SXSW Report (Part 1)

Aren't vacations great? (That is, despite getting rundown from the travel itself.) You come back with new ideas and things to try. My trip to SXSW was no exception.

Case in point, I have been inspired by my buddy, Tim, who I haven't seen since last year, to start losing weight and putting on muscle. You see, Tim looked like me last year, which is to say, slightly overweight. Tim is roughly my height and build, and last time I saw him he weighed about 185, which is what I weigh today. He no longer looks like this. He has dropped 40 pounds (technically, he's lost about 50 pounds of fat and gained about 10 pounds of muscle.) He looks tremendous (and, I don't use that word lightly.)

I was immediately fascinated with how Tim had been able to achieve his success. I started asking him all sorts of questions. It turns out he had been using the Body-for-Life program. Knowing Tim as I do, I am sure he approached this program the way he approaches everything - wholeass! If he does something, he does it to the fullest amount possible. I am sure he jumped in and followed the program to the letter, if not religiously. Good for him.

Based on what I know about the program from Tim and what I know about nutrition, the Body-for-Life does not seem to be a fad diet. It seems to be what it's name suggests - a plan to have a health body for life.

Furthermore, this seems like a plan that I can live with. First of all, it does not take a huge time commitment. For example, all of the workouts are designed to be less than 50 minutes long, with the average workout being closer to 30 minutes. I workout 5 days a week already. It would only require one more day of aerobics to my existing program. The total amount of time I spend working out, might actually go down per week.

Second, the program designs in opportunities to "give in" to our desires. None of us can be perfect all of the time, which is why one day a week, the program instructs you to have a "free day," a day where you do not have to work out and can eat anything. The other benefit of the free day is to keep your body from thinking that food is overly scarce, and therefore , tricks it into not slowing our metabolism down.

To be honest, the real challenge for me will lie with eating right. I have really have been falling down in this area. Besides not eating proper portions, one thing that Tim was telling me is that I have been eating way too little protein. The daily recommended amount of protein is 50 grams, which is hard to get unless you focus your effort. Needless to say, I have not been getting enough protein. Furthermore, if you are weight training, that daily requirement jumps up to 150 grams, which is almost impossible to achieve without a dietary supplement. This was news to me.

Here is the inspiring thing to me: I think with the right guidance about what to eat I can look as good as a model on the cover of a men's health magazine. I truly do. And, until I saw Tim, I would have never thought it was possible.

You see, the result of Tim losing all of his weight is that it shattered my worldview. I didn't believe people like us, with our builds, who've always struggled with their weight, could do what he's done. To my old way of thinking, it was impossible for us to reach the level of fitness he's attained. Consequently, I think I have always set the bar for myself lower. In the past, I would have been happy to lose 20 pounds and gain 5 pounds of muscle. (Interestingly, I have come close to this goal several times but never pushed past that barrier.)

I realize now that I was sabotaging myself. It truly was the case where my own preconceptions held me back. Sometimes, you need someone to show you what is possible before you can reach a new level. So, thanks Tim!

I will be starting the Body-for-Life program next week. As a part of keeping my commitment to myself, I plan to make you all aware of my goals and my progress. The thought is to use my own aversion of letting people down to create self-imposed social pressure, which will compel me to keep going when the going gets tough. Expect more on this later.