Thursday, January 18, 2007
Mixed Messages
As you may know, I’ve been training for a triathlon in August. My intermediate goal is to get down in the 180’s by March. Well, March is but six weeks away and I’m not getting any closer to that goal than I was a month ago.
My regimen has basically been to do some weightlifting in the morning and then do cardio at night. That’s probably not the smartest regimen when it comes to losing weight. The problem is that I’m losing fat but gaining muscle. (I have to work hard to convince The Wife that yes, in fact, I am gaining muscle. It’s just hidden under a lot of fat.) And since muscle weighs more than fat, adding a little muscle more than offsets losing a little fat.
After a month or so of working out, my weight has dropped about 5 pounds to 195. It’ll go up or down by a pound or two, but that’s generally where it hovers. That’s not exactly a great motivator to get out of bed at 5:00 every morning to go to the gym. On the other hand, my pants are all getting a little looser, and that is great a motivator. (Of course, I can’t completely dismiss the possibility that The Wife is playing a practical joke and letting out all the waists of my pants. Given her sewing skills, I’m about 99% sure she’s not doing it. But she is a prankster, so you never know.)
Today I’m wearing my “fat” pants, which I bought a few months ago when I realized that trying to fit into 34’s just wasn’t going to work. And now? The 36’s are a bit too baggy. And my 34’s have gone from “shouldn’t be worn in public” status to “fitting appropriately” status. And I’m embarrassed to say that I’m proud of that.
I guess my training is working. I’m getting in better shape, even if the scale (and The Wife) doesn’t agree. So then the plan now is to focus more on cardio and less on weights so that I can get a little more satisfaction out of the scale every morning. And that presents a bit of a problem.
The biggest problem with this new approach is that it’s the New Year. This is the time of year that everyone regrets eating cookies over the holidays. So they make New Year’s resolutions to work out every morning. They go to the gym and hog up all the cardio equipment (no pun intended). Since I was lifting weights, this didn’t bother me at all. But if I start doing cardio in the morning too, then I’ve got a problem on my hands.
Fortunately, the problem won’t last long. Things should start dying down by the end of the month when people realize that they’d rather be fat and happy than thin and tired. That’s not a knock. I feel the same way. I just don’t want to have to buy a whole new set of fat pants.
My regimen has basically been to do some weightlifting in the morning and then do cardio at night. That’s probably not the smartest regimen when it comes to losing weight. The problem is that I’m losing fat but gaining muscle. (I have to work hard to convince The Wife that yes, in fact, I am gaining muscle. It’s just hidden under a lot of fat.) And since muscle weighs more than fat, adding a little muscle more than offsets losing a little fat.
After a month or so of working out, my weight has dropped about 5 pounds to 195. It’ll go up or down by a pound or two, but that’s generally where it hovers. That’s not exactly a great motivator to get out of bed at 5:00 every morning to go to the gym. On the other hand, my pants are all getting a little looser, and that is great a motivator. (Of course, I can’t completely dismiss the possibility that The Wife is playing a practical joke and letting out all the waists of my pants. Given her sewing skills, I’m about 99% sure she’s not doing it. But she is a prankster, so you never know.)
Today I’m wearing my “fat” pants, which I bought a few months ago when I realized that trying to fit into 34’s just wasn’t going to work. And now? The 36’s are a bit too baggy. And my 34’s have gone from “shouldn’t be worn in public” status to “fitting appropriately” status. And I’m embarrassed to say that I’m proud of that.
I guess my training is working. I’m getting in better shape, even if the scale (and The Wife) doesn’t agree. So then the plan now is to focus more on cardio and less on weights so that I can get a little more satisfaction out of the scale every morning. And that presents a bit of a problem.
The biggest problem with this new approach is that it’s the New Year. This is the time of year that everyone regrets eating cookies over the holidays. So they make New Year’s resolutions to work out every morning. They go to the gym and hog up all the cardio equipment (no pun intended). Since I was lifting weights, this didn’t bother me at all. But if I start doing cardio in the morning too, then I’ve got a problem on my hands.
Fortunately, the problem won’t last long. Things should start dying down by the end of the month when people realize that they’d rather be fat and happy than thin and tired. That’s not a knock. I feel the same way. I just don’t want to have to buy a whole new set of fat pants.
