I Want Muscles

I know in a world full of boomers (myself included), I get zero sympathy for weight loss. 

It probably isn't popular with any of the generations, but I guess I could have easily said "people my age". 

"We" are at a time of our lives where we try to control how much we gain, not trying to lose. Yes, it's a broad statement, but I think it somewhat applies. 

Marathon training (I'm assuming) forced my weight down lower than my goal and to well below the BMI for someone my height. 

Yeah - I get it: no sympathy. Not that I'm asking for it. 

Oddly enough, I brought it up originally as a concern. It seemed like a lot of poundage to slough off in six months - when it took me two+ years to lose the first two-thirds of it. Something in the metabolism kicked in.....big time. 

I only do one weigh-in per month and yesterday was it. I've gained 1.5 lbs.   Yay me. 

I say 'yay', yet I'm not sure I mean it. 

Me, being me, has jumped 17 steps ahead, in my head, as I'm going to gain it all back. All 35 pounds. Yes, I internally processed going past the 12 I should gain back and added 23 more. This is the beauty of being in my mind. 

I know I need to gain some weight back (though my doctor disagrees), but I'm wringing my hands now that I actually have.........and it's an entire 24 ounces in 30 days. Maybe 31. 

Mock me if you will, but I'm beginning to see how someone like Karen Carpenter ends up the way they do. Another good reason only to get on the scale 12 times per year. 

Training for fall marathons starts in eight days. In the heat of summer. The chances of me gaining weight over the next 17 weeks seems slim (pun possibly intended?). My new goal is to not lose additional weight. It's a goal - not a plan. I have no plan. I don't think I can eat ice cream forever without becoming a Type 2 diabetic. 

Maybe a return to alcohol isn't the worst idea. If I were truly sober (meaning, proactively abstaining) I'd have my five month chip this last week - assuming that's a thing. At least booze packs on the pounds. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. 

I should not discount my strength training. Three (?) weeks in, maybe I'm getting more muscle, which we all know people says it weighs more than fat.  

BTW - has anyone ever really confirmed that??  A pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh the same on any scale. Maybe I'm not gaining weight - just muscle. 

That's it. 400 words later, and that's it!

Song by: Diana Ross

Milkshake

I'm watching my weight. 

Yes, you've heard me say that before in one form or another - at least going back to 2009. But this is different. 

When I headed back to the gym in March 2022, the goal was to lose 20 lbs - well, said my doctor. I put it to 22, just to get to 185, which the BMI charts in all doctor's offices say is correct for my height. 

It took me two years to lose that 22 lbs. And it only took me another two months to lose another 12 - which I was not planning on. 

My monthly weigh-in, which was shortly after the marathon, had me down to 173. I mean, it sounds good, but......it was a lot in a short amount of time. 

The "joke" is: I'm always hungry. I'm a furnace that must be fed. 710 no longer asks if I'm hungry and if I want to eat - as the answer is always affirmative, no matter the time. 

Granted, I've been eating healthier. Mostly grilled foods. Grains. No more processed cereal - just oatmeal and fresh fruit for breakfast.  Kind of. 

The thing is: I still eat like crap. Kind of.

Saturday runs have me going to a bakery afterwards, which sells (only on Saturdays) chocolate cherry muffins. So I get one for there and four to go. So for four days of the week, I eat one of those (with a banana) as my second breakfast. 

I still eat cupcakes. I still "sneak" M&Ms (dark chocolate ones only - I'm not a monster!). I average about four pints of ice cream per week.  And I still lost that weight. 

I'm trying not to obsess of it, but I don't want to hit the 160 range. My heavy training is over - for now, so I think I'll gain some back. Again, I only weigh myself once per month, so we'll see. 

My physical was last week. I brought up the weight loss with my doc. He was fine with it. Thrilled, in fact. We discussed the running / working out routine and he thinks I'm extremely healthy. But if I continue to lose weight 10 more pounds in two months, we'll take a look. 

The look means cancer screenings - lung and colon specifically, as those are the most common ones that involve weight loss 

In the meantime, I've resurrected our blender, which was 710's before we had been going out - so it's at least 39 years old! And it still works just fine. 

