The things I have learned/changed so far in P90X:

Workouts:

Due to my arch injury, I’ve gone through the gamut of modifications and possible solutions. Jerry-rigged arch supports, modified workouts, swapping in Insanity, you name it. Finally I bit the bullet and decided to stay away from anything that involves jumping, lunging, downward dogging, and the like. So the final verdict is:

  • Replaced all the cardio workouts (Plyo, Yoga, and Kenpo) with low-impact alternatives; i.e. biking and swimming.
  • Replaced Legs & Back with either biking or swimming, may do a modified or different alternative workout in the future.
  • Better Supports: Got some faux-orthotics, which so far are working out well. As long as I’m not jumping or doing fast direction changes they stay put without tape (hooray!), and they make all my non-running shoes useable again (epic party!)

I know that the swimming I’m doing is not as intense as a P90x cardio workout, but obviously I can’t jump in and do an insane amount of swimming right out of the gate. Endurance will come with time – I’m content for now that I’m doing something, and it’s not taking the healing process backwards.

Nutrition:

This has been the harder part, but I think I’m finally hitting equilibrium. Things that are working:

  • Eating more, earlier. Unfortunately I can go most of the day without eating much (either intentionally or because I’m busy or forget), but then I tend to eat way too much late. Not good. Reminding myself to eat large meals earlier has solved a lot of my problems.
  • Keeping easy protein sources handy at all times. I have to plan for my lazy days. Nuts, trail mix, protien bars, etc.
  • Breakfast. This goes along with eating earlier, but having easy breakfast stuff has helped. I made a batch of healthy breakfast burritos and threw them in the freezer, because I am never going to have the motivation or time to cook that early.
  • Pre-making as much as I can/having canned meat on hand. Easy protein = good.
  • Finding easy, healthy go-to recipes. I get too ambitious sometimes, which is fine for weekends, bad for busy days.
  • Whole wheat. In an effort to stick to the nutrition guide, and eat things that are better for me, I stocked up on whole wheat tortillas, pasta, and rice – so when I do eat carbs, they’re actually healthy, and I have less temptation to eat the ever-feared white food.

Doing all this, I’ve managed not to binge/eat anything ridiculous all week. I still have to be mindful, but spreading my calories over the entire day instead of binging at night has helped a lot. If I can actually get all the P90x workouts in this week (the few left in my schedule), and make it to the rec to swim/bike, I should be back on track – and hopefully in an actually sustainable way.

Today’s workout: 30mins Swimming