Congratulations to our 2025 Summer 8 Week #1uptransformationchallenge Male 2nd place $6,000 cash prize winner Jamaal Richardson
This is his story:
“1. What led me to join the challenge
The Summer 2025 transformation challenge was the 4th or 5th transformation challenge that I had signed up for, but the only one I actually ever finished. I joined the challenge because I had really hit the proverbial rock bottom in terms of my physical fitness and mental health. Although I have been working out for several years, I have always struggled with consistency, with most of the times when I was in "decent' shape coinciding with periods in my life when I was under little to no stress. Over the last few years, as things in my life had become more complicated, I fell into a cycle of poor habits in order to compensate for feeling generally lousy about everything. Unfortunately, the relief those habits provided were very short-lived and only further contributed to continuing the cycle. By this summer, I had come to a place where I could no longer recognize the person that I had allowed myself to become, inside and out. For those reasons, I knew I had to pull myself out of the deep hole I had been digging for myself and I wanted to use the challenge as an opportunity to push myself towards that goal.
2. How I felt during the challenge
You know, it was interesting. I was extremely motivated at the beginning of the challenge, naturally. It is human nature that when one begins a new venture or undertakes some new challenge, they are excited and filled with confidence about taking it on and reaching their goal. That's how I felt, right up until the end of week 2, beginning of week 3. Then, as I started to hit that first wall of fatigue (the summer semester of my graduate program began right around that time and work obligations started to pick up) that old, creeping desire to fall back into old habits began pushing its way into the forefront of my mind. Sitting for hours staring at a screen, tired and fighting off cravings, I started wrestling with the same old voices. "Just quit" "Join the next challenge" "Just eat what you want to eat". Add to that I wasn't seeing much changes to my body, even though I felt like I was going pretty hard in the gym. I began thinking to myself that maybe because I am now 40 years old, my body just couldn't do the things it used to do nor look the way it used to look. I went through this mental struggle all the way through Week 5. However, there was another voice that was also there. I kept repeating the phrase "Trust the process" and for some reason that really seemed to help me keep putting in the work, despite the fact that I felt like I wasn't making much progress. Then, by the end of week 5, something just switched for me. I felt like I had come over the hill, or around the corner. I felt something like a headwind behind me, pushing me forward. I started actually seeing changes to my body (and the scale) and my motivation grew day by day. By the end of week 6, I knew that I was actually going to finish, but not just finish, finish strong.
3. Obstacles I had to overcome
The most formidable obstacle I had to wrestle with during the 8 weeks was being able to maintain work and school output while also putting in quality work at the gym. In the past, I would usually have to dial it back in one of those areas, and typically what I would choose to sacrifice was my health and fitness. I remember times during undergrad when I would stuff my face with the fattiest, saltiest, and sweetest food I could get my hands on while studying for finals or working on a complicated project. Although I felt that same pull this time around, as I mentioned above there was this other force pulling me in the other direction. Motivating me to stay the course, refuse to quit, and, again, trust the process.
4. Things that I learned
This has been the most challenging 2 months I've been through in quite some time. Reflecting on that brief journey, I realize that the reason it was so challenging is due to the fact that I had to force myself to maintain a high output in several areas of my life simultaneously. In the past, as I have already mentioned, I'd typically dial it back in some area of my life when I would have several things going on simultaneously. Completing this challenge taught me, though in actual fact I've known this for a long time, that achieving a goal or accomplishing some task, ultimately boils down to one's ability to discriminate between choices. At almost every point during this challenge, I faced a number of choices. Do I sleep in today and skip the gym or do I stick to my commitment to get out of bed when the alarm goes off and begin my morning practice? Do I stick to my diet or do I have a cheat meal? Do I finish this set or do I bail out because I'm uncomfortable, tired, and unmotivated? It was all just a series of choices and selecting the one that was going to serve me well over-and-against the ones that would provide me temporary relief but ultimately move me further away from my goals.
5. My overall experience and any advise I could give
Overall, my experience during this challenge has been several things all at once. Enlightening and exhausting. Challenging and motivating. Inspiring and frustrating. In the end, what I came to understand is that irrespective of how I "felt", if I was going to get to, and eventually cross, the finish line, I would only have to do one thing...keep going. Feeling motivated? Keep going. Feeling disappointed? Keep going. Feeling exhausted? Keep going. It boiled down to simply putting one foot in front of the other and go. If I had to give one piece of advice to anyone competing in a challenge, or just pursuing their health and fitness goals generally, it would be to figure out what works for them, understand you're competing, ultimately, against yourself, and to trust the process. When you figure out what works for you, keep things simple and work YOUR plan. Not somebody else's, YOUR plan. It is so easy living in the world that we have today to get caught up in pursuing someone else's goals because we see them in our feeds succeeding. The reality is, however, that your race is your own to run. You have to cultivate the skill of shutting all the noise out and focus on the work that is being put in front of you and then proceed to do THAT work.
Are you next? Join our $50,000.00 8-Week Transformation Challenge Download Free 1UP Fitness App and Click on Trophy Icon to Sign Up for the Challenge Today - HERE
