Day 50 - Day 63, End of Cycle #1

The last 2 weeks of my Insanity Challenge went according to schedule. I squeezed in 3 workouts on the road (2 in Livermore and 1 in San Francisco). Today marked the last day (Day 63) on the calendar and the only Sunday workout called for during the challenge. The workout for today was a simple Fit Test session. The results from today's test are in the table below with the Day 1 results for comparison.

Exercise	Day 1 Reps	Day 63 Reps
Switch Kicks	35	56
Power Jacks	26	53
Power Knees	53	96
Power Jumps	22	53
Globe Jumps	6	9
Suicide Jumps	8	17
Push-Up Jacks	11	27
Low Plank Oblique	22	50

I have debated whether I am happy with my Day 63 results or depressed with Day 1 shape. I think it is a little bit of both. After much thought over the last couple of weeks, last night I decided to take the "after" picture (for public consumption) even before I did the Fit Test. For a little perspective, here is the "before" picture taken on February 25, 2012. (WARNING: Incredibly white pasty skin below. You might want to stop here if you have a weak stomach.)

Before (February 25, 2012)

Although Josh suggested shaving my chest and oiling up for the photo, I did not. You can thank me for that later.

After (May 12, 2012)

I am pretty happy that you can actually see a difference. It feels like it should be more than the 7-9 pounds of weight loss, but there are mitigating factors (I had three business trips - eating out 3 times/day for ~13 days). Hopefully, I will be getting my T-shirt in 4-6 weeks.

Let's be clear -- I absolutely HATE the Insanity workout for about an hour a day. I am fine with it for the other 23 hours. I really don't think that you can fail with Insanity as long as you make a commitment to do it whether you feel like it or not (or how good of shape you start with). Blogging about the daily workouts really helped me the first half of the cycle until the commitment became a habit. I will likely start a Cycle #2 in a few weeks because my body needs a break and I don't feel I am ready for the Asylum. Thanks for playing along with me over the last 2-3 months.