By Dr. Mark Richards
Round 3 here we come. This will be my 3rd time doing the 60 Day Turnaround. I’m excited about this, not necessarily the process, but the outcomes I KNOW that are coming. As I’ve said before I had great success the first time through, loosing about 30 lbs. The second time through wasn’t as great, only dropping about 5-7 lbs overall. Getting myself so close to my initial goal of below 200, which unfortunately I haven’t hit yet.
So what was the big difference from the first time to the second? My commitment to being strict. First time we were strict to the end, and it showed with the results. I really should have kept going from that point, but vacation happened. I thought that to enjoy my vacation I had to come off the diet, that it would be torture to stay strict. That was a mistake. So I started my second Straight 60 right after that week vacation and I never fully committed myself to it. Small cheats here and there, maybe one big cheat per week, falling back into my old thought processes, such as, “its not a big deal if I eat this now, I’ll just make up for it tomorrow by starving myself all day.” Obviously this way hadn’t ever worked for me in the past. I’d rationalize it to myself, saying it was practice for being off the straight 60. In actuality, I was off of it. Where I was that second straight 60 would be a good place to be had I already reached my goal because I was pretty much maintaining weight, actually slowly loosing, but I wasn’t ready to be there. Thanksgiving and Christmas came and the diet was lost. I gained back weight there, which was hard to deal with, but I’m staying positive. (I should note, had I not been doing Crossfit, I’d be even worse off).
So that brings us to this 60 day turnaround! I’m committed again, and this time I will NOT be stopping until my final goal is met. Under 200 is just the first step, there’s still a lot to go after that point. So those of you doing this with us, learn from my mistake, cheating this doesn’t work. Commit to being strict for as long as it takes! I was so naive to think that after only 60 days I had it completely figured out, that I had broke the habits, the addictions, that I had developed for the previous 30 years, that I was ready to drop the rules and go on my own.
I’m not even a week in to this straight 60, but I’m feeling great again. Every time I think about how frustrating it is to fall back to eating culturally and feeling like garbage, and how quickly I start to feel better when I just alter my diet. Thankfully, this time I did not have those awful feelings that I did the first time through. I had mild fatigue and one mild headache and some slight grumpiness the 2nd day, but not nearly as bad as it was the first time through. I’ve started to get more energy back and look forward to having even more as I drop this extra weight I’ve been carrying for far too long.
If you are on the fence about joining us, stop thinking about it and just do it. You will not regret it!
Thanks for reading.
-Dr. Mark