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
