Forty Pounds (A Success Story)

note: this particular post will be far less self-deprecating than you or I may be normally accustomed to.  this will have the additional effect of this entry being far less humorous and perhaps even overly self-indulgent.  fair warning.  sorry.  

I started this interwebular log in February... frustrated and embarrassed by how out-of-shape I had become.  The hope was to use this as a public forum for embarrassment, motivation, humor (and no small amount of surreptitious self-promotion), and accountability.  I had weighed myself at our not-oft used health club, and it was somewhere in the mid 240's.  That's a lot.  My first "official" weigh-in (on my scale, for continuity) was 239.6 lbs on February 22nd.

The goal was to "get healthy".  Eat healthier, work out regularly, begin running, etc.  I didn't have a hard and fast weight number I was shooting for, but I thought that somewhere in the 200's (ie below 210) would be a good target... and was honestly really hoping to crack that 200 number and get back in "the 1's", but I didn't know if that was realistic.

Well... I'm 23 weeks into this thing, and I did it.  Today's "Fat Friday" weigh-in was...

198.8 lbs

I've been checking this scale for six months... finally got that first digit down to a "1"

199!  I feel pretty good about that.  Officially, more than 40 pounds lost.  Unofficially, probably closer to 45 pounds.  I mean, if you walk into a weight room and pick up a 45 lbs plate... and think that's how much weight used to be a part of me... and now just doesn't exist.  It's almost a bit strange.

I've greatly reduced my gravitational pull over the last 6 months.  And I accomplished it with better eating and hard work... losing a healthy and gradual amount of weight... about 1% of my body weight per week (that's what's advised as "healthy" anyway).  45 pounds over 23 weeks.  Yahoo.

This doesn't mean I'm done.  I still have some weight to lose.  Getting into the 180's is not out of the question.  But, my focus will shift slightly.  I can move from "Phase 1" to "Phase 2"... which will focus on keeping the weight off during the busy beginnings of a new school year, and then maybe a bit more redistribution (socialism!) of the weight I'm currently carrying.

Regarding the redistribution, I've obviously reduced mass from my gut, face, neck, etc... you know, places you *want* to lose weight.  But since most of my efforts have been cycling and running, I've also lost relatively substantial mass from my upper body, and arms specifically.  I didn't have much muscle mass there to begin with, but at this point I'm getting closer to becoming a real-life example of one of those stick people that you draw with an oval and twig arms.

I don't have too many goals at this point in regards to strength... but it would be nice, for instance, to be able to do more than 4 consecutive granny push-ups.  We'll see.

Anyway, despite this being a space where I normally embarrass myself (see previous sentence), I am actually feeling relatively proud and accomplished today.  I hit a goal that I hadn't even fully made because I wasn't even sure if it was realistic.  It's been a pretty drastic change in lifestyle and I'm hoping it becomes a pretty drastic change in appearance & overall health as well.

Hopefully I can keep the trend continuing in that direction.  I'm excited to see where this ends up...