P90X, Day 25: X Stretch

I stretched this morning. Okay, this video is an hour, and I don't get how you can stretch for a full freaking hour. I stopped after 0:35; I would start complaining to myself about Yoga after about 5 minutes but the stretching one wasn't as bad. But omg -- Tony is SO pervy. The Dreya arm stretch or whatever is, first of all, completely useless for me, and second of all, having everyone stick his/her arms out in front and "imagine squeezing something"??? Ew. I was unable to do the stretch where you lie on your neck with your legs in the air; the farthest I can go is my upper back. My neck does not bend down that far!

Ok, work time. been very busy lately. and sleepy...

Food.

food today: banana, 42g protein smoothie, nuts, apple, gazpacho soup, raw salad, banana w/ peanut butter, tofu, meatless meatballs, veggie juice. stayed away from the chocolate layer cake. also decided to include veggie juice in this list from now on. today i ate, drank, and slurped a lot of vegetables. yummers.

so, since i started needing to be at work at 9AM, my schedule has been:

5AM wake up
5:15 or so get out of bed
5:30 or so start working out after brushing my teeth and throwing water onto my face
6:30 finish working out (this will be a problem after I get to 1.5-hr long workouts); make protein smoothie
7 get in shower, clothes, make up, hair
8:00-8:15 drive to work
9 get to work
6-7 leave work
6:45-8 get home, make veggie juice, eat something
10 bed

areas that need improvement: I NEED TO BE IN BED BY 9. like 0:45 ago. I need to get out of bed and working out more quickly so I won't be late to work next week when I have 1.5-hr long workouts.

i know this started off as an exercise blog, but that morphed into an overall health blog, and i started writing about food on here, and i found out exactly what i've been eating that's been causing my acne, so in a roundabout way the relationship between food and acne fits on this blog. since I should have been in bed 0:45 ago, the quick run down of food to acne is as follows:

1. foods that break down into glucose (including glucose itself, duh) will cause your pancreas to release insulin to stabilize your blood sugar.
2. the fast release of insulin causes an increase in androgens. (also it causes an increase in serotonin in your brain, which is what the "sugar crash" is.)
3. increase in androgens means more sebum excreted through your facial pores.
4. hello acne.

well, that's the thought behind it. it's obviously not agreed upon everyone yet. i just hate people who say diet and acne aren't related. they say acne is caused by hormones. well what causes changes in hormones?!??! gee, i wonder. FOOD, maybe!? anyway, this completely explains why my low-refined-carb diet is clearing up my skin; i thought it was just the sugar i was refraining from that made my skin clear up, but i think it's all of it: eggs, dairy, carbs (including the sugar). processed foods in general. i just need to eat food that is low on the glycemic index. it's been two days strong.

i am so, so, so excited to have clear skin. and abs. but really, clear skin. that is my motivator.

P90X, Day 24: Kenpo X

This morning I felt much better than yesterday. No headaches. I had a hard time balancing though; I don't remember toppling over this much. And I'm wondering if my back kicks are side kicks... however, I have finally gotten the hang of Star Punches. Anyway, nothing much new here, tomorrow is stretching and then Kenpo again on friday.

Hmm what I ate yesterday was in last night's post... It definitely gets easier to refrain from the food you want after time. Cravings are also easier to handle after the initial transition. I've been off eggs and dairy and I've been minimizing my refined carbs (especially sugar) close to nil except for two occasions in the past two weeks with the last week being more strict and where I want to be for the rest of my life. I still want sweets after lunch, but I don't keep any sweets at work and the sweets that ARE at work have milk in them. OH, that reminds me -- I haven't updated you guys on what I've found out with regards to refined carbohydrates and acne. I'll update you later when I can type with 10 fingers (as opposed to just one on my phone), but the short story is that it looks like I have another motivator to continue eating only fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans tofu, and air.

Food Today

I was really good today. Banana w/ pb, 42g protein smoothie, baked tofu in tomato sauce, another banana w/ pb, asian pear, nuts, raw vegetables in hummus, veggie juice, TJ's meatless meatballs. ~75g protein, no refined carbs, no refined sugars.

P90X, Day 23: Core Synergistics

Omg. Fuck rest week. This shit was freakin hard. I was feeling off this morning, though; got headaches at times. Disappointed that I wasn't able to push myself as hard as I would like. I am chugging water today because I am wondering if I didn't have enough water yesterday. Also I need a lot more sleep.

Core Synergistics was a lot of hard moves. And moves that require more space. Banana Rolls (not sushi rolls. ew) were so eloquently explained by Meg, so I shall save myself the time and copy and paste what she wrote:

you're curved like a banana - so lying on your stomach with arms+legs back to ceiling, then on left side with arms+legs to the right towards the ceiling, then on back with arms+legs forward towards the ceiling, and then on right side with arms+legs left towards the ceiling.....repeat....

