D.Alan’s BodyBlog

Measurement night for the month and there’s some surprises.  Most everything went down a bit… that’s good for the waist — which probably hasn’t been this size since I was in eighth grade — but not so good for the chest and shoulders!  But, I think it’s due to fat loss more than anything else.  I have been thinking that I have been looking leaner in the mirror, but sometimes you see what you want to see, not necessarily what’s really there!  BF% pinches are around the same, actually down a mm or so.  My weight did drop a bit last week so perhaps that’s the fat leaving… I hope.  Just hope it isn’t taking too much muscle with it!

Did monthly progress pix, too.  I’ll have to do some side-by-side comparisons with previous months and all that to fully evaluate what’s going on.  It’s still exciting and proof that keeping liftin’, with the odd bit of cardio on the bike or swimming, really does work.

Had a more successful (for my lifting and body goals) cottage trip this time.  Since I have no lifting gear there I started doing some distance swimming each evening.  I’m not going miles, mind you, and probably amounts to about 10 minutes’ worth of swimming, but hey, it’s cardio.  Got home and had the water weight again but after a day or so home I am back to about where I was before we left.  Also, I found that I could use a rough door frame at the cabin for close-hand pullups so my bis got a little workout.

My weight hit a new all-time recent low for me just before the cottage visit, 171.  I ascribe that to the bike riding I have been doing lately.  With the gas price situation I dusted off my old 10-speed (the thing’s about 30 yrs old!) and bought a helmet and have been doing the little local errands on the bike instead of firing up the car.  I was on it almost every day last week.  Each run wasn’t terribly long, maybe about five miles round trip each time, but it all adds up.  I was out on it again today for a 5.2 mile trek.  Not huge numbers, but it’s some cardio.

There’s a family gathering coming up in about two weeks that I am kind of looking forward to because of my new appearance.  There’ll be all sorts of cousins there who are around my age and for the most part are all big (big as in chunky) people.  I am the oldest of the group and am looking forward to being the best-in-shape cousin, esp. for being the oldest.

So, that means I gotta keep liftin’.

I’ve been working my butt off since getting back from the cottage, trying to burn off the extra weight/fat I put on during the week I was away.  It turns out the fit I had over the weight gain was all for naught… the weight was water weight!  Spent Wednesday peeing like crazy and Thursday I was back to the 173 I was at the week before.  Damn salty food my dad makes at the cottage…  The BF% was definitely up a %, though, I checked it again on Thursday and got the same results.  So I have been liftin’.  Tonight after liftin’ I checked the BF% and I am back down again to where I was last week.  Cool.

Meanwhile what I am trying to do is do two weeks’ worth of routines in eight days since I know I have a six-day rest coming up.  So far I am on schedule and have four more days to go.  I have to double up some things, but it works OK.  I’ll do abs in the early afternoon and then shoulders and tris in the evening, for example.

And it is all working.  I have had a lot of great, positive and encouraging comments from the latest progress pic I posted this week, a one year comparison of my relaxed back.  Today was a really hot, muggy day so I chose to spend it outside washing the cars in nothing but swim trunks.  Before this year I wouldn’t have considered that, for fear that a neighbor would see me.  This year I want them to see me!

Had my first setback of sorts.  Went to the family cottage for nearly a week and have no lifting gear there and didn’t eat right and came home two lbs heavier and up a % in the BF.  Damn.  It’s hard to eat right there because my dad does all the cooking and he makes nothing healthy (can we say mountains of comfort food?) and woe be unto him who tries to vary the set-forever-in-concrete menu…  My dad thinks working out and exercising and all that is a lot of rubbish so I don’t even try to get into the menu stuff… not worth the battle.  Oh well.  Just gotta do more swimming when we go again in another week.  I did some swimming but obviously not nearly enough.

I did get a decent tan and my arms especially are looking a bit better.  The tricep definition is much better with the tan.  Meanwhile I will lift like crazy for the eight days that we’ll be home before heading to the cottage again, hopefully I will work off the extra fat from this time to make room for the next!  I guess I could think of these trips as a mini-bulk… or something.

I took a few pix today of the tan and made a comparison pic between this summer and last summer and posted it in my pix section.  Even being up a smidge in the weight, the comparison is pretty good.  I didn’t start lifting seriously until a few months after last summer’s pic, but the side-by-side is still pretty dramatic… and keeps me liftin’.