As I noted in my last post, I decided to repeat week 3 of P90X since I was on vacation and only ended up doing two workouts. I came back strong on week 3 and had a good workout and diet week. I ended up losing another 1.5 pounds which was great. I am also hopefully gaining muscle at the same time.

I fully intended to buy a recovery drink mix, but I ended up not getting one. I am not totally convinced of the merits of recovery drinks, not to mention that they are expensive. I looked at Accelerade at my local Vitamin Shoppe, but decided not to get it. I wish I could get some sample packs to try before I buy a huge tub to see if I like it. Obviously, one needs to eat or drink something after a workout but so far I think chocolate milk is working fine.

One thing I did differently this week was use a real pull-up bar. It definitely made a difference in the intensity of my workouts. I like it better than using the resistance band. I must admit that I am getting a little bit tired of P90X basically taking up 6 mornings a week, it’s a big time commitment but I’m happy with the results so far. I am looking forward to my recovery week where the workouts are a little less strenuous before ramping up for the second phase.

The diet is getting slightly easier. I did discover that I need to eat more carbs before the cardio workouts. I kept crashing during Kenpo and Plyometrics, I simply felt like I ran out of steam about halfway through. From now on I’m going to try eating a small piece of fruit before cardio as one of my Twitter friends suggested. I also bought some Clif Builder Protein Bars which are somewhat like the P90X protein bars, they have the same amount of protein (20g) but they are all natural and taste good and are cheaper than ordering P90X bars. I got a big box of them at Sam’s Club. I still haven’t gotten a “real” recovery drink and have been using chocolate milk. I am thinking about trying Accelerade because it has the same 4:1 carb to protein ratio that the P90X recovery drink does. I need to do a little more research on recovery drinks though.

One thing I have noticed about the workouts, is that I feel like the resistance bands aren’t challenging enough for the pull up exercises. I am going to work on rigging up a way to do pull ups so I can get the full effect. My husband and I have a small gym in our basement so we will figure something out. I think our weight rack and a bar secured to it might work, we are going to try it.

I have been posting about my P90X workouts on my Twitter account and have been amazed at the awesome support I’ve gotten. I have gained a few P90X followers and some of them have had some excellent advice. I have been using the P90X hashtag on posts (#P90X). Even though I’ve gotten off of the P90X path a bit, I am coming back strong and am determined to stay the course.

P90X is my new part time job. It’s time consuming but week one is in the bag. And it wasn’t easy. I am happy to say that I made it through all of the workouts and stuck to the diet pretty well. I think the hardest thing so far is the diet. It’s tough eating such a high protein, low carb and low fat diet. I’m getting a little tired of egg white omelet’s. I need to get some new ideas for meals when I get time to do some research. I did however lose a pound and a half this week so I am quite happy about that.

Even though I’ve been getting plenty of sleep, I have been feeling tired in the afternoons. I think the workouts are tiring me out. I have been drinking chocolate milk for my recovery drink after reading a study that was done on it. I’m thinking about trying a “real” recovery drink to see if it makes any difference. The Nesquik is very good though.

I really have enjoyed the workouts, they are tough but fast paced and I like Tony Horton’s style. I think doing some Firm workout videos before starting P90X helped me get conditioned for it. I also did some pregnancy workouts while I was pregnant that helped keep me from getting totally out of shape.

A few notes on the first week:
My favorite workout was Kenpo X, it reminded me of my days of taking karate classes. My least favorite workout was Yoga X. I like yoga but come on, an hour and a half? I was getting bored with it. The hardest workout by far was Ab Ripper X. 3 months out after having a baby, my abs and tummy are still pretty much mush. Hopefully Ab Ripper X will change that soon though!

Photo by LetTheCardsFall

I have some friends who have had good success with Tony Horton’s P90X and after reading up on it, I decided it is exactly what I need to get back in shape. I have done 10 Minute Trainer workouts in the past that are also from Tony Horton and like his training style.  P90X has been out for a while so there is a ton of info on it online. Plus, it’s not in as high of demand as it used to be so I was able to find it for a good deal on eBay.  If you buy it from Beachbody on Amazon, it’s a whopping $140, but I found it for a mere $47. Not bad for 13 DVD’s, the nutrition guide and fitness guide. Plus the BeachBody web site has a wealth of information and help for people getting started.

