OT: P90X/Health and Fitness Thread

[jerrod]

You used to be 290 jerrod? Holy ****.

yep, crazy fat.

people at bars don't believe that my drivers license is actually me

[MickeyDavis]

Here's Tony on why Yoga is important (I hate yoga)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2-CLZLqo4A[/youtube]

[jamaica3]

Here's Tony on why Yoga is important (I hate yoga)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2-CLZLqo4A[/youtube]

I always hated the yoga. I couldn't remember what each position was and I would have to look at the TV and my form would be off and I would just suck so hard.

[MickeyDavis]

That's my problem too. I can't remember and it's tough to do it while looking at the screen so I always lose my balance and curse at Tony.

[JoeyMorgan619]

Basically I do a high protein diet, but I also have a lot of complex carbs in there coming from whole wheat bread, vegetables, brown rice, etc. A lot of people say a defined stomach is about 80% nutrition, and I believe it.

Want to recommend what I should eat with a college meal plan?

Isn't that basically all fast food?

[ReasonablySober]

When I think I've sufficiently dropped enough weight I'm gonna look long and hard at the p90x program. I've heard good things. Like I said in the blog, though, all I give a **** about at the moment is dropping the pounds and it's becoming increasingly obvious that I'm gonna get to 190 and still want to drop about 15 more.

[Sauce Boss]

Basically I do a high protein diet, but I also have a lot of complex carbs in there coming from whole wheat bread, vegetables, brown rice, etc. A lot of people say a defined stomach is about 80% nutrition, and I believe it.

Want to recommend what I should eat with a college meal plan?

Isn't that basically all fast food?

Yep. Salad and Subs? Seriously everything there is like pizza, pasta, burgers, chicken tenders, fries, chips, and soda, not to mention the buffet place that is even worse.

[steger_3434]

I must be living under a rock because I've never heard of this program. I see quite a few of you guys really like it. Is it more so for people that are trying to get in shape? I'm in pretty good shape. Play soccer 2 nights a week, run 7 miles a week and lift weights 4 days a week. I'm not huge or anything as I'm not trying to be "that" guy. I'm basically at my weight lifting abilities and now just continue to tone my muscles. Is this something that could possibly benefit me?

[Nebula1]

Great thread idea.

I play ball every day and take this stuff pretty seriously. For me the two biggest battles are caffeine and sugar. Both are not good for you at all. I drink no caffeine at all now and try to limit my sugar intake to abour 30-40g per day. That's very difficult in this country as the entire food base is pumped with sugar.

That said, Propel is the best "drink" on the market. It's not overly expensive, you can get it at any store, tastes pretty good, is loaded with good energy producing agents and contains very little sugar. It's far better than Gatorade or any of those, which aren't terrible, but just high in sugar. G2 kinda sucks for taste.

I also never eat fast food, including Subway, and avoid dairy. Also don't drink beer whatsoever.

[REDDzone]

Yep. Salad and Subs? Seriously everything there is like pizza, pasta, burgers, chicken tenders, fries, chips, and soda, not to mention the buffet place that is even worse.

Isn't there like a cafeteria deal where they serve a fairly well balanced dinner?

[trwi7]

Here's Tony on why Yoga is important (I hate yoga)

I'll take yoga over step aerobics anyday.

[humanrefutation]

I am also in a workout routine right now. I'm not following anything like P90X or any home workout videos or anything...it's hard for me to take those things that seriously.

Instead, I go to the gym every day for about an hour. I start with about 20 minutes of cardio - usually on the elliptical. Then I focus about 30 minutes on lifting - going back and forth every other day between upper body and lower body - and then spend about 10-15 minutes on the treadmill to finish it off. I used to go for 2 hours every night and spend 40 minutes on the ellipitcal and 1/2 hour on the treadmill, but it's hard to find that time to do it. I've definitely noticed a significant increase in muscle mass in my chest, shoulders, arms, thighs, and calves after about 3 months.

The key for me was losing weight, though. I'm a bigger guy and I needed to drop a few pounds. I focused less on what I ate and more on how much I ate. I counted calories and kept it all in a spreadsheet that my pops and I developed, which kept track of your weight, how many calories you needed to eat to maintain that weight, how many calories you consumed that day, how many you burned exercising, and the level of activity you had outside of working out (as in, were you running around all day doing work or were you sitting on your ass all day...on a 1-5 scale). It predicted how much weight you were losing every day - which was pretty damn accurate over the long term. I dropped 30 pounds on this system in 3 months of exercise.

