D.Alan’s BodyBlog

Got through Thanksgiving just fine.  Had a good meal yet haven’t destroyed the weight or BF% stats; everything is as it was before the big day.  The key is to have that metabolism revved up and indulge in moderation.  I had written about that last week in the post that was eaten by the server monsters.  In short, I had said my method for getting through the holidays is to enjoy them, but don’t go crazy.  Have one cookie, not six.  Have a nice plate at the meal, just don’t have several helpings.  Schedule rest days around the social and other events of the season.  That method got me through the holidays last year and I am applying the same plan to this year.  I just looked at my records and see that between Thanksgiving and New Year’s last year I actually lost five pounds.  I don’t think I’ll do that well this year as my weight has been on a pretty good plateau for some time, but I am shooting to not gain any weight over the next month.

Discovered this week that I was given the wrong flavor whey protein at GNC the last time I was there.   They had a buy one, get one half off deal and I selected my usual 5 lb chocolate, but there wasn’t another on the shelf.  I asked the girl about it and she said there was more in the back.  She looked at what I had picked out, "You want the chocolate?"  "Yes, please."  She brings it out, rings everything up and I drag it all home.  Opened the chocolate one and put the other on the shelf and didn’t look at it for the next 4-5 weeks that it takes me to go through a 5 lb protein bottle.  Opened the other one Tuesday night and it looked funny inside, I thought it had gone bad or something.  Then I looked closely at the label… chocolate caramel.  Hmm.  Well, the bottle is now open, I can’t take it back, might as well try it.  Ugh.  Damn stuff doesn’t hardly dissolve no matter how much you stir it and it is so sickeningly sweet.  Great, and it’s a 5 lb bottle.  Hate to just toss it because it costs so much, so for now I will choke it down… I want to choke that clerk at GNC…

I started taking some green tea about two weeks ago.  One of the commenters to my pix put me on to it and after reading up a bit on bb.com about it I decided to give it a try.  We’ll see how it goes over the next little while.  I don’t know how much to have to get any of the benefits of it, but for now I am having one cup about mid-morning at work.  Once in a while I have a second one in the afternoon.  I’ll try just about anything to get this stubborn midsection fat to go away.  Yeah, I know, do more cardio, lardbutt…

But I’ll definitely keep liftin’.

Let’s try this again… wrote a post last night and saved it and it never appeared in my blog entries.  Tried to write a blog comment to the admin about it with their update on the outage last week and the comment didn’t appear.  Sheesh.  I think this site is about to implode…

Had an OK week with the lifting.  Last night was measurement night for the month and everything was the same as last month, except for my arms, the bis are down a bit.  Arrgh.  I don’t understand that one, other than the little bit more of weight I am down, on average, came off my arms… it would figure.  I need to lose it off the midsection, and it’s probably coming off the arms instead.

Not going to ramble on only to have this post lost in space as well.  Keep liftin’.

BF% pinches came down a little this week, about 1.5 mm… more than one, less than two.  Better than it going up again as it did the previous two weeks. Talk about a battle of millimeters.

My left forearm has started playing up on me over the last week or so.  Don’t know enough about anatomy to know the name of the exact muscle, but it’s back by the elbow joint on the inner/lower side of the forearm.  It is sort of like the tennis elbow problem I had with my right arm last winter.  Sometimes when I have my left arm in one place for a while and then I go to move it, that muscle really hurts.  Tonight with my arms & back routine I skipped the hammer curls since that exercise would really aggravate that.  This has been coming on slowly over the two weeks.  I haven’t done anything any differently in the routines so I don’t know what caused it.  Oh well, just have to work out carefully and try not to make it worse.

Took some pix tonight and posted a front double bi pic.  Bis are looking better but that damned mid section fat is hanging on for dear life.  One commenter has suggested green tea to help with reducing fat.  I have been meaning to try it for some time… gonna try to get some this week.

And meanwhile I’ll keep liftin’.

I will never figure out this BF% stuff…  Hit my new all-time low weight of 168 today.  I think I am looking pretty decent in the mirror… my adonis belt is becoming more visible all the time, and tonight it is probably the most visible it has ever been, ever.  But the BF% pinches were up another mm from last week, which makes it up 2mm over the last two weeks, and pushes me into the next % value on the chart.  Huh?  I guess what you can see in the mirror is all that counts, but sometimes that can be skewed by what we want to see, rather than what is really there.  Measurements like weight and BF% give us quantitative data to prove or disprove our alleged progress, and my data doesn’t seem to be matching what I am seeing.

In clothing news, I had some of my pants taken in this week, and I was finally able to order that dress shirt in the athletic cut that I was looking for, so I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of that… can’t wait to wear that to work.

And speaking of work, I was lamenting missing having my official employee pic taken as I had to be at another work site the day the pix were taken and a coworker said, "Oh they can use last year’s," to which I responded, "Sure, but I have new glasses and am 20 lbs lighter than last year."  Her response?  "You’re 20 lbs lighter than last year?!?"  Uh, thanks, I guess it really shows… 

So, I’ll keep liftin’.

Another week of plugging along.  BF% pinch up a mm, nothing to get too upset about.  Weight was 169 again for a couple of days.  The BF% pinches aren’t showing it, but in the mirror it sure looks like the BF% is down a bit more.  My obs and serrats are (I think) showing the best that they have so far, and there’s an ever-so-slight hint of an adonis belt at times.

Gotta love people’s attitudes about getting fit and weight loss and all that.  Today after Sunday brunch at our local Sunday brunch spot, we bumped into a neighbor from the "old neighborhood," an 80-something woman who’s the mom of my best friend growing up.  After catching up and chatting she takes a good look at me and asks if I have lost weight.  I said yes.  She asks, "because you want to?" and again I said yes.  "Why?" she asks.  Geez.  I just said, "Because I was getting too big."  Why should this be such a mystery to people?  I guess we are so bombarded with food and a stuff-your-face culture that getting fit is viewed as something out of the ordinary, despite the endless infomercials for the latest get-fit-without-the-effort-or-dedication widget.

Bought myself some new jeans this week and was really pysched that I was able to get them in the 33-in waist size, and they fit!  They’re snug without being uncomfortable.  Gotta be the first time in a LONG time that I have been able to fit into that size.  Also tried to get myself an athletic cut dress shirt this week, but they didn’t have my neck size in the color I wanted, bummer.  Have to keep trying back.  I am just so enjoying this shopping for "better" sizes in my clothes, rather than having to look for the chunkier sizes.

Now that I am investing in the new clothes, I really gotta keep liftin’…