As you can imagine, this process is not fun, so over the past year or so I’ve been training myself to do what you neat freaks already do – clean up after myself as I go (amazing, right?), and do it in smaller increments. While this may be a no-duh for a lot of you, for some of us, these are new concepts! LOL

I bet you’ve figured out where I’m going with this, huh? For a lot of us perfectionists, things that don’t come naturally to us (housework, eating right, exercise) are an all-or-nothing proposition. Either our house is magazine-perfect, or CPS is banging down our door. Either we are healthy eaters who never have a bite of cake, or we are unhealthy slobs. Either we get up every day to exercise without fail, or we sleep in and never do it. Either we do the exercises exactly how Tony does them, or we sit the whole thing out.

The interesting thing about this, when it comes to P90x, is that I think P90x is a magnet to black-and-white thinkers. Many of us who are drawn to the idea of changing our bodies in 90 days are the same people who are having trouble with the lifelong, steady, incremental road toward healthiness – we are looking for a 90 day crash course. I know that this isn’t everyone, but I also know it applies to some of you because this is exactly how my hubby and I thought when he was starting P90x. “I can do anything for 90 days!” he told me. And that was true, but it also meant that when he didn’t get up to exercise on day 14, he almost quit.

So this is something IMPORTANT that you need to acknowledge before you start P90x: You are human. You may have some cake, and it does NOT mean that you have fallen off the P90x nutrition bandwagon. You may forget to set your alarm and not get up to do your exercises one day. SO WHAT???!! Keep going the next day without pause. You may have an injury or extra weight that makes it hard for you to do all of the exercises perfectly. Ever wonder why Tony makes such a point of saying “Do your best and forget the rest?” He’s talking to the perfectionist in you – the person who has tried other diets or exercise programs and stopped because you didn’t do them perfectly.

On Day 14, I had to kick my hubby’s perfectionist out. I basically told him to shut up and move on. I said it to him and I’ll say it to you now: Do you really think that you are going to do hour-long exercises for 89 days and it’s not going to change your body for the better?! Do you think you are going to eat 89 days of healthy food and it’s not going to make any difference? If you can do only 45 minutes of the hour because of your weight or your injury, do you really think 45 minutes of exercise daily for 90 days will make no difference whatsoever? OF COURSE NOT! So the scale hasn’t changed yet, SUCK IT UP!! Stop listening to that perfectionistic voice in your head, and remind yourself what you are doing this for. This is for a healthier you! This is so you can be around longer for your kids! This is 90 days of hard work, but not only is it going to change your body now, it’s going to teach you how to cook and how to eat and how to push yourself! IT’S GOING TO WORK. So show the perfectionist to the door – he or she is not welcome anymore!!!

Was I just a little too mean to you guys? Sorry, but I’m saying this to you because I care about you, and being a perfectionist myself, I’m talking to myself too. KEEP GOING. DO YOUR BEST, AND FORGET THE REST. This isn’t a wagon you can get on and off of, this is your life. P90x is kick-starting an ongoing, steady change that is going to set your life in a new direction! You can do it!

Ebooking it…
- CJ =)

Whole chickens have always terrified me. In a culinary sense, and in a they-might-just-rise-up-and-kill-me-in-my-sleep kind of sense. They’re just so…well…gross. I think it must be that they have such a dead-animal vibe to them. I know, I know, boneless skinless chicken breasts are also made out of ANIMAL, but they are typically so clean and dissociated that I can block that fact out. If you are like me, and cooking is more of a challenge than a pleasure, then chances are good that whole chickens scare you too!

