Insanity Paleo Review – A Transition Away From Paleo (Sort-of)
It has been a LONG time since I’ve blogged about my nutrition, exercise, etc, so I thought I would catch everyone up on what is going on.
First, I’m on my last week of Insanity. I’m glad, too! I love the workout, but month 2 really starts to get to me after a while. I think what I’ve learned about month 2 is what it really takes, nutritionally, to survive. Remember, I’ve been eating Paleo, which is a higher fat, lower carb style of eating if you eat traditional Paleo.
The problem I’ve hit is in month 2 the carb cravings have been intense! Even with taking the Results and Recovery formula (not Paleo, but I needed a recovery drink in a desperate way) and Shakeology, I still found that 100g of carbs and 80-100g of fat did not give me the energy I needed to strive in the days. I found myself with INTENSE cravings at night. And I cheated some because of it.
What I think I’ve discovered is that you really need carbs. Mark Sisson talks about “chronic cardio” and its affect on the carb cravings in the body, and I believe it now. While Insanity is more than just cardio, it still pushes your heart rate up in a high zone and pushes your body through your anabolic threshold as well as you aerobic thresholds.
My thought is if I ever do Insanity + Paleo again, month 1 I will not change, but month 2 I will need to carb cycle or simply go to a “zone” style 40/30/30 plan.
I’ve also learned that with Paleo, it is really hard for me to eat enough. I needed to be getting 2100-2400 calories/day in, and I simply could not hit near that most days. Another reason for intense carb cravings (when I get depleted, my body craves sugars as a quick and easy energy source)
With this knowledge, and the fact that month 2 was starting to beat on me, I had to make a decision: To continue, or do something else.
I’ve decided that I’m going to move on to P90X2 (finally) instead of repeating Insanity.
And what that means is a transition off of Paleo/Primal eating….somewhat.
P90X2 does include a “grain free” option meant to help the caveman eaters, but it is not the high fat, low carb plan (just simply grain free). Since this is my first time through the program, I plan on following the nutrition plan as it is laid out. I think this is important for my Beachbody business as well as seeing how I feel and learning a bit more about my body.
June 3rd (Sunday) will be my official start date. After I finish this round of Insanity, I am taking a week off to do nothing but stretch and recovery and get ready to push hard with X2.
And, of course, I’ll be forming a P90X/X2 Challenge Group.
Ran across this in a random search and couldn’t help but comment…
Yes, chronic cardio is not good for you, this is true. But some of us just can’t help but train for crazy endurance events. I’m doing Insanity to train for a Tough Mudder, on top of some other things.
You can get more carbs eating paleo by pushing more starches (like sweet potato). You could also be having cravings because you are consuming sugar in the form of shakes. But absolutely, it is very likely you need to move up to 150 g of carbs a day. That’s what Mark Sisson recommends for marathon runners.
Getting enough to eat is easy if you’re not afraid to use fat. I’ve never understood why people find getting enough calories eating paleo is hard. I totally overeat because I use coconut oil on every freaking thing. I actually have to measure now to keep my calories sane. Also, eat more fattier cuts of meat and you’ll bulk up in calories easy.
Hopefully you didn’t abandon paleo entirely and found a way to modify it.