My First Week of P90X

As you may know, last week I committed to the very strict diet and exercise routine called P90X. The most asked question has been "Why are you doing this? You're already slim!" Please allow me to give you a small window into my reality. I am a workaholic. One cat. No kids and my hobbies would probably also be classified as work. What this means is that for 15+ hours every day, I am sitting in front of a computer. I'm either sitting on a couch or a lazy boy chair or at a desk on a pilates ball (yes, I have a ball chair). Mostly I am on the ball chair.

After years of crazy long hours sitting in one position and not moving much more than my fingers and hands... I have developed a case of postural scoliosis. This means that my back is starting to curve unnaturally and my bones are starting to pinch some of the nerves that run down my arms and into my hands. It's very painful and sometimes I can't sleep.

My initial remedy was to see a chiropractor and physical therapist regularly (meaning at least once a month if not every other week). $7,000,000 later I have the same issues, the same pain (but man... those massages can not be beat!). What else could I do except change my lifestyle. Change myself and change the reason this pain exists in the first place. One way to reverse postural scoliosis is by practicing good posture and exercise. Like standing up when I work on a computer. Move around. Dance! Move those bones. Move those muscles.

The first step of this healing process was to move out of the frigid Chicago and into an environment that would allow me to get outdoors more often and move around. The warmth of Southern California has also allowed me to stop tensing all my muscles from shivering and being cold all the time. I can feel my fingertips! heh

Anyway, back to My First Week of P90X. I actually only did 4 days last week and decided that the weight training days are not for me. I already have toned arms and shoulders from throwing logs into the basement from outside for our wood burning stove. . .

I decided that I will benefit best from doing the martial arts, the yoga and the cardio. During my first week of exercising, I was very very very wussy. Intentionally. When P90X asked me to do 15 pull ups and 15 push ups... I did 3 of each. Woot! On off days, I try to swim for 30-45 minutes. The point is that I am doing something for at least one hour every day. Believe me - something is better than nothing when it comes to diet and exercise.

The hardest and most enlightening part of this process has been the diet. The reason I am thin in the first place is due to poor nutrition growing up. I was raised by a single mom and I have three brothers. Sometimes the five of us shared a frozen pizza for dinner. Ok - a lot of the time. (I feel like today I could eat an entire frozen pizza by myself!) Once I was removed from that situation and able to buy my own food, I started eating anything and everything - never thinking once about what it would do to my body. Fortunately, it didn't do too much damage. I think that is because portion control has never been a problem for me (again, raised eating very small portions). I have come a long way regarding nutrition and considered myself to be quite a health nut for the past 10 years or so. I rarely eat meat and prefer nuts, fruits, veggies and bread.

But... the P90X diet suggests that I cut out carbs and eat a LOT of protein. This was really the true test for me. Live without bread? Survive without sugar?! Eat a lot of meat?! Well... I did very well for my first week. And I think I even lost a little fat on my rump and thighs. The real winning moment was last Saturday when someone brought a box of donuts to the table. I could not resist. I wanted all of them. I was staring at them like it was the last food on the planet and I was ready to fight for every last crumb. Seriously. I'm not joking.

But that would be very rude. So, I picked one donut. I broke it in half because I had intentions of eating another one and didn't want to look like a pig. I took one bite of that glazed blueberry donut and .... my body said "um... that's enough." And then I didn't want it anymore. I gave the rest of the half of the glazed blueberry donut to my husband. I am still puzzled by what happened. Where did that urge go? What happened to my craving for sugar and bread?

I will never look at a glazed blueberry donut the same again.