But when it comes to cheap and easy protein sources, cooking your chicken yourself can’t be beat. Boneless skinless chicken breasts at my grocery store usually run $2-3 per pound, where whole chicken runs only 95 cents! It’s amazing how fast that kind of savings can add up. So I decided that if you guys can exercise an hour every night for 90 days (and my hubby and thousands of you have proven that you CAN), then perhaps I can take one for the team and figure out how to cook a whole chicken. =)

I’ve used this (a slight alteration of a whole chicken recipe on Allrecipes.com) a few times now.  I have to say that not only is it DELICIOUS, it’s inexpensive and surprisingly easy to do. So thank you, folks. You’ve conquered your fitness goals, and as a result I’ve conquered my fear of barnyard fowl. (Although if I have nightmares after this, I’m blaming YOU!) =) 

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Take chicken out of packaging. [Shudder, then continue. :-P ] Set it on a roasting pan if you have one, otherwise just put it in a baking dish. In a bowl, mix spices. Using a knife, cut a hole in the skin on each breast of the chicken and the drumsticks (so that you can rub some spices under the skin and they get into the meat). Using a spoon, rub spices under and on top of the skin. Turn the chicken so that it is breast side down (this is counter-intuitive, but it helps it stay juicy). Bake it for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 475 and bake for 15 minutes more. Baste it with some of the juices, then reduce  to 450 and bake for 15 minutes more, or until a meat thermometer reads 180 degrees.

P90x Nutrition Plan Servings:

3 oz chicken is 1 protein serving. 

P.S. You do not need to wash the chicken, which actually increases the likelihood of spreading raw chicken germies around your kitchen. Instead, the key is the meat thermometer. You HAVE to use one, even if it’s a cheepo one, and wait till it measures 180 degrees.

P.P.S. The Allrecipes recipe tells you to season the chicken the night before to let the flavors blend. I don’t know if I’ll ever overcome my laziness to that degree. I’m kind of impressed with myself whenever I cook this because I start working on it a whole HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES before dinner time. In my book, that’s the height of culinary planning!  =)

P.P.P.S. So in other P90x nutrition news, did you hear that Tony Horton isn’t a vegan anymore? Now he’s eating salmon and free-range chicken. “I lost some weight eating just veggies, fruit and beans so I’ve upped the protein and calories. Making adjustments based on ever changing needs (especially as I get older) is perfectly normal.” Of course, Tony is in the enviable position of considering weight loss a bad thing! Maybe he lost the weight in his calves.

Ebooking it up…
- CJ =)

Big things are in the works here at myp90xnutritionplan.com. For almost two years now you’ve been begging me for shopping lists and meal plans using my recipes, so I’ve finally kicked my lazy butt in gear and I’m working on an ebook!

While I’ve got it in the works now, I’d love some feedback from you guys regarding the information you’d like me to include. Does this plan sound good? Anything I’m missing? Anything you especially want to see in there?

- CJ =)

P.S. For those of you in the planning stages who are feeling intimidated by the nutrition aspect of P90x, HANG IN THERE. It’s not as bad as you think! It’s intimidating at first, but trust me when I say that two weeks into the program, you’ll be an old pro at planning your meals. Read through my P90x Nutrition Basics page and check out the way I planned my meals. If you have questions, post on here and I’ll do my best to help you out. =)

1/19 Update: I’ve decided to do separate e-books for each level and phase, just so that I can get the phase 1 content up there sooner for you folks. My goal that I’m working toward at this point is having the first book, Level II, Phase 1, posted by January 31st! It’s going well so far – I’ll keep you posted!

1/30 Update: I’m working hard on this folks, but it doesn’t look like I’ll make it by tomorrow. At this point, it looks like I should have Level II, Phase 1 ready by this weekend. Sorry for those of you who are waiting to start till the ebook is done. I’m ALMOST DONE!!

2/4 Update: So I stayed up till 2 am the last three nights in a row, and it still doesn’t look like I’ll get this done in time for those of you who are starting on Monday! BOO! I’m working on this around the clock, and I’ll get it up easily before next weekend. If I published it today, it’d be unfinished and I’d have to do lots of re-releases as I fixed and edited it – I don’t want those of you who buy it first to get a less useful product. On a happy note, I’m really excited with how it’s coming together! It’s amazing how hard it is to make sure that you use up almost all the ingredients you buy and get variety, have lunches you can take to work, and not have to learn a new recipe every night of the week. It’s making my brain hurt, and I’ve been doing this for two years already - so believe me, it’ll be worth the wait!!! - CJ =)

