My Transformation………….

So Monday on my break I was treated to these words,"Michael Thursday you are going to have to forget about your diet,brah",lol,I was speechless.She wants us,it is 4 of us that sit together,to have fried fish,cheesecake,a salad and something else;well whatever it is I am pretty sure I shouldn’t eat it.Well I was going to cave in and just go full fledge cheat with everything but today I weighed and I had lost 5lbs which made me feel great;then I thought why should take a step back.So I decided to tell her to get my fish plain & baked and I will only eat the salad which she replied "You are such a health freak",lol,umm no I want abs.I don’t think battered deep fried fish & cheesecake will get them for me.Although I have been wanting a piece since I started my transformation at the end of March.I will decide about the cheesecake at work,lol,maybe or maybe not.Or could I do like a lot of extra cardio?Hmmmm,but I really want to see Carmen do a cheer in her cheerleader outfit,Carmen or Cheesecake??????LOL

No not temperature my weight loss since March 31, 2008 which puts me at 232lbs.I have written blogs before about my sticking point,my plateau or my wall was 250lbs now I am 18lbs below that and I am feeling great.I am still 32lbs away from my goal weight but I am getting there;it won’t come off as fast as the 40lbs did but I will TRY to have patience.I think my body fat is between 12-13%,I have some calipers and I attempt to take my own measurements.The easy ones to take are my chest(2-4) & legs(10-12) since there isn’t a lot of fat on them but of course the hard one is the stomach and the one that throws everything off.My stomach is between 29-35 is the best I have determined,which is about 12.6% body fat.That is a good estimate,since I am not trying to compete that is all I need for right now.So now it is time to work on this 32lbs and get some DAMN abs!!

M & M’s,kit kats,snickers and butter fingers can you say delicious,well that is what I said last night.The usual excuse of "no one will know" or "just a couple won’t hurt anyone" and you know I agreed.Each tasty treat filled my stomach as I continued to get another and another till it seemed like there was a mountain of empty wrappers.There was a tad bit of guilt but even more tasty chocolate,so take a guess of which one out,lol.Those milk chocolate M & M’s are just sooo good,I don’t know if there is an M in everyone but I know there is over a hundred in me,lol.As I looked at wrappers looking for another treat,my phone begins sounding waking me up.Yes it was a dream,my most fulfilling dream ever;I actually thought I had eaten all of that candy.So now my craving has crossed over into my dreams,am I not safe any where?Even though it was just a dream I did 30 minutes of cardio and I will do more later on.

My abs are slowly coming in,now I am working on my back searching for my lats.Which I think they will show up when my BF% drops even lower,right now I am around 12.6%.That is a long way from being over 30% which I was at the end of March when I entered the Muscle Tech contest.I did have two cheats,buffalo popcorn(didn’t really have any taste) and a snickers ice cream bar last night which was mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmhmmmm,lol,but I only had one of those bars.I didn’t feel guilty afterwards either,mainly because I only had one and not the whole box.That pepped my spirits up as well knowing that I have found self control,something I haven’t seen a while.Starting tomorrow no more cheats at all,because I am ready to see some abs now if it would stop raining so I can go outside and run,I would be set.

,cookies,cakes,pies & ice cream;why do I crave things that I know won’t satisfy me anymore.I should have paid attention during Psych class,lol.I resisted the urge the Wings,cheesecake,cookies & donuts;yes i had a craving for each one after another.I almost did the "just one time won’t hurt,I will just do an extra 30 minutes of cardio" but I bought some garden vegetables mix and brown rice which filled me up.I know the Body For Life does give you a free day to eat what ever you want but I am choosing not to take it to help me continue on my journey.Now it is time for a chicken breast.

,well I wasn’t really off but my feet was dangling,lol.After the Muscle Tech Contest ended on July 14 and I was down to 239lbs,I felt quite good about myself.I was sure the weight would just keep coming off but losing 45lbs in about 3 1/2 months really drained me.Having to constantly explain why I was eating the way I do and I didn’t want that every single day didn’t help matters either.So splurged with some sugar free cookies which I had longed for the whole time through the contest,well they didn’t taste like they use too.I never stopped working out,I just didn’t maintain the whole clean eating.So I decided to eat some oatmeal raisin cookies,still didn’t do it for me.So why was I craving things that doesn’t taste the same any more,I suppose my senses just remembers how good it use to taste.But now that I have went back and tried the devil’s candy which doesn’t do it for me anymore.So now my taste buds salivate for chicken breast,fish,turkey & etc… you get the drift.I admit I went through a little down time with my cardio,the energy just wasn’t there.That is when I decided to do the Body4Life, the first work out had me so tired & fatigued I loved it.It gave me the boost I needed and my energy started coming back.So now I would just like to say my energy is completely back and not only am I back on the Fitness Goal wagon,I am about to start pulling it,lol.I had to say it,sounded good.lmao

I was wondering if using weights with my ab work outs will make them extremely bigger.I would like them to be strong but I don’t want to increase the size of them.Or does it even matter,will abs grow like other muscles will?

The work outs are nice basically just decrease weight,increase reps & vice versa.I’ve always wanted to do that but I never took the time to plan it out by how man reps or how much weight to increase.The only thing is that the work out only uses 2 exercises for each muscle group that day.There are a lot of exercises that I like to do that can’t unless I just rotate exercises each week until I do them all.I don’t know if that would be beneficial to go that many exercises or should I stick to about 6.Meaning would I continue to increase strength or would it just take a little longer.Besides those concerns it did give me a great work out,I was fatigued from lifting.I haven’t felt that fatigued in a while.Also my chest & my lats are a little sore which has been a while since anything was sore.I am going to keep it up and the intensity;hopefully it will take me where I would like to be.

When I decided to clean up my diet at the end of March,I got the usual questions and comments at work.You know,Why are you eating,What is the point of all it,I just don’t understand what you are doing,You are not going to stick to it,One piece of won’t hurt,Who will know,Michael why are you not eating with us… etc.They didn’t think I was going to lose the weight but so far I have lost 47lbs and I still about 30 shy of what I would like.So now I hear Michael you are just wasting away,You need to eat,Why are you still eating like that and so on;so I realize people will say what they want.No matter which you go people will hate,so you might as well do whatever the hell makes you happy.

Well I said I wasn’t taking anymore progress pics for a while;because I got to caught in trying to compare them and I don’t know if I was having any progress.But today after my back workout,I felt like my back was a little tighter so I just had to take one back pic to see.An well I may be delusional,hoping for to much but I think my lats may be growing.But I have looked at all of my before pics but I really can’t tell,sooo no more progress pics for a month.Then I will be able to tell if there is any progress or not.The one thing I am finally waving by to is my love handles;since they are finally moving out,I hope the lats will finally move in,lol.