Final post

Dear PCPeers and visitors,

It's almost a slap in the face to be posting this nearly a month overdue. But better late than never. So, Patrick, PCPeers, please excuse me for such inexcusable tardiness.

Recycling wasted bodies

I started PCP because I had some general intuitions about changes that needed to be made in my life:

1. There was the vain aspiration to look good, but mostly a latent feeling of indebtedness to myself.
2. I had abandoned good habits like exercising and eating relatively well as early as I entered college. This was like the 'big bang' of bad habits. I started smoking and drinking like it's customary among college students. I gave up sports and opted to combine intellectual interests with a new social universe (nothing bad about this).
3. This went on for the five years it took me to obtain my undergraduate and graduate degrees. Then came work and with work came independence. My own apartment, my own money, my own excesses. Not being accountable to anyone but myself made me a mostly responsible man, except I spent too much money eating out and never rally took care of my own health. I guess it's a time when you still feel like you're 18 years old.
4. But my late 20s began to show around my stomach. I got married, my wife became pregnant, I quit smoking, my son was born, we started balancing the imbalances and really becoming adults, but still, we led a life of overeating and overworking.
5. So, once again, love of my wife, love of my family and love of myself triggered change; hence the perennial photo in the banner of this blog.

New body, new mind, new path

So we all look great and have witnessed a deep transformation that goes well beyond our initial expectations. This is true and just browsing through the blogs provides evidence enough! My own summary:

1. I eat well now and intend to keep this new habit for the rest of my life.
2. After PCP I ride my bicycle every day and do muscle training three or four times a week.
3. I have decided to balance life-work and I feel I'm doing so successfully. It's not juts a time-management issue, but a mental state. I stopped wearing ties unless it's called for.
4. I think I have a better point of view about life in general as my judgement is more coherent with my lifestyle. My life is active, I spend a lot of my free time outdoors and have picked an interest in outdoor activities that I'm only beginning to explore. The recent Safari in northern Kenya was like a huge breath of air after being trapped inside an elevator for a day.
5. I weighted 77-78 kilos the morning I started the PCP. Today I have a six-pack, it's a delight to wear clothes and look good in them, I've gone down from size 34-35 to size 32 (pants) that still look very loose. I weight 65 kilos, never really measured the body fat percentage but I feel my skin wrapped tightly around my muscles. I can do 6 sets of 8 pull ups properly done. My legs are strong. I'll be 30 next August and I know I look better, stronger, fitter and healthier than ever.

Change propels more change

1. My experience also changed my immediate environment. My wife is thinner just as a consequence of eating well. Relatives and friends who followed my PCP also made some changes themselves.
2. I feel peaceful, relaxed, in a very good mood (so I guess I'm better company). I never overeat now and have decided to keep some PCP rules: no salt, low-fat, lots of vegetables and fruits, the PCP breakfast, very little to no alcohol, occasional indulgences in a moderate way, jumping rope, sitting and standing straight, no processed foods, and eating at home the food we cook ourselves leaving restaurants as occasional venues. All changes that affect my home in a good way.

Final thoughts about what PCP really is

1. In a nutshell: Big, deep and definitive transformation!
2. PCP got me to a a physical condition I didn't dream possible, a mental state that proved me I can be disciplined and adhere to strict habits and routines and that finishing what you start is one of the most rewarding emotions.
3. The physical and the mental combined, made me a stronger individual, more in tune with nature, more in tune with my own body.
4. I'm almost stress-free and very efficient at work, certainly a better husband and father, more sensitive about culture, it's good things and it's pitfalls, more aware about ecological and environmental issues but without obsessing, simply more interest about the consequences of inhabiting this planet one way or the other.
5. I feel now generally more conscious and willing to make small adjustments and experiments with and to my daily life.
6. For example, today I took a long road to the office trying to find some slopes and fixing my bike on the hardest gear to see if I could make it (of course I could).
7. I try to spend a lot of money on food and it's a great investment. There's always something good to eat or to prepare and still I end up with considerable extra money in my pocket at the end of the month.

What's the trick?

Well I could go on and on simply to say over and over that PCP is a transformative experience. It fixed me, it made me better, stronger, healthier and happier. And there's really nothing to it: eat food and jump rope every day, more or less, this is the trick. So, thank you Patrick for the great contribution your work represents, thanks PCPeers for sticking together and staying strong all the way to the end (100% finish is also a collective victory).

Take care!

Juan

Day 90 +

Hello. I'm very sorry but I haven't had access to Internet until now. Safari in northern Kenya is going well with lots of animals spotted and long active days. A longer post will follow. I couldn't be happier to have completed PCP. Many thoughts, final thoughts, have crossed my mind as I stand among strong Samburu warriors and take photos of lion, elephants, villages, etc. I'm eating healthy, working out almost every single day. Today I'm about to go mountain biking through herds of zebra. Stay strong everybody!

