Day 56: Week 8

Week 8
Avg Weight: 209.3 (-2.5 | -20.0 | -2.5/wk)
Avg Fat: 30.6% (-0.4% | -5.9% | -0.7/wk)
Measurements

	Inches	Weekly	Total
Waist	41.0	-1.5	-5.6
Hips	41.4	-0.6	-1.7
Forearm	11.5	-0.1	-0.1
Calf	16.5	-0.5	-0.6
Thigh	25.0	+0.5	+0.9
Wrist	6.8	0.0	0.0
Chest	43.5	-1.0	-2.0
Bicep	14.0	0.0	-1.0

Weight: 209.2 (-22.0)
Fat: 29.6% (-9.7%)
Meals: 1274 kcal
Exercise: Treadmill 23 min
Pictures: Front-Side-Back/Flex

If you've come to the site in March, April or May, you may have gotten the idea that I'd given up, failed or forgotten about this site or even losing weight entirely. Fortunately, nothing is further from the truth. I've continued to not only lose weight, but I've kept careful track of my daily progress, knowing that I'd get back to updating the site again. What I didn't take into account is that I would get quite so backlogged, so until I'm caught up, I'm going to post a week's worth of updates every day with minimal blogging. I've made notes every now and then to record milestones, comment on changes to my plan, or just random thoughts. I'll summarize those with links to each post as I play catchup.

I'm finally at the eight week mark and the most absolutely remarkable thing I can say is... this is the new me. Not the weight loss, for one thing I'm not done. But being able to lose weight, to find the time to work out and feel healthier. I've never gotten eight weeks into any kind of weight loss or fitness program and not been hating it and looking forward to 'relaxing' back into my old self. This is not only sustainable, but I'm happier living this way. I'm not ready to be done, I'm not struggling to make it through every day, I'm just living life with all the rest of my life's stresses firmly in place. I'm not even halfway done with my weight loss and yet I feel like "I've done it!"

As far as my more mundane weekly progress, I've lost yet another inch and a half around my waist for a total of almost six inches! My thighs are up again, almost an inch... I'm wondering if they're all muscle or if I have any fat stored there. Being a man I'm much more likely to store fat in my gut than my hips or thighs, and my measurements sure do show this! All those bench presses appear to be paying off as my chest has... shrank another full inch for a total of two inches lost. I'm not overly concerned as there's plenty of subdermal fat that was no doubt bulking me up there. I'd rather be muscular and smaller than bigger and fatter.

And finally, today was my first day at level 7 on the treadmill's weight loss program. Calories dropped by 128 and I'm back under 2 miles (by a hair), so it looks like I'll be 2+ miles from now on! I look forward to getting back to burning 400+ calories a day though; there's something psychological about each of those one hundred calories in a workout that you don't want to let go of.