I say this is the end of the beginning, because I’m not done yet, not even close, but from here on in there’s no turning back. I’m easily beyond the “well I’ll diet for a bit and lose a little” stage. I’m nearly obsessed with health and fitness now. I very rarely cheat with food, and when I do it’s very little cheating. When I skip a day at the gym, it’s legitimate (too much work that I can’t escape, or I really need another day to recoup since I pushed it too hard the day before).

Fatty no more. Yes, I still have some fat to lose and muscle to gain, but this progress and dedication will stay with me now.

Without further ado, the before and after pic:

Finally under 192. On my way out of the gym I charliehorsed my thigh against the stairmaster and I can barely walk now.

Moron.

The weekend was too nice to spend it inside a gym, so I tossed the kid in the canoe and we headed up Indian Arm from Belcarra. This pic is Jug Island, just around the corner, and it was a wild ride. The big power boats were out and some of the wakes were huge. Combine that with passing by some small coves where the waves rebounded into a washing machine-like roller coaster and it was crazy fun.

On the way back the tide was coming in, so we barely made progress at one point where it narrowed. The flow was fast and fairly turbulent, so I had to put it into turbo mode to just move forward a few inches. Erik is awesome in the canoe, between telling me pirate stories and singing songs, he’s great self-entertaining ballast and I’m crazy happy that he loves to come with me.

The question: “Does anyone else think that the truth of this universe is more beautiful than religion?”

The answer: “Well I will put it this way: imagine if you found out the Christians were right. Just imagine you died and it all turned out to be true, even the parts that contradict the other parts of it. There is a big space-monkey with a beard who made it all, who made stars so we could look at them, who put dinosaur bones in the ground to test our faith, and so on.

I would be so disappointed, so utterly revolted. The universe turns out to be an idiotic morality play written in fist-grasped crayon, ignorant slavishness turns out to be the only worthy virtue, the slack-jawed jeebus-lickers turn out to be right…at that point, hell would make no difference to me because I would be in hell even if I were not in hell.

The Christian version of reality is just so utterly fucking stupid it would horrify me beyond sanity. So yeah, the truth is infinitely more beautiful.”

Workout: Arms

Like the last Shuttle launching today, I blasted my arms. My tweaked my lower neck waking up (uhhh what?) this morning, so I wanted to avoid back-stressing exercises like standing barbell curls. I opted for single arm dumbell exercises mainly, and it was a fun workout. I also couldn’t resist that rye bread lying around in the kitchen this morning, so having a slice with some jam on it before my workout, as opposed to going in fasted like usual, was awesome. I had endless energy.

BI – Standing dumbell preacher curls: 20 pounds x 8 per arm, non-stop, no break until I couldn’t curl any more. I probably did 8 sets, my last one was 3 painful reps, my biceps were on fire.
TRI – Single arm rope cable extensions: 30 pounds x failure per arm, non-stop, no break until I was down to 3 reps max. Again, more fire.
BI – Seated alternating dumbell curls: 25 pounds non-stop. This single set lasted two songs (5-7 minutes?) and I must have done 40 reps per arm. I only stopped because I was bored — but again, fire fire fire.
TRI – Standing ez-curl cable pushdowns: 95 x 15, really short break, another set, etc until I started crying a little.
BI – Standing ez-curl cable curls: 60 x failure for 3 sets. This time I peed my pants and called for mommy. A crowd is gathering.
TRI – Seated machine triceps, like preacher curls but backwards: Some weight, 8-10 reps, 2 sets. I had enough. Fuck you gravity.

Then I topped it off with forearm curls and grip twists. I had arms a junkie would kill for; veins a popping everywhere.