90 days ago today, I started a journey that would change my life. These are not hollow words.

I have a longer story to tell about the specifics of starting it, but today, I want to talk about everything I have learned and how excited I am to unveil the changes that have been made to my body and in my mind.

This has, been, by far, the hardest thing I have ever done. There have been tears, there has been buckets and buckets of pain, and there has been fear and everything else in between. But…and this is a huge but, there has been a desire…one that I have only felt once in my life before, that has kept this candle not only lit, but burning like a forest fire inside of me.

When I started this journey, I was in a bad place. I was at my heaviest – 218 lbs and 18% body fat. I had a dream that had lasted with me for years and years and I had failed over and over again, and I decided to give it one final try. I went in all or nothing…and it clicked. Everything clicked.

Now, writing before you today, I am 25lbs down and 7% body fat with a final 10 days ahead of me. These are no ordinary 10 days, in fact, for any fitness athlete or bodybuilder, these are the hardest most brutal 10 days out of them all.

But with that same fire I enter the challenge.

The changes I have seen in my body are great, but it is the changes that I have experienced with my mind that are even more impressive. It’s not that I am not afraid anymore – that happens plenty of times – but I am willing to push all my chips in and take a huge risk and follow through to the end.

That’s something I have never had before. I never had it because I truly had never done it with anything I had dreamed up in my mind. I had a dream once, but I couldn’t finish that because of physical limitations with my elbow. But this, this dream…this one is mine…and I have taken it to the finish line.

I am almost there. Even after I finish, I have a secondary goal lined up to accomplish and then it will be onto the next. I don’t plan on sitting on this achievement, but rather using the momentum to propel me into the future – a future I have dreamed up in my mind and I want to create.

I believe.

I believe now, and even more in 10 days, that when I create something in my mind, I can turn it into reality. I can make my wildest dreams happen with enough hard work and sweat. And trust me, there has been a lot of that. The hardest thing I have ever done in my life has also yielded me the most pride, respect for the process, and results.

I guess that old saying about the greatest things in life are surrounded by hard work is true.

I can’t wait to see what else I can create.

Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project