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 By: Mark Valenti
Name: Mark Valenti
Before: July 29, 2007
After: October 20, 2007   Click Image To Enlarge.My Progress. My waist size was probably around 46" before I started, the first time I actually measured it was about 2 weeks into my transformation, where it was at 44" and I had already lost a good amount of fat by then.
Those "before" stats are obviously horrible and that is how I felt! I couldn't seem to take a picture without my eyes being half shut, I had to gasp for air just trying to bend over to tie my shoes or put on socks. I was also about to turn 40 but felt so much older and all of that, especially the more I became aware of it. The age thing just helped to put me in a depressed rut, for quite a long time.
I was ready for a change, especially with that big 40 birthday around the corner, but wasn't sure how or where to begin and decided that a physical would be the best start. My doctor did a good job and didn't prescribe me any meds to lower the cholesterol or anything like that but suggested that I do it naturally by diet and exercise first. I actually weighed 245 pounds at this point and by casually exercising and dropping cokes and crackers from my diet, I was able to eventually (within a few months) bring my weight down to around 230 pounds.
  Click Image To Enlarge.After 6 Weeks. The changes were noticeable and it just so happened that a friend of mine met a guy at his job site who had won the Body for Life Challenge of 2006. He told me about it a few days later and after talking about diets and exercising that whole day, I felt the motivation in me again and went straight to their website when I got home. I can definitely recommend their program, which I'll try to describe a little later. Being that my family and I were heading out on vacation, I took a few weeks to study their challenge and their diet & exercise plan. I bought their book too from Amazon.com for what I believe was the best 7 dollar investment I could ever make! We got back and July 29th 2007 was my first day to a completely life changing experience!
Given our current situation, I was pretty restricted when it came to doing many things. I'm a stay-home dad to our 4-year-old son. So, with one paycheck supporting the family at the moment and not really being able to just take off to a gym or even afford a monthly fee, I opted to workout from home.
We had a treadmill, granted that dusty thing was about 7 years old and I have a total of 145lbs of useable weights in the garage, 2 barbells, 2 dumbbells and a bench. Definitely not the same as going to a gym, but that didn't matter much to me and I didn't have the strength at the time to push much more anyways.
The only real financial part of Body For Life, unlike some others I've seen, is that you have to use at least 1 EAS product. Which is hardly something negative though, as quite a few of their supplements have excellent reviews, all over the net. It was a choice not to use any fat-burners, appetite suppressants or anything like that, as I wanted to do and complete this transformation as naturally as possible. I can definitely say that they were not necessary either! Also, being that I couldn't spend a lot of money on supplements each month, I had to make either or choices and this is what I chose and used for the entire 12-week challenge:
 EAS L-Glutamine. The vitamin E, green tea extract and omega 3/fish oil capsules were all no name brands, at least none specific enough to mention. I usually bought whatever I found at a few different stores throughout the 3-month period.  View EAS Products Sorted By Top Seller Here. A Sample Week Of My Diet
My diet didn't really rotate in any way, in fact I tried to eat consistently each day for 6 days, if only to keep it easier for me to track. Knowing that a cup of coffee along with a half a cup of oatmeal with a half a cup of fat-free milk and a scoop of protein along with 5 hardboiled egg whites comes to about 465 calories, 42g carbs (10g sugar), 63g protein and 5g of fat (as an example of my current Meal 1), makes it much easier to track what and how you're eating. That said, a typical good day would look like this:
Meal 1 (300-500 calories) about 8:30am - after morning cardio Meal 2 (295 calories) about 12pm - after my workout Meal 3 (300-400 calories) about 3pm Meal 4 (300-500 calories) about 6pm Meal 5 (200-300 calories) about 9pm Meal 6 (295 calories) about 11pm Some days I would eat less, some days I would eat more... the average calories I had per day was typically in the 1500-1900 range, with at least 220g of protein per day. If I didn't have enough carbs each day, I felt it the next day, so I would say that balanced meals, were my goal here. Keeping all sugars below 60g per day was important to me too. This is pretty typical day, and because I knew the stats of everything I could have my natural peanut butter sandwich at Meal 3 instead and switch things out without really changing too much. Other meals that I included would be like 2 pouches of tuna with some fat-free mayo, onions, and pickles halves as a sandwich between that double fiber bread; half eaten with a fork. I know that I wasn't very creative with my meals, but that wasn't necessary for me during this time. Also, being that I did this in the summer time, it helped to drink a lot of water! Sometimes a lot more than this, and also 1-2 16oz bottles during workouts and cardio sessions. There was a lot of fruit in the house during this time as well and having a cup of cut strawberries, pineapple, watermelon or cantaloupe during a meal would happen once or twice per day on the average. As you can tell there's not a lot of vegetables in the diet, not that it was planned that way or because I didn't want them... BFL actually suggests them at every meal. However, I was so focused on carbs, proteins, and fats that the "how I got them" kind of got lost somewhere I guess.
