17 days with RevAbs

Wow, I can't believe it has been 17 days already. The RevAbs workout seriously kicked my butt the first week. It is still kicking my butt, but at least there is no pain involved. So far in 17 days, I am down 4 LBS, 3 inches around my waist and 2% body fat! It is amazing. I imagine it wont be much longer and I'll be buying new pants...AGAIN!

I am only in phase one of the program right now, but I feel it working. If that even makes sense. I can feel my abs forming under my belly, and I can see my legs growing from all the lunges and squats that I do. It truly is amazing what you can accomplish in just a few weeks time. I can't wait to get to phase 2 though. I know Brett is going to kick my butt even harder, and I'm going to see these results jump into high gear. I will take some body shots at the 30 day mark and post on here, so keep checking back.

And if you want to find out more about RevAbs just goto http://beachbodycoach.com/cdharris

Don't get habits confused with genetics

We hear from every source these days that obesity is a "genetic" disease. However, I completely disagree, and I know there are more people that disagree.

First let's look at obesity in your family. Are both your parents fat? Yes? But were they obese when they were younger? or did it occur as they got older? Are your grandparents overweight? Yes? Again, ask the same question about your parents.

In my case, you could say I was morbidly obese because my father is obese. Well that's what the "experts" would say at least. But lets go back to 1974 when my dad graduated high school and married my mom. My dad graduated weighing in at a whopping 119 LBS. But how can he be obese now? Oh his family must be morbidly obese right? Wrong. My dad's whole family were a bunch of bean poles. But what about me? I picked up my dad's eating habits.

That's right. It's not genetics, it is picking up your parents habits. My dad for as long as I can remember has been a snacker. When my dad would be off duty and would be home with me, he would snack. So, I would snack. It eventually turned into a thing that when I was bored, I would snack, because that is the habit my dad passed on to me. It's like with healthy eating. I wasn't raised around eating healthy or restricted portions. If I wanted a second helping, I could have it. This all led to my being morbidly obese.

Sadly though, parents and their children don't want to take the blame for their own problems. They would rather blame a non-existent genetic disease on their problems than admitting that they have just passed on and excepted bad habits.

I've changed my bad habits. No longer do the days exists where I mindlessly snack because I'm bored or watching TV. Do I still snack though? Yes I do! But I snack healthy, I eat either an apple, banana, celery stalk or brocoli. If I'm not eating those, then I have 8 almonds for one snack, and 14 almonds for a second snack. I do this only once between meals. I mostly only do this to keep my metabolism going. I survive the day just fine and no longer feel phantom hunger at bored times.

Make a change in your habits, and stop blaming genetics if you are obese.

Don't get habits confused with genetics

We hear from every source these days that obesity is a "genetic" disease. However, I completely disagree, and I know there are more people that disagree.

First let's look at obesity in your family. Are both your parents fat? Yes? But were they obese when they were younger? or did it occur as they got older? Are your grandparents overweight? Yes? Again, ask the same question about your parents.

In my case, you could say I was morbidly obese because my father is obese. Well that's what the "experts" would say at least. But lets go back to 1974 when my dad graduated high school and married my mom. My dad graduated weighing in at a whopping 119 LBS. But how can he be obese now? Oh his family must be morbidly obese right? Wrong. My dad's whole family were a bunch of bean poles. But what about me? I picked up my dad's eating habits.

That's right. It's not genetics, it is picking up your parents habits. My dad for as long as I can remember has been a snacker. When my dad would be off duty and would be home with me, he would snack. So, I would snack. It eventually turned into a thing that when I was bored, I would snack, because that is the habit my dad passed on to me. It's like with healthy eating. I wasn't raised around eating healthy or restricted portions. If I wanted a second helping, I could have it. This all led to my being morbidly obese.

Sadly though, parents and their children don't want to take the blame for their own problems. They would rather blame a non-existent genetic disease on their problems than admitting that they have just passed on and excepted bad habits.

I've changed my bad habits. No longer do the days exists where I mindlessly snack because I'm bored or watching TV. Do I still snack though? Yes I do! But I snack healthy, I eat either an apple, banana, celery stalk or brocoli. If I'm not eating those, then I have 8 almonds for one snack, and 14 almonds for a second snack. I do this only once between meals. I mostly only do this to keep my metabolism going. I survive the day just fine and no longer feel phantom hunger at bored times.

Make a change in your habits, and stop blaming genetics if you are obese.

Change your life the healthy way

These days we have a lot of things that promise quick results. Every thing from diet pills, so crazy diets and even surgeries. The problem with all of these things, is you are putting a bandaid on the bigger problem.

