How Fitness Changed Tony Horton's Life

By Tony Horton, creator of P90X^®

I'm learning that when you decide to eat right and exercise regularly, the person you become will have it pretty easy, and life will no longer seem quite as hard. Until I got really fit, I used to have so many problems. Everything seemed difficult and daunting. There was a lot of drama and conflict. I was lazy, tired, and overwhelmed. I didn't have the feel-good brain chemistry of a person who was firing on all cylinders from making better choices. Life was a struggle. But I had no clue that my poor diet and erratic physical activity were the reasons for my misery.

In my late twenties and early thirties, I began to eat better and work out more regularly. Oddly enough, new opportunities began to come my way. My confidence improved, and the drama began to fade away. It never occurred to me that healthier food and physical activity were responsible for the shifts in my life. I chalked it all up to luck, nothing more. Sometimes, for brief periods of time, I'd get lazy, eat garbage, and blow off workouts. And guess what? Life got hard again. But I still hadn't put two and two together.

By the time I made fitness my true vocation 13 years ago, I was in much better shape—not perfect, but pretty good. Those early days of creating my at-home DVD routines were fun and exciting. I was in the right place at the right time with the right experience to be able to help my business partners create something different and better when it came to at-home workouts. We were striking gold where it had never been found before. You'd think by then I'd have a clearer understanding that my regular exercise and healthy eating had something to do with my early triumphs, but the answer was still no. More great luck, right?


Turns out the more consistent I was with my workouts and the better I ate, the more opportunities came my way. Only in the last 2 or 3 years have I truly begun to appreciate that by exercising 6 or 7 days a week and eating wholesome foods, I have the energy and enthusiasm for a life I enjoy.

I'm not telling you this to brag—I'm sharing this experience because I want you to realize that life can be incredible, and not through luck or upbringing or even education. I know plenty of people who have degrees from top schools and who make tons of money—and they're a mess. Joy, happiness, opportunities, success, and the life you want come from switching to a lifestyle that involves regular exercise and whole foods. What seems hard as hell at first will turn your life into a carefree world of endless experiences and plenty of opportunities, and will give you the energy and enthusiasm you need to enjoy life for the rest of your life.

How My Roomate Lost 115 Pounds Using P90x in Less Than a Year !

A little over a year ago, My friend and roommate Miranda Schmidt set off on a weight loss journey.  Little did I know that the end result would be her losing 115lbs. She has definitely inspired many people along the way, including myself!

At Her Heaviest-260lbs

 

When she decided to make a change in her lifestyle, I had no doubt that she would achieve her goal. I had a copy of p90x lying in my room, and she asked if she could borrow it. I of course said yes and then saw how determined she really was. She followed the p90x meal plan word for word and never missed a day of working out, despite working long hours at work. She even started Shakeology to work with her so that she can have a healthy meal instead of eating fast food. Here are her Day 1 before photos.

Day 1 Photos

 


















Over the course of a year, their was no workout that she wouldn't try. She did 2 rounds of p90x, and 1 round Brazil Butt Lift. She was even able to conquer Insanity. The end result was Miranda losing 115lbs.

1 Year of Hard Work and 115lbs Later
 




















I am so proud of her. She is proof that if you commit, and decide, you will succeed. The people in the Beachbody Corporate Office recognized Miranda's huge achievement and made her a top 4 finalist in the in the Team Beachbody Members Exclusive: The Wild Card Competition. The grand prize is $25,000. If you would like to vote for Miranda, click below.

P90x was declared the winner in P90x vs. Gym war

Last night was such an awesome night! We went out to Tao Nighclub, here in Las Vegas. One of our friends told us that there was a Hot Body Contest, and she knew my friend Ryan would be perfect. Ryan is a Beachbody Coach and he used P90x to get in awesome shape. Ryan's competition was a Bodybuilder and he was huge.

Harvey, one of the judges on the hit show TV The Biggest Loser, was the guest Judge for this contest. The prize money from the contest was $1000. I was watching on nervous as hell.His competetion was twice his size, and I think he was juicing.

When Ryan stepped on stage, the crowd went bananas. The girls lost their mind! I was cheering at the top of my lungs. When the bodybuilder got up there, I got a little nervous because he was so huge.

When Harvey came back with the final decision, Ryan was the clear cut winner. Harvey said that he liked the natural look. We got to network with a lot of people and spread the word about P90x.

Advice From 100 Doctors!

100 Doctors Don't Lie!

A lot of us today live very busy lives. Trying to eat healthy is not easy. A lot of us don't have time to prepare the 5 meals a day we need to achieve our weight loss goals. Because of this problem, Beachbody decided to create the most nutritious shake on the market today! They spared no expense, and they succeeded with their mission. Check out what the Doctors are saying about Shakeology!


 

Can You Sacrifice An Hour A Day?

