started P90X approximately 4 billion times and I could not face the thought of another Monday morning doing Chest and Back before giving up again midweek.

I really dislike Chest and Back, probably because I cannot do a single chairless pull-up and also I always start with good intentions and have done that workout more than any other. I have done it so often that on a recent trip to Berlin, every time I saw “German Potato Soup” on a menu, I heard it in Tony Horton’s voice.

So in an effort to start well and not want to stick my head in the oven when it gets to “Heart to Hearts”, I started with Kenpo X.

This is my favourite workout of them all, I think because you never do anything long enough to get bored. If you are finding things tough or hate the first workout, I recommend switching them round.

Anyway, this worked out really well. I did the whole thing and as you can see (I wear a heart monitor as recommended), I did pretty well on the calories!

I actually feel good right now. Will see how I feel by the end of the day.

Food

Apologies for the craptacular iPad photos, I only thought of doing this blog this morning in the shower and wasn’t really set up for a photoshoot.

Breakfast

Most important meal of the day!

Smoothie made with:

1 Cup frozen blueberries

1 frozen banana (and then thawed before using, otherwise the smoothie is too thick

1 Cup hazelnut milk (you could use whatever you want)

0.5 Cup water

1 scoop Holland and Barrett soya protein powder, Delicious Chocolate flavour (erm…yes). To be fair this is fine used in a smoothie.

Now I usually find that after a workout I am not ready to do more than drink water. So I took this to work in a flask and had it at my desk.

Lunch

Mega Salad

Just a basic salad of lettuce, tomato, canned artichokes and courgette but topped with the Italian Sausage Patties from Julie Hasson’s book Vegan Diner.
They were baked with oil spray not fried to make them a bit lighter and it amounts to 7oz of seitan.
The salad was dressed with 1tbsp walnut oil and 2tbsp white balsamic.

Snacks

Make sure you have some snacks, otherwise you will get hungry mid afternoon. Today I have easy, easy things because I am lazy:

An apple, Braeburn I think!

1oz raw almonds

Clif Builder’s Bar Mint Choc. I know, best photo ever, right? These are American but I order them 24 at a time from Amazon. I tend not to eat dinner until 7pm and they are great for that 4:30pm pang.

Dinner

Cannelini bean and mustard tempeh stew from Carly Kelly’s Quick and Easy Vegan Slow Cooking. I like using the slow cooker not only because you get a cooked meal when you get in but also because you can usually cut the fat a little and not affect the recipe. And no, I am not fatphobic but I like to cut it a little when trying to P90X.

Served here with a cup of brown rice.

I had watermelon for dessert, which I forgot to take a picture to be honest. But you know what watermelon looks like.

Food stats (from Sparkpeople) Cals: 1907, Carbs: 253 grams, Fat: 58 grams, Protein: 131 grams

All in all a good start, see you tomorrow.

Introduction

Hello and welcome. Sit down and get a coffee.

Me, myself and I

A little about me first. My name is Mat and I am 40. For most of my adult life, I was in pretty good shape, not amazing but good enough to pose naked for an artist (no really, he used the painting in his degree show) and to take my top off in clubs (more because I get very warm dancing rather than as a mating ritual). Then I met my husband at the age of 28 and in the space of a year put on quite a lot of weight. For the usual reasons really, eating out more, drinking more, eating every Dorito in a 10 mile radius in a post-coital daze.

I have tried plenty of diets, Slimming World, Weight Watchers, you name it. But I always get too hungry and give up. I even went vegan to lose some weight (which didn’t happen but I did reconnect with the reasons I went vegetarian in the 80s). By the way, if you meet anyone who tells you that you can lose weight just by going vegan, I want you to laugh and then take a writing implement, pen, lipstick, eyebrow pencil, whatever and write NO! on their forehead. I am sure that you can lose weight going vegan but I am living proof that you can’t just expect it to happen.

Anyway, I know people who have had really good results on P90X and having seen an infomercial for it everyday I was in San Francisco, I decided to give it a go.

Why the blog?

Well really for 2 reasons (don’t you love a bullet list):

• Firstly, there are some really good resources for vegan P90Xers but they tend to be based in the US and whilst they give you the food plan, they don’t really translate into what you should actually do.
• Secondly, I will let you into a secret. I have started the first week of P90X more times then I care to think and usually give up by week 3 (I think I might have made it to week 4 once). So I am hoping the subtle pressure of reporting to the world at large (egomaniacal, moi?) will be enough to get me to “keep pushing play”

So that’s pretty much it. I will be detailing what I am eating, what workout I did and what calories I burnt. I am using Sparkpeople for nutritional tracking so I will give you the summary. I am not suggesting that I will stick completely to the diet but I am going to make sure to get enough protein. Remember I am UK based so some of the products may differ, but I do make most of own food so it shouldn’t be too tricky. Comments would be a joy!

Mat.

P.S. No pics of me, I am not ready for that yet! But hopefully a before and after section at the end.