Wow!  70 pounds in five months.  That is quite an accomplishment.  It is also very encouraging.  Since starting the BFL program (This is my first challenge), I've lost about 20 pounds which is a pace of 2 pounds per week.  Knowing that you've lost 70 helps me imagine what I can accomplish if I stick with it.  Do you use any supplements?  I'm using the mypolex shakes and some daily vitamens, but thats about it.  

My biggest goal for the next three weeks (I started a week after everyone else) is to plan my meals.  I've been eatting clean, but haven't been planning.  Just eatting what I know works.  I need to get back to the basis of the program.  I think I'm getting a little sloppy with my planning.

One week left in this round. Cheatday are you OK? I missed a workout on Wed. so I'm going today. Discovered I can do some Leg work in spite of my knees. Some ideas for a name for a third round: Back2 back X 3, or Back2backs cubed? I am not going to commit to another 12 week challenge b/c I have 2 other big goals to address over the next few months and I wasn't able to keep up with posting in this one. But I plan to keep up w/ the workouts at least and try to maintain my weight around 161lbs, (not there yet but under 165).  A neighbor bought over homemade German pastry the other night; I've nibbled but not binged.  Bowl Championship tomorrow night will be another challenge. But overall I feel good about what we have accomplished.

Louis

Hey Louis, thanks for giving me a nudge, I've been around just not posting as much lately. Sounds like you are holding things together pretty well, German pastries are a true test for just how badly you want this BFL thing.

For me, I've stayed on board with it all and feel pretty good with the results so far. The first 12 weeks netted me 40lbs and so far this challenge has shredded 30lbs. I've had to give away all my XXXL and most of my XXL size shirts and I've moved into clothes I was wearing 6 years ago! good thing I held onto those pre cheat years clothes. All my friends are blown away with the transformation I've gone through, it really has been amazing for me, this program really works.

Unfortunately, I've got a nasty case of plantar faciitis in my right foot, if you remember I struggled through a month with a torn calf muscle, well this foot thing is connected to that calf injury. I'm icing my foot every day to help speed the recovery, but once again there's no training on the treadmill for me till this clears up. Last week's long run on the treadmill was too much for my foot I guess, I've got to a point now where I can push my self further than my body can handle, it's been a steep training curve.

I am at my "halfway point" for my weight loss goal, and with two challenges almost completed now, right on course. I am locked in to do 4 of these 12 week challenges so I'm gonna be around here for a few more months ;-)

How's everyone else doing? We haven't heard from helcat in a while, you doing ok Helen?

It would be great to hear how everyone is doing, as we come to the end of this program.

Did you reach your goals?

What did you learn about yourself doing the BFL program?

Are you going to go on and do another 12 week challenge?

Come on monscal, I know how much you like a good quiz ;-)

Cheatday

Cheatday - 70 pounds!  I have lost zero pounds, but I've shrunk and I now have some nice muscle tone, which I am continuing to work on.  Why is the last bit of chub the hardest to get rid of?  I don't think much has changed in the last eleven weeks.  I know being on vacation for a month, away from my gym and my routine, didn't help, nor did the daily margaritas on the beach.  I find it interesting that, after one year of BFL challenges, you will have lost me in weight and I might end up losing zero pounds, but transforming.  One thing I have always been relieved about is the fact that I have little to no cellulite.

So another quiz, eh?

One of my goals was to at least maintain and not backslide.  Check.  Stick with the eating plan.  No check here (too many margaritas).  Stick with the exercise plan.  Very little weight training while away, so no check here.  Cardio can have a check.

I learned that I am very weak when it comes to sitting on a beach and being tempted by a margarita.

I am going to do another twelve-week challenge, correcting the mistakes I made in this one, the second.  I recognize those mistakes were brought on by vacation laziness, even though we played tennis every day and were very active.  Margaritas have a very special way of countering all that hard work.  You know it's bad, but it's good bad, so you don't really care at the time.

We have no plans to travel in the next three months, so I look forward to sticking with the strict routine I had in the first challenge and stepping up my efforts to shed the last bit of jiggle around the middle.  That's my new mantra:  Get rid of the jiggle in the middle.

The habits I developed with BFL are still in place and I intend to keep them in place.  I want to be the "after" shot by the summer and that will be here before we know it.

Hi Guys -

Sorry I've been MIA.  I have been really sick for about a week - bronchitis, sinus infection & laryngitis!  Sadly, I did a bit of self-medicating with hard cider, McDonalds vanilla milkshakes, and Ben & Jerry's.  Not good.  

