Week 8 Results

I'm at the end of Week 8 of Body for Life and am so impressed with this program. As I've mentioned before, I started messing around with a couple different fitness programs on Feb 1, 2010. At 5 ft 10, 168 lbs, a 38 inch waist measurement, and 23.8% body fat, I was an out of shape fat, skinny man. I wanted to change that. Throughout Feb, I had decent results and then in March, I decided to do BFL with 100% intensity. I'm glad I did!

When I "officially" started the BFL challenge 8 weeks ago (March 1, 2010), my waist (measured level at belly button) was 35 in. Today it's 32 in! My body fat was 18.5%. Today it's 12.4%. Starting weight was 161. Today it's 154. Not real thrilled about that, as it shows I've basically lost fat and not gained a lot of muscle, but I'm definitely more defined now and I'm happy about that. But this week I started tweeking my diet a bit in efforts to help gain muscle over the next 4 weeks of the challenge. My goal is to be back to at least 165 by the end of May, but with no more than 10% body fat, so we'll see.

It's pretty cool to see how your body responds to things you do to it. Feed it clean foods for 2 months, your body responds with more energy. Weight train and your body responds by enabling you to lift more weight. Cardio train, and your body responds by improving your breathing capacity, lower heart-rate and endurance. (My resting heart-rate is now averaging 60 bpm!) Such an awesome thing that our Creator designed and it's really cool to see it respond the way it does.

Week 8 Update

Week 8 is going well. Had a good LBWO on Monday (dumbbell squats, straight-leg deadlifts, calf raises and ABS! Still feeling the pain today. YESSS!! And a good HIIT yesterday! And no knee pain after running yesterday so looks like the few days of resting it worked!

Have UBWO today and I'm siked! I know I'm at the edge of where the hard work over the past 7 1/2 weeks is about to take off and really start showing and that makes me want to push it that much harder.

If you've tried other plans to get in shape and haven't found success, check out Body for Life. It is the real deal without a doubt. It's free and everything you need to know is on their website www.bodyforlife.com and in the Body for Life book. What are you waiting for? Get to it and turn your health around! ;)

Starting Week 8 - Body for Life

I can't believe I'm at Week 8 in this thing. Writing in my journal/planner last night for today's eating and workout plan and noticed it's Day 50 and I couldn't believe it! How cool.

I'm ready to hit everything full speed this week. Week 7 was a good week. I was able to get in good workouts all week with the exception of Saturday's cardio. My knee was bothering me some on Thursday night and still thru Friday and Saturday morning so I decided to skip running or cycling for HIIT and let my knee rest a few days before I hit it on Tuesday for cardio day. Should be good to go by tomorrow and I'll be ready for HIIT but today is lower body workout so hopefully I don't tweek it. (crossing my fingers) =)

One of my Week 8 goals is to hit ALL my 10's in every workout this week, both in weight training and cardio. I want to make these last 5 weeks of the challenge really count and finish out strong!!!

Yesterday was a great free day. I had velveta w/ rotel, chips, vegetarian refried beans, and choc chip cookies for lunch! That was awesome but I'm back on plan full speed today. Started off first thing this morning with a serving of dry Kashi shredded wheat cereal and a yogurt to get things headed back in the right direction! lol!

Can't wait to see what Week 8 holds. =)

Week 7 Results - Body for Life!

Here I am at the end of Week 7 and the results remain positive! I lost another 1/2 inch off my waist and body fat is now at 13%!! I can't believe how well this program works. I've now lost 11% body fat.

I worked really hard this week on my weight training and cardio. I also started doing cardio on my bike mounted to a trainer which seems to be really effective HIIT. And it's nice to change up the routine from running on the treadmill every time. Looking forward to getting back into cycling this year too!

Body for life is the real deal. It is teaching me how to eat, how much to eat, and how to exercise for maximum results.

