I have to be honest with you. A few years ago, when my friends would talk about trying the newest diet, I would always reply with something like, “It doesn’t matter what you eat, as long as you’re exercising.” As a former athlete, I had always believed that as long as I was pushing myself physically, my body tone would just happen. Why did I think that? Because that had always been the way it was for me. Until I hit my mid-20’s, when my body started to rebel against everything.
I was running every day, anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes in length, which had always helped me keep a sculpted body. My husband had hopped on the scale and was mortified with his weight, so I decided to hop on and check mine. (Note: I despise scales, to this day. I truly believe it’s all about how you FEEL!) The scale showed that I weighed nearly 10 pounds more than I had EVER weighed. It was time for a change, before things got out of control.
So we started P90X. We decided we didn’t need the nutrition piece of P90X, and that we would just start drinking Shakeology, do our daily workout, and we’d get back to our previous fit status.
Let me tell you, it wasn’t so easy. The workouts seemed tough to complete, we didn’t feel good. We were constantly sore, and constantly replenishing our efforts with setbacks: pizza. wings, and beers on the weekends. All of the hard work and effort we put in through the week would be demolished come Friday night.
So upon entering our second round of P90X, we decided to do it the right way. To see what all this nutrition talk was about, and to see if it truly made a difference for us. I came to learn that I actually loved sweet potatoes, blueberries, and avocados. That I could go without bread with dinner. 90 days later, I was down an additional 6.5 pounds (making my total loss near 12 pounds), but more importantly, I was down 13% body fat and was feeling amazing. Chris dropped a total of 23 pounds and 6% body fat. We talked about how much better we were sleeping, how much better we felt drinking water versus pop, and how much better our workouts were going. Clean eating WORKS!
Don’t get me wrong. I’m still, and always will be, anti-dieting. To me, there is no such thing as a successful, healthy diet. I think every body needs proper fuel and exercise, and it all starts with simply paying attention to it. Just last week, one of my Challengers told me, “You know, now that I’ve lost 27 pounds on P90X, my knee no longer hurts. And my feet don’t hurt. And I feel good.”
Yeah. Because you’re getting healthy. This is what living life is all about. Welcome to the rock show.