Matt Behling
Last summer I got the idea of doing P90X from my brother. My goals were to improve my health, gain some
muscle and reduce my body fat percentage.
I had the mindset when beginning the program that I would do all of the
workouts, and I would strictly watch my diet according to the P90X nutrition
guide. After three months, I noticed serious
improvements in my cholesterol levels and blood pressure. I had lost some weight and had improved my
body fat percentage. I was feeling much healthier
and better about myself.
Once school started up in the fall, I got caught up eating
whatever I wanted and letting up on my workouts. The workouts became less consistent and I
noticed the gains I had made were slowly slipping away. During the wrestling season I turned most of
my attention toward our athletes and much less attention on my health. At the end of the season this spring, Matt
Boland came to me and asked me if I would be on a team with him for the Culver
Fitness Center weight loss competition.
Right away I agreed to the challenge.
I am always up for a challenge and I felt this would be a great way for
me to get motivated to get back into shape.
I came to the realization that in order to lose the weight I
would have to solely focus on my diet and commit to working out daily. The first thing I did was to modify my
breakfast. I passed up the donuts and
went with a grapefruit, two hard-boiled eggs and some oatmeal each day. Then I
began eating from the salad bar for lunch.
In between meals I would eat non-salted almonds and other sources of
protein. In the evening I let my wife
prepare our meals. My wife Jill has
always been a very health conscious person and has truly helped me develop good
eating habits. I dropped nearly 10 pounds
right away for our first weigh in during the competition. After the initial 10 pounds, I felt like I
hit a plateau. My food choices were
good, but they weren’t perfect. If I
felt I had worked out hard enough, I would eat a calzone or treat myself to
numerous pieces of pizza. While in Dr. John
Yeager’s class Thinking Smart, Living Well, I learned that this mindset
represented moral licensing which was counter-productive to my ultimate goal. We discussed the struggles of the mind in
regards to short term gratification versus long term gratification. At this point I made the decision to fight
the short term urges and use food to fuel my body. I was not going to give into the short term
dopamine fix the brain responds to when we crave sweets and such. I stayed focused on my long term goals and
simply made the decision to resist the cravings.
By mixing cardio workouts with circuit training and adding bits
and pieces of the P90X program I was able to drop another 16 pounds. In total I lost 26 pounds. I have much better eating habits. I feel stronger, leaner and healthier than I
have in a long time. There are so many
benefits to committing to a healthy lifestyle.
All you have to do is make the choice and commit to it.
