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Back in September I entered the first ever Lose-to-Win weight loss competition at my new gym, VillaSport, which had opened the month before. It ended 3 weeks ago.

I came in 11^th place out of 120-130 people in terms of percentage of weight loss.  I got 1^st place in participation points for going to the events and activities.  I got a $50 gift card at the gym for that. I used that card to buy a larger gym bag.  My team got 5^th place out of around 20 teams.  We each got a $25 check for that.

I’m happy with the results.  I got off to a slow start because I went to Hawaii soon after the competition began.  I didn’t finish as strongly as I would have liked to because of Thanksgiving.  Another thing is that I added some muscle.  Excuses excuses.  Still, I’ve been working hard to get into shape these past few months.

I was working out before the competition began.  The competition was just more motivation to get serious about losing weight again.  I found out because of the competition that my membership at this gym got me 4 30-minute sessions with a trainer. I picked out my trainer, Nate, because he specialized in body fat reduction and metabolic resistance training, which I had heard of and wanted to learn about. I thought I was doing a good job working out before, but these sessions proved that I wasn’t.  What he had me doing was tough.  Fitness has evolved and what he taught me started showing results even after just a few weeks.  Early on though I was afraid that Nate would tell me that I wasn’t cut out for MRT and that I would have to do something else.

In addition to better workouts, I got my eating back to what it needs to be.  I go out of my way not to use to d word.  I went crazy on Thanksgiving,but other than that I’ve been pretty good. I was already doing a lot of things right, but I got some more tips from Nate and a dietitian at the gym. I threw away everything that was unhealthy or expired in my kitchen and there was almost nothing left.  It was fun to go shopping for healthier food.

At one point I lost 5% of my body fat in a month, which Nate says is hard to do and is a record among his clients.  Apparently he’s been bragging about me because of that.  After about 5 weeks of a “basic” workout, I bought more sessions to learn a more advanced workout.  I thought what I was going before was tough, but this is even tougher. I’m getting the hang of and I’m actually enjoying it now. Nate also formulated a food plan that actually allowed for more food each day that I was previously eating.

I had my annual physical last week and unlike last year, my cholesterol was right where it needed to be.  Yay for overall health improvement!

I’ve been showing off how much progress I made after 3 months.  Pictures of me on this blog are pretty rare I think.

Let’s see what I can do in another 3 months.