"I'm Back Baby....I'm back"

10 paints if you can name the show that quote is from....

We woke up and did plyometrics. I had to pull Joe out of bed. He tried to use every excuse as to why we shouldn't work out. In the end, he was glad I made him wake up. Since we've officially entered the last phase, I expected things to be much easier. We've been getting up, working our butts off for 8 weeks. Why isn't this getting easier? More importantly, why don't we look more like the models on the Beachbody website?

Tomorrow is arms. I'm crossing my fingers we are able to get up. It's Claire's first night in a big girl bed. I'm guessing I have to get up two times in the middle of the night. I'm taking bets -- any takers on the under?

The title quote is from George on Seinfeld. (and for mom...click on Seinfeld and check out the video!)

Where have we been?

So, just because I haven't been posting it doesn't mean we haven't been working out. I have a six pack to prove it and Joe is down 20 lbs.






(Ha! Ha! I WISH! Did the fact the chest trying to pose as Joe was hairless give it away?) We really did all of phase II without much of a problem. It was week one of Phase III that made us total slackers. So much so that we are re-doing week 10. In our defense, this past month we've had to deal with allot of this:



Let's just say, there has been allot of illness going around with the kids. I blame my lack of postings on spending my evenings cleaning up barf or worse.... Here's hoping that we're back on track and can finish strong!

Phase II Has Begun

Today was the beginning of Phase II. We woke up and did chest, shoulders & triceps. Since it was the first time for us doing the work out, we both felt we didn't do a great job of pushing ourselves. We had to figure out the moves and by the time we did, it was time to move on. Tomorrow is plyometrics. I'm a little excited. I know the work out, and it's cardio based...more my style. I'd rather do cardio than upper body strength.

So in case you were wondering who got up to do Yoga...I'm proud to say it was me. I did it & it wasn't that bad. I think having to listen to Joe grunt through Yoga messes with my Chakras.


Another fun pic of Joe...taken while working his triceps. Don't be alarmed, the stains on the carpet next to him are not from him puking. If I were to bet, I'd say the stains were made by one of our wonderful offsping(s).

Slippery Slope

Sunday we were supposed to do the "stretch" work out. I thought we had a good chance of actually getting this work out in because there was no football on tv. Unfortunately, I didn't foresee all the other possible road blocks to working out. There was a sick child, a dinner invite complete with home made pasta and mounds of laundry. Whatever the excuse, we didn't get the work out in.

Monday morning, the alarm went off at 5:15 just as scheduled. Too bad our bodies weren't aware of the schedule. Our bodies chose to remain in the warm cozy bed instead of waking up to work it's core. I blame the fact I stayed up too late so I didn't want to get up. It most definitely wasn't because I hate the core work out and never want to do it again. Not sure of Joe's reason for staying in bed. When I said I wanted to sleep in, he was quick to agree.

Lucky for us, all was not lost. I decided to run on my lunch hour. I haven't run since I agreed to do 90 days of p90x with Joe. Running at lunch is so much more fun than core at 5:30 a.m! To my surprise, Joe was downstairs doing Core when I came home. So, we learned that we could sleep in and still work out. This may be the start of the proverbial slippery slope...

Tuesday morning, the alarm went off. 5:30 - Yoga time! One of us got out of bed and did the work out. Who do you think it was????

An Apology

After completing "Core" - I feel I owe Yoga an apology. Yoga is not that awful compared to Core. I might go as far as to say that Yoga is enjoyable in comparison. Joe doesn't agree with that statement- he hates both Core and Yoga. I think he hates all of this. His favorite part is the rest day and the fact he's actually losing weight. Although, we did Kenpo the day after Core and he kept saying how great he felt. I'm not sure which is more annoying, hearing him grunt and complain, or hearing him yell "I feel great" while humming the Rocky Theme song. No joke.

Picture below is Joe after feeling good completing the Kenpo workout.




Tomorrow is Core again. Let's hope it goes better than the first time.

Deep Medatative Yoga Poem

Yoga is done,
but it was not fun.

Tomorrow there's more-
It's called the "Core"

Core is something new
hope what I heard is not true.

Been told it's hard but to fear not,
Only after 4 kids, my core is shot.

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes,
for now, let's just remember that Yoga blows.

