Pete Mitcham

After the very rewarding discovery last week that I had actually trimmed a little poundage from the middle, I entered the ‘home straight’ of The Man Challenge re-energised and ready to ‘rip in and finish strong’. Up to this point I had been ‘taking it one week at a time’, ‘concentrating on the here and now’, reminding myself that ‘only I could beat me’ and ‘keeping my eyes on the prize.’ No, there isn’t a ‘Sporting Cliché’ library as part of The Man Challenge. Maybe there needs to be.

Week 8 Diary Entry.

“Week 8 carries the expectation that results will be less obvious, the kilos lost down a little and the overall weight begins to plateau. As fat is ‘burned’* and replaced by muscle mass, there is a temptation to add a few laps to the step count or to double the workout level to compensate. However, the revelation for me is that ‘the program’ has just become ‘the normal’ and this, for me is one of the most pleasing – and unpredicted – outcomes. There’s no resistance to getting up early (except, perhaps after lots of squats and the resultant stress on the quads!) or to prepping healthy meals with a good balance of protein, carbs, good fats and fibre.

So as a result of feeling dramatically more healthy and happy, there is less focus on the numbers. An added bonus is that my two youngest girls, 10 and 12, have started asking to join me on my after-dinner walk around the block.”

What I learned this week.

Have you ever wondered where fat goes when you lose weight? No, neither had I until this tech piece popped up on my Facebook feed. Rather than the conventional thinking that we ‘burn it off’, thus violating the Law of Conservation of Mass, we actually expel it as air! Who’d a’thunk it?

What else I learned this week.

Despite promising myself that I would use the program to build up my chicken-arms to the point that I could manage more than a couple of feeble push-ups, this is one area that is still lacking. I am honestly shit at push-ups. Always have been. I’ll need to wait until the next Man Challenge at the end of September to exorcise this exercise demon.

Starting Weight – 89 kgs Week 8 Weigh up – 78 kilos

Starting Waist – 45 inches Week 8 Waist measure – 35.5 inches

Weight loss so far 11kgs

Inches lost so far 9.5 inches.