Photo update (Day 60)

UPDATE
So after 60 days, things are coming along just swimmingly. As you can see in the posted photos (compare to day one here at "The Justification"), I am showing a lot more definition in my shoulders and abs, as well as in my upper back. Honestly, if these were the photos after 90 days, I'd be pretty stoked, so I'm very interested to see where I'll be in another 30.

I've been far from perfect over the last month on both my diet and exercise routines, but I'm still hitting the basics. I never skip a resistance day (work outs with weights), or ab ripper, but quite often will neglect my yoga and kenpo responsibilities. I just don't like them. Yoga is an hour and a half, and extremely repetitive. I
usually will find a way to postpone my workout on this day until the very last minute, until I basically don't have enough time to complete the entire thing, and only end up doing the ab portion (which is 7 minutes). Granted, I usually play volleyball on this same day, so its not like I'm doing nothing. I'm not really into the breathing, flexibility, and spirituality that is associated with Yoga, so it just feels like a waste of time. I also feel like the Yoga X and Kenpo were added to attract more female customers, so the program had more "fun" activities and not just a bunch of push-ups and pull-ups. I see the merit in both, and how they can improve overall fitness, but I do a lot of other physical activities so I'm okay missing those particular workouts. That being said, I will still do them if I have time in my day, but won't bend over backward (intentional use of phrase) to squeeze it in.

MY DIET
I've still been pretty good, but not as regimented as I was in the first month. Phase II was a much more balanced diet which I will probably continue to stick with after the 90 days is over. I definitely ate more fruits than I was supposed to (about 3X as many) but I'm okay if that's where I slip. Also, I went on a couple short vacations to Catalina Island and San Diego where I didn't stick to it as well. I would do my best and not go completely crazy, but certainly wasn't perfect. I tried to pack healthy snacks with me on these vacation days (like 4th of July) so that I was putting in some good food with the bad, and didn't fall completely off the wagon. I also had 1-3 drinks about two to three nights of the week (more on 4th of July admittedly) for the past three weeks as things came up socially. I felt this slow my metabolism down, and dragged a bit the days after, but was usually worth it. That's kind of how I view going out and having drinks now: worth it (being the calories and next day effect) or not.

So I'm on to Phase III, the home stretch, and the diet changes again. Its now a lower protein (3 portions/day instead of 7!) and slightly higher carbohydrate intake (one extra portion of starch, two extra fruits, and one extra veggie). Its supposed to give you more endurance during your workout so you can lift heavier and longer, but I don't understand how your muscles rebuild. They tell you that you need an extreme amount of protein in the first two phases because you are tearing you muscles and need the proteins to repair them. Supposedly if you don't have enough protein, the muscles don't properly rebuild and get bigger, so I don't get how they rebuild in this last phase with so few portions. I'm skeptical, but also know that they wouldn't put it into the program if it didn't work so I'm doing it. I am slipping a little extra protein in here and there, at the expense of possibly gaining a little fat.

WORKOUTS
As far as the exercises go, for Phase III its back to what I did in weeks 1-3, Phase I, for a week, then it will be one week of what I did during Phase II, and then back to what I did for Phase I for the final week of resistance, followed by a week of low intensity. I've already noticed big improvements on what I was capable of doing in the first few weeks. On the recent Shoulders and Arms day, I was able to add five pounds to each dumbbell for each workout (a pretty big gain for two months considering I had already increased by five pounds from when I first started). I also felt much more fluid when I did everything because the stabilizer muscles are more developed.

I think in a week or so I will post another blog describing exactly how much I've spent on supplements and equipment, as well as an average monthly grocery cost, like I promised to do in my last entry. 60 down 30 to go...