I finally broke down and quit my second round of P90X last week. Round 2 was pretty bad overall and there were constantly factors getting in my way. The final straw was when I had a really painful mouth pain for several days. I had missed quite a few workouts beforehand but that made me miss enough to make me quit. My diet was also a major problem that I did not attempt to fix beforehand; my diet had not changed since after I finished round 1. I also think that I was eating a bit too much because I was concerned at some point that I wasn't eating enough.

There was some progress with this last attempt. Some of the more recent changes are that I am now almost at a 30 in. waist, I can almost do 8 bicep curls with 30 lb dumbbells, and my man bobbies seem like they are almost gone.

I will try to start a round 2.1 P90X run within the next month. This time around, I need to make a detailed game plan and be more diligent than I was during round 1.

Here is a link to my Flickr pics for round 2. Check for day fail pics for the most recent pictures. My attempts aren't a good indication of P90X can really do but I like my progress and there are things that I can do now that I have never been able to do.

http://flickr.com/photos/28691250@N04/sets/72157612158961029/

It is a bit early but I will post my week 7 update while I have the time. This week has been the worst of this entire round yet. I missed Yoga X and Legs and Back this week. I also didn't do a single session of Cardio X either. Things keep getting more chaotic and progress seems to be coming more slowly lately. Due to everything that has happened, I have had to make a difficult decision that I already regret. I will no longer be doing doubles during phase 3 of P90X this round. It is one thing that I can do to make sure that I don't stop P90X all together.

Next week is a recovery week so I might not even post an update next week unless something significant happens.

Nothing has really happened this last week. I am starting to lose my motivation to see this through. I feel that I have too much going on right now and I am not sure that I can keep this up. As far as progress goes, I took some measurements this last week and I have some decent improvements. My waist is now under 31 inches, both of my arms are at 13 inches, and my body fat percentage is below 9.6%.

My workouts have been about the same with some minor improvements. The main exception is that I am now a lot better at doing one arm push-ups. I admit that I am still doing them on my knees but I was able to significantly improve my rep count (from 6 in week 5 to 10 this last week) and I have gotten the form down so that I can keep myself balanced.

That is about it for this week.

I can't seem to find the time to update my progress on a weekly basis. Oh well. Anyway, week 4 was ok. I started eating more carbs mid-week and I did seem to get an energy boost afterwards.

Week 5 was the start of Phase 2 and the start of doubles sessions. Having to add a roughly 43 minute workout three times a week onto the normal P90X schedule was a problematic time commitment. I feel better for doing it though and it seems like I got more progress this last week than I have throughout the rest of this round so far. I have been sore throughout this last week and I have been getting more tone. I am changing my supplements around a little bit as well. I am now using a different multivitamin, specifically GNC Mega Men Sport, as opposed to using basically generic Target branded Men's One-A-Day; I wasn't really into taking supplements last round but I am getting more into trying out supplements this round.

There isn't much more progress to report on. I have my day 30 pics on my Flickr account but I don't know when I will have a video up.

http://flickr.com/photos/28691250@N04/sets/72157612158961029/

Things have not been going so well over the last couple of weeks. I missed one session of Legs and Back when plans changed at the last minute and I had the opportunity to go home for a while. I ended up going to a bar that night with my bro and sis so that really helped screw up my day. Also, I missed one session of Shoulders and Arms last week. That really ticked me off since I won't be doing that workout again until week 9 and also I wanted to up my weight on some of the exercises to 30 lbs. So far, I have missed a total of 3 workouts.

I am now making an effort to fix my schedule and plans things ahead more so I don't end up missing workouts. This whole problem started because I started P90X too early. I should have waited until I started school again and got adjusted to my school schedule before starting the second round of P90X. Anyway, I think that I might have gotten myself on a better schedule now. I am waking up earlier now which should help when I start doing Doubles next week. I should also say that I am just now starting to put more of a focus on my diet.

That is about all the time I have to write this post.

I won't have time to reflect on my week tomorrow since it will be the first day of classes for the Spring semester so I will reflect a little bit now. Last week started off great since my reps for "Chest and Back" and "Shoulders and Arms" were almost at what they were during my last week of round 1; Plyo kicked my butt worse than it has in a long time though. However, I missed Legs and Back on Friday and I couldn't really get myself into Kenpo on Saturday; I was too distracted on Saturday. X Stretch on Sunday was great. My body was sore most of the week but I am feeling fine today.

I have noticed some little differences in my body already. My gut has gotten slightly more defined. There is a little bit of vein action in my arms. I bet that there are some other things that I have changed that I haven't noticed yet.

That is about it for the update. There are a few other things I would like to bring up though. Unlike my last round, I will not be posting weekly tweeks on Twitter regarding my weight. I have pretty much lost as much weight as I want to lose so my current weight isn't that big of a deal to me this round. This time I will be focused on reducing my body fat percentage. I will post my progress regarding my body fat at the end of each phase. Also, I will try to get my round 2 day 1 video up soon.

Tomorrow will be the first day of my second round of P90X. In preparation, I did a warm-up workout with Cardio X on Saturday and I did the fit test today. The Yoga segment in Cardio X gave me more trouble this time than it did previously. I didn't really bring it during most Yoga X days last round but I will make more of an effort to really bring it during Yoga X in my second round.

Another thing that I will do differently this round is that I won't ignore X Stretch. During my first round, I took rest days on Sundays instead of doing X Stretch except for the Sunday before the Phase 3 recovery week; my Sundays were pretty much entirely consumed by Discrete Mathematics homework. I felt much less sore after doing X Stretch that night and the next morning than I would usually feel after a rest day. X Stretch is a critical part of P90X and I know that now. I will do X Stretch every Sunday during my second round even if other obstacles get in my way.

As far as the fit test goes, I didn't lose that much progress so I should be able to get back into the grove of things pretty quickly. The biggest drop was for the wall squat test. My day 91 round 1 time was 2 min. 20 sec. but my day 0 round 2 time was 1 min. 41 sec.. For most every other test, I was able to perform just about as well as I did for the day 91 round 1 fit test.

I really hope to have some great progress this round. I will likely write posts periodically about my round 2 experience. There will definitely be posts when I upload progress pictures and videos.

Tomorrow is going to be awesome. BRING IT!

As 2008 draws to a close, there is the typical reflecting on what I have done over the past year and what I can do to make things better for next year. This year hasn't been that bad for me. I have doing a lot better at school since transferring to Illinois State University; hell, I am considered an honor student now for some odd reason. I made a commitment to getting into shape midway through the year and I have lost 45 pounds overall; my weight has gone down from 195 lbs. to 150 lbs. I have even built a little bit of muscle in the process and I am probably stronger now than I have ever been. As a part of my fitness endeavor, I completed one round of P90X. There isn't that much more that has happened in 2008 but I am glad that I did accomplish something for once.

I am hoping for a great 2009. My first order of business is to complete a second round of P90X. I will be doing doubles for the second round and I will make more of an effort to bulk up rather than worry about losing weight. While I am doing P90X, I want to stay committed to the few student groups that I am involved with. I did not participate in any of the student groups in the Fall 2008 semester that I was involved with in the Spring 2008 semester. As I have stated before but didn't really accomplish, I really want to put more of an effort towards studying Japanese. I would like to take the JLPT this year but I am not sure I will be ready.

Here hoping for an awesome new year.