I took my first step towards building my “body for life” today.  The program calls for weight lifting one day and cardio the next.  You also have to follow a nutrition plan that includes 6 meals per day each consisting of a portion of protein and a portion of carbohydrates.

After exactly 53 minutes of upper body workout, I feel like someone knocked me down and ran over me with a street sweeper.  The workout is designed to make you vary the level of intensity as you perform multiple sets of an exercise.  You are then supposed to try and reach a level of maximum intensity on the last set.  The cardio activities follow the same formula where you change the level of intensity every 1 minute during a 20 minute workout.

I also took my “before” picture.  Folks, I know pictures don’t lie, but I didn’t know they were going to point and laugh too.  I’m not sure I realized just how bad it is.  I recommend that anyone who is having workout and diet motivation issues simply take a picture of themselves in very few clothes from all angles.  If your hair doesn’t turn white and you don’t go into anaphylactic shock, you will definitely be motivated to get off your lazy ass and get in shape.

So I’ve buried those pictures deep, deep on my laptop hard drive, and I’ll pull them out again in 12 weeks so I can hopefully feel good about myself and the transformation that I’ve made.  And if that doesn’t work?  I’m gonna try not to think that far ahead.  It’s too depressing.