Life, Love, and Food Nuts

Here’s a quick update on life.

• College is 52% complete. One year down, two to go. Maintaining a 4.0 GPA
• The kids are starting Classical Conversations this school year. We are all excited. Especially about conjugating Latin verbs. Or is that just me.
• We (Christina and I) are doing TurboFire which is a mix of kenpo, hip-hop dance, cardio, resistance, core. It’s a good challenge for my coordination and really wakes up your brain if you do it early in the morning.
• I’m about 99% sure that my periodic pains in my stomach area are gallbladder related, and thus we’re all on an adventure learning about better eating, cleanse diets, juicing, and all sorts of fun stuff. Did you catch all that? My wife suggest we become certified food nuts.
• We are learning American Sign Language, watching Signing Time every night at 8. Join us?
• We are prepping ourselves and finances for another exciting saving/giving/growing extravaganza. Now if someone would inform the cars.

Flower Pickin’

I hope these make you smile as much as they make me smile.

Taken with iPhone using “Instant” from CameraBag

Extreme Yard Makeover

Yesterday was a perfect day to transform a so-so front yard into a nice, usable yard. We worked from 8:30 till 4:00. With the help of Mom and Dad Cromp it went from this…. to this:

One of those days

Yesterday was one of THOSE (sticky humid, rainy, walk into spider web, get hit by umbrella, first day back to work in a week, a hundred emails to clean up, find out the canceled meeting isn’t canceled, recovering from some stomach bug, drive an hour to another office, drive back, two year old poops on the floor after his shower, team mate doesn’t turn in his part for the paper due in 3 hours, two year old floods his diaper and bed at 4am, couldn’t sleep anyway) days.

Today? Well, at least it’s not as humid…

P90X – Final Results

*Warning! Pictures of a skinny white guy lurk at the end of this post. Proceed with caution!*

90 days have come and gone. I won’t lie. There were days it felt like day 3 of 5,000. The first phase of P90X was a blast. The second was definitely more challenging with additional challenges from life. The third phase was up and down. My eating habits were not as clean the last month, but I tried to contain that to one day a week.

I got my kids to join me for a few rounds of kenpo. They had fun trying to keep up with jab-cross-hook-uppercut. I, personally, was really liking kenpo by the end.

After the baby arrives, I’ll be doing a second round. Anyone want to join me?

Here are my final results and pictures.

P90X Fit Test Results	Day 0	Day 28	Day 56	Day 90
Resting Heart Rate	60	60	60	60
Pull-Ups	5	9	10	11
Vertical Leap	18″	22″	24″	24″
Push-Ups	21	27	30	32
Toe-Touch (inches past toes)	-2	0	3.5	5.5
Wall Squat	1 min, 24 sec	2 min, 4 sec	2 min, 10 sec	3 min, 10 sec
Bicep Curls	12 @ 20 lbs	17 @ 20 lbs	20 @ 20 lbs	24 @ 20
In & Outs	30	40	50	52
Heart Rate (immediately after exercise)	190	162	160	168
Heart Rate (4 minutes after exercise)	114	110	90	100
Weight in pounds	147	146	138	136
Waist in inches	32	32	30	29.5
Hips in inches	35	35	35	35
Chest in inches	34	35	34	34
Arms in inches	12	13	12.5	12.5
Thighs in inches	21.5	20.5	20.5	21
Body Fat %	18	16.5	12.4	11.24

*Body fat was calculated without calipers. I used this formula for the results.

Here is a picture from Day 0

Day 28

Day 56

and Day 90

Priorities

Priority: (1) the right to precede others in order, rank, privilege, etc.; precedence. (2) something given special attention.

I’m by no means an expert on the topic. I had some thoughts floating around that I wanted to write down, so this is just as much for me as it is anyone else. These are some thoughts/ideas I had partly from studying economics and partly from conversations with my wife.

A principle of economics states that you must give up something to get something. Everything has a price, an opportunity cost. We can’t have or do everything. So how do we figure out our priorities? How do we know what is most important, what we need to delegate, and what we need to give up altogether?

Establish roles:

Chances are you have at least 5 roles you can come up with immediately. I identified my 7 top roles. Most of what I do fits in these roles, and if it doesn’t, I have to question if I should take it on. Some roles choose you, and others you get to pick. My 7 roles are:

1. Alive – making sure I’m doing what I need to stay alive and healthy to fulfill my other roles
2. Disciple – sitting at the feet of Jesus, learning, following
3. Husband – before Father, as in my wife comes before my children. A major part of my ministry role at the moment.
4. Father – does it need any explanation? The other major part of my ministry.
5. Household Manager -pay the bills, fix stuff, adjust the budget
6. Employee – I’m a full time employee with responsibilities to my boss and company
7. Student – I’m currently a full time college student

Identify Tasks:

Chances are you can break down these roles into more roles. Like at my work, because it is a small company, I have about 7 roles I play under Employee. To help with this, I try to identify all the major (usually recurring) tasks that I need to do on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

Worship or Idolatry:

