Basic Foods vs Recipes

[dennis]

Hiya,

I am one of those "complete food idiots" many people talk about. Primarily, I want to get ripped through P90x which I have but was wondering some things about the food plan. Before p90x, I typically lift pretty hard but was limited on lower body workouts due to not having certain equip at home or affording a gym membership.

On Monica's video, she breaks out her foods and times. If I know my appropriate phase (ie.. II), my level (ie.. II) and know what portions I should be at (as on page 15 of the book), do I really need the actual recipes? As long as I get the proper foods layed out on page 16 and 17 in the proper portions for my level and phase, can I skip the actual recipes (unless i get crazy and decide to try and prepare one sometime?). I hope this isnt a completely stupid question.

Thanks!

Dennis

[Dave]

Hey Dennis,

There are two P90X plans. The Menu Plan and the Portion Approach. If you are following the portion approach (which is what we recommend and what the spreadsheets lay out), then you don't need to follow the menu plan and cook all the recipes they lay out there. Make it work for you. That's why we like the portion approach, you can customize it to your life.

Dave

[FitRunner]

I've taken some of the ideas from the menu plan and even some of the recipes and incorporated it into the portion approach. Since the recipes tell you what they count as in the portion approach, that let me cook old familiar meals some but helped me change other things. For example, I used to eat leftovers from dinner for lunch. Now I'm eating salads of the veggies + meat variety for lunch instead (I'm in phase I). Which veggies and which meats varies.

Some of the recipes are really nice, though! Several of them we intend to keep making even after P90X.