I don’t see it. They both look closed to me. Ah well. 1 vote won’t be the kingmaker.
he said, jinx-ly.
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name and shame brother, name and shame !!
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LOL now i’m worried I might be one of them !! How do you know if you haven’t voted and how do you know who you voted for !!!
Was it me? I had a really hard time with it. I kept scrolling back and forth, back and forth. Not sure what I ultimately did.
May I say, though, that many of you need to become more consistent over all? Both years show the same stellar progress in many cases, but little change between 2018 and 2019, because you return to baseline between June and January.
I say that while admittedly being at baseline myself, so no judgment, just a plea for more obvious winners.
Am I even supposed to vote when I didn’t participate? I’m going to next year. Generally I come out of the holidays, which is a low-internet time for me, and find it already started.
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Pretty sure I only voted for the 6 month transformation.
Ha, I can’t even see the names of who’s voted. Polls have options when setting up and I went with the highest anonymity. Maybe next year it’ll change… 
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Oh. In that case, it wasn’t me, lol.
Fair, and I get what you’re saying. I think with some guys (self included), it’s not so much about not being consistent, but more about not having a target or reason to really push. One benefit of the challenge (and the Feb/August check-ins) is that, since the majority of us are recreational lifters with nothing on the calendar - no competitions, no meets or shows - then we tend to cruise along with the dial set to 5 or 6, maybe 7 for a month or two.
Whereas having something concrete to aim for and a finite deadline to work with a couple of times a year can make us push the dial up to 11 (in theory, at least). Also, realistically, there’s only so much drastic visible progress to be made unless your age starts with a 1- or a 2-, but for sure there can/should be steady forward momentum.
Absolutely. I can make that more explicit in the wording next year in case more people felt the same.
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That’s a wrap for 2019, gang.
Congrats to @jackolee for best transformation of 2019 and @raoh1990 with most improved from 2018 to 2019.
Jack and Raoh, I’ll be in touch when I get word from HQ about the 'attaboys we can throw your way. As a whole, I have to say we probably had the most competition and best work overall from everybody this year compared to years past. Maybe we’re finally getting the hang of this “train hard, eat right”-thing.
I think we can take a breath and then get right back to work. The August check-in is coming up, so folks can always focus on that.
Good stuff, everyone. I appreciate everyone who stepped up and saw it through.
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Hi everyone, I’m very happy to see the results of the challenge!
I had some life issues and I had to stay away from the forum (and lifting, and soccer, and videogames… 
).
I can’t believe I won the most improved challenge!
I just want to thank everyone, especially @jackolee, because after his jaw-dropping after pic, my mind said “I want to be like this guy!”, giving me the motivation to push my training, cardio and diet to the limit. Congratulations mate, you deserve the victory and thanks for voting me!
PS: My Journey to Hokuto Renkitoza is still at the beginning 
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Great end result and great work by everyone who reached the finish line.
@Chris_Colucci thanks for the time to set this up and collate all the pics and I have to say you nailed it when you said that as recreational lifters this gives us something to train for. I wanted to lose a little weight at the start of this year but there is no way I would have been as consistent with my diet and training if I wasn’t putting a pic up at the end of it. Thanks again.
And to everyone who like myself didn’t win, I’ll see you all again next year for round two. 
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Awesome work @jackolee and @raoh1990 you guys kicked ass! @Chris_Colucci thanks again for putting on such a great challenge. I was talking to my work colleagues about it and they were all really impressed by the culture and camaraderie that the challenge builds. For someone like me who trains ‘alone’ and doesn’t ‘compete’ in a sport, this challenge is golden. I definitely wouldn’t hate a forum for maybe 2 monthly check ins post challenge? I guess I could not be lazy and check everyone else’s logs lol…
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Great work @jackolee @raoh1990 and I was also super impressed with @loganator and @Frank_C
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Thanks @Chris_Colucci for organizing an awesome contest. The comradery that I found on this forum was instrumental in my cut and ultimately my end result at my show. I appreciate each and everyone of you guys. Its been awesome to see all these strong guys band together in an uplifting way where you just want to be better than you were the day before.
Congrats to @raoh1990 h1990 on the most improved. That was one hell of a cut you did man. Another standout for me was @Frank_C who was the picture of consistency. He just kept plugging away right up to the end. He was great at balancing life with the cut as well. Seems like he was able to eat some good food and drinks and still make progress.
Well here’s to not being right back we started come December!
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I’m committed to my new plan! For those of you who don’t follow my log, I’ve set myself up with a window of acceptable weight.
205 is where I want to be but it’s not fun. 210 is a weight at which I can enjoy life. 215 is about as heavy as I can tolerate without feeling the urge to cut.
Moving forward, I intend to just lift and live life. If/when my weight hits 215 or above then I’ll do a mini cut to get it back to 210. I think this will allow me to see some muscle growth without getting too fat. At this point in my life, I’m probably going to be gaining ounces of muscle instead of pounds.
This will also keep me from having to drop 30+ pounds at any one time in the future. I can also really push things next year and drop to 200 or below if I decide to make a run at winning part of the challenge.
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Plan for me to basically. I had to cut from 207 this last year (admittedly that was fueled by my desire to have a high starting weight for my other contest) so If I can stay around around 185-190 this year I should have a much better ending point next year (although not as dramatic of a cut… I’ll hopefully be more of a threat for the Most Improved category). Thats gives me about 10 pounds to play with in terms of weight gain.
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Hate to take your first place away so soon, but I’ve already planned on winning the most improved next year. I’m sorry
How’d those other contests work out?