What about my diet?

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What about my diet?

I often get this question from readers and it is so important and needs to be addressed. After all when it comes to getting great results with P90X or any other workout regimen you have to have the diet under control.

Dear XStyleFit.com,

I just received my p90x on Jan 15th and I'm really excited to get it going. I really dont have the time to follow the nutrition guide to the letter, however, I came up with my own plan using only the food in the nutrtion guide and watching my daily calorie intake. I was wandering if you thought this was a good idea and what are my chances of succeeding since I came up with my own meal plan? Thank you and again congratulations on your transformation and being healthier.

Sincerely,
Getting Fit

Dear Getting Fit,

Thanks for taking the time to contact me concerning your start to P90X. I know it has made a huge difference in my life and the way that I feel on a daily basis. It truly is night and day.

Concerning your diet. Even if you were going to try to stick to the suggested diet inside of P90X you would find that at some point you would have to be able to work outside of its suggested foods. Let's face it you are going to eat out and 90% of the time the place that you are going to eat at is not going to be P90X approved. So actually what you are doing is not a bad thing at all however doing it the right way is very important.

Here are some of the guidelines I live by and it really is pretty simple:

1) Eliminate all sugar

2) Drink Water

3) Keep Carbs Low

4) Plenty of Protein

5) Track The Calories

1) Get rid of the sugar. If you were like me at the beginning of my P90X Journey when I was addicted to sugar, this could be tough. After enduring about 3-days of headaches I made it to a place where I felt so much better. I was stronger, had more energy, my stamina increased and the world just simply seemed brighter. Not to mention it cut a huge amount of calories from my diet.

2) Drink Water. This sort of goes hand in hand with cut the sugar because a large part of the calories we take in are from what we drink. Then there is the question of Diet Drinks instead of water. I believe that it is wiser to cut all the ties to the past instead of trying to supplement them with what I would call a diet crutch. I encourage you to try it. You'll see in about a weeks time how much better you will feel. The drinks and sugar substitutes can't be good for our bodies. Feel free to drink natural juices and smoothies for some flavor now and then. Living in the south I was a huge drinker of sweet iced tea, I've now learned to not only drink but enjoy a glass of unsweet iced tea with no sugar or sugar substitutes.

3) Keep Carbs Low. One of my main goals was to lose weight and become healthier. A diet that is high in carbs is simply a hindrance to that. Find out what carbs are and where they come from then cut them out.

4) Plenty of Protein. Ok this is one I learned the hard way. I was not eating enough protein to support the vigorous workouts of P90X. For that reason I started noticing that unusual amounts of my hair started falling out. My desire for my wife started to decrease. Where am I going with this? Not getting enough protein will cause a drop in your testosterone. Luckily for me I realized what was happening and made changes to my diet. One thing that I added that made a huge difference was Shakeology it not only increased my protein but also gave me back those vital nutrients that I was losing.

5) Track The Calories. This is a big deal because if you don't watch what you are eating it is easy to blow everything you do with a huge calorie diet. The truth is after about a week of torture your body will quit craving all of the junk that you've put into it and start enjoying the "jet fuel" you are now putting into it. Yet to much of the right stuff defeats the purpose of working out and trying to lose weight. Track your calories, no what foods have more and what foods have less. Then learn to survive on a healthy lower calorie diet. Believe me if you can stick to it for one week you'll find that all of the other weeks are easy. If you use an iPhone I've tested several apps out there to help with diet. The one that I've found that I like the best and does a great job for me is Tap & Track. It's got a great database, tracks calorie intake, weight and exercise very quickly and easily. Whether it is that item or another find something to properly track your calories.

The final thing I suggest is become a club member of Team BeachBody. You find support there as well as some great tools to support you through the process of P90X. I would love to have you as a part of our team, so if you are interested please click here and sign up with Team Revivalution.

I'm glad to help you in any way that I can so feel free to keep in touch and let me know how it is going.

Sincerely,
Stacy
XStyleFit.com

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