P90X Day 7

Well, so far I'm having great results on P90X.  The good news is that I feel sore, so I know I'm doing some major work on my muscles.  I'm drinking over a gallon of water per day and am getting into the routine of fixing the meals a little easier.  I can actually feel the separate ab muscles underneath the layer of fat on my stomach, which I couldn't feel before.  I am really wanting to have nice muscle structure---nothing too extreme, but it would be nice to see some muscle definition, so I'm hoping to achieve those results using this program.  So, after reading Viv and Fifi's in-depth blogs, I felt kind of like I was cheating you of knowing me.  I don't want to have a hard shell that is hard to crack through, so I'll tell you a little about me and the goals I want with this program.

First of all, I have always had that yearning to be in good shape.  I have tried before, but it has never been a true lifestyle change.  If you must know, I actually grew up in a health-food store----really!  My parents opened up a health food store in '77 and it is still going strong today--my brothers are running their own stores.  So, I really should have an edge on being healthy, you would think.  And for the most part, I was.  I wasn't super-fit, but from the time I was young, I remember making conscious efforts to try to exercise and 'lift weights' and all that jazz.  Now, for the food.  I have always had a love-hate relationship with food.  I love food.  I love food.  And yet, I hate it at the same time.  What I really hate is my lack-of-self control when it comes to being in the same room with certain foods, while I'm trying to abstain from them.  I'm an emotional eater.  I grew up in a very food-centered home.  When we celebrated, food was the center.  When I was sad, I would go to get something to eat (almost always unhealthy).  When we had any special occasion or holiday---food was the celebrity.  So, I feel hard-wired to the emotional aspect of food.  I actually have vivid memories that I remember, because of the place we ate, or the thing I was eating at the moment.  Weird, I know! 

So, one of the goals I would like to attain through this program is to have a change of lifestyle, instead of this being just another diet.  I truly want my life to change.  Sometimes I wonder if I can do it.  I want it bad enough, but I have known this way for so long, that it's really difficult to imagine another way...sometimes it's hard to really know how.  But, I'm taking it day-by-day, and some how, some way I think my brain and body will realize that just because I'm sad, I really don't have to grab a candy bar or eat a piece of buttered cinnamon toast to feel good.  That I can exercise or spend time with kids or pray or read my scriptures to get a better effect, and in the long run, become proud of myself, instead of guilt-ridden and unhealthier.  I'm the first to admit that it's HARD.  As I write this, I am thinking about food.  But, if I can have success doing this, I know anyone with food-addiction/unhealthy food views can do this too. 

My goal, because my fat % is pretty high, is to cut my fat % in half.  I would love to be around 16-18%.  Really, anything in that range and around 20% is pretty healthy.  My 33% is not.  The minimal amount of fat loss I would like to lose/week is around 1 pound/week.  To me, that's doable.  If I had a goal of 2 lbs./week I feel I would get discouraged too easily if it wasn't met.  Right now, I am eating/burning so many calories through exercise, that I feasibly should be losing at least 1.5 lbs./week, but I also have to add in the margin of my body's rate of metabolism and what it feels like doing.  So, my goal is 1 lb./week until I can get my body fat % down.  I would love my goal to be achieved by mid-summer.  But, as long as I'm on the road to being healthy, I am happy with whatever comes.  So, be happy if you are going in the right direction.  Be happy.  Be happy.  Being discouraged only makes you go backwards.  I know some of you may not lose weight for a while.  That's okay.  You are exercising.  You are doing better than you have done, so you are going i nthe right direction.  If you put the same 'mass' of muscle next to fat, fat takes up more room than muscle.  Muscle is more dense and weighs more than the same amount of fat.  So, if you're not losing, it's probably because your muscles are really gearing up and growing and taking the space of that fat.  Keep on keeping on....
So, for the results after week 1:

Weight loss:  -3.6 lbs 

Evey