World's cutest baby still loves me...even when fat..

It has been a fruitful year...

With much rejoicing and Reese's Puffs..
For my Coke Zero runneth over and Frosty's have I known all the days on my life..
Gone are the days of Protein Powder and forgotten are the miles of running...
For I have eaten of the fat of the lamb and In and Out...
As advanced age creepth forward, as middle age spreadeth my gut...
I find that leanness hath abandoned me, replace with girth and merriment...
Mine sugar filled enemies surround me, beckoning with caloric promise...
Alas, alas - I curse my fates, for Helios arrives in his glorious high arc...
None can escape him, for San Clemente bathes in his glory beside Neptune's lair...
A fatal union of nudity and movement await this mortal coil - showing to all the sloth of my winter of content..

But, as memory sharpens, and my thoughts turn to times past...
Behold, the "Biggest Loser" beckons as a spurred love, requiring of me a sacrifice...
Begone! Begone are the days of costco pizza and hot dogs!
Begone are the days of Thrifty's Rocky Road and Wahoo's Chip and Salsa!
Begone are the days of injury and destruction, for I will not submit to my wounds be it ankle or hammy.
No more ask of me my appetite, for I know it not. Robbed, have I been, of my abs - and "vengeance is mine", saith my lats.

For LA Fitness is my new master, and he is vexatious. His is a jealous god, unkind to the philanderer who embraces the bench press while wooing the donuts.
Anger shall rule my days, as caloric deprivation invokes my wrath and body fat testing determines my place.
Merciful are the pleadings of my beloved children, "Dear Father, be thee not fat, but be thee not angry"...alas, beloved children, I cannot the two reconcile. For anger will rule for a period of 60 days as I exorcise the demon of Cellulitous. My beloved wife doth plead, "Please, dear husband, be thee not overweight, for thy form unappealth and thy weigh crusheth me" To her I say, "OK".

60 Days, 185 lbs, BF under 10%.

Those are the goals, that is the destination. Herein lies my record of the journey, forgive me, for I know what I do.

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Workout Tips 1.1

Here is the best way I can sum up starting a workout program from my experience:

"Anything is better than nothing...More is better than less."

With all of the information out there about how to workout, when to workout and what to workout - I think it is best to cut to quick about starting a program.

To start, don't fret about doing cardio before working out or workout before doing cardio - just do it. Literally. Just get the activity going, play ball, run on a treadmill, etc. The only thing I would recommend is that you structure the workouts to make sure you are hitting the right groups in the right way to avoid injury or wasting your time. The key is to make sure you do something everyday without fail. Your body begins to crave the activity and you become a junkie for working. The key is - don't miss a day.

If you start a program and it gets late in the day and you can't get to the gym - grab the jump rope and start going. Do some pushups, hell - jump in place for 2 minutes as if you had a jump rope. The hardest part is to keep the needle moving in the right direction.

Anything is better than nothing - more is better than less.

It's over! It's all over!

See that thing on my face in the pics below...that is a smile. I am incredibly glad this thing is over.

Before I announce the finish, I just want to apologize to everyone who has had to deal with me for the past few month. I have been a bear. The final results from my weigh on Friday is:

174 lbs - what the scratch!
7.8% body fat

My starting weight and body fat as of April 7th:

207 lbs
23.7% body fat

Totals - 33 lbs of body weight lost, 15.9% of body fat lost or 31 lbs of fat lost. Basically, a pound of fat lost every other day for the 53 day competition.

Here are the before/after shots:

Taken April 9th at 193 lbs:

This morning, May 30th @ 174 lbs:

So, the results are in and I took a very commanding Second Place in the competition - good for $1800 and a new body. First place went to Shaun, who took his body fat from 17.7% to 4% and looks great and deserves the win. I do take cold consolation in the fact that I lost the most body fat in the 23 person field @ 15.9%.

I hope to continue the renovation of my body and will focus more going forward on HEALTHY weight loss without becoming a nightmare in the process. I will keep posting updates as well as lessons learned for those interested as I make a post-mortem on the competition.

By the way - over the past weekend of Marti Gras, I put on almost 15 pounds of water, fat and food in the system and am back up to 190. Feels great! Luckily...the way this thing works is the natural fluctuation of weight, water and food. I am jumping back into a modified program this week where I should stabilize in the mid-180's after a few days. I love food and this whole thing has been a tremendous learning experience.

Biggest Loser Update

Tomorrow is the final weigh in and it cannot get here soon enough. I am ready to be done with this contest - and return back to some sense of normalcy.

I have really been dropping weight the past few days - I have been cracking the 170's for the first time in a decade and the BF is solidly in the 10% range.

Tomorrow morning I have a last chance workout scheduled with Casey to pump up my upper body muscles and really hit the tester hard when I am scheduled.

Afterwards, I am traveling right away to Arizona for my Uncle Brent's funeral, but I hope to finish top 3 after all this work. First place is unfortunately out of reach - mathematically, I have to get down to 5% BF to win and it is impossible to do at this point.

Second place is in reach, but a few of the other guys are really pushing themselves to get to that spot so everything is up in the air. I suppose at some point I will have a healthy opinion of this contest, but right now - I just want to finish in the money. Buy some new clothes!

I will post updates from the last workout and weigh in tomorrow...

BL Update - Last Week

13.3% BF
186 lbs.

I am stuck in the teens - though I am hoping to push it down this last week to the 9-10% range.

We will see....