The Insanity Elite Nutrition Guide presents an incredibly powerful way to light your metabolic fire and keep it going all day long. The basic premise of the Elite Nutrition Guide is to eat 5 meals per day and have each of those meals be of nearly equivalant value.  The first step in the nutrition guide is to calculate your calories.  The calculations in the Elite Nutrition Guide are somewhat complicated.  To simplify things we have created a spreadsheet.  The spreadsheet walks you through the threes step process to determine your required caloric intake.  Note that: (1) there are separate calculations for men and women; and (2) the process requires you to be honest about your activity levels and goals.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE REVISED INSANITY SPREADSHEET

Once you have the spreadsheet, you’ll want to watch the following videos that explain how to use them and give some ideas on how to lay out your daily food intake with the Insanity Elite Nutrition Guide.

In this video, Monica and I break down the plan, and show you how we intend to prepare ourselves for success, by prepararing our meals in advance.

Free radicals are bad because they interfere with proper cell function and can even destroy otherwise healthy cells.  Exercise, particularly endurance based activity, can increase the accumulation of free radicals in the system.  Therefore, if you are engaged in any type of strenuous exercise program you should be conscious that free radicals could be accumulating in your system and could cause some damage.

Thankfully, there is a simple cure to this oxidation process.  Antioxidants.  Antioxidants, such as vitamin-E, vitamin-C and Beta-carotene, are able to interact with free radicals and stop their destructive cycle before they damage healthy cells.  The trace metals selenium and zinc are also a valuable free radical fighters. Yes folks, the moral of this story is to take your multi-vitamin daily and eat lots of fruits and vegetables.

But how much is enough?  Will a well balanced diet alone effectively combat free radicals?  The answer is controversial and there are many different opinions on when enough is enough.  Free radicals cannot be measured in the body, so it is difficult to tell whether the antioxidants you are consuming are doing the job.  Given the other benefits of antioxidants – heart health, cancer prevention, and fighting off the effects of aging (e.g. eyesight) – they should be a regular part of your diet even if you are not an endurance athlete.

Taking a multi-vitamin every day is the easiest way to ensure you are getting enough antioxidants in your diet to combat free radicals.  Beachbody’s Activit multi-vitamin is an excellent source of antioxidants.  Activit contains the following antioxidant nutrients:

Vitamin E – 30 IU = 100% RDA (recommended daily value)

Vitamin C – 120 IU = 200% RDA

Selenium – 70 MCG = 100% RDA

Zinc – 7.5 MG = 50% RDA

You can get Beta-carotene from vegetables, such as dark green and orange-yellow vegetables, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, spinach, broccoli, romaine lettuce, apricots, and green peppers.

Eat a balanced diet and take your multi-vitamin to combat free radicals.

UPDATE – December 29, 2009.  Over the past year or so we have gotten a lot of questions about this post and it has generated a lot of attention.  One major development since we originally did this post was the introduction of Shakeology to the Beachbody line of supplements.  Shakeology is hard to define in the P90X Nutrition Plan.  At 140 calories with 15g of protein and 19g of carbs (Greenberry) or 17g of protein and 17g of carbs (Chocolate) it is not really a full serving of either.  With Beachbody’s advice, we have characterized it as a snack.  Note that if you add items into the shake and increase the calories, it can easily be a double snack, rather than a single snack.  Most people like to add fruit to the greenberry and things like almond butter and bananas to the chocolate.  If you do that, take a minute and look up the caloric values of your additions and track them accordingly.  We have updated the Excel document below to reflect this change.  Also, we want to point out that the P90X Results and Recovery Formula is also properly tracked as a snack.  In that case it is a double snack.

We also wanted to offer our help with your P90X journey.  If you are new to P90X, start with the video below and then move through the post, including the comments.  It will take a while, but it will be worth it.  You’ll finish this post with a complete understanding of why the plan works the way it does, and how to make the most of it.  We are Team Beachbody Coaches and helping people with programs like P90X is what we do.  If you would like to have us coach you through P90X please contact me HERE, and we’ll give you instructions on how to make that happen.  You can also find details and sign up HERE.  There is no cost to you for this program or our services, but it is important for us to be assigned as your Coach in order to provide you with advice, support and motivation.  Also, check out our message board community at http://www.thefitclubnetwork.com/community/.  Good luck and we look forward to hearing from you.

UPDATE – May 16, 2009.  We have updated this post to include a video discussing the resources contained below.  One key issue to note is that the daily trackers on the spreadsheet below represent a mid-range in the various “Levels” of the program.  You will need to customize the spreadsheet to your needs.  This is one reason why we decided to make it an excel document, rather than a PDF.  Please watch the video first and then use the resources.

