Yesterday was the last day of the first twelve weeks. And to celebrate, my body caught a nasty cold that made me too weak to do cardio and all I ate yesterday was chicken noodle soup and orange juice. I still have it today. But it's not nearly as bad as the headache and weakness aren't as bad, but the sore throat, coughing and stuffed up nose is still here. As soon as I'm done with this, I'll run down to the bathroom and get me some cough syrup.
Anyways. The first twelve weeks! It was fun. I really enjoyed giving myself a challenge. I still don't have the studly torso I wish I had, but I'm happy with the progress I made when I looked at the pictures I took about 50 minutes ago. My weight dropped from 307.2 to 273. 33.8 lbs. I think most of that was just eating right, sure the excercise probably helped out, but not eating so much cake, cookies, ice cream, pizza, beer, fast foods and white bread probably was most of the 30 lbs. I have dropped two pant sizes and I'm fitting in to t-shirts I haven't worn in a long, long time. My work clothes are getting way too big. So yeah, I now require smaller clothes, which I haven't experienced my entire life. It seemed like until now, my clothes kept needing to get bigger. I guess the only negatives are having to get smaller clothes and some muscle pain and soreness. Early on back in January, I hurt my left shoulder/back. Last week, I hurt my right shoulder/back. I skipped lifting and did cardio this past Sunday. It's still a little painful and so for now I'll take it easy on the upper body workouts until I feel better.
I also still don't have the energy I'd like to have. But I think most of that is from working out first thing in the morning, then going to work and then doing renovations most of the day and then more work at night.
So yeah, here are the before pictures, if you can stand to look at them....
And now here's me today:
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I aslo developed a strange growth on my chin...
CONGRATULATIONS ON FINISHING YOUR FIRST CHALLENGE RANDOMSUPERGUY!!!
I see HUGE results from your hard work, fantastic consistant mindset to fulfill that promise to yourself, and determination to keep on going even when some days were so hard, and at times you wondered WTF am I doing anyways.
I get that. Been there.
Take your Active Rest, your machine needs it. :) Eat clean, keep up on your water, and jump in with both feet for C2 when you are ready for more changes.
BFL is slowly changing your world. I LIKE IT.
I see great changes from a mere 12 weeks! Way to take control of your life! I agree with Legs--take your active rest, keep eating clean and plan for your next 12 week adventure. The active rest is really needed as you have been pushing your body--be nice to it now, give it some rest and feed it properly!
I'm heading into my last 2 weeks of my challenge, but will be starting another on April 9.
Ain't life grand?!!
You guys both mentioned active rest, I'm glad you did because I googled it and found some posts on the forum about it. Like I mentioned before, I've had some muscle pain in my right shoulder. I'm sure a good one or two week rest from weight lifting will be good for it. This past week, I didn't do any shoulder or back exercises.
I really enjoy weight lifting the most, so it'll be hard to avoid the weights for a few weeks. But I'll probably keep doing my HIIT cardio and doing some nice long walks now that the weather is nice'ing up around here.
Enjoy your active rest; you've earned it! Congratulations on the completion of your first challenge. I hope you are feeling better soon! Be proud of your efforts, and keep pushing forward! The changes are definately noticeable! Great job!
"The only person you should try to be better than, is the person you were yesterday!"
Congratulations on a very succesful 12 weeks. Take some time and mentally re-focus on your fitness goals you want to achieve. You're doing great....keep it up!!!
fit4life "The dream must be bigger than the pain"
Jerry, great progress my friend! I'm proud of you! If there is one thing I've learned it's all about nutrition and working out, some say 50/50, it has to be more like 80% nutrition and 20% workout, because at the end of the day, you are what you eat and much better to be made of clean food then McDonalds or any other junk we use to binge on!
Rest up and heal, but continue on your nutrition through your active rest. I had some issues with my shoulder through the first challenge and when it hinted toward injury, I totally reduced weights and just went through the motions through the rest of the challenge. I found that in the long run, you can still have a intense workout with lower weights, by making sure you focus on the concentric/ eccentric movements with timing. In my first challenge I was doing dumbell shoulder presses with front db lateral raises as a superset. In my second challenge I have changed to upright rows and super setting with cable pulls for the delts. I've noticed that the pain I had before is not there. I'm not sure if it's the movement from the previous exercise that was irritating my shoulder or what. I'll find out when I decide to do shoulder presses again I'm sure.
Keep up the good work and congratulations on your first challenge completion.
My blog - http://flatlinersbodyforlife.blogspot.com/
Great progress..Your pictures definitely show the dedication and commitment you have made to improving your health and lifestyle.
Greetings randomguy, COngratulations on finishing your first Challenge and on your outstanding results. I hope you are planning to enter the Challenge officially as well (if you planned to). and that the essays won't be too hard to complete(I always have fun with that part, writing is tough sometimes). There are a lot of folks at WDW that now have those strange growths on their chin now, but they have to a full trimmed beard to meet Disney standards .(means it has to be done on off time). Best wishes on your future efforts with BFL and Keep Moving Forward!
Haha, I actually shaved it off in October for a Halloween party and kept it off to meet my mom's standards for the Thanksgiving and Christmas parties. Christmas day, I didn't shave and have been letting the growth expand since then. I'm going for the Joel Hanrahan look since he is my favorite pitcher right now.