It's all about remaining committed to any system, which has been my biggest downfall. When school starts, it's always hard to find the time to maintain the same dedication that you had during summer break. But, once you get into a rhythm working out, it's hard to stop IMO.

[Nebula1]

Never done P90X. I know it's very popular now, but basketball is the best exercise hands down. I would do nothing else if I had the time. I try to play 2-3 hours each day.

[Turk Nowitzki]

When I think I've sufficiently dropped enough weight I'm gonna look long and hard at the p90x program. I've heard good things. Like I said in the blog, though, all I give a **** about at the moment is dropping the pounds and it's becoming increasingly obvious that I'm gonna get to 190 and still want to drop about 15 more.

This is pretty much where I'm at too. I'm just shy of 200 lbs. and nowhere near tall enough to justify carrying that much weight around. It also sucks when all your friends are in pretty good shape and you're the only one with a developing beer gut.

[Sauce Boss]

Yep. Salad and Subs? Seriously everything there is like pizza, pasta, burgers, chicken tenders, fries, chips, and soda, not to mention the buffet place that is even worse.

Isn't there like a cafeteria deal where they serve a fairly well balanced dinner?

Not really, its my current gripe going back to college. We are getting a big food services overhaul so maybe there will be more options. Literally though I lived off of tuna and veggie subs, cheese pizza, salad, and nachos, felt like garbage all the time. I'm probably going to bring some of my own food this year if it's all the fast food items that were there last year.

[Ayt]

I weighed 220 last June and now weigh about 170. I lost 40 of it in about five months, then the last 10 was a little harder. I honestly barely even exercised. I'm 32 and last weighed 170 as a SR in HS (I'm about 6 feet even with a slightly stocky build). I was very active in sports back then (lettered in football, basketball, and baseball) so getting back to that weight was actually more than I was even trying for.

All I really did was eat less, and replace crap with apples and bananas and eat a lot of almonds. For some reason a small amount of almonds can make you feel full even though you may have only just eaten about 100-200 calories. It may sound crazy, but having almonds as a staple allowed me to lose all that weight fairly easily (until the last 10 pounds or so).

There have been quite a few studies on almonds and weight loss. I recommend adding them to pretty much anyone's diet.

[Sauce Boss]

I weighed 220 last June and now weigh about 170. I lost 40 of it in about five months, then the last 10 was a little harder. I honestly barely even exercised. I'm 32 and last weighed 170 as a SR in HS.

All I really did was eat less, and replace crap with apples and bananas and eat a lot of almonds. For some reason a small amount of almonds can make you fill full even though you may have only just eaten about 200 calories. It may sound crazy, but having almonds as a staple allowed me to lose all that weight fairly easily (until the last 10 pounds or so).

There have been quite a few studies on almonds and weight loss. I recommend adding them to pretty much anyone's diet.

Interesting. I worked at Buddy Squirrel for awhile and people always bought walnuts because it makes you feel full and its a good source of fiber. Haven't heard that about almonds, might add some to the diet.

[Kerb Hohl]

For me, my biggest problem was actually that I had too much to do for exercise in high school. I'm now 5 years removed from that having just graduated college.

I played 3 sports religiously and given a rigorous, devoted football program, I was busy 24/7. Some summers I would lift for football 7-9 AM, work from 10-2ish, show up for batting practice in baseball at 3:30 and finish the actual baseball game at 7, and then maybe get to a summer league basketball game at 8 or 9 if possible. The problem was I also loved eating A LOT and never was fully in shape through HS and sat at around 5-11/195 or 200 at the end. Fairly athletic but never really tapped into my full speed/jumping potential because I always remained slightly chubby.

Anyways, getting a day off or a few weeks off was like Christmas for me. When I finished up sports, I had a hard time keeping any sort of regular routine because unless I had an obligation, it felt like a relief to take some time off. I played enough basketball and had some half-ass workouts to keep me relatively in shape through the first years of college. Then I got a girlfriend and moved further away from a gym. Suddenly I was 220 at graduation time (plus muscle loss meaning I really put on more weight).

Living alone after graduation after living with 5+ people all through college has been a blessing. I keep a healthy fridge and don't have as many Tuesday nights where somebody orders pizza or invites me out for a few beers.

I have stayed true to form and kept a workout regimen only for a short period of time. I did a lot of biking which has worked for me in the past but I've slightly fizzled after a month. I'm getting back on the horse because the weight loss progress has been terrific lately. I hate running.

I wouldn't mind getting into a boot camp style workout program at a gym or do something like this P90x. If anyone ever did the renegade training program, you'll know how hard that is and though I hate the rigorous workouts, they can be amazing. That program probably puts P90x to shame but is also unorthodox in some ways and is tailored to someone competing in athletics normally.

