The Rick for Life Plan

At first when you look at the before and after pictures on the BFL website you think: WOW!  But as you look closer, the before pictures don't necessarily look that bad.  I'm told that one of the keys to getting that six pack at the end of 12 weeks you have to have a starting body fat of 20 percent or less.

I have never started with a body fat that low, as most of us don't. So we often get disappointed when, after the 12 weeks are done, and we've reached our goals, there is no six pack.  

I have never been disappointed at the end of any 12 week program.  If anything, I'm excited I finished.  I'm excited I disciplined myself to do it.  I'm excited how good I feel both spiritually and physically.  I'm excited about maintaining what I built.  

So here I am, once again with a body fat greater than 30 percent, and I know now that I will not be what you see in the pictures when I'm done with 12 weeks.  I think the reality of it is those pictures create a false image for people, who are discouraged when they finish, and quit, never to do a workout program again.

Yet I think that's wrong.  I think you need to pick a program, BFL or Weight Watchers or other, and just do it.  The alternative is that you gain weight, you feel like a fat blob, and your self esteem and all that stuff takes a hit.  I don't want to get to that point again.  That's why I've decided to make a life of this.  

So, for that reason, there will be times I take more than one free day.  There will be times when I have an extra glass of wine in the midst of a work week.  I try not to do these things, but the truth to the matter is, in the real course of a life, there's no way you can maintain a BFL diet.  Surely you can program your body to do it a few months, but it's impossible to do it for a lifetime.

So for now I'm doing the all out BFL.  Yet there will be days in the coming weeks and months where someone calls me to go out for dinner, or for a beer (actually, one of those days is today), and I will go out.  I will have fun.  I will be normal.  

To do otherwise will be to miss out on life.  To do otherwise will be setting yourself up to fail.  However, you do not deserve that extra cookie if you have already been slacking.

Today is a free day from workout, but not from diet.