marteenie, my mind will come up with all sorts of rationalizations as to why I can enjoy a treat just this one time.   I try not to slip by stopping and consciously evaluate what I’m about to do.  I remember I haven’t made good decisions in the past, and then I reassert the promise I made to myself to change.  It’s worked so far.

Nay-ATX, prayer sent- now you only have to hang in there.

TimF, I love cottage cheese but Bill Phillips said in the book that he enjoys it mixed with yogurt to make a complete meal.  It definitely tastes less like cottage cheese, but not sure if it’s enough of a difference for you.

As for me, I hurt so good all over.

My name is Robyn. I'm starting the challenge on the 17th. I have a 9 year old daughter and a wonderful husband (who is great shape).

I'm 41 and weigh more than I ever have and feel totally disgusted by it. I've put it on slowly, but the last 10 came on VERY quickly. I've attempted to do things before to lose weight and haven't stuck with it. I feel a very different mental shift now. Actually, I started eating cleanly and working out on 1/3/2011 and in my quest to absorb as much information as possible on workouts, etc, I downloaded the BFL Champions book and have read it cover to cover... following Alexa Adair and others. I remember her mom's challenge years ago. Anyway, I had simply forgotten about BFL and after reading the Champions book, have decided to step up to the challenge.

I know that I'm not going to  quit. I'm going to finish and I'm going to look good. Glad to "meet" you all and follow you here in the forum. (which I don't have a lot of experience with).

Robyn

Good afternoon,

Brian I hope you are enjoying your AR, you deserve it!

There is a great energy in this thread!

I read a stat that only 5% of those who start a BFL challange finish it. I think the difference between those who complete all 12 weeks and those who quit is the finishers have clearly defined goals, (goals that are measurable and have a deadline) and also have solid and real reasons for wanting to accomplish those goals.

Here is an article I wrote about this. I wanted to share it with everybody here because I beleive it is so important to a successful challenge.

Last week in the gym I had a moment. In between chest and shoulders I looked out the window and wondered what exactly I was doing. Not what exercise was next, but really, as a man, as a person, what am I doing in the gym right now. I pushed the thought aside and focused on the rest of my workout, but for the rest of the day the thought clawed at the edges of my mind. I finally sat down to think about it with a little more perspicuity and realized the vital importance, for those new to BFL and those with a few challenges to their credit, of having good, solid reasons.

First I want to clarify what I mean by a reason because there are two types of reasons and it is important to understand them both.

The first type of reason is a faux reason. It tries to look like reason but it is more like a general sweeping statement of something you desire. For example: “I want to lose 30 pounds”. Wanting to lose 30 pounds is great, but unless you know exactly why you want to lose 30 pounds you will struggle everyday and most likely become one of the 95% of people that start but don’t finish a 12 week challenge.

The second type of reason is a real reason. Something you believe in, something that ignites passion when you think about it. Real reasons for wanting to lose 30 pounds might look like this: I want to play in the park with my children and not be out of breath, I want to live to see my grandchildren; I want to be accepted; I want to attract a life mate; I want to stop being ashamed of myself; I want a better love life;  I want to take charge of my destiny; I want to escape this fat body and start living my life to the fullest! I want to be a fitness model or a personal trainer. There are thousands of reasons each one unique and personal to the individual wanting to make a change. Reasons are personal. There are no right or wrong reasons they are your reasons and yours alone.

Without having reasons we believe in and are passionate about we become overwhelmed with the details, like getting up at 5am to go to the gym or maintaining stringent, planned BFL eating, and forget the bigger picture. When we get bogged down in the details we lose track of what we are trying to accomplish and, bereft of navigation, drift aimless and lost and accomplish nothing. Knowing your reasons, writing them down and reading them every day will get you through those tough times. And believe me those tough days will come. If you hang on to your reasons you will weather the storm and emerge from the blackness a stronger more focused person.

