Body for Life™ Program
After essentially achieving my goal weight through the last four months of effort (thanks, Weight Watchers!), including a good deal of good ole fashioned manual labor in the ship yard (thanks, Sojourn!), the Body-for-Life™ (BFL) program is the structure that I now need to start and sustain progress toward an agressive fitness goal.
Kay has a similar set of goals to mine documented below, although since she still has more weight to lose, she’ll be continuing her WW regimen along with taking action on guidance from Connie, her new trainer at Twenty-Four Hour Fitness in Cape Coral, Florida, ten miles down the road.
The key is that Kay and I are doin’ this together! That means being strong for each other, which we’re finding is so critically important in order for us to succeed. This ain’t easy, folks! If it were, we wouldn’t see obesity having already reached epidemic proportions among Americans!
For example:
USA Obesity Rates Reach Epidemic Proportions
- 58 Million Overweight; 40 Million Obese (that was me); 3 Million morbidly Obese (this is Kay)
- Eight out of 10 over 25′s Overweight
- 78% of American’s not meeting basic activity level recommendations
- 25% completely Sedentary
- 76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 yrs old since 1990
For more alarming statistics on obesity among adults, and even more shockingly, among children in the United States of America, just Google “statistics morbidly obese US”!
One site with a nice bulletized summary is http://www.annecollins.com/obesity/statistics-obesity.htm. If we saw any disease even beginning to approach these staggering statistics, we’d have wide-spread panic! This is shocking stuff, folks! I guess you just need fresh eyes to see how bad this really is in our country. We now (finally) have new eyes!
The BFL method of developing a general high level of fitness is based on a relatively advanced and sophisticated (we’re told by Connie) twelve week program that will create a strong foundation for the rest of our lives. For me, it compares my dream list, twelve week goals and daily weight and cardio (aerobic and anaerobic) training goals and planning, along with daily nutrition goals and planning, to actual daily progresss (or lack thereof) against those goals via exercise, nutrition and supplementation (vitamins, minerals, etc.).
And with BFLs “Principle of Reciprocity”, the more you give to others, the more you help yourself. This is a key reason for this blog – to share with you our new passion for USING the body’s ‘owner’s manual’ to achieve a better lifestyle for all of us.
We’re not striving for perfection here, just serious progress, and ultimately, results. And BFL’s key principle is, “Failing to plan is planning to fail”, so planning is very important.
For example, three planning activities comprise the prep for each day: establishing what BFL calls “the power mindset”, meal planning and training planning. So here we go…
first, my BFL dream list:
- Add years to my life
- Create more energy to do more activities
- Successfully upport Kay’s healthier lifestyle
- Meet another worthwhile challenge, thriving while doing so
- Create and sustain a better self-image
- Be stronger with less pain
- Plan and execute a new experience, and create potential source material for articles, possibly a book
Twelve week goals to make my dream list happen:
- Within twelve weeks, I will lose ten (more) pounds of body fat and gain ten pounds of muscle, resulting in a BMI of 12% (review with Connie, our trainer, to ensure this is realistic). This would result in a total weight loss of 38 to 43 pounds for me in eight months (I’ve already lost a lot of that) and an improvement of 5% BMI over the next four months (12 weeks) since I now want to be not only lean, but strong. Target weight 180 to 185 pounds. Net: little change over my current weight, after achieving a 38 pound loss over the last four months,
- Within twelve weeks, I will increase my strength by 15% Need to document how I’ll objectively measure against this goal, likely by using my daily workout journal entries on weights used (with respect to my intensity index) and notes on how I feel after workouts now versus a few months out,
- Within twelve weeks, I will reduce my bad cholesterol (LDL) from 142 to below 100 and increase my good cholesterol (HDL) from 27 to above 40 (as measured by blood test). Both were outside acceptable range in July. 2008,
- Within twelve weeks, I will help at least one more person get started on their own personal transformation. Not only does this feel good, but in a small way, I feel it’s my patriotic duty as an American, and my duty as a father, husband and grandfather.
Reasons:
- I want Kay and me to be healthier and stronger and feel better!
- I want to live longer while being more active with less pain!
- I want to inspire others to do the same – one of the key reasons for this blog, so come along!
Transforming patterns of action:
- Old pattern: following Weight Watchers to lose weight, but exercising and taking food supplements somewhat haphazardly. New pattern: planning and eating six nutritious meals a day, as well as planning and executing a rigorous well-structured and efficient cardio and weight training regimen six days a week (46 minutes a day or less, plus some planning time),
- Old pattern: not setting concrete goals for my overall fitness. New pattern: setting and focusing on achieving important health and fitness goals efficiently,
- Old pattern: following a haphazard routine of taking nutritional supplements (vitamins, minerals, etc.). New pattern: educating myself on supplements and making a habit of applying what I’ve learned daily, and helping Kay to do the same.
Let the games begin!
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