Insanity Day 4: Recovery?

Today was my first "recovery" day. Keep in mind this doesn't mean rest. No, for Insanity it means another 40 minute workout that they just happen to call "Cardio Recovery". I can say there wasn't any cardio. But it was still hard. There was a lot of stretching and a lots of yoga moves (I assume they're yoga, altough I've never done yoga). Some of the moves were just modified versions of squats, planks, and other exercises we've been doing the past few days. The only difference is you do them slower, you hold them longer, and while you're strained, you bounce up and down slightly (which they call "pulses") to make even the recovery strenuous. In all seriousness, I really enjoyed today.

I should also add that I wasn't really all that sore this morning, even before the workout. That tells me I need to push a bit harder tomorrow. I ordered a heart rate monitor which should arrive today or tomorrow from Amazon. While it will be interesting to see my peak heart rate (which I'm sure will be in the danger zone), I'm more interested in seeing how many calories I burn on these workouts. It will help guide me on my diet.

From what I've read, men burn between 750-1000 calories for an Insanity workout. I assume I'm on the low end for now. Since I'm eating around 2200 calories every day, the net would be somewhere around 1500. I have no idea how many calories I was eating before I started this program, but I'm guessing it was somewhere in the 3000-4000 range. Believe me, I can eat!

My old eating habits were not very healthy. I never ate breakfast (unless my inlaws were in town, in which case we'd go to Marilyn's in Chester, NJ for breakfast...the best around by the way). A typical lunch would be a chicken parmesan sandwhich with an iced tea,, or General Tso's Chicken, or sometimes Panera Bread (Chipotle Chicken Sandwich is the bomb. Hold the tomatoes). Dinner would be whatever we made at home, but we often go out to dinner, especially on weekends. Later at night is when the damage really begins. Pretzels, beer, wings, pizza, cheese, egg and bacon sandwiches. I swear if it were healthy I could live on those things alone. Well, I suppose I have for a long time. I think in the long term, it will be the changes in diet that will be the hardest. But who knows? I haven't started Month 2 yet (which is supposed to be much harder than Month 1 of the program).

Anyway, I owe my dog a walk. She's still on couch from yesterday I think.