Before and After

Happy New Year!

My New Year’s Resolution last year was to get healthier and improve my athletic performance. And I know that everyone says NYR don’t work, but for some reason, the psychological excuse of having the new year really works for me. (Other silly things that have been known to motivate me: moving house and new stationery)

The first photo I was about 61kg after I started working out and was eating pretty well. It’s from November 2008 but that’s pretty much how I looked at the start of 2010. There is muscle there, but it’s hidden under fat, though if you’d asked me I would have said that I didn’t have that much weight to lose. The second photo I was around 50kg. It was taken in December 2010, but I’ve been at this weight since May. So I basically did this in 5 months and have been coasting since then.

Anyway, before and after photos!

I realise that a bikini shot would have been better for comparison (and one where I didn’t have to zoom in like .. 10x), but there hasn’t been much bikini weather this Summer so this is the best I have. It’s not a dramatic Weight Watchers transformation where you see people standing in one leg of their old pants, but this is basically me minus 20% body weight, so I am quite pleased at the change.

I ended the year 2010 leaner, stronger, faster, more flexible, and healthier than how I started it. Hopefully I can stop coasting and start improving again. I’ve gotten into the habit of going to the gym and just doing my regular workout (which don’t get me wrong, is not a slack workout). But I think I started getting into the mindset that all my big beginner gains were over so I stopped trying to improve as much. In 2011 I’m going to try and improve every time I’m at the gym, whether it’s in reps or weight.

So 2011 my health and fitness goals:

• Improve pull-ups. I want to be busting out sets of 8-10 or even starting to attach weights.
• Clean up my diet even more and get back to a 40/40/20 macro split. Cut out potatoes, bread and grains except for the occasional cheat meal. Aim for 7+ serves of vegetables a day.
• Improve power. More jumping, snatches, cleans and explosive movements.
• Lifting-wise I want to get my squat to 75kg (currently at 62.5kg for 3 reps). I want to progress in my deadlift so that it’s higher than my squat. My other dream is a bodyweight bench. I want to get my overhead squat to 40kg.
• I want to drop to 48kg. I think I can still shed some fat around my quads and abs.

2011 is going to be a good year. I can feel it!