D.Alan’s BodyBlog

Monthly measurement night and no changes noted.  No gains, no losses.  Considering the erratic lifting and eating schedule I have had this summer, I guess I should be pleased that I haven’t undone any of my work to date, but a gain or two would have been nice.  BF% pinches are relatively unchanged — only varying a mm or two up and down — since the beginning of the summer, and that’s a biggie since when I am away I am not lifting and I am not eating the way I should be.

The lifting is sure helping the stress level; I am glad I have gotten into this as much as I have.  My work situation for the fall took a dramatic, unexpected, change last week and I was getting pretty keyed up & upset about it.  I was at the cottage so no lifting and by the time I got home I was nearly a basket case until I threw some weights around again and calmed down considerably.  Found out late this week that the changes aren’t looking quite as bad as first feared, so with that news and a couple of nights of lifting, I am a happy camper again.

While I hate to see the summer end, it will be good to get back into the work routine again, mostly because my eating schedule is much more controlled when I am working, and I move around a lot more.  I revised my BF% goal to aim for 9% by the end of the year.  I was on a pretty good down slope with that through the spring and thought I’d hit that easily by the end of the summer, but with the eating and lifting schedule basically a non-schedule, it turned out that the summer was a maintenance mode time.  I have done well so far, but still have that stubborn flab around the middle to burn off yet, the problem area for just about every guy.

So, I keep lifting.

My lifting schedule is all out of whack between the cottage trips this summer and the family reunion this past weekend.  And the family reunion didn’t help the BF%, I can tell you; there wasn’t a thing to eat, of course!

Actually, I didn’t fare that badly.  I was only up around a pound, and that seemed to be a lot of water as I was nearly back to my usual-for-lately 172 this morning.  I got a lot of compliments from the relatives about my appearance this weekend, which was great — beats a week ago or so when the cousins I saw then never mentioned anything.  One cousin in particular this weekend was really congratulating me but was also said "not that you needed to lose anything" and meant it.  I reminded her that I was up to nearly a 40" waistline.  "Really?"  I guess my clothes and/or my body hid it well or something… although this is a cousin whose pool I swam in last summer when I was at my chunkiest of late, so she had seen me at my worst.

Whatever, it was nice to be noticed for what I have accomplished so far.  Though, some of my uncles really steamed me.  Sunday morning they were all watching the Olympics and the women’s weightlifting was on and they got chatting about weightlifting and bodybuilding in general.  None of them had anything good to say about BBing.  "It’s just a body image sickness like anorexia"  "I knew a guy who was into that and shaved his body and the whole nine yards and I just couldn’t understand all that"  "I never liked weight lifting" "I can see doing some lifting for toning, but nothing else" and on it went.  Fortunately I was at the time occupied by my one aunt diagnosing a computer problem and wasn’t part of the conversation.  I don’t know what I would have said if I were in the conversation.  I had said nothing up to that point about how I had got to looking like I do now, no one really asked.  Gotta love peoples’ attitudes.

I am trying to get back into some lifting before heading to the cottage again in a few days.  I am finding that I do miss it when I don’t lift for a while.  It’s good for the mental state, if nothing else.  I had a bad day today with some not-so-great news from work about my work assignment for the fall, a good friend announced that he is leaving town at the end of the month, and the local weather has been just plain awful lately with never ending rain.  It was good to throw some weights around this evening.

Spent another week at the cottage and faired OK in the weight dept.  I didn’t get to do as much of my pseudo-cardio swimming this time, though.  My mom, who’s 74 and has some mobility issues, decided that she wanted to swim in the evenings with me, which is when I did my cardio swim.  Since it’s on a lake and all that, I just couldn’t leave her to paddle around on her own and go swim off.  She does fine in the water, but I just can’t leave her off in the distance.

I got through the week with no significant gain in weight, other than the usual water weight that I shed a day or so after getting back home.  I am not getting back into too much lifting this time, though, because we are off to a family gathering this weekend.  It’ll be interesting to see what, if any, comments I get from the other family members about my new appearance. Last week I had dinner with some cousins that I hadn’t seen in a year and there were no comments about my being down 20 lbs since last year.  Sigh.

Got a great tip yesterday on the private messages from another BodySpacer for working on my biceps.  I had posted a progress pic of my right bi from April to yesterday which spurred that tip.  I’ll try that out in the coming weeks and see how it goes.  I am willing to try anything.  If it works, you’ll see pix.  I am not looking to be huge, just some more size on the bis and delts would be nice… along with dropping the BF% some more while I plug along with the chest and abs.

Overall I am very pleased with my progress so far.  I get the occasional "expert" opinion on my pix about how I am not getting far enough, fast enough.  I ask, far enough and fast enough for whom?  I have spent 30-some years of my life being chunky/chubby/overbulked/fat and am very satisfied with my progress to date.  Yes, I probably could be bigger/leaner in the time I have spent so far, but I have chosen a slower path to that end, and doing it with a modestly appointed "home gym" which consists of a bench and a set of dumbbells.  It would be nice if the "experts" would respect that.  Not everyone has the time, money, or inclination to spend their life at the local gym… where there’s even more "experts" to deal with!  On the Internet I can press "delete."  When they’re in your face, it’s not as easy to shake them off…

So, we’ll keep liftin’ at home, making the progress slowly but steadily.