Anyways, less nights drinking (but I still do indulge), simple but balanced diet with way more fruits and veggies, walking, biking and I've dropped from 220 to 200 in 2 months. I'm hoping to get back into some basketball soon and the lbs will really start flying off as I have no problem staying with that regimen.

My secret tip has been frozen fruit, namely strawberries. Regular strawberries can get expensive at times and you may not go through all of them in time plus you have to worry about seasons, but I get a big bag from Costco and after my workouts (I've been stuck in an evening regimen), I snack on those. The key is that you are forced to eat them slowly while still frozen (you can thaw them too if you'd like obviously) and they taste like a strawberry popsicle. Suddenly after 5-10 of them you've eaten them slowly enough that you forgot you were hungry.

[Ayt]

I weighed 220 last June and now weigh about 170. I lost 40 of it in about five months, then the last 10 was a little harder. I honestly barely even exercised. I'm 32 and last weighed 170 as a SR in HS.

All I really did was eat less, and replace crap with apples and bananas and eat a lot of almonds. For some reason a small amount of almonds can make you fill full even though you may have only just eaten about 200 calories. It may sound crazy, but having almonds as a staple allowed me to lose all that weight fairly easily (until the last 10 pounds or so).

There have been quite a few studies on almonds and weight loss. I recommend adding them to pretty much anyone's diet.

Interesting. I worked at Buddy Squirrel for awhile and people always bought walnuts because it makes you feel full and its a good source of fiber. Haven't heard that about almonds, might add some to the diet.

I always have a bag on hand now. Anytime I feel hungry at a time where I'm not ready for a meal, I pop a handful (say 10, or about 80-100 or so calories) and I'm good for a few hours. I also will pop about the same amount about a half hour before dinner so I don't eat too much heavy stuff. I also often replace my regular breakfast (wheaties or grapenuts usually) with a couple dozen almonds (about 170 calories) and an apple or a banana, then have a another dozen as a snack at around 10 AM. I don't feel hungry and most of my snacks consist of almonds (again, sometimes with a banana or an apple just for extra calories and more fiber).

Beyond the fact that there are apparently some chemicals within almonds that combat hunger, I also think it is good to get lightly salted almonds because then you are covering most everything crappy your body may crave (fat, salt, fiber, and protein). The only thing they lack are basic carbs, but **** those. I really think the body responds well to the fat and salt content despite the fact that what you just ate has a small amount of calories (with "good" fats)and a solid amount of protein and fiber with only minimal salt.

I strongly think that if everyone in this thread did what I did they'd lose weight without even really trying. As stated, I lost 50 (the first 40 within 5 months) with the only really hard part being the last 10, and I did that with basically no regular exercise routine. I now have joined a gym and have started cardio and strength training (two weeks in) and I bet I would have quit had I tried starting with the workout routine first without changing my diet the way I did. I dropped a ton of caloric intake with only a minor change in diet, and didn't really even suffer any hunger pangs at all despite the fact that I cut my caloric intake from about 2400+ to maybe 1500 or so daily.

[JoeyMorgan619]

Basically I do a high protein diet, but I also have a lot of complex carbs in there coming from whole wheat bread, vegetables, brown rice, etc. A lot of people say a defined stomach is about 80% nutrition, and I believe it.

Want to recommend what I should eat with a college meal plan?

Isn't that basically all fast food?[/quote]

Yep. Salad and Subs? Seriously everything there is like pizza, pasta, burgers, chicken tenders, fries, chips, and soda, not to mention the buffet place that is even worse.[/quote]



Yeah, fast food won't help at all. Even the salads at fast food restaurants are horrible. Buying your own food is definitely the way to go. It actually is pretty cheap as well. For my breakfast, I usually eat about 6 eggs, a bowl of oatmeal with raisins, toast, and water. Eggs and bread aren't very expensive, and water you can pretty much get for free. Also, the oatmeal is dirt cheap. You can go to Wal Mart and get the 100% natural rolled oats for like $2 a tin, and it will last you for a while.

http://www.chachingonashoestring.com/wp ... r-oats.jpg

Also I would highly recommend a George Foreman grill. I bought one recently and I love it. I picked one up at Wal Mart for $35, and it is really easy to use and clean.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/George-Forema ... l/10993286

Grilled meat is a lot better than most other meats, especially fried. I have to admit though that I have the luxury of having my parents buy the groceries still since I am only 18, but even most of the meats I eat aren't very expensive.