I did my wimpier Power90 version for a solid month or so there and didn’t lose a damn thing. Not. One. Pound! Bastards! So I got discouraged and quit.
For my next trick, starting next week I’m going to start again. I’ll do the Power90 strength routine, because I did like that (and saw results), but I’m 86’ing the cardio. Instead, I’m going to start training for a 5k, so I’ll run on the cardio days instead.
Keep in mind that no matter how much rigorous exercise you do, you won’t shed an inch if you keep piling in the burgers/ice cream/etc.
Key is eating smart. Lost 40 lbs. last summer doing nothing but eating intelligently and drinking nothing but water (and the occasional class of OJ or milk). The pounds melted off. Magical exercise programs help because they give you the illusion that you’re doing something special. Google “top calorie burning exercises” and do 2-3 of them each week. Mix them up.
Most importantly:
More muscle means you burn calories faster. Sure, this is true. What’s also true is that at the end of the day, less calories in than calories burned = you lose weight. PERIOD!
Don’t eat like a dumbass. This is the hardest part. Trust me, I know, but once you beat the hunger, you will win.
Couldn’t edit.
There are plenty of cheap alternatives to many of the popular fattening, high-calories foods available.
Fresh fruit. This is a MUST. Who doesn’t like an orange, apple, grapes, or a banana now and again? Some have calories, but they are FILLING for the amount of calories they actually give. The mass/calories ratio is HIGHLY staked in their favor.
Water. water. Water. Need I go on? I will anyway. Water. Drink more of it. EXCLUSIVELY drink it. You will thank yourself later for saving 500+ calories a day on shitty drinks.
Snacks. Tons of low-cal snacks that can be bought cheaply and are just as filling. Low-cal yogurts, fruit, healthy cereals (make sure to go for skim milk).
Just a few ideas. It’s not that hard once you get past a week or two of eating like this. I HATED water until I forced myself to drink it for a few weeks. Now I won’t drink anything else.
I’m still at it, although I missed several workouts in a row in mid-August when I started my new job and came home every day with a severe headache. Started Phase 3 on Monday and am sticking with it so far, although I had to cut Yoga X short tonight. I’ve definitely toned up and lost some inches. My results would be better if I hadn’t been eating more junk lately. I did really well with nutrition the first month of the program thanks to keeping a food journal, then I got out of the habit. But I want to finish strong, so I’m going to log my caloric intake for today, including the doughnut and the chocolate chip cookie I had at the weekly team meeting this morning. Ooh, who’s a baaaaad Elf?
One small kink in the works - I think I might be lactose intolerant all of a sudden. Makes the protein shake option a little challenging. I definitely don’t get enough protein without them.
Overall, I’m still pleased at my progress and am glad to see YogSosoth keeping the P90X flame alive here! Good work.
Did the plyometrics. He has no sense of rhythm, does he? It was really distracting when he and the music had no relationship to each other, so next time I’ll do it with the music free track.
Hey, the protein shake is made of milk?? I might not be able to drink it then as I’m also sort of lactose intolerant. Then again, maybe diarrhea is worth the body of a taut, pre-teen, Swedish boy! 
I credit the 5 or so pounds I’ve lost in the past 3 weeks to a rigorous diet of oatmeal in the morning, blech! 
I think I’m going to test putting a dash of cinnamon and vanilla extract in mine. Those can’t be that bad for my body right? Right???
Today was the first day of Week 3, Month 3. 2 more weeks to go!!!
amarinth, I hardly ever pay attention to the music to be honest. I just follow the instructions and try to keep up. At this point, the music fades into the background for me.
Here’s something I’ve been wondering, why is it that I can do a whole hour of jumping on my legs, or lifting with my arms, but I’m dead tired after a mere 15 mins of ab workout? Are the abs that much weaker compared to the rest of the muscles?
Well, I started P90X one week ago, along with my wife and my sis-in-law. We’ve done it all faithfully, save for Yoga X, which we cut short by 10 minutes, bored out of our skulls.
I’m the old guy of the group at 29.
Sis-in-law is 25.
Wife is 20.
All of us have been out of shape for a while. Weight wise, I’m fine. My wife, Lisa, is probably just slightly overweight, and my SIL is moderately overweight. They’re doing a modified meal plan, while I’m just basically eating healthier (chicken breast salads rather than cheeseburgers, that kind of thing.) For my height/weight/desired weight, I can intake 3k calories per day, given the amount of exercise, and I generally only eat a light lunch and supper, so I probably have a calorie deficit already–time will tell.
Thoughts:
First, like most everyone, the first day/week kicked our asses. But, the program does it in a good way, and we all actually look forward to workout time. Plyometrics is a beast, but I’m looking forward to doing it again tomorrow to see how much we’ve improved in just a week. You really do see results in terms of your ability to keep up, even this early.