This one may need some explaining. I’m of the conviction that everything we do in life is an act of worship. When the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:31 to do all for the glory of God, I don’t think it means do everything and do it all for the glory of God. I think it is more along the lines of first define what glorifies God, define what you need to do, and do that to his glory. What’s the opposite of glory of God? I think it is glory of self. Even the small things of eating and drinking can be done to the glory of God. If I did it to the glory of self, I’d be eating out for dinner every night and overeating. It has now become a worship problem, or idolatry. I’ve made myself, or food, or whatever else, the god or the recipient of glory. I either need to cut it out altogether, or figure out how to bring it back into an appropriate (typically moderation as long as it not specifically against God’s commandments) role. It is usually easiest to see this after the fact. Our lives get out of balance, our job takes top priority and our marriage or something else suffers. Then we realign and readjust. It takes constant consideration.

Does it add value:

Now we’re getting down to how we do things, the little tasks, and the extras. This is where I start to look at things as if I was running a business. I don’t like to look at roles like Husband and Father as running a business, but to have the most resources to give those roles, you may have to look at the bottom line for the rest of life. Take a look at how you are accomplishing things. Is it how you’ve always done it? Is there any easier or more efficient way? Can you consolidate or delegate tasks? An example of something I recently evaluated is paying bills. I pay them online, which means sitting down at the computer. Do I do them as they come in, or do I let them pile up and take care of them all at once? Taking care of them all at once is a reasonable choice because it saves time. However, always approach the computer with caution. I would recommend having a specific list and maybe a timer. Otherwise, paying bills could easily turn into an hour of Facebook. Oops. Where does Facebook fit in those roles? For some people it actually does fit in – especially if you are running a business. For most of us, it is an extra. That’s not to say it’s completely out of the question, but it’s not a priority. So, is Facebook adding value? Is taking the trash out when the kids could do it adding value? Is exercise adding value? Is watching TV adding value? I’d love to tell you the answer, but I think you should do it for yourself.

Am I adding value:

Am I doing everything I can for each of the roles to make it what it could be? Am I texting when I should be listening to my child? Am I surfing the web when I should be doing my job? Am I adding to the value of the life and time of others, showing them respect, helping them fulfill their own roles.

P90X Phase 2 – Complete

*Warning! More scary pictures at the end. Turn back!*

Today marks 2/3 of the way through my P90X program! This past month was a challenging one, and not just in regards to exercise. We had record snow-fall, which meant record snow-shoveling. We had sick children pretty much all month, and then a very sick wife at the end here, and warding off sickness myself. Stress here and stress there. Yea, life. Exhaustion was setting in, and there were days I was wondering if I was going to make it. And of course that’s exactly why I did. I like a challenge. A big thanks to my wife who made time for my evening workouts, and a special thanks to my Beachbody coach FitDadPDX who encouraged me and gave me a few tips to get through the tough spots this month.

This month I did not see as drastic improvements as I did from day 0 to day 28, but I still saw improvements. I have lost almost 10 lbs which I didn’t set out to do, but I seem to be keeping the same size in everything except my waist, so I think I am primarily loosing body fat and not muscle. Overall I feel very good. I definitely still have some “I need coffee” or “I need a nap” moments, but the cleaner eating and exercising has done good things for my energy.

Here are the results of my fit test I did first thing this morning:

• Starting resting heart rate: Day 0=60, Day 28=60, Day 56=60
• Pull-ups: Day0=5, Day 28=9, Day 56=10
• Vertical leap: Day 0=18″, Day 28=22″, Day 56=24″
• Push-ups: Day 0=21, Day 28=27, Day 56=30
• Toe Touch: Day 0=-2, Day 28=0, Day 56=3.5
• Wall Squat: Day 0=1 min 24 sec, Day 28=2 min 4 sec, Day 56=2min 10 sec
• Bicep Curls: Day 0=12 reps of 20 lbs, Day 28=17 reps of  20 lbs, Day 56=20@20
• In & Outs: Day 0=30, Day 28=40, Day 56=50
• Heart rate immediately after 2 minutes of jumping jacks: Day 0=190, Day 28=162, Day 56=160
• Heart rate 4 minutes after jumping jacks: Day 0=114, Day 28=110, Day 56=90

My measurements:

• Weight: Day 0=147, Day 28=146, Day 56=138
• Waist: Day0=32, Day 28=32, Day 56=30
• Hips: Day 0=35, Day 28=35, Day 56=35
• Chest: Day 0=34, Day 28=35, Day 56=34
• Arms: Day0=12, Day 28=13, Day 56=12.5
• Thighs: Day 0=21.5, Day 28=20.5, Day 56=20.5
• Body Fat%*: Day 0=20, Day 28=16.5, Day 56=12.4

*Body fat was calculated without calipers. I tried a couple different methods and have found a more accurate one. I knew 10% body fat last week was way to low. It would be depressing to be at 10% but not see a 6 pack. I used this formula for the results. I used this formula for the results.

And yes, now for the pictures. I combed my hair this time.

