Saturday, August 11, 2007
Hard to Get?
As a sign of how my body has improved in the last few months, Friday night at Apex the drag queen who does the karaoke room flirted with me, giving me a kiss and asking why I was sitting by myself, "playing hard to get already?" she asked. heh heh In all the years I've been going there she's never noticed me, so now I have a sense of validation. I mean, if Gladys notices you, you must be someone, right?
OK, I'm being a little sarcastic. But I have noticed a few more double-takes and unexpected smiles from other bar patrons, retail employees, waiters, folks on the sidewalk...it's almost enough to make a guy feel good about himself (OK, I always felt good about myself, but now I'm feeling better about the way I look).
Lots of people have said, right away, "wow you lost a lot of weight." Makes me wonder how bad I looked before.
Afghanistan helped. With nothing to do but work and work out I found it easy to hit the gym 6 days a week. Between my cardio and weight work, and with a better diet without junk food (which I don't eat much of anyway) or alcohol (ditto) I managed to drop some pounds. In March I was weighing 155. By the time I left for Kabul at the end of May I was down around 145. Today I checked in at 135 with 10% body fat. So yay that.
I recognize that I was not overweight at 155. But it was in the wrong places, mostly a tummy that was soft and bulged in such a way that shirts didn't look right on me. Now I'm wearing Adrian's shirts, and I've dropped 3 inches off my waist size so I've had to buy some new pants. I'm also building muscle, most noticably in my arms and chest but also in my legs and abs, to a more limited extent.
I've already had someone tell me I'm too thin, but I think that will change as the muscles develop. The trick now is to get into a workout routine...I'm pretty good on the diet, but figuring out how to exercise around my work schedule is still proving a little tricky. And let's face it, there are far more distractions here than in Afghanistan, so I need to increase my self-discipline.
If anyone cares to see, pleae note the semi-shirtless-but-still-pretty-much-workplace-safe photo below.
Oh, and I had fun dancing, too.
OK, I'm being a little sarcastic. But I have noticed a few more double-takes and unexpected smiles from other bar patrons, retail employees, waiters, folks on the sidewalk...it's almost enough to make a guy feel good about himself (OK, I always felt good about myself, but now I'm feeling better about the way I look).
Lots of people have said, right away, "wow you lost a lot of weight." Makes me wonder how bad I looked before.
Afghanistan helped. With nothing to do but work and work out I found it easy to hit the gym 6 days a week. Between my cardio and weight work, and with a better diet without junk food (which I don't eat much of anyway) or alcohol (ditto) I managed to drop some pounds. In March I was weighing 155. By the time I left for Kabul at the end of May I was down around 145. Today I checked in at 135 with 10% body fat. So yay that.
I recognize that I was not overweight at 155. But it was in the wrong places, mostly a tummy that was soft and bulged in such a way that shirts didn't look right on me. Now I'm wearing Adrian's shirts, and I've dropped 3 inches off my waist size so I've had to buy some new pants. I'm also building muscle, most noticably in my arms and chest but also in my legs and abs, to a more limited extent.
I've already had someone tell me I'm too thin, but I think that will change as the muscles develop. The trick now is to get into a workout routine...I'm pretty good on the diet, but figuring out how to exercise around my work schedule is still proving a little tricky. And let's face it, there are far more distractions here than in Afghanistan, so I need to increase my self-discipline.
If anyone cares to see, pleae note the semi-shirtless-but-still-pretty-much-workplace-safe photo below.
Oh, and I had fun dancing, too.
Labels: Life