I had to get a knee brace due to a HS football injury, and I bought the Gold’s Gym over-the-door band system to provide some resistance, since we only have a set of 5 lb. dumbbells. Because one of my goals is chest expansion, I’ll probably supplement chest and back at the fitness center at work…even with all 4 bands, I don’t think I’m getting what I need, and I know I’m missing something by not having a pullup bar.
The only (sort of) unconventional thing that I’ve been doing is drinking pickle juice before working out, to help stave off cramps.
Anyway, we’re addicted to the P90X cult now. If I’m not too embarrassed I’ll post before/after pics when we’re done with the first round.
Well, I was an early starter in this, Started in April. But I’ve been pretty half ass about it, not doing the diet part, and taking Saturdays and Sundays off. And I am proud to report that in the last couple weeks I’ve hit a tipping point. I am losing fat, but not weight. My abs, while not a six pack, have certainly become more defined, and I have the line going down the middle. And my pecs are bigger than they have ever been in my life. My weight fluctuates 5+/- pounds, but I am still eating normally. Even had ice cream 3 times in the last week. And haven’t set aside the beer at all. I think part of it is that I started doing 50 reps of everything on the Abripper, not 25 (still can only do 40 of the Mason twists) and the response my torso has had is pretty cool. I think I had reached a plateau, and just needed something to bump me off of it. P180X works for me!
Great to hear that NurseCarmen! I’m still stuck only at 18 reps, I guess my stomach’s not as strong as I thought it was.
I’ve got about a week left, my last day is Thursday assuming I don’t skip any days (and I haven’t skipped a day in over 3 weeks!). It’s coming down to the wire and it looks like I’ll be down approximately 15lbs from where I started, but I’ve definitely gained a lot of muscle
I regret not having done the baseline measurments from when I started, however. I wish I wrote down how many pushups I could do back then and how long I could do the wall squats for. However, at least I know I couldn’t have done a pull-up back then, haven’t been able to do one in like 10 years. But after about 2.5 months of P90X, I can do 2! And 2 chin-ups as well! I feel great! Maybe in another few months I can get up to 3! 
I’m hoping to lose maybe another 1 or 2 pounds this week, so I’m keeping dinners light (lots of fruit, including watermelons) and lunches mostly watery (porridge, Pho noodles). I’ll have a report back on Friday morning. The long journey is finally at an end!!!
In general, it seems that sticking to the plan is more or less a matter of whether you can handle an hour and a half of Tony every day or not. At almost the end of two weeks - I hate AbRipperX & YogaX. Hate them. I don’t mind ab workouts or even hard ab workouts, but that particular set of exercises makes me want to throw something at the TV, so I’m substituting another ab workout instead. I simply can’t do that. And the yoga is not good either. I don’t mind yoga - right before starting P90X, I did two months straight of daily Bikram yoga (90 minutes, 100+ degrees). This DVD doesn’t work for me. So on Saturday, I went to the gym and did pilates instead. I think it counts.
At the end of the first week, I’d gained a pound. And no, it wasn’t muscle. It’s discouraging.
Hi guys, I’m back with my report
This has been a tough 3+ months. Since there was some skipping of days, the entire 90 day workout took me closer to 3.5 or 4 months. But I’m very very happy with the result
Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to doing the baseline tests at the beginning, so I don’t have anything concrete to compare myself to now that I’m done. However, I know how I looked and what I could do before and there has definitely been a lot of change.
The first month’s set of exercises, especially that Chest & Back DVD had a lot of pushups. My goal was to get past the 5-10 I was doing the first month to something more reasonable. I’m happy to say that I can finish that video with an average of 10-15, even for the harder ones. I can definitely see a huge improvement in my arms and so can other people
My height/weight was 5 7"/187.5. I’m down 15lbs to 172.5. This has probably helped me with the other thing I really wanted to do: pull ups. I haven’t been able to do a pull up or a chin up since they tested us for this back in high school PE, at which point I was able to do…one. Now I can do 3! Took me about 2.5 months of the exercise to get this far, but once I was able to do one, I tried to do one every day, even on days when I’m not doing the workout with the pull ups in it. It’s like I suddenly discovered a magical ability or something and now I just want to do it all the time! I feel like how Gandalf must have felt the first time he learned to throw a fireball!
A bunch of my friends and coworkers started the P90X or similar exercise workouts around the same time, so their work has motivated me as well. However, most of them are skipping things and doing exercises according to what they want: guys would focus on the muscle building and girls would lean towards the cardio. Since I didn’t skip any, I can proudly say that all aspects of my health has improved.
Yoga really really helps. You wouldn’t think so, but there are deceptively disguised muscle building exercises in Yoga X. As for stretching, I’m a lot more flexible than before. For those of you familiar with it, I can now do the Downward Dog stretch with both my heels on the floor, that came in about the end of the first month. I couldn’t do the Right Angle Pose with the behind the back grab, but in the 2nd month I was able to touch my fingers and then grab one. I’m still not at the wrists yet, but I’m getting close. For the whole first month, I grabbed the TV remote, which is about 8 or 10 inches, and hung on that way, now I don’t need it. I can grab my heels when I do the hamstring stretch, and no longer do I feel pain when I put my palm on the floor during the Triangle Pose. The hamstrings feel tight, but there isn’t much pain now
I still can’t keep up with the Ab Ripper though, that’s tough. I max out at 18 reps, so it will be a goal of mine to get it up to 25 in the coming months when I begin my 2nd 90 plan. But 18 is a lot better than the 10-12 I started with.
Lots of people have mentioned weight loss/gain as their main goal but not a lot of people follow the nutritional guide. It’s tough and there’s a lot of foods in there, but from experience, if you want to make any sort of significant weight loss then you have to change your diet. You have to, there’s no other way.
For instance, in the first month, I simply stuck to a healthier diet. That means less of the crap I was usually eating and less fatty foods. During this time, the weight came off and on and I fluctuated the first 2 weeks without much loss. Permanent loss came in the 3rd week as I got about 5lbs lighter and kept it off, so that my baseline for the weight fluctuation started at about 182. Then for another few weeks, nothing much happened with my weight. That’s when I realized I had to make more changes. So I read up on dieting and how they work and asked some people, and resolved to eat less big dinners and focus more on lunch. That helped me lose an additional 3-4lbs after a couple of weeks. Towards the end of the 2nd month and the beginning of the 3rd, I was hitting another wall. That’s when I switched to oatmeal for breakfast 5 times a week. Couple that with an even stricter limit on the amount I eat for dinner and I got down to the 172.5 that I am at now. I know I can still do better as I still occasionally snack and eat too much for dinner, but I know what the problem is and how to fix it. I just have to summon the willpower to do so. I’m hoping that after another month of P90X, I can get down to below 170.
For people who can get the proper equipment but don’t, please reconsider. I have 5lb weights and 20lb weights and nothing in between. The resistance bands really help, but there are some exercises where you can’t use them and 5lbs is too light while 20 is too much. I think I’m going to get some 10’s or 12’s next weekend. Also, if you can get it, do get the pull up bars. There’s just a lot of difference between using the bands and actually pulling your whole weight up. I credit the fact that I was finally able to do pull ups in the 3rd months to my friend getting me the pull up bars as a present. Suddenly, I couldn’t chicken out and use the weights, I had to pull my body weight up. Even though I could only do it with a foot on a chair, the technique felt different, like it was working different muscles in my arms and shoulders. So if you want to be able to do pull ups, get the bar
That’s a lot of info but if I missed anything, feel free to ask. There’s still a lot of things I need to work on before I get to my ideal, but having suffered through this the first time, I can at least be confident that I can do it again. Make no mistake, this was absolutely the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Everyday was painful, everday was tiring, and many times I thought I could have just quit and been happy with the 5 or 10 lbs I’ve already lost. But I kept at it and now I’m more motivated than ever. All these years of fat stored up isn’t going to go away in a month or even 3, but it can with consistent effort. You just have to ask yourself what’s more important and how you want to look in the future.
I’m going to take about a week or so off from the exercise, give my body some time to heal and relax. I’ve also got a list of maybe 20 foods that I’ve wanted to eat that I haven’t. I’m going to eat them slowly over the course of the next few months, maybe strike off one thing from the list every week or two. Of course, I will be weighing myself while I’m doing it, to make sure that I don’t go above a certain level. I’m at 174.5 right now after yesterday’s lunch and dinner, and breakfast today. I’ll only eat something from my list if I’m under 175 before it.
When I start again, I’m going to have some different goals. While weight loss will still be the primary motivator, I want to get some flashy muscles too! I’m going to order the P90X’s protein formula and try it after every workout. I want to be able to do at least 5 pull ups after the next 90 days, and get the Ab Ripper up to at least 22 reps. For Yoga, I hope to be able to grab my wrists during the Right Angle Pose and Grab. I think those are pretty realistic, if modest goals, so if I can exceed them I’ll be really happy. I know myself though and I know that I’m going to want to take many more days off now that I’ve done it once, but to fight that I’m going to maybe do some workouts with a friend of mine who’s also starting the program, and maybe on weekends, if I have time, I’ll add in an extra stretching or cardio workout. Now that I know what’s coming, I’ll probably turn off the music and put on my own workout CD’s or at least music that I actually like.
