I started this blog in May of 2011 to try to get my life back on track. Since then, I've made some pretty drastic changes. Not only physically, but mentally. I have a much brighter outlook on life. I have a better marriage. I eat better. I drink less. I exercise more. I drink more water. I've also found out how to help people accomplish what I have started to accomplish by starting my own business that I call No Limits Wellness Coaching.
I've also accomplished a lot physically. Since I started in May, I've lost 41 pounds. I lost 20 of those pounds in this last cycle. Hard to believe I've done this 3 times and I lost half of my weight in one third of the time. I guess I figured it out! I also did something I never thought in my entire life that I would do... run a half marathon. Something I plan to do again in April of this year.
What I've learned so far is that the goals I write are there to motivate me to reach for something difficult. I spend a lot of days planning my life around accomplishing my goals. For instance, there are days that I feel tired or run down, then say to myself, "If I skip this workout today, when am I going to make it up?" If I don't have a free day to make it up, I just get up, change, and bust it out. I also remind myself frequently that it would look really bad on me if I busted all of my goals in the same day. It will also reflect pretty poorly on the scale.
I have also learned that creating new habits is hard. Much harder than I thought. It's easy to fall back into your old way of doing things. For instance, when I take a high calorie day, it's sometimes very hard to get back on track the next day because all I want to do is eat junk food, especially if there is still some leftover in the house. I also find that on my high calorie days, I sometimes eat more than I even want to so that I don't have the distraction of that leftover food sitting in the house the next day. I don't necessarily think this is a good thing, because I need to figure out how to just resist the temptation better, but I'm getting there. My wife had ice cream last night and I only had a bite instead of a whole bowl to myself.
Now, let's get on to the data.
This morning, I woke up at 232lbs. That's a 20 pound weight loss from Day 1. Even though I didn't hit my goal of 30 pounds, 20 is a great number and I'm happy with it. I realize this means I lost 6 pounds since last week, but as of Tuesday or Wednesday, I had already dropped 3 pounds of water weight. I know because I know. I'll spare you the details. I also might be dehydrated this morning a little bit, so I wouldn't be shocked if my weight goes up slightly before my next cycle begins.
I missed my workout goal by 1 week. I say 1 week because I gave myself credit for a few weeks I maybe shouldn't have. The goal was to run more and do p90x for 90 days. I stopped p90x a few weeks ago to focus on my running. I also had given up on my running when it was really cold outside and I knew I was killing myself in p90x. I will mark this as a failed goal, but I'm still happy with my progress. You can see pictures later on down the post.
I met my food goal. Right on the head, in fact. I wasn't planning on having a high calorie day this weekend, but one just happened on Friday night, which was ok. I was only about 500 calories over, but I'm still going to count it. I came out at exactly 71 days of being on track, which is what I set out to do. GOAL ACCOMPLISHED!
I did 9 weeks of my alcohol goal, which is what I set out to do. This goal was less challenging than I expected it to be. Not drinking during the week wasn't so bad. I did find, though, that on the weeks that I knew I would miss my goal, I started drinking on Monday and drank through Sunday. Not non-stop, of course. I would just have one or two a night because technically, I could. Regardless, GOAL ACCOMPLISHED!
Water was another goal I hit right on the head. 80 days of 2 liters or more of water. I would have gone over the 80 days had I not gone to pour my glass of water the other night and had it look like mud. It made me skiddish, despite the Brita filter. I drank a little less water the next day or two, and that's probably the reason I'm dehydrated today. Again, GOAL ACCOMPLISHED!
I didn't do my measurements as regularly as I had hoped to. I didn't think it was fair to ask my wife to get up early for work to measure my body, so I'll just take the measurements from day 1 and compare them to today.
Chest: 47.25 - 44 = 3.25
Shoulders: 53 - 52 = 1.0
Bicep: 15.25 - 15.25 = 0.0
Waist: 40.25 - 37.25 = 3.0
Hips: 43.0 - 42.75 = 0.25
Belly: 45.75 - 41.5 = 4.25
The numbers I really care about are the ones that are obviously different. Chest, waist, and belly. Those are the numbers that NEED to come down, because those are the ones that put me at risk of diseases later on down the road. Honestly, as my wife told me this morning, doing my hips isn't a real measurement. I don't store fat there. Also, my biceps changed, I just lost goo and added muscle, and my shoulders are really more a reflection of my chest than anything else, I think.
So on to what you've been waiting for... the before/after pictures.
I'm gonna try this in a way I haven't tried before. The pictures on the left are of the first day I started out at 273lbs. The middle was me on Day 1 of this cycle at 252. The one on the right is me this morning at 232.
And now for my p90x side by sides... I'm just going to show Day 1 on the left and Day 90 on the right.
As I posted these pictures, it was the first time I actually looked at them side by side. I'm shocked. There are so many things that we can do to our bodies to destroy them, but once we get our heads on straight and focus on doing the things we need to do to build our bodies back up, you can make some very drastic changes that are so obviously healthy, and if I do say so myself... can make you look pretty darn good.
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