Commencement

I've always liked the word commencement. Most people think of it in terms of graduating from school, but it doesn't mean ending something. Commencement is the beginning of something. In this sense finishing PCP is very similar to finishing school. School is training. School is preparation. Life is what you're beginning. In school you take a class called physical education, but I've never heard of anyone being educated in that class. The class is about playing basketball or running laps. Maybe the occasional awkward lecture about health that the teacher reads from a script and the class ignores. I finished high school at 18 but it wasn't until I was 36 that I finally took a real physical education class and it was called PCP.

How does your body respond to food and exercise? How do you prepare food? What is food, for that matter, and how much of it should you eat? Beyond that when and why should you eat it? How do you exercise? What does a good workout feel like and how do you know when you've done it right? These are just a few of the things that I've learned over the course of this project and that nobody learns in school.

My journey began a bit before the rest of this PCP crew. I started back on September 17, 2010 when I tried to do PCP and Patrick told me I couldn't physically handle it and that I shouldn't do it. He was, as he is with so many things, right about that. I was ridiculously out of shape and working towards a heart attack or diabetes. Instead he created a new project, The Foundation, and I began my journey with that.

This was me on September 17, 2010...

Doesn't look that bad? Let's try it again with the shirt off...

It pains me to look at it.

3 months of Foundation from September to December then a month off, then 3 months of PCP. Numbers on this kind of stuff are less important to me than they used to be, but doesn't hurt to check every once in a while. Here are the stats from Foundation day 1 to PCP day 1 to PCP day 90...

Weight 120.2 kg (265 lbs) ->106.8 (235) -> 92.3 (203.5) total loss of 27.9 kg (61.5) or 24%
body fat 41.5% -> 31.6% -> 25.1% total loss of 16.4%
visceral fat 18.5% ->19% -> 13% total loss of 5.5%
subcutaneous fat 36.7% -> 21.3% -> 16.6% total loss of 20.1%
muscle mass 23.8% -> 29.6% -> 32.7% total gain of 8.9%

The numbers are all pretty awesome. More importantly I feel much better. I know how my body responds to food and exercise and have the knowledge to keep things under control. There is still plenty of work that needs to be done. The numbers are great, but with a BMI of 28.5 I'm still solidly in overweight territory. Yes, I know BMI is a lousy number but my gut also shows I still have a way to go. The important part is I know the path to follow to get there.

There is so much more I could say, but everyone else's blogs have summed things up so well there is no need to repeat most of it. I'm a different person than I was 7 short months ago. The road was long and and there were plenty of obstacles, but I don't regret a minute of it. The hardest part of the entire thing was sending the very first email and deciding to do it, the rest was just making it happen. While the idea of 3 months (much less 6!) was daunting, looking back now it was no time at all and the tough parts are already fading just like cooling down from a workout. Also like a workout the results will continue to show long after the burn is gone. Thank you Patrick for knowing the road to follow and choosing to share the knowledge with others.

And so, class of PCP April 2011, as you venture out into the world remember yourselves as you were today and think fondly of the time you spent preparing for the rest of your lives.

Sept 17, 2010

April 14, 2011

Sep 17, 2010 / Jan 15, 2011 / Apr 14, 2011

And last but not least... the nice new suit I bought for my new job in April 2010...