A Little Bit More

Quantified Progress

Now it is time to just lay it all out there and state my first publicly tracked week of physical fitness progress. These are all week-to-week numbers:

Weight - 229 (from 230)
Blood Pressure - 131/81 (from 134/86)
Resting Heart Rate - 75 (from 88)

As you can see, I only lost one pound. This does not concern me for two reasons:

1. I am heading the right direction.
2. I am down four pounds during a two week period, meaning that on average I am down an amount that will translate into keeping it off (you are supposed to lose 2-3 pounds per week).

Although the one pound is a success, it's certainly not one that I am going to get overly excited about. By no means am I discounting the downward trend, but I am just not exactly doing back flips over it.

It may require a spotter (or two), but I will do back flips over the blood pressure and heart rate. First, the blood pressure is just barely over healthy (the systolic, or top number, is to be 120 or less; the diastolic, or bottom number, is to be under 80). I am still pre-hypertensive, but I am hoping to be out of this range in the next 30-60 days. For the first time in a very long time, the resting heart rate is in the healthy range (under 80 bpm). In fact, my first reading of 103 bpm on March 10 was so high that I should have had a discussion with my doctor about it.

Anecdotal Progress

As I said in my last posting, I have been looking for a job since just before Thanksgiving of last year. During the last week of November, I bought an interview suit. This was because my other suit was starting to get a little worn, and, more importantly, it did not fit. As much as I would love to rely on the former excuse, the latter was the more accurate reason. I had outgrown my size 46R jacket, and my 38" waist 30" inseam pants were more like 38" waist 26" inseam slacks. This was not good.

As much as I did not want to drop money on expensive articles of clothing, I broke down and bought a new suit. The good news was that Macy's was running a sale, and I picked up a beautiful pin striped Calvin Klein suit for under $350. The bad news was that my slacks went up to a 40" waist and the jacket was a 48R in which each seam had to be let out. Figure in a dress shirt, matching tie, alterations, and tax and I ended up having to drop $470. This was because I let myself get unhealthy. Note the financial impact of not taking care of yourself.

Time elapse: four months

This past Saturday I went back to Macy's to have my jacket refitted. I put it on the other day and it looked as though I was a little boy wearing daddy's suit. At least 2" will need to be taken out of each side seam, and the buttons will probably have to be moved in. As much as I hate having a jacket that I have only worn three times rebuilt, it sure feels good knowing that my clothes do not fit. For once, it is not because the clothes are too small, but instead it is because I am too small.