[Ija]

I wasn't sure where to post this (General Diet Plans? Maintenance? Exercise?) so I'll leave its final home up to the mods.

Since reaching my original goal of 150 pounds I've slowly moved away from the weight loss mentality and started focusing more exclusively on improving my fitness and becoming more lean (gaining muscle and losing fat, irrespective of the scale reading). Since then I've added about three pounds of muscle and dropped about eight pounds of fat, but I'm still a long way off from my goal body (that little muffin top I'm currently sporting is further proof of this). So....... I've decided this is the perfect time to enter the Body for Life challenge. If you haven't heard of this before, it's a national fitness contest where moderately unfit participants bust their butts for 12 weeks in a bid to win $10K or $25K prizes. Entering the contest means I'd have to work a little bit harder than usual for 3 months, but the diet and exercise program they encourage is basically what I'm already doing now (eating clean/unprocessed foods, emphasizing weight lifting, doing some cardio, including a weekly cheat day, etc.). I figure since I won't have to change my routine that much, I'm not losing anything by entering.

Has anyone considered doing the BFL challenge? Have you done anything like it? I think I have it in me to do this, I'm just very partial to making slow, steady progress rather than getting sucked into demanding RESULTS!NOW!NOW!NOW!

What do you think?

[iDream]

I am! I didn't enter the contest or anything, but I read and am following the book. I'll admit, I don't eat as healthy as the book suggests (ate a lot of low cal microwave lunches for the first month and a half), but I have increase my fruits and veggies and eat lean proteins and limit the white carbs. I love the BFL books (I have the original and BFL for Women) especially the one for women because it really sheds light on how we lose weight at each stage in our lives and why it's so important to eat well and exercise.

I started my weight loss journey on 4/15 (started watching what I ate), started exercising on 4/22 and committed to the BFL workout plan on 5/2. Between 4/15 and 5/2 I went from 196 to 187
Between 5/2 to 7/11 (11 weeks of BFL workouts) I went from 187 to 154.6 and lost 32".

So yeah, I'm doing it and I love it!
Good luck and have fun!!

[Ija]

Sandye, I'm glad to hear it's working well for you! Seriously, this is basically what I've been doing now for a long time, so it definitely works as long as you're comfortable with it