Pork Tenderloin with Blueberry Sauce

I've been really trying to stay away from fruit for the last week, since I'm trying to dial in my carb intake (more specifically, my fructose intake, which goes directly to liver glycogen rather than blood). This, of course, will go back to normal once I hit my goal weight/fat loss target. For now, though, I'm sticking to berries when I absolutely have to have some fruit.

So I was trying to find some inspiration for a sauce for pork when I stumbled across the Paleo Plan website and from there, the Pork Tenderloin with Blueberry Sauce recipe. I altered it a bit, cut the amounts in half, and made up a batch. I didn't add honey or any other sweetener, because I figured the blueberries would be sweet enough. I was right. All it needed was a bit of salt to be perfect. My sauce didn't come out looking quite so...saucy, but that's ok. It was still delicious. I used a very small amount of sauce on a large amount of pork for this lunch. Today is supposed to be a workout day (legs) but I'm just not feeling it right now. Maybe tonight I'll do a nice Yoga video to change things up a bit. I trust that one skipped leg workout is not going to throw me off-track.

I had precooked some pork tenderloins in my slow cooker, so all I had to do was spoon this sauce over top for the first meal. Today, I threw some sauce into a small saucepan and laid the remaining tenderloin on top, heated it through, then shredded it up with two forks. I'm telling you, I'm loving the whole shredded-meat thing. Yums. I also had 1/4 of a cucumber, 1/4 cup of fermented (with kefir) cabbage, some grape tomatoes, and some Swiss cheese. I ate a HUGE amount of the pork - over 200g. I'll not be eating now until later tonight, around 8-9pm (it's only noon now), so this meal, which is also my fast breaker, has to last me all day. My total nutritional value work up for this meal: 439 cals, 61.5g protein, 11.75g carbs, 17g fat. Not too shabby.

I must say, this whole Paleo-style eating is really expanding my horizons when it comes to trying out new things. And you know what? I don't miss grains, sugar, potatoes, or processed food one little bit.

As for weight loss, I now have less than 15 pounds to go before I hit my (max) target weight range. I'm getting pretty excited. I know it's not going to happen overnight, but it's happening. And I'll most definitely be at a bikini-ready level of fitness by the summer. Good times!

Workout of the Day - BRUTAL

Wow. Someone suggested to me The WOD Shop for ideas for bodyweight exercises. A random generator provides insane circuit training routines that you can scroll through until you find one that sounds appealing or murderous, depending on your preferences. I chose one called Hit the Deck. You use a deck of cards. (not sure why the font is messed, Blogger won't let me change it)

For time
Complete the following chipper using a shuffled deck of cards:
Spades = Squats
Hearts = Burpees (I did jumping jacks instead to be kind to my downstairs neighbour)
Diamonds = Pushups
Clubs = Crunches
8 of clubs would be 8x crunches, 6 of hearts 6x burpees, etc.
Face cards are worth 10 reps, Aces are 11 reps

I had the idea that doing an entire deck would probably be too much for me, considering I haven't been working out regularly for over a month. So I decided to set my timer to 10 minutes and see what I could do in that time. Here's what I did:
43 pushups
63 jumping jacks
82 squats
67 crunches
I got through 35 cards.

Day 5 and I Feel FANTASTIC!

Ok, fantastic may be a little bit of an exaggeration, considering I feel muscles in a way I haven't in a long, long time.  As in, sore to the touch and can't-get-up-without-feeling-it pain, but it's GREAT.  I know the P90X series is working.

Yesterday, the Lean version called for Yoga X, but being Sunday, I didn't have an hour and a half to devote to my workout, so I did a 20-minute High Intensity Interval Training video from BeachBody's Turbo Fire workout program.  I sweated more during those twenty minutes than I have in a long time during a cardio workout. 

Today was Legs and Back and Ab Ripper X day.  Wowza.  I did close to 100 pullups over the course of the workout (about 50 minutes) and so many lunges, squats, and wall squats that my legs and butt scream at me every time I get up from the couch.  I'm afraid to see what I'm going to feel like in the morning!

I swapped out a few of the ab exercises in the Ab Ripper X program to sub in some police-specific sit ups.  I also added in some bicycle crunches (a la Jillian Michaels).  Now I can feel ab muscles right up under my breasts, which is fairly rare for me.

Tomorrow is Kenpo X day, which I'm not too sure about, but we'll see.  I've adjusted the plan to include a Chest and Back workout on Day 1 instead of Core Synergistics.  I'll probably throw a run in there on that day, too, so I don't lose my running progress.  I have to include a run on one other night of the week, too.  I still have to figure that out. 

Overall, I think it's a pretty tight program.  I've got three cardio days and three strength days, as well as a rest day or stretch day. I think I'll go with the stretch this week and see how it goes.  I need to work on flexibility so it might be good for me.  I just realized...one more day and then I've got my stretch day!  Kenpo X tomorrow...oh boy.

Day 3 of P90X

I can't remember if I mentioned I'm doing the Lean version of P90X.  Basically, the Lean version has more cardio and less strength moves, but don't get me wrong...there are still plenty of great workouts in this version.  I need to work on my pullups and pushups, so the Lean version should help me to get to the "Classic" level for round #2 (after I take a couple weeks off when round 1 is completed, of course).

Weeks 1-3 are the same in the Lean version.  Day 1 is Core Synergistics, Day 2 is Cardio X, Day 3 (which I've just finished) is Shoulders & Arms and Ab Ripper X.  Day 4 is Yoga X, Day 5 is Legs & Back and Ab Ripper X, Day 6 is Kenpo X, and Day 7 is rest or Stretch X.

Today is Day 3, and so I've just completed the Shoulders & Arms and the Ab Ripper X workouts, back-to-back.  Together, they are about 60 minutes in length, including the warm-up and cool-down.  I was pretty satisfied with the arm workouts, aside from the fact that my dumbbells are a little too light.  I'll have to pick up some 10, 15, and 20 pound dumbbells for upcoming back workouts.  Apparently my heavier 8-pound ones are at my parents' place so I'll have to get those as well.  I was using 5 pound weights and that's really not enough for a good workout.  Not that I didn't get a workout- I can certainly feel my arms right now, but it could have been a lot tougher.  Some people might prefer bands, but I like using dumbbells.

The ab workout was killer.  It's only about 10 minutes, but during that time, you do 349 ab exercises.  Each exercise requires 25 reps, except for one where we did 40 plus ten bonus.  OUCH! 

This morning, my outer thighs, hip flexors, and obliques were killing me from all the kenpo and wacky jacks in yesterday's workout.  I can only imagine how I'll feel tomorrow!

I'm considering buying some adjustable dumbbells, maybe you've seen them advertised.  I know Jillian Michaels has a set for a reasonable price.  I'm going to check out some reviews and maybe pick up a set off of Amazon.  Her two-dumbbell set only goes to 12.5 pounds (each) but she also has a 25-pound option, which is adjustable in 5-pound increments.  What a fantastic idea - save space and have all the weights you need.  The only problem is that this price is for ONE dumbbell, so shipping would be killer.  Maybe Fitness Depot carries weights like these, I am going to check it out.