Here is a picture from Day 0

Day 28

And Day 56

P90X Day 28

*Warning! This post ends with pictures of a pasty white guy. View at your own risk. Sunglasses recommended.*

Today marks 1/3 of the way through my P90X program. To recap, the first week was a blast. I was up earlier than my alarm almost every day ready to get going. From there, it started becoming harder to get up, especially when babies decided nights were for parties. But I just kept pressing play. I let the decision be the master and override my feelings. I took advantage of the weekends and sleeping in till 6:30 or 7:30 seemed awesome.

The recovery came just in time. It’s called recovery because of the break from resistance workouts. However, the kenpo, yoga, and core synergistics did the job.

So, today after shoveling for 2.5 hours I did another fit test, measurements and pictures.

• Starting resting heart rate: Day 0=60, Day 28=60
• Pull-ups: Day0=5, Day 28=9
• Vertical leap: Day 0=18″, Day 28=22″
• Push-ups: Day 0=21, Day 28=27
• Toe Touch: Day 0=-2, Day 28=0
• Wall Squat: Day 0=1 min 24 sec, Day 28=2 min 4 sec
• Bicep Curls: Day 0=12 reps of 20 lbs, Day 28=17 reps of  20 lbs
• In & Outs: Day 0=30, Day 28=40
• Heart rate immediately after 2 minutes of jumping jacks: Day 0=190, Day 28=162
• Heart rate 4 minutes after jumping jacks: Day 0=114, Day 28=110

My measurements:

• Weight: Day 0=147, Day 28=146
• Waist: Day0=32, Day 28=32
• Hips: Day 0=35, Day 28=35
• Chest: Day 0=34, Day 28=35
• Arms: Day0=12, Day 28=13
• Thighs: Day 0=21.5, Day 28=20.5
• Body Fat%*: Day 0=13.5, Day 28=10.5

*Body fat was calculated without calipers. I used this formula for the results

And now for the pictures (please excuse the hat hair)…

I’ll see you again on March 7th!

Eat and Eat and Eat

Here is what I have eaten on my P90X nutrition plan this past week (not all at once, mind you):

• 20 8oz protein shakes
• 18 eggs (some were just egg whites)
• 7 cups of baby spinach
• 7 cups of of spring mix
• 3 grapefruits
• 3 oranges
• 3 bell peppers
• 1.5 cucumbers
• 4 chicken breasts
• 6 oz of ham
• 6 oz of turkey
• 5 protein bars
• 100 almonds
• 30 grape tomatoes
• 15 carrots
• 20 sugar snap peas
• 1 avacado
• 7 tablespoons of olive oil
• 14 tablespoons of vinegar
• 896 oz (or 7 gallons) of water

P90X Is Not Insanity

The reason I say P90X is not insanity, is because there is actually a workout called insanity, so that title is already taken. P90X, however, is not for the faint of heart (or limbs). Now, for those of you who want to know what P90X is without going the long way about figuring it out, I’ll give you a little insight. P stands for Power, 90 stands for 90 days, and X stands for eXtreme. It is a workout program designed by fitness trainer Tony Horton and produced by BeachBody. I first heard of it a few months ago from my brother-in-law. He had just started it and was telling us how good and challenging it was. Every time we saw him, he was talking about it. He stopped and restarted a couple times, but kept going back to it. I finally decided to check it out for myself. I found it consists of resistance training (using weights or bands and body weight), jump training, yoga, kenpo (martial arts), and a lot of focus on your core. Well, that seemed like enough variation that you would never get bored of it. The major concept behind it is Muscle Confusion, which in theory, never lets your body plateau because just when it is getting used to something, the routine changes after 30 days. The plateau effect is exactly what I had been dealing with for a few months. After working out hard since June of ’09, and gaining almost 30 lbs, I was finding my gym routine to be boring and unproductive. The program also includes a simple, 3-phase nutrition plan which everyone says is the real key.

I thought back to those days long ago of working out to Gilad with my mom, and thought I would give the ol’ workout video thing a try once again. What I’m finding is, I love it! I like structure and routine, and I can get that along with variation in the form of P90X.  I wake up at 5 AM, unless woken up earlier by a baby, and I’m working out by 5:30. All the videos are about an hour long, except yoga which is an hour and a half.

Before starting the program, they suggest you do a fitness test. While anyone can jump in and do it at their own pace, you’ll want to try get to a certain level before beginning. I took the test, and here are my results:

• Starting resting heart rate = 60
• Pull-ups = 5 (recommended 3 for males, 1 for females)
• Vertical leap = 18″ (recommended 5″ for males, 3″ for females)
• Push-ups = 21 (recommended 15 for males, 3 for females)
• Toe Touch = -2, or 2 inches away from (recommended no more than 6 inches away, or -6)
• Wall Squat = 1 min 24 sec (recommended 1 minute)
• Bicep Curls = 12 reps of 20 lbs per arm (recommended 10 reps w/ 20 lbs for males, 10 reps with 8 lbs for females)
• In & Outs = 30 (recommended at least 25)
• Heart rate immediately after 2 minutes of jumping jacks = 190
• Heart rate 4 minutes after jumping jacks = 114

I also took my before (or good-bye) pictures:

And away we go!