Lengthening & Lightening Our Lives…

Twelve Week Program Complete – Next! January 3, 2010

Well, I’ve completed the 12 week Body for Life program, with help from my lovely wife, my concientious trainer, Connie, and the encouragement of our friends and neighbors. A big day for me.

Kay is also celebrating reaching a major weight loss milestone, so life is good and getting better all the time. 

I suppose the traditional thing is to share some before and after pictures, so I will oblige, partly because I’m damn proud of not only the way I feel, but the way I look (there, I’ve said it!). You’ve probably seen the before pics, but duplicated here for quick reference: 

First, the superficial stuff… 

Before Weight Watchers (July 2008) at 240 pounds (sorry, no skin pics then – “couldnt! too scared!): 

After WW, but before BFL (October 2009) at 188 pounds (my “pale sorta-skinny runt-with-a-gut” pics) – also, note a definitive lack of symmetry from left side to right …  Even though I’d lost all the weight I was gonna, note the almost complete lack of muscle tone, covered with body flab…

 After BFL at 187 pounds (does it look like I lost just one pound in three months? Read on…)  

I used to think those guys who didn’t hang their arms down close to their sides were just showing off or trying to occupy more space on the planet. Now I know that when you develop biceps, triceps (arms) and lats (or latisimus dorsi, on the sides of the back), those darn things get in the way! Even Kay was impressed by these things when I’d (reluctantly) flex for her (yeah, right… reluctantly!) 

The bit of a bulge at the waist line above (my left side) is thanks to a 13 inch (!) scar atop my left kidney – a permanent scoring of those oblique muscles – but that’s, at least, due to a legitimate cause with a decent story – not mere neglect of the body temple! 

And Momma (the “Admiral”) says I even look good in jeans now too… (bonus round!) 

This last three months has mostly been a journey to replace residual fat with lean body mass. The delta before/after numbers below don’t look radically different, but that goes to show how a little realistic change can make a significant difference in the way you look and feel (there’s a moral here)!

I’m sure this is true, at least partially, due to also achieving 200 days alcohol-free on New Year’s Eve (no small feat!). Late New Year’s Eve, after a wonderful dinner at our dear friends’ house, I went home and banged out Morse Code on my amateur (HF) radio for a few hours – another NYE first for ole Cap’n Geno!

In summary, I’m feeling pretty darn cocky about these results, and have now set the next series of goals to largely maintain for the next sixty days or so before starting to build further on this new foundation, conservatively and realistically, focusing on how I feel more than how I look. But first, lets see how the next sixty goes, and rock on from there.

Get and stay healthy, y’all!