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.

Capsaicin crisis?

Let's talk ink again.

As a reminder:

• I've been thinking about getting a tattoo for quite some time, and
• I've never really known what I've wanted until recently, and
• I have settled on trying to get something hot pepper related.

I've noted before that while, as a general concept, I like the idea of a habanero tattoo, I'm not real impressed with how the ones I've seen look. Take a look for yourself. I just feel like, compared to an iconic chile of some sort, they (habaneros) look misshappen and boring. Furthermore, I don't want to find myself constantly explaining it.

So a more traditional hot pepper it is. But... really? Just that? There are some nice ones out there, but they're small.  For a shoulder piece, I don't want some dinky little thing, and I'm not sure just a plain old hot pepper is the way to go.  Mind you, I don't want one with like a goofy face, or cartoony fire, but if I could incorporate... something into the design, I'd be a lot happier - I just haven't figured out what that could be.

Other things to consider...Someone I know with a lot more experience than me in this realm, someone whose opinions I regard and admire, has said that "arms are for stories".  In other words, the item(s) on your arms should weave together somehow -- at very least in style, if not substance. Whether I ever decide that I'll want more after a first one, I obviously don't know yet, but I do think it is certainly a worthwhile consideration, meaning whatever I do should perhaps also be easily consumable as part of a larger piece.

I guess I'm rambling a bit.  TL;DR - I feel like I need to consider some unique flair to add to the hot pepper, and I haven't been able to figure out what it should be.