I went to Treasure Island casino last night to kill some time. I lost $14 over the course of an hour playing poker, but I went prepared to lose $100, so it felt like I had won $86. Yea, that’s how my brain works. One reason I used to really like going to the casino was because of all the cheap food they sell. I used to always get a bacon cheeseburger with some french fries. Not this time.

This time, before venturing into that place, I made sure I ate some healthy foods. Like some yogurt. I actually really like yogurt. I think it’s the closest thing to ice cream that I’m “allowed” to eat, and it tastes surprisingly good for only having about 100 calories. The casino also gives you an unlimited amount of free soda, but that doesn’t really tempt me anymore. Bacon cheeseburgers, though, will always be hard to walk by.

I uploaded a new “video update” and posted it to the homepage a few days ago. It just kind of sums up my feelings with regards to P90X and the past 30 days. I officially start Phase 2 of P90X on Monday (two days from now). I’m really excited to get back into some intense workouts. The past week has been somewhat of a recovery week, and although I’m still doing cardio just about everyday and the AbRipperX most days, this week has been a bit slower than most weeks. That will change very soon, though, and I look forward to it.

My parents spent the night in my apartment last night. My mom flew out to California this morning, so it was convenient for them to have a place to stay in the cities. That being said, I sleep on the couch whenever they come to visit, and never really sleep very well when that happens. It was a loooooong night last night, but I have a fun night ahead of me, so I’ll be sure to get well rested by the time this evening rolls around.

My leg is still recovering, but it has recovered enough where it isn’t preventing me from doing my exercises. In fact, I’ve been able to do the stair master the past two days, which is something I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing just a few days ago. I am encouraged by how quickly my calf is healing. That being said, it is still swollen, and is just now starting to show discoloration from bruising. It’s actually turning this weird yellow color. But whatever … during my next soccer game, I’ll be the first person in history to wear two shin guards on one leg – one for the front of my leg, and one for the back. That was a joke, but those girls better watch out. That was also a joke. I forgot that I have a bye this week in soccer, so I have another week to recover.

I uploaded my week 3 photos and they can be seen here. I feel the visual improvements are minimal at best, but I’m getting used to only seeing minimal results when we’re talking week to week. Hopefully the results I’ll experience from Day 1 to Day 90 will be awesome! That’s what I’m working towards. I can now do 50 push ups, whereas 3 weeks ago, I was only doing 25. I am getting stronger, but the physical changes in my appearance have yet to really kick in. I feel really good, though, and I have tons of energy.

Besides getting my ass kicked for the 2nd week in a row, the big news over the past week is that I lost another 3 lbs. I haven’t weighed 153 since probably 2007. And I don’t think I’ve weighed in the 140s since high school. Kinda crazy. All that being said, I’m not really concerned about my weight. In fact, I may bottom out around 150, and then start gaining weight during the final 60 days of P90X. The first phase of P90X is about “shredding fat”; I think I’ve done that pretty well. During the next two phases, the goal will be to bulk up, at least slightly. After all, I’m not going to be crowned Mr. USA if I only weigh 145 lbs. And I do want a crown. Like a king.

I’m pleased thus far with my results, but it’s time to start bulking up. I’m looking forward to the second phase of P90X. It’ll be a new challenge, but as my workouts get harder, my results should get sexier! haha

Finally, I want to congratulate my sister Hallie and her husband Jon. They are expecting another baby boy August 14th! I’m very excited to have another nephew, especially since they’ll soon be living just a few miles from me. If this new little guy is even half as cute as his big brother Max, he’ll have no problem attracting the ladies in daycare.

Given the amount of pain I felt on Saturday, I’m very surprised that my leg is recovering as quickly as it is. I still have a noticeable limp when I walk, and my calf is still very tight, but it’s definitely improving. That makes me very happy. I took this picture of my calf on Sunday (two days after I was brutally assaulted). Can you tell which one is swollen?

I went for a light jog this afternoon. When I started, my goal was to simply jog a mile to get the blood flowing through my leg, but as I got going, my leg started loosening up, and I decided to go 2 miles at about 75%. I still can’t believe the amount of energy I have lately. It’s crazy; when I run, I feel like I can run longer and faster, when I do the stair master, I have to keep increasing the steps per minute. It’s fun having a lot of energy, and it felt great running outside today.

After my run, I did the AbRipperX exercises, which continue to go very well. I think the ab exercises are my favorite, at least so far. Later tonight, I will do the chest and back exercises one more time before things start to get switched up in a couple of days. I’m due for another set of updated pictures soon, too, so those will be uploaded within the next couple of days.

