The Tale Of The Tape

For anyone interested, here are some figures on my, er, figure:

2010 Starting Weight:  199 pounds*

Current Weight:  165 pounds

Lowest Weight (2011):  158 pounds

2010 Body Fat:  26.1%

Current Body Fat:  19%

2010 Waist Size:  36”

Current Waist Size:  29”**

My lowest weight in 2011 was prior to adding any significant amount of resistance/weight training to my exercise regime; I was focused pretty much entirely on cardio until sometime in the late summer of 2011.  Given that I’ve gone up about 7 pounds, and my body fat actually decreased by 1% since then, I have to assume that muscle mass accounts for much, if not all, of the weight gain.

Overall, I’m pleased with my progress (particularly in terms of my blood sugar levels) and with how much better I look, though I’m still pretty unhappy about the look and feel of some areas.  My body tends to be kind of like a rubber band – when I stand up, it’s stretched tight and I look thin, but when I sit down, it all sort of…collects in the middle.

And while some people talk about having “buns of steel,” I, apparently, have buns of mercury.

Sometimes the looseness and flabbiness makes me feel like I’m a thinner person who simply moved into Jon’s old body and never got it taken in so that it wouldn’t be lumpy, wrinkled, and just generally ill-fitting.  Kind of like the alien in Edgar’s body in Men In Black.

I’m also not as strong as I’d like to be.  What muscles I have seem to be purely for decorative purposes.
And those muscles seem to have absolutely no interest in burning the fat as fuel…

Ultimately, and I admit that it my be a perception issue, I feel that while I look very good relative to how I used to look, I don’t look especially good objectively.  That is, no one who had never seen me at my heaviest would ever be terribly likely to look at me and be impressed.

There’s no way to prove that suspicion, of course, but by that same token, there’s no way to disprove it either, and so, here I am.

Honestly, sometimes I feel like I’ve done all this work just to get to the point of looking like a guy in a “Before” picture in an ad for some sort of weight loss/bodybuilding program.

*That was my weight on my first visit to Urgent Care.  I had been at around 210 pounds prior to that, but, as a result of my diabetes, I had mysteriously dropped eleven pounds – unexplained weight loss is one of the symptoms of diabetes.

**It depends on the pants.  If the cut is right, I can comfortably fit into pants with a  29” waist, but, in general, I tend to favor pants with a 31” waist, as 30” and below tend to be kind of binding in other areas, even though they’re loose in the waist.

You’re So Vein

As much as I hate (HATE.) working out, there have been definite, noticeable positive results from my efforts.

Beyond the improved health that comes from having my blood sugar levels out of the danger zone, and just feeling better in general because of the weight loss (and, I must admit, feeling at least a little bit better about myself), there are the more superficial benefits.

For example, I can actually see the lines that define my muscles, and, though the gains haven’t been quite as significant as I would like, my biceps are considerably larger than they were.

But I think that my favorite change has been the bulging veins in my arms, and in particular in my forearms.  For some reason, more than the lines of definition and the increase in muscle mass, having those big, ropey veins, that are, to my nerdy sensibilities, vaguely reminiscent of the analogous roots that covered the Swamp Thing’s muck-encrusted body, seems like a real sign of progress.

Just thought I’d mention that.