P90X: Planning, Preparation, Acheivement

I do eat healthfully. The problem is that I have not made regular exercise a priority, and I've eaten a little too-well from time to time. Thus, I didn't have to throw much out in the way of bad foods, but it also means an excess of complex carbohydrates in my pantry.

My last post was over 10 days ago, and a lot has happened. First, my wife and I had to seriously pow-wow over how we would arrange the food budget and menu plan. Second, and this was key, I was going to need to shop strategically. After discussing the effort needed (setting the issue of money aside) I was floored. We agreed that creating the full menu of recipes for a week was implausible, at least for me. I am an excellent cook, but as I am a graduate student, have many other responsibilities.

Menu Planning.

We decided to cook roughly half to a third of the recipes and keep our sanity, doubling portions prepared and reusing leftovers. Now, in order to plan I needed copies of the pages within the nutrition guide. Suffice is to say, although I did purchase the program, I found another copy of the nutrition guide online (minor changes) and printed it. Using several copies I cut out recipes and pasted them as alternate dishes for the given weeks. You can view my alternate Week One menu plan here in larger scale.

Viewing the list, you'll notice I crossed out and rewrote the protein boost days to match that of the original nutrition plan. One thing I left off the plan: breakfast days that have turkey bacon written in do not also contain the cottage cheese.

I have a major leg-up in that I've been cooking for years and have a modicum of spices and supplies. Items such as Arrowroot? - Yeah, I've got that. Not only that, but I understand that arrowroot is a thickening agent even before I get started whereas most chefs nouveau probably do not. However, it was clear that trying to prepare the recipes from a singular book, by flipping back and forth, didn't make sense. This spurned me to create a binder of the recipes that laid flat and was readily accessible.

Update: if you use items such as cornstarch in baking, etc., when not amidst P90X, consider replacing them entirely with arrowroot. A 20 oz. bag made by Bob's Red Hill can be as low as $5.50.

I actually began preparing for P90X two weeks before, thinking I would be able to start a whole week earlier. This left me with some items in my refrigerator I could work with even though I was starting a new week. Also, if you haven't figured it out yet, I am cooking for two. My wife isn't yet ready to start (she is contemplating starting the 'lean program' on Monday next) but it is remains infeasible to have to separate menus running concurrently. There also isn't enough space, or storage containers.

The Art of Shopping.

My groceries for week one were around $225, not accounting for the spices I already had on hand, extra storage containers I needed to buy (soups/coleslaw), and the a few odds and ends I've ended up needing to go back for. That is a lot, but I am expecting to spend less than $60 for the next two proceeding weeks.

All told, it was a staggering undertaking, but for my efforts I created a grocery .xls sheet for a comparison of prices. Pounds (lbs) usually refers to water weight (in which there are 16 ounces) compared to a volumetric measurement of sixteen ounces (2 cups). This gets tricky as some grocery stores sell read-packs of specific/set ounce amounts. Sometimes there is a fair accounting, and sometimes not. Are you always getting 8 oz? With P90X, it helps to save any penny you can. If you live in the LA Basin, maybe this Excel Sheet can help. Note that I've used a calculation to break down the price per ounce regarding produce. That can be confusing, as the "Buy Low" market has 5 lbs for $2 specials which I then have converted to ounces to obtain the right per-ounce price for comparison. Each grocery has their strengths and weaknesses, but it's hard to beat Stater Bros for protein. Good luck!