Permanent Fitness

So here it is – the end of the 30 day weight loss challenge. I must say that these days went very fast. I feel as if we all just begun yesterday!

This week the change on the scale was not that significant – 1.7 pounds. This small drop, however, fills the jar and this week I passed the 10 pounds mark on my path to fitness and thinness. Overall I lost 10.1 pounds in 30 days – for me this is a fantastic result.

I also think that I lost much more fat than just 10 pounds, but gained a bit of muscle as well, because my looks changed significantly.

Details

This week was not as easy as the previous one. I had some really difficult moments and on Thursday I actually exceeded my calorie intake, and instead of usual 1900 – I ate almost 3000. I decided to treat that day as my re-feed day, so will not be doing one for the next week or so.

Because of huge workload and studies I slept definitely less than I should have. This threw me out of balance with the diet and I started to feel the cravings again. Luckily, I got some good sleep on Friday and yesterday so everything is back to normal J

Exercises

I have a good routine now. I run 3 days a week and do strength training 3 days a week, leaving one day completely free.

Running

I am doing the running programme about which I wrote the other day. I am currently on week 8 (the beginning was a bit below my capability). I also modified the programme a bit, because according to my plan I want to run for 41 minutes rather than 30. So now I run 13 minutes, walk for 2 minutes, run for 13 minutes, walk for 2, then I run 11 minutes and walk home.

Push ups

On the hundred push ups programme I am currently on week 2, day 2, right hand column. Yesterday I did not make it to squeeze out the last 17 and therefore will be repeating the ‘day’ tomorrow. That’s how I do it – if I cannot complete the particular stage, I repeat it every second day until I finally succeed. Then I move to the next day.

Crunches

I do belly crunches on the same days as push ups. As of now, I am able to do one set of 30 and then, after one minute, one set of 20. After that, any further attempts end with cramps of my abdominal muscles – painful and unpleasant. I will have to come up with a better routine for these – sort of like the one with push ups, which works really well. I didn’t find anything on the web though.

Back

I have a sitting job and because of that I used to experience back pains. Two weeks ago I added back exercises to my routine. For that I use a gym ball bought some time ago by my better half. She wanted to exercise

Anyway, now I found a good use for it – I lay on it on my belly, stick my legs under our bed and exercise back muscles by lifting my torso up, so that it gets in line with my legs. I can do around 20 now.

My back pains have vanished after 3 days of these exercises. I am kicking myself now for not trying that earlier.

Enough about exercises….

Pics

As said earlier, the amount of pounds I lost is nowhere near to the progress I’ve really made. You can see that my belly almost stopped sticking out. My old trousers are really lose now (I will have to do some shopping).

What is more, my arms start showing some muscle. I really pushed myself hard on the photo, but before the challenge, I would be nowhere near that.

Despite the improved looks I still have a good layer of fat on myself. It seems to be vanishing particularly quickly form my belly, but there is still quite a lot there, a lot on my lower back where the kidneys are and on the sides. My abs are not showing yet

To be honest though, if my muscles keep growing like that, I am not sure if I will be able to go to 176lbs as I planned, but I’m not changing my goal as yet.

Summary of the challenge

To summarise, I must say that the challenge went perfect. It gave me the initial motivation I needed and I think I should be able to continue by myself from now on. I will be posting updates and pics every two weeks now, so as not to bore you with them.

But keep visiting, I will be detailing my workout routine and will be posting some tips and tricks of weight loss I’ve learned till today.

Congratulations to all contestants

I also want to congratulate other participants of the challenge. You really did a great job and your progress kept me motivated throughout the month. Special congratulations to Jim, who lost 22 pounds during these 30 days. I hope he won’t mind if I link to his photos here.

Beyond the challenge

I hope we are all now loaded with positive energy, which will help us go even further, which will help us reach our ideal weights and stay like that for good.

For those of you who have blogs, I will be visiting to check. Those of you who do not, drop me comments or if you want, I can create a separate page for us on this blog, where I can post updates on your journey to thinness. Let me know.

Good luck to everyone!!!

Matt