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been talking to lots of people on Twitter, and it seems like the biggest problem for people is staying consistent with their workout program. They start p90x or Insanity with the intention of getting ripped, but then life steps in the way. You miss one day, and then another. Before you know it, weeks have gone by and that program you paid for is collecting dust.

So what is the solution? The only solution is that you have to commit to the program. If you want the results, you have to show up everyday. If having a beautiful physique was easy, everyone would be ripped. If you walk down the street, you quickly realize that this isn't the case.

When I first started my weight loss journey, I started and stopped Insanity at least 3 times. It wasn't until I made getting in shape a priority that I started seeing results. I decided that for the next 60 days, I would find an hour to take care of my body with exercise. Sometimes you have to sacrifice things you like doing like watching TV or chilling on Facebook, but the results are more than worth it. If you want more self esteem and confidence, find an hour a day.

The Unboxing of Insanity: The Asylum

Insanity: The Asylum is the newest workout from Beachbody. It is the follow up to Shaun T.'s hit workout program, Insanity. Top Beachbody coach Hillary Kelly was able to recieve her signed copy early! Check out as she unboxes it.

The Insanity 60 Day Challenge

Are you ready to dedicate the next 60 Days of your life to getting in the best shape of your life?

Testimonial: Geoffrey Green

                           I decided to give Insanity a try after seeing it on the infomercial. I decided that I would stick to the 60 days and take Shakeology to see what my results would be. I had no idea that in only 2 months, I would drop 40 lbs and over 12% body fat.  I am now ripped and for the first time, I have abs. I am still getting used to all the compliments I am getting because a couple of months ago, I was embarrased to take my shirt off.

 

Plus: When you order from my website, you get an exclusive Bonus Workout

Insanity Fast and Furious. When you are short on time, get a 45-minute workout packed into 20 minutes with this bonus Insanity Workout available only through Me. 

4 Facts You Need To Know About Fat

By Joe Wilkes of Beachbody.com


We always talk about how we want to lose weight. But that's not really what we mean. When we talk about losing weight, we're really talking about losing fat, getting rid of the spare tire, turning the keg into a six-pack. It's about more than getting ready for swimsuit season or squeezing back into your "skinny" jeans, though. More importantly, it's about having a healthy amount of body fat so we don't put ourselves at risk for myriad diseases. After all, our bodies need some fat. Fat is responsible for regulating our body temperature. It insulates our vital organs. It stores energy our bodies draw on to function. Not to mention everyone wants a few strategically placed curves, and you can't get them with just bone and muscle. So what exactly is a healthy amount of body fat?

1. What is body fat percentage? It's simple enough. It's the amount of adipose tissue (body fat) we carry compared to our weight. A 160-pound person who is carrying 32 pounds of fat would be said to have 20 percent body fat. We all want to be working toward an ideal body fat percentage, staying within a range where we carry enough fat to feel and look healthy, but not so much that we develop the health issues associated with obesity, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer. So what are the ideal ranges, and what are the best ways to get rid of unwanted excess adipose tissue, aka body fat?
   
   Most organizations classify a healthy body fat percentage as 20 to 25 percent for women and 8 to 15 percent for men. Women who have more than 30 percent body fat and men with more than 25 percent are generally classified as obese. There can be some variations that are still considered healthy. Athletes will tend to have less body fat, for example; however, below a certain point, low body fat can be as dangerous as high body fat.
   
   There are various ways to calculate body fat percentage, with varying degrees of accuracy and expense. Many clinics offer what they describe as the only, truly accurate readings, derived from water displacement, ultrasonic, or X-ray tests. Much simpler than that are many home body fat scales. While simple, they are fairly inaccurate. The best home device is an inexpensive and simple test using skinfold calipers. These calipers measure folds of skin at various parts of the body and provide an estimate of body fat percentage based on those measurements.
   
   Inaccurate or not, most trainers recommend using some sort of body fat calculation in addition to being weighed on a scale. For most of us, though, true accuracy isn't that important, just as long as we're sure our body fat percentages are going down. We can starve ourselves and lose weight to reach that goal, but a lot of that loss will be muscle loss and won't give us the healthy look or feeling most of us seek. 

2.Muscle burns fat. One reason we want to be cognizant of our body fat loss, as opposed to mere weight loss, is because muscles burn calories, and if we lose muscle, it will make burning calories—and, by extension, fat—much more difficult. Because the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn—even when you're resting! So it's important to follow an exercise program that combines resistance activities, like weight lifting, that build muscle with aerobic cardio activities that burn calories. This combination is key to the success of Beachbody's programs, including Chalene Johnson's ChaLEAN Extreme^® or P90x.

