12-Week Transformation: Fat Old Guy to…

Three months ago I was coming off of that month-(or so)-long American tradition of binge eating and drinking we call “The Holidays”. In honor of Santa Claus I consumed enough sugary delicacies and delicious fatty goodness to put an entire army of sumo warriors into a collective coma. But the effects on me were NOT as cute as a bunch of diapered, gargantuan babies snoozing in a pile… Far from it; it was disgusting. When I was out with my kids people would ask how old my grandchildren are… my wife started referring to me as the fat, old guy she rooms with… and my uncle, who is older than my father, began calling me Santa Claus. (I thought my uncle was just messing with me at first but then he actually told me what he wanted for Christmas).

Yeah, I was waaay out of shape. But, the fact is, I did it to myself. And I did it knowing the ramifications of my actions. You can’t read as much as I do on the subject of health, day in and day out, and not know what you are getting into when you jump on that sugar train. Next stop, diabetes-ville! …then on to alzheimer’s station!

“Oooh, this story is sooo not what I thought it was going to be!”, you say? “Why is the sad, fat, old guy going on and on about disease and old fat people?!”, you moan woefully?  “So, what did Mr. smarty (tight) pants do?!”, you ask with thinly veiled sarcasm?

I entered a contest. A contest with a catchy name that made me feel ‘skinny’ and ‘fun’!  :)

The rules of the contest were basically: 1) use at least 2 of the sponsor company’s products and 2) change your health and wellness as much as possible in 90-days. I was stoked. It was time to put everything I had learned about changing health to the test!

Fast forward 90-days later… and hey now… I would even give myself a wink if I happened to bump into me at a Tony Bennett show. Well, judge for yourself – I am wearing the same pants!

Here are my stats:

February 1, 2016

  • Weight = 243-lbs
  • Waist = 45”
  • Hips = 44”
  • Biceps = 15”
  • Thighs = 26”
  • Chest = 45”

May 1, 2016

  • Weight = 229-lbs
  • Waist = 39”
  • Hips = 37”
  • Biceps = 16.75”
  • Thighs = 24.5”
  • Chest = 48”

A net weight loss of 14-lbs in 90-days isn’t overly impressive but the measurements tell another side to the story. Although not all that scientific, for my size/height, I can conservatively estimate 5 to 6-lbs of fat loss per inch lost around my waist, which is about 30 to 36-lbs of fat loss. This means I could have gained as much as 16 to 20-lbs of muscle in 90-days… The mystery here is that I really only worked out 2 to 3 times a week on average (for less than 30-minutes typically) and I am almost 50-years old. This kind of transformation doesn’t happen this quickly at my age! How did I do it?!

I spent these past 90-days figuring out exactly what worked and what didn’t. I identified a few key elements that I will emphasize for my next 3-months to get into even better shape. I may end up in the best shape of my life within 6-months as a result of using these new found tools. There is too much to put into this single post though so I also plan to write about each of these elements in detail. For now, I’ve put together a supplement list that highlights some critical components to my transformation.