To combat my hunger - depending on the day / time, I will actually make myself a milkshake. They're pretty filling. It will usually hold me over until the next actual meal. Right now I'm like Homer Simpson - "I've discovered a meal between breakfast and brunch!". 

To be clear - none of my milkshakes, though better than yours - are bringing anyone to my yard. 

Song by: Kelis

the Waiting

I started back at the gym 15 months ago (or so). Yes, it was weight related, but mostly because I caught sight of myself in a bathroom mirror bending over and just saw gut. Honestly, I don't think anyone else would have thought a thing of it.  Me? I was horrified. 

In terms of the BMI chart, for my height, I should not exceed 185.  I was 208. 

Honestly, I hid it well enough under clothes, but I knew. And I'm not so sure the clothes truly hid anything, but I tell myself they did. 

As we age our metabolism changes, and I found it not so easy to get back into shape, let alone lose weight. My eating habits, while so much better, were still not great. They're better now, but I'm never gonna be that guy who watches what he eats very carefully. 

The gym and running have helped with the weight. It's taking longer than I wanted, but you know: persistence. 

15 months ago I thought "two pounds every month is doable" and in a year I can lose the 23 lbs I needed. 

My plans and my reality did not match up. Losing was harder than it seemed. But even on day one of the gym, I decided I would weigh myself only once per month and not obsess about it. I have stuck to that tactic, and my word. It's been mentally freeing. 

15 months in - and I finally broke 190. I'm in the 180s. Barely, but I'm there. 

While I always hope I lose more than I do, two days ago, I felt pretty good before my weigh-in and felt I would be in the 180s - which I probably haven't in the last decade. 

188.5.

I'll take it. Only 3.5 more to go. But honestly, now I expect that to take the rest of this year.  ....and I'm good with that. 

Song by: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Fat

Remember a few weeks back when Nancy Pelosi said that BLOTUS was obese?  Oh my - all the GOP was all a clatter (I'm sure that is a phrase, and if not, it is now!) about her statement that the president was a fat fuck. 

Now, my BMI says that at 6'2", anything over 185 is considered 'overweight'.  I haven't seen 185 in almost four years. I'm not tons (ha! get it?) above that number, but you know somewhere in my electronic medical record, it says "fatty". 

So BLOTUS had his annual physical the other day. The man is one inch taller than I and 51 pounds heavier. 

He fat. 

Actually, he obese!

Me, being me, took his stats and plugged them into not one, but three, BMI calculators.  Let's take a look, shall we? 

Obese. 

OBESE !

OBESE !!!!

So, all of BLOTUS' bullshit about the main stream media and all its fake news? I saw a lot of them report about his physical, including the weight and height. I saw NONE of them calculate and talk about a potential health issue with the "president" of this county.  

Of course, the sanitized physical report doesn't say 'obese' either.  

Make no mistake, BLOTUS is obese. 

Officially. 

Song by: Paul Kantner, Grace Slick & David Freiberg

the Weight

This box sits on a cabinet right outside my office window - mocking me.  Every. Single. Day.

Thanks box of paper - tell me something I DON'T know!

Actually, truth be told, I'm a little less husky than I was six weeks ago.

You might remember at the beginning of October I mentioned of making some changes to my eating habits - at least for the past six weeks.

No desserts, less sugar, less bread.  That was my commitment to the process.  So far; so good.

In a six week time frame, I have lost 9.9 lbs.  Probably 10, as after I weighed myself a few days back, then I went and used the restroom. That had to be at least one once.

I'm fine, so far, with 9.9 .  My goal is and was....well no matter, but I haven't yet hit that number. But I'm closer.

It isn't just the non-eating doing this, of course. I have a semi-exercise system.  Not a gym - as my shoulder is still ever so troublesome.

I've made an effort in walking. Sure, I get my dog-walking steps in. But at lunch, I walk 2,000+ steps.  Since I am in my new building most of the time, it's not a big hospital complex, so I have to make a concerted effort to walk 10,000 steps per day.  There have been three days in 6+ weeks that were under 10k, and they were all 9.5k.  Most of my days are 13,000.

