01 Mar Rob Cynowa’s Transformation

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Hello Lifebookers!

It’s interesting to think that the 90-day challenge is essentially finished. That fact is especially interesting to me because we never looked at this challenge as one that would not be forever ongoing.

My personal theme going into this challenge was ‘choice’. I wanted to ‘choose’ only those healthy opportunities that I knew to be healthy, fun and things we could maintain as part of a lifestyle. If by doing so, I was able to get closer to my goals in 90 days, then that was a huge bonus.

So did I do just that? Absolutely!

Here are the numbers:

Weight: Started at 190, my goal was 180, Currently 178. (which is where I want to stay. I have not been at 178 since high school!)

Body Fat %: Started 19.2%, Currently at 15.7% (A great range for me and on the cusp of 13.7%)

Waist size: Started 37”, Current 35” (Would love to continue this progress into 34”)

I lost 12 lbs, 2 increments down on body fat and 2 inches off my weight!

Yet, I feel the numbers still do not do our transformation justice. The mental expansion that we went through to get there is where I feel most proud. Everything we did, we put into a rhythm. That was critical for me. Most individuals lose weight and then yo-yo right back plus 2 additional pounds. We knew (My wife, Megan and I), that to truly be successful our rhythms had to be there.

This is how we did it.

Week one we joined a newly opened rock climbing gym and committed to a hard core climbing workout every Wednesday night and have stuck to it since the first week of the challenge (Minus traveling).

I was lifting weights 3 days a week and increased that to 4 mornings a week to push me to more energy and through my current limits.

We committed to getting 2 additional physical activities in, each week, outside or weight lifting and rock climbing. We consistently hit that mark, my running, jogging, additional days at the climbing gym, wakesurfing, snowboarding or a paddleboard workout.

Sleeping was another area we re-dedicated ourselves too. I found out that 8 ½ hours a night puts me at my optimal. We started tracking this on our phones and set reminders on our google calendar on when we needed to go to bed to help with accountability. We even started diving into reducing other stressors in our lives and started shutting off our phones at night and reduce EMF’s in our daily routines wherever possible.

Chiropractic care is the foundation of my health and getting adjusted every week on Wednesday is standard.

Nutritionally I was ready to cut not only gluten out, but all grains as well. That was a huge success for us and is now a lifestyle, minus a couple cheats while traveling.

Most of our dairy was out of our diet, yet cheese was not. We switched to goat cheese and have not turned back.

I understood that caffeine and alcohol were directly related to each other. So, we packed up the coffee pot and searched out our favorite herbal and rooibos teas and have been drinking those instead.

My biggest personal win was I, without wanting to admit it to the world, was relying on energy drinks in the afternoon to get me through the day with high energy. Since the 90-day challenge has started, I have not had an energy drink since.

Alcohol was cut out throughout the week and then very limited on the weekends.

To further aid in our quest, we wanted to work on not only getting good fruits and veggies, but regular fruits and veggies that were organic and local. The second week of our challenge we contracted with Absolute Organics which brings us a huge box or local organic fruits and veggies to our doorstep every other week.

We bought a vacuum sealer to start getting our beef and chicken grass fed and hormone free from the farmer’s market in bulk. This still is challenging to get there on Saturdays and are looking to up our game in this category as well. We have found to food companies that can deliver beef and chicken from good local organic sources in bulk. More to come.

To take our game to our highest level we wanted to challenge ourselves with a cleanse. We partnered with a local juice bar and decided to go 7 days with only fruits, veggies and water. During these 7 days we also used a mild liver and colon cleanse to help get more toxins out of our body. This was a huge challenge for us and we nailed it. I did only juice, for 5 of the 7 days, then fruits and veggies the other two days. I did cheat twice with grilled chicken on a salad one night and grilled shrimp on a salad the other. (I needed the protein!). We now go to the juice bar 1-2 times per week to get a big juice or smoothie as a meal replacement or a fun healthy snack.

What I loved most about this challenge though was it forced me to dive deeper into my Lifebook. Everything we did in the health and fitness category, came out of the other categories in our Lifebook. The ways we got health, were already the things we loved doing that enriched our lives, we just created better rhythms for them. We traveled to Big Sky, Montana to Snowboard for 4 days in January and spent 5 days doing paddle board fitness at its highest level in Miami Beach in February. We wanted to be able to do, whatever our minds could think of and have the physicality to do it.

Even cooler for us, was the reason we were doing the 90 day challenge in the first place. To enrich all the other categories in our Lifebook. The circle, just kept circling.

This challenge was very great and came at a perfect time in our life. It made us think outside the box, stretch our limits, grow together healthier as a family and support our Lifebook and lives at the highest level. Our goal: extraordinary lives, 13 categories strong, this challenge took us one step closer and will continue to do so for years to come.