I finally “completed” a full run of P90x.  I guess third time’s the charm?

The problem is that when I added up all the skipped workouts I only did about 20% of the program, so my results are pretty poor compared to the transformations you’ll see online.

In this post I’m going to list a few of the challenges that I ran into during P90X and how I plan on addressing them.

Challenges

Perfect is the enemy of the good.  –Voltaire

The major challenge I had was getting the motivation up to go downstairs and do the exercises.  If I was able to force myself downstairs I would normally have a good workout.  To make it worse, if I didn’t wake up at 6am and immediately head downstairs then I wouldn’t have the time to do a complete workout and make it to work on time; and there’s a completionist part of me that held me back from starting if I knew I wouldn’t be able to complete the workout.  I know it doesn’t make sense.

A secondary challenge is the diet.  If I work out in the morning I have the willpower to stick to the diet.  But, as I mentioned above, I did only 20% of the workouts so I have questionable willpower 80% of the time.  It’s actually not so bad as that, I’ve worked out how to get good food in me with a minimum of splurging, though I’m going to switch things up.

Solutions

 Workout

My company has, at least once before, had a weight-loss competition.  Everyone ponies up some amount of money and, after a month, the person who has lost the most weight takes the pool.  I volunteered to run it this year and I’ve made some changes.  I’ve added two additional categories.  Previously your performance was based on % body weight lost.  I’ve added a “Number of Pounds Lost” category and a “Body Reshaping” category. And buying into the pool is optional.

I’ve also asked for volunteers to run workout groups for the office.  Having other people to workout with always helps motivate you;  part enthusiasm  part accountability.  Even if members can’t workout together, at least they can work out individually and check-in with each other.

I’ve volunteered to run the P90X group.

The P90X group and the Body Reshaping category are my reason for running the challenge.   I don’t care about the money, all I want is someone I know personally to do P90X with me and hold me accountable.  If there’s enough interest I’ll even see about doing it together at the office gym.  I don’t know about the pullup bars, though.  But I have one person who’s pledged to do it with me so far.

Finally, I will allow what time I get to work to slip if need be.  I have the luxury of flexible hours;  I should take advantage of it.

Diet

I’m considering trying Shakeology as my post-workout meal.  I’ll have to do more research to see how it works in that regard.  It’s a bit expensive, but I’m willing to lay down my money if it works.

Here’s how I see my meals:

1. Breakfast: Shakeology (if I go that route) or post-workout Whey protein shake (what I’ve been doing so far)
2. Morning snack: Protein Bar
3. Lunch: Salad from Safeway salad bar w/ grilled chicken & cottage cheese
4. Snack: Fruit if I’ve brought it or some of my desk snacks (beef jerky, nuts) if I haven’t
5. Dinner: Made at home or, if purchased, something vaguely healthful

What works about this plan for me is:

• limited preparation necessary – only dinner requires any sort of forethought
• meal options- I have options to tailor lunch and dinner to how I’m feeling that day
• calorie flexibility – On days where I had a light lunch and didn’t need many snacks, I’ve had 1600+ calories available for dinner.  That lets me “splurge” psychologically but still be within my calorie goals