I also make the effort in stairs. As I walk through the building, and take a set of stairs, as long as no one is in the stairwell with me, I will walk up and down the steps 3-4 times.  I'm currently averaging about 22 flights of stairs per day.  No less than 10. Sometimes upwards of 37.

My snacks are bananas, pistachios and clementines.  If I need sugar (at work) I have one Jolly Rancher.  It's all of 3 calories. At home, it's been no white sugar.  I'm not trying to deprive myself completely, but I knew I had to start strong, so............here we are.

10 pounds isn't everything, but I think at 1.66 lbs per weeks is healthy.  It's not the big drop all at once, but I am not sure that is sustainable in keeping off anyways.  And I mean, per week, that's like 86 pounds per year - not that I'm looking to drop that much.

The crazy thing about this "diet" is change in behaviours.  No dessert?  I go to bed earlier, though I don't really get much more sleep. JP would die to know I wake up even earlier.  Our milk buying / consumption is way down.  If you don't need a glass to wash down a cupcake, then, you don't buy as much. This also has thrown our dish washing cycle off completely.

You don't even want to know how it's changed my very "personal daily schedule".......but all for the better, so there's that.

I know the original goal was until the end of October, and we made it. But for the time being, we'll keep going. I still have a little more to go, which might take us till the end of the year. 

This might not be a temporary change of life, maybe an alteration.  It's a wait and see game. And clearly, a weight and see game as well.



Song by: the Band

Sugar Sugar

Blobby had a doctor's appointment a few weeks ago, and heard the four worst words you can possibly hear at the doctor.

No, it wasn't, "you're going to die".  It was, "hop on the scale".

{sob}

I knew it was coming. And even worse, knew what the read out would be.

203.3.  Ugh!

Somehow whilst on vacation back in July and August, I figured I had to have dropped five. I was walking 10 miles per day.  I was swimming at least twice per day. My food and alcohol intake wasn't anything bad. Honest. Yet I came home almost 5 pounds to the plus side. Not plus size.

Ok. That last line isn't quite accurate, is it?

Maybe it's just age and metabolism doing  me in.

To my credit (?), this is not the heaviest I've been, but I don't care for the direction it's going......or looking in the mirror.

Honestly, in my life I've never dieted.  Mort will do alcohol free months.....ok....month.....singular, but booze isn't the issue of my weight, or so I'm assuming.  I believe it to be a white substance far more addictive than cocaine. 

Sugar.

I. Love. Sugar.   ....and it me.

Knowing I can't do it alone, I axed 710 to join me in a month of much less sugar.  He was on board.

Notice I didn't say 'no sugar'.  I'm not fool enough to think I can forsake all sugar. But there will be no cookies, cupcakes or the likes in the house for a month.  Well, a month and two weeks, as we finished anything we had and have opted not to buy more.

In my head, I'm taking us to the end of October to see if we notice a difference. We started two weeks ago.

I've also taken this one step a little further.  I'm packing my lunch more and more and there are no such thing as chips going with me to work. Carrots and celery are now my friends.  Any snacking I do consists of nuts, bananas and apples.  While I will take chicken salad or tuna, there is no longer bread.  But if I take cucumber slices and put either of those on, you certainly will get full.

Oh, and water. At this time, I'm taking in somewhere between 100-120 oz of water per day. 64 is recommended, but me being me, has to 'beat that!'.   This is foolish of course.  My getting up in the middle of the night to pee due to so much water isn't helping my already poor sleep habits.

I have a goal in mind for how much I want (and need) to lose. But I will try not to go back to old habits.

Over last weekend, we went to dinner at my niece's new house (where she is living in sin!), and took the dessert: six chocolate chip cookies from one of the best places that makes them.  In theory there was one for each guest, ourselves included.  Neither 710 or I had one, nor did we take them home.  As 710 said, he misses the routine, not the dessert.  That's fair.

When going to see Downton Abbey, I automatically stopped at concessions and then thought to myself, "what am I doing?" This showed me it's much more about habit than want or need.