Fill a large pot with water and boil chicken breasts for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through. While the chicken is cooking, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add flour and chile powder and cook for approximately 5 minutes until it has browned slightly. Add tomato sauce and remaining spices. Add chicken broth and cook for 10 more minutes, until the whole mixture has thickened a bit. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shred chicken with a fork. Toss grated cheese with egg whites (this helps lowfat cheese melt a bit better). Put some sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13″ pan, then coat each tortilla with sauce, add 1 1/2 oz shredded chicken, roll it up and put it in the pan seam-side down. Pour any remaining sauce over the top. Cover with grated cheese mixture. Bake uncovered for approximately 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted, sauce is bubbling, and enchiladas are heated through.

P90x Nutrition Plan Portions:

2 Enchiladas are 1 carb serving, 1 protein serving, 1 fat serving, 2 dairy servings. (There’s also a teensy vegi serving in there with the tomato sauce, but I don’t believe in counting anything less than a half serving, so I’d ignore it.)

P.S. The Allrecipes recipe called for “New Mexico or California chile powder.” Well heck if I know what those are! LOL. I just used the standard chile powder that I had in my spice rack, and it turned out good, if a bit strong.  

P.P.S. If you have some actual green chilis to add into the filling here, it might be tasty!

P.P.P.S. I now solemnly swear to return to my former, extremely lazy posting schedule.

This minestrone soup recipe is not only a tasty addition to your P90x nutrition plan, it is like a casserole – you can basically throw whatever you have in the fridge in there. If you’re not a vegi fan like me, you could also try this, because the cooking changes the texture of the veggies and might make it easier for you to get them down. I’ve noticed that I’ll look past veggies in a soup that I wouldn’t eat sitting on a plate.

Recipe Ingredients:

Place a big stock pot over medium heat, and drizzle bottom with olive oil. Add crushed garlic, salt and pepper, sliced carrots, green beans, and any other raw veggies you decide to throw in there. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring periodically. Pour in container of chicken broth and add 2 cups of water. Raise the burner heat up to high. Throw in turkey kielbasa and 2 cans of rinsed kidney beans. Stir in can of tomato paste, then add a couple of squeezes of lemon juice, Basil, oregano, and cayenne. Bring to boil and turn heat back to medium, and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes or so, until veggies are definitely softened and soup has thickened some. The longer you simmer it the better. While the soup is simmering, boil water in a separate pot and cook your pasta until done, then drain. To serve, measure 1/2 cup of cooked pasta into your bowl, then ladle 1 cup of soup over the top.

P90x Nutrition Plan Servings:

This makes around 6 bowls of soup. 1 bowl of soup is 1 vegetable serving, 1/2 protein serving, 1/2 carb serving, 1/2 fat serving.

P.S. With this, I just keep the cooked pasta in a container in the fridge. Then when I’m ready to eat, I heap some into the bottom of the bowl and ladle the soup over it. This makes it easy to control the carb content, and it also means that the pasta doesn’t get over-soggy.

P.P.S. This is a great make-ahead because it’s even better the next day after the flavors have combined in the fridge overnight.

P.P.P.S. Hey, if you eat this soup you won’t have to lie about eating your vegetables! =)

P.P.P.P.S. I’ll be having my next baby soon, so when that happens, there is a possibility that I won’t be as prompt in my responses to comments for a few weeks. Rest assured that I am not going anywhere – I love helping you guys. (I have a gaggle of children already, so at this point it’ll just be throwing another body on the pile!)

- CJ =)

So I was thinking, “Man, I should get a good parfait recipe on my site, that would be a great addition to a P90x meal plan.” Enter Samantha, who created this very pretty one!

I know that I always say that I was thinking of creating a recipe before someone sends it to me, but seriously, it’s like  you guys can read my mind. Every time I think, “I really should get off my butt and cook [insert recipe item here],” one of you lovely folks sends me a recipe with a photo that does it better than I would have anyway. So I guess you are determined to reinforce my laziness! LOL. Please continue. =)

Take it away Samantha!

