Bod Pod Results and 12 week photo!

So, today I did the Bod Pod.  I was less than stoked by the results.  You might recall from my Day 1 post, that my goal was to get to 25% body fat.  I didn't make it.  In fact, I barely budged in that direction (by 0.1%).  Here are the results from January and today:

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I haven't changed what I ate at all after maintaining my weight for a couple years.  It seems to me that if I want to get to 25% body fat, simply maintaining my food habits absolutely won't work at this point for me.  I am using too many calories and I am not supporting sustainable goals.  I am happy to stay at my maintenance weight and replace fat with muscle.  Honestly, I thought that would happen, but clearly it didn't.  Isn't life one big experiment anyway?

With results, come reflection.  I didn't make it to where I wanted to be, but I didn't know how unrealistic my goal was in January.  I know that I worked very hard to be healthier and the numbers do show that I am healthier today than I was three months ago.  That is the win I am proud of today.  

The numbers also don't show here that I gained 9.5 lbs.  That is a major increase that I haven't seen in years and I was a bit concerned.  That said, I was okay with that gain, so long as it was muscle.  The scale ceased to be my focus when I reached a healthy weight. My focus now is more on the composition of my body than the numbers.  That 9.5 lbs. consists of 6.7 lbs. of muscle and 2.8 lbs. of fat.  I am guessing that I may have put myself somewhat into starvation mode because I didn't get enough lean calories, so my body held onto the fat instead of shedding extra fat.  

Now, the very happy part: PICTURES!!  I am a huge fan of side-by-side pictures.  They speak volumes.   I am very, very happy with the changes in my body and I know that my hard work is paying off.  You might remember how uncomfortable it was for me to post my picture in January on Day 1 of the challenge.  Now, I get to post my final 12 week photo and it is so exciting!!  Here is the side-by-side comparison from January 2014 to today:

The 12 week challenge was so important to me.  I haven't yet finished all the lessons, but those are coming soon.  Life has a funny way of getting in the way of personal development sometimes.  I have learned throughout my journey that derailment is not an excuse for failure, which was always my mindset in my unhealthy body.  It is more about regaining your path than how you strayed.  Even though I haven't been doing the challenges daily like I planned, I am still incorporating the lessons I have learned to date.  

So, where do I go from here?  My next steps are to focus on losing some fat weight and gaining muscle.  I have the tools to do that with my program (thank goodness!) and I am excited to get started with that.  I already reached out to my health coach (hey, health coaches need their own health coaches too!).  I will also work on the daily challenges on my blog and finish that as quickly as I can.  Once I have completed the challenges, I will re-evaluate my progress and keep working forward.  

I want you all to know that we are never done in our journey.  I will always strive to be healthier.  Healthier, to me right now, means that I am getting restful and restorative sleep, my stress is in balance, my body fat is between 15-25%, I can physically keep up with my boys in their quickly advancing physical capabilities, I am helping others toward their healthy self and inspiring those to reach out for help to get healthy, and I am working towards personal development.  Those are my goals right now.  

Are you ready to work towards your healthier you?  Reach out to me and we'll work through it together!