I've never been good at blogging....never, but I really want to get better. I had completed BFL over the first months of Spring and Summer and I felt great. I accomplished about half of my goal of weight loss and I was very happy with the results. Instead of going right back into the next phase of BFL I challenged myself to start running again and now I'm four days away from running a half marathon. The increase in endurance has been awesome. I have noticed that my body is much stronger, but I was surprised that after all of this running I have only lost about 10 lbs. I'm not worried at all about it because I don't use scales to judge results, but it's just an example as to why we have to get away from the weight and look in the mirror.

I'm excited about this Saturday, but there have been some recent developments that will make this weekend a bit more challenging than normal. Last Tuesday my wife and I were blessed with our third little boy. Just a day after bringing him home the entire family got nailed with a nasty cold and we are all look and feel like death. Just to make things a bit more interesting my wife and I have pink eye as well! Yeah, it's been crazy. We have all been on medication long enough to not be contagious, but my lungs are not quite right to be running long distance right now, but I am just hoping that a miracle happens and I can run this Saturday. We'll see. :)

On a positive note, I'm excited for this next Monday. After running for the last few months I am going to get back to the gym and start the program over; just a little different this time. This time I am going to put my effort into Shawn Phillips, "Strength For Life" program. I love both BFL and SFL, but I just want to twist things up a bit and keep my body guessing.

If any of you have completed this program yet please share your thoughts!

Cheers,

Eric

I have received a lot of messages from people asking why I haven't been blogging and whether or not I am still on the program. Sorry that this has taken me so long to get back to you, but things have just been crazy. I haven't been blogging because I had been sick for a number of days, went on a business trip, and have just had a crazy time.

During all of this I tried my best to get as many workouts in as I could, but getting to the computer has been a challenge. Even though I have been working out I don't feel that I had the time or energy to put a true "BFL," style workout effort behind it. i have dropped more weight and I have not complaints, but I am kind of a perfectionist and I want to see what kind of transformation can occur when someone puts a true 12 weeks together. I have decided that I will start my BFL program over today and track the next 12 weeks.

The first six weeks were awesome, even if the last week wasn't up to par. I have lost about 18 lbs overall and I feel great. I am now starting my program with a different goal based on my current overall health.

Starting Weight: 231 lbs
Goal Weight: 200 lbs

Body Fart %: TBD
Goal Body Fat %: TBD

In addition to starting over I am going to make a point to track more than purely weight loss. It's just not a good measurement by itself. There were times when I didn't drop even a pound, but my close fit much looser. The fat loss vs. the muscle growth would be easier if I tracked my percentage of body fat over the next 12 weeks. I'll report that info on here once I have this evening.

So that's basically it. Again, sorry that I didn't get back in touch with some of you, but thank you all for your messages and support. I am most excited about one simple thing. In the past if I had a tough week i would just throw in the towel and just stop working out and eating whatever. It was my way of saying, "Oh well, I tried." At no time did I have that urge this time. I ate correctly, did any sort of workout that I could when available, and tried to maintain the success I had already obtained until life could get back to normal. It's yet again another sign that I have finally changed my mind and the old me is coming back...now it's just time for my body to catch up!


Cheers.

I have had a lot of people writing to me and asking how things are going. I guess since I hadn't been blogging they though maybe I had stopped the program....NO WAY! I have just been out of town on training and I didn't have access to a computer I could sit and type up a blog on. I am not back home.

I am actually headed off to the gym tonight for my cardio and I'm hoping to hit a new high mark on the treadmill. I'll write in a bit and let you know how it goes. :)

Tonight I left the gym just absolutely blown away.  Over the last four weeks I have been writing down my progress and I've basically planned out how I think the rest of the program would ideally go for me.  One of the goals that I have frequently blogged about is that I want to hit 2.7 miles on the treadmill during the 20 minute cardio.  This last Saturday I had reported that I finally got past the 2.20 mark after two weeks and I hit 2.24 miles.  I was completely happy with that.

Well, tonight I went to the gym and I did my cardio.  As mentioned before, I have everything planned out as to how it should go so I was actually planning on staying consistent this week and making sure that each one my cardio workouts exceeded the 2.20 mark.  I was absolutely floored when at the end of my workout this evening I had hit 2.30 miles.  I was expecting that until later next week!