“Here’s a really great breakfast recipe, Banana Scrunch. This is a single serving:

Mix protein powder into yogurt and set aside. Mix crushed bran flakes with oats, and heat mixture in skillet on medium heat for about 2 minutes. Drizzle bran flake and oats mixture with honey, stir and heat for about 2 more minutes (until edges of oats are crunchy). You can make as many layers as you like. Scoop some of the bran flake and oats mixture into the bottom of a tall glass, layer with sliced bananas. Scoop some vanilla protein yogurt on top, then repeat the layering process for as many layers as you like… bran/oat, banana, protein yogurt, etc. Enjoy!”

OK, CJ’s back!

P90x Nutrition Plan Portions:

Full recipe provides 1 protein, 1 dairy, 1 carb, 1 fruit, 1/2 condiment.

P.S. Samantha – you rock. Thank you!

I get a lot of questions about timing meals/snacks with P90x, especially from folks with weird work schedules, so I thought I’d address it in a quick post:

Here are the basic rules for when to eat with the P90x nutrition plan:

A couple of caveats to #3:
- If you are exercising late at night, it’s OK to take your recovery drink then go to bed if you have to.
- If you are starving and have to eat something before bed, try to make it straight protein – your body can’t store protein as fat while you sleep!

The most important thing to remember is that you need to adapt P90x to you and make it workable – so if that means you have to tweak the timing slightly, don’t let that get in your way or stop you from making the attempt. 90 hour-long extreme workouts WILL make a difference in your body, how could they not?! =)

I hope this helps as you are planning out your P90x nutrition plan!

- CJ =)

Hi folks! At long last, I’ve put together a vegan version of my P90x food journal, based on the alternative vegan meal plan Beachbody provided in their recent P90x newsletter. Hopefully this is helpful for all of you Xers out there hoping to do P90x vegan-style!

Vegan P90x Meal Plan

First, here’s a handy PDF I made outlining the Vegan P90x Portion List.

Phase 3
Vegan Phase 3, Level I
Vegan Phase 3, Level II
Vegan Phase 3, Level III

I print out and hole punch these sheets and put them in a binder. They end up serving as a very handy record of what you’ve eaten for the whole of your program, and a great reference if you decide to do a second round.

For more information regarding how I use these sheets, you can check out my original P90x Food Journal post, along with my P90x Meal Examples and Example Menus post, which shows how I fill the journal out and plan meals day-to-day.

I hope these are helpful to you!
- CJ =)

P.S. You’ll notice that here I actually provide a document listing the portions for P90x, where I don’t do so for the normal P90x Journal for carnivores. This is because I don’t want to infringe on Beachbody’s copyright by publishing their portion list without authorization. (That would make it possible for people to do the program without actually buying it, and I don’t want to jip Beachbody of their well-earned money.) In this case, however, since they provided this Vegan Portion List in a free, publicly published newsletter, and it’s not part of their guide, I figure I’m not infringing on any copyrights by providing an easy printable PDF version of it!

Welcome Pinterest people! Check out my P.P.P.S. below just for you!! =)

If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m a big fan of pizza. For some reason it just seems so special and indulgent to me, perhaps because it has gotten such a bad rap as a junk food. Well, the good news is that there IS a place for pizza in your P90x nutrition plan, even if you’re in Phase 1. And even more so if you can replace the one iffy part of it – the carb base. We Xers are always looking for good food carriers that don’t involve the carbs! I’ve experimented once before with Portabella mushrooms as a base for yummy protein servings, and it came out fairly well. Since then I’ve always thought that I should try the same thing out with pizza toppings. Well, here we are a year later, and I finally did it. The one hitch was that I couldn’t find full-sized mushroom caps at my store that day. Weird! So I picked out the little guys, and they ended up being cute and filling. They also scream appetizer, so consider these if you’re ever looking for a tasty P90x friendly appetizer for a party. =)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Clean mushrooms and scoop out the insides and stem with a spoon. Place on baking pan and bake for 7 minutes.  While mushrooms are baking, grate Mozzarella, and combine in a bowl with one egg white. (Usually low-fat cheese has trouble melting, so this technique helps the cheese melt while adding a bit of protein.) Remove mushrooms from oven, and turn the broiler to High. On the mushrooms layer pizza sauce, cheese mixture, olives, and pepperoni slices. Return pan to oven and broil on High for 3 minutes or until cheese has melted and started to brown.

