I finished the 12 week Body 4 Life program, and I’m pretty happy with the results, as embarrassing as the ‘before’ pic is:
Ok, I am flexing a little in the after pic…but still. Not quite as impressive as the success stories on the their site, but I’ll take it. In fact, I wasn’t even sticking to the diet part that strictly, though I was good about getting in the gym 5-6 days/week.
Oh yeah, I really didn’t lose that much weight either – only 5 lbs. That’s weird.
Anyways, I’ve already jumped right into the next 12 weeks, and this time I’m modifying the workouts to do cardio and weights every day.
I’m still hanging in there, exercising 5-6 times per week. It’s become second nature to make sure I get my daily workout in. In contrast, it wasn’t that long ago that I struggled just to make it in the gym once a week.
pros:
- I’m definitely way stronger than when I started
- definitely have more muscle tone
- cardio ability is also way up. I no longer dread the 20 min interval training, and since I discovered midfoot strike running, I’m running faster and without pain. throw in a pair of New Balance 800’s (made for midfoot) and Superfeet Insoles, and I actually look forward to my runs.
cons:
- I haven’t lost a pound! which is odd, because I’ve got to be burning a lot more calories than usual with these workouts, and I’m still mostly watching what I eat. I’m sure this is partially offset by muscle gain, but I would expect to have lost some weight.
To try and get some weight off, I’m going to switch up the routine a bit. Before, it was cardio 3 days + weights 3 days (alternate upper body/lower body). Now I’m going to do cardio every day, followed by a shorter weights session. Will split the weights into 3 different workouts so that it’s shorter: chest/triceps, back/biceps, legs/shoulders.
4 weeks down, 8 to go. I’m still hanging in there with the program, which is more progress than I’ve made in a fitness program in a long time. I don’t think I’ve lost much weight, but can definitely feel the muscle tone and cardio ability improving.
Self rating:
- Weights: A. I look forward to hitting the gym on weights day, and have had intense workouts where I always break a sweat. Prior to this program, I’d never sweat when lifting.
- Cardio: B. even though it’s only 20 mins, I dread cardio day because the interval training is so painful. But I’m making progress and running faster on the treadmill.
- Diet: B-. I’m sensitive to what I eat and portion size, since I record everything in LoseIt. And my luv cooks me nutritious meals. But I still need to start planning my meals more carefully and sticking to the approved foods list.
Green X’s are days I didn’t exercise. I’m only supposed to take 1 day off a week.
so i’m doing the Body for Life 12 week fitness program, and i just completed week 1. it’s a pretty simple system, really, with just a few core, common sense principles:
- diet: eat 6 small meals a day (every 3 hrs). every meal should have high quality carbs+protein. keep portion size around the palm of your hand.
- cardio: 3 days a week, do a 20 minute high-intensity interval training cardio workout.
- weights: 3 days a week do weights, alternating between upper and lower body workouts. these are about 45 minute workouts.
- day 7: no exercise, and eat whatever you want.
that’s the gist of it. it’s not rocket science, and doesn’t take all that much planning to make it happen. and my iphone is helping to keep me honest. LoseIt is tracking my caloric intake, and 12 Week Fitness keeps me honest about my workouts.
i’m motivated to instill some new habits so i can be more effective with my time, so that i’m able to meet all my commitments at work, as a parent/husband, and still have my mandatory ‘me time.’
first up: becoming an early riser. Simon’s already training me here, but i need to break the habit of a) waking up so i have *just* enough time to get to work and b) hitting the snooze button at least 3 times each morning.
i’ve always envied people who get up early, and it’s clear that if i’m able to do it, i’d have a lot more time to do things. if i get up 1hr earlier for a year, that’s over 45 days of additional time!
so my short term test is this: wake up at 6:30am every day (even weekends, though maybe add an hour), as soon as the alarm goes off (no snooze). I managed to do it today, and had a great morning: a leisurely breakfast while reading email/rss/twitter, went to the gym and rode the bike for 35m followed by stretching, then caught my normal train to work. all i have to do now is keep it up.
these are a few of the blog posts motivating me:
