I Can See Changes
"A week when I really saw… changes."
Week Four was inspiring because it was a week when I really saw a lot of changes. I broke the Challenge down into four-week chunks. Every four weeks, I retook my pictures and all of my measurements. So this was the first time I saw pictures of my body since my "before" photo.
I also went home for the weekend so my mom could measure my body fat with calipers. My scale weight was down only four pounds, but there was a huge difference in my body-fat percentage. It went down like eight percentage points. My mom was confused. "I know I'm pinching you right," she said, because that's what she does for a living. Finally, she came to the conclusion that those were my real numbers because I had so much baby fat. For the last two years, I had eaten terribly. And then, for the first four weeks of the Challenge, I went totally extreme with my eating chicken and broccoli all the time.
I was kind of in awe. I'm impatient when it comes to stuff like that. I wasn't expecting my body to just change instantly. It blew me out of the water. I took my Week Four pictures in a bikini in the same place as my "before" pictures. In my "before" side-profile picture, I looked like I was three or four months' pregnant. By Week Four, my stomach had gone from big to small. It was almost flat. I had a lot of baby fat around my tummy, and that's the fat that came off first. It gave me such an energy boost. It was an incredible feeling. It inspired me to go back and hit everything harder for the next four weeks. My mom was just ecstatic. She said she'd never seen results that fast with any of her clients.
The Highs and Lows
"I don't quit being a pilot when a flight gets cancelled." It was bound to happen. Things were going too well. I get hit by a sinus infection. I feel terrible and the medications are making me drowsy. Between that and some unavoidable distractions at work (that whole learning-to-fly-the-Osprey thing), I am contemplating missing a couple of workouts and the entire week looks to be in jeopardy. I don't quit being a pilot when a flight gets cancelled due to maintenance issues or severe weather, and I certainly don't stop being a Marine if I take a few days of leave.
Liz drags me to the gym, and, despite several trips to the locker room to blow my nose and wash my hands, I persevere, completing my first two workouts. I feel much better mid-week and am in debt to Liz once again. She and I are working long hours studying in the classroom and flight planning, followed by flights during the late afternoon. The only way to make it to the gym would be to go at night, skipping dinner with the family (something I hold dear). Without my prompting, Pam steps in. An angel, she green-lights late workouts and handles the girls alone during the evening. This is no small task. I am blessed to have her complete support.
Once I am off of the meds, I feel fantastic! Everything is coming together nicely and I like the way my clothes are fitting. I've put on muscle, and I begin to wonder what the possibilities are, given that I'm not quite halfway done yet. Can I reach 165 pounds? I ask the trainers in the gym to check my body fat and I'm down several percent. I'm not eating perfectly but I'm maintaining a steady consistency that I know I can sustain forever.
I'm becoming stronger during my cardio workouts and realize that in terms of intensity level, my sixes and sevens are my old nines and tens. I'm covering more distance in a shorter time and actually look forward to my runs. Something is stirring within me that I haven't felt in a long time. It's the competitive spirit that we each possess, which I'd buried beneath my years of apathy and mediocrity. My thoughts begin to wander during my runs this week, and I think about the Inner Transformation and what this means to me. Admittedly, I am beginning to read the Bible more often and find myself contemplating my place in the world and my role as a father and husband. Somehow, some way, I am aware that the clock is being turned back and I am becoming young again.
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