It's been long enough - welcome to Operation 40 Phase 2.0

Phase 2 will commence on May 20.

What's Phase 2 you ask? Well, it's the next step in my evolution. Plus I need to work off some excess energy that has been building up so why the heck not, ya know?

This phase is the toning and muscle building stage. I've notice places on my body that once were quite in shape that have since gone, well, a little astray. It's not major, but I know I can tone up and strengthen my legs, butt, shoulders and tummy, just to name a few.

This plan is going to be fairly haphazard. It will be what works into my schedule. It will be dependent on what exercises I can do at a given time.

I'll do some Wii Fit strength exercises. I also have a condensed 15 to 20-minute routine where I do a variety of simple exercises such as wall pushups, stretching, leg lifts, knee lifts and hip thrusts.

There also will be plenty of shadow boxing. There's nothing like getting the blood flowing with a little boxing.

Again, there will be more as I go. I will weigh-in to see where I'm at and make a "goal" based on that information.

This isn't about losing weight. I expect to gain some in muscle, which will be good. I'll detail more soon, just wanted to get this out there as a starting point.

The "final" tally

I started this with a simple goal of losing 40 pounds six months ago and here I am at the "end" of Operation 40.

The tale of the scale on Friday, April 30 was I gained two pounds. My "final" weight is 189.

The total in the Operation 40 program was 47 pounds. The total since I last saw my doc in about late-September was 56 whopping pounds :)

I look at the last few weeks of Operation 40 as a positive. I had two weeks of gaining, one negligible week and a four-pound loss. The easier way to look at it is I am two pounds lighter now than I was 17 days ago.

This is a good thing and was kind of what I was going for, as I wanted to try and maintain my weight. Also, 189 is a good starting point for Phase 2, which I will start in about two weeks. This way I can work hard to tone and shape muscles while losing some more weight.

The muscle mass will bring me back up a bit and I figure I can be around 180-185 when it's all done.

I am more than pleased with how this turned out. I'd like to thank all those who supported me and all those who will continue to support me. It's been a fun journey, but it's not over yet!