So, with P90 Masters completed the final weight loss number on that phase is 20 pounds. Pretty damned cool. Cool enough that I went out and bought a new pair of Levis in a size I hadn’t worn since college, and they fit. Holy crap is that awesome. A 30 waist is freakin mad, considering where I started out (overflowing a 36 and thinking about needing 38’s).

We’re taking a two week break to recover from the rigors of 6 days a week of hardcore exercise. By break, it means we’re only going to be working out 3 days a week. I think we’re going to take pictures tomorrow morning. As soon as I have them, I’ll get them up so you can see what I can see. Not quite ripped yet, but getting there. I imagined this happening, six months ago, but never really believed it. I believe it now, though.

This last few weeks has been really tough with the weightloss. My body had decided, for whatever reason, to slow down drastically. I went from losing 2-2.5 pounds a week to losing one, if I was lucky. One, is good, though, as it’s still losing, but it’s a bit more frustrating than 2 or 2.5.

But today, I hit the 55 pound mark, a mere 9 days after hitting 50, and I was actually stuck at 50 for a couple days until I got this 24 hour stomach virus that made me drop 4 pounds in two days. I figured it was mostly water, so I didn’t count it, and assumed I’d be back up near where I was before getting sick in a couple days as I rehydrated. Well, I did go back up, about two and a half pounds, but no further than that, and now, just over a week later, I’m even lower than the lowest point with the virus. 170.2. Freaking STOKED! Just over 5 pounds to go to hit my goal (even though I’m thinking the goal may be a little high, now). With our Power 90 Masters series ending in three days, I don’t think I’ll get to the goal, but I’m set up nicely for starting P90x, I think.

When I start P90x, I’m going to change my goal up, anyway, since the actual weight isn’t quite as important anymore. I’m going to start aiming for targets that are a little more indicitave of overall conditioning. The first of those goals will be to get my body fat percent down to 15%. Right now (today) it was 20.6%, and when I started this whole journey, it was over 34%. I’m fairly certain I can hit this goal with P90x, as in just over a month, I’ve dropped 2.5%, and P90x is supposed to be much more rigorous than P90m. I can’t wait to get started.

I’ve been thinking all day about what else to say along with the following:

Today is the day I officially hit 50 pounds of weight loss.

The number is amazing to me, in that it’s hard to believe I was actually carrying that much extra weight. Almost as much as my seven year old son. What’s also amazing is that it took less than half a year to lose it.

Still, ten more pounds to go, but damn I’ve come a long way. What’s really cool is that Wendy’s lost nearly as much, and she wasn’t close to where I was at. She’s already hit the “healthy” weight range. I’m just trying to catch up.

So I was reading this thread and ran across a statement that really annoyed me, and I responded to it, perhaps harshly (I don’t know yet, but I suspect). It’s the second time in as many days where someone said something regarding fitness and eating right that just set me off, and I realize I’ve really become militant with regard to peoples attitudes about the subject. The casual things people say that reinforce our societies death spiral into mass obesity. The offhand spewing of defeatist hearsay far and wide. People will say anything, it seems, to justified their continued apathy and lethargy toward the subject of eating right and getting fit.

I guess there’s truth to the idea that no one hates ciggarette smoke more than an ex smoker, as it certainly applies to me here. I was one of those people who denied my problem, ignored it, excused my way out of fixing it. Boy do I wish I hadn’t done that. I could have saved myself YEARS of discontent by taking care of the problem long ago.

It’s never too late, however, to get started. Start listening to the things you say, and the comments of others. Pay attention and try to weed out the comments and thoughts that lead to inactivity. The battle against overconsumption begins with you and your thoughts and the words that come out of your mouth. If you’re looking at yourself in the mirror, what are you seeing? Are you seeing someone who needs exercise? Are you seeing someone who needs to trim their calorie intake by a bit? If you’re seeing that, just do it. Don’t tell yourself you can’t. Don’t tell yourself it’s too hard, or impossible. Tell yourself, tell the world, “I can, and it’s not impossible, and dammit, I’m going to do it.”

Too preachy? Probably. But I’ve made this change myself, and it’s not nearly as hard as it looked when I was seated on the couch with the bag of fried potatoes in my hand.

I guess so! A week ago, I hit the 40 pound loss. Today, I hit 43, right on the nose. Nearly 3 pounds in a week (2.8)! Hot damn. I thought I’d been slowing up, but maybe, just maybe, I won’t slow up quite yet. A week to go, roughly, until day 30 of P90 Masters, and a pound and a half away from my goal for pretty much every 30 days (10 pounds per 30 is my goal). I’ve done better than that every month so far.

I’m really looking forward to going into a maintenance mode. I find I’ve been hungrier lately, and I have been eating more on days that I work out. For the first three months, my target was about 1500 calories. This past week, I’ve been doing more like 1800, and 2000 yesterday. According to my nifty little iPod app “Lose It!”, my daily caloric intake for losing a pound a week is a shade over 2000 calories, if I were to do no exercise at all. With the exercise, I’m probably burning 300-500 calories extra, so I think I’m sitting about where I should be to hit my monthly goals. What I don’t want to do is make my body think I’m starving it. I want to keep my muscles.