Take surgery for example. The popular things to do for weight loss is Liposuction, Gastric Bypass and Lap Band. These all promise fast results, but most of these are for cosmetic purposes only. You hear on the radio all the time about Lap Band surgery. It's probably one of the biggest fads right now. The problem is you are having surgery to lose weight that isn't going to stay off unless you change yourself. In my opinion no one should have Lap Band surgery.

Gastric Bypass in most cases is a end of the line surgery, or at least it used to me. You're doctor would suggest it to you if you were morbidly obese and you absolutely had to have surgery to save your life and make changes. Now, you can go to a plastic surgeon and get this procedure done without having to be obese hardly at all. At 250 LBS myself, I can qualify for Gastric Bypass. But again, if you don't change your eating habits and exercise habits, you will gain the weight back, just like a Lap Band patient.

Liposuction is the old school way of doing things, you still hear about people having it done though. Back in the day it was mostly a hollywood thing though. You would hear of an actress having it done to get rid of a little bit of fat on her butt or hips. However now it is for any one that wants to drop a quick 20 LBS. Again, most people put that weight back on.

My whole point to all of this, is these surgeries are taking the easy way out. These surgeries in most cases is a lazy persons way to lose weight. These are the same people that think of exercise and diet as punishment. That would rather sit at home and watch their favorite TV show instead of going for a walk or would rather wake up an hour before work instead of 2 hours so they can hit the gym.

I've completely changed my life by implementing diet and exercise into it. You can ask any one that has known me for a while, I was always lazy. My idea of working out before I changed my self was lifting a fork full of pasta to my mouth. Now I work out 6 - 7 days a week, sometimes multiple times a day. I feel better about my life, health and future than I ever have. My weight is less likely to come back because of my lifestyle change. If you have taken to the easy way out, you will most likely be back in your fat pants with in 5 years. So change your life for the better.

Change your life the healthy way

These days we have a lot of things that promise quick results. Every thing from diet pills, so crazy diets and even surgeries. The problem with all of these things, is you are putting a bandaid on the bigger problem.

Take surgery for example. The popular things to do for weight loss is Liposuction, Gastric Bypass and Lap Band. These all promise fast results, but most of these are for cosmetic purposes only. You hear on the radio all the time about Lap Band surgery. It's probably one of the biggest fads right now. The problem is you are having surgery to lose weight that isn't going to stay off unless you change yourself. In my opinion no one should have Lap Band surgery.

Gastric Bypass in most cases is a end of the line surgery, or at least it used to me. You're doctor would suggest it to you if you were morbidly obese and you absolutely had to have surgery to save your life and make changes. Now, you can go to a plastic surgeon and get this procedure done without having to be obese hardly at all. At 250 LBS myself, I can qualify for Gastric Bypass. But again, if you don't change your eating habits and exercise habits, you will gain the weight back, just like a Lap Band patient.

Liposuction is the old school way of doing things, you still hear about people having it done though. Back in the day it was mostly a hollywood thing though. You would hear of an actress having it done to get rid of a little bit of fat on her butt or hips. However now it is for any one that wants to drop a quick 20 LBS. Again, most people put that weight back on.

My whole point to all of this, is these surgeries are taking the easy way out. These surgeries in most cases is a lazy persons way to lose weight. These are the same people that think of exercise and diet as punishment. That would rather sit at home and watch their favorite TV show instead of going for a walk or would rather wake up an hour before work instead of 2 hours so they can hit the gym.

I've completely changed my life by implementing diet and exercise into it. You can ask any one that has known me for a while, I was always lazy. My idea of working out before I changed my self was lifting a fork full of pasta to my mouth. Now I work out 6 - 7 days a week, sometimes multiple times a day. I feel better about my life, health and future than I ever have. My weight is less likely to come back because of my lifestyle change. If you have taken to the easy way out, you will most likely be back in your fat pants with in 5 years. So change your life for the better.

The Ab Revolution has started

So on Monday February 7th, 2011 I started the RevAbs workout. While that was only yesterday, I feel every bit of the workout. When just watching it, it looks easy enough, but actually doing it is a different story. My body feels like it has been through a car accident. I know, that shouldn't be too different since I have spent a portion of my life as a wrestler, but it's crazy. I could barely move this morning when I woke up, the slightest movement brings on muscle pain.

I had another workout this morning which I did, I barely kept up with it, but I did finish. I can tell that RevAbs is going to change me, and I am looking forward to that change. Hopefully by this time next week, my body will not be hurting during the workouts though. While I don't mind the burn, it's going to get annoying when I have to work with it.

