3 years ago today..... my journey is almost complete

[SLO]

Today, 8/31/12, marks 3 years into my transformation. It may sound corny, but I consider it my birthday or anniversary of no longer being drunk, fat, and stupid. I played sports all though high school and played plenty of basketball in college, but then the last couple years of school and my first few years at a desk job I put on about 50 lbs over a 4 year span. Here are some of the least flattering pics I have, these were taken at around 200 lbs in July of 2007.





Beached whale:



I actually got up to 221 but don’t have any shirtless pics at that size. Trust me, it’s no coincidence. Around 210-215 in early and mid 2009:

[SLO]

My company started a Biggest Loser contest 8/31/09, and this was just the kickstart I needed to make a true lifestyle change. I went from 221 to 184 in 12 weeks. Here’s me at ~180 lbs in 1/2010.



I continued my diet and exercise plan and got down to 173, then I decided to give P90X a try starting 2/20/2010 and continued lots of running and basketball. Unfortunately I lost my starting pics so here are the day 30 pics from 3/20/2010.





Here are my day 90 pics from ~5/15/2010. Weight: 153 lbs

Too much cardio, and not enough protein.

[SLO]

At this point I got a Bodybugg, food scale, and a dailyplate.com account and started really tracking calories religiously. I continued some of the P90X routines, as well as lots of basketball and running. During this time I ate between 2100-2500 calories, depending on the month. I thought I was cutting based on the TDEE the Bodybugg was telling me, but I ended up recomping for a year, which probably wasn’t a bad thing.

I got really into running, and ran in the 2010 Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 10k (6.2 miles) race on Thanksgiving Day. It was 33 degrees when the race started. I finished 57th out of 4100-something, with a time of 39:36, a 6:23/mile pace.

One of my goals was to run a sub 5 minute mile, but not have the pencil thin physique of your typical distance runner. I ran 1 mile on 2/6/12 in 5:11. Unfortunately I injured my foot pretty badly the following month. It's about 90% now, but it still bothers me and I can't do any sort of activity if I don't wear my custom orthodics with a carbon fiber stiffener in the left foot.



Here I am at 155 on 5/1/2011:

[SLO]

In 6/2011 I moved, started a new job, had a social life again, and fell into some old habits. I went from 155 lbs to 175 in the span of 45 days.

I decided to do Starting Strength for about 7 months (although had to take 6 weeks off due to a torn calf) and started tracking calories again. Made some strength gains, but was still eating too much. Wouldn’t call it a bulk by any means though.

Here I am at a soft 170 on 2/1/12.

[SLO]

Decided to do some P90X stuff again, as well as lot of swimming and basketball. 1600-1700 calories/day most days.

4/26/12:





Then in late April of this year decided to say “f it” and cut calories HARD, and amped up my activity a lot. I’ve basically been doing a slightly modified version of Lyle’s Ultimate Diet 2.0 for the last 16 weeks, but without the huge carb load.

Here’s about where I’m at now at 159 lbs. Pics from 7/20/12.









I’m very disappointed that I’m not where I want to be by the 3 year mark. This last little 5 lb ring of fat around my lower abs and love handles just doesn’t want to go and has driven me to the brink of insanity. Some of it is loose skin. When I decided to really give it my all 4 months ago I had planned to meet my goal by today, 8/31/12. But I’m so damn close I can taste (bad choice of words) it. So I’m going to give this one last push until my 30th birthday, on 10/12/12. Over the last 16 weeks I’ve been extremely dedicated, with the exception of 2 several day long binge episodes (which really set me back). I can feel every last one of the hormonal (crashing leptin, testosterone, and increased cortisol, to name a few) and metabolic adaptations that happen when you get lean by dieting hard and overtraining. I’m exhausted, cranky, and hungry 5 days a week (1300-1400 calories, ~160g protein, ~45g fat, ~80g carbs). I eat around maintenance or slightly above on weekends with moderate carbs and fat, basically reefeding on Sat and Sun but still hitting the weights and playing lots of basketball. I think I can stick with this and be firmly into the single digits in another 6 weeks. After that I’ll start slowly reverse dieting.

[Mikesullyy]

Great progress man! are you planning to lean bulk?

[Bassackwards]

great job! you may not be where you want to be but at least you are far from where you were when you first started. you made progress and consistanly stay active. keep it up brah!

[stokey04964]

great job! you may not be where you want to be but at least you are far from where you were when you first started. you made progress and consistanly stay active. keep it up brah!

I agree with this. Damn nice job you've done!!

[thebeast110]

At this point I got a Bodybugg, food scale, and a dailyplate.com account and started really tracking calories religiously. I continued some of the P90X routines, as well as lots of basketball and running. During this time I ate between 2100-2500 calories, depending on the month. I thought I was cutting based on the TDEE the Bodybugg was telling me, but I ended up recomping for a year, which probably wasn’t a bad thing.

