Let's Get Physical

Today I had my yearly physical, or what should be my yearly. I kinda slack on that.

I weighed in at 198. By means of comparison, for other visits I have had in the last several years:

• I was 205 at the previous visit a year+ ago (which makes sense, it's about where the last blog post in May of 2022 had me)
  
• I was 215 or more before that. Again, in line with what I surmised in my previous post.
  
• Apparently I'm within range of where I was in 2015

 In the last entry just a bit less than a year ago, I talked about 34s falling off.  I'm now wearing 30s* and those are falling off as well. I moved to 32s last year and before I knew it, I was buying new pants again.... and now those are way too loose. Time for a third hole punched in the belt!!

 *Basically every pair of jeans you find these days have that stretch shit in them so 30 seems charitable.

 So, essentially I weigh somewhere in the same ballpark of where I was eight years ago. That said, I know I have put on a lot more muscle than I had then.

I'm still in a state of going generally 3x a week. Next month will mark 2 years of doing so. It's become a good routine, and something to which I look forward. I'm rarely doing cardio, and I would probably lose weight even faster if I did that, but I like my pace right now.

So what about the tattoo?

I haven't thought about it much, because (while writing this post) I realize I still haven't come up with a good replacement metric for the original goal of 30lb. I've read that for every inch you lose in your waistline, it's beween 4-8 lb, so I guess total weight/fat loss is in the very wide range of 20-48lb. 

I found the instagram of a dude who works in a shop nearby and I like his work, it sorta seems along the style I'm looking for, and he seems like an overall good dude.  So I might have to make a trip over there for at least an initial consultation... I figure I will keep working on my steady progress while I get a better idea as to what i want to get. But I do think I still want to do it.

This is Not a Repeat of 2018

Good thing no one reads this blog.

Hello world, three and a half years later.

Well, what can I say? The last time I posted, I had been rehabbing my knee, nearly a year into it. It was a long recovery. If I recall correctly, I had slowly started getting into the swing of things, and probably got a really bad cold just after. Same cycle, get sick, get out of the habit, don't go back for a while...

...and then I had begun starting to work out again, around January-Feb 2020.

We all know what started happening around that time.

 Gyms were closed, I slacked, I was not feeling great about myself either and Iprobably backslid a whole lot. I don't even want to think what my weight was, though I was probably pushing 220.

 Fast forward to May of 2021. I joined Active and Fit Direct through my insurance. I made this decision because my old, "luxury" gym:

1. cost a lot
2. found me generally sitting in the hot tub/sauna and not much more. 

Yeah i would go to the gym, and I might swim a few laps, but generally speaking it was social hour or two. That was getting me nowhere fast. Thus, I made the decision to use Active and Fit to find a gym, or gyms, near me for a lot less, where I would not be tempted by the jacuzzi.

 Since joining, I have been going about three times a week, nearly every week, for almost a year now. It's been almost pure lifting, not much cardio.

The results, while seemingly mixed, have nonetheless been stunning.

I'm currently sitting at around 204, which doesn't seem that great, considering earlier blog posts indicate I had dropped to at least 196. However, this clearly doesn't tell the whole story.

• The fact is, I know I am losing weight. I have jeans that are basically falling off, 34Ws that were never this loose before, even at 196. I mean quite literally they would fall off without my belt.
• That belt? I punched another hole in it, and others, because I while there were markings on the first hole from before -- and some of these belts might have even been too small -- I had moved beyond the last hole.
• I definitely feel a lot stronger.
•  I saw myself in the mirror the other day at the gym, and for the first time in a long time, I felt pretty good about myself. The gut is definitely fading,
  

 So serious progress is being made -- just not on the scale.

 What all this leads me to wonder is if I need to change my success metric. 30 LB would be incredible now, and I still want to strive for it, but clearly I've put on more muscle mass than before, and I definitely want to be below 200 again.

 I guess it means I just keep working out. I will find a suitable metric for my goal, or maybe even keep what I have. But it has been a year back, and I really enjoy it. Not even a mostly mild case of COVID of my own, which kept me away for two weeks, blunted the momentum, which frankly, was a worry of mine. To be honest, maybe slow and steady progress is better than the fairly rapid progress I was seeing before.

I don't enjoy the fitness bikes at my current gym as much as the old place. Weight loss would probably be easier with them, but I am starting to like where I am at right now, in terms of progress, anyway.