Patrick, I could say a lot to you but I prefer to simply say what you do saves lives. I'm a renewed human being, eager to live differently. PCP transformed so many aspects of my life. This was a deeply transformative experience that will last fir years to come. I look forward to KFB! Thank you!

J

Day 89

It's been some time since my last entry. PCP also taught me that making up for such absences with lengthy posts might be guilt-cleansing for the author but utterly boring for the audience.

Of the past 5 days I've spent 2/5 flying to Nairobi and 3/5 in a conference room. The work meeting ended successfully and tomorrow I travel with my wife and father in law to northern Kenya for the next 7 days.

I didn't jump or workout in the airplane but I'm sure eventually a PCPeer will find a way to do it. I would have as indeed I think I found a way to. Chest dips seemed nearly possible except the lady sitting in front of me only had the back of her sit in the upright position for taking off and landing. Creeps would have been possible in the long aisles of the cabin and perhaps even floor jumps. I had an aisle sit and could have done the triceps dips except the person sitting on the other side of the aisle would have seriously objected me placing my feet on his lap. Pull ups and Kung Fu abs using the curtain bar that separated me from business class would have worked in the 1950s, but today's A340 jets have no such bars, just some kind of discrete rails. All other abs were doable but it was rather dark I was afraid of fat passengers walking half asleep to the restrooms stepping on me while enduring through my planks or worse. Lunges are no longer in the repertoire for some reason. I tried pistol squats in the sort of open area around the emergency exit but the flight attendant was really concerned about me using the hatch as support. Fair enough. I asked for a banana before trying all these stunts but was refused the egg white afterwards and all they offer is cream bags when you ask for milk. All the band work can be effectively done but somehow the crew is also paranoid that you are gonna hurt somebody if you let go one end of the band.

OK, so I didn't even try any of this. Honestly, I'm a little shy to do such a thing in front of a crowd without having a scape route available for the next 11 hours. Otherwise, PCP routines can be done above 10,000 feet.

Food wise commercial flights are a disaster. All seems so toxic. I ate tons of fruit before boarding each plane, and accepted the bread, coffee and tea, water, cheese, one banana and then another one, but the rest I simply couldn't swallow.

All these restraints and limits faded in the nice hotel where the conference just took place. I've done my best to stick very strictly to diet although I've had to eye-ball every meal and snack. And I'm writing this after taking a long bath after completing the Day 89 routine!

In anticipation of the end, I want to really thank you PCPeers. It's been a true joy sharing this transformative adventure with all of you. I regret not commenting more on your posts but I did read through them as often as I could following your ups and downs, victories, confessions, conquests and hard work as we are about to stick a flag with a sign that says COMPLETE across our names at the peak of Mount PCP.

We are on our own now and I'm happy to say we couldn't possibly be in better hands. Nobody knows how to take care of us better than we do. When it comes to wellness, we certainly are well ahead of the game.

I will thank you Patrick, but let me do that on Day 91.

Day 85

WiFi on the plane compensates for airplane food.
My journey to Kenya is now ongoing. I will be arriving tomorrow night in Nairobi. My rope is packed right on top, waiting for me to catch up.
Wish you all a glorious final week. I'll keep my posts short and few from here till day 90 as internet access won't always be possible where I'm going. But I shall put a lot of thought and conciseness into my day 90 post and I'll look forward to sharing our victory. Stay strong!

Day 81

I wished the last days of the PCP could unfold quietly at home. Next Saturday I will take a long flight to Nairobi, where I have a three-day work meeting. The big reward will be a subsequent week-long safari with my wife and father in law which will be fantastic.

As many of you have had similar challenges along the way, I gladly welcome any advice to ameliorate the 20 hour flight, not counting stops and time difference, how to eat on the plane, etc.

Otherwise, working hard, making every rep count, keeping a close watch on grams, trying to sleep well and keep the sudden floods of thoughts about the future on hold to concentrate on each day without anxiety.

Day 77: one PCP cycle a year, but what to do in between?

Aren't we all close to feeling a deep burn in the brain? I feel about PCP as my left leg on rep 7 of the final set of pistol squats this week. Deep muscle burn sends a dual signal to my head, a) a great and pleasurable satisfaction, b) a great and painful yearn to put an end to it. To be honest, this is seldom the case for planks, which send only capital "B" signals.

