And with 22 Days to Go...

THE PAPER TOWEL THEORY

(Concept taken from tiffanyblitz.com and hussmanfitness.com)

Let’s assume you go out and buy two rolls of paper towels, each with only 90 paper towels on it. You put one aside, and keep it for future reference (your “before” picture). The other one represents you (I’ll call your paper towel you “Ed”). The cardboard core represents the lean Ed. The towels represent the fat that is covering the lean Ed. For sake of argument, let’s say that Ed wants to lose 9 kilograms of fat, so (90/9) each sheet represents 100g of fat lost. Let’s also assume that Ed loses his fat equally during each day over a few months.

Each day during the first week, you tear a sheet off of Ed, representing the fat he has lost for the day. Next, you put Ed next to the full roll (“Big Al”) for comparison. No noticeable difference!!! Even at the end of the week! This can’t be working for me!

But, being a good Ed, you continue to follow your exercise plan. At the end of weeks two and three, you continue to compare Ed to Big Al, and still notice very little difference. Those stinkin’ trainers MUST be liars!

But Ed is determined! He works hard! Hitting it hard…eating his 6 daily meals. Three more weeks go by, the sheets peeling off day after day, before Ed gets up the courage to stand next to Big Al again. Holy Man! Ed is skinny! OK, not skinny, but less huge!!!

Within a few months, Ed is down to his lean dream, or somewhere near it. Ed is happy. We are happy. Big Al – well he’s not so happy.

The lesson to be learned is that fat, like paper towels, comes off in sheets. When you are heavy, you are big around. And when you are big around, that fat is spread over a MUCH larger area – just like that outside towel sheet. The closer you get to the lean you, the more each lost pound of fat shows, because it is spread over a smaller area.

While the outside sheet may only cover 1 layer of the roll, the inside sheet may go around 4 times. That last sheet looks like it gives you 4 times the results of the first sheet, but in reality, the results are the same – your perception is just different! And you’ll never see the inside, if you aren’t patient while the outside is coming off!

(Edit - Just incase it's not clear, I didn't write this, credited to the sources I listed above.)