Why does this man get up and go to the gym? Why do I eat clean and continue to do HIIT three times a week? I want to be the best man I can be; for myself, for my wife, for all those who are close to me. I want to live a long and healthy life still swinging a golf club, traveling and flirting with the ladies when I am an old man. The aim of life is to live and that is what I intend to do - live this life to the fullest.

What is your reason?  

Great thought, Orin- Simply put, I want a body for life. And in this case I define life not as the interval between birth and death, but in the more active sense, ie. animation, spirit, livliness. I want a body for LIFE!  

Let's GO!

BobbyA

Orin, that is one of the best articles I have ever read. I think you hit it out of the ball park.  My defining moment when I knew I had to do something was two fold.

1st- I took my kids to the opening of Harry Potter at Universal, they made an area that looks just like the movie (the town) Well I went to get on the roller coaster with my kids after standing in line for almost 2 hours,  I was too big, I could not fit on the ride, and they had to ride it with out me, after talking my lil girl into riding it, she had to ride it with her big sister. It broke my heart that I could not xp that with them.  That I was forced to watch on the side lines, that I had to sit out and nothing I could do could get me on that ride with my kids.

The 2nd was in October of last year I was put in the hospital for 4 days because my blood pressure hit 185/109, I am 35 years old and though I have a stressful job, I had not been working for a few days, I had taken a few days off. Doctor told me Stress and my weight was the reason.  

When I walked out of that hospital I swore I would take back my health at first I looked at Lapband, and other surgeries and then thought long and hard, I have not been this way my whole life, I was reasonable fit, what was stopping me from getting back in shape.  The Answer...Me,  I am very excited about my challenge and just as Orin said we all need a reason, my biggest one is I dont want to have to sit on the side line and watch like I did that day with my kids. I want to be part of this game called life, and I am aiming to take mine back.

Thanks Orin for a great read.

Hi Everyone,

I am starting the challenge on the 17th. Hopefully, I can finish it. :)

Hi everyone,

Can some one give us some advise, today whilst doing our upper body work out I only got half way through, was so involved with the work out up down slow hold for 1 second that i lost all aspects that i needed to be finished in 46 minutes. When i checked the time was at 50 mins so i stopped can someone tell me wether I can complete the other half latter in the afternoon.

Progress after one week we have bothed dropped almost 2kg so really motivated and love pushing weights.

Hope you that have started are seing results also.

Regards

A + C

"RESULTS"

Debby - LOL at the dirty sock water....guess you better stick to regular tea!

CaptK - i'll join you for a cold one on "free day"!!

Bem - I too hurt good all over!!!

Mar

Hi all!

I started my challenge on January 10th.  Even though i obviously can't see the differences yet since it's only day four, i FEEL so much better about myself, that i'm doing something to really change myself. Today's 20 min cardio run was AWESOME using the interval method. And the meals make me feel great, too! Best of luck to everyone and i can't wait to see how we all look in 12 weeks!

A + C,

Are you working out together? Are you doing lots of exercises where you do one side at a time? In all honesty, for me, 46 minutes is super fast. I am usually around 50 - 55 minutes depending on the exercises I am doing. Did you have to stop at 50 minutes because you ran out of time personally or could you have stayed longer in the gym? Are you using a stopwatch to time your one minute breaks? Sorry for all the questions I just wanted to get a bigger picture of your workouts. The main thing is you have started and are giving your all in the gym. There is no such thing as a perfect challenge but focus on progress not perfection right? If you post some more about your workouts everyone here can brainstorm a bit and offer some more ideas.

Congrats on the weight lost so far! Keep up the great work!

Orrin

Jonada,

12 weeks is just a number, you’re right.  Too many people are in too much of a hurry to pick up a regimen they can maintain for the rest of their life.  Use body for life appropriately and it will not do you wrong.  Eventually by the end maintaining the lifestyle doesn’t sound so hard.

Chris,

My recommendations about eating are this….be honest, especially where cheating is concerned.  I am not a perfect person.  Look at my profile and you’ll see all the days nutrition was in at least some small way botched.  That being said I still got results and I always made a point of confessing the mistakes to the forum.