Phase I Complete

We did it! We officially completed Phase I of P90x. Three weeks of waking up early and working out. Twenty-one days of me yelling to Joe that he better get out of bed because this was his idea. Three weeks of putting up with Joe's early morning bad mood. Three weeks of limping around comparing notes of who is sore and where...

Speaking of sore- I can't believe that when I did Kenpo this morning, my legs were sore from the previous days work out. WHEN DOES THE SORENESS END???? Apparently I was mistaken when I thought after a few days, our bodies will adjust and it we wouldn't be sore. I guess I pushed myself harder than I thought during the Legs & Back work out on Monday.

I'm so excited to rest tomorrow and then enter 1 week of the "recovery and ab focus." I'm so pumped I looked to see what our next work out will be on Thursday. According to Tony, we're starting off with Yoga. ?&$##?? What the heck?? I think this is punishment since Yoga has been the only work out Joe and I consistently skipped. So now we get to spend our first day of "recovery" stretching our body into crazy positions for 1 1/2 hours. Obviously Tony and my definition of "recovery" are different. My idea of recovery is sitting with a Sam Adams eating a buffalo chicken pizza. Tree pose, frog pose and 5,000 downward dog poses should not be considered recovery.

Recovery=

NOT:

Livin' on a Prayer

Today was a slow go. It was hard for Joe and I to push ourselves. For some reason, we were both dragging. We woke up and did the work out - we just didn't kill ourselves doing it. You know Joe is dragging when Claire wakes up and Joe VOLUNTEERS to stop the work out to change her diaper. We need to step up our game for Kempo tomorrow. No more wimpy work outs. We need to turn this around!!

As I write this, Joe is sleeping on the sofa. He's been sleeping since 8:30!!! Surely he can't be so tired from this morning's workout?? Seeing him sleeping at 8:30 isn't as funny as it used to be for me. This means I had to put all the kids to sleep by myself. With no help. At all. Lucky for Joe I'm writing this while catching up on my DVR episodes of Oprah. In this episode, Bon Jovi is singing "Living on a Prayer" while in Australia...all is forgiven. Can't help but smile when I hear that song. Maybe with a little prayer- we'll be able to "bring it" tomorrow morning!

Oprah just mentioned Bon Jovi, at age 48, was named one of the sexiest men by People magazine. Hmmm. People magazine must not have seen my sexy husband asleep in the family room at 8:30. Bon Jovi's got nothin' on my man and I've got a picture to prove it...

Missing in Action

Where have we been? I can't believe so much time has passed since the last post. I'm happy to say that it's not because we haven't been working out. We've been consistent. We are consistently working out Monday - Saturday with a break on Sunday. The only problem is our off day is supposed to be Wed. So...we're taking both Wed. and Sunday off. We really intend to do yoga on Sunday- but family birthday's and football have come in the way. Damn those Jets.

I know you're all wondering...did Joe do better at plyometrics the third time around? You be the judge- here is the "after" picture. Better than the first after picture? I think so. At least- this time around, he didn't sound like he was dying. Just a few grunts. Another positive sign is that I didn't feel like I might need to call 9-1-1 for him afterwards.



On Saturday we had to work out separately due to our schedules. I wasn't there to witness Joe doing bi's tri's and shoulders- but the kids claim he did well. I had to dig deep and motivate myself to the work out without Joe on Sat. night. I did it- only because I had a great "stand in" partner. She was a real ball buster! She groaned less than Joe and had much more energy. She also used much less profanity. I think I might have to wake her up tomorrow at 5:15 to join us! Only 2 more work outs and we'll be done with week 3. Woot woot! What is it they say... 21 days of doing something and it becomes a habit? We'll see if that holds true.

Why it's worth getting up at 5:15

I can say I like getting up to work out because of the health benefits or because I like a challenge. Those reasons would be true, however, there is something even better. So far, the best reason to get out of bed is that I get to do this work out with Joe. Not because we get to be all sweet and lovey dovey in the morning but because I get to LMAO at with him. Today, the laughter came in the form of a "rip." Twenty minute into Legs & back I heard the unmistakable sound of pants ripping. Next, I heard Joe say, "I can't believe I ripped my pants." I can vouch that he did all his squats for the next 30 minutes because I had a nice hairy view!!! Tomorrow marks the last work out of week two. Hope we can continue at this pace...minus the pants ripping!
**Photo courtesy of "Photobucket"

There was vomit.