Before I left Duluth last Friday for the twin cities, my brother and I took a trip to Gooseberry falls to take some product shots for Duluth Pack (the company where he works). I had been to Gooseberry falls once before, although the waterfall wasn’t frozen that time so it was a little bit different this time around. Anyways, I have some good memories of that place.

I had my second soccer game of the season last night, and I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve been playing soccer for over 10 years against some pretty big strong dudes, and last night, some sweet, innocent little girl kicked me in the back of my left calf, and I just dropped. In all my years of playing competitive soccer, I’ve never had a leg injury like this. I’m not even kidding – these girls are crazy. Last week I got kicked in the stomach, this week it’s my calf, next week I’m preparing for some girl to drop kick me in the head. My calf has just about doubled in size (15 hours later!), and walking is pretty much impossible right now. It even hurts to wiggle my toes.

So I don’t really know what I’m going to do. I mean being able to stand is pretty important for P90X, but I’ll figure it out. By no means will this end my adventure. I’ll just take it day by day to see what I’m capable of doing. Right now, that isn’t much. I might need to rent a motorized wheelchair for a week.

Before my soccer game last night, I had dinner at Hells Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis. Pretty cool place. I’ve been thinking more about food lately, and I’ve decided to take some cooking classes here. As a starting point, I’d like to learn the basics of cooking, as well as the basics of wine. I’ve come to realize that some day I’ll be married and my wife will come home from a long day at work – upset, tired, hungry – and I’ll say, “Would you like me to make you a grilled cheese sandwich, honey?” And she’ll say, “I’m so sick of eating grilled cheese.” So I’ll say, “Would you prefer fried eggs?”

And she’ll say, “Let me get your pillow. You’re on the couch tonight.”

The thing is … I like sleeping in my bed, so I need to learn how to cook. Then, I’ll ask her: “How about I cook you a pan-roasted duck breast with some adirondack potatoes, kale, oyster mushroom, ginger, consomme, and cranberry chutney while I rub your shoulders and talk with you about your day my sweet, sweet love?”

In reality, I need to know how to cook for myself, if anything for a healthier me, so cooking classes are where I plan to start. I’m going to this dinner party tonight on Lake Calhoun, so maybe I’ll start by learning a few things there. At this point, though, I really just hope I’ll be able to hobble to my car.

Here we go: Day 20 has come and gone and I’ve decided to step it up a notch… well, at least for a few weeks. Why? Because I feel like I have some lingering fat around my stomach that I’d like to eliminate, and the quickest way to do that is to burn it off by doing more cardio exercise (and of course by eating well).

I haven’t quite decided what my new plan of attack will be (on top of the regular P90x schedule), but I’m pretty sure I’ll do extra cardio 3-4x per week (probably in the morning hours). I’ll either run in the morning or do the stairmaster, and eventually once it warms up outside, I’ll start biking as well.

So on top of the normal P90x routine, I’m pretty sure I’ll start throwing in an extra 30-45 minutes of cardio a couple times per week. We’ll see how that goes, and what that does to help eliminate the trouble areas that need a little extra work.

Yesterday was day 19 and I did the plyometrics exercise, and it went very well. I’m visiting my brother and sister-in-law (Duluth, MN) for a few days before heading back to the cities on Friday, and I have to adapt without my regular equipment and/or facilities. I did the plyometrics (60 minutes of jumping) in their basement, and it was a little harder than normal because my head and arms were very close to the ceiling during most of the jumps. On a few occasions my head bumped the tiled ceiling.

Today, I went to the YMCA for about 90 minutes and did 30 minutes of intense stairmaster, abripperx, and some arm exercises. It’s nice to have the YMCA available, but it costs $10 every time I go since I’m not a member. That being said, I couldn’t believe the energy I had on the stairmaster! I kept increasing the “steps per minute” throughout the 30 minutes because my past routine simply wasn’t doing it for me. It felt really good to get a good stairmaster workout in. I definitely sweat a lot on that thing.

When I first started P90X roughly 20 days ago, I was only able to do 1 pull-up (I know… kinda embarrassing). Today, I did 7 pull-ups at the YMCA, so I’m definitely improving. I’ve noticed a TON of improvement with abripperx. By the time I’m finished with P90X, I think I will double and even triple the number of reps for most of the ab exercises. Bottom line: I can tell I’m in much better shape and I’m getting stronger. I expect that to continue to hold true as I progress through the remaining 70 days.