As for weight training, don’t think complicated gym equipment is going to be the end all.  I work out only with dumbbells and outdoors and I don’t see any issues.  If anything it leaves less avenues to make any excuses.

Catherine and Andrew,

Good luck with those jelly legs.  I remember likewise when I started my first challenge struggling to sit down without falling into the seat.  Just stick with it….it’s worth it.

Marteenie,

My recommendations to you would be not to embrace de-motivational psychology.  Often people say the wrong things to themselves, like “they can’t” have something.  Replace that kind of thinking with “I can but I won’t.”  When you say ‘you can’t’ it means something is stopping you….aka….the program.  If that’s how your mind works then when the pressure of a 12-week challenge is gone, you are setting yourself up to fail.  You have to acknowledge how powerful you are.  I would recommend buying a book on NLP, as they teach you how to talk to yourself.

Orrin,

As always great words of wisdom.  My advice to everyone is to step back now and visualize the moment when you might stumble.  There may be a moment when for 3 days or week, you’ve lost steam to finish the challenge.  Beyond that point, is where success is.  If you’ve ever started a diet and failed it, you have to realize the only way to fail is to stop.  The biggest difference between people in the first three weeks and the people in the last three is that the people who finish the challenge get back up, time and again.  They have failures but they never embrace the notion that they are failures.

Downunderfitness,

As for your weight training….yes, I would complete it in the afternoon.  That being said, I will point out some issues I had with the BFL program.  You do have to go faster than his numbers to finish in time.  Don’t work out for more than an hour max.  Two a day workouts I personally think are fine so long as they are separated by hours between.  For me personally, I just focused on controlled movements.  I also had to break it down to 40sec, 40sec, 40sec, 40sec, 0sec, 2min to complete the workouts on time.  Bottom line, if you feel good about how hard you pushed it, you pushed it hard and that’s well enough.  Don’t build the challenge into something impossibly complicated or else it will become impossible.

To everyone,

I would just say you’re inspiring to me.  I already feel like a lazy waste of space reading about how hard you guys are pushing yourselves.  I promised myself I was going to take it easy this week but I think running after this post and weight lifting a little tommorow won’t hurt.  Anyhow, be great everybody…..I’ll be pushing right alongside you on the 17th.

Later,

Brian

Hi everyone!!

Today I needed some motivation and inspiration so I decided to look at the chat boards to see what was out there. Glad that I found this one and we are all starting around the same time. A good way to keep me accountable!

I started BFL (again) on Jan 10th. I did the program back in 2001 (and I say program because I did not ACTUALLY register for the challenge) and it was the best experience of my life. I have never looked or felt better then I did after those 12 weeks (weight: 126, sz 2, body fat 14%). BUT...After moving, working, and life, things have gotten away from me. I am a 33 yr old military wife (spouse is in Iraq) with 2 very active sons ages 12 and 10. I have been thinking lately how can I make them happy if I am not happy with myself.

I decided I needed to do something so I pulled out my OLD, RATTY BFL book (literally falling apart at the seems) and decided I would again get back to the basics and include BFL as my companion. I read the book cover to cover again, just so I was familiar with how to proceed. I have a severe sweet tooth, so I knew right away what my weaknesses are, however, I am sick and tired of being SICK and TIRED! I have all of my supplements (Myoplex Lite RTD and powder, CLA, and a thermogenic) and have been using a newly purchased BFL journal (found on Amazon). This week has been great so far, however, I feel those habits trying to take over!

My starting weight is 144 and I wear a size 8 snuggly. ;) Not really concerned with a goal weight, however, I would like to see myself in a size 2 or 4 by the end of the 12 weeks with a large percentage drop in body fat and a large growth in muscle mass.

I am thankful that I have found a group that is starting around the same time as me! I will be taking my before pictures today (SCARED, VERY SCARED) and will post them to my profile. This way if everyone can see them, how can I turn back!

