The end of PCP and a beginning

So, PCP is finally over. Took the last two days to just gather my thoughts a little bit. The last three months had been a really interesting experience, so I'll see if I can do a brief recap of it.

Changes

If there's one single big change, that would be the confidence. I used to be kind of skinny but never really athletic. As I grew up and adopting a more sedentary lifestyle I just got less and less fit, to the point I would actually describe myself chubby. I remember not too long ago a friend of mine was making fun of me as not having a neck as it was getting hard to see it hiding under all the bulk (that was a real wake-up call!). When I went hiking with friends etc I would actually be falling behind. Now that I have done PCP I feel great! I may not be Bruce Lee, but in general I feel much more confident in my body and don't feel that I have to wear clothes just to cover my belly up. More importantly I gained the confidence that I can actually be athletic and fit. Most people could be athletic if they want to. They just need to do it instead of agonizing about it.

Diet/Cooking: I had always liked cooking my own food so cooking all my meals wasn't too bad. If anything it's really about efficiency. It's fine to cook up a complicated meal once in a while but for every day you really start to learn how to cook and ship for groceries efficiently. In fact given the time commitment the whole PCP is really about efficiency!

Body: Here're some quick stats:

Before:

• 76 kg / 168 lbs
• 20% body fat

After:

• 69.9 kg / 154.2 lbs
• 14.8% body fat

A picture is worth a thousand words so I made a collage of my progress over 13 weeks.

Obligatory "pants no longer fit me causing me to spend $$$ on new clothes" shot.

My six-pack that unfortunately only shows up under certain lighting. Still ways to go.

Future

I think the fact that PCP has ended is still sinking in. I'll admit it thought I'm kind of scared that I will just regress back to eating, slacking, and not exercising. That said I spent the last two days doing just that and actually went and did jumprope today just because I kind of missed it.

Over the last 3 months Patrick has done an excellent job laying out what I should be eating and how I should be exercising, so sort of feel lost now. I'm quite satisfied with my results (especially when I actually had to look at my day 1 picture holy crap the difference is huge), but I don't think I'm really at "peak" condition yet, so will probably continue to train albeit at a slower rate. Will definitely be an adventure to need to figure out my own workout plan!

General Thoughts

While the last 3 months haven't been the dramatic emotional roller coaster ride that I imagined, it was nevertheless an interesting and rewarding experience. PCP is about so much more than just being buff. It's really about being healthy, fit, and mentally strong. There are days in the middle where I really did get frustrated where I wasn't seeing so much results and wondering why I'm putting so much work in, but things all worked out in the end. Oh, and you learn how to blog as well.

If you are thinking about doing this, do it! It's indeed a time commitment, but if you think of it as a 3 month summer camp that extends your lifespan by years suddenly the math doesn't look too bad. Don't worry about not being able to do it either. I think most people have the ability to really work hard and become healthy and fit, and PCP did do a good job in gradually let it soak in and make us actually want to work hard to maintain our body.

To the PCPers who are still doing this, good luck! Just keep it up and it'll be over before you know it. Team Echo, it was fun going through this with you guys. And of course no thanks to my sister who dragged me into this!

Best of luck in leading a healthy life everyone!