Day 84 Video: Mission 1 Complete – 43 Pounds Down

G’day,

After 10 long years of trying to get my health and fitness back on track I can proudly report that I have officially dropped 19.9 kgs (43.8 lbs) in the last 84 days! While there is much work left to do over the next 281 days I am extremely happy to have completed this Mission at 97.5% CAPS (Cumulative Accountability Percentage Score).

Before I get into the finer details of this Mission I have a few thoughts I’d like to share. The first one is the realisation that the strategies I used ‘back in the day’ to go from 84 kgs to 74 kgs (original Mission 1 in 2006) had to be revised to in order to cut down from 124.4 kgs. For me, the biggest adjustments I had to make were concerning mindset, accountability and nutrition.

Also, I had to be a lot granular in the structure of my 10-Point “Daily Accountability System”, hence the reason why it now includes mindset, motivation, goal achievement processes every day, along with revised weightings for nutrition and training. I also put my smartwatch data to use and integrated a minimum step count requirement every day. I believe the adjustments I made on this Mission compared to all the failed attempts since 2009 made all the difference. It would have been nice to realise this earlier but at least I’m here now!

One more major thing, this Mission I focused on two physical “Challenges” as my end goal: run 5km in under 30 minutes (nay) and swim 250m in under 10 minutes (yay). I chose to focus on these goals rather a “reward” that included a beach holiday, junk food and/or anything else I used to do. For me, this was a more tangible and health-congruent goal as opposed to previous attempts that put the focus on fleeting moments of “external” gratification.

These two “challenges” also served the purpose of staying on track in the midst of daily fluctuations in weight and bodyfat. That is, if my weight or bodyfat went in the wrong direction for a couple of days I could focus on beating my prior personal best run or swim, rather than fret about the numbers.

Results:
Over the course of this Mission I have dropped 19.9 kgs (43.8 lbs) and 6.2% bodyfat (according to my digital scales). I started at 124.4 kg (273.6 lbs) and finished at 104.5 kgs (230.3 lbs). According to my scales I have increased my lean muscle mass from 41.9% to 45.4%, so it appears I have lost primarily fat weight.

Mindset, Motivation and Goal Visualisation:
When I first wrote the RTP Transformation System back in 2008 these were the first three modules, and in my opinion the most important. This time around I expanded on these “exercises” and integrated the practices into my daily routine.

This is so critical especially on those days when your results plateau, you get an injury or when “life happens.” I experienced all of these things throughout the 84 days and without a solid foundation beneath me this Mission would have ended prematurely, like all the rest over the last 10 years.

Accountability:
At the start of this Mission I aimed for a CAPS of 95%+ as I knew I would need a high level of compliance to build momentum in the first few weeks. Once you start to see the positive results of your efforts (and compliance) you can ride it all the way home. I finished with a CAPS of 97.5% which I think is a fair reflection of my results.

Nutrition:
This part of my program is the one that has changed the most in the 12 years since I finished Mission 6 (2009). I discuss this in detail in my Day 84 Video below, but suffice to say the strategy to bring my weight down from 124.4 kg to 104.5 kg was different to my original Mission 1 in 2006 (84 kgs to 74 kgs).

Nutrition is a vast and sometimes complicated and contradictory topic with “new” studies and opinions bombarding cyberspace every day. What I can say for certain, on this Mission I avoided the following: added sugar, seed oils, processed carbs and alcohol. I prepared all my own meals from whole food sources. This is what worked for me, and the longer my Mission went on the easier it got.

I actually finished the Mission with 100% nutrition compliance and even now on Day 84 I still have no desire to shovel junk down my throat. The plan I designed for myself seems sustainable for the long term, time will tell.

Training (HyperShred):
Like my nutrition plan, the training strategy I used in 2006-09 needed quite a few tweaks as starting from 124.4 kgs is a lot different than starting from 84 kgs. With weight training I added “rest period cardio” for the first eight weeks which meant my volume, heart rate and step count were all high at the end of each session.

I also integrated a 10k step minimum into my “Daily Accountability Score” to ensure movement throughout the day. My chosen aerobic activities for this Mission were running and swimming. Over the 84 days I increased my max run time from 1 minute to 39 minutes and dropped my 250m swim time from 13:30 to 9:30.

On an average day I trained in the morning (usually a run) and in the evening (weights/swim) for a combined total of two hours. A solid output, but nothing compared to the outrageous output of the legendary David Goggins who exercised 12 hours a day to lose 108 pounds in 12 weeks.

I know there is immense appeal in getting “Goggins-like” results but I’d rather train for two hours a day than 12! Besides, the risk of serious injury and burnout is so much higher when you feel like you have to climb Everest every single day.

What I Need To Improve:
Back in the day I had never been one to put much emphasis on stretching, mobility and warm-ups. That time has passed as I clearly am not 21 anymore! In the last 84 days I got my myself a knee strain, achilles tendonitis and a bicep twinge. Thankfully, none of these injuries were severe enough to take me out of the Mission, but I do need to research and implement injury prevention techniques as I move forward.

Ok, I think this covers my first 84 days pretty well!

Until tomorrow,

AJ