Tony Horton’s "Bring It!" Day 1

Today I took a step away from P90X, for the first time in a year, but I did not go too far. I started the workout and nutrition plan in Tony Horton’s new book Bring It! I will try to highlight some points from the book along the way, but for now I want to concentrate on documenting my experience, since the book is new. In comparison, I felt like I was way too late in the game to be a cutting-edge P90X blogger.

The book begins with a motivation section, and a fitness test. This is not the same sort of “Can you handle it?” test which is recommended by some of the Beachbody programs. Instead, Tony is trying to identify your fitness level and work with it. The three levels are Beginner, Striver, and Warrior. After all that time spent with P90X, I am glad to report that I am just below Warrior level. In order to give myself a chance to get used to the book, and recover from the fatigue that has been plaguing me lately, I am starting at Striver level.

Workout

There are three workouts in this plan: Aerobic (twice a week), Resistance (three times a week), and Yoga (once a week). Each fitness level also includes a “Phase 1” and “Phase 2”. The first workout for me was Striver’s Level, Aerobic Phase 1.

Here is my first adjustment, after working with exercise videos for almost two years: There’s no video! I’m working from the book! I made photocopies of the workout pages, and added page numbers for the exercises (not listed with the workout, but there is an index at the end of the book). A lot of these exercises are familiar to P90X fans, but I did refer to the instructions a few times.

This workout seems short compared to P90X, and the calorie burn was about the same as the Kenpo workout for me. It was lower than Plyometrics, and a lot lower than a run on the treadmill. Maybe when I am more comfortable with the routine, I will be able to transition better from one exercise to the other, and feel the burn! (Yeah, I went there.)

Nutrition

I did a lot of food preparation over the weekend. Looking through the recipes in the book, I chose the black beans and yam chili (with ground turkey), and the butternut squash soup. I bought some rice cakes, hummus (I haven’t made my own yet), apples and bananas for snacks. I will be finishing off some leftovers this week, but they are healthy things like lean turkey and bean soup with a little ham. I already had salad-making supplies in the house.

I can’t promise a full rundown of my meals every day, and maybe it would be best if I don’t, but here’s how I started my program:

Today for breakfast, I had steel-cut oats with a banana and chocolate whey protein powder. My mid-morning snack was a Pure Protein Chocolate Deluxe protein bar (200 calories, very little sugar).

For lunch, I had a mixed greens salad, with tomato, cucumber, baby carrots and balsamic vinegar (no oil). I also sprinkled Costco’s no-salt seasoning mix on top. To the salad, I added some of that leftover turkey breast (Dietz and Watson Lite), and I had one serving of the homemade chili (about 360 calories, according to the recipe calculator at Calorie Count. I had an apple for dessert.

My hunger level today was low, maybe because I overindulged yesterday. Yes, I caved in to the excuse “I’ll do better starting tomorrow!” I wasn’t even sure I wanted my snack, which was a serving of the butternut squash soup plus a half cup of quinoa (about 300 calories total). I ate it anyway, because I figured it would be a while until dinner.

Dinner with the family is starting my new plan out pretty well, actually: Wild-caught salmon, broccoli and brown rice. Since I will be eating at home most nights, I will have to adapt to what is being served, and I’m OK with that. I think I will see the benefits of this program if I keep my dinners reasonable and skip the added sugar of my usual desserts. Tonight, dessert was a banana. I did have a snack of cheese and a sourdough pretzel after returning home from a meeting. Hey, not such a bad cheat, right?

Health and well-being

First, a little background: I was not a coffee drinker, or a tea drinker, until very recently. Last June, actually, while on a trip to London (think “jet lag”), I decided to give coffee a real try. Before that, I had tried the occasional mocha-flavored drink and decided I didn’t like the taste enough to make it what I considered a bad habit. I have learned over the past couple of years from Jillian Michaels and The Nutrition Diva that caffeine can actually provide some health and fitness benefits, as long as it doesn’t come packaged in a sugary drink. So these days, I don’t mind having a cup of coffee (sometimes two), or substitute some chocolate-covered espresso beans (half a serving) as a dessert. I still prefer my coffee flavored with chocolate, or I will get it down the hatch with milk and two sugars.

All that being said, mid-afternoon today, I had one cup of coffee with unsweetened cocoa and stevia. That has been my standard pick-me-up for a while. Pretty soon, if I follow Tony’s nutrition plan and cleanse, I will give that up for a while. I already skip the caffeine at least one day or more over the weekend, because we don’t make coffee at home. I don’t expect big withdrawal symptoms, but I will probably miss it. After all, I spent many years getting my caffeine from a moderate amount of cola (or diet cola), which I know doesn’t pack the same buzz, unless you drink a lot. (Here’s a comparison chart for various sources of caffeine.

One of my goals, besides making regular blog posts, will be to get a decent night’s sleep AND get up early enough to work out AND get to work on time. If I can manage that, I will be healthier and less stressed, right?