Progress report

I have 5 weeks left to diet and train, then I hit the week before the competition when I don't work out and my trainers manipulate my diet daily based on how I look. I'll make no plans for that week and completely submit myself to the process. But right now, my goal is to drop a pound a week and I think I'll be able to do it. If I succeed, I should be exactly where I need to be with respect to fat loss without subtracting too much muscle.

I weigh 107.4 lbs. today. When I started training on March 1, I weighed 116, the most I've weighed in my entire adult life. The scale was creeping up by roughly a pound a year, and despite my best efforts to stop the escalation, including working out 6 days a week, composed of 3 cardio days of 30 - 45 minutes and 3 weight training days, I couldn't stop it. So this bodybuilding process has demonstrated that what I thought was impossible - to lose a single pound, let alone 10! - is possible. Actually, I've lost more than 10 pounds when the muscle gain is factored in. The key to the success has been the incremental changes in my diet, with different items gradually dropping out. Juice was one of the first things to go. Unnecessary calories.

Since I've made it this far, I'm feeling very motivated (ok, and very hungry at times, especially when I wake up in the morning. In fact, I have no trouble getting up by 7:15 just so I can eat). So I'll suffer what I must to lose the final 5 lbs. because it's not too much longer. Plus, I'm very curious to see what my legs look like with hardly any fat.