Week 16 Weigh-In and Pictures

April 29, 2012 by 2 Comments

Today marks 16 weeks exactly since I started Body-for-LIFE. Even though the Body-for-LIFE challenge is 12 weeks, I’ve continued with the lifestyle the last four weeks. The Body-for-LIFE website says to get the results you want in “as little” as 12 weeks. I was very happy with my results after 12 weeks. Going forward I want to continue to build lean muscle mass. My last weigh-in for Body-for-LIFE was 161. In the last 4 weeks I’ve lost 3 pounds, weighing in at 158.

I’m actually trying to gain weight (muscle weight), but I am not concerned about the weight loss since I am continuing to increase the weights at the gym. The last 4 weeks I’ve continued 3 days of weights and 3 days of cardio each week. Here are the pictures after 16 weeks. First, from the front:

And a flex shot from the front:

Now from the back:

And a flex shot from the back…you can really see the back and shoulder muscles that I’ve built over the past 16 weeks. I just need to work on that farmer tan – heh heh.

Here is a compilation of image I put together with pictures every 4 weeks. It really captures the progress along the way:

I’m getting much closer to the 6-pack that was one of my goals when I started. The last four weeks I’ve made significant progress across the board. You can especially see it in the stomach as the abs are starting to show even more. I’m figuring the 3 pounds I’ve lost has been a little bit more fat around the gut which is helping for the abdominal muscles to show through even more. My next weigh-in and pictures will be at 20 weeks. Until then, I’ll be continuing to blog about my journey as I continue to eat healthy and exercise. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Body For Life, Pictures Tagged With:

Updated pics and weigh-ins moving forward

April 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Now that Body-for-LIFE is complete, you may have noticed I haven’t been doing weekly weigh-ins and pictures. Going forward, I’ll be doing a weigh-in with pictures every 4 weeks. I’ll still be using the week of Jan 9th as the baseline for my transformation (that’s the week I started Body-for-LIFE). Now that the 12 weeks are done, my next weigh-in and pics will be at 16 weeks on April 28th – that’s this Saturday! I’m excited to see how much I’ve developed in the 4 weeks post BFL! After that I’ll check in at 20 weeks, 24 weeks, etc. until I feel my transformation is complete and I switch to maintaining.

Filed Under: Body For Life, Pictures Tagged With:

Gradually showing improvement

April 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

This morning marks the end of two weeks of running with my son before school in the morning. We’ve done it Mon, Wed & Fri and have been running 2 miles each day. He’s showing awesome improvement in just 2 weeks. He started out averaging around an 11 minute mile. I was extremely proud of him today. I pushed him a little harder this morning to see what he could do. We did 2 miles in 19 minutes and 20 seconds, averaging a 9:40 minute mile.

With our plan to do a 5K now, we need to start increasing the distance that we run in preparation for the 3.2 mile race.

Filed Under: Running

So What’s Up Next?

April 19, 2012 by 2 Comments

This is the question I’ve been thinking about since the official 12 weeks ended. In order to continue staying healthy, I think it is important to always have some sort of goal in mind. Maybe it’s an event (5K, 10K, Triathlon, or maybe a program like Body for LIFE or P90X), or maybe it’s a life even that you want to look good for (i.e. a family reunion). Maybe it’s a certain weight that you are trying to work your weight up to (i.e. be able to bench a certain amount). Something – just anything. Otherwise it is easy to rationalize skipping a day here or there or not eat as healthy as you should. I’ve been thinking for the last 2 weeks what my next goal is going to be.

So I’m not officially on Body For Life right now, but I’m still following the same schedule since the initial 12 weeks ended. I’m continuing to eat 6 times a day and exercise 6 days a week – 3 days weights 3 days cardio. This is the 2nd week now that I’ve been running with my son in the mornings. He has really taken a liking to it. We’ve been doing 2 miles in the morning before school 3 times per week. After getting up at 6:15 (or more like 6:24) – why the 9 minute snooze on an iPhone and why isn’t it configurable? I digress….we jump in the car around 6:35 or so, hit the trail around 6:40, and run until 7:00. I cook him some eggs while he showers. In addition to running and getting in shape, he’s eating healthier in the mornings now. It’s much healthier for him to have some eggs than eggo waffles. Yes, he’s been known to eat 6 eggo waffles in one sitting before school. We had to crack down on that one and install a daily limit. The eggo waffles really not that healthy. It’s good that my son loves eggs and will take them any day over the the eggo waffles.

After several weeks of pondering what my next goal should be, I’ve decided to do a 5K with my son. He already ran an unofficial one once this year over Easter and could totally do an official one. We’re going to start looking around to see what there is in the greater Austin Area. Once we choose one and register, I’ll be posting it here. I’m really excited. I’ve never done any sort of official race before – it will be a first for both of us together!

5k

Filed Under: Running Tagged With: ,

An Unlikely Mile Run

April 15, 2012 by 1 Comment

This week we got to soccer practice a little early. There is a trail that runs around the soccer fields and winds around a park. Allison was going to run it while I was running soccer practice, but she wanted to know how long the lap was before she ran it. I said I’d run it for her and track it with Runkeeper so that she would know how far it is. I pulled out my iPhone and loaded up Runkeeper, my favorite app for tracking running, biking, etc. It does gps tracking and tells you how far, how fast, elevation, etc. All of the data is synced to your account on runkeeper.com and is stored there permanently. If anyone has a runkeeper account, send me a street team request. You can view all of my activities here.

So…back to my story. I figured I would just run it real quick for her so she could plan how many laps she would do. I had my soccer cleats on in preparation for soccer practice and took off around the trail in them.

Since I had cleats on, I ran on the grass right next to the gravel trail. Running in cleats is not really the most comfortable thing, let me tell you. It even made me miss my old run down running shoes (which, btw need to be replaced badly). Check out the lining on them that is getting worn down…

As I rounded the last bend and looked towards the place where I started I looked down at my phone and it was almost a mile with my time around 7:30. I didn’t even realize I was running that fast. I guess I was nervous about being late to my own team’s soccer practice so I kept a good pace. I finished the mile in less than 8 minutes, clocking in at 7:50:

I guess all of that interval running I did during Body For Life has really paid off and helped condition my heart. Last week I didn’t do any interval running, but ran 2 miles Mon, Wed & Fri early in the morning with my son before school. I could tell a difference with him at his soccer game on Saturday. He was much better conditioned and did not get tired in the 2nd half like he usually does. He also scored his first goal of the season – woohoo!

As for me, I totally could have done the mile faster. I wasn’t even trying for a fast mile – plus, I was in soccer cleats! I now know a good place outside to time myself in a mile. At some point in the near future I’m going to do a real for real timed mile test. I’ll be interested to see how fast I can do it when I’m actually trying to get a good time. I’ll keep you updated once I do it. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Running, Technology
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