Anyways, that’s it for me, hopefully this topic sticks around and people post their progress. 
Where’d everybody go? It wasn’t THAT long of a post…
I got to day three last week when I quit because I had a series of festivals that lasted all day and didn’t feel like working out by the time I got home. I did the yoga and arm/shoulder workout. Was super intense. I can’t even do a pushup so I’m doing a highly modified version. I have all the equipment but I’m not taking the supplements and drinks (I read that drinking chocolate milk is adequate due to the carb/protein ratio)
I’m going to start back up when I come back from vacation which is next Thursday. I really want to do this so I can get in shape and join AFROTC next year in college.
I’m also doing Rachel Brice’s Serpentine dvd which is a lot of belly-dance related yoga.
What’s “Afro TC”?
I know how you feel. It was really tough for me during that whole first month. Only when I got to the last couple of days did things feel like they were easing up. Then they go and change the workout :mad:
I wanted to do it during the winter since I won’t be on the bike, but grad school and working 40 hours a week means I could only do it 3 times a week.
It’s Air Force ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) It’s a program I’m going to try to get into next year when I start at the university.
I’ve been planning to start and had just about completely recovered from the ankle injury that had kept me from doing much of anything the past few months when I reinjured it. So, I’ve got the DVDs, supplies, but have to wait a bit… I definitely want to be at 100% before starting.
Wooo! Today will be the first day of my 2nd go-around on the P90X! I’m actually excited to work out, I can’t believe it!
Forgot to order the protein drink, I better do that today, but I’m much more prepared this time around than last. The first 2 months actually won’t be a complete waste when it comes to pull ups because I have one of those pull up bars now! And being in better shape means I won’t be stopping at 5 push ups this time! Just weighed myself this morning and I’m still down 172.5, which is good news and bad news. Bad news: I haven’t lost anything, but good news: I didn’t expect to since I haven’t exercised all week. You can be sure I will post a big gloating post with giant fonts when I get under that 170lb mark!
I must say, that’s certainly impressive – not only that you did the program, but that you wrote long, informative posts about it, and now you’re going to do it again. How many people do you think actually stick with it? 1 out of a 100? Kind of like learning a language online or by DVD, I guess. Discipline is a must. I congratulate you on your achievement.
Thanks, I appreciate anything that I can use for motivation
This thing has been, no question, the hardest thing I’ve had to do in my life. It’s only 3 short months, but putting in an hour or more everyday gets pretty grueling. And I don’t have that much discipline, usually. It’s just that sometimes you get to a place where it’s pretty much no turning back, and I was right at the line.
Getting old and putting on about 25lbs since getting this desk job hasn’t been good for my psyche. Every week I’d tell myself that if I could cut back a little on the food, do a few minutes of exercise here and there, I could go on with my sedentary lifestyle without giving up too much. That was a pipe dream. As I had to replace old pants because they couldn’t fit anymore, I got more depressed. When friends who’ve known me for a long time started commenting in my weight, I felt worse and worse. I was in a pretty bad place when I hit that 187 back in May. Then I went to the doctor and he told me I would have to take drugs to lower my cholestrol, maybe for the rest of my life. I’m only in my early 30’s! Faced with that, I knew I had to do something. I think something like this, unless you’re a health nut or have really good will power (or just hate food), is not something you start lightly. You have to get to a bad place where you see yourself for the rest of your life either being unhealthy or healthy and then make the decision.
It wasn’t easy for me. I play a lot of video games, watched a lot of TV, and enjoy good food in large quantities. I had to give up many many hours of pleasant, mind-numbing distractions, something I didn’t even do for school or work. Unless people have spare hours laying around everyday, even finding the time to commit will be hard. You’ll have to go to your schedule and see where you can block off entire hours or 90 min sections where you can just work out with no distractions. Because I tried to have it both ways in the first few weeks and it totally didn’t work out. Doing it at odd hours, doing it “whenever you feel like it” without a set schedule, and doing a little bit here and a little bit later did not work out for me. Too many excuses and temptations will keep you from reaching your goal. Trust me, set a time, stick to it, no matter what.
With that said, I’m much happier now than I’ve been in a while, and more optimistic about the future. This weekend’s days 2 and 3 were really hard, for different reasons from the first 90 days. It seems that once you discover you have muscles, you want to use it a lot. I pushed myself harder than I did before because I could do more pull ups or push ups or bicep curls. As a result, I got more done, but I’m as tired or more tired than I was 3 months ago! I thought this would get easier!? So it’s definitely a double-edge sword if you finish and keep going. It helps that I have an insane coworker who just finished his 2nd 90 days, and weighs like 20lbs less than me. So I have a goal, it may not be realistic, but it’s motivation. I just have to learn to pace myself a little more on the heavy lifting