Unfortunately, my day of rest included getting the stomach flu. It wasn't as bad as the food poisoning in Vegas, so I survived with little trauma. Unfortunately, Frankie had it worse. Why am I explaining this? Well, I had to sit out Thursday's work out. Kudos to Joe for getting up and doing "Chest and Back." Although I didn't see him actually do it, I believe he did it because of the limited range of motion in his upper body. It appears he is still sore from the work out! I snapped a quick after picture as proof that he really worked out.

We got wild and crazy this Friday night and did plyometrics in the evening instead of the morning. Joe came home early and did it first, I did it later while he played with the kids. We both thought it was easier the second time around. I sent the kids down to harass him, and he still held up well.

I learned that I prefer to get up early and get it out of the way. Plus, as unbelievable as this sounds, I like doing it together with Joe. Not sure if it's his flying sweat or all his animal grunts, but I think I do better when I'm with him. I was kind of bored by myself. I guess I need that flaming red "Rocky" t-shirt next to me to push me!! (Notice his shirt in this post's picture)

Six in Six

Wow! We have officially completed six work outs in six days. Joe is more excited about tomorrow's day off than if the Browns won the super bowl! We're like God- we worked hard for 6 days and now- we get to rest!

Yesterday was legs & back - pretty uneventful. Although I didn't think yesterday was too difficult, it must have been because today we had a hard time getting out of bed. Lucky for us, Claire thought 5:15 was the perfect time to wake up and party. Good thing we had that 4th so she could wake us up at the crack of dawn. We had no choice but to do our "Kempo" work out with Claire by our side, cheering us on staring at us like we were crazy. I was a little concerned that Joe was going to accidentally "kung fu" kick her, but he did well controlling his flailing legs. Claire was a little concerned over why daddy was all wet and panting. A few times she laughed at him, thinking this was a funny game. Funny yes- but this is no game. It's P90X, BABY- WE DO OUR BEST AND FORGET THE REST!!! YEAH! WE'RE PUMPED! WE'RE BRAINWASHED! WE'RE INTO IT! (Or maybe not and I'm just as giddy as Joe that we have a day off tomorrow!!!)see ya later!!!

Namaste.

According to Yogajournal.com, "Namaste" means "I bow to you." Well, I bow to anyone who can complete the P90x yoga dvd and still walk normally. It's a whopping 1 1/2 hrs. A movie doesn't even hold my attention these days for 1 1/2 hrs! Besides it being long, it is pretty hard!

No joke, thirty minutes into it, sweat was flying off Joe and landing into my eye. I've known Joe for 20 years. I can honestly say, I never before heard him make some of the sounds that were coming out of him today. Between all the grunts, groaning and sweat flying around, you would have thought we were making an x-rated movie. I wish I would have remembered to grab my camera. Next time I need to document these poses. I don't think "Tony" ever officially told us to do the "middle finger to the t.v. pose"...but we mastered that one!

I thought I did well enough until I sat down about 1 hour after doing the video. I tried to get up but my body couldn't move. I was hungry and wanted to eat but I couldn't get up. I sat starving for about 30 minutes before I willed myself to walk over to the refrigerator. I wonder if that is part of the lose weight plan. After doing P90x, you're too sore to feed yourself, so you lose more lbs! I've actually been eating plenty, it's Joe who's been trying to limit himself. I may just shove a Big Mac down his throat tomorrow so he's not so hungry & crabby. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings...

Let's Play "Who Said it"

Ahhh...Saturday. The day most people choose to sleep in. We had a decision to make last night. Do we sleep in and try and do the next work out when the kids are awake, or do we get up earlier and do it while they are sleeping? Since 2 kids were up 6:30 we chose to do it while they were awake. We woke the oldest up to help watch the younger kids while we did shoulder's bi's and tri's. Compared to plyometrics, this wasn't so bad. Although, when I just asked Joe "Which DVD did we do today" he responded- "can't you tell by what muscles are sore!" I thought that was funny. Lately, I've been finding a lot of what he's saying funny. So, I thought it would be fun to play a game of "who said it." Below is a series of quotes that have been spoken in our house the last 3 days. Can you guess who said what?