 Things are pretty great. Maybe I should start thinking about those tattoo designs again...

Now It's *really* been a long time...

It's been almost a year since I've posted here.

There's no audience to speak of, so again I'm mostly just here for my own accountability, but I'll briefly cover what's been going on.

Two days after Christmas last year, I went on a ski trip. Things were going well, it was turning out to be a good time...

...and then, about 25 feet from the bottom of the slope, I fell down. It was the strangest thing, because I wasn't moving that fast, and it was not at all a tricky slope -- in fact, it was a green course.

I won't recount everything that went through my mind in those couple of minutes afterwards, but the short version is: I tore my ACL and meniscus.

I stopped into the orthopedic urgent care on the way home, where the initial diagnosis was a likely torn meniscus, but nothing broken. I then limped around for a few weeks with a brace, until I got an MRI, after which the doctor informed me of the bad news.

Around the end of January, I had an ACL repair and a little bit of my lateral meniscus trimmed away. This has subsequently involved a whole lot of PT. Recovery has taken significantly longer than I'd prefer, and while the PT and surgeon seem to have diverging degrees of optimism, I seem to be doing a lot better. There's a couple degrees of extension that I'm struggling with on the repaired leg, but things are improving, bit by bit, week by week.

So what does this mean in the scheme of things?

On one hand, I've lost close to a year of time in my goal. On the other hand, after having what was admittedly a bit of a backslide during the holiday season, the incident has led me to once again be more dedicated to the gym.

Most, if not all, of the weight I had gained, between holiday festivities and surgery-related inactivity, has dropped back off, and I am back around the weight I hit last September. A small bit of that is more than likely muscle mass (atrophy in the repaired leg), but I am definitely back in better shape. Shirts and pants fit much better than they have in a long while. I don't think my cardio is nearly as good as it was (nor do I have the energy/strength to do long bouts of it), but it's coming along.

So there you have it. I have not thought much about the ink lately. Getting healed and recovery have been my primary goals, even if, to be honest, I probably haven't been working as hard as I should've. Nonetheless, I think I've turned a very slow corner. What's more, I have continued to enjoy working out for some time now. I think I'm in a good place.

Back to Square One...

... well, not quite but almost.

Once again, over a month since last update.

I have been slacking a bit at the gym. Actually, I have continued to lift, on and off, but cardio has been a long-lost friend.  Nonetheless, my overall activity has dropped, and the scales -- the true judge and jury in whole thing -- have rendered verdict.

Over the last month or so, I have gained back a little bit of the weight I've lost. Not all of it, but a couple of pounds.

Now, part of the slack has been because I tweaked my back a few weeks ago -- doing nothing, actually, it just randomly knotted up -- and that put me off the gym for a week+. I can't really help that, however.

The issue here has happened to me before -- I get injured, or sick, or something -- and it breaks me of the (good) habit. Not an excuse, just a recognition, and each time it happens, I have to drag myself back in there, knowing damn well I enjoy it once I start going.

The other part which is under my control is a vague disinterest in the exercise bike. This has two root causes:

• Playlists - I have a variety of playlists through which I cycle (no pun intended), really up-tempo stuff which I use to propel me through a workout. I think I'm getting a bit tired of these, and want to create new ones. 
• Plateaus -  As noted plenty of times in the past, I chart all the progress on the bike, and for a while I was making significant progress as far as overall improvement. However, as I got healthier, obviously I started to hit a ceiling.

Both of these should be easily remedied. Get some new playlists, and recognize that I can't sustain such enormous rates of progress forever.

Regardless, I did go back to the bike today, using an old playlist. Obviously I had fallen off pace a bit, but it did feel good. 

If I can continue to go, and regain/maintain progress over the holiday season, I'll be in a good place for the new year.

Stasis... or not?

It has been over a month since my last post here. I figured it was due time to post again... not that anyone reads this but again to keep myself accountable.

There has been a lot going on the last month or so, and following my progress, I have admittedly not been as active as I would've liked.  Some of that was within my control and other parts not so much.

In any case, I've been hovering around the same point.  I might have even gained a pound or two, but generally I think it has been within the margin of error. That said, I have not seen that nice milestone that I hit a month ago, so in general, I've been disappointed in my lack of progress, but I know much of that is only to blame on myself.

That said, I've been going back in earnest the last two weeks or so, and things are definitely getting back on track.