I am improving - my throat still hurts like a ***, and I can't do much in the way of exercise without coughing, but at least I can talk again, and get out of bed for more than four hours at a time.  So, my only goal for the rest of the challenge is to take care of myself and eat as healthfully as possible.  I am trying to do a little bit of exercise every day - but nothing intense for another week or so (I have asthma, so I have to be very careful with bronchitis).  I've started logging my food on myfitnesspal again (traci - thanks for friending me) and plan to continue that throughout my IM training - my id is helcat if anyone else wants to be friends.  

I've only skimmed everyone's posts - pretty constant headache has made reading hard - but I will go back and catch up, so I can cheer everyone on to the finish line! h

Happy 14th! This is the last day of our B2Backers challenge and I want to tell you all goodbye. It has been a pleasure to share this commitment and experience with all of you and especially w/ those of you I feel most familiar with: Cheatday, Monscal, and Helcat. I didn't make all my workouts this week b/c I am accomplishing another goal that has taken almost a year. I am completing a renovation of a rental property and actually rented it this week, w/ the tenants taking possession of it tomorrow. So I don't feel bad about the workouts missed, I'll get back on schedule next week. The goal of getting that property finished and rented is huge to me. Plus as I've said before I already feel good about my Challenge goals. I have attained more physical strength, I've learned a lot about weight training, I am close to my goal weight, and I've reduced my alcohol consumption.

I have learned to appreciate 12 week goal setting and intend to continue doing so from now on (in life not just with fitness). This round I've also learned its probably better not to overdo the workouts e.g. Bill's 20 min cardio 3x wk can substitute for my spin classes when I'm short on time. And I got through this challenge w/o any injuries unlike the first one when I developed tendonitis. So that's about it. Cheatday a special thank you to you again for your big contribution to our 2 shared challenges. You are a friend.

Louis

Thanks Louis, it was great to go through the 12 week challenge with you, I'll be keep a lookut for you around here later in the game.

For all our other B2Bers, we made it! ... anybody else out here?

So it looks like we pulled through with:

Louis

Helcat

Monscal

Vinny

mrules

ksmith

fluffy

traci

Graemepnz

Asta 7

I'm wondering about:

Divacbird

Ksmith 1010

TC 747

Mel392

Vlinder

Marce 1

Marce 2

Clemmonsstar

Labrea

Janann

Brandi

Renda

Tkag87

And anyone else who was on the 12 week journey with us, pipe in and lets hear how it went for you.

My results for this 12 week segment was pretty good like I already posted, I cut down 30lbs.

HOWEVER, as you all know, I'm committed to a full one year run of four 12 week challenges, and today marks my half way point. If there's one thing about the 12 week program that I really like it's the way it helps you in continuing the challenge, I'm mean by the halfway point you look back at what you've already accomplished and say to yourself, "well I've come this far, I can't stop now!" So it's with that that I'm going to prepare to start my 3rd 12 week challenge (back 2 back 2 back) as of tomorrow... who's in?

I've looked around the forum and of course there is a new group starting tomorrow, and it might be a good idea to join in with a bunch of fresh and excited BFL newbies... or should we just begin our own "triple crown club". Lets find out who wants to go right into another go, and what you think as far as starting a new thread or just joining in on one that's already to go, here's the link to the one that's ready to go:

bodyforlife.com/.../5256.aspx

I'll check back in a few hours.

Congratulations to you all!!!

cheatday

Hi Everyone!

Wow... it is so hard to believe that it's Jan 15.  I remember thinking at the beginning of the challenge that I wanted to fast forward to this date to see where I would be. Unfortunately, I didn't reach all of my goals, but I DID make progress, and I am trying to focus on that success.

My goals were to: reach 20% Body fat, wake up at 5:30 and go to bed at 10pm, get a flat stomach, learn to eat 5-6 healthy meals per day, and to stick to the challenge. My progress: I started at 23.5-24% BF, and right now I'm hovering around 22%, so didn't meet that goal, but I'm getting there! I didn't wake up or go to bed at my goal times every day of the challenge, but I did many times. Interestingly, on the days that I did, I always got great workouts in and did really well eating... maybe no surprise there, as I knew that that would be instrumental to my success. I still don't have a flat stomach, but I've taken off about 1-1.5 inches around my waist (also since i started the challenge I've learned that if you put on weight in one area first, it will be the last to come off... and guess where I put on weight first..yep, belly. And even my skinny sister has belly flub... i think it's just genetic, not that that is an excuse, but it means that if i really want a flat stomach, i'm gonna have to get my BF down a lot... a challenge I'm up for!). As far as my 5-6 healthy meals per day goal, I did really well especially at the beginning of the challenge, but once the holidays hit things went downhill. I have been able to easily get back into eating the 5-6 healthy meals per day, but my cheat meals have gotten out of hand. Lastly, the goal of sticking with the challenge, I'll say that mentally I've been in it the whole way, but around week 8 things started to slip, and by the new year, my eating was not what it should have been and due to craziness at school, I didn't get some of my workouts in. So... I guess I stuck with the challenge in some senses, but I know I could have done better in the last 3-4 weeks of it, when the results would have been greatest.

