Insanity Complete

I just finished round 1 of Insanity.
Results: 26 lbs lost and blood pressure much improved!

Starting Weight: 200 lbs
Ending Weight: 174.4 lbs

Starting Blood Pressure: 128 / 78 (pre-hypertension level)
Ending Blood Pressure: 99 / 62 (athlete level)

People can tell I look different, not only at the waist but in the face as well. More importantly, I am much healthier now.

After a short break, I'll be looking forward to another BeachBody program (just haven't decided which yet!)

Fit Test Results below. These are going straight through the tests with no pauses.

Exercise	Day 1	Day 15	Day 36	Day 50	Day 63
Switch Kicks	?	51	59	61	118
Power Jacks	33	37	47	50	53
Power Knees	60	75	82	91	104
Power Jumps	12	26	39	50	50
Globe Jumps	3	6	8	9	10
Suicide Jumps	7	10	12	12	14
Push-up Jacks	6	17	20	24	26
Low Obliques	30	51	60	66	68

Lots of improvements, especially from Day 1 where the test wiped me out. From here, I'm leaning toward doing another round of Insanity but incorporating some weight resistance days.

Insanity Workout - Day 57 (Week 9 day 1)

On the home stretch! Today I knocked out the first day of the last week. Woot. There's still two days of Max Cardio + Cardio Abs on the same day so it's not a cakewalk. :P

These workouts have become part of my regular routine. I found on the Off days I feel like I should be getting a workout in! But of course, in the back of my mind I'm content to get the comforting rest in. :)

Today was a good day. I got home a bit tired but took 1.25 scoops of Jack3d and was up and at 'em. My 11yr old daughter was interested again and surprisingly made it through the whole workout with me! She did all the moves except the push-ups which were a little too tough. We paused at each of the breaks to get longer than 30-second rests in.

I'm feeling a lot more fit and performing the moves stronger. I continually feel my pants aren't fitting the same and keep having to use belts to keep the pants up. I even switched to a smaller belt.

I'm currently 176.8, although fluctuated from 176.0 the other day. I have noticed the weight hasn't been changing much the last 2 weeks. Whereas in the beginning I was shredding pounds like crazy. I seem to have stablized out in this area although it's still creeping downward.

Btw: They say you shouldn't weigh yourself everyday, but I look forward to checking every morning out of pure curiosity. I do that though knowing weight can fluctuate so do not get discouraged if there's some bouncing around. I haven't seen anything more than a 1 lb movement in the upward direction. Usually I'm surprised some mornings where I feel heavier for some reason but the scale reports I've lost weight.

I plan on celebrating the finale with a nice dinner from my favorite fast food restaurant, Bojangles. Two breast fried chicken dinner with seasoned fries and sweet tea. Mmmmm. I might have to add in some cinnamon biscuits for desert. I've been craving that for about 60 days now. hehe. I figure even though it's a bit of bad calories, a one-time gorge shouldn't take long to offset. :) Of course, part of me wants to just keep on staying 100% clean on the diet.

I've come a long way, but I still feel like there's room for a lot of progress. For example, my chest and abs still aren't very defined. My biceps are slightly more pronounced now but not that noticeable of a difference to me. I'm thinking another round of a beachbody program and I'd start getting there. I still haven't completely decided on the next workout to target.

Some friends may start P90X so that would be good to do together. One thing that worries me there is I hear their workouts are longer (and so harder to fit into schedule). And other workouts have equipment recommendations whereas Insanity is just you. I'm leaning toward just continuing another round of Insanity. We'll see.

Insanity Workout - Day 41 (Week 7 day 7)

Just finished week 7 - posting on the Off day. Note, this week is called week 6 on the poster because the recovery week isn't counted.

I'm at 178 lbs which is insane! I have a couple of things to report:

- Although you get hit hard in Month 2, you definitely work into it and look forward to the workouts again. No soreness to report this week and I even miss working out on the Off day.

