Prep Weekend

On January 7th, 2013 I'm starting the 12-week Body For Life Challenge (BFL).

If you're not familiar with the challenge here are some links:

What is Body-for-LIFE?
Transformations
Meet the Community

Here is an article by the author himself Bill Philips - Body for Life - KTVB Healthy Idaho
and here is a basic Summary:

• Body for Life (BFL) is a 12-week nutrition and exercise program
• Exercise for 6 days, rest for 1
• Alternate between cardio and resistance training
• Alternate resistance training days between upper and lower body
• Use High Point Technique for every exercise, including cardio
• Use the 20-Minute Aerobic Solution (cardio)

• Identify your reasons to change and write them down

• Eating 6 smaller meals per day instead of the standard 3 large meals. BFL (along with some dietary experts) maintain that eating smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day will boost the body's metabolism, causing it to burn fat faster.
• Eating one "portion" of carbohydrates and one "portion" of protein at each meal. To keep determining portion sizes simple, BFL suggests that one "portion" of carbohydrates should equal a potato or ball of rice roughly equal to the size of the person's clenched fist. Additionally, one "portion" of protein would roughly equal a piece of meat the size of the person's palm and as thick as a deck of cards.
• Consuming vegetables with at least two meals per day.
• Taking a good multi-vitamin.
• Limiting consumption of butter, cheese, mayonnaise, alcoholic beverages, and high fat salad dressings.
• Allowance of one "free day" each week.

Here is a very inspirational video of the program:

One thing is clear, this isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle change and I like the idea that the focus is on nutrition, weight-training, cardio, and mind-set.

My Prep over the last few weeks:

1. I read the book
2. I created a binder with workout sheets for upper and lower body and tried the body for life workout for a few weeks to get used to it.
3. I tried out a few cardio routines that I'm going to work into the program
4. I tried out a few recipes to get a sense of what type of food is available.
5. Lastly I gave some thought about the mind-set and mental aspects as to why I want to get in better shape.

I'm going to use this blog to document my progress and also organize links, and documents I find useful.

This is what I did to get ready for the challenge:

1. Register and read the rules - First off I had to register for the challenge - because I want to take it that much more seriously.
2. I joined a forum for support (January 7th Forum!!) - body for life has a great forum community 
3. I ordered an additional book for recipes - not really necessary because there are some great online resources for recipes. 
4. Went shopping and planed my first week of meals using some of the recipes from this list and the shopping list provided (~$120)
5. Started a pinterest exercise board for motivation

Last step:

1. Register here and then download the Registration Kit (if you plan to register for the challenge)
2. Take the before-photo
3. Fill out the questionnaire
4. Write out the essay (you won't actually need to submit anything until the challenge is done, but register before you start)
• What was the turning point you experienced that made you decide to compete in the Body-for-LIFE Challenge? (1,500 character max)
• What were your initial 12-week goals? (1,500 character max)
5. On the day your challenge starts go to the challenge dashboard and kit start challenge
6. Watch a bunch of youtube videos to get excited about it.
• e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOs2uwLH0PA
7. Took note of the weekly motivation/challenge messages

Additional Tools and Resources:

http://bodyforlife.com/library/tools

http://bodyforlife.com/library/articles/nutrition/first-week-meal-plan

I think my biggest hurdle will be planing my meals so here is the nutrition section that might give me some helpful tips, but BFL has a exercise section that is helpful as well.

You'll find a wealth of resources under http://bodyforlife.com/library/tools

e.g.

The Eating-for-LIFE Method
*MS Excel Spreadsheet (1.07 mb)

The Training-for-LIFE™ Experience
*MS Excel Spreadsheet (1.20 mb)