hi everyone,
my husband and I are starting the p90x tomorrow and were looking at the nutrition guide. we are trying to figure out what to eat for breakfast. we are only allowed one carb serving a day and that catergory consits of bread, potatoes and rice so if we were to have toast for breakfast were stumped on what to have for supper, and vice versa. we have no idea what to have for breakfasts, any ideas?

also my husband loves cream of wheat is he allowed to eat that? and what catergory would that factor into?

also, i looked up about egg whites(because we dont like them) a coupl of people said that one serving of the egg beater whites is equal to the regular egg beaters, can that be done? if we can subsitute then how can we cook it? we cant use butter to fry them and microwaving it is nasty so any ideas?

also for phase 3 i noticed there was no portion chart what are we supposed to be eating?

thanks

Biggest thing to remember about the nutrition guide....is that it is a GUIDE. Following its mealplan to the T can be very inconvienent. However the portions on there are very good.

Phase 1 is by far the hardest to adapt to. I personally love sandwiches, cereal, etc, so only having 1 serving of Carbs was hard. Although I am in week 8, I am still trying to use the phase 1 mealplan. The meal plans are not linked to the workout schedules, but linked to where you feel you should be.

What I ended up having for breakfasts were usually scrambled eggs with some kind of fruit. If I didn't have time for breakfast, I mixed up a protein shake and brought an apple on the road. Lunch was where I usually got my serving of carbs. I either made turkey sandwiches at home, or hit up subway or something. The "works" at subway is great for hitting vegetable servings.

Dinner sometimes was more tricky. What we usually ended up doing was making chicken/turkey with a marinade so you could eat it without much else. (most marinades have 0 calories, so its just flavor). Then we cook up some vegetables, fruit, and whatever else that we were missing for the day. I usually got all of my fruit in breakfast/lunch (had orange juice with lunch) so it was mainly just getting the rest of my protein and vegetables in at dinner.

My protein shakes consist of a glass of skim milk and 2 scoops of whey protein powder. Its a good way to eat up 2 protein servings and 1 dairy serving. I usually get my dairy in a day just from the protein shakes so I don't have to purposely go for it.

I know it sounds like a lot to keep track of early on in the program, but you start to get used to it and don't even think about it anymore. Lately I have sort of created my own ratios, which I plan to use indefinately. I maintained the Fat-Shredder diet for 5 weeks, but I really didn't like it. I added a bit more carbs and reduced the amount of protein while keeping everything else about the same. Its roughly that of the Phase 2 nutrition guide. I enjoy it, so I figured I will stay there since it won't feel like a chore to monitor my nutrition.

That is a huge part of keeping up with the diet in my opinion. You have to be able to enjoy it, or atleast not dislike it. Anything that you really start to dislike, will slowly fall apart causing more splurges and eventually complete removal of the system.

thanks for all the info just a couple more questions?
the scrambled eggs u eat are they egg whites or whole eggs? and what did u put in the pan?
we are not into buying the protein mix way too expensive, can we just use the fruit and milk and cancel out the protein?
the protein percentage on a package of food is that the percentage of our daily intake for a 2000 calorie diet? if so what would be the daily intake be for a 3000 calorie diet on a box?
also i was looking at the portion plan and it says cottage cheese for the dairy products and for the snacks if i were to have one serving of cottage cheese would that count as the snack and the dairy or just one?

thanks for the help.

You don't have to get protein powder, but I recommend it. Considering how much protein we have to consume in a day, its kind of rough getting it all from food. You really have to pack away the food to get the amount of protein you need.

When I make scrambled eggs, I usually just beat up 5-6 full eggs. Put them in a skillet and cook them. I am sure if you really wanted to be a stickler, you could try and seperate the yolk from the whites, but thats beyond the level of precision I go.

A good rule of thumb for how much protein you should have early on is basically 1 gram per pound of your bodyweight. Which is actually pretty accurate. I am on Level 3, so it suggests that I consume 9 servings of protein.

1 scoop protein powder = 24g of protein. 9x24 = 216. I started at 209lbs. So its pretty close.

So if you don't want to get protein powder, you can just try to find a way to consume Xg of protein where X is your bodyweight. Whether that is in eggs, turkey, or whatever else you wish to substitute in there. I just remember when I ran out of powder, I felt like I was eating for like 4 people to hit my protein marks.

As for the serving sizes and which counts for what...

You have to play that one by ear, so to speak. Generally, if you had 1 serving of something...it would be 1 serving. It would not be 2 servings (1 snack, 1 dairy). So you could place it wherever was most convienent to you. Like if its easier for you to eat carrots as a snack, so you can have cottage cheese with your dinner, that is an option as well. The main purpose is trying to limit how much IN GENERAL that you are consuming in a specific group.

If you are taking supplements, its almost more important to watch the calories instead of the exact ratio of fruit/vege/dairy. The ratios that they give via the amount of servings is trying to make sure you get your proper vitamins to support a rigorous workout. If you are already getting some using a multivitamin, they have a secondary function of fatless calories for your body to burn.

Yeah, I type lengthy posts....

You can buy 100% egg whites in a carton from egg beaters and on the carton it has a recipe for a protein shake using the egg whites! It is terrific! I make veggie omelets for breakfast with the egg whites and I use pam spray to prevent sticking. I am not following the diet I am using it as a guide only....I usually have the egg white veggie omelet in the morning with my coffee and I use stevia to sweeten my coffee. For snack later I like an apple and turkey sclices. For lunch I might have a big salad with turkey and a hard boiled egg. I have my recovery drink after my work out, and for dinner we grill fish, chicken, or steaks and have a green veggie with it. A few times a week we will have brown or wild rice, or sweet potatoe fries in the oven. Hope these ideas help! BTW we are on day 6 of our p90x and I have lost 6 lbs. I use to hardly ever eat during the day i was bad! I realize noe that eating actually helps you lose weight!!!!