What is better for weight loss, swimming or running?

Headed to Maui in 31 days and would like to make the most out of my exercise time from now until then in order to lose the most weight, but I’m not sure if I should spend more time running or swimming?

Monday – Friday I work out at the gym during my hour lunch break from work; however, between drive times to and from the gym, dressing, showering, etc, I’ve only got about 30 good minutes to work out.

Does running or swimming burn more fat? Where should I spend my 30 minutes? Your thoughts and comments on this are appreciated!

Found my P90X DVDs - well, my P90X MP4 files anyway

Guess what I found one day after blogging about losing my P90X DVDs? Figures. They’ve been missing for 6+ months and I find them one freaking day after telling everyone that I’d lost them. I guess technically I didn’t find my DVDs, but I did find my workouts. After getting my DVDs I converted them into P90X MP4 files so that I could have them on my iPhone – What I found were the two CDs that I put these files on. So the quality isn’t that great and they don’t play on my DVD player, but they do work on my laptop so I’m good.

I was so pumped to find them that I did Kenpo X last night. I chose Kenpo since it was always the easiest workout for me to do. It was so easy that I used to complain that it was too easy and not enough of a workout. Uh, I must be in worse shape than I thought because I struggled through this hour-long workout.

Even though I’ve now got my workouts back, I’m not sure if I’m going to start the program immediately. I like the workout that I’ve got going on at my gym right now so I’ll probably just use the P90X cardio workouts (Kenpo, Plyometrics, Cardio X) as supplemental workouts that I do at night.

Lost my P90X DVDs – bummer!

After finishing P90X for the first time, I was exhausted and decided to take a small break from working out, but I didn’t want to stop exercising altogether so I would go running for 5 miles every morning – I loved it! My 5 mile run took less time to than a P90X workout, I was outside breathing the fresh spring air and not stuck in my living room, and since I had just finished P90X, running 5 miles was a breeze! The only drawback was running with a rock in my hand just in case the neighborhood pit bull got loose again and decided to run me down! That’s right, I ran with a rock – and I was prepared to use it! Then, somehow, my daily run turned into an every other day affair and before I knew it, the only exercise I was getting was if I took the stairs at work instead of the elevator!

After my summer of laziness, bad dieting and weight gain I’d had enough and decided to do P90X again. So I took the Autumn months to get myself mentally prepared to endure 3 long months of Tony Horton’s lame jokes (OK they’re not lame, but when you hear the same jokes 6 days a week for 90 days, well…). Finally, winter had arrived and I was ready to ‘Bring it!’ once again so I dusted off my pull-up bar, pulled out the dumbbells and grabbed my DV….Ds? Where were my DVDs? I specifically remember leaving them in my top-left desk drawer 9 months earlier, where could they have gone? After two months of searching I’ve finally given up. My P90X DVDs were officially lost, but hope was not!

I really was disgusted with myself for being so bad and lazy this spring. And Summer. And Fall. And early winter! So for the past month I’ve been using my lunch break to work out at a gym near my office. Running 5 miles is no longer a breeze, but it’s getting easier. I can no longer bust out more than 20 pull-ups at a time, but I’m getting close. I’ve also taken up swimming – I suck at it, but I like it. Instead of following the three phases of P90X, I’m now following my own workout plan. It doesn’t involve ‘muscle confusion’, but I am mixing up my workouts each day so that I don’t get bored. My new schedule is run, lift weights, swim, repeat.

So far it’s been great. I’ve lost 10 pounds in the first month. The only drawback to my new workout plan…….community showers!

New P90X iPhone app

Each week dozens of people stumble on this blog after searching Google for ‘P90X iPhone App’ and, each week dozens of people leave disappointed because, until now, I wasn’t aware of such an app. However, I just found out about a new P90X-dedicated app designed to help you lose weight on P90X. It’s called Eat Right 90 and it’s currently under development by Steven Romej.

According to Mr. Romej, “Eat Right 90 is a nutrition log iPhone app that automates following and tracking your diet during extreme exercise programs such as P90X.”

