Anxious Calves

I never thought I'd say this but I miss working out. Don't get me wrong, I like the time off. I've used that free time to reorganize the apartment and start writing again. I've been very productive but I've lost physical progress and I don't like it. I can see it and I can feel it. Yesterday, I woke up feeling anxious in my calves. My calves wanted to workout. Wierd? Yes, but a good wierd, a great wierd! I don't remember feeling that since I was a dancer. A good sign, indeed.

I now know that my body is always changing, just like the earth, just like we all are, constantly evolving. There are only two directions for change, backwards and forwards, and for the first time in my life, I want to forge ahead. I hate having to take a break. I know it's good for me but it's frustrating. I've come so far but I know just how far I still have to go and I'm only really halfway to reaching my initial weight goal.

When I finished the P90X Lean program (or what I call Round 1), I weighed 130 lbs. and I finally reached the weight I have on my resume! ;) I had successfully lost 8 lbs. in 13 weeks, and I lost an inch off of my bust, waist, and hip measurements. One inch gone from everywhere! That may not seem like much, it didn't to me at first, but then I saw my Before & After pictures. Trust me when I say it is truly amazing how the human body works. (Also, remind me to take pictures in something other than my underwear for Round 2 so I can show you all my progress). In the last few weeks of Round 1, I started to develop the female-coveted "gap between the thighs" and now, that gap is closing. To multiply my frustration, my boyfriend stepped on the scale this morning and is at his lowest weight yet. Damn you, genetics!

Just as I'm feeling like a race car in the red, my boyfriend decides to take a look at the P90X chart to see what the schedule is like for the Classic program. During Round 1, we chose to start with the Lean program, which meant less weight lifting and more cardio. That was when we were starting from scratch and completely out of shape. Wow, was that first workout a rough one. For Round 2, we're moving up to the Classic program and after looking at it again, I'm sort of glad we took a week off in between programs.

The Classic consists of three weight lifting days per week (instead of two days in the Lean program), including two Back workouts and a workout called Plyometrics. From what I've seen, Plyometrics is a kind of combination of Core and Cardio and friends of mine have warned me it will kick my ass. Oh yeah? Well, I'm gonna kick Plyo's ass, big time. I'm gonna take it down, down to Chinatown...I may or may not need to work on my trash talking skills before next Tuesday's showdown.

In the meantime, I am ready. I'm ready to see just how far my body can go. I'm ready to see just how fit I can get. I'm gonna take these next few days to drink lots of water, get as much rest as possible, do some stretching, and try to get outdoors for some tennis or a long hike with the dogs. Who knows...maybe one day this blog will include pictures of me hiking at Joshua Tree, of my first kayaking trip, or even my first mountain climb! No matter how much progress I lose in my week off, I need to remember that it's just one week of my life, and I'm still excited about taking P90X to the next level. As Tony Horton would say, here's to good old fashioned DNA removal!!!