30-day Rapid Results Fitness Challenge May 29 2002
July 2002: Over 12-weeks ago, I remember looking at myself in the mirror, feeling depressed about my lack of a social life (up yours, Silicon Valley!), feeling mad at my lack of gym activity over the past two years, and noticing the growing "spare tire" around my waist. I kept thinking about how great it would be to look like the guy in the Bowflex commercials that you see on TV. Back in April 2002, the gym I belong to, Pinnacle Fitness in Los Gatos California, announced a nation-wide 30-day Rapid Results® Fitness Challenge. That turned out to be the kick in the pants for me to stop feeling down on myself and find a way to build the body I always dreamed about. But since I've never participated in a competition like this before, I knew I needed help.
I am fortunate enough to have a good friend that is an instructor at a martial arts school and a certified fitness trainer with great advice for my exercise routine. He suggested I take a look at the Body-For-Life program as a model for my 30-day fitness challenge. He also mentioned that It may help improve my disposition on life. I figured what the heck, the second worse thing that could happen is I ended up in better shape, so why not?
I purchased and read Bill Phillips' book, and checked out his his Web site a few weeks later. It turns out, I'd just missed Round 4 of the Body-For-LIFE 2002 Challenge entry date by a few days. At the time, I thought there were no more competition rounds, but decided that after my 30-day challenge, I would keep going and see how well I did after 12 weeks. Sure, I wouldn't have a chance to win any of the prize money, but I'd still win in the most important way possible.
I really like the Body-For-LIFE program. You improve your mind as well as your body, something my friend teaches to his students (and I would be one if I still lived in Sacramento). I can positively say that after 12 weeks, the combination of mental and physical conditioning has enabled me to approach life differently and face its challenges in a better light. I learned to do a few things differently for my next 12 weeks. Most importantly, I need to change my diet a bit. I constantly battle with fasting hypoglycemia, a problem where I need to eat healthy meals (which for me is high protein, moderate to low carbs, and low fat) every 3 hours or else I shut down, and I need to avoid foods with lots of sugar to keep my energy levels from rapidly fluxuating. During my fitness challenge, I ate 6 meals a day instead of my usual 5, and I treated myself to less-than-healthy foods on Sundays. But, you don't see a dramatic change in my physique like you do with the other contestants in the Body-For-LIFE program. That's because for me, I need to eat more carbohydrates for my first three meals, something I didn't find out about until late into my challenge. In fact there are some other nutrition tips I learned from a magazine called Muscle Media, and if you're like me, then you may want to check out the July and August 2002 issues since they describe tips for people who are relatively lean and are trying to build additional lean mass. My next 12 weeks should be interesting as I try to apply what I've learned.
Lastly, I just found out that Body-For-LIFE has a 6th round that I can participate in, and I must enter no later than August 12. I will find out what I need to do to enter the contest today. Yes, the possibility of winning the grand prize interests me, especially given what's going on at work. But truth be told, I'm more interested in the challenge as a way of taking a few steps closer to looking like Mr. Bowflex.
-Mike (7/14/2002)
I had several goals I wanted to accomplish during my fitness challenge, including getting out more (not easy for a computer geek), getting to sleep at regular hours, building 10lbs of muscle, and cutting my body fat by 10%. I'm happy to say that I've met most of my goals. Socializing is a bit of a problem due to financial difficulties, but my regular sleeping hours have helped prevent exhaustion-induced depression, my weight consistently stayed at 155 lbs (measured at the start of my challenge, at 30 days, and at 12 weeks), and my present body fat is 22.5%. Stupid me forget to check body fat at the start, but it's clear from my pictures that I've shrunk my waistline (not to mention my pants keep falling down). Plus I feel considerably less stressed out at work and in the rest of my life.
I worked out 6 days a week, taking about 45 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to lift weights, and 20 minutes on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday to work on cardiovascular fitness. In the past, I just lifted weights, but since I started working, I could not do so consistently. I would always start strong, then over time I'd feel worn out and eventually I'd stop exercising altogether. I think the cardio training and the fitness challenge helped me create the energy I needed to keep things consistent. Nowadays, I don't really feel awake until I've had my workout for the day.
