I’m a Loser 05.11.09

I've really let myself slide these last few weeks.  First my diet went to hell and I completely stopped tracking my eating habits, which resulted in yet another weight gain last week.  Then last week I finally broke my exercise streak.  I went eight or nine weeks where I made it to the gym six days a week.  Last week I skipped a day Friday and intended to make it up on Sunday, but I nearly broke my foot Saturday.  Still, that's no excuse.  I shouldn't have skipped Friday.  And now, to top it all off, I'm four days late with this update.

As I already mentioned and you will see below, I regained weight last week.  I guess my week in Cincinnati caught up to me after all.  I'm annoyed, but not discouraged.  Despite the weight re-gain, I feel great.  I've had many little pick-me-ups this last week, and I'm not letting this setback knock me down.

I've seen little veins popping up in the backs of my hands and undersides of my lower arms.  I've seen deepening lines of definition in my legs, chest, and shoulders.  These veins and lines are like old friends that i haven't seen in so long that I forgot I ever knew them.  I can wrap a towel around my waist now without worrying that it will loosen and fall off.  I'm tucking my shirt in again.  I need to buy a new belt or punch holes in the one I have.  All of my pants are too big, and I fit into some of my 2X shirts again.  My Dickey-doo disease has regressed to a mild form of Dunlap's disease, and hopefully it will be soon be in total remission.

However, this isn't about appearance.  Better looks are just an extra perk.  This is really about how I move and how I feel.  I can now walk to work in twelve minutes without breaking a sweat when it used to wear me out to get here in seventeen.  Two flights of stairs would make my heart race and my legs ache.  Now I bound up three flights, taking them two at a time, without even thinking about it.  When I started back to the gym i couldn't do a single pushup without killing my shoulders.  I could do a few, but they really hurt, and I was incapable of doing any chin ups at all.  I'm back up to forty pushups per set, and I can do four chin-ups.  When I first started in the pool, it took nearly thirty minutes to swim twenty-two laps, and I had to switch strokes every four or five laps.  Now I can swim forty-four laps in about forty minutes, and I use the same free-hand stroke throughout.  In the beginning I couldn't even touch my toes.  This morning I was almost able to touch the flats of my palms to the floor, and I'm only six inches away from being able to do a full split.  I've maxed out

I think my prolonged lack of discipline has made it impossible for me to reach 270 pounds by Memorial Day, but I will reach it soon.  When I get there, I'm going to start running again.  Years before "free running" was a cool thing to do in the cities, I did it along the ridges and down the mountainsides of my home.  I used to do it often among the rocks in the river at Audra State Park.  I want to be able to do it again.  I want to be able to run through the trees and over the rocks, pushing as hard and as fast as I can, choosing my path as I go, making my body lunge, twist, leap, and sprint over, under, or around any obstacles in my path.

I'm going to get there.  I've allowed myself to slip, but I'm back on track now.

Weight 05-04-09: 281.8
Weight 05-11-09: 283.2

Average Daily Calories:  Unknown

Exercise Log:
Monday: cut a tree out of a fence
Tuesday: Upper body
Wednesday: 22 laps in 20 minutes 59 seconds
Thursday: Lower body
Friday: nothing
Saturday: extensive upper body, abs, 22 laps in 23 minutes 13 seconds
Sunday: nothing
Walked to work twice (2.8 miles)