Sprinkling Zumba into P90X regiment

Since that traumatizing day when I found out that I was not losing any weight, I haven't entirely given up the idea of incorporating more cardio into my workouts.  I'm still doing P90X, but I think I'll try to up the calorie burn by occasionally switching some of the less intense P90X workouts, such as Yoga, with other cardio workouts.

Which is why I love Zumba!  I bought the Total Body Transformation collection about a year ago, which contains 6 workouts but I would say only 3 are proper workouts (Cardio Party, Sculpt & Tone, and Flat Abs) while the rest are more fillers; there's the Basic video that teaches you the basic steps; the 20-minutes Express that is a quickie workout; and the LIVE! video which is more like a wild rave and gets kind of disorderly.   But I still love Zumba, especially the gorgeous female instructors in the video, Tanya, Gina and Asuka.  They inspire me; I dream of the day when I could also look like them....sigh, one can always dream.  

Even though Zumba is easier than say P90X but don't underestimate it; it's intense and fast pace, so your heart rate definitely gets up there into the 70-80% zone, but it's not "gasping-for-life" hard like Insanity.  With that said, I'm still able to burn about the same amount of calories with Cardio Party as with the Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit workout.  My Polar heart rate monitor was reading that I burned through 591 calories in 51 mins, which gives me a caloric burn rate of 12 cal/min; pretty good in my books.  

I've never followed the Zumba program as suggested, instead I used to alternate Cardio Party with Sculpt & Tone every other day.  But I think I'll actually complete their 10-day Accelerated Fat-Loss program and test if I can really lose one dress size!  Then I'll try out their 10-day Tighten and Tone program.  But, I want to stick with P90X a bit longer before I embark on Zumba again.

The nice thing about Zumba is that it's definitely better designed for the female audience.  The Latin-inspired music, dance moves truly make the workouts engaging and fun.  And the strong emphasis on cardio instead of weight training targets the problems women care most about, i.e., shedding that nasty fat and building "long," "lean" muscles.   The heaviest objects you'll be lifting here are 1 lbs toning sticks; yeah, a big difference from the 12.5 lbs weights I'm pumping in P90X right now.  P90X is also engaging, but I think it's all because of Tony Horton, love him! He's definitely key to making the entire program work; his goofy humour, and "Try your best, forget the rest" mantra always makes you want to push yourself a little bit more.  But overall, P90X definitely is more "testosterony."    

Which is what worries me.  I'm starting to think I've made a mistake in diving into P90X.  I should have focused on shedding my fat with some cardio-based program such as Zumba, then dive into a body sculpting program like P90X after I've shed most of my excess fat.  As oppose to trying to shed fat and build lean muscles at the same time.  If I had done it the other way, I could better align my diet with my development objectives.  For example, if I do the Zumba program during my fat-shedding stage, I could easily put myself on a slightly restricted diet without fear of burning out of fuel so that I can hyper-speed up the weight loss. Once I've obliterated a lot of the nasty fat, (hopefully, most in my hammy arms) then I can turn my attention to sculpting out my "dream" body by taking on a more resistance-heavy program such as P90X, whereby, I can up my caloric intake (finally, eat some ice-cream, woo hoo!) to compensate for the higher energy needs for muscle-building.     

But right now, on P90X I'm not losing weight, nor body fat (grumble, grumble), but I am building muscles. I'm scared to eat too much, for fear of gaining weight; I'm trying to restrict my diet, but it's hard because I end up feeling burned out.  Don't get me wrong, I'm confident that if I stick with P90X I'll still get good results, but I still believe the workouts would be more effective if I switch the ordering of things.  

There is also the fact that post-P90X, it's not like you can pat yourself on the back for a job well-done and close up shop.  You have to keep working at it; as the saying goes, "Use it, or lose it."  Like our brains, our muscles atrophy when we don't use them, and fairly quickly.   I had attempted P90X once before and I was able to get from 0 push-ups to 20, but then I stopped and very quickly I was back at 0.  As is true with gravity, the climb up is a lot harder and slower than the fall down.  So, starting Zumba after P90X could potentially lead me down this path given that there's practically no weight-training in it.  Ahh, what to do? what to do?

I don't know...