Starting Point 1 month 2 months Today
Ladies and gentlemen, here you have it. My weight-loss journal, exposed for the world (or at least, the 40 of you Blogger tells me read this thing.) I really have to advocate for this facebook diet thing. If you have tried everything and nothing works, you should totally give this a try. Tell everyone what you’re doing and keep us updated on your progress. I bet it’s something you haven’t tried and what could it hurt?
OK, quick and dirty stats:
As of today, I am down ten inches in my chest. This seems like a terrible thing at first glance, but it’s not. At the risk of divulging too much information here, it’s only the band size that has gotten smaller, not the cup size. Also, bench presses are more effective than surgery for lifting the girls so they stand up and say howdy all by themselves.
A lot of people measure waist and low waist, because a lot of people, especially women are larger around the area below their belly button than above it. I am not built that way. I have always had this area above the navel that I call my “Homer Lip” so I measure there. Anyway, not only am I down 11 inches at my high waist, I have gotten the high waist and standard waist numbers a lot closer together, so I look less like a fat cartoon man’s profile.
I have lost 6 inches at my waist – measuring right across the navel. Not as much as I’d like, but still good. If you look at the chart below, you will notice my waist has always been my smallest measurement and my waist to hip ratio has always been about 3:4. All that’s still true. You can’t really change the genetics of how your body looks, you can just do what I like to call “The Tighten Up” overall.
Hips and butt are down 7 and 8 inches respectively. I’ve always gotten compliments for that wagon I’m draggin’ (I’ll wait while you Google that) and I went into this not wanting to lose any of it. Again, weight lifting saves the day. Sure, you’ve got to have cardio to burn the fat, but weight lifting makes your body look SO much better under the fat that once you burn down to it, you’re all like “Daaaaaaym! Where’d these muscles come from?” Now, I don’t care what size anything is, as long as it’s hard as a rock!
I have 2 weeks left to get to my goal numbers and I’m about 2 inches off on everything. That will be tight. I’ll probably have to cut out sodium to hit it, but I should be doing that anyway. Of course, I’ll keep you posted here.
I should mention that the totals across the bottom are not pounds; they’re total inches at all 5 measuring points. As of today, I have lost 42 inches!
And I’m not giving you pounds except to say I have lost 20. Stop caring what I weigh or what you weigh or what that celebrity weighs. It is a worthless number that does not take really important things like muscle mass into account. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna bust my ass lifting weights for three months and then get on a scale and feel like a failure because the number didn’t budge. Muscle weighs more than fat. Everybody knows this but we still get psyched out by it.
I am stronger. I can run farther. I sleep better. My joints don’t hurt anymore. I can finish a Body Pump class easily now with the same weight on my bar as the instructor. I look better in my clothes. I look better out of my clothes. I don’t cringe at pictures of me. Shopping is fun again. I feel healthy and clean. I’m not dehydrated. My skin looks better. I have been inspired to quit smoking. I don’t crave junk. Whole foods taste good to me. I am proud of me. I get compliments almost daily. I might even wear a bathing suit this Labor Day – in front of people and everything! Who gives a tiny rat’s ass what the scale says?
Whew! That rant prolly just burned quite a few calories. Of course, it’s not enough. You’ve all heard me mention BodyPump. I’ve tried several classes and BP is by far my favorite. If you don’t like near a gym that offers it, here is what I do on weight machines on days I can’t get to a class:
Abs 50@50 split
Press 100@200 split
Outer Thigh 100@20 straight
Inner Thigh 100@20 straight
Hamstring Curl 50@40 straight
Biceps 50@30 straight
Triceps 50@30 straight
Rows 50@30 straight
Elliptical 30/200 straight
The first number is how many reps I do, the second number is the weight. Split means do half of them, then do at least one other machine and come back to do the second half later. Straight means do 10 reps, rest a minute, do another 10, till you hit the target.
So for example:
I start with the ab machine, do 25 crunches at fifty pounds, then go to the leg press machine and do 50 presses at 200 pounds, then go down the rest of the list straight through in reps of 10 and come back and do abs again and leg presses are the last thing I do for weights. Then I jump on the elliptical for a half hour for cardio.
On alternating days, I do yoga, ride my awesome new bike, walk/ run/ hike, swim, etc. Some days, I don’t do a blessed thing.
I don’t eat crap, as a rule, but stuff happens. NVR FRGT the mystery burrito. But I try not to let it beat me.
90 days in, I feel like I have certainly made a difference. It’s never boring since I’m always experimenting in the kitchen and I can always add more weight to my bar. I do wonder if I will someday be an 80-year-old in the gym every day lifting 300 pounds over my head, but hey, that would actually be pretty kick-ass.
My nickname could be The Octogenarian Pescetarian! I’ll get T-shirts made up… It’ll be a whole thing!
1 comment:
Awesome!
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