And then there were the Banana Rolls where you just go straight from back to stomach. Superman Rolls? Or something. I have a hard time getting from my stomach to my back; I found myself pushing off with my arms for a bit. Dreya rolls weren't as hard as they looked although I'm probably not getting high enough: stand at the front of your mat, sit down on your butt with your hands in the air and roll back onto your neck and reach your legs toward the ceiling. Then come back up without using your hands. I found that Dreya (who I love, btw) kept her legs together the entire time whereas I kept my legs apart a bit to stand up. And anywhere where there were push ups... heck no. These parts were reminiscent of Insanity but I did some. Not as much as I should have. "Luckily" I'll get a second chance later this week...

P90X, Day 22: Yoga X

Skipped rest day, and went straight to Yoga. Woke up at 5, got up at 5:15, brushed my teeth and suddenly it was 5:30. Did 0:15 of yoga, got hungry, cut and ate a mango for 0:15 while the yoga dvd played, got back and did 0:30. The 0:15 I missed was all of the repetitive Warrior poses and when I got back I did 2 chair poses (it is really hard to keep your arms straight! I keep feeling like my shoulders aren't relaxed enough). Oh, and I can NEVER EVER get my foot to where my hands are when I go from plank to downward dog to runner's pose. I don't get how others do it. Like I don't even think I'm getting better at it. My foot reaches the same plane as my mid-torso at best and then I have to walk my foot up. Anyway, after the 2 chair poses were balance poses. I am better at balancing on my left foot than on my right foot which kind of surprised me. I toppled a few times, but whatevs, I'll get better. When Tony started talking about the crane pose, he kept saying don't land on your face and to put a pillow to where your face would be. Gosh, that wasn't intimidating! Then I saw that it's the pose where you put both hands on the ground and your knees onto the upper parts of your arms and keep your feet up. I put a big folded up quilt where my head would fall and tried to get up, but I couldn't. I couldn't even get one leg up. It was so awkward and it hurt because I was experiencing skin burn. I want to do it though! It looks cool.  By then it was 6:30 and I had to get ready: made protein smoothie, showered, put on make up etc and left by 8:05, awesomely got here at 9. I will consider today a success if I end up making veggie juice at night. A potential downside though (that I really shouldn't complain about) is my pants fitting badly. My hips are quite sizable, so I can't fit into anything smaller than a 4. However, with my size that my waist is, proportionally,... it's hard to explain but I've found my second pair of pants that fit funny in front of the crotch. Or maybe it always did this but I just noticed? There is just.. it folds over funny. Extra space there (and yes I'm sure I'm wearing jeans for women!) which results from a not-tight-enough waistband. And this is with my jeans that are my size; the jeans that I bought a size too large has this problem too. So, if anyone has any tips for where large-hipped-but-not-fat women shop, please pass the word...

P90X, Days 19 & 20: Kenpo and Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X

Remember last week when I wanted to kick the person who decided to have Kenpo after Legs? Since I switched things up this week, I did Kenpo after I did Shoulders & Arms, and now I want to punch the same person. My arms were tired during Kenpo but my legs were fine! About 6 minutes into Kenpo I got some work e-mails and then resumed Kenpo a few hours later at Armando's. It was risky because I was afraid I wouldn't work out again after I stopped, but thankfully, I did.

Today I did Legs & Back and Ab Ripper X. I really pushed myself on Ab Ripper X. I was hurting! Oh the pain involved in obtaining a hot bod.

Food-wise, yesterday I ate a mango, much craved Veggie Grill (bayou chicken on a bed of kale + swt potato fries), Yogurtland, tofu and black beans on tofu yam noodles. Oh and another mango. OMG -- I finally picked up these tofu yam noodles. I really wanted them because they have 3g carbs for half a pkg. (The yam isn't the sweet potato yam. I think the yam starch is part of the root or something.. totally not the yam potato.) They kind of taste like nothing but act like a great starchy carb. I will get more!! Today is Mother's Day and I had four small squares of chocolate cake. I also had a mango (my mom just bought a ton of mangoes and they're ALL ripe now), 30g protein smoothie, 6 veggie meatballs, tofu and salad.

On the low-carb no dairy or eggs note, my skin's cleared up a ton. I think I need to eat like this permanently for my skin to clear up permanently. Just gotta cut the crap. Very little refined sugar, refined starchy carbs, eggs, and dairy in my diet. I can't do any more of this "my skin is bad so I'm going to cut out eggs and dairy." That just sets my body off on swings which is less than enjoyable, and then I'm grumpy and crave-y for the initial period of the transition. I'm happy I live in Los Angeles where eating the way I eat is doable.

Tomorrow is Recovery Week. I've gotten into the groove of things. With my new work schedule, I have had to work out super early, make protein smoothie, and try to make juice at night. I haven't succeeded in making juice at night yet, but I need to do it for my skin's sake.