The Chairman's Fitness Challenge Blog

Well, this challenge was a success for me. I met all my goals, including achieving a weight loss of thirteen pounds (versus a 5% challenge goal of 11 pounds!) It feels great, and now I am getting right into a new position with a new company on Monday, just as the challenge ends.

I do have a few thoughts on each goal:

Clean eating - 80/104 goal, 83/104 actual - I definitely made some changes to my diet and chose cleaner options at several meals, and this contributed greatly to achieving some of the other goals. I think that, with a little effort, I could have achieved 90 or more, but it is tough with social expectations (barbeques and dinner parties) and a family that is not really bought into the same type of clean eating that I try to accomplish. I picked up a lot of knowledge I'll take with me as the challenge ends.

Resistance training - 20 goal, 20 actual - having taken a week off due to sickness, this needed a big push at the end to complete. I am fairly happy with my progress in this area, but it's probably time for me to commit to a full program (such as the Hard-Body Plan) with a little more structure.

Cardio training - 25 goal, 26 actual - I am REALLY happy with the results here. I have seen an increase in my cardio capacity, and even a drop in blood pressure over the course of this challenge. I've noticed that a good cardio workout is pretty much an average half-pound drop for me as long as I eat reasonably in the day or two around it.

5% challenge - dropped from 221lbs to 208lbs. Very noticeable drop in stomach size as well - pretty close to three inches.

Spin classes - 20 goal, 21 actual - This has proven to be the best workout for me at my current level of fitness. I've gone from not being able to do standing climbs on the bike, to feeling like I am keeping up with the class and increasing my leg speed with every session. Having the encouragement (in all its forms) from the instructor has really let me get more from my cardio workouts than I otherwise might.

Crunches - 800 goal, 857 actual - This was a good goal to have because it encouraged me to do some ab exercises at times I might have not planned to. Looking back, I think the goal was a little low - I should have tried for 1000. I exceeded the target even with some lack of diligence during the middle part of the challenge.