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A few weeks ago, I posted about our exciting YBC® 12 week transformation journey with my brother, Allen. As a refresher, Allen decided he wanted to make a change to his fitness and nutrition habits, and planned to transform his lifestyle to include scheduled workouts, less fast food, and prepared meals from Metabolic Meals, which is offering our audience $20 off your first oder using coupon code 'yogabycandace'. At the start of his transformation, Allen had just moved to a new city, started new school classes and landed a new job. He went from skipping meals and eating out, to using prepared Metabolic Meals and cooking for himself when possible. In addition, he had started attending CrossFit® classes in his area, in which he was hoping to find a new community and make some new friends.
So today I'm back with Part 2 which also happens to be the final segment of this series for now. Allen experienced what a lot of us have experienced with attempting a lifestyle change - it just wasn't the right time to take on so many new changes. So instead of checking in with him halfway as planned, we'll check in to find out what roadblocks he ran into on his journey that prevented him from reaching his goals at this time. I'm sure many of us can relate to starting out with the best of intentions only to be overwhelmed with so many life changes at once. So now, six weeks into his journey, we'll find out how Allen's lifestyle change went, and how he's feeling overall mentally and physically, and if he plans to try again in the future, when things are not so hectic.
1. What life circumstances do you feel prevented you from moving forward in your transformation?
Taking several accelerated courses at college during the summer and working full-time did not leave me with a lot of free time to make it to the gym. Some weeks I was able to go a few times but other weeks not at all. I was unable to keep a set schedule mostly due to work and therefore found it hard to develop a routine to get in shape.
2. What was the hardest part to commit to?
Making it to the gym was the hardest part to commit to. I definitely need more discipline to either wake up earlier or go after work even when I'm tired and it's the last thing I feel like doing. (Candace's note: to his credit, sometimes he starts work at 6am, and other times he works until 10pm, so that doesn't leave a ton of time to get to the gym before or after work.)
3. What was the easiest part to commit to?
Eating right, not eating out so often and being able to portion control was one of the easier aspects that I dealt with. I found that by being so busy I wasn't eating all throughout the day like I did when I had more time on my hands and ate mostly out of boredom.
4. Overall, what did you think of the convenience of the Metabolic Meals?
Metabolic Meals grilled grass-fed flank steak with Romesco salsa and sweet potato fries.
The Metabolic Meals provided great convenience because they were already prepared and ready to eat, just had to heat them up in under 2 minutes. I was able to bring them to work and the portions were just right for maintaining current weight. Plus they were really good!
5. Has this process changed any of your outlook on your own health and diet moving forward and are you changing any aspect of those areas from now on?
Yes, I realized that I had been eating large meals and not developing good eating habits. For example, skipping breakfast and going all day without eating, then having one large meal at the end of the night. Not only was it unhealthy for me to eat this way, but by eating so late it disrupted my sleep and I was always tired. Eating 3 solid meals a day at the right portions has helped me maintain my current weight goals and even helped me sleep better at night. I try not to eat past 6 p.m. and I've found that it really does help balance my sleeping pattern among other things.
Changing your lifestyle alone can be a lot, and pile that onto a new city, a new job, and being a full-time student, and it's almost impossible. Overall, I'm glad that this transformation provided Allen a chance to try something new, and to reassess his fitness and nutrition habits. If anything, this experience proved that sometimes you need to have a less chaotic, more balanced mindset before you can attempt to make such drastic changes to your lifestyle. If you have run any of the same experiences, please share your insights below!