I have had a few revelations about dieting during my stint with P90X. First off, let me just say that the workouts are great. They’re very challenging and I’m definitely going to keep them up (except yoga). What happened to yoga you ask? Well, to be perfectly honest, I’ve finally accepted that I hate yoga and I don’t have to be good at or like every kind of physical activity. Last Wednesday when I was about 60 minutes through the 90 minute yoga video (pretty intense for someone who hates yoga), I noticed two things: 1) I was getting better at the moves and 2) I did not care; I still hated it. Just like running or biking is not for everyone, yoga is not for me. I’m sure I could get better at it, but when I can physically feel myself getting better, and this is not motivation enough to proceed, it’s time to accept the fact that it is just not my cup of tea. And that’s okay. There are so many other things I enjoy doing. That being said, I really admire people who are super awesome at yoga and being stretchy (like Brad who can reach 8 inches past his toes – I’ve measured). I might change my mind and give it another try someday, but today is not that day. Tomorrow is not looking good either. So in lieu of yoga, I am going to incorporate running or the elliptical as a substitution. Both of these options make me much happier.
Yesterday, I made another change to my P90X plan and can actually feel a difference in my happiness level. I was pretty sick and tired of eating a huge portion of meat at lunch and dinner. Sometimes I just don’t feel like eating meat. In fact before this diet plan, I went days sometimes without meat touching my lips. I got plenty of protein other ways (dairy, nuts, and beans). True, it wasn’t the level P90X wants you to eat, but it was a considerable amount.
Another thing I’m not too keen on for the program is the limit of fruit and vegetables. Phase 1 allowed 1 serving of fruit and 2 servings of vegetables = not enough fiber. I really really missed my fruit!
I understand the thinking behind the plan, but I don’t think it is too restrictive and made me mad for sugar. I was allowed one large portion of carbs per day (Phase 1) and also got some carbs through their 20g of protein energy bar (23 grams of sugar in the form of evaporated can syrup) and their recovery drink (18 grams of more sugar in 1 scoop, 36 grams in the 2 scoop recommended serving). Rather than wait for these actual products to arrive via snail mail, I bought alternatives which were recommended on various websites as being good substitutes. These were Clif Builder Bars ( 20 grams of sugar) and Accelerade (20 grams of sugar in 1 scoop) – pretty comparable. Does that seem like a lot of sugar to you? It does to me! For comparison, two pieces of your average whole wheat bread has 3.2 grams of sugar. A kit kat has 20.4 grams…I’m just sayin’.
I don’t want to say anything too negative because I actually know people who have had amazing results from this program. I’m just providing some facts, explaining why the “diet” portion is not working for me, and you can make your own assumptions. When I say it isn’t working for me, it’s really too soon to see if it is physically working because I have heard that you really can’t tell if you’re getting good results until the Phase 2. What isn’t working for me is the constant feeling of deprivation, boredom with my food, and general lack of interest in eating what I’m supposed to be eating…it just kind of sucks all of the fun out of eating, you know?
So to remedy this I’m going to start writing down everything I eat and focus on balance, making sure I am getting somewhere between 50 and 75 grams of protein every day and plenty of fruits and vegetables…all the vegetables I want in fact.
Morale to this story: I’m still working on figuring out what is right for me and that takes time.