After completing my last 4 weeks of P90X, I was able to lose 7.4 pounds and am very happy with my results so far. This is my fourth round of P90X and I have literally changed my health and fitness since starting to use Beachbody workouts. Basically, I was on a slippery slope to a early grave when I started. I have had two heart attacks in my 40s and was at my all time weight gain of 234 pounds, and on 2 blood pressure medications along with a declaration from my doctor that I was pre-type2 diabetic when I started my journey to a more healthy lifestyle.
Throughout my fitness journey, I have used the meal plans provided in the Beachbody workout programs I have used and I also use the Meal Planner offered to club members of the Team Beachbody Community. These meal plans have helped me change the way I eat gradually over time. When I started my health journey, I was eating McDonald's at least twice a day on average. I usually left home and stopped by McDonald's on my way to work and got a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit and a small Coke, which comes with the hash brown potato. I would eat lunch in the cafeteria or local resturaunt and on my way home I would stop again at McDonald's and get a quarter pounder with cheese, large fries and a medium Coke. This was all for the convenience of the fats, oops I mean fast food cycle I was in.
You can only imagine what eating at McDonald's was doing to my body, especially if you have ever seen the documentary "SuperSize Me" where the guy ate nothing but McDonald's for 30 days and became very unhealthy, gained about 20 pounds and took almost a year to recovery from it. The bottom line is that eating habit and lifestyle was literally killing me and is ever so slowly killing you it you are caught in the fast food cycle.
Those eating habits, along with a stressful work environment produced obesity and high blood pressure in my life. I would get winded walking up a single flight of steps, didn't sleep well, always felt tired, never had any energy, and my love life was waining more and more. Then, my doctor informed me that I was pre-diabetic. he also told me that if I didn't lose some weight and start exercising, I would most likely be on diabetic medication along with the two blood pressure medications for the rest of my ever shortening life. That is the slippery slope I was on. I had no one but myself to blame. I made a lot of excuses, but that was my wake up call. I HAD to take action. There was not more choice.
So I have changed my lifestyle. I have been using Beachbody workout programs for just over 2 years, I gave up fast food for healthier selections and I have regained my health. Off all medications, Blood Pressure that of a 35 year old, more energy, low risk for diabetes, low risk for another heart attack. My cholesterol is lower than my doctor can believe. Every time I have it checked he makes the technicians run the test twice to make sure the numbers are right.
As I have leaned more about exercise and proper nutrition and the need for some supplementation, I have refined my daily diet and during this round I decided to try supplementing with Creatine to help increase my strength and lean muscle mass. It is a lot easier for a younger person to build lean muscle than someone my age, so supplementation comes in handy. This has been interesting to see the increase of my overall strength and ability to work out more intensely, but I have my reservations on using creatine long term, even if I do follow the cycling recommendation. I would prefer to sustain my healthy lifestyle as naturally as possible.
I have been studying diet and looking at ways to be leaner and stronger by eating better. I have reviewed many different nutrition plans and this month I will test the Paleo diet to see the effects eating paleo will have on my fat loss. My goal this round of P90x is to reduce my body fat from 20% to 15%. This is a achievable goal in 12 weeks. One thing I find interesting is that I have increased my calorie intake from about 2400 calories a day to almost 300 calories a day and have lost weight! That is counter intuitive to what most diet guides say, but I can't argue with my results.
By eating Paleo, I will see how eating low glycemic foods and cutting dairy and grains out of my diet for the next 4 weeks will affect me. It is supposed to help you reduce your body fat, so I will see how well it works. I have a food list that includes Paleo food that I like. I won't be eating everything on the Paleo food list, but I chose things I already like to eat with enough variety to have a 3 week meal plan with a lot of variety and choice. I am looking forward to seeing what it can do for me.
Check back and I will post the food I will be eating over the next 4 weeks.
To your health and fitness journey,
Jim
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