P90X – On Hold
As I’m sure you guys have noticed, I haven’t been updating the site in the last week or so. I’ve been going through a life planning process and really getting clear on my values and goals in life.
As part of this process I’m really re-evaluating my goals in the Fitness and Health category of my life. As some of you who have been following this blog from day one have seen, I started off my plan on February 9th and for the first 30 days of the plan I was following the P90X fitness plan pretty much exactly as laid out in the system, and I was following the diet part about 80%.
In the second phase of the program (After day 30) I went back to eating my normal diet which isn’t as healthy as I’d like it to be, but continued on with my exercise plan. Surprisingly, even though I ate crappy I actually lost some fat weight in the second phase of the program, but probably not as much as I could have lost if I was eating healthy.
I’ve been getting really busy with some projects I’m working on for my businesses and it’s been putting a strain on my workout schedule and eating patterns. In the first phase, I was mostly doing my workouts during the afternoons but lately I haven’t been making time to do my workouts until well after midnight which makes it really hard to stick with the program.
Probably the most frustrating thing has been that I’ve been working so hard on the exercise part of the program, but because my diet sucks I haven’t been losing as much fat as I’d like to and as much as I know I can, so it just feels like I’ve been getting “bigger”.
I need to do something about my diet. It’s just getting too hard to keep exercising when I know that my diet is not up to par. It feels like all the hard work I’m doing during the workouts gets wasted with the crappy foods I eat.
I think I need to work out a diet that’s not as strict as the P90X diet, but not as “loose” as what I’ve been doing lately. I need something that’s going to give me the energy I need to complete the workouts.
My biggest problem is my addiction to sugar. Almost everyone I know has this addiction to varying degrees. I’ve gone off of sugar in the past a few times and always experienced “withdrawal” symptoms during the first few days very similar to those that drug addicts experience when getting off of drugs. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them this, but that’s because they’ve never tried getting off of sugar before. Some of the research I heard on white sugar suggests that it’s actually more addictive than Cocaine.
I’ve tried reducing my sugar intake before, but I find that it’s actually easier to just completely go cold turkey and just survive the first few days and then you’re no longer craving it at all. Now, when I say “Sugar”, I don’t just mean the white sugar you put in your coffee or tea. I’m talking about ALL types of refined sugars, like white breads, corn starches, breakfast cereals with sugar in them, white pasta, white rice, artificial sweeteners like Splenda or Aspartame etc. Basically the only kind of sugars you’re allowed to eat is the sugars you find in whole fruits and vegetables. It’s not easy to do this, but it’s a really good way to lose fat weight.
Anyway, I’m still working on deciding if I want to do this, or if I want to just gradually cut down on my sugar intake and just work on making sure I eat healthy foods in my diet and allow myself to eat crappy stuff too if I want, but only after I’ve had my nutritious foods. For example, if I want dessert, I could eat an apple first and then if I still want some ice cream after then I can still have it but only after I eat my apple.
I’m working on figuring all the “mental” stuff right now, and in the meantime my workouts are on hold for a few days. Also, the last few days I’ve been feeling like crap. I’ve been waking up with a sore throat and feeling lethargic. I hope I didn’t create a flu in my body with the crap I’ve been eating. That’s another reason I wanted to take a few more days off, to let myself rest and recover from whatever this thing is.
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Great post Paul, I feel you on the sugar thing. I once tried 21 of no chocolate and on day 3 it was so hard I cried.
Paul, I think you are making a mistake! Doing it half way is better than not doing it at all! Just make a gradual shift until you find the right balance.
Personally I find a rigid diet hard to follow, so I just keep it simple: No junk, and stop eating when I am full. Anything else is fair game, and it works as long as the exercise is happening too.
Hi Paul: Very cool site and thanks for the worksheets! You saved me a bunch of time! I’ve started P90X about two weeks ago, and have been adding the workouts ad hoc to my running routine thus far. Generally, I log about 16-20 miles per week. The workouts are no joke. Monday, I will begin the program in earnest, 7 days a week, in addition to running.
Diet seems to be your challenge. In my opinion, the P90X diet is far too complex, frustrating to prepare, and too calorie rich. People don’t have time to become amateur chefs! The producers of the program (whom I’ve actually met) overpaid the nutritionist!
Should of kept it simple…
My advice to you is two-fold; 1) Abandon the P90X Diet and adopt a much simpler, more calorie restrictive diet 2) Incorporate more cardio into your week- start running/ jogging three times a week, even for 30 minute intervals. Your metabolism will jump up, and you’ll probably actually feel less “stiff” cause you’ll burn off the lactic acid buildup from the workouts.
Fat loss = caloric deficit, 3,500 calories = approx 1 lb. of human body fat. Give it a shot and I’m happy to email you a much simpler diet plan so the food is less of a distraction.
Thanks again for the awesome site and inspiration. Hang in there.
