The Journey To a Six-Pack: Fairy-Tales of P90X

For the majority of my life, I’ve been fat. Not like chubby fat, like fat fat. Not one of those chubby fat kids that everyone thinks is cute and will eventually grow out of it: just fat. Like that kid who dreams about living with an unlimited supply of Twinkies. Yes, that was me

Once high school came around, I got myself together and lost 50 pounds. It was by far one of my greatest accomplishments (which isn’t saying very much because one of my other accomplishments was getting a “competitor” metal when I was on the swim team, and they only give those out to the person who comes in last place).

In my first blog, I devoted an entire entry to how I went from fat to skinny. And since today’s entry is about how I’m transforming from kinda skinny to a muscular, sexy looking monster, I will give you a one-sentence summary of how I lost 50 pounds. I stopped eating snacks, actually got my fat ass into a gym (oh boy was that ass fat), and realized that green colored foods actually taste good.

Fast forward four years later. I’m 18 years old now, just graduated from high school, and in the fall will be heading off to college. I’m not going to lie, I let myself slip…a lot…in those four years. At the end of my senior year, I realized that I looked like crap and it was time to get myself back into shape before I head off to college. I was already worried about the Freshman 15, and the unlimited supply of food, dorm cafeteria’s have. This didn’t just scare me, it freaked the hell out of me! You’re telling me there’s an unlimited supply of French fries and pizza and no one’s going to be there to tell my mind to stay away from all that amazing stuff? It was starting to give me nightmares, but more importantly starting to make my pants feel a little tighter around the waist.

I had made the decision that this summer I was going to “get jacked,” having no idea what that really meant, but it sounded cool and is always a good conversation starter with girls. The plan sounded great in my head, but put on paper it wasn’t even a plan; it was crap. I was working out, but I wasn’t getting anywhere because I had no game plan. Every time I went into the gym, I would just do whatever I thought would make me look “big,” not what actually gets you into good shape.

One day after I had come home from the gym, I was watching TV and happened to catch those infamous P90X commercials, the ones where they show you the persons amazing body transformation and we all think it’s a bunch of B.S., at least that’s what I thought. But than I went to a three-day internship where I really didn’t do anything. One day when I was at the internship, I was talking with this guy about working out and doing cross-fit, and he started telling me about his friend that did P90X and how great it worked for him. I was skeptical at first by the sound of this, but than I saw the Facebook pictures of this random guy, and that’s when my mouth dropped. Day 1 pictures didn’t look good, but they didn’t look that bad either. By day 30 he was considerably leaner and more toned. By day 60 he had a six-pack, and he was very toned. And by day 90 he looked like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Bruce Willis put together. And that’s the moment I decided I was going to drop all the B.S. that I was putting myself through, and attempt to do the unthinkable, P90X.

I came home that day and started hitting the books. I read the online reviews, the web discussion groups, and of course checked out the P90X Wikipedia page. After three hours of reading endless stories of how people literally got their “sexy back” by doing P90X, I decided it was my turn to get my “sexy back,” and went to the man who I consult with about financial matters, aka my father. I’ll be honest, I had no idea the discs alone cost $100, but I worked things over with pops and we decided that when he comes up for parent’s weekend, I’ll hook him up with a “friend” (Mom if you are reading this, I’m sorry. Business is business).

After about a week, P90X was finally on my doorsteps, ready to be unleashed. Unfortunately, I was a little slow to get myself together and I didn’t start for another week. To my bitter sadness, I found a 100-page booklet that was entitled, “The P90X Health Guide.” Great, so you have to actually eat healthy and do the workouts in order to get a six-pack? That was depressing news.

After all the bickering, gathering, and buying, I finally popped in the disc, and was about to begin my first P90X workout. It was weird at first, mostly because I had never really worked-out at my house before, and I wasn’t used to someone yelling at me from the TV screen, I usually get plenty of that first-hand. The workout was intense, to say the least. I was sweating like crazy, and it was never ending. I felt like every time I was done with doing a set of pushups I was on to a set of curls. After an hour of me moaning and groaning throughout the workout, I thought I was done. But just when I thought I was done, the worst of it hit me: Ab Ripper X. For those of you that don’t know, Ab Ripper X is the the mother of all P90X workouts, cause it’s the only thing people care about: abs. It’s an intense 15 minute abdominal workout that works not only your abs, but your core too. As you can imagine, that first day was an epic fail.

I wanted to quit. I wanted to go back to doing my usual thing at the gym, pretend like I’m doing something, drink my protein shake, and go back home. But I promised myself something better than that; I deserved better than that. And so I popped in the disc for day two, and killed myself doing things I’ve never done before because frankly, I didn’t think I needed to. But once again, I was proven wrong.

A week has gone by. I haven’t quit yet. Two weeks goes by, I’m still attempting to eat healthy. Three weeks goes by, I’m starting to see that first baby abdominal muscle that girls will salivate at when they see me hit the beach sometime soon. One month in, and hell, I’m still here baby.

I never thought I’d say it, but I’m still doing P90X. I’m on week six right now and enjoying every minute of it. Ya, I’ll admit I get tired of listening to Tony (the head trainer in the videos) yell super cheesy lines that make me feel like I’m three years old. Yes, all of the people are more flexible, stronger, and better looking than me. And yes, none of the women are hot (which just makes the videos even more depressing to watch).

But six weeks in, I’ve seen some major changes. For example, my back looks amazing! If you didn’t know I had a front side to my body, you would think I’m Channing Tatum, cause my back looks super toned! Before I did P90X, I was actually the most inflexible person in the world. Like legitimately my grandmother could reach down to the floor farther than I could. Now, I can actually touch my toes (low key I do it all the time at work just to show off to all the ladies), do some of the yoga moves (that’s another amazing workout I highly recommend to all my readers), and have a much better sense of balance.

I could talk all day about all of the physical things P90X has done for me, but it’s really the sense of mind that makes P90X so great. What I love so much about P90X is the motivation you get from watching the people in the video. They keep you focused, on task, and make you strive to do more. I’m only half way through the program and I feel like I can keep up with everyone in the video, and even out-do some of them in a few of the exercises.

I know college is still a month away, but I’ll be ready in every sense of the word. My goal this summer was to “get jacked.” Amazingly, that might actually happen.

If I were to end this blog now, I feel like it would end on the wrong note. This blog isn’t all about getting a six-pack or getting into good shape for the girls, it’s about being happy with who you are. The chances of me ending up with a six-pack by the end of P90X are highly unlikely. Regardless of the outcome, I am happy with who I see in the mirror. Sadly, I don’t look like Ryan Gosling, but the person I do see in the mirror is whom I want myself to see, who I want other people to see, and who I want to be. I can live with not having a six-pack or being super fit, but I can’t live without accepting my body, my personality, my looks, and everything else I have to offer to this fine world. So I leave you with this question, do you like who you see in the mirror?

Yours Truly,

Chip I.T.

“Everything I’m not, made me everything I am”