Avi, My Fat Ass wrapup

My Fat Ass is over!

This week’s measurements:

Weight: 169.8 lbs
Chest: 39 in
Waist: 36 in
Hips: 37.5 in
Thigh: 20 in
Arm: 13 in

Experiments like this are always interesting and never go as you’d expect. What did I get from it? Lost ten pounds, and that’s always good. Not too excited to have gone through the knee wreckage stage, and my belly isn’t much better than when I started.

But I met Keith and Sam from CrossFit and they now kick my ass twice a week very thoroughly and professionally, and work me far past the point where I would have stopped in P90X. (Hell, their warmups are still killing me, and I’m only in Foundations.) I’m learning workout skills from them and getting my form to be instinctual.

Thanks to everyone else here at My Fat Ass: AJ, Jordan, Berto, Brian, and Robbie. Nothin’ like posting pictures of myself nearly naked on the internets. Been fun; let’s do something else crazy soon.

—Avi

Avi, week 12 wrapup

CrossFit!

This week’s measurements:

Weight: 169.4 lbs
Chest: 39 in
Waist: 36 in
Hips: 37.5 in
Thigh: 20 in
Arm: 13 in

Knees are happy again.

CrossFit is pretty awesome. There’s a little bit of a feeling that I’m not being pushed quite as hard as I could stand to be, but 1) this is a beginner’s class and I’m still learning the basics of how to do things like deadlifts without pulling a muscle, and 2) I’m still getting winded at the end of exercises. I figure that I’ll stay in Foundations for about a month (or until the lessons start repeating), and then move to something else. What? Perhaps Gym-Nasty, though Hell’s Bells sounds interesting too.

Avi, week 11 wrapup

Hopeful.

This week’s measurements:

Weight: 170.0 lbs
Chest: 39 in
Waist: 36 in
Hips: 37.5 in
Thigh: 20 in
Arm: 13 in

Knees are a lot better, but at the price of pretty much stopping P90X. And I’m OK with that.

Last week I said that I was going to go to Crossfit Virtuosity as soon as they started beginners’ classes. Right after I posted that, I went and found that they had! So I did a class on Monday; it was tiring but felt good. I moved a recurring appointment from Thursday to clear it, and so for the remaining two weeks of My Fat Ass I’m going to do CrossFit twice a week. I’ll probably not graduate from the beginners’ class during that time, but it’ll lay a good foundation for graduating to the “real” classes in the future.

Robbie Is Dropping Weight Fast!

After 50 days of virtually no noticeable changes, my weight is finally starting to fall off.  I got my body fast measured for the 2nd time and after 7 weeks of Crossfit I lost 2.5% of my body fat but my weight stayed the same even though I severly altered my diet for the better.

My trainer told me that it sometimes takes the body up to 2 months to change its metabolism, especially if you have been the same fatness for a long time.  I’ve pretty much been about 10-20 pounds overweight since 1995, so this makes perfect sense.

But in the last week ive dropped down to 200 pounds from a starting weight of 209 and i’m seeing changes in the mirror.  CrossFit kicks ass!  I’m coming for you Berto!

Avi, week 10 wrapup

Meh.

This week’s measurements:

Weight: 169.4 lbs
Chest: 39 in
Waist: 36 in
Hips: 37.5 in
Thigh: 20 in
Arm: 13 in

Measurements are all over the place. Weight is definitely dropping, but I don’t know the fat%. Still skipping knee-unfriendly workouts, which is tough because the flow is lost when you don’t do it every morning.

Crossfit Virtuosity (the New York branch) just started up in their new place in Brooklyn, and once they get beginners’ classes I’m looking to join up. I’ve had a sense that I haven’t been pushing myself enough with P90X and it would be a good idea to get some expert advice in exercise.

Avi, week 9 wrapup

An unhappy week.

This week’s measurements:

Weight: 172.8 lbs
Chest: 39 in
Waist: 36.5 in
Hips: 37 in
Thigh: 20 in
Arm: 13.5 in

Highlights: Weights! Using weights is really teh awesome. There’s really something fundamentally satisfying about moving around pieces of metal until your muscles ache.

Lowlights: Knees! When lunges make your knees feel like they’re going to fail, you have to skip some workouts that aren’t knee friendly. I was surprised about how many that was. Forget Plyo, forget anything involving legs, and you don’t get a very pretty picture. Don’t have much of a choice except keep resting them. (And yes, Mom, I’ll get them checked.)

Avi, week 8 wrapup

And another week of rest.

This week’s measurements:

Weight: 171.4 lbs
Chest: 39 in
Waist: 37 in
Hips: 37 in
Thigh: 20 in
Arm: 13 in

I’m looking forward to next week when I get to play with the weights again.

Meanwhile, I’m dealing with the voice in my head that’s asking me if I should be further by now. I’m remembering the before/after pictures in the advertisements and I’m not feeling that different. But then I remember that I could barely do the Ab Ripper before, and now I’m keeping up. That for the first half I only had bands, but now I have weights. I’m feeling reassured, and hopeful that the weights will really do something.

What kinda scares me, though, are my knees. They’re feeling a bit “thicker”, and when extending my legs against resistance, I feel a pain from the tops of my knees that gives me a bit of a fright. During Plyo I’ve always gone slowly (and once even had to stop early because of knee fears); this doesn’t make me any happier.

Avi, week 7 wrapup

Likin’ the weights!

This week’s measurements:

Weight: 176 lbs

Chest: 39 in

Waist: 37 in

Hips: 37 in

Thigh: 20 in

Arm: 13 in

Do weights make a difference! The first week of P90X I was feeling the pain, but I haven’t felt anything since then. With weights it’s been getting pretty killer. Instead of screwing around with bands and trying to get optimal resistance (which really doesn’t happen) I can dial in exactly the weight that’s going to kill me and go. The only problem is that next week is a rest week, and then for the last four weeks things alternate and I have to work out the best weights.

Looking at my belly, I’m wondering what’s up with that. I’m definitely able to do a lot more on the ab work than I could when I started, but my gut is still out to here. Hmmm… More pictures to come at the end of week 8.

Avi, week 6 wrapup

Exciiited…

This week’s measurements:

Weight: 176.4 lbs

Chest: 39 in

Waist: 37.5 in

Hips: 37.5 in

Thigh: 20 in

Arm: 13 in

I’m waiting for email from the CrossFit guys, so I’m back to P90X for now. But I’m excited about a purchase. A few weeks ago when I was in California and had the chance to use real weights, I could see what a difference they make. And I’ve been growing more and more annoyed at my resistance bands; they break, the metal latches bend, and fiddling with the combinations so that they have the right resistance is a pain. To my surprise, I went into work this week on Tuesday to find a coworker selling a pair of lightly-used SelectTech 522s and stand cheaply! So this morning I’m off to Queens to meet up with a friend and haul them back to château du Avi.

Appreciation for friends. With cars.