It makes sense to make more sensible choices. My exercises has been on hold......I'm down to just one bad shoulder, but I need to get back to a gym too.  I hope to continue eating better even after the month, but I don't believe in cutting out anything completely, be it a carb, sugar or fat.

I shan't be mentioning my weight until the end of October or so.....and I'll let you know if I'm headed in the right direction.......or not.



Song by: the Archies

Walking on the Moon

The holidays can be tough on folks. Sure there's the family dynamics, and the juggling of friends & parties. Add travel and weather in there and it is just stress upon stress.

One should not forget the amounts of food that is consumed. The yummy, not very good for you entrees, plus all those sweets. Those luscious luscious sweets.

It can just pack on the pounds. And not in a carry-on, but more like in a steamer trunk.

Naturally, I'm not talking about me!!!  No no no!! I'm still the slim trim guy you've come to know and love. The lbs just fall off me by opening the ice cream container or peeling back the paper from a chocolate fudge cupcake.

mmmmm....cupcakes.........

Anyways, I digress. Or do I?

A friend of mine was lamenting on the holidays and the damage done. I let him prattle on, never once mentioning that he never truly replied to my post-holiday email to see how his holiday was, how he and his family were doing - and let it be known I never inquired about his weight. But since he brought it up - how could I not run with it???

Well....it's not like he was going to chase me. Or could.

Ooops. There I go again. I can't help myself.

Naturally, I asked him to send me a picture of him on the scale. Unfathomably, he did. That silly silly boy. I MIGHT have gone too far to ask, after seeing the number, if the image was taken on the moon.

Sometimes I really don't know the line from funny to cruel, though I'm afraid I might have crossed it, like Dennis Rodman into North Korea.....and I'm afraid I hurt feelings.

Personally, I don't think he is overweight at all. He's a tall gentleman. I have no doubt he thinks he put on a few, but it probably isn't as bad as he thinks. The earth hasn't been knocked off its axis - as far as I know. I haven't heard the Ministry of Magic put out any memory charms on Harry Potter's Aunt Marge.

Though my title image does look like a cross between Harry's Aunt Marge and any number of Wallace & Gromit characters.

Honestly, I don't believe he's mad at me, just play-acting. I hope that's all it is. We'll see after he reads this. I mean - I'm assuming he's still coming back here - it's an awesome blog.



Song by: the Police

Weight of My Mistakes

Yesterday I got a comment that I ate cupcakes and still had a somewhat decent body.  I am clearly  paraphrasing making up shit.

I've made no secret - I work out so I can eat cupcakes.

I like cupcakes.

Normally I do not get them, but I will have a cookie or two each night, because I do like cookies too.

Since May, Rebecca (you know the one missing her appendix, whom I *think* Pac inadvertently called a 'hag')  has told me that I'm "too thin".  As if!

Unless your Karen Carpenter, can one be too thin?

She said it in May, she said it in July and she said it in August.  I figured she was just being nice, but then I realized we are never really that kind to each other.   I mean, we are, but we aren't.  You know?

So, the irony was not lost on me this last Wednesday when I got on the scale for the first time since mid-August.  The scale visit was the last date was the last time I was at the gym.

I know.  I know.  I always have gone one about the gym 4-5 times a week and I have really slacked off.  It's been part physical and part mental.  Going back there two days ago felt right being back.  I'm still having tendinitis pain, but I am determined to power through it for some stuff.  Cardio is still tough for me though.

Ok, the actual irony is, yes, I eat cookies, haven't worked out most of the summer and then weighed in at 178.5 pounds - possibly the lowest I have been in two decades.

I think I have found the secret to weight loss.

When I got my new driver's license last month, I made absolutely positively sure that they reduced my weight to 183.  I worked hard for that.  Down from almost 200.  I wasn't letting the DMV rob me of that success.   Had I only gotten my license a month and a half later, I'd have 178.5 in print and laminated.

I suppose one could surmise that since I've stopped lifting I've may have lost some muscle mass and not really lost "weight".  I guess we will see, as I am back to lifting.  I'm sore, but I'm back.

And 178.5 might be too thin.....for me.  Becky is right.



Song by:  Seal