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This is from 3/19/07 on the Body for Life website. One of the most popular all-time blogs I’ve done, so I thought I’d rerun it right here. Hope you enjoy it.

So, your results were good, and you’re looking forward to living a “normal life” now. Only one thing is bothering you–you’re not sure what that is going to look like. You are also more than a little worried about your ability to hold onto this newfound you, right?

First, the “good news.” It never takes as much effort and suffering to maintain good health as it does to get it back. You won’t have to work out quite as hard, nor will you have to eat quite as strictly to maintain your physique. Now, the bad news–you’ll have to figure out how to do it on your own!

Continuing to eat the six smaller meals a day helps make your new life easier. Since the whole purpose of eating six small meals a day is to stabilize insulin levels and blood sugar levels, which minimizes cravings, mood swings, and fat formation, it makes sense to keep that up. If you lost weight and burned fat while on the six small meals regimen, and you are now at or below the weight you want to be, then you’ll need to add a bit to each meal. Eating 42 meals a week, you really only need to adjust upward about 50 to 100 calories to stop the weight loss cycle. As an example, if your “meal” is a Myoplex, all you would need to do is add about 3/4 of a tablespoon of flaxseed oil to the shake and you would add about 100 calories to that meal. Just an ounce more meat or a slightly larger carb would accomplish the same things. So, whatever you do, don’t go back to eating plates full of food at each opportunity. Make very small dietary adjustments, or you’ll be trying to catch up with the gigantic swings that can take place!

You’ll know when you get there with the diet. It will feel right. The key is to still stay away from the “trigger foods” that cause you issues, and to allow for the usual free day excesses as well. Sugary snacks should probably always be strictly a free day activity for all of us.

And what about exercise? Once again, you’ll need to find your plateau. I am sixty now, so I recover more slowly than most of you would. So, what I do in maintenance stage is work each body part every 6 or 7 days, and that takes about 30 to 40 minutes four days a week. Now, that means an extra workout day a week, but that’s not a problem since I work out at home. For me, working out each muscle group one day a week nicely maintains both mass and injury-free joints if I’m careful. I really don’t think anyone who is happy with their body needs to work out with weights more than a couple of hours a week, but if you enjoy it, and you still want to try to add mass, go for it! As far as cardio, I still do the 3 HIIT sessions a week, early in the morning on an empty stomach, and that will never change.

May I emphasize once again, because this does take trial and error, that the key is “small adjustments” so you don’t have huge swings. You will know that things are basically staying the way you want them by your weekly weigh ins and waist measurements, and if either gets more than 3 pounds or 1/2 inch out of where you want it, then make those adjustments and see what happens next week. Get your checkup regularly and keep tabs on those blood lipid levels.

Don’t let the maintenace phase get you down. It’s no different than owning and operating an auto. Checking the tires, the fluid levels and the operating systems are part of that responsbility, as are the same kinds of things with your body. This IS Body for LIFE, remember?