I got really into running, and ran in the 2010 Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 10k (6.2 miles) race on Thanksgiving Day. It was 33 degrees when the race started. I finished 57th out of 4100-something, with a time of 39:36, a 6:23/mile pace.

One of my goals was to run a sub 5 minute mile, but not have the pencil thin physique of your typical distance runner. I ran 1 mile on 2/6/12 in 5:11. Unfortunately I injured my foot pretty badly the following month. It's about 90% now, but it still bothers me and I can't do any sort of activity if I don't wear my custom orthodics with a carbon fiber stiffener in the left foot.



Here I am at 155 on 5/1/2011:

Hell yea bro, great job!! Crazy difference, i'm sure people that hadn't seen you in years had to have been blown away

[SLO]

Thanks for all the kind words guys, it helps keep me motivated to make this last push, and I really need it since I'm really feeling my body fight back.

Great progress man! are you planning to lean bulk?

No plans to bulk whatsoever, just want to stay lean for a while and maintain once I'm satisfied with what I see in the mirror (if that is possible). I'm afraid my hormones and metabolism are shot and I'm primed to put on fat quickly. I'll slowly reverse diet and try to find what my maintenance actually is, since I really have zero f'n clue.

[JeffyDOS]

Great progress man. Although I must admit, you do look happier in your pictures before.


Btw, do you hit the wheels at all?

[RobertMugabe]

oh my god you really were very unattractive before, not nice to look at at all

but now you are something special you are better than most people fantastic

well done you can be proud of yoruself good luck for the future now

you have made truly excellent progress

[Brian1294]

Damn good job bro, keep at it!

[SLO]

Great progress man. Although I must admit, you do look happier in your pictures before.


Btw, do you hit the wheels at all?

You know, there's certainly something to be said behind the phrase "fat and happy". Life seemed so much easier when I would just go with the flow and not worry about food and fitness all the time. Damn, everything about my diet and exercise routine is so meticulously planned and structured it gets pretty stressful at times.

As far as the wheels go, other than when I gave SS a shot for 7 months no, no leg work. As I said, I play a ton of basketball and squatting 3x a week was really affecting my game in a negative way. I'm probably going to start a new routine in 6 weeks and mix in some squats and deadlifts again, just need to try and figure out how to work it in with my basketball games. Calves are probably my best body part, most likely from carrying an extra 50 lbs around for a few years. When I'm playing ball they look like a roadmap, it's awesome. I <3 veins.

Wheel shot:

[stingray72]

Great job man im giving you reps when im recharged. Your inspiring me to get back down to 145 again since I put weight back on after losing 30 pounds. I was 176.4 and got down to 146 or lower so I call it 145. (I have cerebral palsy thats why I weigh less than I should.) Im commencing dieting for 12 weeks today. A 12 pound loss is the goal.

[heroes1308]

Those arms...Wow. Such a transformation man, great job.

What's your bi and tri exercise? For me my arms are lagging and yours seem bloody amazing so I'd like to know haha.

[Serpentarius]

Amazing transformation, the best part is not how you look, but how you feel about yourself not being self conscious and having a body you can be proud of. You have a great build, obviously lots of natural muscle and it shows.
Use the same focus that took you to where you are now, for the rest of your life and success will follow. Very inspirational to say the very least.

[beefdog88]

You got some nice core definition. Super jelly over that dude!

[aliceliner]

Your change is so amazing!The fact has proved that there is no ugly people but only lazy people.As long as you stick to the workout,you can also have a body as nice as him.

[buckiaj]

Seriously jelly bro......your story reminds me a ton of myself. we've actually chatted a few times in another thread and i see a lot of similarities in the road map we've taken.

From 09-10, i dropped around 90lbs, ended up recomping/****arounditis/dirtyrecomping/dirtydrinking/havingfun for the next 12-18 months, before getting serious again.

as of now, i'm up about 20 lbs from my initial drop of 90. I'm much stronger than I was, so i'm thinking if i can cut around 15 lbs of it off, i'd be thrilled with life. Dieting down to lean, is mentally, so hard for me.

I'm just at a stage in life where i'm so happy and have so much going on, its really hard to say no to all of these things going on around me that always seem to involve beer and food. I cut a lot out, but its so hard to cut it all out.

Good luck bro!

[TonedJordan]

Really good transformation. Congrats bud. Also looks like you got a sweet set of calves on you as well. I have bonus respect for guys with nice calves

[zakc]

huge transformation man, also whats your chest circumference?

[musti070]

repped and respect.

[SLO]

Shameless bump.

Got featured in the Transformation edition of We Mirin, #28:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/we-m...spiration.html

Also just received word from an editor at BB.com that they want to do a featured article on me as Male Transformation of the Week. Pretty cool.

[arkadium]

Nice work - rep'd!