RBL - Mid-Assessment review

Today was my Mid-Assessment review with my Wellness Works coach as a part of Rob's Big Losers. I went into today confident that I was really improving, but I was glad to have the numbers (everyone remembers that I am a numbers person, right?) to really quantify it. Some of the numbers really shocked me in what I was able to accomplish in just 6 weeks.

For starters, what I knew. I dropped close to 20 lbs so far. I've been really pushing on watching my food intake, and making sure that I eat the right kinds and amounts of foods in the last 6 weeks. What I've learned from this is that making good food choices is a daily requirement. I refuse to call it a struggle, as life should be about experiences and not struggles. Good nutrition is about a new lifestyle and a whole new ballgame, not just shoehorning food into your existing lifestyle. I've been purposefully bringing my lunch, and eating out as a family is now a special treat instead of a "we need to eat because our schedule is so crazy". Dinner time has become more enjoyable overall, and I feel like everyone in the family has more energy.

The blood pressure and heart rate tests were what I expected, and were a nice surprise. While the official paperwork states that my blood pressure is WAY down, the kickoff meeting was probably not the best time to gather that particular statistic, as I was extremely stressed out going through the battery of tests. That said, it was nice to re-affirm that my blood pressure is lower than it's typically been, and I attribute this to the workout schedule that I've been keeping. The amount of endurance workouts that I employ help me to manage my stress a lot better, and has helped out my resting heart rate as well.

What I didn't expect was the body fat % change. I reduced my body fat percentage from approximately 32% down to under 25% in just 6 weeks! That is a pretty major body composition shift, one that I haven't personally reconciled yet. While I fully recognize that my body composition is changing, since I refuse to wear my "fat" jeans anymore because they feel so terrible on me, when I look in the mirror I really don't see the drastic change these numbers imply. This is where prayer and conquering my own self image will be key. For me to see the changes in myself I know will take a lot longer than the changes that are happening (since I see myself every day).

The rest are exercise related changes. The first was a step test, which was testing my HR recovery. It was in line with the other tests and expected.

The second was a core test, doing half situps. First, I will go on record to state that I enjoyed these excessively more than doing the full situps that we did the night of the Kickoff. I didn't exhaust myself and start attempting to use my back to force myself up as much, and I felt I did better. The official numbers seem to corroborate this, and my core improved from a 19 to 29 in the past 6 weeks. My upper body tests showed a similar improvement from 6 to 9 reps before exhaustion.

The last was my flexibility, and this really is my Achilles' heel (pardon the pun). Flexibility is not my strong suit, and I know it. Even at my most fit playing baseball I wasn't flexible, even with all the stretching we used to do. It's something I really need to work on in the coming weeks and months as I continue my journey. That said, I improved from a score of 5.5 to a score of 10 during the 6 week period.

In recap, the 6 week review indicated the following:

7% reduction in body fat (23lbs of body fast lost)
19.4 lbs overall (thus gained 3.6lbs of muscle)
8 bpm reduction in RHR
3 point reduction in BMI (35 to 32)
almost doubled Core Endurance (19/29) and Flexibility (5.5/10)
drastically increased Upper Body Endurance (6/9)


To me, this is just incredible.  I have been working hard, and really watching how and what I eat.  I've been making sure to get in exercise as much as I can.  I've been spending the time to understand how wonderfully created my body is, and how much God loves us by the bodies that he crafted for us.  I am respecting myself more by how I treat myself, and how I think of myself.  I'm glad that my body is responding so positively to the challenges.  I cannot imagine that the next 6 weeks will bring similar changes, but rather a smoothing out of the rough spots for me.  I know that I need to work harder at core and upper body strength, and that my flexibility needs to be a goal.  The deal is that my goals after the 12 week program are strong at this point, and balancing my personal goals with a good overall fitness routine will be one of the biggest challenges I face in the next 6 weeks.