Don’t think you’re going to get before and after pictures tomorrow – you ain’t. Even though it’s Day 30, and you’re supposed to take pictures, and I’m going to take pictures, I’m not going to scare you all by showing you what I looked like with my shirt off thirty days ago. I’m not even going to scare you by showing you what I look like now. I’m going to wait until the “real” after.

I’m fairly happy with the progress I’m seeing. Of course, I want more, but I’m edging close to three pounds a week which is pretty dang good. We’ll see what the scale says tomorrow, and I probably will at least post the numbers.

One of the side effects of this whole thing is that I seem to have significantly more energy on a daily basis already. I was able to do a bunch of woodworking yesterday – like six hours or more of it, and I’m not sore or tired today. And I did it the day before, too – even skipped watching some TV and worked on my workbench instead. It’s amazing, really, how much easier it is to get stuff done now that I’m not worn out as easily. It’s amazing how even just a couple of weeks of exercise and eating right can change so many things about how you feel. It’s a better pick-me-up than caffeine.

When you’re working on Power 90, or any of the BeachBody programs, they encourage you to NOT look at the scale every day. Why? Because a great many people can’t deal with the inevitable bouncing around that happens day to day because of water weight, excess waste hanging out in your bowels for a day, etc…

Case in point, four days ago, I weighed myself, and was at 219.4. Three days ago, 220.0!!! That sucked, really. Then yesterday, 219.6. Then, this morning, 217.6!!! That sort of stuff really yanks your chain if you’re focused on your weight, as a great many people are.

Fortunately, I’m more focused on how I look and feel and less on the actual number and seeing it fluctuate like that doesn’t bother me all that much. I’m mostly just curious about the journey downward, interested in seeing what happens and figuring out, if I can, the reasons behind whatever happens.

So, what does that 217.6 number mean? It means that I’m on target for my 30 day goal of at least 10 pounds lost. There are 10 days to lose another 2.2 pounds. My 90 day goal is to get under 200 which is certainly attainable. Ultimately, however, I don’t have a target weight, I have a target body. One that is fit and athletic (!!!). One that can keep up with my kids and fit on the rides of the traveling carnivals. One that I don’t feel like I have to hide, but instead want to show off. The weight itself is just one measurement out of many, and it’s more a curiosity for me than anything else.

And at this juncture, I’ve lost about 5 and a half pounds. I’d hoped for more, wanted to be among the big losers of the Power 90 users, but I’ll take what I can get. One big thing is that I may not be getting enough sleep. I like some time “alone” with Wendy after the kids go to bed, but sometimes, this doesn’t happen until late, especially these days when she’s going to some sort of therapist every day for an hour or more after work, and so we don’t get to bed until after 11:00.

Everywhere else, we’re doing pretty good. We’re exploring new foods and new ways to make old foods that don’t contain as much of the crap that we used to eat. For example, last night we made pizzas. Mine had a mix of mozarella made with 2% milk and fat free cheddar cheese (a 1/4 cup of each), along with turkey pepperoni (tastes almost the same, has significantly less fat and half the calories), but the big key was the “crust” which was a multi-grain flatbread from Flatout – 17g of carbs, 8g of fiber, 9g of protien and only 100 calories. I also used about 1/5th of a cup of Boboli pizza sauce (1/3 of a pouch). Total calories: 318, fat: 11g, carbs: 26g, fiber: 8g, protien 36g. And most importantly, it was yummy.

I’m getting stronger, too. I can crank out more of the pushups every time out, and I finally finished all the reps of the Ab Ripper 100 (two weeks ago, I barely finished half of them). I also seem to have more energy. Yesterday, on my “rest” day, I just needed to do something other than sit at my computer in the evening, so I went down to the stationary bike we have and rode that for 30 minutes at a pretty decent clip. I’m getting to the point where I’m actually thinking about doing stuff that’s physical. I sure hope I can drop enough by this summer to feel comfortable going to Wild Waves and participating in the “wet” portion of the activities.

I’m starting the second week of Power 90 today, and I can’t wait for Wendy to get home so we can do the workout. Yesterday was a “day of rest”, meaning no workout, and while my body needed it, I sort of missed the exercise.

I’m anxious to see how far I can go with the pushups today. I’ve been doing more of them every session, and I can’t wait until I can do all of them, though that may take some time, especially when it comes to the 7/7/7’s… (three sets of 7 pushups right in a row with three different hand placements).

Another fun item of interest (or maybe not if you see me when I’m bending over), my pants won’t stay up without having my belt as tight as it will go. Progress is being made. Now I will need to get some sweats or some other type of pant that will fit my as I shrink without having to buy new pants every month.

So here I am, coming to you from my iPod touch on day six of Power 90. After the first couple days, I was really sore, but now, I’m either getting used to the pain, or my body is starting to adjust to the workout. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to the yoga part of today’s workout, but I suspect I’ll complete more of it than I did last time.

The diet part (I hesitate to use that word as it has come to imply an unnatural restriction in food intake) has been a bit difficult for me as I’ve been struggling to get enough callories. I’m so used to high calorie garbage, even though the portions weren’t exsessive, changing to better foods has really made it hard to eat enough. I feel full pretty quickly.

Wendy and I were lazing away one Sunday morning earlier this month when we saw an infomercial for P90X, a workout program that claimed to get you “ripped” in 90 days. It totally appealed to me. No silly dancers. No weak ass moves, just intense exercise and a solid diet based on real food.

Why did it appeal to me? I’m tired of being tired. Tired of running out of gas after 50 feet.

So we talked about it, and decided to order it. Of course, not until after I ordered did I find that there’s sort of a minimum fitness requirement in order to be able to do it well, and I certainly am not capable of meeting that requirement right now.

But I also found out that the same trainer has another program that’s been out for years called Power 90, which is meant to be a wight loss bootcamp. And it was half the price of P90X and didn’t require any more equipment than a couple of dumbbells or resistance bands. Can you say “ordered”?

We’ve already started to modify the food we’re taking in, trying to maximize the good stuff and limit the crap. I’m also trying to keep my calorie count down to about 1600 calories a day which should, were I to do nothing else, allow me to lose some weight over time, according to webmd, about a pound a week. But I want more than that. I’m not interested in taking more than a year to lose all the weight I need to lose, and besides, I don’t just want to be a skinny guy with no strength or stamina.

So I’m gonna bust it on P90, then move on to P90X and see what happens. We’re planning on getting season passes to Wild Waves this year, and I want to take advantage of them.