Fitness, P90X, P90X2, and Crossfit

As many of you know, I used to be very active in High School and my early years of College.  I played many sports at the High School level and many intramural sports at the College level.  I entered college at 205 pounds and a 34 waist.

As college became more time consuming and I slowly crawled toward graduation (a lot of people go to college for 7 years), my activity decreased and my metabolism slowed down.  As many of you know my eating did not slow down during that time, so that slow crawl to graduation was accompanied by a slow crawl to 265 pounds and a 40 inch waist.  

I stayed at that weight for a long time and around 2003 I hit rock bottom when I made a trip to Eagle's Deli in Boston, home of the Godzilla Burger challenge (which I think is now the Reilly burger challenge).  I proceeded to finish a 3 pound cheeseburger (six burnt cheese topped patties) and a couple pounds of fries.  It wasn't the actual event that made me acknowledge my weight gain, so much as the pictures of myself afterwards.

I started small with what I call the duct tape diet, where I basically just taped my mouth shut to prevent overeating.  That got me down to around 245 pounds or so over the next year.  Then my Trina and I joined the YMCA in Hilliard to start shedding more weight and to just get into better physical shape.  I saw some small gains in fitness during that time and a little bit of weight loss.  I was still a size 38 waist and was probably closer to 235 at that time.  My biggest problem with the YMCA was not that the facilities were bad, because they were fine.  I just did not have a true workout regiment that I followed. I just did some basic machines and about a half hour of cardio on an elliptical a few times per week.

It was after about two years of this that I realized that I had plateaued and was not making anymore progress.  I began looking into ways to get into better shape, and to lose some more weight.  I came across P90X and this really intrigued me.  So I bought into that system and started doing it.  Honestly, I can say that I did not do it religiously at first, maybe 3-5 times per week at most... and if I skipped any days it was usually the legs and back day, and the yoga day.  Those I missed consistently.  I was also travelling for work a great deal so P90X allowed me to even work out on the road, which fit into my working lifestyle really well.  Even with only working out 3-5 times per week on P90X, I was able to shed some serious weight, getting down to a fluctuating 205-210 lbs, and a waist size of 35.  This seemed to blast me past the plateau of not having a true workout scheme.  I did this for a couple years and realized that I was feeling better, and becoming more active.  I was now regularly playing basketball on Tuesdays and softball on Sundays and feeling better than I had in years.

Again, from a weight perspective, I began to plateau again.  So I looked into P90X2, which became an instant addiction for me.  Instead of just moving extreme weight around in my basement, I was working more on core movements that felt like a mixture of Pilates and P90X due to the complex motions and balance that was needed at every stage.  While I did not see much of a change in weight during this time, I was able to get myself into a size 34 waist.

A friend of mine introduced me to Visalus shakes after about two rounds through P90X2.  Between getting bored with the P90X2 and staying around 205 lbs, I was willing to try something new.  I started doing the Visalus shakes for breakfast, and sometimes lunch, and within a few months was down to my lowest weight since before college.  I lost about 13 lbs and that got me down to my current weight of 194 lbs and a size 33 waist.

I was ecstatic about my weight loss, but as I mentioned I was getting bored with my workouts.  I had purchased a Groupon for a ten pack of visits to a local Crossfit gym in Hilliard and instantly fell in love.  The place was not the greatest, but the coach and the camaraderie was amazing.  This was exactly what I needed.  The problem was the cost.  I was already doing a membership at the YMCA and could not afford both, so I just kept up with my P90X and hybrid workouts I had created.

Then the coach from the Crossfit gym I went to started a new gym in Hilliard called Endeavor Defense Crossfit and Fitness.  Wanting to support this local business and enjoy the benefits of Crossfit, I canceled my membership at the YMCA and got my wife and I a membership at his new gym.  Since March 2nd, I have been going religiously 5-6 times a week (minus work travel weeks).  I have also participated in a 5K mud run, a Tough Mudder, and some other standard road races.  I have to say I have never been more addicted to working out and staying fit than I am at this moment.  So I am hoping this blog finds its way in front of people experiencing something similar and can use this as inspiration to find their own Crossfit gym and join the fun!!!  I am committing this blog to my adventures in Crossfit and my workouts.  Hopefully I will start having some pictures to post as well.