Lani is a regular guest contributor to the Engine 2 blog, and has helped a lot of you! If you have a question you’d like Lani to tackle, just leave it in the comments!
Question of the day:
Hi Lani,.
I am not overweight. I am 47 yrs old, 5′ 10,” and weigh 165 lbs. I am starting a workout program that you may or may not have heard about – called P90X2. I did P90X last year. It is a good all around workout program. It IS pretty intense though. You basically workout every day. The calorie drain is huge. My goal is to build muscle in addition to the other benefits of flexibility, core strength, etc.
I have yet to dial in a complete menu plan up until now. I am kinda winging it.
My question(s) to you:
1. How do I design a specific meal plan? (I understand in general terms what to eat and what not to eat, but when it comes to the specifics of what to eat for lunch today, I kinda get stuck.)
2. According to the program’s recommendations, I should be eating about 2,800 calories per day for someone of my weight. Can you prescribe a menu that I can successfully consume on a daily basis – without my jaw muscles fatiguing from all the chewing. Ha.
Thank you in advance,
Scott
Lani’s Answer:
Hi Scott,
Thanks for you great question. And yes, everything on the plant-based fitness expert blog applies to men too – women often have special concerns when it comes to body shaping and image/eating behaviors so you’ll find that there, too!
Yes, I’m aware of P90X though I have not tried it. My familiarity extends only as far as seeing sample clips and infomercial bits. And though you didn’t ask for it, I have some commentary for you on that too. More on that later.
1. How do I design a specific meal plan? (I understand in general terms what to eat and what not to eat, but when it comes to the specifics of what to eat for lunch today, I kinda get stuck.
Right up in the navigation bar on this page, you’ll see Tools & Support. Click on that link or just click here: Tools & Support. This will take you right to a 28-day planner complete with menus and shopping lists. This can be very helpful for giving you a good idea about how your daily eats might look. In addition, started on page 143 in Engine 2 Diet you’ll find similar resources.
I like to keep it really simple and am happy to share with you what I do. Breakfast is a big bowl of steamy whole grain cereal with some fruit and flaxseed. Lunch is a big bowl of veggie and lentil or bean soup, or a big salad, with a sandwich of veggies and often hummus on some good grainy bread. For dinner, I pile have my plate with whole grains or potatoes, winter squash, or sweet potatoes and the other half with steamed or steam-fried veggies. I’ll often create some kind of simple sauce, or toss some beans on the top. If we didn’t have a salad for lunch, we’ll have it at dinner. During the course of the day I’ll eat raw veggies, a piece of fruit or two, cold baked taters, a bowl of brown rice and salsa, a chunk of grainy bread – just to give you an idea.
The principles of my approach provide you with a very simple solution. If you like fancy recipes, there are plenty of resources for that too.
2. According to the program’s recommendations, I should be eating about 2,800 calories per day for someone of my weight. Can you prescribe a menu that I can successfully consume on a daily basis – without my jaw muscles fatiguing from all the chewing. Ha.
If you are maintaining a healthy lean weight, then you have a match. You haven’t specifically described a problem – is there one? If you don’t have the energy you need for your workouts, you either need to rest more between sessions or eat more or both. The menu for you could be as I described except that you could eat more at those meals, eat more meals as I’ve described altogether, or both. With plenty of potatoes, yams, whole grains and beans along with the veggies, you should be able to get solid calories without going into overdrive on your jaws.
If you find that you are losing too much weight, I posted some suggestions in a recent post and you’ll find them in the Q & A here: Q & A with Lani Muelrath at Engine 2.
As for workouts, please take precautions with your workout program. I understand the joy of being strong and fit, and completion of a workout that challenges you. I’m also a stickler for safe exercise form and correct anatomical alignment during workouts. For that reason I do not favor exercise techniques that have you move rapidly in orthopedically compromising positions such that can amp up your potential for injury. This is a fancy way of saying there is great potential risk to your joints and connective tissue.
I have not purchased or watched the P90X videos, though I have seen the moves in infomercial and on sample videos. I’ve seen enough to inspire me to invite you to take precautions during your workouts.
In watching the clips, I observe several anatomical alignment errors in evidence which can easily cause one to be orthopedically compromised.
For example, in the abdominal workout there is a move – ‘cherry bomb’ – that percusively flexes the spine in a loaded position. This is at the point in which you rapidly pike up with an explosive finish at the top, then back down to the floor again. Does this move overload and train the abdominal muscles to become stronger? Yeah. At the same time, in one quick blow forces have placed compression on the discs of the lumber spine, compromising spinal integrity and potentially resulting in acute. Remember how we are told to keep the back upright and use our legs to lower us when picking up something from the floor? This is so we can avoid flexing the spine against its natural lumbar curve in a loaded position. With the P90X ‘cherry bomb’ setup, aren’t we doing something similar, and just loading the spine from the front instead of the back as when bending over? The spine can tolerate flexion, yet controlling and supporting such movement with other muscle activation in place creates an entirely different scenario.
I haven’t seen lab work and tests done on this particular phenomenon with this particular move. That doesn’t mean that I can’t extrapolate potential contraindications from what I know and can observe about lumbar stress.
I also was able to find a clip of a kick-box like segment. There is a step, a kick, and lean over and touch the floor, get back up and repeat. Where do you think I was wincing on this one? The same lumbar loading was happening with this move, it’s just that the load was moved to the posterior of the spine rather than the anterior as in the cherry bomb.
In all fairness, remember I haven’t seen the instructionals, and perhaps students are cautioned to, before doing the lean forward to the floor, 1) engage their abdominals, 2) keep mindful of knee alignment so that they don’t pop inward to the midline of the body creating knee joint stress, and 3) keep the lumbar in its neutral natural curved position. From what I observe they are moving fast, using momentum and placing their bodies in all kinds of orthopedically compromising positions. Does this build leg strength? Of course. Will it help you become more agile and ‘buff’? I have no doubt. Does the ends justify the means? It’s your body and we’ve only got one.
This is beyond the scope of your question but I couldn’t resist the temptation to soap box a little. Does this mean that you need to abandon P90X? Of course not. Yet if you apply certain principles and stay mindful of spinal integrity and safety during your workouts, you’re just playing safe.
Keep moving and enjoy what you eat!
Lani Muelrath, M.A.
the Plant-Based Fitness Expert
Thanks again Lani! If you’d like to see some of Lani’s work and check out her great fitness programs, check out her website: http://lanimuelrath.com/
Lani Muelrath is a plant-strong fitness expert! Lani is the creator of The Body Transformation Formula and Fit Quickies™ 5 Minute Workouts. She has a Master’s Degree in Physical Education and over 30 years of experience as a teacher, coach, and trainer. She has received awards for her instruction, created and starred in her own CBS TV Show, and her expertise in the area of health and fitness is called upon by examiner.com, as Fitness Expert for Dr. John McDougall’s Health and Medical Center, coach, Dr. Neal Barnard’s 21-Day Kickstart program, and Health and Fitness Lifestyle Expert for Vegan Mainstream.com. She is Certified in Plant-Based Nutrition through Cornell University.