PCP coming to an end raises so many questions. Certainly keeping the muscles stimulated 4 or 5 times a week with a mild routine that I pray Patrick will gift-wrap for as as a graduation present, will be useful. The hard part will be sticking to it. While PCP has proven me that I can finish what I start, rigurously sticking to the plan and observing strict rules and parameters, it has also proven to me the value of being obedient and accountable to a regimen. Two things that will fade right after Day 90 when the trainer no longer sends instructions and the PCPeers go on with their lives. All there will be left will be our-selves against powerful and antagonising enemies like restaurants and butter, as well as dwellers of our brains like temptation and other propensities to take the short way to satisfaction, gradually undermining and deviating from longer term goals. I confess I have this fear. As much as I feel physically strong, I believe the real test of self discipline is about to start, not to end, as 90 days is nothing compared to the aspiration of life-long commitment to wellness.

Today's question time video was ambiguous. Patrick talked about cycles and gave the example of a professional athlete: three months of intensive training, maintenance, competition, rest and recovery, back to intensive training. This sort of virtuous cycle allows the body to break through barriers and push limits; something that cannot be achieved if we kept on going without some rest. It is comforting to know that we can keep growing our condition if we kind of follow this cycle. Right after I finished watching the video, my initial thought was "good news! It will be easy keeping the muscle I've built". A few minutes later, while I was typing up a report in my office, the thought assaulted my mind "(...) but to keep in peak condition and grow from there, a yearly PCP cycle is inevitable".

And then I thought: Competition is the main difference from us, "normal" people (not so normal anymore, thank god!) and athletes. So, in absence of this incentive, I'm thinking I'll need to seriously pick up a sport, which is not so easy to fit in my routine though also not impossible, or to explore more individual alternatives: I'm thinking Kung Fu Body in three months (?). And then, right after Christmas, do a PCP cycle every year.

Thinking about this made my brain feel like my arms and upper body, specially my back, during those 20 seconds of micro-rest before the next set of pull ups!

The beauty of looking ahead of Day 90 as finishing part of a cycle that I will come back to instead of void, is that it reaffirms the value of PCP, dissipates my fear of the future and let's me know that stopping for "20 seconds" is necessary to keep going. Now the deal is to decipher how to go about the rest of the cycle.

Day 74

Too tired last night to workout. I did next Friday's jumps instead and will get back on track today. Adjusting to diet changes has been hard and even painful. My weight in the morning is 66 kilos and goes up as far as 68 before I go to bed. I know all this is normal and expected, and the reasons and explanations behind it are well understood. New photo up. This time the lighting and quality is worse than ever. You may believe me or not but when I see myself in the mirror, I can definitely see more muscle tone and definition. I was toying around with a photo editting app that has some cool effects and a lot of not-at-all cool ones. But, the one to your left is certainly more accurate than the "real" one on the right. Back to work.

Day 70: Shawshank Redemption

PCP, the experiment is about to yield it's final results. Proof of it is that even Patrick refers to the next 20 days kind of in the past tense.

Today's question time video was most illuminating as many of my fears were dissipated: we do get to keep our new selves! The coming weeks are also about "returning" to normalcy before we "reintegrate" to life so that we are able to accept dinner invitations without freaking everybody else as we open a lunch box containing a chopped apple, a boiled egg mysteriously devoid of it's yolk, on top of which we dare ask the host if they happen to have fat-reduced milk in the fridge. I think I'll miss being a bit of an outcast but certainly appreciate that our stomachs cannot stay fist-sized forever.

All these feelings are like watching the Shawshank Redemption; inmates so accustomed to life behind bars that the outside world no longer seems appealing. Except for Tim Robins and Morgan Freeman, whose plan all along was to do great inside while strategising their redemption. To be honest, right now I sympathyse more with the guy whose crow dies, goes out to work packing groceries and hangs himself.

I think readjusting to life after PCP will be traumatic to some extent because even though we will be able to have confidence in our new physiques, so many things about the world will look bleak, grotesque, degraded. If I'm allowed a dose of humour here, I think for example that I will tend to agree with initiatives to update airline policies so that obese passengers are charged extra. Of course, we can all mostly say that we are tolerant, non-discriminatory people. But honestly, who buys that! After PCP it will be inevitable to not only use our new bodies but also our new minds to relate to the world.

OK, I doubt it will be a depressing experience. Getting back to making real sense, I think life will be of better quality from here on. It will just be a bit sad to see that however our own transformation, the outside world remains in big trouble! In Colombia, where I live, a study was recently published with some alarming results: 58% of the population is overweight, almost everybody dislikes vegetables, women eat more fruit than men, but the ones who eat more fruit only do it three times a week and, get this, 78% of the sample affirmed to do some kind of exercise on a regular basis. Yeah right! The study could skip all results and jump directly to concluding that at least 78% of the population is hypocritical.

