In my blog post Scales Lie from last week – I was a bit scathing of my scales because they just weren’t MOVING enough for me. And while I know muscles heavier than fat, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH – I have felt stuck. In fact in net numbers (including fat percentage) I weigh almost the same thing I weighed on August 31st – and I don’t know how these things go for you, but for me that was FRUSTRATING!

We officially started our 4 Hour Body program on September 4th – a few days after a little “cheating fest” following Phase 2. In the the few days between programs my little cheating took me up 6 pounds. A few days into the 4 Hour Body – most of that came off, but still I have hovered consistently between 230 .6 and 233 and the fat percentage floats from 48%-50%.  I just want that 229 number so badly – because then I get to move the chains (so to speak). I started this journey at 289 so at 229 I can say affirmatively that I have released 60 pounds… until then I can only say nearly 60 pounds.

For one whole month, I have been saying — NEARLY 60 POUNDS!  Frustrating.

When today rolled around, we had our 4 week check in. (Toi is still on this journey with me, and that has made all the difference.) Weight, measurements, and photographs were all recorded today. Once I  put the progress photos side-by-side the number on the scale didn’t matter to me anymore.

We have not followed the plan perfectly, for instance, we find eating 4 times a day to be a burden, so we do the best we can. We take our PAGG stack before most meals as directed, and generally do get the bed time stack in. On cheat days we do some squats – but not 50 squats nor 50 wall push ups, and we’ve never done of the chest pulls. We do the kettlebell swings and posterior exercises 3 days a week now (M,W,F) (we were doing them 1-2 times the first 2 weeks). We also have added the ab exercises 2 days a week (T, Th). No exercising on the weekend – except for recreation and cheaters squats.

In talking it over, we believe we’ve been about 75%-80% compliant with the recommendations in the book for burning fat. I am disappointed that we didn’t drop 20 pounds of fat – at least not according to the scale, but the subtle differences in the shape of my body shows that no matter what the damn scale says, I am definitely changing.

We have decided to follow the 4 Hour Body for 30 more days and get a really rigid schedule in for the meals & supplements.

Meantime … here’s the progress so far:

From September 4 – October 3:

WEIGHT:

• DOWN 6.4 total pounds,
• UP 2 pounds of fat (so confusing)
• DOWN 12+ inches in Neck, Biceps, Chest, Waist, Hips, Thighs & Calves

And the photos reflect the progress: