Wouldn't You Rather?

Ugh. This week has been so frustrating. The X is literally taking up all of my time. I work 9 AM to 7 PM Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday-which means on those days I come home, pop in the dvd, workout, and don't get to relax until I'm done at 9:30 or 10:00. I hadn't been sleeping that well and finally figured out it's because my adrenaline is going beserk until 11 or 11:30-which makes getting up any earlier than 7 very very difficult (plus, let's face it, I'm not a morning person anyway). Blake keeps telling me that the first two weeks are the hardest. I believe him. I just keep waiting for him to say, I meant the first 2 months were the hardest.

Okay, if I'm going to be really honest...

I hate the diet. Who thought that too much meat would be a bad thing? After two weeks of almost nothing but, I would kill for a Krispy Kreme...or biscuits and gravy...or french fries (ooo, french fries). Every trip to the grocery store is torture. In order to buy my whole wheat bagels I have to walk past the cookies. Low fat cheese is right next to the forbidden cream cheese, and my french vanilla creamer sits on the bottom shelf of my fridge patiently waiting to fulfill it's destiny of turning my morning coffee into creamy latte goodness. Every morning I have to ignore it's pitiful stare as I reach instead for the skim milk. Oh sigh.

No wonder people on a diet are always so cranky.

Every night I drive home, wondering, "Why oh why did I decide to do this?" Every night my reason walks through the door and wraps me in his arms and inspires me to be the best me I can be, in every way possible.

Just don't ask me to choose between him and a Krispy Creme for another 88 days.

The X Day 4 is 90 minutes of Yoga, much of which I had to modify or skip all together seeing as how my legs were still mostly jello. The last 45 minutes is almost all stretching, and the next day it paid off. I was able to get out of bed and walk to the bathroom without groaning, cursing, or clutching on to furniture or walls for support.
Day 5 consisted of Leg and Back exercises, which I also made it through pretty well. I skipped the Ab Ripper video all together this day since I was past the point of exhaustion. All this protein is great for the fat burning, but man the lack of carbs is killing my energy. I dream about bagels and warm rolls with butter and potatoes of every kind at night. Sigh.

Day 6-Kenpo. This was by far the most fun. Kenpo is a little like Tai-Bo, but of course it has a Tony Horton twist. It's a lot of self-defense moves "aerobicized". Though easier that the Plyometrics, it is still NOT for the fainthearted. I made it through pretending alternately that I was either The Bride from Kill Bill or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I ninja'd the crap out of my living room.

AND BREATHE-Day 7, the stretch video!!! Blake and I skipped today all together in favor of a little down time. We spent a good deal of the afternoon cooking meals for the next week together. I've never been much for having a partner in the kitchen, but I loved having him there with me. It made the prep time go by so fast, and it made it seem less like we were cooking healthy meals and more like we were on a date. It helps that I'm head over heels in love with the guy.

In other news, I will be going in for a CAT scan on Wednesday-I've been having weird recurring UTI symptoms and the doctor is pretty sure I have kidney stones, but wants a scan to confirm. There are several other possible diagnoses and of course they want to rule out anything that might be more threatening. More updates on this as I get them =D

OH, and I do have a life outside of P90, and you will get to hear about it tomorrow since the workouts are all the same for the next 3 weeks. And, as I keep promising (even though I have yet to deliver) I WILL be posting pictures. Til then, my friends... :)

Nikki's Chicken Meatballs

A few notes and disclaimers:

I am an "eye-ball it" kind of cook, which means I don't measure a whole lot. The only thing I measured in the recipe below was the chicken (portions are everything on the P90X diet). Feel free to adjust the seasonings according to your taste.

I sauteed my meatballs in fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth since I'm fat restricted (this is a useful tip from the P90X nutrition book), but given the choice I probably would have used a little olive oil instead. However, the chicken broth reduced down to a nice glaze-y sauce that is delicious with the meatballs and kept them from drying out, so just beware of this if you decide to go with a more traditional sauteeing method. These can also be baked, but you probably won't get the crusty golden outside that sauteeing gives.

Ground chicken is not as lean as ground turkey (11 grams per 1 lb. vs 4 or 5 for turkey) so if you are severly fat restricted I suggest substituting the turkey (although the meatballs will be considerably drier). I plan on trying these with ground turkey in the near future. I also plan on trying to make my own ground chicken as it has been impossible for us to find a low-fat, white meat only variety in any of our stores.

Finally, DO NOT add any more salt than I have listed here. The chicken broth, though reduced in sodium, still has a considerable amount and when reduced will become saltier. Trust me on this one!

Nikki's Chicken Meatballs

6 oz. ground chicken

1 small garlic clove (I actually just used half a medium sized clove)

pinch kosher salt

1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

1/2 tsp. thyme

5 grinds pepper (I used McCormick's Tellicherry Pepper Blend)

1/2 cup Fat-Free, Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth

Finely mince the garlic clove, sprinkle with pinch salt. Continue to mince and smoosh (that's my technical term ;) basically just rub the knife over it) until a paste forms. (This step is not necessary but does allow the garlic to completely melt into the meatball so you end up with essence of garlic, not vampire-killer breath). In a bowl mix together the chicken, garlic, and other flavorings.