What I can say for sure is that micro-geographically speaking, things around me have changed. At home, my wife started to dislike too salty falvours. My brother in law is currently doing the PCP. The three people who sit next to me in the office eat bananas like monkeys. People who at some point mocked me for what I was doing now see the results: some keeping their mouths shut but their faces full, others praising how good I look.

I hope sometime in the future civilization will look back to our days and wonder why people were fat much in the same way we look back 150 years ago and wonder why people's heads were cut off with a guillotine in a public square. I guess it will take a revolution for things to change. I'm leading my own private one quietly, just trying to lead by example. I'll follow Patrick's advice and continue to be Zen about PCP.

Here's to Day 70!

Day 69

Tough days. Last night I was drained and couldn't bring myself to jumping. Did the rest though, successfully.I have been doing the elevated push ups since some time now and I really think chest exercises are my strongest point. Legs, v-seats, abs in general except for planks, and arms come next (seeing your veins and so much definition of biceps and triceps is so cool), and back and shoulder exercises remain very challenging but I'm keeping up.

I won't lie to myself: I could say that all the cycling yesterday made up for skipping the jump rope. If I thought this was true, either I would stop riding the bicycle home-work-home(lunch)-work-home, or I would stop the jumping. Not a chance!

The new diet is messing with my mind. I feel very hungry just half an hour after lunch. The afternoon tea (yogurt and egg white) hardly satiate or ameliorate the starving sensation. So by the time I start the workout (7pm) I feel I have no energy. Then dinner fills me up more than I'd like, partly because of the carbs and partly because I'm having to add the post workout egg white and yogurt to my dinner; otherwise I'd simply never go to bed. And finally, my favourite meal of the day apart from breakfast, the evening snack. So I end up going to bed at around 11, which is not bad, but since the carbs were re-introduced the quality of my sleep has been affected. Last night was perhaps the first exception of the week.

I suppose this is all part of readjusting to what our diets from here on should be like. But somehow I miss the days when dinner was just an apple, an egg white and a glass of milk.

Aside from all the above, I wanted to say that I'm past the point of feeling good about being able to tell how much weight I've lost or how much I've trimmed my body by the size of my clothes. None of my pants fit right anymore since the past three weeks. My shirts look as if they were passed on from an older brother (which is impossible considering I'm the older one), my boxers are good for dressing up like a clown in haloween and my belts are ornamental at most. My wife likes this baggy appearance and I have said to myself that new clothes should be a kind of troffe I shouldn't get my hands on until the game is over. I guess this is part of the grim enthusiasm, so I'll wait.

Day 67

There's no correlation between the frequency of my latest posts and PCP performance. If anything, the opposite is true. Not that I'm working out so much I don't find time to drop a few lines in here -in fact I'm managing to do my workout sessions in under an hour. But office work, running again to the hospital with our son who had a high fever last week (he's all better now), and just trying to fully unplug and get a good rest over the weekend, altogether delayed this entry.

Last night the pull ups and the KF abs were all done right for the first time. I felt a very satisfying tension in my back as the muscles contracted that I had never experienced before in my life. Changes are starting to surface in my back and lower abs. Perhaps it's more the feel and the awareness of inner strength and muscle than the looks, but it feels fantastic.

I'm committed to the bicycle as my new means of transport. No more using the car or taking taxis. The distance between home and my office is 3 kilometres, roughly. And while I used to walk several times a week, I'm discouraged by the constant raining and the fact that it takes up more time than I care to spend. The bicycle ride is 10 minutes, sometimes less, and I now have this cool raincoat that folds into a pocket size bag and a cycling backpack that comes with a dry sac you can put over it if it's raining. So, no matter the weather, I'm keeping this good habit. It makes sense on so many other levels like being the most eco-friendly way to move around town, etc. I usually go home at noon, have lunch and come back to work, so it's 4 x 3 kilometres a day, which is not bad!

Carbs, I'm sure if the dose was upped there is good reason for it. However, I notice I was sleeping better before and I'm wondering if instead of having the 50g of carbs at dinner, I could add those to the evening snack or add them to my lunch (that perhaps is too much at once). But having carbs at dinner somehow is not making me happier.

I have yet to have this week's photo taken and uploaded. Will do this tonight and upload it tomorrow.

On to read your posts, go have some lunch and try to stay focus on a couple of reports that must go out by COB today. Oh dear! Office work, can there be a more degrading way to spend a day? My wife came up with a thought the other day that was as liberating as it was frustrating: there should be a machine that transcribes what you are thinking directly into the final draft. Not to sound lazy, but I do think the brain is mightier than the pen (and therefore mightier than the sword).