- I've had mixed feelings with Jack3d. Although I love the extra pump and 'wake up' it gives me, I've had two side effects: Abdominal pains and a mild headache. The abdominal pain comes with some bloating and feels like a sore stomach. The headache is no doubt from caffeine withdrawal coming after an Off day. I didn't take Jack3d on the 'Core Cardio and Balance' day just before this week's Off day, and today I felt sluggish and ended up with a mild headache (not bad but enough to annoy). I figure I could add some caffeine into my off days to compensate for the withdrawal there. But the stomach pains I haven't figured out yet. It seemed more intense when I went from 1-scoop to 1.5 scoops, so maybe I just need to take less Jack3d. I might also try drinking more water. The fit test is tomorrow along with Max Interval Circuit so I'll probably continue taking it at least a while longer. :)

- Still eating healthy. For breakfast I mostly had 2 eggs scrambled, 1 wheat slice, some strawberries, and a whey protein shake. Getting tired of the same things everyday I did some research and bought some Kashi cereal (Cinnamon Harvest). The Insanity nutrition guide mentions Kashi which led me down that path. It has a little bit more sugar than I would like, but still healthy and tastes GREAT! It also made me realize how much sugar milk has in it! Wow. I started that a last week and seems to be working fine (no noticeable slow down in results) so I recommend that cereal. The only other bit of a cheat on the diet is I have A1 sauce when having steak for dinner.

- Before/After pics are already showing an impressive difference. I'll post them when finally complete.

I still haven't decided what I want to do after Insanity. Some friends may do P90X so I might throw in with them on it. I might want a week off though to celebrate Insanity. We'll see. :) I have on my TODO list at the end, to have a 2 breast fried chicken dinner from Bojangles, with seasoned fries and sweet tea!

Insanity Workout - Day 41 (Week 6 day 6)

Still going strong on Insanity. It's been a while since I updated the blog so lots of things to report. I'm currently at 180.8 lbs which is nearing 20 lbs lost. I can't believe I'll be in the 170s soon which will be crazy to see on the scale.

Recovery Week went smoothly and looking back I miss it and Month 1. The start of Month 2 was pretty intense. I stuck to the schedule which had both the Fit Test and Max Interval Circuit on the same day. Pushing hard in the Fit Test, I got improvements in all exercises.

Switch Kitcks ?? -> 51 -> 59
Power Jacks 33 -> 37 -> 47
Power Knees 60 -> 75 -> 82
Power Jumps 12 -> 26 -> 39
Globe Jumps 3 -> 6 -> 8
Suicide Jumps 7 -> 10 -> 12
Push-up Jacks 6 -> 17 -> 20
Low Plank Obliq 30 -> 51 -> 60

Gains in all areas which is nice. One thing to note about the Fit Test. I don't pause for it, even if I'm still trying to recover from previous exercise. I did this to be consistent with my first fit test and continue just like the participants on screen. I read some people pause which I imagine could net you higher numbers, but whatever you do I'd make sure you're doing it consistently for each test.

I did this test in the morning so I could do Max Interval Circuit at night. After getting going in Max Interval Circuit, I could tell I was really struggling - lots of extra pauses needed throughout and it's a long workout!

The next day, just like others had blogged, I started feeling sore like in Week 1. I wondered if that was maybe the roughest workout and things would normalize out. Then the second day had 'Max Interval Plyo' which I felt is even harder than Max Interval Circuit! I really struggled through it with the INSANE number of push-ups. I didn't feel like I attacked it 100%. On the third day of Month 2 I had 'Max Cardio Conditioning' and again still struggling! I kept looking at the 'Max Recovery' that was coming up and thinking, OK, if I can just get through to it, I'd start to get in the game. When 'Max Recovery' was on, I felt relaxed and ready to recover... EXCEPT, this workout is no real "recovery." Sure there wasn't a lot of fast cardio, but it was extremely hard none-the-less.

