60 Day Challenge: The weight out- start to finish.

I have finally reached the end of my 60day Challenge.


People likely don’t really want to see this, but I will post it anyway.

My journey started Last July 2017, where I realized that I was becoming unhealthy and developing the “dad bod.”

With the sleep apnea getting worse, and with MommyMD getting more fit, I figured, CRAP! I gotta fix this. As in my previous posts, what right do I have to tell patients to lose weight if I was just gaining more weight and not eating healthy and not working out?

By the time I started the challenge I was already down about 10 lbs from 7/2017

Below is the essay I had to submit in order to get my “money back”
The 60day challenge was 60$ to participate in, but you can get 60$ credit in “lifetime bucks” to use at the gym if you submit an essay at the end.
This is my essay. I figured I was going to blog about it anyway.

So one of the cools things would be that you could potentially win a fairly large cash prize if you were the “grand prize winner”.
In order to win, people have to vote for you. I think it is based off your before and after photos, before and after stats (weight, body fat), and maybe the essay.

Either way I obviously won’t win that, but I definitely won my goals!

***

“As a family physician, I tell patient every single day that weight loss, healthy diet, and routine physical activity will significantly improve their lives and prevent future health complications. It may seem like an obvious concept, but it is truly a challenge in practice. With life, children, and work, I also had fallen into the trap of contentment. Slowly gaining weight. Making excuses not to work out. In the pursuit to find a better way to motivate my patients to seek health, I realized that I needed to lead by example.

I had started to track my food intake and started to exercise routinely and was slowly losing weight, but like my patients, I had my share of setbacks. It is very easy to skip a workout day, or not log that donut during lunch. The 60day Challenge gave me an opportunity to engage with a trainer and have a better understanding of what I needed to do in order to attain my goals.

The routine weigh-ins and communication with our trainer helped keep me accountable and motivated to not give up. It was gratifying to see my progress each week. The 60day Challenge introduced me to other group fitness classes, that I would likely never had tried. The “try it” sessions helped acquaint me with the other gym equipment that I would never have braved to try. The other benefit was making new friends. This just makes going to the gym that much more enjoyable. The next big challenge is to stay motivated to sustain my new found health. The problem with most “diets” is that the results are not long lasting. The consistency each week helped establish my workouts an integral and entertaining part of my daily life, rather than just another chore that had to be checked off.

The 60day Challenge helped me make my health a priority in my life, and realize that have no excuse to not be healthy. With this experience, I am better able to relate and appreciate the obstacles that my patients face. I can sincerely tell them that “it’s easier said than done.” I have been trying to utilize the knowledge and experience I gained to motivate others to actively seek health.”

***

So this is my final END result here:
Overall, I have to say I am pleased with where I am at. I just need to make sure I don’t fall back into the poor diet habbits.

As mentioned in my prior posts, I think I will avoid snake jucing it now. I have found that fasting works well. If you dont eat you will lose weight (duh), but I think my main goal now is to stay healthy, eat healthy. Maybe get amazing abs like S. Devor. #Goals. #noexcuses.

Spring 2018 60 Day Challenge

So I did sign up for the next 60 day challenge, which will start in May. I really dont think I am going to lose much more weight, if I do, it is going to fairly hard.

Maybe I will look like this:

From Buddha to Adonis (body type) – the 60 Day Challenge

It’s scary to look at some pictures from just a few years ago. It’s so easy to just let life happen and all of a sudden you have sleep apnea. I’ve been telling myself, I need to get back down to 170lbs for the past… since 7 years maybe? Well this post is more of a motivation for myself than anything.

Life Time Fitness has this 60-day-challenge where you get some access to other classes, and “virtual coaches” and diet recipes that help you get to either a goal weight or overall “whole body transformation”. You can actually win some loot. Now there is an associated cost, but it helps drive incentive to perpetual physical activity. 

I feel like I want to join and be on my way to a healthy BMI, but then I start to make excuses… I already don’t have the time to dedicate 100% to working out, going to the fitness classes (which is true, the times are not compatible with current life), I will not have any use for the recipe’s that they offer, and why should I use a virtual coach, how would that help?

Well… as I tell my patients, you have to make the time. There is always time to do something. You may not want to do it, but there is always a way to find it or make it. For instance, instead of working out now, I am sitting here writing this blog (which by the way, I commend anyone who does this regularly because it is hard to do well). As I made the excuses in my head, I realized, how can I expect my patients to take anything I say seriously if I can’t do it myself. 

My current BMI is 26.4 (near my all time high). I do have a family history of vascular dementia, stroke, heart attack and diabetes. So why the heck would I not take my health seriously, and take my own advice. Now As I write this, I have already started to implement some Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC). On my professional Facebook Page, I have been trying to track my physical activity via PolarBeat. I like tracking my heart rate during exercise as it give me a better idea of the calorie use. I also sport a FitBit (mainly due to the benefit we get from our health insurance). You do NOT need these tech gadgets to be healthy, but I like gadgets.

I frequently ask my patient to use myFitnessPal to track calories and activity to help them stay focused on their goal weight loss. They have Apps you can use for both Android and iOS. I think you can actually watch my MyFitnessPal Diary here. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/alphapenguin

So back to this 60-day challenge. I’ve tried sticking with P90x in the past but can’t get beyond day 30. Working out about 90 minutes a day takes a helluva time away from the day. Personal trainers are expensive. You know what though, not good excuses. Even if it’s just 40, or even 30, or even 20 minutes a day, it’s better than nothing. Finding ways to multitask works best. Unless you are superhuman and get up at 4 am to workout like some people I know, great ways to get physical activity in is to be active when you choose to be sedentary. Sounds obvious, but I mean instead of sitting down for 1-2 hrs watching NetFlix or a basketball game, get on a stationary bike or a treadmill (if you have one) and watch the Netflix. If you don’t have one, there are ways to get creative to do something. Now YouTube has a lot of great workout channels/videos with exercises. If you want to spend the money, there is the BeachBody On Demand, which gives you access to most of the BeachBody Material via the Android/iOS apps or via the website.

To keep myself motivated and accountable, and maybe to help motivate others that know me (or even the ones that don’t), I decided to publicly journal my strive for fitness. I’d love to have that six pack, but I think I would love even more is to not die of a heart attack prematurely or succumb to diabetes. As far as I know, I have been lucky so far with my biometric screens. Also, it would be nice not to have sleep apnea.

My current Plan to stay accountable:

GOAL: Weight loss down to 170lbs

Commitment:

  • must work out at least 20-40 min in a day, 5-6 days a week, and will provide proof. Will likely update blog weekly. maybe daily? To be seen.
  • must log food/calorie intake daily (will be using myFitnessPal), as above, may update only weekly.
  • will post weekly weigh-in weight.
  • no Fast foods.

how long am I going to last…

[dare i post a before picture here?]

 

Feel free to comment with any thoughts.