Week 6 Results - Body for Life

Ok, did measurements this morning and wahooo!! Body fat is down to 14%! I've officially lost 10% body fat and have 4 more to go to my goal. No doubts that Body for Life will get me there. What a program!

Week 6 Update - Body for Life

Here we are, halfway through the 12-week challenge and I'm feeling great! As mentioned in previous updates, my fat loss has slowed a little over the past couple weeks to only 1/2% a week, and I'm thinking it may be due to my cardio routine I changed. I shortened it to 15 mins total (which really only gives me 7 mins of running but 8 mins of walking...not so intense when I look at it that way), so thinking this might be the problem. So....I'm tweaking my cardio workouts to see if I can get my fat loss back to where it was Week's 1-4. This is what my cardio consisted of this morning. I got up at 5 am (first time for that...lol), hopped on the treadmill and started going.

First 3 mins at 3 mph..then...
5 mph (1 min)
5.5 mph (1 min)
6 mph (1 min)
6.5 mph (1 min)
3 mph (1 min)...whew
5.5 mph (1 min)
6 mph (1 min)
6.5 mph (1 min)
3 mph (1 min)...another whew
5.5 mph (1 min)
6 mph (1 min)
6.5 mph (1 min)
3 mph (1 min)...ohhh man...
5.5 mph (1 min)
6 mph (1 min)
6.5 mph (1 min)
8 mph (1 min)...woot! woot!!
COOL DOWN 3 mph (2 mins) and DONE!!!! Total time - 22 mins, 1.8 miles.

Hoping this routine gets the fat shredding off again. It was intense for sure. That last 2 mins and especially the last minute at 8 mph was tough but I pushed myself through it. I feel awesome now!

Week 5 - Results

Got up this morning and took my week 5 measurements. The Body for Life plan mixed with weight training from Muscle Hack dot com just keeps working week after week! I'm now down to 15.1% body fat now, that's down from 15.6% last week. My fat loss has definitely slowed down the last few weeks to about 1/2% loss a week. I'd like it to go back to losing 1% a week, but I guess it's still progessing; just slower than I want.

Had another great cardio workout on the treadmill this morning. I try to push myself a little harder in every workout than the last one to keep my body from getting used to the same routine. So I've been trying to up my speed of the intervals a little with each workout. If my intervals were 7.0mph, 7.2, 7.4, etc, next time I'll do 7.1, 7.3, 7.5, 7.7, etc. I'm up to running my last minute high point interval at 9.0 mph now. That's huge for me since I started at 6 mph being my high point 2 months ago. It's awesome to see how the human body reacts and responds to what you put it through...how it gets a little stronger and a little faster every day. 2 months ago, it was hard to run 2 mins straight at 5 mph. Today I ran 2 mins at 7 mph with no problem. 2 months ago, my intervals were in the 4.5 to 6 mph range. Now they're in the 7 to 9 mph range. I'm happy with the progress. I've also noticed I'm able to run around a lot more in the yard with the kids than before without getting tired. THAT makes the hard work and effort well worth it!

Week 5 - Update

Week 5 seems to be going well. I decided to tweek my weight training routine this week and today, I can tell it was time to tweek! Wednesday was lower body day and today my legs are killer sore. Quads, hams, and glutes are screaming. I need a massage. =)

Yesterday was cardio day. Had probably the best HIIT session so far. This is what I did, minute by minute:

2 min warm-up @ 3 mph then started my intervals.

6.5 mph (1 min)
3 mph (30 sec)
7 mph (1 min)
3 mph (30 sec)
7.2 mph (1 min)
3 mph (30 sec)
7.4 mph (1 min)
3 mph (30 sec)
7.6 mph (1 min)
3 mph (30 sec)
7.8 mph (1 min)
3 mph (30 sec)
8.0 mph (1 min)
3 mph (30 sec)
9.0 mph (1 min)
3 mph for 2 min cooldown and DONE!

Tonight is weight training day so I'll work shoulders, biceps, and abs. Will take week 5 measurements on Saturday morning as usual and hopefully will see more changes!