Due to personal and professional commitments, I have decided not to compete until Fall, 2018.  Tucker and I have worked hard to improve my body composition over the last 4 months.  That journey has reached it’s end and I wanted to share some reflections on the process as a whole.  Tucker and I are currently working on an article to detail the entire process – start to finish – to provide information on the process in the coming weeks, so I won’t be overly detailed here.  Choosing to lose weight and choosing to make such a drastic change was one of the best decisions I have made in my training life and I cannot thank Tuck enough for his guidance and expertise.  He’s a great friend and I am forever grateful to him.

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Let’s start with a timeline…

Starting point – Jan, 2018 @ 240lbs

Mid-point – End of March @228lbs

Closer to End – April @218lbs

End Point – April 29, 2018 @215lbs

As you can see, it was a pretty drastic change.  During this close to 16-week process, I lost around 25lbs and I weigh the least I have since I graduated University… which is around 9 years.  That in itself is a huge change.  Here are a few quick hit reflections on the process:

1. It’s challenging, but it isn’t complicated.  We aimed for 1-2lbs a week of weight loss and adjusted the food and exercise to make sure that trend continued.  Food goes down, cardio goes up to keep the train rolling.
2. It’s addicting.  Seeing the changes in the mirror, more so than the scale, is so incredibly addicting.  Seeing my body change week to week was an incredible motivator.
3. Consistency is of greatest importance.  This will be elaborated on in the article, but my weight loss was not linear.  It went in a stepwise manner.  This did play with my head especially towards the end when the losses were harder to come by.  The key was just to stay the course.  You can’t circumvent thermodynamics.  As long as less energy goes in than is put out, you WILL lose weight.
4. I had only 1 training session that went poorly.  Being so tired and so depleted forced me to be present and in the moment while training.  Every set and every rep I had to be engaged.  This was AWESOME!
5. YOU WILL FEEL LESS THAN YOUR BEST – This is especially true if you are trying to do something your body has never done.  I have never been lean, or had abs (even though I thought I did), so I really had to fight my body.  I do not subscribe to the notion that everyone is equal and we are all special.  I had to work harder and suffer more than others to get to the same, or even less lean, and that is fine by me.  This is my journey and my process, not theirs.
6. It isn’t fun and is a lot of hard work.  I was able to draw on my past experiences with meet preps because if you’re training heavy and hard, you feel pretty shitty.  Dieting is no different, it’s just a different mechanism.  Doing cardio isn’t fun.  Taking short rests isn’t fun (sometimes).  Being hungry isn’t fun.  That all being said – Getting leaner than you’ve ever been in your life is fun AF!  Just like setting PRs on the platform, you have to do what is necessary and it isn’t always fun.
7. If you’ve never been lean, or have struggled with committing to a weight loss plan, set some time in the off-season aside and DO IT!  It will be the best decision you’ve ever made and will teach you things about yourself that you would never have thought.

The above are just a snapshot of what has been going through my head the last couple of days.  I had my first lower body session of my return to more traditional powerlifting training last night and I am looking forward to the challenge of building my total and putting this new physique to work!  I want to send a sincere thank you to everyone who followed along during this process and for the words of encouragement throughout.  It was pretty overwhelming to realize how many people actually give a shit about the things I do.  Makes me warm and fuzzy… but that was probably also from the incredible amounts of coffee I drink too hahahaha.

Back to work!