My P90X Results

Thank you all so much for the positive reinforcement! It really makes the effort feel worthwhile with a community like this.

I had a coworker take an aside with me yesterday and go "we were all just talking about how much weight you've lost since you've started here, you look great!" My office is like 80% female :P Can't say I minded that little exchange one bit. And it's great to feel like it's noticeable.

Some responses to stuff I missed:

Looking good!
I'm thinking about starting P90X. It's just a lot more than I want to spend. Was there anything you didn't like about it and what did you like especially?

There's absolutely nothing I didn't like about it. The DVD set is expensive I grant you, but you can literally get started for under $200 total, with the DVD set: http://www.amazon.com/P90X-Hortons-Extreme-Fitness-Workout/dp/B000TG8D6I

Plus a pull-up bar/resistance band set (this is the exact one I got): http://www.amazon.com/Black-Mountain-Products-Resistance-Bands/dp/B003V5FDGM/ref=pd_sim_sg_7

It's still an investment, to be sure, but any serious fitness effort is going to take some investment on your part. A gym membership even without a trainer is going to cost you probably well over $200 for a year, and these are routines and equipment that you can never really "grow out of" (the bands are always useful for training on the go, and the P90X workouts... well, let's just say they NEVER get easy and you can always add intensity in ways demonstrated in the videos).

Awesome results! Ive been going to the gym for a year now (faithfully) and havent seen half these results! Maybe I should think about trying this!

The great thing is that the program is very much designed with total body fitness in mind. The whole "muscle confusion" thing is a fancy schmancy way of encapsulating cross-training and periodization with built-in rest and stretching- all of which is crucial. Going to the gym regularly is way, way better than nothing and it'll stave off heart disease and do wonders for your overall health, but a program like this is much more effective for transforming your body in short periods of time.

Awesome results! You look fantastic! :drinker:

Thank you verrrry much

Wow you look great!

Did you follow the nutrition plan with P90X or modify the way you were already eating?

Well, both. I followed the nutrition guide (staying within phase 1- Fat Shredder) fairly strictly, and modified my diet to completely eliminate any soda/high calorie drinks, fast food, carb-based heavy meals, etc. I generally followed the portion/ratio approach, but sometimes cooked some of the very tasty recipes from the guide.

After about a month is when I discovered this site, MFP, and that was a huge boost to my success. I'd have had even better results using this site from the beginning!

Two things though:
1. I developed a concept of my own called "bonus calories" or "guiltless calories" which I've been turning over a lot in my mind and have thought about making a thread on. Essentially, in addition to the P90X program and the supplemental cardio I did, I took every step I could to become more active in general. Parking far away, always taking stairs instead of the elevator, walking to the grocery store or to lunch at work rather than driving, etc. I do little things like this every day and I don't log it on MFP. At the same time, I don't log little things foodwise like a couple bites of someone else's meal, a piece of candy or two when it's out in the breakroom, a few almonds over what I've allotted as a "snack" portion for the day, etc. I don't log these little "extra" food calories either.

The idea is that the extra activity and the extra "little bites" of food that I don't record more or less cancel each other out, but I actively DON'T want to log the numbers and make sure of this- as a way of reminding myself not to feel guilty or obsess over the numerical values instead of remembering to enjoy life every day. That is, with a more active lifestyle in general, you get a little more leeway with your daily "bonuses" than if you're sedentary- there's no reason to feel guilty about it. I know this approach won't work for everybody- if you're snacking a TON without logging it and just, say, walking an extra 20 steps a day, you're going to seriously skew your results. But I've had a lot of success with this little "bonus" trick. I don't know if I explained this well, but I'm a big believer in it and happy to explain more if anyone is interested.

2. Cheat days. Tony Horton does NOT agree with me on this one. But I'm a practitioner of the 80-20 rule. That is, 80% of the time you should be seriously strict about your diet- maintain protein/carb/fat ratios, apply every calorie wisely, don't deviate from your planned meals/principles. But the other 20 percent of the time... well, every once in a while you need to just let yourself be rewarded. If you're in an extreme fitness program like P90X your metabolism will be firing like crazy; and as long as you don't do this too often (no more than once a week), you can treat yourself to whatever unhealthy nonsense the mind can imagine without seriously impacting your overall results. Pizza, ice cream cake, movie-theater-style artery-clog-o popcorn- I'm not joking, these all fit in to my diet one day or another over the last three months.

Before you raise you hand in objection, eyes ablaze with fury: YES, cheat days are technically BAD for you. This is obvious. If you're trying to seriously maximize your results in the most efficient, robotic manner possible, the 80-20 approach is not for you. But I subscribe to the idea that changes to your nutrition when you become serious about fitness does not mean "going on a diet," but permanently CHANGING your diet for the better. I plan to live under some variation of this principle for the rest of my life, not just "until I'm fit." And quality of life is just as important to me as seeing numbers on the scale go down or feeling my arms get bigger. There's room for both occasional excess and extreme fitness within the same individual. And if you're wondering, my heart rate and blood pressure have SUBSTANTIALLY improved since starting P90X (they're the best they've been in my entire life) despite the cheat days

I'm happy to answer any more question anybody would like! I got a ton of help and support online through this first round and I'd love to pay it forward.