Man, its good to be back on the bands! 4th workout with them, had done a couple hit workouts for as long as I could stand before those, but man, stamina is coming quickly! On the hiit workouts and the first couple chiseled workouts I was SO out of breath - don't get me wrong, I expect to be out of breath and sweating, but it was alot more out of breath than normal, well, it was what the normal was for me last week. I took a couple days off to recouperate, well, three days, but I had gone 5 days in a row after doing nothing for about a year ... so it was good, BUT back to it today and not nearly as out of breath as I had been doing the same thing last week! I'm going through chiseled series 3 dvd's and I'm not back to the weights I was using a year ago, but my stamina is certainly increasing, and quickly! Its great seeing fast results, very motivating. Weight is still the same as the last time i weighed myself, BUT when I did it was int he morning, I just weighed in late int he day fully clothed and it says i'm the same, which is great because I'd normally expect it to say more! Have a great day everyone, I'll keep updating my progress here, if anything, as a reminder to myself for the journey I'm going on. This is also very motivating!

Hello to all my fellow fitness fanatics out there. I'm excited and eager to try out my new bands. I certainly hope they live up to theype. I'm ready for the challenge.

So I had started with the bands about a year ago, just before I got married. Things were going good and then life caught up! I work in a one person business fixing computers along with clients who have service contract for service, if there stuff is broken, I HAVE to go fix it. Between that, getting married, a short time out of work and a very busy summer the bands collected dust in the background ... for the past year. When I last stopped, I remember being about 268 just before the wedding - I think I had dropped 10lbs between the bands and juicing, I had started juicing in a last ditch effort to lose weight, and it did work, but of course it isn't a replacement for working out.

Well, a year later and here I am, 277lbs or so, achy back from sitting on the couch and working (well, trying to figure out how to bring in more work it more like it, this is the slowest spring I've ever experienced in my 6.5 years living where I am). My parents are coming to visit at the end June, my wife and I will be moving at the end of the summer, after which we are planning a long vacation to Mexico, and here I am, the same lazy mess I was before I bought the bands last year.

Well, considering all of that, and also considering the desire to have a better appearance when job hunting come Fall, I picked up the bands again. My endurance is crap right now, not that it was great before, but I definitely have a harder time getting up off the couch and small walks leave me out of breath! We do live up at 8,000ft, but still, I've been here for a while now. I need a change and I need to stick with it, so I picked up the bands again and am using the series 3 DVD's that came with the bands. Man is it hard! When i started a year ago i was able to stick it out through a whole DVD but now I make it about 25 minutes to 30 minutes and I'm toast! BUT I feel better after only 3 days in a row, I'm sore but more alert and awake, I've put on 5lbs of retaining weight from waking up my muscles (but I know my metabolism will go up, causing the fat to melt off quickly), and I feel better about it. i should try to do the workouts earlier, but I get them in, heart racing for the entire time, drinking water, getting moving again. Its hard to find motivation when work is extremely slow, there is nothing to do, you're trying to find new streams of revenue, but keep hitting walls and you're tired all the time. After sitting on the couch or a chair all day, when the end of the day comes its hard to get up and do Chiseled, but after the past 3 days, I've found my motivation for it once again. I'm not going to quit this time ... I read the before and afters of people and see the changes they have had in just a month's time and i think back and say, wow, if I had started this a month ago, stuck with it and was motivated, I wouldn't look like this - I would be so different and on my way to a healthier body ... and then I would sit there and zone out. Zoning out to the tube or a movie at the end of the day feels much better when your muscles are tired and achy, your back doesn't hurt, and you got up and did something to make a change in your life - after working out. I'm not a runner, I tried the HIIT cardio thinking I would start light and get my body moving, but after 5minutes I was done. The Chiseled workout is great. I'm about 5'10", like I said, 277. I've always been a big guy, even when working in the restaurant business, on my feet all day. I think the lightest I've ever been was 183, but back then I was drinking and ssmoking, popping ephedrine pills and dancing every night. Funny how 3 hours of cardio, a little uppers and a bunch of drinks can still keep you more fit than not drinking, not smoking but not moving.

my goal with this is the lose the belly, build up the muscles someone of my build should have (I'm a stocky guy, even if I was in shape, not someone who should just be toned out), and lose weight. I know it will take dedication, hard work and eating right (working on that!), but i'tll happen this time. If I give it just a month and see where I am then, even without eating 100% right, with my current size I'm bound to see lots of changes. I need to pre-plan and have the right food around, the wrong food out, and make time, even if it is half a chiseled workout, to do something to build muscles and whip this body back into shape. With the way Blake and Ashanti go in Chiseled, it definitely is incorporating cardio, the amount that someone with my endurance can keep up with and even have to rest a bit longer with.

I'm looking forward to this journey, I smile when I walk and my legs are sore, I can't wait to see the changes I'm going to see.

What is REALLY holding you back from getting to where you want to be. Not just in health and fitness, but whatever else it may be. Is it your lack of confidence? Finances? Negative thinking? Unhappy relationship? Loss of a loved one? We all have something that "floats" around us like a fog, creating blurred vision. It is funny...you can look one direction and see someone who seems to get everything and anything they want so easily and then look the other direction and see someone with the purest soul get the worst of it all. Why is that? Honestly, no one knows so stop asking WHY. There was a review done in Current Directions in Psychological Science on a study performed on a group of people who'd experienced a few big challanges - like divorce or death - and they were found to be more resilient in later stressful situations than those who hadn't. Tough times toughen us! Welcome the challenge and know there is nothing you cannot conquer!