When day 5 of month 2 came, it was Max Interval Circuit on the schedule again. I was really not that motivated to workout. I felt sluggish and hammered by things so far. I decided to try out something I read about, taking a pre-workout supplement to boost energy. After reading more reviews on it, I went out to GNC and purchased lemon-line "Jack3d".

About 45 minutes after a meal, I took 3/4th of a scoop with 8oz of water (taste was OK), waited 30-35 mins, then started the workout. At first, I couldn't tell much effect. But as the warm-up went by, and I just kept going into the workouts, I could tell I was definitely holding up better and putting more into it. I could possibly attribute this from adjusting into Month 2, but I think the Jack3d was really working. I plowed through things and the only extra time I took was in some of the scheduled water breaks. As far as side-effects, I didn't notice any tingling or itchiess like some. Although that night I could tell my abs were sore. I can't say yet whether that was from pushing the exercises harder or from anything related to Jack3d. At the end of Max Interval Circuit there's a 'plank punch' move that really makes your abdominals work. I focused and completed that last move without stopping even though my abs were hurting. My guess is that's the cause of my ab soreness.

I'm pretty excited about using Jack3d to help with energy into the workouts. It looks like the recommended usage of 5 out of 7 days lines up with Insanity well since you have a recovery and an off day you can skip using. Supposedly you build a tolerance to it and it becomes less effective, but if it can help me get well into Month 2 it will have done it's job! I'll report more on its effects on me in future blog entries (I'm curious how today's Max Interval Plyo will go with it).

Insanity Workout - Day 29 (Week 5 day 1)

Core Cardio & Balance

Today I was at 185.4 lbs! That's a nice milestone I'm happy to hit. I had dropped from 200 to 190 really fast, but the last 5 lbs were much slower. Myself and others can tell a difference in those 15 lbs. That's like dropping a bowling ball! I googled '15 lb fish' to get a visual on what kind of size 15 lbs is, it's amazing. I have pants that don't fit anymore and belts that are becoming too large (can use 4th hole from end on them). Although I'm more lean, I haven't noticed any particular increase in arm muscles though, but no loss either. My quads though seem bigger and defined when I flexed them last night.

Today's is the first day of the 'recovery week' and the routine was new to me:
Core Cardio & Balance.

Although it's recovery, the cardio was still pretty good - you just get some more rest in between. No pauses on this tape were needed. And after reading others experiences on the 'shoulder burner' exercises, I am proud to say I made it through those successfully without dropping my arms. I could feel the burn though, just kept going. On another part though where you balance on one leg and extend, I lost my balance more than once and had to restart - might be my goal for this week to tackle that.

Overall, I really liked this DVD. I could see people using it as a daily maintenance kind of routine later on post-Insanity.

Insanity Workout - Day 22 (Week 4 day 1)

Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs

I haven't logged about Insanity since the last Pure Cardio by coincidence. The discs by this point have repeated enough that there isn't much to report differently. I did run into someone today though that I hadn't seen in a few months and he said he could visibly tell I had lost weight just by my face. I thought that was interesting because although I can tell I have a flatter stomach, I didn't realize my face had tightened up.

I felt really strong through the warm-up this time. Often times in the first round of the warm-up the jumping jacks would hurt my legs slightly but then that would ease up. This time I felt really comfortable which was nice. Later in Cardio Abs though with the "jump and bring elbows to knees" move though, I started feeling some pain so slowed that down real quick.

I got further into Pure Cardio than I had before and only paused 3 times. One obviously needed, the other two I did to make sure I could execute the moves strongly. For example, I felt OK at the last exercise (push up jacks) but took a quick pause/break so I could do that intensely.

I was 187.0 lbs this morning. Looking forward to breaking into 186 territory any day and eventually the 185 milestone. I'm feeling like the rest of this month won't be a problem to execute on and glad I'll start seeing some different videos soon (even though I hear they're rough!).

