The day of reckoning. Is there a test for anxiety much? I barely could sleep well the night before. We started off with the weigh-in. I have been trying really hard for the past month to watch what I’ve been eating and it paid off big time this morning. I lost 9 lbs since my last retest*! That was a great way to start off the morning and helped me relax, a bit. But then we dove right into overall measurements – but I was really happy because I lost 1.5 inches from my waist and 2 inches from my hips*. That’s exactly where I want to start losing the inches!
Ultrasounds are part of the retest to help determine the thickness of the fat and muscle. This information is used to accurately calculate body fat percentage. They measure three spots: thigh, hip and triceps.
Comparing the images over time shows how my muscle has increased while fat has decreased. The right side of the image is my bicep one year ago when I first started working out at TMR while the image on the left was the current retest. From the top of the image to the first white line is fat. Between the two white lines is the muscle. You can see how much more muscle I have now!
The rest of the test went well. My bike test results were pretty much the same – I made it to about the 9 minute mark and then my legs gave out. My theory about the camera helping me push through didn’t really pan out, I basically did the same as I did at my last retest.
Here I’m trying to laugh my way through the bike test! Laughter is supposed to be the best medicine and a good workout!!
My flexibility has improved. I can now comfortably touch my toes while stretching. In the back flexibility test I was able to reach 2 cm further which means my back is more flexible and my hamstrings are limber*.
I was able to do 40 pushups this time, compared to 33 at my last retest.
The torsion control test is really difficult. While holding a pushup position you have to lift one of your arms or legs off the ground while keeping your hips straight and moving your body as little as possible. It’s all core strength. I’ve improved each retest but it’s really hard because I can never really tell if I’m moving my hips or not.
I improved my time with the abdominal test by about 30 seconds and the back strength test by 10 seconds!
Side plank elation! I can now hold each side for a little bit over 70 seconds! When I first started I don’t think I could even do a side plank.
The last test was the burpee test. I have actually been practicing my burpees during Re-Energizer Boot Camp each week. I didn’t make a huge improvement from last time but a little bit is still good! Last time I was able to do 14 ½ burpees in one minute, this time I did 16!
Finally it was time to learn my body fat percentage – this was the information that I wanted all along and Joseph made me wait through the entire test before he would tell me! My goal was to loss 2% body fat and I did! I’m now at 34.2% body fat, 13% of which is excess fat.
Here I am pointing out my favourite part of the graphs – NO LONGER OBESE! Even though TMR doesn’t use the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a part of their measurements I was really excited when I saw that as according to that scale I am no longer classified as grade 1 obese!
I’m really happy with my results! I won’t know for a couple of days whether I met the goals I set with James 4 months ago. I will let you know as soon as I find out. But no matter what happens this was one of the most satisfying retests I’ve had since starting at TMR. I worked really hard this month, put a lot of time in doing one-on-one training and bootcamp and really watched my eating. The holidays were tough – my family makes amazing desserts and it was really hard to say no – but it was all worth it! I think this is going to be an amazing year! I’m getting closer to my overall weight-loss and fitness goals and changing my life everyday.
Good luck to all of the new ambassadors! This will be an journey for all of you and I can’t wait to work with you and read all about your successes!!