"The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall." - Vince Lombardi

Monday, December 3, 2007

Day 84 - My 12 Week Transformation

Well, my current trek doesn't end today, but I did hit the magical 12 week point. Since 12 weeks seems to be a common length of time that others have been using as the time it takes to make significant changes and turn their health around, I thought I would take some time to reflect on the changes that I have made in this time. Don't have much time before I need to get some sleep, so I'll probably keep it short and maybe add some other stuff later.

Mentally, I have seen big changes. As I did more and more things to make myself healthier, my mental health improved. I have been in general a lot happier and overall more energetic in my everyday life. I have been more alert, aware, and simply, just better.

Physically, I went from being the winded weekend athlete, dreading covering a "fast and fit" person during frisbee games, to being the dreaded one. I could play a game and not be completely exhausted afterward. I was more confident in my abilities and was able to push my body further.

Nutritionally, I have reduced my cravings of junk food as well as my intake of those junk foods drastically. I enjoy eating healthy food and it is now habit to go to the effort of preparing a full meal when I'm hungry rather than nibbling at whatever cheap food is hanging around and never getting around to eating real food. I've rediscovered fruits and vegetables, and over the course of my journey so far, I've introduced or at least tried out a lot of new exciting foods.

Statistically speaking, I lost 18.1 lbs of weight. Since my BF scale isn't accurate, I don't have a good number on the overall fat loss, but if I assume that my starting BF% was 21%, which I don't think is too far off, and use my ending stats from the AccuMeasure, then I have essentially maintained my lean body mass, so the weight loss is essentially all fat and water weight.

I consistently saw the amount of weight I lifted go up, and made lots of gains in my cardiovascular health.

I plan on putting a little 12 week transformation video together soon. We'll see how that little project goes. I might even be able to get it up tomorrow, but we'll see. If it's not tomorrow, it may not be until the weekend when I get a chunk of free time. Maybe I'll put up some graphs as well.

Here's the weekly stat update:

Week 12: 2007-11-26 to 2007-12-03
Weight: 135.27 (-1.09, -18.1 total)
BF: 21.03 (-0.40, -5.6 total)
Suprailiac: 10 mm (11.6%)
Jackson/Pollock chest/ab/thigh: 8/14/12 (9.74%)

I was definitely surprised to see my Jackson/Pollock dip below into the magical single digits. I couldn't believe it. I redid the measurements 3 times, but they kept coming out the same, so I guess it must be true. I lost 2mm of both my ab and thigh measurements, and that was with my decision to shoot for maintenance calories last week, a missed workout, and 2 sub par workouts. Amazing.

Oh, I just thought I would add that I did make it back to the gym today after taking the whole weekend off and having a couple sub-par workouts before the weekend. I got in a full workout today and I felt great. I think the extra day really gave me what I needed to jump back into it. I mean, I even had to trek through a winter storm to get to the gym! It was one of those 2 steps forward, slide 1 step backward kind of walks. Here's the view outside my apt window today:


and here are my daily pics, showing the changes I made in just 12 short weeks!

Day 84

7 comments:

Otter Christy said...

Raiden! Congratulations on reaching the twelve week mark! Truly impressive and your results are very very impressive. I am so glad you opened with improvements in your mental health, too. Your numbers are so impressive, but to list the not as easily quantifiable changes too, really covers all the bases.

Thank you for your very understanding comments on my blog. You were so right on the money. So many people don't recognize that Adam's journey took more than just the days on his blog, and also, it was so cool of you to really connect instead of just typing a slogan at me. I was at the point where I couldn't handle one more person rattling off another quote at me. I found a lot of comfort in your speed bump posts. I am really sorry to learn of your chronic illness. It really sheds a whole new light on all the incredible progress you have made in the last twelve weeks. Know that your experience, understanding and wisdom that you have gained from dealing with your "speed bumps" has helped a stranger. I keep typing trying to impress upon you how much it meant to me. I am not sure I have succeeding. I guess it's time to just type thank you.

I can' wait to see your video. That'll be so cool!

Adam Waters said...

Congratulations on a major milestone Raiden! My hat goes off to you mate!

Shred on!
Adam

Anonymous said...

your short post ended up being kind of long ;) you have made great progress on your 12 weeks. good job!
i don't like the snow! I live in the southeast part of Michigan and we get enough snow for me.
i'm still debating the video idea. i just feel like i don't really have anything to say plus i don't like to hear my own voice. but would sure love to hear you!

Unknown said...

Hey well done Raiden! Making it to the 12 week mark is a true achievement. Keep it up my friend and thanks for the inspiration.
Rod

Alex Anselmo said...

Congratulations, Raiden!

Keep on shredding-hard!!!

Alex(",)

Miriam said...

Hello Raiden,
Your journey really speaks for itself with your pictures. I know that it was not easy, but you did it. You look younger, healthier and fit. Thank you for stopping by my blog. Just so you know Canada's speed limits drive me insane.

Raiden said...

Christy:
Thanks for the kind and thoughtful words. I promise I'll get back to writing more meaningful comments on your blog. For now, I just gotta get caught up! I've also got to find more time to expand on my story. I'm glad that the parallels we find help you out, but once I get more parts of my story up, you'll find you're so much ahead of me in this game.

Adam:
You have been the biggest inpsiration in my transformation journey and were the catalyst to me embarking on this challenge. I can't thank you enough.

Suzette:
I have a tendancy to ramble, which is probably one of my writing weaknesses. I have to work on being succinct. Thanks for the congrats. I wasn't planning on my video being narrated, but I may add a bit of voiceover now that you mention it! We're getting even more snow up here now.

Rod:
Thanks for coming to check out my blog and I'll be checking out your journey as well.

Alex:
Thanks and shred on brother!

Miriam:
Thanks for the wonderful comments. I realized that 25 is still a young age and wasn't an excuse to say that my metabolism was slowing down and that I was getting old, especially when I see people 10, 20, and 30+ years older than me that were in better shape. It's something that I want to keep up for the rest of my life and not fall back down the rabbit hole. Yes, our speed limits are silly, what with our crappy narrow windy country roads and kilometers :D