P90X is not for the faint of heart. It’s a tough workout and diet regimen meant to get one in peak shape within 90 days. Tony Horton, the P90X trainer, shows how to work out all the muscle groups and also throws in cardio and yoga. It’s a varied workout and it’s based on muscle confusion which means continually working out different muscles so they don’t get used to doing the same workouts over and over.

After doing my calculations I found out I am on level 1 for the nutrition. Which means I need 1800 calories a day. Phase 1 of the diet is very high protein, low fat and low carb so we will see how it goes. I guess this means goodbye to my chai latte addiction for a while…

I have my meal plan made out and my grocery shopping done, now all I need to do is “bring it” as Tony Horton would say. Hopefully this blog will give me some level of accountability and I will be able to stick it out for 90 days!

Friday night our cat Gracie was violently ill, she threw up a lot, not just a little hairball, but some serious stuff. I thought this was unusual and was trying to figure out what could have made her sick. Not to gross you out, but the puke was tinted yellowish which was odd. I was trying to figure out what she could have gotten into when Jake mentioned that the lilies were yellow. I looked at the flowers and sure enough, a couple of petals were missing from one of the lilies. I came to the conclusion that she had eaten them.

Lilies are Highly Toxic to Cats!

I thought I would do some research online to see if there was something I could give Gracie to make her feel better. I knew that some plants were poisonous to cats, but figured she would probably feel better the next day. I googled the phrase “lilies poisonous to cats” and found a list of plants poisonous to cats. I was surprised when I saw that there was a whole separate page on lilies on the site I was visiting. The more I read, the more concerned I became. I discovered that lilies are one of THE most toxic plants to cats. Easter lilies and many varieties of day lilies were included in the list. They are highly poisonous even in small doses and can cause kidney failure! I was totally shocked! I felt like a terrible pet owner for not knowing this information. Any part of a lily is poisonous to cats, from the stem to the petals. I kept doing more research and found a couple of cases where people posted about their cats eating lilies and then dying. I was beside myself as you can imagine. From what I read, treatment should be done in 12 – 18 hours to avoid kidney damage. Some sites said treatment is needed within 6 hours.

I read that the normal course of events after a cat eats a piece of a lily is that they are sick and throw up. Then they may appear to get better. If a pet owner doesn’t know that the lilies are toxic, or doesn’t know that their cat ate one, they will just think the cat is feeling better. Until the cat’s kidneys begin to fail. According to my research, within 48 to 96 hours after consumption, the cat will tend to show signs of clinical kidney failure: increased urination, depression, stomach upset and dehydration. Once kidney failure begins, there is little that can be done to save the cat besides humanely putting it to sleep.  Without treatment, death tends to occur within 5 days.

Treatment for Lily Poisoning

Of course, this all happened at 9pm when there were no vets open besides an emergency vet (which is not cheap).  I decided to take Gracie first thing in the morning. When I took her to the vet, he was very concerned and said that cats eating lilies is similar to them eating antifreeze and has similar effects. However, since she had just eaten the lilies the night before, they could take her blood to see if any damage had been done yet and put her on an IV to flush the poison out of her system. He recommended starting with two days of the IV and then testing her blood again to check her BUN and Creatinine levels that indicate if the kidneys are functioning properly. So Gracie had to be admitted to the “hospital” and put on an IV. She was none too happy about that. As you can imagine, treatment is not cheap. Here is a picture of her on her IV. My husband wasn’t too thrilled about the vet bill, he said that those were the most expensive flowers he had ever gotten me!

Gracie was a very fortunate kitty. Much to my relief, after two days of being on an IV, her blood test came back normal and there was no kidney damage. She was happy to get home and get back to her normal routine.

Once a person knows that lilies are poisonous to cats, preventing lily poisoning is easy, just keep lilies out of the house or garden. Anywhere a cat might come in contact with them. There are dozens of other plants that are poisonous to cats and dogs as well. For a complete list, check the ASPCA’s Poison Control Center. While most plants are not as poisonous to cats as lilies, there are several that can make them very sick.

What can you do?

I have talked to a few cat owners in recent days, and none of them knew that lilies were toxic to cats. If you are a cat owner, be sure to keep lilies out of reach of your cats. If you know someone who is a cat owner, be sure to mention it to them. I ran across this pdf from UC Veterinary Medical Center, I think it would be a great idea to print off and see if vet offices in your area have a bulletin board it can be posted on. Also, increasing awareness at florist shops would be good. In my case I am happy to say, all is well that ends well!

