My Contest Essay

Hi all,

I forgot last night to post my essay for the contest, which should give you some more insight into my motivation to get lean, fit and of course 6 pack abs.

Just to summarize it quickly; I realized I couldn't take care of someone else unless I was acccountable for my own body first.

The Essay
Just in case my pictures do not do enough justice, let me put it into words how much Turbulence Training has changed my life.I’m 28 year old male who has always gone to the gym. When I say I went to the gym, I mean I worked out, but there was anywhere between 2-5 minutes between sets and no cardio whatsoever. There was no purpose to my workouts. As far as diet, well let’s just say that they knew me by name at the Wendy’s drive-through. Needless to say, I might have maintained my strength, but my physical appearance was heading downhill.

My motivation to change my body came in September when I received the best news of my life; my wife and I were having our first child! I took the great news in stride and started preparing for the baby.

Then around the 2008 holiday season, I looked in the mirror and stared at my gut. How was I supposed to care for this baby when I couldn’t take care of myself? I could barely make it up a flight of steps without being out of breath; imagine how fast I’d collapse trying to play with a small child?

My mind was made up and I decided that it was time to change what I saw in the mirror. I have been subscribing to Craig’s emails for a couple months and decided it was finally time to sign up and start his workouts. To make myself even more accountable to my goal I decided to post my pictures on the internet and join TC4.My workout programs consisted of the Original Turbulence Training Workout, Turbulence Training 2k9 and Turbulence Training for Buff Dudes and Hot Chicks.

I followed Craig’s instructions for the workouts very strictly and finally felt like my workouts had a purpose. The great part about these workouts is that I was in and out of the gym in 45 minutes or less, or I could even do some of them from home!

No long cardio is another great factor that swayed me to subscribing to TT. 20 minutes max on the bike or treadmill while doing HIIT cardio was great and effective!!

These workouts were only done 3 days a week, so on my ‘off-days’ I did any light activity from walking my dog, to body weight workouts or if I was feeling good, giving one of Craig’s challenge workouts a try.

Now for the hard part, the diet! Actually it wasn’t hard and I wouldn’t consider it a diet either! I plan to follow this for the rest of my life.

Basically, I stuck to natural, whole foods and tried to avoid anything out of a box or bag and processed sugars. My diet consists of plenty of fruits, vegetables and lean proteins. I also used Brad Pilon’s Eat-Stop-Eat for the second half of the contest and fasted 1 day per week.

If I had to sum up my success during this transformation in one word it would be ACCOUNTABILTY. You have to be accountable to yourself otherwise you will never see results! To help with that aspect, the Turbulence Training forums did a great job of social support. If I hit a bump in the road someone was always there to help guide me through it and put me back on track.

Now for my tangible results:

Day 1 – December 29, 2008
Height: 5’10’’
Weight 213
Waist 38''
Neck 16''
Chest 45''
Biceps 14''
Bi's Flexed 16''
Thighs 22.5''
Body Fat (caliphers) 21%

Day 84 - March 22, 2009
Weight 188lbs
Waist 33''
Neck 15.25''
Chest 40''
Biceps 13.75''
Bi's Flexed 16''
Thighs 21''
Body Fat (caliphers) 12.7%

Change
Weight minus 25lbs!!
Waist minus 5''
Neck minus .75''
Chest minus 5''
Biceps minus .25''
Bi's Flexed --
Thighs minus 1.5''
BF% minus 8.3%

I can now say that I feel great and I am always full of energy! I am now looking forward to running around and playing with my son! I will always follow the TT lifestyle!