No comparison picture in this post but it does serve as somewhat of a monumental benchmark. I’ve resolved myself not to care as much about the amount of weight lost but I’ve finally hit the 10lbs mark. I lost the first 7 pretty quickly but the weight lifting to build my upper body really seemed to offset any fat I’ve been losing since then. I think perhaps I’ve gotten to the point where fat loss is outpacing muscle gain as the scale has started to move again.
On that note, I haven’t reported anything about the amount of weight I’m lifting since my initial update four months ago. When I first started doing curls, it was pretty light at 35lbs total. At my four month update, I didn’t report a number, but said I was lifting about 2x what I was when I started. In the gym yesterday I did 3 sets of 12 reps at 100lbs so I’m ready to bump it up to 110. I’ve also doubled my butterfly weight from 70lbs to 145lbs so I’m making progress there as well. It probably goes without saying that I’ve seen a difference in my arms, which have gone from mostly flab to mostly muscle. I’m definitely not cut by any means but I can measure success by the progressive shrinking of my bat wings. I’ll need to lose more fat to gain the definition and hopefully I’m on my way to that.
The real cause for celebration is in what I wore to work today. Getting dressed this morning I realized that I hadn’t worn a football jersey since the end of the season. (Yes, I wear football jerseys to work and it’s perfectly acceptable.) I decided it was time so I went to my closet to pick one out and, because I’ve been going to the gym, decided to pull out Emmitt Smith. Now I got this jersey probably 5 years ago but I’ve actually never worn the thing. It was too small the day I got it and I didn’t really have the heart to admit it to anyone. It’s been in my closet all this time under the pretense that I would eventually be able to wear it. Well, I’m extremely happy to report that not only does it fit but I’m actually comfortable enough to wear it. Anyone who’s been overweight knows that something fitting and actually having the confidence to wear it are two entirely different things. Hoorah!