P90X Round 2 Day 30: Controlled Cardio Confusion

Today marks the end of phase one. Therefore, it's time to get the pictures up for this week. First, I would like to talk about the workout for today though. I started today's workout after I came home from work with the 2nd week Couch to 5K workout. I scrapped Plyometrics which would of been today for this shorter and more moderate cardio workout. This workout is simply an interval workout of jogging for 90 seconds followed by walking for 60 seconds for a total of 20 minutes. However, I did it with a little twist. I ran most of today uphill. Here is just a small portion of the hill I run:


Obviously, as you can tell, this hill winds around the right and continues even further up. It eventually turns to the left and heads up another steeper hill. After running uphill for a good portion of the Couch to 5K workout, I decided to do some very moderate cycling. Nothing special here, just 10 minutes going at a below average pace on the bike followed by maxing out sit-ups. After that, I was all done.

Here's how today's diet went:
Breakfast:
- 4 poached eggs
- two slices of whole wheat toast with butter
- glass of whole milk
- orange

Mid-morning snack:
- Clif Builder's Bar (Chocolate mint)
- 3 Tbsp Olive oil

Lunch
- 8 oz grilled chicken breast
- banana
- cottage cheese
- 2 glasses whole milk
- Mayo sandwich (whole wheat bread)

Mid-afternoon snack:
- BSN syntha-6 with whole milk

Dinner:
- glass whole milk
- glass of V8 (low sodium)
- steamed broccoli
- cup of beans
- apple
- 8 oz tuna

Before bed snack:
- one scoop of casein protein with water
- 3 tbsp olive oil

So let's compare with how my body has developed over the past 30 days. As you can tell from today's diet, I have been eating a lot. I have gained close to four pounds in four weeks which is pretty close to the pace I want to be gaining weight per week at.

Day 1 on the left, Day 30 on the right


A couple things stick out to me here. First, the front view goes like this. You can clearly see that I have gained some weight. But the thing that really sticks out to me is the double-edged sword in that my shoulders have gotten much more height and width on them (which I like a lot) but at the same time, my abs are slowly starting to fade away. However, no need to panic. I know the abs are strong and still there as they feel rock solid when I touch them. They are just covered by more fat now. Hey what can I do? That's the downside of eating more food in order to gain weight. You're stomach has to get bigger. Eventually I am going to do a cut after gaining all this weight, so the abs will be more ripped than ever after that. I also noticed that my traps and my chest are getting bigger too.

From the back view, I am clearly making nothing but postitive strides. My arms look like they have gotten bigger which is a definite plus. Also, I feel like my back is the strongest body muscle group right of mine right now. When I have no weight added, I feel like I can literally do pull-ups all day long and not get fatigued. Having a strong back would instantly help in playing any sport.