P90x Nutrition Plan Servings:

6 mushrooms provide 1 1/2 vegi servings, 1/2 protein serving, 1/2 fat serving, 2 dairy servings.

P.S. When cleaning your mushroom, don’t rinse them under water like I did – mushrooms are very absorbent, and I found that mine came out a bit watery.  I’ve since learned that you should just brush the dirt off of them with a cloth or paper towel.

P.P.S. Are you noticing that this recipe is decidedly un-vegan?? Yeah… =/ Well, the other day my hubby and I had a serious talk, and he asked me VERY NICELY not to go hardcore vegan for his P90x meals. Veganism is a huge transition for us, him even more than me, and pairing that with the exercise was really taking toll on his motivation. Plus, I’m pregnant again, so I’ve been trying to figure out how to handle that with the veganism. (I know that you can have a very healthy vegan pregnancy, don’t get me wrong. But the learning curve is pretty intimidating here, and I just don’t know if I have the bandwidth to do it right. I don’t want my baby to suffer or not get the right nutrients from my busyness…) So the end result is that I’m intending to become more serious about veganism after I give birth this summer. Sorry to disappoint!

P.P.P.S. Hi Pinterest folks! I’m feeling very flattered that everyone likes this recipe idea so much. Thanks for sharing! If you like this, you might like several of my other recipes:
- If you like these because they are cute, bite-sized, and healthy, try my Chocolate-Filled Strawberries.
- If you like these because they are low-carb, healthy, and flavorful, try my Turkey Bacon Wrapped Chicken Shishkabobs.
- If you like these because they are a healthy twist on a comfort food, try my Healthy Mac and Cheese, or my Twice “Baked” Potatoes.
- If you like these because you love mushrooms or are jonesing for pizza, try my Portabella Pesto Mini Pizzas or my Mini Pizza with Homemade Pizza Sauce.
- If you like these because they are portable, try my Muffin Cup Frittatas.
- If you like them because they are a good idea with a pretty picture, try my Cucumber and Citrus Infused Water or my Tomato, Basil, and Mozzerella Sandwich, or my Black Bean Burgers.
Thanks again, and happy pinning!!
- CJ =)

So here’s a random CJ fact – I love raw mushrooms, but the moment they are cooked they disgust me. I can actually smell the chemical change happening while I cook them – one moment they smell good, and the next gross! Isn’t that weird? I wish this weren’t the case, because then I and my hubby, Mr. King of All Mushrooms, would actually agree on ONE food that we both like!

Anyway, now that I’ve revealed that the following soup would turn my stomach if I were called-upon to eat it myself, here’s my recipe. (WOW, what an appetizing recipe intro! LOL)

Spray saucepan with nonstick cooking spray, cook mushrooms over medium heat until mushrooms are tender. Remove mushrooms from saucepan and set aside. Heat 2 Tb of olive oil to saucepan and add flour, thyme, and onion powder. Cook and stir for several minutes, until flour mixture thickens to a mashed potatoes consistency and loses its “floury” smell. Slowly add milk and broth. (Doing this slowly stops the flour mixture from clumping up in the liquid.) Cook and stir until the soup thickens. Add the whole thing to the blender along with half of the mushrooms. Blend. Add back to the saucepan, along with the remainder of the mushrooms. Salt and pepper to taste.

P90x Nutrition Plan Servings:
1/2 of soup recipe provides 1/2 dairy, 1/2 fat, and 1 vegetable serving.

P.S. The olive oil and flour mixture is called a “roux” and is used to thicken soups and sauces. The longer you cook it, the darker the sauce becomes. I felt very gourmet when I learned that! =)

P.P.S. For you dairy folks, I bet this would be really good with Parmesan cheese added into it!