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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Ultimate Reset Video Description

While the claims in the video seem a little over the top, losing 30 lbs in 21 days is very possible if you get the toxins out of your system. I did a cleanse and permanently lost 12 lbs in 5 days. The Ultimate Reset has you eating 1500 calories a day, so it is more sustainable, and $1000s less.

Not only did my weight go down, my health exploded. My pull up count went from 8 to 20, and I did no exercise during the cleanse. This is why I am a huge fan of a scientifically designed cleanse. Information on the Ultimate Reset can be found by clicking this sentence.
However, if you are interested, please contact me so I can talk to you about the expectations of the program in detail. E-mail me at ira@irawinkler.com.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Tips for Starting P90X

P90X is significantly more than just a workout, and people realize that. For that reason, it is natural to want to know how to prepare for the program. I do have to admit that if you want to be successful with the program, which for many people means losing weight and getting ripped, you do have to prepare to a certain extent. For example, if you start off without equipment, you cannot do the workouts well. If your refrigerator is filled with junk food, there’s a good chance that you will eat poorly. Either situation will sabotage your success.

As the old saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

So if you want to plan for success, there are three categories of tips you should consider; Support, Equipment, and Nutrition. If you get nothing else out of this article, I want to be very clear that of all of the categories, if you want to lose weight, Nutrition is the most important.

Setting Yourself Up For Success

Perhaps the best thing you can do to enable success is to get an account on teambeachbody.com. The reason is that it provides some incredibly valuable resources. It allows you to record your measurements. There is a Body Fat Calculator and a Caloric Needs Calculator under Eat Smart > Nutrition Tools. The Body Fat Calculator will be invaluable to you as you should gain muscle and lose fat as you do P90X, so the scale will only tell you part of the story. Again, you want to do this before you start P90X.

Additionally, you want to take and upload your pictures. While I realize that some people will hate their “Before” pictures, you will find that it will be a source of pride later on.

As important, you can use the pictures to enter the Beachbody Challenge, which will get you a free t-shirt when you complete P90X. You can find info on the Beachbody Challenge through this link.

Also to keep you moving, teambeachbody.com will schedule and track the entire P90X 90 days for you. That feature is found under Get Fit > SuperGym and then you “Add a new auto-schedule”. As an added bonus Beachbody gives away $500 per day to a random person using that function.

While you can always contact me with any questions, teambeachbody message boards can also provide some answers as well, although the accuracy of an answer may vary.

Choosing and Scheduling a P90X Version

Before you start P90X, you have to figure out which version of P90X you want to choose whether you want to do Classic, Lean or Doubles. I can go into details, but the most important issue for people to know is that P90X Lean will not get you leaner. While the book, which was written about 6 years ago, does say it is intended to help you get leaner, the P90X Certificaion training I underwent stated specifically that Lean is for people who are not yet ready to try the full program. In short, think of it as P90X Lean = P90X Lite.

Click on this sentence to read my full article on which version to choose.

Then as mentioned above, you can let teambeachbody.com schedule and track your workouts for you.

Equipment

To get the best results from P90X, you do need the right equipment. While having access to a full range of equipment would be best, you can get by with a minimal set of equipment as long as it is the right equipment.

Click this sentence for my article about what equipment you need for P90X.

Proper Nutrition

As I said/implied before, if your goal is to lose weight, and especially get ripped, that requires proper nutrition. The workouts will get you fitter, but to lose weight, you have to eat the right amount of calories. Too much and you gain weight. Too little and your body will think you are starving, and it will try to save itself by burning muscle. The ideal calorie range for losing weight is approximately 750-1000 calories below your Maintenance Level. You can get the calorie range you need from the Caloric Needs Calculator on teambeachbody.com.

The one statement you need to remember clearly is:

Abs are made in the kitchen.

No matter how hard you workout, you need to eat properly to lose weight. Properly means healthy foods with the right number of calories.

Just “eating clean” will not do it. Again, you need to eat the right number of calories…not too much or too little. So clean out your kitchen and plan your menu.

You do not have to follow the P90X Nutrition Guide, but you do have to follow some healthy nutrition plan at the right calorie level. It can be a vegan plan, Body for Life’s nutrition plan, Weight Watchers, etc, but again it should be something that you follow and plan in advance.

Whichever plan you follow, you should by the food in advance, so that you have the raw materials for meals ready to cook, and more important, you have healthy snacks available. It is the snacking that usually kills your diet.

Supplements

A lot of people want to add supplements to their diet. The assumption is that supplements will help you get better results. If you eat well, you don’t need supplements. That being said, if you are not eating perfectly, there are some supplements that can help.

If you think you need energy before your workouts, a pre-workout drink would help. The common one is Jack3d, but it contains creatine and DMAA. Creatine is not ideal for women, and DMAA has been linked to some deaths for people with blood pressure problems. Beachbody has it’s own pre-workout drink that doesn’t have those ingredients, but does taste reasonably good and gives you an energy boost. Click here to learn more about that.

Recovery drinks are also part of the P90X Nutrition Plan and are especially good after a hard workout. Click here for my article on recovery drinks and the purpose they serve.

Many people also look to protein bars and meal replacement drinks for when they are short of time. As far as protein bars go, there are a wide variety of options. Frankly, they are generally candy bars with protein and a multivitamin mixed in. The P90X Nutrition Bars were recently redesigned to be somewhat healthier than the average bar. You however can do your own price/taste comparisons.

As far as meal replacement drinks go, most of them tend to be chocolate milk with a multivitamin. Shakeology is significantly different as it contains as much protein as many protein drinks, digestive enzymes, probiotics, phytonutrients, and a wide variety of other components that promotes overall digestive health. Most important from my perspective is that it is intended to be used as a base, so you can mix it with a wide variety of different ingredients to create a myriad of different flavors. I can go on, but the video below better describes the product. Also while I know that Shakeology seems expensive compared to most of the meal replacement drinks available, that is not the case and the article you get by clicking here explains why.



There are other supplements that some people want to consider like Omega-3 fats, creatine, protein powder, vitamins, etc. Those are individual concerns, so please feel free to contact me directly with questions by e-mailing me at ira@irawinkler.com.

Support

While everyone goes into P90X with grand thoughts, there will be ups and downs. There will be days when you are surprised by the scale, in both good and bad ways. You will also have questions about the workouts and the nutrition plans. For that reason, please consider having me assigned as your Beachbody Coach. Besides of having completed P90X, P90X+, P90X2, and other Beachbody programs countless times, I am a P90X Certified trainer, and can either answer your questions, or find you the answers.

If you want me as your coach, you can click here to set up a free account. If you already have an account, please feel free to e-mail me at ira@irawinkler.com.

Conclusion

P90X is an outstanding program that will work, as long as you work. While pressing play daily is critical, so is basic preparation. That preparation especially includes proper nutrition. Most important, remember that even if you started out wrong, you can change at any time and increase your results. P90X really means that you are adapting to a lifestyle of eating right and exercising on a regular basis.

The Reason for Shakeology

This video discusses the need for Shakeology, what makes it unique, and information about the latest flavor, which is also vegan.