I tried exercising early in the morning after I woke up (and still do so on Saturdays), and tried exercising late at night, three hours after eating. Unfortunately, I shut down due to a lack of food in my system. On Saturdays, for instance, I wake up, go to the gym, exercise, and eat an hour later, but I tend to feel wiped out for the rest of the day despite regular meals. Since the best time to work out is after you've woken up, I'm still trying to figure out how to do that and still have normal energy levels. But for now, I eat a mid-day meal at 10am, exercise at noon, and eat my next meal around 1:30 to 2:00pm, an hour after my workout. I'm usually really hungry by my third meal, but Myoplex takes care of that.
These are the "before" and "after" pictures I took for the fitness challenge.
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| "Before" picture, taken 4/29/02 | "After" picture taken 5/29/02 |
You have to take pictures with a newspaper, so here are the best ones that I took.
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| "Before" picture, with newspaper, taken 4/29/02 | "After" picture with newspaper, taken 5/29/02 |
Here are my "Before" and "After" photos. I took my "After" picture at the 12-week mark differently than my 30-day one. I did not use any sunless tanning lotion, the lighting is different, and I used an ancient digital camera instead of film (can't afford film right now due to salary cuts at work). As a result, it's harder to tell that I made improvements like you can see in my 30-day "After" picture. It's also hard to tell that I made improvements in comparison to my 30-day photo. In fact, looking back at my exercise journal (a professional-quality software program for the Pocket PC that I designed and wrote myself), I can see that in comparison to my 30-day mark, I made my most significant gains in strength and cardio endurance. Certainly, my muscles feel a bit more solid than they did before.
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| "Before" picture, taken 4/29/02 | "After" picture taken 7/13/02. Body fat: 22% |
Regular exercise is no longer a chore for me, but it is now a hobby. I still only work out about 6 days a week for about an hour, but I've gone back to a 5 meal a day plan since that works best for me. I started to wonder how I looked now in comparison to a couple years ago, and decided to kill two birds with one stone in support of my new hobby: 3D modeling and digital imaging.
Not too long ago, I started to learn the art of digital imaging, including 3D modeling with trueSpace, Photoshop CS, and digital photography. This has taken the place of plastic model building, since my interests have changed and I have a lot of model kits littering my apartment now. It helps to have a dad who's back into photography now that he's retired. I get his hand-me-down digital cameras to play with. Anyway, I'm just starting out in this new hobby of mine, and I've a lot to learn in all three fields.
In looking ahead to a future 3D model project, I wanted to try making a model of Iron Man, my all time favorite comic book superhero. I still collect the comic even after 18 years (some future girlfriend is going to laugh at that). I've got every issue from 150 Volume 1 onwards! Eh, it beats drinking and doing drugs. Anyway, I needed some reference pictures of a human body so I can see where all the bits and pieces go. I figured I'd fit the bill just fine.
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| "Before" picture, taken 4/29/02 | "After" picture taken 5/26/04. |
I didn't expect much of a difference between 7/13/02 and 5/26/04, but I can definitely see an improvement. My waistline and belly are thinner, you can see my pelvis a bit, and while I'm still shaped the same, I have quite a bit of subtle definition now. It's hard to see in these pictures (like I said, still learning to photograph), but look at my right shoulder where it connects up with my torso (on the left side of the photo). There's some clear lines there, as well as down my arms. Plus, you can see some of my ribs showing. And all the scars from trying to shave have of course healed.
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| Side View | Backside |
Try not to laugh too hard. I needed a good side view so I can see proportions. If you look closely you can see where some of the muscles hook up to the arm. The shot of my backside gives me the best indication of how far I've progressed. I can see quite a bit of definition (keep in mind I'm squaring up my shoulders, which is why my skin looks kind of bunched up), whereas before there was pretty much nothing there. Plus I still have some body fat back there too. *sigh*
The before and after pictures on many programs are carefully screened and selected to show off the best looking results. Otherwise, how could you tell that the program was going to work, right? As you can see from these pictures, I'm an Average Joe, not a supermodel. The before and after differences may be slight, but they are there. But that said, consistent exercise a change in diet (not just for a few weeks, but for years) and some patience does produce positive results. Even with my problems of fasting hypoglycemia, I was able to reduce body fat while improving my definition. So if you're reading this and wondering if a diet and exercise plan will work for you, my suggestion would be to believe in yourself and give it a try.