I am sort of frustrated with my recent results on the exercise bike, but in reality, based on my ridiculous charting, it shouldn't be much about which to be concerned... we're talking less than 1 calorie per minute difference or so. In the end, 45 minutes to an hour of biking, at the rate I'm going, is still gonna make a big dent in things.

I have also recognized, or at least seem to think, that the combination of weight training + cardio is better than either one on its own. I guess the way I rationalize it, which may not be scientific, but works for me, is:

• Getting on the bike and burning ~600-700 calories is, in and of itself, great, and is a net reduction.
• Doing weight training burns fewer calories up front, but seems to slow-burn those calories I consume in the subsequent 24 hours or so, in rebuild mode.

In short, I'd been in stasis, but I think that time, not really focused on working out, helped me a bit introspectively; It also has helped me again appreciate the return to progress I was seeing before my semi-hiatus.

"Watch the pounds melt away!"

...if only it were that easy ;).

That said, I have a lot to report since the last time I posted. As noted in mid August, I hit a milestone.  That milestone, specifically, was the 200 lb. mark on the scale.  Yes, it was 200 and change, but it was the first time I'd seen that number in a very long time.

Subsequently, for days, I watched the number sloooowly, very slowly drop, day by day, ounce by ounce.  There were a few days where I knew I would actually be below 200, but I also recognized that my water consumption alone was going to add ~2 lb. And then...

• On September 8th, I officially dropped below 200 lb.
• A few days later, I hit 198.x on the scale.
• On September 14th, I weighed in at 196.x

So I am guessing 200 was something of a plateau, and I am grateful to have broken through it. Despite the excellent progress over the last few days, I need to be vigilant to assure things (water weight be damned) don't move back up.  

Overall, I have been pleasantly surprised to see things consistently drop, as opposed to bouncing back and forth. I don't expect this will always be the case, but I'll take what I can get!

They say real weight loss comes from the diet, and in the end I suppose that's mostly true. However, I have no doubt in my mind that my workouts have also played a major influence. The day I hit 198 was also the day after a pretty heinous 'cheat day', which featured, amongst other things, four slices of pizza and a handful of tacos.

I guess workouts are worth mentioning, at least briefly, because I hit a few milestones there, too. 

In the past, I'd flirted with a 60 minute workout on the bike a few times, but never quite made it there -- more psychological than physical. Then, following my aforementioned food overindulgence, I once again hit the bike.  The results?

• For the first time, I completed an hour on the bike
• For the first time, I broke the calorie barrier, apparently burning over 700 calories.
• This workout, by the thinnest of margins, set a PR for most calories burned per minute. 

In short, I'm quite happy. I'm also sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop, but until it does, I'll just keep working out!

I'm over 10lb down since Jun 2017. Another twenty or so to go!

Holding pattern once again.

Maybe if I write about it, it will change, like last time, right?

Just kidding... mostly.

I have been hovering right around where I was eleven days ago, give or take a few ounces. I was actually up a pound or so, but I am generally holding steady, and perhaps shedding a few ounces every day.

Again, not trying to look at the scale everyday, but it's conveniently located in the gym.

It is true that I haven't been doing bike that much recently. I had a really good breakthrough last time I was on it; maybe I'm subconsciously avoiding the bike because I don't think I will do as well this time, but really it's mostly been a combination of available time and various aches and pains that I don't want to make worse by biking as hard as I do.

See, when I get on the bike, I have to go to "10" -- pedal as hard as I can, for as long as I can (or until I hit a certain milestone). I can't let myself 'slow down' unless I physically need to. I feel more uncomfortable going slow than leaving it all on the bike.  However, that might lead to more aches and pains.

In any case, I have still been lifting, and generally eating better. I continue to feel much better and am seeing what I think is significant progress in over all appearance.

We'll have to see what the next week brings. I'm sort of anxious because I keep looking at tattoos and really seeing some neat stuff. Nothing resembling anything I would get, but still amazing artwork, and it makes me want to focus all that much more... so I guess that's good, as far as motivation goes. It's also making me impatient, however.

Progress after all!

Recently I posted about not seeing any progress on the scale, despite clothing fitting better, feeling a lot more in shape, etc.

As it turns out, I spoke too soon!  Got on the scale two days ago, and I'm down seven pounds from my "high water mark" at the gym.  I know you shouldn't torture yourself on the scale every day, but it is interesting to note that the same weight persisted over two days -- in the evening, no less.

