Lean Bodies Consulting

Well, two weeks down.

As you might recall I decided to start my diet early and got underway the day after Christmas. Today marks two weeks down. I started off very aggressively to get a kick start with my fat loss. While I didn’t do any cardio, outside of the occasional leisurely dog walk, I did set my calories very low.

Day 1 - 235lbs
Day 14 - 225.8lbs

So a loss of 9.2lbs of weight (of course, not all fat with the water losses). Not bad at all. I also dropped 1.5 inches off my waist in that time span. That also included two fairly good sized cheats - one New Year’s Eve and then one four days after that (traditional Friday night pizza in my house).

Now admittedly, given my carbs have been very low (only carbs have been indirect carbs and fruit), this represents a very depleted bodyweight (so it’s not accurate). Today starts a two-day refeed and then I’ll resume dieting, but with a more sane caloric intake.

Refeed plans today are 800g of carbs and then tomorrow around 400g of carbs. I expect to be around 230 when it’s all said and done, which means probably a good 5lbs of fat loss so far.

My struggle with low-carb eating is that I hate feeling flat. But after two days of big carb eating, I should be nice, full and vascular come Friday. At least temporarily. LOL

If you don’t know what you want to achieve today, preparation is a useless tool.

Many people don’t seem to understand the power of planning. They get up each day and spend too much time trying to figure out where to start. The challenge is that the time they’re spending trying to figure out where to start steals their energy and keeps them guessing. You have to know what it is you want to achieve and then create the plan that takes you in a direction that keeps you moving forward.

Study after study of successful men and women have shown that those who set about after their goals with a specific aim to be completed within a specific time frame are invariably those who are more likely to achieve their goals.

What’s more, the research shows that, despite what we’ve been told, the bigger the goal, the more likely it is to be achieved.

This kind of flies in the face of the ’start small’ brigade who advocate ‘realistic’ thinking doesn’t it?

To set and achieve a massive goal takes just four things:

1. Write it down in specific terms
2. See it in your mind
3. Say it out loud
4. Take consistent action

That’s not too bad is it?

How do your goals stack up?

Are they specific or do they say ‘lose some weight’?

Do they stretch you?

‘Lose 5lbs’ isn’t a serious goal. Lose 50lbs is.

Are they written down?

Have you told others?

Can you hold the goal in your mind?

Are you taking action EVERY DAY toward them?

No? Then get busy!

Need some help?

Go HERE

Well, I took a few days off from blogging over the holidays but it’s January 2 which means that it’s back to normal now. The holidays were really nice this year - fun Christmas with family, some relaxing down time, and all topped off by a surprise birthday party for me.

Surprise is an understatement actually.

My birthday is on December 18, a week before Christmas, so this year it fell on a Tuesday. There was nothing planned that I was aware of besides the usual dinner out with my parents and Laura. The Friday before I was busy working as usual when my doorbell rang. It was about 5:30pm and I wasn’t expecting anyone. Given I work at home, I was just well, I hadn’t really cleaned up for the day yet.

I answer the door and it’s George - the husband of my friend and client, Ana. Probably one of the last people I’d ever expect to see at my door. It was dark at this time of day and so I couldn’t see make out who it was at first. So I hear ‘Are you ready’? I’m completely clueless for these few seconds and so I think to myself … dad? I mean, George is about my dad’s height, but what threw me off for a half second was that George has a shaved head. I had thought, well, maybe my dad shaved his head again (he had to last year). Well, I flipped the light switch and obviously it wasn’t my dad. LOL

Still not a clue as to what’s going on, I’m just told to get dressed and let’s go. See now, this confusion is compounded by the fact that Ana was supposed to be in Buffalo with her mother and daughter for a weekend shopping trip (which I’d said was plain silly being it was a week before Christmas and the borders would be nuts). George said they came back early on account of the coming snow storm we were anticipated to get.

So I run upstairs, shave (as i looked like a criminal), clean up as best I could, got dressed, and we left. George is talking away and I’m just thinking, ‘where are we going’? Eventually, I think ‘well, I guess they’re (George and Ana) taking me out to dinner for my birthday. I bet Laura will be there. Sneaky people’. However, we seemed to be heading in the direction of Ana’s house. My eyes were on the lookout out for Laura’s (my wife) truck and I spotted it. So I figured I had it all figured out. Ana and Laura were waiting at Ana’s house. Nice.

So we walk in, and we see no one. George yells, ‘we’re home’. And then a big ‘SURPRISE!!’ come out of nowhere from crazies that popped out from behind the couch. Now, to say I was speechless was an understatement. It’s too bad the picture of me didn’t turn out as I was told my mouth had dropped and I had gone white. It wasn’t just any old surprise party. Basically, some of my friends/clients had actually flown in from the US to be here for my birthday. Noel, Cindy and Ileen came in from Georgia and Lyn came in from Tennessee. What compounded the problem is that I supposedly knew where they were that day and the day prior (when they actually arrived). So seeing them there, didn’t quite compute for me. I literally was standing there, recognizing who I was looking at, but it not registering because they were not supposed to be there. For example, Noel was supposedly in court all day after being called in to testify in a case. She even texted me on her lunch break from the case. Sneaky. Cindy was supposedly very sick and I’d seen Ileen posting on the board about her leg workout that day. Lyn’s whereabouts was also explained, or so I thought anyway. And Laura who was supposed to be working that day, had been with them all day long.

It took me a good while to take it all in. All in all it was a great weekend. Friday night we ate lots of food (they really overdid it with the food as there was a ton), laughed, and told some stories that get told every time we get together. Saturday we hit the gym to play around, hit some PRs, work on form, etc., and Saturday we went out for dinner. Sunday was the planned departure day, but we got bombed with snow so everyone got an extra day to stay and hang out in Canada.

Best surprise ever (supposedly in the works for a few months). Lots of pictures. Lots of great memories.

I just wanted to thank Noel, Cindy, Ileen, Ana and George, Lyn and Laura for the great surprise. Making the trip during the holiday season to surprise me for my birthday was humbling. Thank you.

Here’s a few pictures:

The deceptive bunch in preparation

My cake

The group (George is behind the camera)

Thanks again guys.
Erik