YOU NEVER STOP GROWING!  That’s one of the interesting things in life, that we never really stop growing. Some of us tend to think of ourselves as real versions of Benjamin Button, getting younger by the day. Truth is, though, that we are all growing older. As you do grow older, you can and should also grow wiser, more experienced, and tender. Unfortunately, many of us grow older by becoming isolated, bitter and hardened. Here’s how to avoid all that.
1. FIGHT for your rights. This means don’t let yourself go the way of the masses. You have a right to stay healthy, happy and carefree. This fight may mean changing your friends, jobs, churches or even some family members. You can’t change their views—but you can change whether you decide to deal with them. You need to develop enough respect for yourself to do what is best for you.
2. OPEN your heart! Listen to music you know nothing about; read books that you ordinarily wouldn’t; volunteer; rent a really old, classic movie and watch it in the dark at home. These kinds of things can reveal facets of you that you didn’t even know existed.
3. RIGHT all wrongs. Nothing wearies a person quite like the past that just doesn’t go away. Your self-esteem won’t grow unless you deal with the ugly things in your past—things that others did to you that you need to let go of, and things you did to others that you need to make right—no matter how long ago they occurred. If you still cringe when you think about it, it ain’t going away until you summon enough courage to do the right thing!
4. ENTER a new zone. This means taking your life to a different set of boundaries. It may mean giving up a favorite addiction that is limiting how far you can rise in life. Smoking, eating, drinking alcohol, abusing pain medications, diuretics, or laxatives—all of these become addictive behavior that even though you may not know it can limit you emotionally to a joyless world.
5.VIEW the world differently! In other words, take a different perspective on important things. Look around you at your friends. Are they mostly like you? If so, find a new one. It won’t be easy to do what I’m about to suggest—but you CAN do it. Make a friend who thinks completely differently than you. I am a political conservative on virtually any issue you could think of, but my best friend is a liberal Democrat! Hard to imagine, huh? We spend about two hours every day together, because we ride 50 miles each way to our workplace, and we have so much fun talking that the time literally flies. We DON’T talk about things that we’d never agree on, but we talk about everything else. There’s way more “else” than there is stuff we’d never agree on, and we are both far richer for knowing each other.
6.EAT AND EXERCISE the very best you can. Finally, we’re getting to basics. But, without everything else I’ve told you, there’s no chance you’ll do this either. By “the very best” I literally mean that. Value your body, and don’t fill it with junk. The flesh is dumb and it will use whatever you put in it, but it’s designed to run best on the best proteins, the best high fiber and vitamin rich carbohydrates, and small amounts of omega III oils. Put those in your tank, instead of Twinkies, and you’ll literally feel your flesh getting just a little smarter and lots stronger.
7. REGARD yourself highly! We’re not talking about conceit here. You need to know and affirm every day that you are a valuable, created being; that you can do far more than you think you can; that you are stronger and quicker and brighter than you think. This is not pop psychology—it’s the truth. Ask an Marine what he or she learned in basic training, and they’re certainly going to tell you that they learned they can do more than their mind told them they can do. To make this process work, you’ve got to continually push yourself.
Well, that’s it, just seven simple but not easy steps to a better life. You’ve probably noticed by now that first letter of the first word of those steps form the word F.O.R.E.V.E.R. And that’s what you need to be striving for—to be forever young, inside and out!

No matter how many times I’ve seen it happen, (about 10 I think) I still get a wonderful feeling of excitement and renewed purpose about fitness when I see the transformations of the champions posted on the Body for Life website. They are up there now, and just like the past champions, the new ones are absolutely terrific!

I honestly don’t know how Abbott/BFL can consistently pick such high caliber champions, but they really do. They are people who not only can do a great physical transformation but who will also represent the company and the program in an honorable and effective way as its ambassadors.

I got my call late January 2007, from Porter himself, and it was a moment I’ll never forget! I was so nervous, so giddy, and so goofy that I hardly recognized myself when they played some of that recording at the banquet in March.  Here’s a snippet from it:

Porter: “Judge, would it be all right if I asked you a legal question?”

Me: “You’re not calling from jail are you?”

I’m just thrilled that he didn’t hang up on me after that crack!  

Well, hey, I have strayed a bit, and the whole purpose of this Blog was to URGE all of you who read this to get busy and put that championship effort into your life. Examine every possible area of your health regimen to see where you could do better! Not MORE, but BETTER!  Fitness routines should be short and intense if you aim to look like a champion.  Look yourself in the mirror every day and say to yourself: “If Mike Harris could be a champion, then there’s absolutely no reason why ANYONE can’t do it!” Then, go out and do all you can to make it happen.  Even if the judges don’t call you, you’ll look, act and be just like a champion thanks to that 12 week routine.

All that separates champions from the rest is a willingness to endure some pain and suffering, and a willingness to do what others won’t do to get where we want to go. And that isn’t something that we were born with, it’s something that we learned by simply forcing ourselves to act our way into a positive attitude by doing what we really didn’t want to do!

If you need any help along the way, that’s one of the things we champions are supposed to do–help. So email me at miketharris@comcast.net and I’ll get back to you. All I ask is that you be clear, be willing to listen, and be willing to change!

God bless!