I surpassed the 45th out of 90 Beach Body P90 Home Fitness program sessions this week. I finished #48 tonight, but wanted to give my thoughts now that I am halfway through the circuit.

The P90 program is six days of training and then one day of rest. For the last two weeks I have been doing four sessions of the higher-intensity cardio and circuit training (Phase 3 and 4). The last two sessions of each week I drop down to Phase 1 and Phase 2. I found I was having some knee problems by the end of the week from over training. I am fairly young and in overall good health. I have never had a serious injury. However, the intensity and movements of the Phase 3 and Phase 4 over a six day period wear my body out. I used to squat 450 pounds while I was in Oregon; it would be embarrassing to hurt myself in my own home doing lunges or jumping jacks.

On the plus side, I have gotten a lot stronger. I was finally able to complete the “Ab Ripper 200″ portion of the Phase 3 workout without stopping. There are ten ab movements, with twenty reps each. It’s double the reps of the Phase 1 workout. As usual, the biggest bitches are the bicycles. I cheat a little by going faster than Tony leading up to the bicycles and then take a little bit extra break right before the torture begins.

I did Phase 4 tonight, and did 99 pushups, 40 lunges, and 81 squats. That’s on top of the military presses, dips, calf raises, bent-over rows, and other assorted exercises. I was only doing 40 pushups a day when I was on my own workout schedule after training with Yoda. Doing all of the P90 stuff in a forty minute workout session makes me feel pretty good.

My measurements have been good. I’ve been doing a lot of these myself and as such they are probably too varied to be accurate. However, my waistline is down to 36″ from 36.5″ on 10/30/08 and my hips are down to 36″ from 36.75.” My chest is up one inch, 43″ from 42.” I am finally developing (albeit small) pec muscles, something I have never been able to accomplish without also putting on a lot of fat.

My “mirror image” is still unsatisfactory. I am carrying too much mass around my waist. It is going to take a dietary change to make things happen. I have already cut back on eating out and hope that will help me cut a digit or two off of my body fat percentage. Otherwise I am going to have to go on an actual “diet,” and that doesn’t make me too happy. I have a plan in mind, but am going to wait for the last thirty sessions to do so. I’ll give you a hint: the last two weeks involve giving up my favorite food of all time. It rhymes with “triple cheeseburgers.”

I’m still pleased with P90. Even though I have room for improvement, I’ve been proud of the progress I’ve made thus far. The monotony is definitely setting in. Time flies when I am doing the workout, but motivating myself to start is becoming more difficult. I don’t allow myself to sit down in front of the computer until I finish my workout, for example. I’m afraid I’ll just cruise the ‘Net until bedtime otherwise.

I am also nervous about the holiday season. It’s Starbuck’s favorite time to bake yummy things, and I have low discipline when it comes to sweets. I can imagine pumpkin or pecan pie right now. Or tiramisu. Oh sweet lawdy lawd, tiramisu.

I’ll probably check back in at the #60 mark with another status report.