Exclusive: P90X creator Tony Horton reveals workout, diet and success secrets – Examiner.com

Fitness icon Tony Horton oversees an influential and lucrative empire as the creator of the best-selling workout regimen, P90X.

Horton has a vast celebrity following, including First Lady Michelle Obama, singer Pink, and legendary rocker Bruce Springsteen.

After conquering the world of fitness, Horton, 55, is ready to take on a new challenge: Helping people become their best selves, physically and emotionally.

In an exclusive interview, Tony revealed the diet and workout secrets responsible for his rippling physique, and discusses his new book, The Big Picture: 11 Laws That Will Change Your Life.

Question: Do you follow a specific diet?

No, I was a vegan/ vegetarian for 15 years, and then I met my girlfriend Shawna. She was eating free-range chicken, elk, fish, and bison. I’d be eating my gruel and the smell of wild fish or grass fed bison would be filling the house and I couldn’t take it anymore, so I made the switch.

I now eat vegan, vegetarian, Paleo and ‘flexatarian’ meals; all healthy, but with more options. The only constant is that I still stay away from shellfish and cow, and as always, I still avoid fast
food and processed food filled with sugar, salt, and chemicals.

Question: You are ripped to shreds. I know you’re a yoga devotee, and obviously do P90X, but do you work out every day? And what specifically do you do?

I have workouts scheduled every day, which doesn’t mean I necessarily train seven days a week, week after week, month after month. I schedule seven because it guarantees that I will get in at least five or six every week.

Traveling, combined with other obligations, will often prevent me from working out every single day, but if I schedule seven workouts, my odds go way up. Here’s a typical week if the stars are lined up:

• 6:00 pm on Monday night I do Plyometrics.
• 7:30 am Tuesday morning is shoulders and arms.
• Wednesday night I have two different cardio options.
• 7:30 am Thursday morning is chest and back.
• Friday afternoon is a routine called “Boxes and Balls,” which a focus on core and plyo boxes.
• Saturday is yoga and Sunday I either do a track workout, or gymnastics.

Question: I love that you’ve branched out and wrote a self-help book that will help people improve their lives. What inspired this move?

I have wanted to write this book for 10 years, but quite often publishers are leery to have a fitness expert write any book that isn’t filled with exercise routines and a diet plan.

I learned long ago that changing physically requires a series of steps that inspire and motivate people to be committed to a lifestyle of health and wellness. You have to be willing to change your mental and emotional state before you can begin a fitness program and dietary shift.

‘The Big Picture’ gives the reader a new perspective that allows them to be more consistent and really enjoy the process when it comes to feeling good and getting better, as opposed to just eating or exercising with the hope they’ll look different in the future.

Question: You’re rich, famous, and super-successful. What is your No. 1 secret for success?

I honestly believe that wealth and fame is totally lame. In other words, to believe that those things are important is a complete waste of time and often the downfall of anybody that thinks otherwise. My goal is, and has always been, to focus on helping as many people as possible with real and authentic techniques that will change their lives.

The Big Picture: 11 Laws That Will Change Your Life comes out Feb. 4, 2014.