So, seven pounds in ~2 months. I can handle that. I don't necessarily expect it to continue at that pace, but it was some nice validation.  Another 20-25 to go, and I think I'll be pretty happy.

In other news, I'm thinking about trying to sketch out some ideas for the tattoo, I've got some thoughts, I will see if I can translate them to paper. Obviously I will let a tattoo artist come up with something better, but perhaps drawing them will also help get me out of the knot I'm trying to unravel as to the finer details of the piece.  If I come up with anything interesting, perhaps I will post them here.

The 'Cycle' continues

General Notes...

As noted before, it had been problematic going to the gym for a while. It wasn't out of apathy, and I am squarely back on the path. I have been lifting a fair bit but due to time constraints, among other things, I hadn't been able to get back on the stationary bike.

That changed today, though I wouldn't necessarily say for the better. After almost a month not riding, it was a tough sell to tell my body to keep going. I did, however, and there were some interesting outputs. As I've noted before, I've been tracking this stuff in the spreadsheet. Overall, this workout was pretty mid-range as far as efficiency and over all performance went, maybe even a bit better than that.

For some reason, however, my heart rate was through the roof this workout! I'm usually in the mid-150 BPM range for any given ride. According to the bike, today's average was 168, which seems sort of crazy! To be honest, I'm wondering if the bike's calibration is off, but I will say I felt a bit more strain than I was used to, as well.

Progress...?

While I'm here, I might as well talk about any progress I've made, or feel I've made -- or even lack thereof.

In short, as far as the primary goal stated in the past (lose 30 lb or so), I have not had much success. Maybe, at best, 3 lb. Meh.

That said, I'm definitely seeing progress elsewhere. My jeans are getting dangerously saggy -- jeans which, in the past, I feel I was sort of deluding myself into thinking fit well in the waist. I probably need a new belt soon, or should reuse an old one, because this one isn't going to do the trick much longer.

I'm much happier with how shirts -- t-shirts, at least -- are fitting again. I've regained a bit, just a touch, of upper body definition. Probably related to the jeans above, I feel like I've lost a little fat along my sides/ribs, though the gut is still there. Even it, however, seems to me to be in better shape, or maybe that's just wishful thinking.

To be honest, I think I'm in that "honeymoon" phase for a workout/weight loss program -- that wonderful time where you can simultaneously gain muscle and lose fat.  That might explain some of the failure to lose weight. I will have to keep an eye on this, because as I'd stated, while I don't have to necessarily hit a hard goal of "lose 30 lb" to get my tattoo, I'm still quite certain that barring any miracle, I won't magically put on 30 pounds of muscle while cutting all the flab.

Finally, I quite simply feel a lot better, as well. A lot of those aches and pains have started going away, as I became less sedentary. I don't think I can necessarily thank weight loss for that, but rather just things (e.g., core stability muscles) firming up, getting acquainted with being used again.

In the end, I'm pretty sure I'm a good ways down the 'right path'. I'd just like to see that reflected on the scales a bit.

Do what you can

I didn't think I was going to have anything to write about here anytime soon. Due to myriad reasons, I've been unable to go and really workout at the gym over the last two weeks. A big chunk of this week was because it was back to soccer practice for the kid, a soccer boot camp of sorts.  Three days of practice, three hours each.

It meant I had plenty of time on my hands... which I transferred to my feet.

My phone just alerted me that I broke the 10k step mark today, and I was somewhat surprised, forgetting that I had a long ramble this afternoon for about an hour or so. I was even more (pleasantly) surprised, however, to see that I crossed 10k almost every day this week.

The screenshot above is from the Google Fit app, which I like as far as getting a daily snapshot, but its history mechanism is needlessly complex. I believe the highest was Monday, where I capped at probably close to 16,000 steps, followed by ~15,000 yesterday. 

Rambling here a bit, but I'm torn on getting a Fitbit or what have you. I'd had a variety of Jawbone devices over the years, and the got progressively worse and worse, to the point that when I got my third one (a next gen replacement for one that died under warranty), I pretty much gave up on it and them. Interestingly enough, I just saw they announced liquidation last month.

Anyway, these days, as long as my phone is in my pocket (which it usually is), I get my steps counted. it does not, of course, count "steps" when on the stationary bike, nor does it read vitals.

Some days are better than others...

