I’m really excited for this week’s pictures. Before we get to that, though, I gained a pound this week – woohoo!

I gained a pound – woohoo? Yeah, that’s right – I’m excited. I’m actually trying to gain weight now. I really don’t need to lose any more weight. I started at 170, lost down to 157, then over the last 2 weeks have gained 2 pounds. Overall I’ve probably burned off 15 pounds of fat and am replacing it with muscle. The last two weeks I still followed the Body For Life meal plan, but I ate slightly larger portions at each meal. Now that I’ve trimmed most of the fat off, I want to start gaining weight now — but have it be muscle weight. Check out this guy’s before and after pictures from Body For Life:



He went from 165 to 200 pounds and gained 35 pounds of muscle. Good thing he shaved that beard off too…heh heh. He seriously looks like a different person. You can read his story here if you want to.

Crazy, huh? My guess is that was over more than just the initial 90 days. The Body For Life challenge says in “as little as 90 days”. Still, though, to gain 35 pounds and go from that to that? Motivating, right?

For my pictures this week, I went outside to get some better lighting. You can really see the definition in my muscles in the better light. Seeing the pictures this week really helped me feel like all of my hard work is paying off. I didn’t get a good one from the back, so you just get one from the front this week.

On Week 3 I posted a flex picture:

Check out the difference now just 6 weeks later:

And my day off wouldn’t be complete without enjoying something….like a brisket that my dad made in his smoker….mmmmmmmm.

I’m almost halfway done with the 90 day Body For Life challenge. Last week I had planed and was still 162. This week weighing in at 159. That’s a total of 11 pounds in 6 weeks.





Today’s post is going to be mainly pictures. Being almost halfway through the 90 day program, I took a lot more pictures and I also have some new starting pictures that I haven’t shown before. For starters, let’s do the standard front and back pictures that I’ve been doing each week:





The scale is not the only thing that shows success. At some point, I may even start to put some weight on once I’ve trimmed all the fat and am primarily building muscle. The best way to show yourself progress is by seeing how your clothes fit. There is a pair of jeans that I used to wear but within the last year have outgrown and no longer fit in them. These jeans were one of the things that inspired me to do Body For Life this year. It was a sign that I was putting the weight back on. At the beginning of Body For Life I tried them on and I could hardly fit into them. I used to wear them all the time and they were not tight on me. I could barely even get them buttoned. Here are the pictures from both the front and the back – before and after 6 weeks on Body For Life:





The pictures from the back really show the difference in my body. You can tell that I’m trimming the fat off. Before I started Body For Life, I’ll be honest — I didn’t look horrible. I hid my roll fairly well under a t-shirt. My wife Allison said to me – “I don’t know why you’re doing Body For Life – you don’t need to lose any weight”. After seeing these pictures at week 6, she said to me today that she didn’t realize how fat I had gotten. She had one word for the pictures – “inspiring”. Now, for a close-up view from the back (click to enlarge):

Now, my day off wouldn’t be complete without some sort of splurge. We went to dinner tonight at our favorite Tex Mex restaurante, Chuy’s….mmmmmmm



I ordered a steak burrito, and it was delicious!

I’m truly amazed at how much progress I can already see at the halfway mark. Doing a weekly weigh-in and photo shoot has really helped keep me motivated. Looking back at the progress I’ve made helps to keep me on track during the week.