Category: P90X/P90X+
Thanks to everyone for visiting our site. We had our biggest day ever, 25,000 hits in one day! You all rock!
Now back to my regular cynical look at the world of fitness. We received a number of emails the other day defending several of the bullshit fad diets that are being presented to the general masses. People, please. Stop it! Don’t waste your hard earned cash on unproven supplements, diet pills, diets that promise quick results, or really stupid fitness equipment.
Let me elaborate. Unproven supplements: The health and fitness supplement industry is a multi-billion dollar business. For every good health supplement out there, there are 100 crappy ones. Do your homework, there is REAL information out there. Just because it says it is full of antioxidants or has some new super herb in it does not mean it is good for you. (See Phenfen, see any hormone inducer that gets decimated in that vat of hydrochloric acid you call a stomach, or any product only that has validation from marketing companies and bloggers.)
Diet pills: it’s a tool not a crutch. If you take them not to eat, and try to eat less than 1200 calories a day, you had better be 35 yeas old and 3 foot 5 inches tall. People need to fuel their bodies. That is what food is. Take responsibility. Track everything you eat, and make sure you are eating within you calorie range. If you do this, spread your eating across the day, you probably won’t even need the diet pills. These things are dangerous, and if you do them, tell your doctor you are using them.
Fad diet: Pick the latest and greatest. There are always a number of them claiming great results. If you think a shake, a cookie, cabbage, some insane cleanse or whatever is going to get you to lose weight and keep it off, you need a shrink. To lose weight you need to fuel your body with good food, in the proper ratio of fats-carbs-protein, and maintain a net calorie deficit. (what you burn to what you consume). This isn’t rocket science. It is resolve.
Stupid fitness gear: I don’t care if you shake it, slide it, squeeze it or swing it, stupid is stupid. What will get you fit is pushing and pulling weights (body weight or added weight). For the most part, when you see ripped people working a stupid workout device and the tiny words “results not typical” popup on the screen. RUN AWAY! (same holds true about supplements, mascara, and crap the drug companies try to get you to ask your doctor about.). Only spend your cash AFTER you have done your research (and don’t ask a nut job MLM marketer about it.)
Look, getting fit is a decision. A decision to build proper HEALTHY habits and a fit lifestyle. There is nothing easy about it. To get fit, you will sweat, you will feel discomfort and pain, and in the end, you will be WAY better off.
Life is tough, we are tempted to overeat all the time. If you do, adjust your eating and workout. For every action there is a reaction. Get used to it. Accept it. And if you fall down, get back up and start again. We are in this for the long hall.
And it DOES NOT get easier with age. So build those healthy habits now. The earlier the better.
-Rob
You are reading this because you are one of the normal people who wants to get more fit. I say “get more fit,” because some people want to lose weight, some want to add definition, and some of you want to put on muscle mass. All of you want to improve your fitness level, and are looking for that “magical something” to make it happen.
Well, here’s the secret. 99% of you already have what it takes to get more fit. You are reading this, and this shows me you have the desire to make a change. Now we have to make that desire an action, then a habit.
We recently got a copy of ChaLEAN Extreme here at the FitLifeSF headquarters and I have had a chance to tuck into it a little bit. Keep in mind that this is just a preliminary “review”– not even a review, really. A lot of folks have been asking us how to decide between P90X, Insanity and ChaLEAN, so this is a first stab at helping folks figure out what program might be best for them.
The results are in from the FitLifeSF 10-Week Challenge, and everyone who finished the challenge saw some wonderful results! Without further ado…
Here’s a question that gets asked a lot: “Should you look at the scale?”
I think absolutely you should* if fat loss is your goal. I know others will tell you to “ignore the scale,” but it is the most objective way to tell if you have your energy balance right for fat loss. When we add exercise to our regime, it is SO easy to overcompensate on the calories we think we are burning. We pour the cereal for a few seconds longer, we add just a little more peanut butter to our toast, we take just a few more noodles every time we have pasta– we don’t even notice it, but before we know it we’ve totally equalized or, worse, flipped the energy equation. Weighing and measuring food is one way to make sure this isn’t happening, weighing and measuring your body is the other.
It also bears mentioning that exercise has been proven to have more than just a physical effect, it also has a mental one. It improves mood, outlook and self esteem (all great things!) Unfortunately, what this can mean is that maybe we’re standing a little taller, looking at ourselves through different eyes, feeling great about ourselves and, thus, seeing some changes that might not really be there; The scale and the tape measure are two totally objective tests that won’t lie to ya. Especially if we are getting fit for health vs vanity, we need to move beyond the mirror and put some numbers behind it.
*To preserve your sanity, I suggest weighing only once per week, at the same time of day, under the same conditions, otherwise the waterweight fluctuations will drive you batty. If you insist on weighing yourself every day, use a tool like Google 15 to give yourself a running average and make adjustments to your program based on the average, not the day-to-day fluctuations.
This is one comment that we get often on this blog… Women concerned with getting bulky or “looking like a man” if they do P90X or any weight work. Let me assure you that this concern is totally unfounded.
Ok people, this has been a BIG question on our site, and we decided to take the comments off our other posts, and move them to a easy to find place. 
The great thing about P90X is that choosing between the Classic or Lean workout is very simple, and if you want to see different results, switching from one to the other is just as simple.
Please post any questions you might have on this subject here. Be sure to read below, as Smurf and I have responded to many comments on this subject!
-Rob
If you find this post helpful and want to purchase P90X or any equipment from Beachbody, we’d much appreciate if you use this link:
http://beachbodycoach.com/fitlifesfrob
If your Beach Body Coach isn’t helping you, be sure to tell Team Beach Body you want FitLifeSFRob as your coach! You then get the combined experience of Smurf and me.
We are 5 weeks (a little more) into the new year… do you know where your goals are? We got in touch with the FitLifeSF Challenge contestants to find out how they were doing, and here is a little bit of an update.
We had a week of tasty, P90X-friendly meals at FitLifeSF Headquarters this week– a few simple favorites, and a few recipes worth sharing: