The Results Are In

After 8+ weeks on the program, here are the results.

	Before	After	Difference
Weight	133 ½  lbs	126 lbs	-7 ½ lbs
Chest	33 in.	32 ¾ in.	- ¼ in.
Waist	29 in.	28 ¼ in.	- ¾ in.
Hips	40 ½ in.	38 ½ in.	-2 in.
Phase Angle	6.1	6.2	+0.1
Intracellular Water	52.4%	52.9%	+0.5%
Body Mass Index	22.5	20.9	-1.6
Fat Mass	27.4%	24.5%	-2.9%

Can I get a woo hoo?! Especially for the two inches off my hips and decreasing the fat content in my body by almost three percent. Not so cool is the chest measurement. I can’t really afford to lose much up there but I guess I’ve got to take the good with the bad.

Also unfortunate are my phase angle and intracellular water numbers. They didn’t go up as much as I hoped they would. My phase angle is supposed to be above 7.0 (it’s 6.2) and my intracellular water number is supposed to be above 56.1% (it’s 52.9%).

When I got my results I looked at Dr. Lowry and said, “But, but, I’ve been drinking tons of water and eating really healthy. I swear. How come those numbers are still so low?”

Without hesitating, he looked me in the eye and said very matter-of-factly, “Coffee and alcohol. You’ll have to give those up if you want to change these numbers.”

I threw my head back and howled with laughter. After wiping the tears from my face and taking a sip of my Venti Non-fat Latte, I looked him in the eye and said very matter-of-factly, “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”

It’s a lifestyle, right? It’s all about choices and I choose not to give up coffee or the occasional glass of wine, or even the occasional two glasses. So there.

Overall, I’d say those figures are not bad for an old gal like me, and much better than I thought given my recent travels. But the truth is, I wasn’t absolutely horrible on my vacation. Sure, there were days that I completely blew it, but I was “on plan” over half the time.

Take my exercise routine as an example. I was supposed to complete 15 different workouts over the three weeks—3 upper body, 3 lower body, and 9 cardio. I completed 10 of those—3 upper body, 3 lower body, and 4 cardio. That’s a 67% success rate.

And my eating, well, yeah I had the guacamole, and the vodka tonic and the wine and the margaritas and those cookie things filled with butter cream icing, but those were isolated incidents. (Except for the wine. I was a repeat offender on that one.) When I did overindulge, I made up for my bad behavior the following day with more healthy eating.

Also, as Dr. Lowry pointed out, I was starting from a better base point. Meaning, I had already put on muscle mass prior to my trip, since muscle burns more calories than fat, the extra calories I consumed was, thankfully, being taken care of by my new higher metabolism. So it all worked together to keep me relatively on track.

While I’m thrilled with the results, I still have some work to do. According to the Biomarkers of Health worksheet Dr. Lowry gave me, I'm now as fat as an 80-year-old. The good news is I'm not as fat as a cow anymore. The bad news is I’m supposed to get that number down to 19%-22%.

(heavy sigh)

What’s that old saying, no rest for the weary?

Uh huh, my new mantra is “no slackie for the fattie.”