The Long, Hard Road to Weight Loss Part 3: Seeing my Abs for the First Time

Late May-Late August 1996: 

My Goal and Why: This time I only wanted to lose about five pounds. I went to school that fall at 195 and now I weighed 200. Since I was lifting 5-6 days/week of course it was all muscle (It wasn’t because there were too many 12 oz arm curls). I just wanted to get a bit leaner. 

What I did I do to Achieve the Goal: I ate Mom’s cooking but I didn’t have seconds. I also didn’t avoid fat. Finally, I didn’t run because I had lost the weight I wanted to lose the previous summer. 

What was the Result: I went back to college late August and was looking forward to hitting the gym since I had limited access to one when I was at home. The first thing I did was step on the scale to see if I met my 195 weight goal and to my disbelief I weighed 177. At first I thought the scale was off because I thought there was no way I could have lost that much weight. After I put 25 lb weights on the scale to make sure it was correct I was actually crushed because I thought I lost all muscle since the last time I weighed 177 was when I was a freshman in college. My frustration quickly changed as many people I knew were asking me what I did to lean up so much. The term “Ripped” actually came up. Also, since the lighting was poor in the mirror at home, I saw in the mirrors at the gym and in my Fraternity I had abs for the first time. I actually walk around without a shirt with confidence and get compliments as well. In about four hours I was on cloud nine! 

Knowing what I Know Now What Would I do Different: Nothing except make sure I got resistance training in at least with body weight. It would have been simple to do chin-ups and pull-ups.