islandpacket.com - The Island Packet Online

I remember Robert Duvall's speech as Colonel Bill Kilgore in the heady film "Apocalypse Now" where he concludes that the stench of napalm "smells like victory."

Well, I caught a whiff of something else this week...the unmistakeable odor of funny business. I'm sure you know the smell well; it's that familiar stink that you notice when you feel like you're getting the shaft, being taken advantage of, getting ripped off. Even now I can see your eyes widen and your nose wrinkle in recognition of said stench.

Today, there was a tremendous sense of accomplishment felt by all of us who had the privilege to participate in the very first Beaufort County "Battle of the Bulge". Over the course of the last 12 weeks, all of us have experienced incredible changes in our bodies, both externally and internally.

Trainer Jen put us through our paces today and it seemed like she was on a mission to test our physical limits. Mike and Josie even had a spirited competition of who could outlast the other in a seated squat against the wall. In the end they both tied because neither one had the heart to quit!

By this time Saturday, Team Bluffton will have concluded it's final team workout together and we will have taken our last stand on the scale for our last official weigh-in.

And it makes me kind of sad actually.

For the last twelve weeks, our team and trainers have developed bonds of friendship that I know will last long after this contest is done. I know that I am a healthier person for having gone through this experience, but more importantly, I am a BETTER person for having worked with such wonderful people these last three months. Together, we have joined together to accomplish goals that are important to us. From the very beginning, we worked together as a team (which I think was a crucial element in our individual successes). We motivated and encouraged each other.

I just found out that there were well over 150 reads on my last post so I thought I'd let everybody know that I am doing great and even got in a good workout today with Josh. There was no dizziness or lightheadedness and I felt a lot more confident about pushing myself than I have for a while.

It's now about 3:20pm and I concluded my workout with Josh @ 2pm. I just now checked my BP and it was 104 over 64 which I think is still a little low considering the fact that my BP when I woke up this morning was 112 over 64 (resting pulse of 56). So I think the medication is getting out of my system and my biggest adjustment is actually experiencing "normal" blood pressure. By that I mean I wasn't feeling real well last night or early this morning because I felt the way I did back when I had high BP prior to being placed on medication (I didn't have a headache, more like a sense of pressure in my head). The only thing I can think of is that my body has become accustomed to having a low BP and now that it's normal, it feels like my BP is high...make sense?

Well today was a busy day for yours truly. Late Monday night (early Tuesday morning) I woke up @ 2am with the 24-hour virus that's been running through my house. I ended up in bed nearly the entire day and following night.

I woke up this morning feeling considerably better and actually woke up in time to go to Jennifer's Boot Camp @ 5:45am. I knew that I was also scheduled to work w/ Josh @ 11am today so I opted to skip the boot camp so I could devote myself fully to what Josh wanted me to do during my training session.

I ate my normal breakfast @ 9am (bowl of Kashi cereal w/ skim milk) and had a good snack (1/2 peanut butter sandwich and banana) about 45 minutes before my workout. I had also drank about 30 oz of water before meeting Josh @ 11. I was still feeling a little "empty" from having almost nothing to eat or drink yesterday and knew the workout would be challenging so Josh said he'd scale it down a bit for me today, which was good. With about 15 minutes to go in my workout, I knew I must have been dehydrated from yesterday because I wasn't sweating as much as I normally do. When the workout was over, I sat in the locker room on the bench.

After having a very successful weigh-in last Saturday losing 4.25 pounds, I thought those results would be hard to duplicate this week, especially since Trainer Josh and I couldn't hook up for our two training sessions. I continued to work hard on the cardio and carefully monitored what I ate. The end result was that I lost 5.75 pounds this week which brings my total weight loss for eleven weeks to an astonishing 52 pounds.

The transformation on the outside has been nothing less than extraordinary. I have a picture of me with my wife and kids from Christmas 2005 that I keep in my van. In the picture, I look fat and bloated. My face in the picture is so puffy that my eyes basically disappear from the fat face pushing in around my eyes, and my gut protrudes noticeably from a button-down sweater. I look as if I'd "pop" if somebody stuck me with a pin. My wife even commented last week that she can comfortably put her arms all the way around me for a hug...I'll take those all day!

First, Trainer Jen is just plain sick. Making us run up and down those stairs for a minute only to have us to immediately go to "the plank" position at the next station was just brutal. You hear me, Jen? YOU ARE SICK, WOMAN!

Ahhh...I feel better now...just had to get that out of my system...

OK, I'll make this brief because it's time for me to hit the hay. My week went well with training, eating, etc. and the end result was that I weighed in at 297.75 pounds which means I dropped 4.25 pounds this past week bringing my total weight loss for 10 weeks to 46.25 pounds. If I can duplicate those results for next week's weigh-in, I'll surpass 50 pounds lost in 11 weeks. And I'm going to push as hard as I can these next few weeks and see if I can't drop 7.75 pounds in two weeks which would bring me down to an even 290 pounds. That would really be awesome. Is it realistic? Probably not. Is it possible? I don't know. All I know is that I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and see what happens at the end.

Last Saturday evening, I was trying to figure out what to wear to church on Sunday. I had bought two brand new suits in October last year in preparation for attending upcoming wedding, funeral, etc. because I had "expanded" out of my other suits. So, I bring out these two beautiful custom-tailored suits which fit me to perfection in October. So I'm thinking to myself, "Hey, I bet I'm going to look great in these now!". Wrong. I try on the jacket of one suit and now I had a visual confirmation of the 24 inches that Josh told me I had lost. I buttoned the suit jacket and it was like a sheet. I pulled it out to where the edge of my gut used to be snuggly enveloped in the fine fabric and it hung out there a good 6-8 inches from where my gut is today.

Trainer Stacy whipped our tails again this morning. I don't know how she does it! She does everything that we're doing (and does it correctly), but the woman doesn't even break a sweat. Meanwhile, the rest of us are huffin' and puffin' with sweat-soaked shirts wondering how many more times we have to raise that blasted 12 lb barbell over our heads. My shoulders are pretty tired after that workout and next week we have Trainer Jen taking the helm again. Oh joy that knows no bounds...

OK, so this week I slightly increased my protein, slightly decreased my carbs (as well as changing when I eat those yummy carbs), and I managed to drop three pounds for the week which brings my nine-week weight loss total to a glorious FORTY-TWO POUNDS! I am within spitting distance of getting down below 300 lbs which is very motivating. Today, I'm wearing a shirt from Old Navy that my wife bought for me a year ago that I hadn't been able to wear before because it just wouldn't fit around my middle. Today, I'm wearing it, stylin' and profilin', and it's actually roomy!

This morning, Trainer Josh Jordan gave me a real shocker. From the measurements that were taken last week following our group workout with Trainer Stacy, I've lost 24 inches in eight weeks. I was astounded! We're talking TWO FEET. Apparently, 80% of those inches came off my chest and middle. At last, my man-boobs are shrinking!

My guess is that tomorrow I'll come in 2-3 pounds lighter than last week. Assuming I lose three pounds, that would leave me with 8 lbs to go to have a total loss of 50 lbs for The Battle. I'm going to try and beat that (as I blogged before, I'd like to lose a total of 54 lbs in The Battle which would put my weight @ 290lbs).