A healthy Gracie reposing on her favorite chair

Photo by ericmcgregor

The 10 Minute Trainer sounded very appealing for my time crunched schedule. However, the 10 minute part is slightly misleading. They recommend that you do three 10 minute workouts 6 times a week. And if you don’t have time for that just do one or two. Anything is better than sitting on the couch eating chips I suppose.

I didn’t really want to pay the $90 (including shipping) for the workouts so I turned to eBay, one of my favorite shopping sites. I was able to find the “deluxe” edition for $75. It included three resistance bands and some other extra’s and was from a reputable eBay seller so I knew they weren’t pirated. You can see what all is included on the official 10 Minute Trainer site. You can also get them on Amazon. Now I know that these are going to be in next summer’s garage sales for $10, but I really wanted a new workout now and something to motivate and challenge me.

The Pros

The first couple of weeks I really didn’t have time to do the workouts consistently like I needed to. When I was finally able to do them 6 days, I could really tell a difference. The workouts are great and you can get as much or as little as you want out of them. Tony also keeps things entertaining. It took me a little while to get used to the resistance bands since I am used to working out with free weights, but once I got the hang of it, I liked it. You can control the resistance and make it as challenging as you want. It is amazing how much of a workout you can get in with 10 minutes. I try to do at least 3 of them but sometimes if I’m crunched for time I’ll only do one or two, but it is still a good workout.

The Cons

While the workouts were great, I had a few issues with the format and the DVD’s themselves. The one thing that annoyed me the most about the videos is the incessant advertising of the wowy.com web site before every workout. It always says, log on now! If I’m getting ready to workout, I’m hardly going to go log on now, I just want to get on to the business of working out. There are also several other ads for other workouts which is annoying.And probably the most bothersome thing about the DVD’s, is that I always have trouble getting to the cooldown. Maybe it’s operator error, but there isn’t a separate menu option for the cool down so I have to flip back and forth through different workouts until I get to it.

Overall, it’s a great workout. It is like any other workout routine, if you do it, it works, if you don’t, it won’t. If you want a fun, fast paced workout routine and you don’t mind dropping a few bucks for it, it is a great way to get in decent shape without dedicating your life to working out.

After I got home, I filled out the form and sent it along with my printed coupons to KFC. I was extremely annoyed with the whole affair as I’m sure plenty of other people were too. I don’t know what KFC’s marketing department was thinking, it should have been obvious from the start that there could be trouble.

A few weeks after I mailed in my coupons, I received my new KFC coupons in the mail and these coupons also included a free drink which was nice. However, the coupons were not good until almost two months after the date I received them. Perhaps they are hoping that in two months time I will forget about the coupons and they won’t have to give out the free meals after all.

It is nice that KFC wanted to give out free meals, but they really should have thought through the whole thing a little better. When they quit honoring the coupon, I’m sure it upset a lot of people. Maybe it upset them enough not to want to go to KFC again, or at least put a black mark on the KFC name. Some people in California were so upset that they are suing KFC. It will be interesting to see how that lawsuit turns out. In a couple of months time, I plan to enjoy my free KFC grilled chicken and I will then be able to determine if it was worth all the fuss.

I am absolutely amazed at the number of people who call back a number that they don’t even recognize. I usually don’t answer unrecognized numbers, much less call them back. A quick Google search of the phone number revealed that it was from Pennsylvania and there were several complaints of it being a telemarketer selling cruises. There are several web sites such as Caller Complaints where people can report telemarketing calls and also comment on them. I have not been answering my phone when outside calls come in, however, one lady was quite insistent and left 3 voice mails asking to be called back. I finally called her back and explained the situation. This morning I had 5 voice mails, some hang-ups and some actual messages. Some people even tell me their name, phone number and where they live. It’s somewhat amusing but also annoying. Hopefully the telemarketer will be shut down soon or use a different number and I will quit getting these calls!

When we arrived, we were greeted warmly and shown to our table where a welcome card with our name on it awaited. There were also fresh flowers on the table in a cute, tiny vase. Since we were getting the brunch, the meal was pre-planned so we didn’t have to order but did have our choice of quiches. We were served the mother’s bouquet hot tea which was a special blend and was excellent. We also were served a glass of sparkling juice.  We were first served piping hot orange pecan French toast which was delicious. We had a selection of three quiches to choose from, I chose the spinach quiche. The main course was a personal quiche, a cup of fruit, a slice of banana bread and a blueberry scone with lemon curd. It was all excellent and presented beautifully. The service was excellent as well. I will definitely be visiting Yesterday’s again for tea or lunch with friends.