an 84 day experiment

my final thoughts on my 84 day odyssey:

The TT transformation contest has been an unbelievable journey and an incredible learning experience for me. When I began my transformation, I had been trying for years to lose weight. I was already working out, doing intervals, and eating well much of the time, but I never seemed to make any meaningful progress. I was partially being held back by the destructive cycles that I found myself falling into over and over with food. Intellectually I knew perfectly well what I needed to be eating, but I had had such a difficult and negative relationship with food for so many years that I as soon as I would begin eating healthy and making progress I would immediately sabotage myself by binging only to end up back where I started and more frustrated with myself than before.

The transformation contest finally gave me the accountability and social support that I needed to jump-start permanent change and turbulence training provided me with the fastest and most effective tool to get where I wanted to be. What I appreciate most about Craig’s system is its simplicity. I am now spending less time in the gym than before and getting my best results ever. Of course, although the TT workouts are intense, fun, and incredibly effective, they were only one of several contributing factors to my success. Besides the TT workouts themselves, having a clear goals and a plan to achieve them, eating clean food consistently, finding a diet that worked for me (ESE), and social support and accountability were the other key factors in making my transformation a success. I never realized how much of a difference social support can really make but being surrounded by the other amazing people on the ttmembers.com forum who were all working towards a similar goal and facing similar challenges was an integral part of keeping me motivated and moving towards my goal. The encouragement, advice, knowledge, and inspiration I received from the forum were truly priceless.

During my 12 week journey I lost 15.5 lbs, inches off everywhere, and 5.3% body fat. I feel healthy and strong, I have completely transformed my relationship with food so that I now find that making good food choices is no longer a struggle, I’m closer than ever to my dream body, and I was able to take “after pictures” fitting comfortably into a pair of size 27 jeans that I haven’t fit into in years! And I achieved all of this despite visits from friends, an 11 day trip to Morocco where I had much less control over my nutrition, and being hit by illness at the end of my challenge. I feel confident that the lessons I have learned about goal achievement, accountability, and social support will carry over into all other areas of my life. And with the good habits that I have established over the course of the contest, along with the endless variety of turbulence training workouts, I know that it will be easy for me to make continued progress. It is hard for me to find adequate words to sum up all the different ways that my life has been positively affected by this contest and the gratitude that I feel. I guess the only thing I can say is thanks so much to Craig for creating this incredible system and to all of my fellow transformers who were an unending source of motivation, support, and inspiration. Here’s to round 2.