One year, two years... and counting.

A one year report came last May, along with this photo.

And a two year report came last month, May 2009:

"No way around it: two years ago, I was chubby. My super manly 5'8" frame was packing 200 lbs around, day after day. Ugh. After a few go's at it on my own and some minor success, I hooked up with Fitness Together for a twelve week see what's possible transformation - during which I lost 33 lbs and dropped my resting heart rate from 83 to 68 beats per minute.

So - two years after my superintensive 3 months of working out - what's the story? Glad to say I weigh 170 lbs. Nearly 30 lbs lighter than I was at my very fattest.

After my time working out with the FT trainers, I have an awareness built in now. About how to eat, how to exercise, how to be and feel as healthy as I want to. Every now and then I really want a Totinos pizza. But most of the time I just don't enjoy eating junk anymore - whole foods are much more appealing. I don't work out every day - more like twice a week. But when I act on it, my body really responds.

Thanks FT for changing the way I think, act and live. Two years later, you guys still rock."

Caleb Ludwick

If you had any doubts that FT's approach to fitness is different...

Something fascinating happened yesterday, just a few hours before my fitness assessment. Julian has been headquartered out at Fitness Together's Gunbarrel studio for the past week and I haven't seen much of him, since I've been working with the trainers at the Frazier studio.
But our kids go to school together, and he stopped me on my way out, right on the sidewalk.

I thought he was going to say that he was looking forward to reading my results, or tell me how trim I look. But instead he told me that I look hungry.

I admitted that I'd skipped snacks for the past two days and eaten only vegetables and water because I wanted to lose the last few pounds to get below 160. My lovely wife didn't like it, but I was doing it anyway. Well, Julian didn't like it either.

"You've lost plenty of weight," he told me. "In fact, I think you looked healthier at 165-170 pounds."

One of the trainers had told me a story that happened a few months ago, when a lady who is in great shape came into the studio and asked them to help her lose another 10-15 lbs. Julian told her that he would help her build endurance, balance, strength, a good nutrition plan and better health, but that she did not need to lose more weight. And here, the same thing was happening to me.

Even in the face of an impressive success - proof that his approach to nutrition and training is highly effective in helping someone lose weight - Julian was pointing to whole person health as the standard, rather than the size of my waistline.

So I end where I started: believing that Chattanooga's Fitness Together is remarkably unique in the fitness industry. Not only in what they can accomplish, but in their commitment to quality of life.

At the same time, I'm not where I started. I have a great re-education about what and how much I should be eating. As well as an improved metabolism that I can maintain with exercise.

But that starts next week. Today it's Saturday, and for lunch I'm making organic pizza from scratch with my lovely wife and daughters. And I'm going to enjoy every minute.

The results are in, and the winner is... truth

All the results are back. Here's what has happened in the last three months:

• I turned 35 years old.
• I lost 33 pounds (final weight 158). This means that I lost 1/6 of my total body weight. Crazy.
• My resting heart rate has dropped 15 beats a minute. This means that over the course of the next year, my heart will have to beat 7,884,000 fewer times than it did last year.
• My body fat is now 14.5%
• I lost 6 1/2 inches off my waistline. Also nearly 1 inch off my neck and off my calf. That's right - I lost an inch of fat off my calf. Weird.
• Flexibility test scores went from 37th percentile ("below average") to 81st percentile ("excellent").
• Nutrition is on key.
• I can do 60 pushups without stopping (double what I could do before).
• I can bench press 195 lbs. Which means that if I met pre-FlabtoFit Caleb and he called me skinny, I could bench press him.
  

Q&A:

So overall, did Julian tell the truth that he could change not only a person's look but their lifestyle?
That's a rhetorical question, if I've ever heard one.

Would I recommend that other people take the approach I took, a twelve-week, semester long re-education in how to eat right for your body, with one on one training to reach your personal goals?
Absolutely. It has required a big commitment - as does any program, or anything in life that pays off. And the men and women in their sixties who I see in the Fitness Together studios are an inspiration to me that I can continue on track for years to come.

What about for people for whom a five-day-a-week, twelve week program does not work? Would I still recommend to them one-on-one personal training and nutrition consulting? Absolutely. In fact, I not only 'would,' I do. I tell people to call Fitness Together, all the time. Talk to Julian, he's not unrealistic. He's a certified, Master's educated businessman and coach who loves life, loves good food, and loves helping people reach their goals.

The Unveiling

OK: before and after pics. And, fingers crossed, this will be the last time I ever appear on the internet with my shirt off.

I know that the visual images say a lot, but the non-visible indicators say even more than the difference in my waistline. I am eating much smarter, working with more energy, resting and sleeping much better. Breathing and balance feel like I'm ten years younger. Rather than missing and craving time outside, I am making time to run up in the mountains or downtown.

My daughters are sitting here with me while I'm writing this, and my little one just said: "Look, there's Papa when he was old, and Papa now that he's young."

Trash to treasure

Friday morning I was emptying the trash can and recyling can underneath my desk at work, and it struck me how different its contents are today than 3 months ago. Back then it would have been Coke cans, a paper Starbucks cup or two, Subway and Wendys boxes, soup cans and a couple of candy wrappers along with work papers. Now it is an orange peel and an empty raw almonds baggie; the rest was work papers.

In fact, I realized that I empty my trash can much less often these days. The metaphorical significance of this was not lost on me.

The Final Countdown

Today was my last workout. Well, not my last workout, because I’m going to continue working with a trainer at Fitness Together two days a week + doing one extra day of cardio. I want this whole life re-thinking of my body will last my whole life.

But today was the last training session of my 12 week program.

As I was doing sprints on the treadmill, it occurred to me that I don’t really feel like the workouts have gotten easier. I know that I can do much more that I could when I started, but it doesn’t FEEL easier. Of course, this is because the trainers are pushing me much harder now than they were.

This is another good reminder of the benefit of training under of watchful, educated eyes. The one on one trainer model keeps you from hurting yourself doing a particular exercise incorrectly, or overexerting and so burning out / giving up. But perhaps even more importantly, they walk with you over a period of time, knowing where to push you harder and where to back off, so you can reach your goals.

Tomorrow I go in for my twelve week assessment - did I reach my goals? How has my body changed, not only externally but internally? Am I stronger? Is my heart stronger? We’ll find out...

Flab to ab?

It's true - this is not a fatroll. In fact, it's an "ab" showing in the photo.

Apparently they’ve been there all along, under the layers of flab, but after thousands of a wide variety of crunches and back extensions, hours on the elliptical machine, 252 well-planned meals and 168 sensible snacks... they showed up.

Just thinking about those numbers and the oh-so-much more that it's taken over the past 12 weeks really reminds me of how hard it would have been to do it alone. All along I’ve talked about wanting to prove that despite the fitness industry's trend of manipulative marketing claims... a single business model that is based on quality of life, whole person focus, personalized attention and truth in marketing can really stand out as different.

But of course, it isn’t the business model that stands out, it’s the group of certified, highly trained trainers who have made this happen.

Under Julian’s leadership these trainers pushed and coached and encouraged and advised and educated me, and that’s what made such a big difference. So to the trainers I worked with in the past 3 months - Kyle, Jonathan, April, Becky, Chris, Justin, Tony, Denise, and Joanna - as well as the others at the Gunbarrel and Frazier studios : you rock. You guys do amazing work, and I obviously couldn’t have done it without you.