The app will allow you to adjust for whatever level, phase, and day of P90X that you are currently at. You’ll also be able to view and edit your own eating history as well as get information on serving sizes for different foods.

Eat Right 90 is optimized for iPhone OS 3.0 or greater.  No word yet on how much the app will cost (or if it will be made available on other smartphones, such as Blackberry).  As of Sept. 29th, 2009, the app is still not available in the iPhone app store; however, you may be able to get a free beta copy of the app if you’d like to try it out for yourself by emailing the developer (email steven.romej@gmail.com and ask about getting a free beta copy).

You can get more information on the Eat Right 90 P90X iPhone app HERE

If you end up trying this app out, be sure to come back and leave your review of the app in the comments section.





SHIELD Apple 3G GS iPhone Shield Polycarbonate Slim Fit Case + Microfiber Cleaning Cloth (11 Colors)

What to do after P90X?

On January 4th of this year, I started P90X and ended up finishing the program 90 days later on the 4th of April. Loved it. Never felt better in my life. I was in the best shape I’d ever been in and I was feeling good! So how in the hell did I let myself get back to my pre-P90X shape? One lazy day at a time, that’s how.

It happened innocently enough. After finishing the P90X program I was tired and worn out so I told myself that I’d take one week off before starting P90X for a second time. My one week off has turned into 5 months and I’ve slowly put most of my weight back on.

But what really bugs me is that I’m once again eating like crap. Fast food for lunch and dinner with 3 - 4 Dr. Peppers mixed in – 7 days a week. Not only is that a colossal waste of money, but I feel so gross and disgusting all of the time. I’m so pissed at myself for letting all of that hard work go to waste!

Well, once again I’m publicly announcing my intention to start P90X on Monday, October 5th. I’m hoping my admission to start the program will give me a little public accountability and extra motivation to finish because I’m certain that P90X will be harder this second time for a couple of reasons.

First, I know exactly how sore I’m going to be and how tough the program is and I’m really not looking forward to it. And second, I now have a 2 month old baby that likes to interrupt my sleep multiple times per night so I’m going to be even more tired than before.

But I don’t care. I’m sick of feeling like ass all the time so starting today, I’m back on my P90X diet again. I’m also going to start doing some of the easier P90X workouts (like Kenpo) so that by the time October 5th rolls around, I’ll be ready to hit the ground running! Bring it!

Read other P90X posts HERE.

Blount punches Hout

Glad that Ethan, my 8 year old boy who's playing his first year of football right now, had gone to bed and missed that clinic on bad sportsmanship at by two players at the end of the Oregon / Boise State game tonight.



Completely frustrated and totally out of control after failing to live up to his pre-game prediction of 'laying an ass whoppin' on Boise State, LeGarrette Blount, tailback for the Oregon Ducks, connects a pretty wicked right cross on Boise State's Byron Hout (after Hout showed some poor sportsmanship of his own by saying something to Blount and smacking his shoulder pads).

Blount's stats for the game: 8 carries for - 5 yards. Nice.

Check out the video of the Blount punch:


Around the 40 second mark of this video you can see a few BSU fans taunting Blount as he's trying to leave the field. Do you think those punk Boise fans realize how lucky they are that someone was there to protect them from this pissed off tail back that is twice their size? They would have been S.C.R.E.W.E.D. if he was able to reach them!

And while I'm mildly bashing on BSU fans - what's up with them chanting "over-rated" to the team they just beat? Um, good job letting the rest of us know that your win wasn't really that big of a deal!

Touchdown!

For at least the past year Ethan has been asking if we would sign him up for football. This summer he was finally old enough to play and last Monday was his first ever flag football game. On his first rush attempt of the game he busted out this TD - his team's only score of the game!

Mandy, who was supposed to be working the video camera, was chit chatting with her parents who had come to watch E play, and didn't get any video. Luckily for you I was Johnny-on-the-spot and busted out these photographs.

Good job, Ethan - keep it up and get yourself a scholarship somewhere so that I don't have to pay for your college education!