My P90X Failure
27 September 2011, 2:30 pm · Fitness
It's now late September, and I've fallen off the wagon--somehow I got to roughly Day 35 of P90X, but I stopped. And I was doing so well! What happened? I think there are a few reasons.
- Results were slow in coming. That's not to say they were nonexistent--because there certainly were physical changes (most notably I added an inch to each bicep--which I was very impressed with). However, there was not the sort of dramatic change I expected to see, even "just" 30 days in (that's a third of the way through the program, by the way), when I compared my starting photos with the pictures that I took at the 30-day mark. Again, there were results--just not what I expected (so perhaps my expectations were unrealistic). I think there were two reasons for that. First of all, as I mentioned at the top of the program, I decided to do the "Lean" iteration of P90X. That was probably a mistake. I also don't think the diet plan was right for me, as I actually ended up gaining a pound or two after sticking to the plan pretty religiously for over 30 days.
- One interruption after another after another. Let's just file this under "excuse" territory, but for the record there were a number of disruptions that threw me off of my normal routines. For one thing, Hurricane Irene resulted in a few days out of my apartment; after that, I was in Montréal for a long weekend, and then once I returned, I had houseguests for the better part of two weeks. Poof--half of September gone. My inherent laziness is what kept me from jumping right back on the wagon after my guests cleared out.
- I am just lazy. Let's be honest. I'm really surprised I made it a third of the way through the program at all.
So all of that is well and good. What am I going to do now?
I'm going to start over from scratch. But this time, with a few changes.
First of all, I'm going to do the regular old P90X--not the "Lean" iteration. And I'm going to use heavier weights with less reps, as my main goal is to put on more muscle.
Additionally, I'm abandoning the P90X meal plan in favor of a modified "paleo" diet. I've been sticking pretty consistently to the paleo diet for the past several weeks even while not working out, and I've lost nearly eight pounds, which I think is great--my body fat has certainly dipped, and I can see that in the mirror when I take my shirt off. So I'm going to stick with that, but supplement it with enough protein to cover the workouts. I'm using a BMR calculator that I have set up in a Google spreadsheet, and I'm going to start tracking my food intake again using my Fitbit (my target is October 1 as a start date, just because I like even figures).
So that's where we are. I know that the big changes I want aren't going to happen overnight, nor will they happen as I rest on my butt. So back on track I go.