What did I learn about myself? I learned that I CAN control the food I put into my body. That I CAN control my ability to wake up and train in the mornings. I CAN do it, because I did, and every time it seems like I can't I need to remember that. And I saw real changes in my body when I was doing BFL to the letter. So I know now that I can change and be the person I've always wanted to be... it's just up to me to do it.

I am DEFINITELY doing  another challenge! I need to prove to myself that I can do it for the whole 12 weeks, and for LIFE. Part of me wants a week to do some planning before I start, but I think i'm just gonna dive in and use this first week to really get hyped back up. I"m going to switch up my workouts a bit, add yoga in a few days a week, and really focus on nutrition this time around.... every thing I read about losing weight in general and belly fat in particular says that nutrition is 90% of your results... back to the "you can't out-train a bad diet" adage from Bill's book. Just writing this post has me really excited to throw myself back into BFL 100%

I also want to say that maybe the best part of doing the BFL challenge is that my husband now is really excited about weight lifting and proper eating... it is so great that he pushes me to get to the gym and work hard.. there were plenty of days that I would have skipped but since he was there and expecting me, I went too. He was really supportive, and even today when I was telling him that I was disappointed in how I had kind of let go the last few weeks, he started reminding me of my progress, and telling me how in the next challenge he was gonna be there to support me in my eating since that is a big focus for me going on from here. What a great guy, and how lucky am I??

Lastly, I want to thank everyone on this forum, especially Cheatday and Helcat, for their awesome support. I always loved getting an email from BFL in my inbox during the day. It was huge for me to have you all there living this new lifestyle alongside me.

I'm open to having new BFLers to do this next challenge, but I'd really like to keep this group going too in a B2B2B or maybe B3B thread. I'm invested in all of your progress and hope that I can keep you all accountable in the next round.

I'm debating putting up my photos... like I said, I'm a bit disappointed with how I finished, but maybe that's just the kick in the butt I need to see it completely through next time!

-Marisa

Way to go Marisa, you did a great job in this challenge, and even greater is to now have your husband hooked on it too! I don't want to walk away from all our great group of friends here on the B2B thread, it's been an amazing ride for sure, loved getting those random emails of successes  and failures too.

As for starting a new thread like the B2B2B-ers, so far it would be a very small number of people that would make the roster, wasn't it helcat that said only 10% make it to the end of a 12 week challenge?

I've gone and hooked up with a new group that starts day one tomorrow, but if we have more B2B-ers pop in and want to continue I'll start us up a new thread team title... something like B2B2B or B3 or B2Bx3 or...

Cheatday

Here we are, day one of another challenge and I have nowhere to go except here.

Louis - We'll miss you.  Hope to see you around some time.

Cheatday - Seriously?  You're going to jump our ship?

Marisa - If you're still checking in here, how about we start a B3B thread and maybe we can lure back some of the old gang.  No idea how to do that, so I'm going to play a bit and try.

Today is the first day of the next three months.  My husband joined me partway through the last challenge, and he says he'll continue.

Helcat - Where are you going to be?

Hope to see some of you again.

Anyone from the B2B group wanting to continue, I've started a thread - B3B Momentum.  Hope to see you there.

JUMP SHIP!? seriously?

Come on now, I'm just trying to make us a fleet!

Nice going Monscal, I'm on my way over to your new thread for our B2B crew, "B3B Momentum" great idea on the name too.

So with the proven statistic for the ratio of the 12 week start/finish percentage of 10%, we had 19 signed up on the Back 2 Back thread, so we're doing above par if there's more than 1.9 around here now ;-)

-just sayin

Cheatday

Hi all --

I'm not gone, but unfortunately, I can't say I'm totally here either.  I kept up with the threads everyday.  Ya'll are truly inspiring.  I let life get in the way for this last challenge, but I have gotten through some of the obstacles I was trying to overcome and have my girlfriends to do it with me this time, so I KNOW I will be successful.  I will continue to follow this thread and will post here too if ya'll decide to continue it.  If not, I have posted to the Jan 16th thread as well.  Hope all are well and I so look forward to reading about everyone's continued success!!!

Chrissy :)

Hey Chrissy, great to have you back with us, monscal put a new thread out there for us called the B3B Movement, but we're also hooked into the new group you already know about:

bodyforlife.com/.../5264.aspx

I think the new group is going to be a good one so you and your friends should join us over there, lots on new and enthusiastic BFLers on that thread.

See you over there divabird.

cheatday