Gaining an understanding of your caloric needs is very important.  Many people comment that the calories required for the plan appear very high.  This video explains why the calories are calculated the way they are calculated.  In the post I reference the Power 90 Master Series.  You can find information about that program HERE.

Once you have an understanding of how many calories per day you get and the portions of each food group, you’ll want to consider how to break those up in your day.  Monica shot this video describing how she uses the Phase I, Level I of the P90X Nutrition Guide during her day.

ORIGINAL POST – January 29, 2009.  The P90X nutrition guide can be an overwhelming document, as a P90X coach and graduate of the program, I have created a simpler system to help you with the portion approach. I hope that you can benefit and maximize your P90X results by using these documents to support all your hard work and sacrifice during the program.

Step 1 – Calculate your Daily Calorie Needs and Determine your “Level”.

Start by downloading this Excel file.  The document contains several steps at the top.  These will help you determine how many calories you will need on a daily basis and what “Level” of the program you will be on.  There are “Levels” and “Phases”.  The “Level” relates to how many calories you need on a daily basis.  As the diet progresses it goes from a high protein/low carb diet, to a more balanced, but slightly higher carb diet.  Each progress is a “Phase”.

P90X-Nutrition-Guide-12-29-09 (Click to Download Excel file).

The Excel file also has a daily tracker you can use.  If you can print this up and laminate if then you can keep track of your portions each 6 days.  If not, just print a new page every six days.  The daily tracker also has boxes for water and supplements to help remind you to DRINK WATER.  This will help you to stay accountable and on target to the outrageously fit YOU!

When you download the Meun planners below you will see that each section tells you how much a “Serving” is.  For example, a 3 oz. chicken breast is one serving of protein.  If you eat a large (9 oz.) chicken breast, then that is 3 servings of protein, and you would check 3 boxes in the protein category in your daily tracker.

Step 2: Plan your Menu.

Below you will find three different menu plans for each Phase of the diet.  Download these documents, starting with Phase I – Fat Shredder, and take a good look at the foods in the food plan. This was especially important for us because Dave and I have two kids to feed and we wanted healthy, kid friendly meals. Although, our kids’ taste palate expand all the time, eliminating  items off the list make the list more realistic.  This is a good shopping list for us.

Phase I – Fat Shredder (Click to download Word file)

In proteins for example, I removed ham slices, soy burgers, soy cheese, tofu, turkey bacon, veggie burgers, and veggie dogs. The simplified list was AWESOME for menu planning and for food shopping at the store. Family dinners have always been my biggest concern.

Obviously, our children are not restricted to portions like one carb and 2 proteins and 1 veggie.

A delicious Turkey meatball or Lean ground Beef meatball with a home made marinara and a cup of whole grain pasta. Makes a delicious meal for the whole family.

Corn tortillas and shredded chicken is another delicious meal for the family. Depending on your specific level and phase, you can add black beans and brown rice.

Stay tuned to get more menu ideas that are both completely P90X menu planner compliant as well as YUMMY!

Phase II – Energy Booster (Click to download Word file)

This is just the second phase of nutrition in the P90X menu planner.

Phase III – Endurance Maximizer (Click to download Word file)

This is the last phase of nutrition in the P90X menu planner.

If you ever need any peer support or coaching with your P90X, please contact me HERE.

GRRRRR LET’S BRING IT!

Omega 3 fatty acids fall into the PUFA category.  More specifically they are alpha-linolenic acids..  The body is not capable of generating PUFA’s, so they must be added to the diet in order to gain the benefits. PUFA’s act like hormones and assist in regulating blood pressure.  In addition, they can help the body to control blood clots, blood lipids, immune response and response to inflammation.

Omega 3 fatty acids can be added to the diet in a number of ways.  The most common method is the consumption of cold water fish, such as salmon, albacore tuna, and lake trout.  Flax products also contain omega 3 fats.  Another common method, and the method I choose because I don’t really like cold water fish, is through supplements in pill form.

I use Beachbody’s Core Omega-3 supplement, which contains vitamin E, and 2,000 mg of omega-3 fatty acids derived from cold water fish in the Atlantic ocean.  This source is considered one of the most pure on the planet. One serving of Beachbody Omega-3 supplements is equal to an average serving of Atlantic salmon.

If you don’t like fish, please consider supplementing your diet with omega-3 fatty acids.  Please contact us if you have any questions about this post or omega-3 fatty acids.

Dave