So, after two weeks (10 days) at the gym, I have:

1) spent 10 hours on various exercise equipment, including a Stairmaster, upright bike, recumbent bike, treadmill, and my personal favorite, the elliptical trainer.

2) spent about 5 hours in the pool, mainly water walking and a few laps.

3) taken 20 showers.


Results?

I'm at 205.5. That's a whopping 2½lbs lighter than I was two weeks ago! YAY ME! Not to sound cynical or anything, but I was expecting a little more than that. Not much more, mind you, maybe 5lbs. I wasn't even expecting to slip below 200 in the first two weeks. I'm just a bit upset that after busting my ass for two weeks, I really haven't lost anything more than incidental weight. My weight tends to remain constant around 206, and here I am, two weeks of working out later, and I'm at 206.

I've also been pretty concious about what I eat, too. I've bought my lunch at the cafeteria once over that span, and even that was an apple and a celery and carrot cup.

The only thing I'm currently losing is sleep. My alarm goes off at 4:35am, and I snooze it until about 4:55am. Get up, get dressed, go downstairs, eat my bowl of grape nuts and a banana, check the email, and head out the door. I manage to get to the gym by around 5:50am (checking my email and friends page takes a while, dammit!). Leave the gym around 7:30, get to work at 8:15. I take a 20-minute walk around 2, leave at 5:10 and get back to the gym around 5:50. I'm in the pool by 6, out by around 6:30 and home by around 7. Then it's about an hour of getting dinner, getting my gym bag reloaded and clothes laid out, and making lunch. Two hours of winding down in front of the tv, and then off to bed around 10-10:30.

Suffice it to say, for all that work losing that 2½lbs, I'm a fucking zombie right now. I'll probably collapse into bed around 10:30 tonight, call it staying up late, and sleep until noon.

No, I'll probably sleep until 7 and think "shit, that's late".

Current status: still Ultra Fatass.

-pb

So, after a week at the gym, I'm feeling a bit better. A week ago, today, I felt like a disgusting fatbody (sir yes sir!). Now, I don't feel so disgusting (I'm still a fatbody). As I was showering this morning, I realized that I am a bit greener, too.

For starters, I use far less water at the gym when I shower (even twice a day) than I do at home. The reason for this is that my showers at home take about 20 minutes. I have to wait for the water to warm up, then I spend a good 10 minutes waking up. At the gym, I'm in and out in about 3 minutes, because their water is always hot. I don't spend time waking up, because I've just done an hour of exercise. And since the showers there have a single handle setup, I can shut the water off when I soap up. Two handles doesn't allow for that, because then you've got the frantic fiddling trying to get your hot and cold mix right again. So, I'm essentially taking 2-minute showers.

Second, there's the electricity factor. Since I've been going to bed at 10-10:30 as opposed to 11:30-12, I'm actually using 1½-2 hours less electricity every night. I'm also using less resources to heat my water by using a community facility, and I'm not using as much power for other things in the morning because I'm out of bed and out the door in about 15 minutes.

The only drawbacks are a slight reduction in mileage (the gym is about 7 minutes away, and I get crappy mileage for about the first 10 minutes of a trip) and I'm generating a lot more laundry (which I assume I'll have to atone for soon).

So, I'm feeling good all around.

-pb

So, victoria_fusion and I joined up with the gym again. Now, the last time we did this, back in 2003, it was a waste of money and very little time. The reason behind that? I'm a fat, lazy slob. The gym is in Plymouth, and at the time, I was working in Limerick. Home is in between those two points. So, I'd get home, and say "no, I don't quite feel like going back out. In fact, I'm hungry". So, we rarely went, and although for a short time, I slipped from Ultra-Fatass down to Extra Large-Fatass, I quickly returned to Ultra-Fatass.

Well, this time, things are different. Now, I actually drive right past the gym every day on my way to and from work (well, I pass close enough to the gym). Now, I don't have an excuse. No "well, I'm hungry, so fuckit". If I make that call, I will have to do it by driving so close to the gym that I will feel like a collosal shitbag doing so. I did the out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing three years ago. Now I don't have that out.

This morning, I made the first step towards a real committment: I got out of bed at 5:30am and hauled my ass down the the gym. On my way home, I'm going to hit Target for some gym-clothing, and then go right back to the gym for a few laps. This will be my daily routine. An hour of cardio in the morning, laps in the evening. Five days a week, and maybe on the weekends if I really feel up to it. Eating healthier is also a priority. Fuck, eating less is a priority.

Currently, I'm at 206 lbs. with a 38" waistline, which at my current height of 5'9", equals Ultra-Fatass, or a BMI of 30, or 30-60lbs overweight.

Target weight: 170 lbs. Target waistline: 34". The goal is to lose the gut, lose the flab, and fit back into my silver pants, and all without doing heroin.

I'm sick of being a physical wreck. I mean, I'm not morbidly obese, and I'm not immobile. I take a 20-minute walk every day, and I always take the staircase to my third-floor cubicle, even though there's a perfectly good elevator right there. I just don't want to feel winded the 2-3 times a day I climb those stairs, though. I know I'm a creature of comfort and habit. I didn't do jack shit to excersize this summer, because I never get a routine going. When I would ride my bike, I would do it for a few days, and then it would rain, or I would need to get something out of the trunk (necessitating removal of the bike rack), and then it would be over. I wouldn't ride again for two weeks. So, here's hoping that by making it easy on myself, I can actually get something done.

-pb