Another very welcome change, my blood pressure has improved dramatically. When I started I read 128/78 (pre-hypertension range). I've steadily gone down and now am at 105 / 67 which is near athlete territory, sweet!

Insanity Workout - Day 17 (Week 3 day 3)

Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs

These things just don't seem to get any easier! I'll be really impressed with myself if I ever get to a fitness level to complete this guy even with only 1-2 breaks. But got it knocked out for today.

I did this earlier in the day so decided to do Cardio Abs in the evening instead of right after Pure Cardio. I remember from last time it had it's own warm-up, cool-down, so figured it would go well that way. Well, I think they should be done back-to-back now. I was mostly sitting at work today and when I got home to Cardio Abs, all the jumping moves in the beginning really pained my knees. I had to phone that part in as best I could. But like before, the Ab-exercises were welcome since they're a change of pace.

Those C-sit moves can really bring pain to your mid-section!

Insanity Workout - Day 16 (Week 3 day 2)

Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Knocked this out during lunch hour. My energy level was down quite a bit so not sure I started this one with full energy/passion. The warm up got me going though and worked up a good sweat into the stretching. Threw in about 3-4 pauses on the rest of the session, mostly at the existing breaks just to give me an extra 30-seconds or so to recover better. The last sprint is nice where the music changes and Shaun T is inspiring people. My legs were giving out on those in-out abs section and cheated a bit moving legs one at a time when I couldn't jump them in. But finally the punching-sequence kicked in where you know it's all downhill!

After working out and getting a meal, energy levels were way up, alert, and feeling good.

Insanity Workout - Day 15 (Week 3 day 1)

Fit Test #2, and beginning of week 3!!

Excited to make it to week 3, but I was dreading this next fit test a little because of my experience on the first one. Also because I know it starts with switch kicks which tire me out. :)

My numbers went as follows:

Move Day 1 Day 15
------------ --- ---
Switch Kicks ? 51 (i.e. 102 kicks)
Power Jacks 33 37
Power Knees 60 75
Power Jumps 12 26
Globe Jumps 3 6
Suicide Jumps 7 10
Push-up Jacks 6 17
Low Oblique 30 51 (i.e. counting each knee)


Lots of sweat! Some definite improvements and most importantly no throwing up. :) Recovered pretty quickly.

Insanity Workout - Day 14 (Week 2 day 7)

Off day. This day came perfectly timed as I needed a break.

One big update though, I am now at 188.8 lbs! In a way I'm starting to get worried about losing too much weight so am looking into ways to add extra healthy calories. I'll probably focus on that more intently once hitting ~180.

I took some more pictures and absolutely see a difference in only 14 days which is amazing.

Insanity Workout - Day 13 (Week 2 day 6)

Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs

The first part, Pure Cardio, went about the same as before. At the end I was pretty tired but sucked it up and hit play on Cardio Abs. Although tired, it was refreshing to have a different disc and moves to go through. Those C-sit moves made my body tremble quite a bit trying to eek out extra reps. I could feel my mid-section being worked hard so it's definitely targeting the abs.

Outside of the workout, I noticed my appetite went up. I was hungry just a short time after eating breakfast.

Insanity Workout - Day 12 (Week 2 day 5)

'Cardio Power and Resistance'

Finished today, although if I wasn't doing a "60-day challenge", I would have skipped today since I wasn't in a workout mood. But hit play and jumped in.

This workout seems a lot easier than the others. The only part that seemed to give me trouble was the power squats and jumps which started to hurt my knees a bit. I modified those half way in so not to risk injury. One other interesting difference tonight was my heart rate wasn't as high as at other times, I found it was at most 170 when checking which either meant I wasn't pushing as hard or getting more in shape.

I was 190.8 on the scale today. I'm expecting to go below 190 in the next few days which will be the first time in quite a while.

Insanity Workout - Day 11 (Week 2 day 4)

A very welcome 'Cardio Recovery' today.