I started my challenge doing the Body for Life workout plan, thinking that I would alter it later, once I got used to working out again. I was amazed how well it worked though! It's definitely a sound program that I think would be good at any fitness level. I'll describe how I used it with the weights that I had available too. First though, I'll explain how it works: Basically it goes:
Continued in the same pattern so that 1 week you would have 2 upper body workouts and the next you would have 2 lower body workouts. I also did a cardio session every morning before Meal 1, on an empty stomach. This got progressively longer as I built up some endurance - I started the first week with 20 minutes and tried to add 10 minutes onto that each week (at 60 minutes though I upped the tempo quite a bit) until my treadmill gave up on me and we bought an elliptical. I still don't feel the same as I did running on my treadmill, and I'm hoping to get a new one in the house very soon again!
 Click Image To Enlarge.I Started My Challenge Doing The Body For Life Workout Plan. I'll go into my workouts now, which are very basic when it comes to the actual exercises. The only difference I think I made, that isn't part of the "BFL plan" or anything else, is that I'll start with a weight that I'll push X amount of times until exhaustion. Hopefully that number will come out to be 12 on the first set.
I've also had to push out quite a few sets prior in the 20+ range, sometimes until I got to where my body could only do 12 reps a set. From there I continued, still with the same weight and only working with my rests to continue in a pattern of 10, 8, 6 and 12 reps, pushing to exhaustion at each set. There's probably a name for this type of workout, although I couldn't tell you at the moment. With that said, my workouts could look like this:
Bench Press - 145 lbs
15 reps - 30 second rest 12 reps - 30 second rest 10 reps - 30 second rest 8 reps - 30 second rest 6 reps - 1 minute rest 12 reps - no rest Dumbbell Flye - 35 lbs
Bent Over Barbell Row - 80 lbs
10 reps - 30 second rest 8 reps - 30 second rest 6 reps - 1 minute rest 12 reps - no rest Dumbbell Pullover - 50 lbs
Barbell Curl - 60 lbs
12 reps - 30 second rest 10 reps - 30 second rest 8 reps - 30 second rest 6 reps - 1 minute rest 12 reps - no rest Concentration Curl - 20 lbs
Close Grip Bench Press - 120 lbs
12 reps - 30 second rest 10 reps - 30 second rest 8 reps - 30 second rest 6 reps - 1 minute rest 12 reps - no rest Triceps Kickback - 20 lbs
Upright Row - 60 lbs
10 reps - 30 second rest 8 reps - 30 second rest 6 reps - 1 minute rest 12 reps - no rest Side Lateral Raise - 20 lbs
I think you get the idea now. My form, speed and rest is what helped to make things work, but I never stopped a set if I could pull out a few more reps, which in the end only meant that I had to do more sets or shorten my rests so that I couldn't do more reps.  Click Image To Enlarge.My Form, Speed, And Rest Is What Made Things Work. When my strength got better and the sets increased - making my workouts too long, I had to actually split up my routine. For instance: sometimes I would have to put shoulders in with my lower body workout, or on a cardio day. I always tried to keep my workouts less than 45 minutes. That was something I learned to be important over ten years ago, while I was on the Big Beyond Belief program. I usually did my delts last, only because they kick my butt - If I fry my shoulders early on it effected the rest of my workout too much. Later on, because of this, I put them on "other" days, when my workouts were getting too long.
10 reps - 30 second rest 8 reps - 30 second rest 6 reps - 1 minute rest 12 reps - no rest Leg Extension - 90 lbs
Stiff Leg Deadlift - 80 lbs
10 reps - 30 second rest 8 reps - 30 second rest 6 reps - 1 minute rest 12 reps - no rest Dumbbell Lunge - 25 lbs
For abs (which comes now in my Lower Body Workout) I would usually do an ab routine from Exercise TV onDemand. "Great Abs" was always good; A sectional development routine that does 8 sets in 7 minutes.
There are quite a few things that I can suggest to anyone looking to make a transformation!
 Get Yourself A Pair Of Fat Calipers.
I really hope that someone finds this useful, helpful, inspiring... whatever as long as it's to his or her benefit. It's really helped me so much more than I can put in words here. Looking back at my stats from "Before" and "After," I can't even imagine where I'll be in double that time, in 6 months from now or even a year? Best of luck and health to all that are transforming themselves and their lifestyles and the same really to anyone that is already working out... you guys are the inspiration and extra kick that I find to help me push and continue with my own progress!
Mark Valenti Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here! Visitor Reviews Of This Article!
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