I went to the gym earlier than normal today, and it was much more crowded than I was used to.  As such, the stationary bikes that I normally use (well, the two or three that actually work, of about six) were all occupied.

As such, I went to go lift first. It wasn't a bad workout.  In absolute terms of how it "felt", it wasn't the best, but it felt good, productive. Afterwards, I went over to find one of the bikes finally free.

The ride did not feel good. I upped the resistance a bit, like I did last time, but I just did not have it today.  It had been 4 days since my last bike ride, and I thought I was good and recovered from leg cramps before, but this must be something else.

It was very clear early on that I was not going to reach my sort of "target pace", but I just went with it. On my last ride, the aforementioned leg cramps hit and I couldn't do cooldown nor hit the target time I shoot for (usually around 40 minutes). Rather than repeat that, I just lumbered along, feeling wholly uninspired about this plodding ride.

I have been plotting my times in Google Sheets, doing all sorts of number crunching, because I'm kind of a statistics/metrics nerd. In any case, Sheets has a "color scale" function in Conditional Formatting, which will allow you to color, on a gradient, all your results, with the highest (or lowest) number on the scale lit up, and fades on the other end.

Putting the numbers in was quite miserable. My average speed/pace were significantly lower than all other sessions - over 20 seconds slower per mile than what I'd been hitting recently. I put the numbers in and watched the gradients shift accordingly, with miserable outputs for today's results on the raw metrics.

It wasn't all bad, however. Given that I was increasing my resistance/elevation, my calculated "calories per mile" was right there near the top of all results!

After the last two sessions, more than anything, I think I have finally hit my "ceiling" on bike performance.  Not 'finally' as in "throwing in the towel", but rather, even if I know I won't continue to improve on the pace I was, I now know what ceiling I can strive to make my floor in the future!

What's this blog about, anyway? (FAQ)

About Me

I'm a 40-something guy who has had on-again, off again relationships with the gym since college. More often than not, recently, it's been "off-again".  While I'm not what I'd consider significantly out of shape, I've nonetheless got some significant weight that I'd like to lose.

For a long time, I've also been pondering whether or not I want to get ink (a tattoo). One particular thing that has kept me from doing so is the simple fact that I've never known what I wanted.

Time passed, and now I'm fairly sure I have a general idea what I want to get.  Ink is an expensive proposition, however, and a commitment one doesn't take lightly (well, most don't). I figure I still have a little bit of time to research exactly what I want. More importantly, however, I feel like it is something I need to earn.

In short, I will be trying to use weight loss/fitness as a motivator to let myself get the ink I want.

Why the blog?

I figured I could use a blog to keep me accountable, and to both share with, and learn from, others interested in journeys of weight loss and fitness -- and potentially, tattoos. I guess it's a unique niche, maybe others will find it interesting.

Why "#fat2tat"?

It's a riff on things like #fat2fit, etc., I guess? In reality, I just thought the rhyme was funny.

Why something different? Yes, I have an end goal of getting into better shape. I hope it becomes evident through this blog, however, that I have dual goals. As such, I wanted something different that I could "own" (or at least originate).

Are you basically going to humblebrag about your workouts?

No. In fact, to be quite honest, I'm not following much of an orthodox diet/fitness plan, other than working out. I expect to have good days and (perhaps significantly) bad days. If anything, I think this blog will help me find what works well for me.

Contents will be probably along the lines of:

• Had a good workout today because...
• I'm frustrated because...
• These are some interesting ideas for ink...

I plan to be authentic.

Are you going to pimp supplements and shakes?

No, and god no. It is true that I am interested in trying new things, and I may talk about them.  I may (or may not) even link to various things I've tried, but I don't have much interest in the latest fad diets or supplements. 

What I will be is quite honest about what I like and don't like about things. You may or may not agree, and you may or may not have the same reaction(s). 

In short, I know what I like, and may branch out from time to time. I also may write about stuff I've used in the past. But it the aim isn't to market, it's to tell my story.

Would you blog about something that I want to let you try?  

I suppose, but see above. I will probably be brutally honest.

Are you trying to be anonymous?

No, and eventually I will link this to some of my other social media profiles, none of which are anonymous and most likely won't be directly associated with, or focused on #fat2tat.  I may crosspost stuff from time to time. I'll probably try to remember to use the hashtag.

It is true that I didn't use my Google profile for this blog. I am not sure why. But I'm not trying to hide or anything.