I don’t know if I’m excited or fearful for the next 84 days in my life. Actually, that’s not true – I’m excited.
I’m excited because I’ve done it before and I know how AMAZING the outcome is. 84 days isn’t a short amount of time but it’s not that long either when you consider the massive transformation you can have on your body, your mind and your spirit.
Imagine waking up on day 84, looking in the mirror and seeing a new YOU. Not just physically but mentally. After all, you just completed a major accomplishment. You committed to an 84 day challenge of eating healthy and working out and you just won the gold medal of follow-through. Now you can see those abs, chest, and the place where those love-handles used to be.
Isn’t it sweet to taste victory?
And now, with this new body of yours, you’re ready to tackle new challenges. Challenges that seemed impossible before but suddenly don’t seem all that hard. That’s because you’ve already crushed a difficult task and the courage is boiling within you. Suddenly, nothing will seem as hard as it did before.
That’s how I felt when I completed the 84 day challenge a few years ago. For the most part, I kept in pretty good shape since that time considering I’ve been mostly travelling the world, not committing to any particular diet and not touching weights for many months at a time. I’d actually like to change my travel habits in the future but first I must complete another 84 day fitness challenge. Since travelling to South America and Mexico this year for five whole months and eating anything I wanted, my waistline is starting to bulge. Maybe it’s because I’m 30 years old now but the bad habits I’ve brought back into my life over the last seven months have not been doing me good. Not going to the gym for the entire year of 2014 up until now is making me feel weak and anxious.
But that all changes as of September 8th, 2014!
What’s cool this time is that I have this blog. I barely knew what a blog was when I first completed this challenge back in 2006. When I did start this blog, I wrote about the incredible transformation I made in that short amount of time and it has become the most popular post of all time on Live Limitless. This time, I can actually record my results in different ways and write about the experience as I go through it.
It’s going to be just as tough if not tougher this time around BUT this time I know how good the results will be if I follow through. Last time I wasn’t sure until I saw my after photos and they blew me away!
Maybe you want to start the program with me and hold each other accountable. Don’t worry about being a week late. It doesn’t matter. What matters is completing the entire program. We don’t need to start at exactly the same moment.
Maybe you want to follow along and watch me transform right in front of your eyes from day 1 to day 84. That’s cool too. I hope it’s entertaining and I hope it inspires you to start your own challenge when I finish.
Today marks day 1 of the program for myself. The first week is the hardest of all the weeks. Buying new groceries, preparing new recipes, developing a routine, waking up early to lift weights or run on the treadmill…
But it’s worth it. Trust me.
Here are some steps to prepare for your first week and the rest of the program.
- Take a before photo in your underwear and keep it somewhere safe. Feel free to share it for extra motivation as well.
- Get proper measurements done and a body fat % test from a local fitness trainer/gym. You will want to know the incredible progress you made in the end.
- Plan out your first week of recipes and keep it simple. Scrambled eggs and refried beans for breakfast, cottage cheese for a late-night snack and so forth.
- Buy meal replacement supplements if you feel eating 5-6 meals per day will be tough at first.
- Plan out a grocery list ahead of time and get it all done before the week starts.
- Plan the first week of fitness, including treadmill and weights and stick to it!
- Reward yourself on day 7 with a special treat for your off-day.
I’ll be more specific in following posts with workouts and recipes to keep things simple and easy.
Until then, I hope you enjoy this 84 day challenge of mine and I hope you can do it with me.
What do you think? Are you game?
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