Back in late April we started the Body for Life program, a combination of a weight workout program, a specific cardio program and an eating plan, with a specific twelve week process. It took awhile to get up and running – we had to start from scratch to develop a two-week meal plan and recipes, a system for our cardio, and figure out how to set up a weight workout program at home.
By the end of April we had our eating plans and routines down pretty well, and by mid May we started our weight workouts. By late May we had combined our cardio program with the eating and weight workouts.
The original plan called for eating six meals a day, doing twenty minutes of cardio three days a week, and weight workouts three days a week, alternating upper and lower body.
We loved the six meals a day, but we couldn’t do the twenty minutes of cardio given that we normally ride two hours a day, three to four days a week, so we said sayonara to that part of the original plan. We also wanted to see faster progress, so we combined upper and lower body workouts into one longer workout, three days a week.
After several months of doing really well, our downsizing projects took over our lives with a vengeance. We continued with the eating plan, but by June we were down to two workouts a week, and by late July we had put them on hold. We continued intermittently with the bike rides, twice missing three weeks at a time, and missing other days each week when we were riding. We simply couldn’t put in the physical energy needed for our downsizing and everything else in our lives and continue with the bike rides and workouts.
We have gradually been finishing off all our projects and life has calmed down tremendously, so we’ve picked back up on the workouts and rides. For two weeks now we have completed three weight workouts a week, though we’ve decided to shorten them and just do upper body for the time being. We’ve also done three bike rides a week, and we’re on schedule for completing four rides this week. It feels truly wonderful.
We’re going to stick to this level of output till it feels easy, then we’ll add mileage to our bike rides, gradually adding lower body weight workouts. We’re also swimming several times a week, but it’s not too concentrated, though we get about twenty minutes of good exercise each time, doing laps and playing ball in the water.
Despite the fact that we haven’t had a textbook situation, our results have been wonderful.
Early on I bought a special measuring tape, Myotape, and a body fat measurement tool, Slimguide, both from Amazon. We’ve been very faithful about doing our measurements, every two weeks till we got so busy, then once a month. On Sunday mornings we go on our usual ride, come back and weigh ourselves using Tyler’s scales, then use our body measuring tape and body fat measurement tool to take down all the measurements we need. When the measuring is all done and recorded on our nifty Excel spreadsheet, we log on to http://www.linear-software.com/online.html, input the measurements, and calculate our current body fat.
Our results to date are more than enough to keep us going on our program till we leave on our trip. We feel better, we sleep better, we look better. For me the icing on the cake is that I’ve lost twenty-seven pounds, a total of twenty-two inches (including six inches on my waist), and six and a quarter percent in body fat. By Christmas or sooner I will have lost two full dress sizes. Chelsea’s lost over four percent body fat, over thirteen inches, and eleven pounds (though she needs to gain some back). Needless to say, we are delighted.