Kindly,
Jason
Hey Paul,
Don’t feel bad about taking a break from the X. I got through the first 30 days then life got in the way and I became too stressed out and tired to continue. Since then it’s been about a month and things have calmed down. I’ve only worked out a couple times in the last 30days. I know, not good. Since quitting, there has been a huge difference in the way I feel. While on the X, I slept soundly and had so much more energy. I’m looking forward to feeling that way again so I’m starting all over on Monday 4/27/09 and hope to get thru the whole 90 day program.
I’m sure you’ll come back when your ready. Try not to take as long as I did.
Summer is coming and I don’t want to jiggle anymore. LOL
Good Luck,
~Nicole
Diet is really the most important aspect of any program. There is an old saying that goes “abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym.” It’s true.
You can workout but if you’re not adhering to a regitmed nutritional program, its going to be difficult to see real gains.
The elimination of sugar is a great idea. I know guys who call sugar “muscle killer.”
It’s hard to cut it out entirely, but keep it up! You’ll accomplish your goals.
Hi Paul,
I can really understand your frustration with diet AND working to get exercise hours in on work days. (Huge struggle for me.) I work with PacificHealth Labs, the company that makes Accelerade and Endurox. They just came out with a new product: Forze GPS. Forze GPS is designed for endurance athletes looking to manage their weight. It holds off cravings, and to me the best part is that the bars are made of all-natural ingredients. (And they actually taste good!)
We’ve sent samples of the bars to some people we thought might like them, and we’re hearing that the bars DO hold off appetite and help with weight management.
E-mail me if you’d like and I’ll send you some samples, too.
Good luck to you! I really hope you achieve your P90X goals soon.
Hi Paul,
Please forgive the post but wanted to get in touch with you …. I want to talk to you about your experience with p90x . do you know about all the products that they provide ?? Do you know that you can make money with refering people who are your followers and that want to do the same as you ?
Do you live in Vancouver ? I would really like to speak with you and share with you beachbody. I am a personal trainer in vancouver and can meet with you if your in the area.
Please forgive my tsquaredtraining.com site I am in the process of new one but if you go to http://www.milliondollarbody.com/tsquared you can see some of the things that I am talking about.
http://beachbodycoach.com/esuite/home/tsquared/products
http://www.teamfitrevolution.com/index.htm
http://www.milliondollarbody.com/tsquared
http://www.beacoach.biz
Hi Paul,
In the past I used a lot of sugar in my coffee and on my morning oats, then I decided to quit coffee, mainly to get rid of the sugar. I have been off coffee and don’t put sugar on my oats since september. I have replaced coffee with teas, herbal and others.
Recently I picked up the book “Skinny Bastard” which really opened my eyes to all the crap I have been putting in my body and now I have put a new goal on my vision board: “Happy Vegan 2010″.
Good luck with your diet and workouts!
Odinn
@Odinn: Sweet, I just bought “Skinny Bastard”. My wife read “Skinny Bitch”, and she liked it so I bet I’ll like this book.
Regarding coaching for Canadians…I’m working with two Canadian coaches currently, and would be able to shed some light to you as to how they got around the coaching block for Canada.
Shoot me an email. I used to blog over at http://veganmela.blogspot.com but have since gotten a new site. I like your new design here – it’s very visually appealing!
Hey Paul How goes the P90x Videos Have you moved on to the Insanity workouts yet?
@Maria: I’ve done the no-sugar thing about 4 times now over the last 5 years. The first time was absolutely horrible. I went through insane withdrawl symptoms and the scary thing was it just kept getting worse and worse and I had no idea if it would ever end.
If I remember correctly, day 3 was the worst, and then day 4 got a bit better, and then after that it was fine. Then I didn’t touch sugar until we went on a trip to Disneyland and then I allowed myself to eat crap again because we were on Vacation.
The next few times I did the no sugar thing, it wasn’t so bad because I knew that the symptoms were just temporary and I knew I could survive them. The toughest thing is not knowing/expecting the symptoms. You run around the house trying to eat stuff, drink water etc. because you think you’re hungry or thirsty, but no amount of “good” food satisfies you because what you’re really craving is sugar. It’s crazy.
@Jonathan: I appreciate your opinion. The truth is that I’m currently working through a personal transformation process which involves some big shifts in my values, and while in the middle of this process I’m kind of going through an identity shift. In the middle of an identity shift, there’s always a period of time (days or weeks) where everything kind of goes into limbo for a while. I’m working through that process, and I’m sure that once I’m on the other side of it my P90X progress will continue. I’m also just getting over a flu/cold that really kicked my ass. My wife has it as well and we’ve both been miserable for the last week. It’s our bodies way of telling us to start eating healthy again.
Don’t worry, I’ll be back on the P90X path very soon.
@Troy: Hi Troy, how the heck did you get approved to be a Beachbody Coach? I thought they don’t allow Canadians to be coaches yet!?