How my journey began

I've always been a fatty. I was a fat kid with hopes of losing the fat through school. Sadly I became a fat adult though. At a certain point, you just stop caring. I remember in school making fun of myself so other kids wouldn't make fun of my weight. I wanted them to see it didn't bother me, so why should they waste their time.

Fast forward to October 7th 2009. I had went to

bed the night before and noticed that my back was acting up quite a bit. I can see why, I was 372

LBS at the time. But I didn't think that when I woke up on October 7th, that I would be in excruciating pain and barely able to walk.

The next 10 months were brutal. My back would start to show slight signs of improvement, then go back to the way it was or worse. In March of 2010, I had to take a month off for medical leave. I was working from a wheelchair half that time, and when I wasn't allowed to use the stores wheelchair, I had to manage to get around myself. The pain would make me pass out, throw me into severe muscle

spasms and I would cry for hours.

By this time, my lack of mobility and muscle spasms actually helped me to get down to 332 LBS. Still, way to heavy. I was told by doctors that I wouldn't be the same and I needed to lose weight. I knew I needed to lose weight, but it's a hard thing to do when any movement at all hurts and throws you into massive muscle spasms.

To help with the pain, I did 5 visits a week to a chiropractor, this helped a decent amount, but was normally only a fix for a few comfortable hours. I also took pain pills and muscle relaxers of all kinds. But those would work for either a couple hours, or not at all. I was damaging my liver with what I was taking. I did start taking vitamins, but I'm not sure if those did anything

for my back or not.

At the end of March 2010, I received my first Epidural injection. This is a process where they take a huge needle and insert it into your spine to help with the inflammation of the damaged disks. These actually worked wonders for me. I was able to actually sleep for more than 2 hours a night, and could move with some comfort. Walking or standing for too long was out though.

I went back to work in April 2010, and was on light duty until the end of July. In that time period, while I was at about 75 % of recovery, my back decided to go out again. Luckily this time we were able to get it back on track within about a week. I was also doing spinal decompression and cold laser therapy at this time.

Finally in August of 2010, I was able to move and walk almost like a normal person. I didn't have to take regular breaks every 15 minutes any more and was feeling pretty good. But I knew

that I needed to lose weight.

Still weighing in at 332 LBS, I knew I had to start doing something. This was when I started doing research on a diet and supplement called HCG. I had been hearing about this for a while, but was really skeptical about due to the low calorie intake. Let's face it, I was eating about 6,000 calories a day, and on HCG you cut down to 500 calories a day. But after talking to a few people about it, and one great friend from Brightkite. I decided to take the plunge and give it a go. What could it hurt, it was a $89 supplement and I didn't have anything to lose but weight.

The first week of the diet was horrible. I was hungry, and I couldn't eat what I was used to

eating. I couldn't eat breakfast, My lunch and dinner was always the same meal for the most

part and things were boring. But I stuck to it. After that first week, and already seeing results, I knew I had to stick with it. By the end of the program (30 days) I was down to 300 LBS. Yes, I lost 32 LBS in 30 days.

So at the end of September I did the unthinkable. So happy by my weight loss, I wanted to continue, so I joined a local Anytime Fitness. I became addicted to the gym. I would sometimes workout 6 - 7 days a week. I continued a low calorie diet of 1000 calories a day, but was happy to do so. I started really watching my body change and couldn't be happier. Life was getting good. I was feeling better, I was working out. I was also eating right and had the will power to turn down food that wasn't good for me.

Fast forward to today, January 31, 2011. I am 259 LBS now and in the best shape of my life. I couldn't have done it without the support of all my friends and family. My goals have gone from

getting to 300 LBS, to 280 LBS, to 260 LBS and now I have decided that I want to make it to 225 LBS. I want to make my last goal by the end of June 2011. I have made a complete lifestyle change. Every single day I hear people say that I am an inspiration, that I have helped them take that step to getting healthier. It's a good feeling knowing that you can change the lives of people by one simple act that any of us can make. I am hoping now that as my life changes, I can make more changes in the world. I hope to become a certified personal trainer and I would love to be able to speak at schools and youth clubs about the importance of getting into shape at a young age and living an active lifestyle.

Another way that I am using my change for good and helping others is by becoming a beachbody coach. These are the people behind P90X, TurboFire, Insanity, RevAbs and Shakeology. You know, the stuff you see infomercials for in the early AM. They have products that I can stand behind and I am even starting RevAbs this week. I look forward to sharing my progress with the readers and anyone who happens to stumble across this blog. If you want to read up on the BeachBody products read up at http://beachbodycoach.com/cdharris