It's been nearly an entire year since I started exercising and eating better. I've seen some amazing results to say the least. I went from 287lbs down to 207lbs. I'm not at 6-8% bodyfat yet but I will be soon. I went from wearing a size 3x shirt to a size LARGE. From a size 46 pair of pants to a size 36. I think the nicest thing about losing all that weight is now I can shop at normal people's stores. Shopping for clothes is now a fun experience. It's just to bad it still takes me forever to find a size 15 pair of shoes! The information below was posted 10 weeks into my weight loss process. I decided to keep it here for various reasons: Well, i'm 22 and decided one day that I wanted to get into better shape and that I just did not have the energy I once did. I wanted to go all day without tiring for a second and wake up at the crack of dawn and look forward more to what the day has to offer. I think when you want to start working out and want to start a goal of being in better shape it has to come from the inside out. You need a reason for doing it and you need to constantly focus on it. It's a complete lifestyle change and you can't just stop when you accomplish your goals. Pills and eating healthy every single day are probably not good enough for most people, so exercise is the way to losing weight and getting more energy. I think what I like the most about exercising is the feeling I get after doing it. If you exercise, you know what i'm talking about!

One day I go into a computer store and come out with a new $1000 notebook computer. I get it home and without really using it think long and hard and realize that I just did not need another computer and did I really want to spend even more time on a computer? Not really. I wasted enough time on useless activities, so it was about time for me to actually make good use of it for once. I ended up taking back the computer and the same day called up Bowflex. I had wanted one for awhile but just could not afford a $1000 piece of exercise equipment. At the time I DID have the extra money and went for it. I knew that if I saw no results in the first 6 weeks I could get my money back in full! I was pretty sure I would lose a little weight, but had no idea i'd be getting the results I have. It's still hard for me to believe. To put it all short, it's the best investment i've ever made in my life and has been worth every penny.

I get the Bowflex in the mail. The thing was around $1200 and was paid in full thankfully. I put it together in just less than an hour and since it was late went to sleep. The first day of owning it I decided to throw away all my junk food and unhealthy stuff I had around and go out and buy healthy food. I made a commitment to eat healthy from then on. The first week is just a little hard because you're not used to having to stop eating the junk food. I wasn't thinking one day and decided to eat 2 pop-tarts. I used to love those things! Other than this I've managed to not eat any junk food AT ALL since then. I am so proud of myself. You eat better, you feel better, it's as simple as that. No more greasy fried foods, no fast food, but healthy stuff. You give up eating fast food (unless it's healthy) and sugary pop, candy and whatever else then you're set. Once you eat healthy and you don't eat more than you can burn you don't have much to worry about. It's just amazing to me how a single piece of junk food can nearly equal the amount of calories that an ENTIRE healthy meal has. I think to myself, hmm, what would I rather eat? Definitely the bigger meal since a single piece of junk food isn't going to fill you up. They're also what you call empty calories.

During the first week I was very sore. I worked out for an hour every other day but kind of neglected my aerobic training, that was a mistake, but I still ended up losing 8lbs the first week! When I found this out that just kept me going. Some weeks I would lose not much at all on the SCALE, but would find out that when I measure my body parts I in fact DID.

Once I started building muscle (which burns off the fat) I had absolutely no problems resisting the temptation of junk food. I figured, why do that? If I was doing something so well, then why risk losing what you've accomplished?

On the 3rd week I managed to build some muscle and switch over to the Advanced General Conditioning. It's pretty rough at first and you notice the difference definitely. I did this for awhile, then switched over to the Body Building Routine. They are much worse, believe me. It took me forever to get through each routine because I was still learning and had to rest more, but after awhile I was able to go through them in an hour. More is not better when it comes to lifting weight. I mean, thinking working out for 4 hours is better than 1, it just isn't true. The best results i've seen were when I started the body building routines, the weight ON the scale wasn't coming down as fast, but the measuring tape sure told me something. I think this definitely helped me gain muscle FAST. One thing I noticed about the body building routine is that I slept very excessive hours. One night it was 12 hours without even trying. I just do not know what it is that causes me to do that. By now, i've found that working out at night is a VERY bad idea. That is unless you want to stay up all night from the energy and NOT sleep. I made the mistake of doing this to much. Also, if you work out at night you tend to get the temptation of skipping a workout because you are sleepy. I did this once or twice, but made up for it another day. I haven't skipped a day since though.

I kept my body building routine up until the 10th week since I really liked it. On the 10th week I did more research on working out and came across a site called "Body-for-life" and heard about the book of the same name. I did my research on the author and the book and decided to go check it out. I picked it up about 2 days ago and read it front to back in about one night. It's just that good. It's a pretty quick read, but make sure you don't try to rush through it to much. It's a very inspiring book, to say the least. The next day I put much more effort into my workout and felt like I had the best workout i've ever had. In the morning my entire upper body was killing me! But that's the good thing and proof that what you did is working! I also made the very stupid mistake of working out late at night. I never worked out in the morning on an empty stomache which burns the most amount of fat possible. This is because you have been fasting all night and you can use the fat your body stores as energy. If you eat before this, you will be burning carbs as fuel, if say you drink a protein shake or whatever. I was NOT looking forward to working out on an empty stomache, it just so hard to do your best. But I did and it didn't feel as bad as I had thought. I also am now doing aerobic work on my off days to burn more calories. 20 minutes of different intensity. No more or no less. I usually do rowing on my Bowflex, but will get an exercise bike soon. If you workout every single day you are wasting your time. Muscle grows during the recovery and resting phase.

So now, I am even more serious into working out and eating healthy. I am not worried about eating to much as long as it's not over what I can burn off in a day and it's all healthy. I was down to 1500 calories, but have increased it to 2000 calories or about 6 small meals a day. I now have decided to buy protein shakes. This way, if I eat 6 meals I don't know 100% if I got all the nutrients my body needs, so I make sure and drink 2 shakes a day as 2 of those meals. Then i am sure of this. To restore your muscles you need the proper nutrients as well as lots of water. Without water you can't get very far I'd imagine. I went with a 24 pack of MET-Rx LITE shakes. They were on sale at GNC for $29.99 marked down from $45. I also managed to pick up a GNC card to save 20% off everything for just $4.00, what a deal. Eventually I'll switch over to Myoplex. It's a little more expensive, but I can't really stand the taste of MET-Rx in water, it's fine in milk, but it can get to be expensive using a 1/2 of a gallon every few days. Plus, I don't need all the extra calories from Milk anyway. I do know one thing, those protein shakes give me a TON of energy!


So this is all I have to say for now. I'm pretty excited about this Body-for- life challenge. My reason to want to win is going to make me want to do the best I possibly can. It isn't the money at all that's for sure.