Confessions of a Tea-Addicted Geek

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Yesterday my eyes were so sore and irritated to the point where light hurt them, I had a piercing headache and was heading straight into migraine territory. So I wound up exchanging my Sunday rest day with yesterday, not much more I could’ve done about that one.

So today was Shoulders and Arms, ARX. I worked from home in the dark with my monitor brightness turned down low, lol. Can’t wait for my eye dr appt on Sat, this seems to be a once every other week thing now and it’s getting to be a bit too much.

I’m sure people are awfully curious as to how a vegan is fueling her P90X, so here was my day’s worth of meals while at home:

Breakfast: 2 scoops chocolate flavored Vega Whole Meal Optimizer, 1 cup light chocolate soy milk, 3/4 cup of frozen strawberries, and 1 TB melted coconut oil in a blender. Yummy.

Lunch: 1 scoop Sunwarrior vanilla flavored protein (rice based like our upcoming vegan Shakeology, yay!), 1 cup lite unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 3/4 cup mixed frozen berries, vanilla stevia, and 1 TB almond butter–the freshly ground stuff, nothing else added. Pure. Awesome.

Dinner: leftover eggplant casserole, consisting of tomato sauce, olives, mushrooms, eggplant, mashed tofu and garlic.

When I’m at work, it’s usually veggie burgers and salads, sometimes I’ll bring a cucumber, slice it up, and just eat it. I love cucumbers!

Sunday’s workout will be Saturday’s in the morning and Stretch X in the evening. I figure that should do the trick.

I admit it: I was NOT looking forward to Plyometrics, especially after it kicked my butt the previous week. But I dragged myself downstairs into my exercise room–which is my basement, btw–with the notion that maybe if I did Cardio X or the Ten Minute Trainer cardio, it’ll all be okay.

But along the way I put on a pair of exercise pants I hadn’t worn since the Avon Walk this past May. Back then, they were tight and pretty form fitting–not uncomfortable, just not a good fit. Last night the only thing preventing them from falling off of me was friction and my hips/glutes not being down about another inch or so.

Needless to say, it was inspiring. And I kept staring at the Plyometrics disc while in those pants and I thought to myself, “Screw it, I’m doing it.”

So I did! And to my surprise, I didn’t need to hit the pause button towards the end like I did last time and found myself…liking it. How weird is that? I still say I’m not fond of the power knees or the hot foot, but I did better on both and better on everything this time around.

This is one thing I love about a fitness program like this: you get to see the changes. If you just go to a gym, don’t keep track of your progress, don’t know what you’re doing each day/week, you don’t know if you’re improving. It’s like just weighing yourself every day and not taking measurements. Don’t do it!! Water weight will make the scale fluctuate, especially in the beginning. But your tape measure and clothes do not lie.

Chest and Back, plus ARX! Some nice triumphs, as here’s what I can do now versus last week:

Classic pushups: 10 reg, 12 modified
Military: 3-4 reg, 10 modified
Wide pushups: 12 reg, 12 modified

I could barely choke out one reg when I first started working out, and last week barely managed three.

Heavy pants now at 15 reps at 15 lbs, lawnmower at 15-20 reps at 20 lbs. I don’t have a heavier weight than 20. Decline pushups went up from 10 to 30. I’m doing them slightly modified so I’ll have to adjust so I’m on my toes like the big boys and girls as I can now clearly handle it. I used to HATE decline pushups, figured I could choke out five before collapsing. Now I’m starting to love them.

ARX, made it all the way through the Mason twists.

Not bad, for the start of week two. Next day is Plyometrics, and…I hate this workout. I hope I can learn to love it….

So far I have tried the following new products from Sequel Naturals in the VegaSport line:

• Recovery accelerator – tropical flavor
• Protein bar – chocolate saviseed
• Protein bar – chocolate coconut

I ordered them from Vegan Proteins, a fab website online run by fellow vegans into sports and fitness. They have a 15% off sale until Oct 18th for VegaSport, coupon code VS15OFF. So take advantage while you can!

I’ve always heard about recovery drinks, either the ones put out by P90X or the ones people make on their own, but never really managed to give them a shot. I’ll also admit to being a wholehearted Vega fangirl. Their Whole Meal Optimizer and my recipes for both it and their vanilla flavored sports protein have sustained me through many an excellent breakfast smoothie, post-workout shake, or self-made raw protein bar.

So needless to say I was thrilled when I heard they were developing a sports performance system line that continued their exploration of whole foods, plant-based nutrition. There are a lot of sports supplements and performance products I can’t have because they typically contain some form of dairy protein or other animal product, and it’s pretty frustrating. As someone who works out pretty intensely I like being able to beef up (oh, what an odd phrase for a vegan to use!) my regime by using products to help me out and perform better.

The recovery accelerator in tropical flavor is pretty tasty. I also found that it helped me after my workout and I was NOWHERE near as sore as I was prior to taking it. The first few weeks of a new fitness program can be tough, and it’s in my experience that P90X keeps raising the bar. So I was pretty happy to add this to my workouts. Take it within the first 20 minutes after the workout is over, it makes the difference. I waited too long to drink mine after my Legs and Back and I’m feeling it. I won’t make that mistake next week, that’s for sure….

Now I get to the protein bars. As I tweeted to a few vegan bodybuilders plus the Vega Team, I’m convinced they’ve put some form of addictive substance in these things. They do NOT taste like a health food bar. In fact, both the chocolate saviseed and the chocolate coconut bar taste better than pretty much every candy bar I’ve ever had. WOW. 240 calories and 15g of protein a piece, and the sugar content is actually not that bad. I keep reading the nutritional label over and over again, wondering if I’ve missed something. They’re just that good. I really recommend them.

I have samples for the endurance gel and electrolyte hydrator but haven’t yet tried them. Once I do, I’ll report on those too. I wonder how the endurance gel will help me get through the P90X Plyo….