"You're not allowed to be happy in the morning." (Joe to me while we're waking up.)
"Stop talking to me." (Joe to me as we're walking downstairs to begin the work out.)
"Shut up." (Joe while I tried to talk during our work out. Excuuuuse me if I can speak but he can't because he's too winded.)
"I'm so sore I can't sit down to take a dump." (Joe. Obviously.)
"Go upstairs and leave us alone." (Joe to the kids this morning. Poor kids just wanted to cheer him on.)
"I just made the kids oatmeal and cleaned up breakfast." (The oldest child basically telling her P90X obsessed parents that we are neglecting our children.)
"I don't want to do abs." (Me telling Joe that we should probably stop- I've had enough and the kids are getting restless.)
"Come on...let's do it!!" (Joe telling me we should do abs.)
"Mom, look at this picture I took of you today." (Frankie- showing me a picture of me doing abs while Joe is behind me sitting NOT doing abs!!!!) ....To his defense- he did really do abs...maybe he just stopped early. But you never know..
"How bad can Yoga be?" (Val...1 day before trying Yoga.)

Tomorrow is Yoga. I guess I'll find out how bad it can be. Hopefully I can survive enough to write about it and share a picture or two!

A picture is worth 1,000 words...

- This is Joe, after completing day 2: plymetrics. It was tough. But we were tougher. We finished it!!



What's the significance of this next picture you ask? It's only 9:00 on a Friday night & Joe is sound asleep! Claire tried screaming "Wake up" in his face and he didn't budge! Hope he makes it up for tomorrow mornings work out!

It's official...P90X training has begun!

5:30 a.m. hubby and I promptly go downstairs. Excitement and nerves are noticeable. We're excited at the thought of being in shape like the people on the dvd but nervous because of all the horror stories we've heard. I've been told we'll want to throw up, we'll be swearing at the T.V. and worst- we won't finish. The competitor in me swears that I'll finish. If I can survive a root canal and birth 4 kids, I can do P90x.

We start video #1: Upper body. Unfortunately, 34 minutes into it, I'm forced to stop because of two of those kids I birthed. One woke up screaming with a stomach ache. Her screaming woke another...both calling for me. My P90X for the morning is over. I'm so pissed that I woke up for nothing! My upper body workout now consists of carrying 60 lbs. of kids downstairs.

We go downstairs so they can "cheer on" their daddy. As we're cheering them on, I'm beginning to think the kids waking up was great luck on my part. We watch Joe do push ups & chin ups over and over again until he looks like he's going to pass out. Between the swearing and the looking like he's going to die, I begin to realize, this is not suitable for my girls to watch. We go upstairs and leave Joe to finish alone. He finally makes it upstairs, although I'm not sure how much more P90x he actually did after we left. For all I know, he could have been playing with the new zhu zhu pet house. After all, we did hear allot of weird noises coming from the basement.

My assessment of today is that this is no joke..it's tough stuff. But I'm hoping I'm tougher. Tomorrow is poly metrics. I'm not sure what this is...but Joe says he did it in football and he's scared. (He won't admit this...but I swear he's shitting himself just thinking about it.)

Joe's assessment of today: "It sucked. This sucks. I hate this." (By the way- this might be a good time to mention his new year's resolution is to be more positive. As you can see, He's doing so great with that!)

1 day down, 89 more to go!!

The Rocky Road...

I couldn't resist the Rocky pun in the title...on my hubby's quest to become ripped like Rocky, he encountered a "bump" on his path. You might say...his road was rocky. He gets points for waking up this morning, but due to a huge open sore on the back of his foot, he was unable to run. Apparently his new shoes need to be broken in a little more before he takes on his Rocky cardio training. If you know him, you know that this "Italian Stallion" loves Rocky. (He has a tomato red Rocky shirt that proves it!) I think I might have to switch up my role from Adrian to Mickey and get his ass to run through his blister pain. After all, wasn't Rocky's face beaten and bruised and he still went into the ring? ...cue the music...it's time to dig deep and motivate my man! Tomorrow is a new day!!

Preparation

Today marks the first day of "preparation" for the P90X challenge. Since P90X hasn't arrived in the mail yet, Joe thought it would be wise to get used to waking up early and exercising. The plan was for me to get up with him and watch him power walk run. I was going to catch up on some work while documenting his work out. Unfortunately, three different children decided to wake me up at three different times last night. Needless to say, when the alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. I chose to sleep a little longer! But not Joe! I am proud to say he actually woke up and ran for 40 minutes! (Although, it is unproven if he actually ran the whole time.) He followed up his virgin work out with some good ol' Fiber Bran cereal. Day 1...off to a good start!