At one point during the workout I just knew I was on pace to beat my high mark.  I had this overwhelming rush of energy and I just started to smile.  I wonder if anyone was looking at me.  That feeling of success and accomplishment propelled me to this new high.  I wonder what will happen on Thursday!!!!!

So I had a crazy day last Saturday. I had planned on getting to the gym early in the morning, but every time I thought about going something just seemed to come up at home. Fat Me would have put off the gym and just decided to workout extra hard on Monday, but Skinny Me fought and fought and I ended up getting to the gym at 11:30PM. Yeah, that right...I worked out until midnight. It was awesome. I felt so good to have been able to overcome my old habit and get to the gym. It's just one more sign that I am truly changing for the better.

So the results....In the first four weeks of my challenge I have lost 13 lbs. I am very happy with those results. My goal was to lose 14 lbs by now, but I would say I am close enough. :)

The goal that I'm more excited about is that I hit 2.24 miles on the treadmill. When I was trying to hit the goal I was doing it all wrong. I was doing the same speeds on the treadmill until I hit minutes 18 and 19 and then i tried to hit it even harder than ever. I was hitting the same mileage over and over again. You probably already noticed the problem with that philosophy...I was already maxing out on the treadmill so how would I be able to go further by doing the same thing each and every time. This last time I decided to bump up the pace on each of the phases of the run and by the time I got to the 18 and 19 minute marks it was obvious that I was going to hit the goal. It was awesome. I feel that 2.30 miles is only days away.

My key learning for the first 4 weeks is that I shouldn't be focusing on weightloss, but strength training is the ultimate goal. I believe this is what has caused me to crash and burn on so many attempts to drop the extra weight. I was constantly trying hours of cardio and no lifting at all. I was hurting my body more than I was helping it. Sure, I dropped weight at times, but I would gain it right back and I never felt like I was getting stronger or had more energy. I constantly got hurt...etc. You get the idea. But, in just four short weeks of focusing on strength combined with cardio I feel better than I have in years. It is really quite amazing.

I have tons of momentum carrying me into this new week. I can't wait until I can report on my next four week mark.

I am headed out to the gym right now with a hope and a goal.

My hope? I want to lose about 40 lbs over 12 weeks and I wanted to lose 14 lbs in the first 4 weeks so I'll be checking the scale today.

My goal? I want to hit 2.20 freaking miles on the treadmill!


Wish me luck.

That right there is why we guys need to keep in shape.

2.15 miles....that's all I really want to write. Oh, and that it is not smart to eat dinner 1 hour before you go to the gym to do your cardio. Dumb....very, very dumb.

It might be a bit soon to start, but I'm already referring to myself as fat me and skinny me. Last night I pulled out some totes of clothing that I bought as I started to gain weight. These were the I'm not skinny, but I'm not fat yet tote. I was surprised that I already fit into everything in the tote. That's awesome. It's like a whole new wardrobe in one night! Obviously, I still have the totes that I actually did label skinny me on. I have been waiting to get back into those outfits for a long time; 4 years.

The great thing about what I do is that my clothes never go out of style. I am an investment banker so it's hard to think that a dress up white shirt and tie, dark dress pants,...etc., would go out of style. Not a chance. It will be great for me when I can bust out that tote and put on those clothes. I was expecting to have to wait all 12 weeks to enjoy that day.....who knows. I might be celebrating earlier. All the more reason to work my butt off!

I've mentioned before how I can't take an entire off day.  I definitely believe in it...man, do I like food, but I just seem to take advantage of it too much.  Instead, I do one off night.  My wife has assigned Wednesday nights after I get back from the gym.  She Tivos Hell's Kitchen and So You Think You Can Dance and we kick back and watch them both.  It's kind of our date night.

I was driving home from work today and I just felt guilty.  My body is trying to get me to not even do my one night off......That's good........BUT COME ON!  I'm so into this program in week 4 that I can't even see myself eating one bad meal a week.  Yeah, I know eventually I'll give up everything.  Tonight is not that night.  :)

We'll see how bad I feel when the shows are done.  Okay, off to the gym to do legs.