Journey to P90X

ShottaB

Hi Everyone,

I’m new to MFP; I’ve been on it for a few days posting on the forums, using the diaries, and learning as much as I can from the forums and blogs.

My goals are to gain weight (muscles), and be healthy and fit. I don’t mind taking care of the healthy and fit goals and losing weight (fat) in the process before I start gaining weight (muscle)

I was inspired by all the P90X videos I saw on YouTube. But I wasn’t ready just yet to purchase P90X. P90X seems like a very demanding system for someone who doesn’t maintain a good exercise and nutrition regimen. I knew if I just went into it I would fall off the wagon because of how demanding it was, and wasn’t sure if I had the discipline to do it.

So I said if I want P90X I would have to earn it. In order to earn P90X I would first focus on getting myself into an exercise regimen, and try to dabble in nutrition a bit until I got it right. Once I developed good habits by exercising regularly and eating right, I would then have earned the right to start P90X.

I’m proud to say that I have been successful in sticking with an exercise regimen for over 5 weeks! :happy: For the past five weeks I’ve been doing FMS 45 Minute Fat Burning Workout on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and the Wii Fit Plus on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Dabbling in nutrition didn’t seem to work too well for me. I’ve been able to cut out chocolate and junk food, but have not really been doing as well as I’d like to in my meals. I’ve continued to eat potatoes, refined carbohydrates, and fatty foods, when I should be eating whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and lean meats.

Since I wasn’t doing well at the nutritional aspect, I came to MFP in order to improve on my nutrition, especially by using the food diary. So, I’m hoping to develop good nutritional habits for the whole month of April to the point where I can start P90X on May 1st. Wish me luck!

byHISstrength

You can do it! What has helped me is to spend time preparing menus ahead of time. I'm far from being perfect, but every little bit helps. Also, when you purchase P90X I believe they also provide a booklet with healthy meals to prepare (at least I received on when I bought Power90--the precursor to P90X). That should make preparing meals much easier.

God bless!

milesje

Congrats on staying witht he workouts. But, eating a healthy diet is a HUGE part of both cutting fat and gaining muscle. The P90X system does come with a nutrition guid that is very helpful, and has options where it can tell you what to eat and when to eat it if you have a flexable enough schedule. The P90X workouts are great, but do not expect to build a ton of muscles with this work out. It is designed more for cutting fat and toning the muscles with some building. If you are wanting to build muscle be sure and do the streagth workouts with heaver weights (only able to do 6-8 reps on each exercise).

TropicalKitty

Congrats on joining and working towards your goal!

Nutrition is a huge part of your body composition. However, changes in your diet are not easy. Make small changes, as opposed to huge changes, to get them to stick. My step-dad is similar to you: he knows he should be eating the whole grains and not the white carbs. My suggestion to him was to slowly work towards it. Instead of white bread, try getting the multigrain so you can get used to some more fiber and "naturalish" stuff. Then switch to whole wheat. There are a ton of simple ways to add veggies to your meals. Toss some peppers and zuccini and broccoli in with your pasta. You'll find a lot of people on here who have gone through a very similar journey that have posted suggestions.

Like someone else said before my post, I've found that planning my meals ahead of time really does keep me in healthful ways.

Much luck and continued success!

ShottaB

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

I am realizing that planning out meals in advance is important, because I get home and just end up cooking what I have in the fridge, or ordering whatever is in the restaurant (I live in a hotel :happy: ) So, I’m going to cook for myself, and I’m gona start checking out different recipes this weekend. I’ll get a shopping list together, and create my meal plan in advance.

I am also realizing that P90X would not build much bulk after reading this site. It seems like I’m going to look forward to losing weight (fat) before I gain weight (muscle). I’m 150 and 5’8, and I was around 135 a couple years ago. All that weight is mostly fat so I don’t mind burning that off. I just don’t want to go back to 135 though. Hopefully adding the heavier weights to the weight training as you suggest would prevent me from losing too much weight. There are actually some people on YouTube who are trying to bulk up on P90X. I’ll watch their progress throughout the month to see what their experience is. After P90X I believe I’m gona go to the gym to start adding muscle. At least when I start the gym I’ll be in great physical shape.