Looking forward to hearing everyone's feedback and motivational tips!

Good luck to all!

Ali

Forum Friends, Forgive Me, For I Have Missed (a workout)...

I hope you all had a better BfL Day than I did!

Today was day 4, a cardio day. I ate good last night, made my plan and food ready for today, slept well, and woke up at 6AM, fired up and fully intending to go hit the gym. Then, I climbed out of my berth (I live on a boat), and...

O. M. G. !

I had to use my arms to get to a standing position, I could hardly move my legs, and my quads were like cement. Very achy cement, connected straight to the Pain nerve. I mean, I am sore all over, right now, and there is a cacophony of muscles - biceps, delts, lats, pecs, gut, calves - complaining constantly about being used after so long a time of being ignored, but my quads were (and *are*) screaming.

Last night, when reading through the site looking for info about nutrition, I ran across this on the Library FAQ page:

• Is it ok to train a muscle that is still sore from the previous workout?No! Soreness is a sign of muscle-fiber damage. If you do not allow the damage to heal, you will not make progress. Over time, you may even sustain an injury. The best progress occurs when you allow full recovery between workouts, not by seeing how hard and often you can punish your body.

Coincidence? No, I don't think so. A Warning, maybe, providentially. I'm not the kind of person to let 'pain' stop me (you should see my dents and scars!), but sometimes, PAIN, well, that'll work. And that was pretty much what I was feeling. So I thought I would wait a few hours, drink some Creatine mix, and hopefully wind up feeling better this afternoon. Enough to go make an effort at the least, but must confess to you all that I never did. It is not an injury, I am certain of that, but maybe too close to one to slough off or to try to push through.

Come sunset this evening, I gave up, hobbled back down to the boat and groaned my way back inside...

This sucks. But I don't want to risk an injury. I hope that you will all see it not as an excuse to avoid a workout, but instead that I did indeed "give it my all" on Wednesdays LBW. :) I pushed hard! Too hard, maybe - so I will revisit those numbers in my Success Journal and knock them down a bit. So let them be warned -

I - WE - me and my quads, we will be back to you, you stupid weights. By the end of next week, maybe, we will lift you AND MORE, and then, the next day, We will walk like a normal person.

You have my word on it.

------------------------

On the plus side, I did some work on revising my nutrition plan today, so that I will be taking in some more calories to avoid a Bonk I think I would otherwise have gotten. And - homemade Sashimi for dinner tonight! Mmmmm... (Nope, no sake.)

Tomorrow morning, achy quads or no, it's gonna be a great UBW... I'm looking forward to it!

:)

Hi Orrin,

Thankyou for your interest and hopefully you can help.

Firstly we train solo and the other one is there for support, enthusiasm, motivation and to get the next program ready (weights etc). We are training exactly to the routine kidelines. Andrews problem is especially with upper body he does the weights slowly to his full capacity and what happened today was at 46 minutes we stopped because we thought you could not continue, he would have the staminer and energy to go for hours. Thats another thing he is struggling  to comprahend that 20 minutes of cardio and mid 45mins on workout days, he would normally be doing each for hours, we think he was over training.

Brian,

You are so on the money with sitting down we are still laughing just knowing others go through the same thing, we push hard and love it we even give each other a little poke just above the inside of the knee and say does it still hurt, you soon realise when you cant stop laughing and you cop a back hander lol (Catherine is the only one who gives out the back hander she just makes me squeal like a little girl).

Capnk,

lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol, you are forgiven lol, its great to hear that we all feel the same way right about now. I played Australian rules football all my life but boy oh boy i never felt like this before. Today we can hardly walk and after the gym this morning well tommorrow is the bike and well lol that is a scarey thought. Keep pushing

Regards to all.

A+C

I finished my third trainning day and had a hard running on treadmill. I feel a little sore and will continue my fourth training today. I see everyone working so hard and that really inspires me a lot!!!