As usual, things go smooth until that 'hold it' squat.
I found though I've been having my knees too far forward which
made it harder than normal. After adjusting I could hold a bit
longer but not long enough

Insanity Workout - Day 10 (Week 2 day 3)

Another checkbox earned.

Finished warm-up strong and felt good with it. Heart rate ended at 190 but I didn't feel gassed. I was feeling good and started thinking I might get through things. After the stretch, I felt strong into the circuit but soon had to take a break. At this point, I started struggling a lot with this routine and it started to seem harder than pure cardio yesterday. Hit a few more pauses one especially after tiring myself on the push-ups. In the end, it felt really good to get to the punching finale.

A tough day done. I'm not sure what played into this days results in how I started really strong then seemed to fade as it went on. I'd like to think it was from doing more intensity which is what I like about Insanity - even if you get more fit, you'll just push harder and still get wiped.

Insanity Workout - Day 9 (Week 2 day 2)

This post recreated because Blogger.com had server issues the last 2 days and deleted my prior day log :(

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Pure Cardio! This is a challenge as before, but I got passed the warm-up and held strong through a lot of the routines.

I thought after finishing this one that I'd be coasting the rest of the week but then saw the end of this week is Pure Cardio again (!) but also Cardio Abs on the same day (!!). We'll see how that turns out.

Insanity Workout - Day 8

Another day, another insane workout! Routine: Cardio Power & Resistance.

This is my second time on this workout and I definitely felt stronger this time, especially in my legs. Of course, it still wasn't much easier! I was proud of my push-up performance though, executing ~90% of them.

One thing that possibly helped leg/knee-wise was that I picked up some better shoes as recommended by others (cross-trainers). These seemed to give better support.

Another note, I weighed 192.4 this morning! I've lost a decent bit of fat already.

Insanity Workout - Day 7

Off day! It's nice they have these in the schedule. :)

The soreness from day 1-2 have gradually slipped away and today there's no soreness to speak of. I'm feeling great, like doing another Insanity workout! But I'm sticking to the plan and letting my body rest today.

Insanity Workout - Day 6

Another sweaty Insanity workout down! And that means Week 1 complete!!

This is a repeat of Day 2's workout "Plyometric Cardio Circuit."

I got through the warm-ups a little easier and ended with 185 heart rate. Paused until back to 170 then continued. After the stretches and into the circuit, I only got perhaps 5 minutes in before pausing again (180+ HR), and continued that way a few times to the end.

The hardest parts for me were:
- Ski jumps: for some reason these bothered my knees, may have to check my form.
- The "Level 1 drill" sequence that repeats with 4-push ups, I had to just perform it as fast I could.

In the end though, another great HIIT work-out with lots of sweat. Looking forward to the off day tomorrow.

PS: Today I was at 194.4 lbs, falling steadily.

Insanity Workout - Day 5

Another day down! I normally workout in the afternoons but did this one in the morning.

This routine was called 'Pure Cardio' and was rough. I took some breaks but got the job done and unloaded a lot of sweat. I read a bit of others' experiences before trying it so wasn't caught off guard by Shaun's warning that he was nervous about the exercise and his famous comment at the end "This @#@$@ is bananas" LOL.

The gotcha is there is a 15-minute sequence of non-stop cardio with no breaks.

The warm ups went smoothly, seemed a little easier on this one. I paused at the end of the warm-ups to make sure I was ready to go. It's intense if you're pushing through. I had to pause for a minute every 5 minutes to keep heart rate down and water up. I wasn't too disappointed doing this because some of the cast members were taking breaks too.

One interesting note I observed -- somewhere in the middle of the cardio, Shaun suggests pushing through because the next exercise is a little bit of break. The exercise he was referring to is 'Scissor Runs' and for some reason this was no break to me, I got me tired fast on those!

Insanity Workout - Day 4

Finished Day 4. Today's insanity routine was 'Cardio Recovery'. If you're on this day, this will be a welcome treat.

