I don’t know about you, but like most people, I’m not where I want to be in my body.  It turned 59 years old on me early this month and while most people I meet, even among my friends who don’t recall how old I am, say I look much younger (how much younger they don’t specify).

To tell you the truth, it got sort of FAT on me; I know I probably helped to contribute to this sorry state (it’s true, you really can’t out-train a bad diet), and Lord knows I’m not getting a great deal of exercise (unless you call leaping to conclusions before I have all the facts, or reaching for some kind of understanding without a foundation of knowledge, or jumping on someone else’s conversation and trying to direct the flow towards ideas I favor, or think that sitting at the keyboard and banging on the keys with my ultra-fast two-finger hunt-n-peck typing method constitutes ‘exercise’).

So Craig Ballantyne, of Turbulence Training, has begun his 13th TT Transformation Contest, with a first prize of $1,000 and a three-month premium online membership.  Only stipulation is you MUST use the TT training routines.  (I will be taking advantage of the bodyweight system, with a few light-weight dumbbells and kettlebells as additional training tools.

I’m in.  I registered on-line for the contest (this one runs from December 26th, 2011 through april 7th, 2012 – 12 weeks) and this morning had my wife take two front profile and two side profile pictures with me holding a newspaper to show today’s date (entry requirement for ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos).  WOW!  It’s amazing how different I look when I see the pictures compared to just gazing at myself in the mirror.  (can you say self-delusion?)

Okay… entered contest on-line, had “before” pictures taken, and took some baseline measurements for the record – neck: 17″; chest: 42″; waist 40″; and weight on my digital scale: 175.0 pounds.

Next step is to begin a daily journal to record my efforts in this contest.  (In addition, I’ll be posting on-line to this web-log occasionally to update my progress.)  Got my starting stats, pictures, and registration done, so now it’s a matter of “just doing it!”

I’ll be keeping a record of the food I eat, when I eat, what and why I’m making certain food choices, and the results I’m feeling as I progress.  The focus will be on ‘primal’ foods, lean proteins, non-starchy vegetables, some fruits, and avoiding most sugars, starches and breads and other grain foods.  Also, I’ll list the exercises I’m doing (body-weight movements, some basic yoga moves for stretching/relaxing,  some dumbbell and kettlebell movements, and some high-rep body-weight exercises for cardio), including which movements, when I do them, how many reps, and how I feel afterwards.

Do I expect to win the $1,000 dollars?  Not really.  But what I do expect is to make the effort, and in the end, improve my health, fitness level, and reshape my physique to a leaner, more athletic build.  And in the end, that will make me a winner.

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Tags: baseline measurements, craig ballantyne, diet, exercise, training, transformation contest, TT contest, turbulence training