Heat a medium sautee pan over medium high heat. When a few tablespoons of chicken broth bubble in the pan it is hot enough. Divide the chicken into 4 golfball size balls and place in pan (NOTE: the chicken will be sticky and may not hold the ball shape well, but it will not fall apart in the pan. Once it begins to cook it will firm up and you can shape easier if you care about that kind of stuff.) Sautee meatballs on each side until cooked through (about 15 minutes). You will need to continue to add chicken broth a few tablespoons at a time as the broth reduces and becomes dark. To get maximum browning on the meatballs move them as little as possible and only add enough broth to keep the pan and the drippings from burning. Once the meatballs are cooked through, and the remaining chicken broth and reduce for another five minutes until a glazed sauce forms. Serve.

***I made garlic bread to go with this from a whole wheat English Muffin toasted with 1 teaspoon olive oil (optional), garlic salt, and .5 oz Parmesan cheese. It was delicious.

Exercise and Meatballs CAN Go Together

Day 2 of The X is, if anything, WORSE than Day 1. I was actually kind of excited about this video. It's called Plyometrics, which doesn't sound too threatening, and the opening of the video makes it sound like aerobics kicked up a bit. IT'S A LIE. I barely made it through the warm up-not kidding-and after jumping non-stop for 30 minutes I had to give up. Well, to be fair I didn't so much give up as look down at my shaking thighs and say "Jump, damn it, jump" and they just looked back at me, quivering, and said "Screw you lady."

Day 3 also happens to be my day off work, so I had every intention of getting up early, plunging headfirst into the video, and spending the rest of the day congratulating myself. Ah, well, as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. My good intentions went down that proverbial path when I didn't wake up until 9 AM-and was still exhausted. After 3 hours of washing dishes, vacuuming, dusting, laundry, and other household chores I've been putting off, I was starving. Which meant another 2 hours of cooking and dishes (luckily this means I have enough food cooked for the next 3 days =) all portioned out and everything!).

Then I took a nap. Naptime is highly underrated and should be a national past time.

The X Day 3 is Arms and Shoulders-it's all resistance work with either weights or resistance bands. I opted for the bands. Finally a workout I could do and enjoy! I made it all the way through, stopping only a few times to figure out how to do an exercise rather than to catch my breath. I even made it through the 20 minute Ab Ripper video, although I only did half the reps the robots Tony Horton hired for his video did. Still, VICTORY! and a much needed shot of confidence.

I rewarded myself for a productive day with some Wii time. Just me and my Wii. Somedays that's all a girl needs.

My fabulous lunch, by the way, consisted of chicken meatballs and garlic bread-all made from Tony Horton approved foods. Let me tell ya, nothing goes better with a diet than a plateful of meatballs! I'll be posting the recipe for any interested. This is a recipe I'll definitely be using even when the diet is over. Look for updates tomorrow on The X Day 4-Yoga...for 90 minutes. Oh man, I'm already tired....

The X, Day 1

This is not going to be easy.

Day One video is arms, chest, and back. We will achieve aaammaaazing results with an hour's worth of chin-ups and push-ups (nightmare flashbacks to third grade PE...I couldn't even do one chin up then!). I thought the hardest part of all this was going to be the diet...but really, how hard is it to eat lots of chicken and steak? Not as hard as doing push-ups with your feet propped up on the seat of a chair, that's for sure.

I would have been fine if that's where it ended. As Tony Horton congratulated the incredibly buff men and women who spent the last hour doing 10 pushups for every ONE that I did (and making it look easy to boot), I grunted and lifted my poor body off the carpet and into the kitchen for a drink of water. Which is when the second half of the DVD started.

Oh, yeah, small note to all future P90X-ers: Every day of resistance training is followed with 30 minutes of abdominal work.

I cried.

Then I got out my yoga mat and proceeded to do the fanciest crunches and leg lifts known to man (pausing the dvd every 30 seconds to catch my breath), and finally with 7 minutes and 28 seconds left to go my body literally gave out. I couldn't move my head, my arms, my legs-I could barely blink. The only reason I finally moved was because I thought I might actually vomit the 25 pounds of protein I ate during the day*.

*This is a small exaggeration. It was only 15 ounces. But felt like a million.

On the plus side, I slept great. On my bed that I hadn't made yet, wrapped up in dirty sheets and no pillow cases. But who's counting. I'm not, I made it to Day 2 =)

The Challenge

Blake has been on a body image mission for as long as I've known him, and his latest attempt at a Hugh Jackman-like physique is the purchase of the P90X system. For those of you who are not familiar with this, it is an INTENSE workout regime based on the idea of muscle confusion. You work out 6 days a week (with an optional 7th day stretch video) for 90 days. You also follow a strict diet set up to boost your fat burning and muscle building. Then, in 90 days, you look like this:

BEFORE

AFTER

Looks impressive, right? And totally fake. Until you look on YouTube. Just Google P90X testimonials. I did, and that's when I decided to give it a try too.

Blake realized that he wasn't following the diet properly, so after his first 45 days he decided to rest a week and join me when I started (which was today). My girlfriend Courteney at work is also starting with her boyfriend today. We're all nuts, I agree.

On the other hand, I've learned a lot about healthy cooking and planning ahead in the last 72 hours as I prepared for this program, and I thought it would be useful for both me and anyone who reads this to see how it goes. So look here for pics (you WILL NOT be seeing my before pics until I start seeing results), recipes that are good enough for everyday eating (not just when you're dieting!), and useful tricks I find for helping plan meals ahead.

And with any luck you'll get some updates on my life too ;)