My kids were bored so decided to join in with me. Based on other routines, I think they expected a bunch of fast cardio. However, everything starts out really smooth and you're thinking "OK, I'll waltz through this and get in some nice stretching." Everything seemed easy until he had us hold a squat - my legs couldn't hold that very long so had to get up shake it off and get back into position. Other than those 'hold it' moves, everything else is not that demanding which is welcome! :)

I'm hearing tomorrow's routine though ("Pure Cardio") is totally insane! So hopefully these stretches and break will prepare us for it.

Insanity Workout - Day 3

Day 3 complete! Lots of sweat but I feel some improvement in endurance.

One definite help by this point is realizing how to pace yourself better (as well as making sure you have plenty of water and a sweat towel handy). My pace usually ends with me at ~185-190 heart rate for each break. I'm definitely slower than the trainers but able to complete the sets.

The hardest move for me seemed to be the 'floor sprints' (aka mountain climbers). These are the ones where you're in a push up position but you run with your legs bringing your knee in. Something I need to practice, either in form or building up the muscles involved (my quads most likely).

Btw: I started the diet for the program a day early to rehearse how I was going to eat 5 times a day. I weighed 199.0 pounds. This morning (4th day on diet, 3rd day of insanity but before 3rd workout) I was at 195.8, so definitely some weight loss improvement, either from just the diet or both.

Insanity Workout - Day 2

Just finished Day 2 of Insanity! Yay!

After my experience on Day 1 (puking at end), I read up on others similar experiences and concluded it was because my heart rate got too high. I picked up a heart rate monitor as others suggested and this time paused the DVD whenever my heart rate was in the 190s. I only paused for a minute though to make sure my heart rate got back to 170 and breath caught up. I think this was key because even doing that I had a burp or two similar to day 1 where on that day I eventually threw up. But this time, none of that. The workout was still a struggle though even with the extra pauses.

I believe this workout identified my biggest challenge - leg strength. I found through the first 20 minutes or so, my upper body felt great but my legs were turning mushy. I think I'll start doing much better all around once they get some improvement.

Lots of sweat and struggle so I got a great work-out. But there's a LOT of room for improvement and I'm looking forward to being able to keep up in the future and power through the entire session.

PS: Even though it feels like cheating with the pauses, it seems like the right thing to do if your heart rate is really high so I'd recommend that to others. If I kept going instead of pausing today I wouldn't have continued the moves as strongly. And even with pausing, it's still high intensity interval training, just with a longer interval (they only give 30 seconds which feels like just enough to water up and wipe sweat off).

Hang in there!

Insanity Workout - Day 1

Ok like others who have done this and posted online about it, I now too have officially gotten my butt kicked by Shaun T and his Insanity Workout program!

I was a little intimidated how all the comments I read warned about "lying on the floor gasping for air" and even "puking on the floor." But I figured I'd just end up like what others described as a "pool of sweat."

Well, I ended up in the category of all three! At the end I was very sweaty and literally on the floor just trying to get in air. And after getting up a little too soon to wander over for a drink, ended up vomiting!

However, a few moments later after my heart finally stopped racing and I got enough air, I felt great, LOL. I filled up on some water and a post workout drink (Myoplex Lite).

I may have to pace myself better on Day 2 as this is an intense workout.

Jackson

It's been a long time again in between blogs - again mostly due to Facebook being the primary information sharing among friends these days.

Our 3rd child Jackson is 7 weeks now and everything is great. He's been giving us smiles and coos a lot lately and taking a liking to his sister a lot, staring at her intently (we think it's her long hair). He hasn't been fussy much and if he gets that way, he's easy to satisfy (one of diaper, food, or just wants to be held). And like all kids goes asleep immediately if you put him in a car seat, LOL.

Sara is doing great herself, and has a good routine going with him. We couldn't be happier with how everything has been.