Summer's New Low

170.0/171.4

As it turns out, I can get down to 175, and then some. I'm guessing that 165, my high school weight, is where I would bottom out. At 170, the love handles are all but gone, my pecs, biceps, and deltoids look more defined, and the idea of going swimming shirtless doesn't make me anxious.

My other vitals look good: My BMI is 20.64, resting pulse is usually around 58, blood pressure averages 105/60. I can run longer in soccer games, can sprint up the Hoover Dam stairs (no , the other Hoover Dam, in Westerville, here) without getting wobbly-legged, and I am not ravenously hungry all the time. In short, my body has finally adjusted its new weight after I hit the 175 wall a few months ago. I thought I had hit my fitness limit, and went into maintenance mode, but I slowly inched down a few more pounds, gaining more stamina along the way.

This may sound like so much bragging, but it took me 10 months to go from 185 to 175, a much harder struggle than going from 255 to 185, which took less than 6 months. Somewhere along the way I lost my desire to get "the pump", and focussed more on taking care of other things in life, like keeping Stacey's life enriched, wooing a new wife and doing what I could to get her and my new stepdaughter settled at my house, and keeping my job... the same types of things that can lead one to get out of shape in the first place. I didn't get back out of shape because I still set aside some time to maintain my body, and still paid attention to what I was eating, but my transformation into Superman was slowed markedly.

I don't exercise as vigorously or go hungry as much as I did when I was doing my peak weight loss last year, however I still try to do situps and pushups regularly, take walks for lunch, walk my dog in the morning, lift freeweights at least once a week, play soccer on the weekends, jog occasionally, and lay off the fat and sugar. I stay active, and I keep toned, but I haven't progressed much on my old goal of bulking up.

Failure? No. My new life that weight loss and exercise gave me (a smokin' hot wife who loves me, social opportunities with friends and family, the NCAA and AEP corporate challenge soccer teams, coaching my daughter's WASA soccer team) have taken up some of the time I'd normally be in the gym, fantasizing about the cool life I'd some day have when I was fit and sexy. I have that life now, my ultimate goal, so I have succeeded. Becoming as muscular as bodybuilding competitors may or may not happen, but that would only be icing on an already tasty cake. Mmmm... cake.