P90x and Ulcerative Colitis

I bet that's the last two words you would expect to see together, right? Well, your truly decided to take P90x for a spin, and I love it! I am on week 9, and have shed weight, as well as built some pretty strong muscle!

Now, before I get all worked up, let me say I was not overweight to begin with, but I was losing definition in just about every way possible. Being a newbie 30-year old, it's really time to start taking care of my body to the best of my ability!

I weighed in on day 1 at 170 pounds. As of this writing, I have held steady at around 158 pounds, thank to great eating and lots of P90x.

What is P90X?

Don't worry, I'm not trying to sell you some P90X (it's great though). All P90X is about is high intensity interval training that never lets you body rest. It contains phases of muscle confusion that never lets your body plateau, or stop gaining strength and muscle.

It also consists of some strict, but extremely healthy dieting. IN my case, I was trying to lose weight, but gain muscle. So, my diet included lots of protein. To help add more protein to my diet, I decided to add whey protein, which is a by-product of cheese, aka a milk product. See where I am going with this?

Whey Protein and a Flare-up

After about 4 weeks of P90X and taking whey protein almost every day, a very decent ulcerative colitis flare-up started to hit me. This flare-up didn't creep in like ones in the past have. This one hit me FULL FORCE. I was doubled over in a couple of days, with severe cramping and stool changes that usually take weeks or months.

I almost thought I had food poisoning. But as fate would have it, and an emergency room visit confirmed, a UC flare-up was raging. After a heavy dose of IV fluids, some steroids, and a cocktail of pain relievers and cramping reducers, I was feeling much better.

I stopped my workouts immediately (because I couldn't do them without stomach pain), and changed my diet to the awesome chicken noodle soup and toast plan. I mixed in some jello as well, in addition to some flavor-packed saltine crackers. I was thrilled. Sarcasm about here, folks.

Anyways, I was more upset that I was getting thrown of my P90X plan than I was about the dumb UC flare-up.

After a week of rest, my flare-up subsided tremendously, and I was almost back to normal. I started integrating my normal diet back into my meal plans, and came to some conclusions.

1. No more WHEY PROTEIN. This was what I suspect was the main culprit behind the flare-up, especially given the amount I was consuming each day.
2. Reduction of raw fruits and vegetable intake by about half.
3. No more healthy nuts (peanuts, walnuts, almonds) until flare-up was completely gone for a week.

After my adjustments, I have not had one single flare-up symptom, and I feel better than ever. I have continued my P90X routine, albeit one week behind schedule, and have never felt better.

I replaced the whey protein with more chicken and turkey, and have incorporated more cooked beans for the raw fruits and veggies. Nuts have come back into my diet recently, but only a handful a day.

My stomach has melted away, and I can see my little six-pack again! My scrappy and undefined chest now has some great definition! I am working hard on my shoulders, and while progress is slower in that area, I'm still trying very hard!

Does P90X work with Ulcerative Colitis?

Absolutely, I'd recommend it in a heartbeat! Here are my words of caution, or wisdom if you prefer. Diet is just as important, if not more important than working out. Diet doesn't necessarily mean eating less to lose weight, but rather eating RIGHT...eating HEALTHY.

When choosing your diet, make sure to be very careful of UC forbidden foods. Small amounts of these foods may be okay while in remission, but don't chance it if your colitis is active or flaring-up.

Oh, and the workouts? Pure awesome. They are hard as anythin you've ever done, but pure awesome.