The really good news is that when you exercise, your body begins turning stored fat into glucose for fuel before it begins breaking down muscle for fuel. This is why high-level athletes can eat so much and still stay sleek. Take Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps' 12,000-calorie-a-day training diet, for example. Because he has such a low percentage of body fat, he has to provide his body with enough fuel or his body will begin breaking down the proteins in his muscle, since it's pretty much out of body fat to use for fuel. During newsletter chats and on the Message Boards, P90X graduates often complain of an ammonia-like smell after working out. That smell is indicative of the protein breakdown that occurs when their elite new low-fat bodies have begun tapping into muscle for fuel. It generally means they need to start eating more to make it through the workouts—a problem most of us would love to have! Most of us aren't dealing with the problems of elite athletes trying to get enough fuel, though; we're just trying to get our bodies to approach that kind of shape.

One popular exercise myth is that if we're trying to lose body fat, we should just do lots of cardio and sweat and burn fat, then build muscle later. That's a sort of "lose weight now, get in shape later" approach. There's some truth there. The more we exercise, the more calories we expend and the sooner our bodies tap into our fat stores for energy. But by building up muscle, in addition to doing cardio activity, we can burn a lot more calories, even while we're at rest, and maximize the calorie burn during cardio. Plus, when the stored fat begins to melt off, there will be lean, sexy muscle in its place.

3.How diet affects body-fat composition. Something we've discussed before is the myth that dietary fat contributes to body fat. This is only half true. The fact is that body fat, or adipose tissue, comes from stored calories. Your body fat doesn't care whether the calories come from fat, protein, or carbs. Don't believe me? Try drinking a six-pack of fat-free beer every day—you'll have a pony keg under your shirt in no time. The "beer belly" comes by its name honestly, and beer doesn't have a gram of fat in it. Neither does soda, and it's one of the main culprits behind the obesity crisis.

Fat does have more calories per gram than either carbohydrates or protein do, so it's wise to monitor the amount of fat in your diet, but if it's healthy fat, like the kind found in avocados, olive oil, fish, or nuts, there's no reason to exclude it from your diet. It's wise to avoid saturated and trans fats, but that has more to do with lipids in your blood, not the composition of adipose tissue. 

4.Can you target areas where you want to burn body fat? There's a French proverb that says that sooner or later, every woman must choose between her face and her bottom. What this means is that it's a myth that you can target one area of your body over another for fat loss. While we may mainly want to get rid of our guts or slim down our thighs, our bodies are largely democratic about where they take stored fat from—they take it from all over.

If you've seen Madonna lately, you can see the results of her latest workout regimen. She has incredibly low body fat, but her face has lost its fat as well, making her bone structure appear more prominent, with a more sunken appearance (although it looks like some cosmetic procedures may have helped her fill it out somewhat). So if you ever see advertising for any product that claims to burn fat off one part of your body and not others, it's over-promising. You can target specific muscle groups with exercise, but fat burning is a more generalized proposition. 


Any activity will go a long way toward reducing body fat percentage. And health professionals advise that even a modest decrease in body fat percentage will have extraordinary health benefits. So even if achieving that ideal "supermodel" weight seems impossible, you can really enhance your quality of life by making a few minor changes in your activity level and diet. Engaging in a comprehensive program like ChaLEAN Extreme or P90x, which encompasses resistance training and aerobic exercise as well as a healthy diet, is a great place to start. Here's to seeing less of us!

The Top 5 Things You Need if You Are Doing P90X!

Many of us have seen the infomercials for p90x, and a lot of us have actually used it. If you want to make it through the 90 day program, and get the best results possible, you are going to need these 5 essential things.

5. Resistance Bands- Just as effective as free weights, and much more portable and convenient. If you don't have the money to shell out on free weights or a pull up bar, you can still effective get a great p90x workout. In the p90x videos, they show you how to modify the exercises if you are using resistance bands.

4. The P90x Chin Up Bar- If you want to develop and strengthen your shoulders, back, and arms, then pull up are the best exercise to do this. The p90x system include a couple of workouts in which pullups are featured. If you want to build your back muscles, pull ups are by far the best exercise!

           3. P90x Peak Performance Bars- New and Improved Flavors, and  now with more protein. Each of these bars contain 20 grams of protein, and you will need the protein to build muscle. Muscle burns fat, so if you don't have time to make a protein shake, just grab one of these protein bars.

            2. The P90x Recovery Tub- Recover Faster and see better results! This great tasting drink is designed to provide the exact nutrients you need to recover after a tough workout. After working out, you have a small window of time to give your muscles what they need to grow. Just drink the recovery drink after your workout, and you won't be sore as long and you will get the best results.

                   1. Shakeology- If you are using p90x, the diet is what a lot of people struggle with and unfortunately, you need to be eating right to get the best results. Beachbody realized how hard it is to eat right, so they created an easy this delicious shake. All you have to do is substitute one meal a day with shakeology, and you will lose weight. It also reduces cravings, increases energy and stamina, and is proven to lower your cholesterol!

P90x Transformed Nick from Srawny to Superman

Check out this article from Esquire Magazine, January 2011. Team Beachbody Coach Nick Husin talks about his journey using p90x. He was able to put on some serious muscle using p90x, and not only transform his body, but his life!