General Progress Report

I am doing very well in general. I have been working hard at a bunch of things lately, and applying the tools of incremental progress and commitment to process over result. That’s the key: I can’t control results. I can only control the process. Process and result are connected, but not in perfect accordance. Nevertheless, if I commit faithfully to the process, I know the results will follow. Maybe not exactly what I hope for or want, but something in the same general direction as I am working towards.

My biggest personal project lately is fitness. Obviously, I’ve been committed to health and fitness for a long time now, but over the past four months or so, I’ve been working extra hard specifically on weight loss. I’ve been counting calories, increasing protein, and trying very hard to drop fat and build a little bit of muscle. I’ve been maintaining somewhere between 500 and 1000 daily calories of deficit once you include exercise. This has resulted in dropping approximately 30 pounds in about sixteen weeks. It works out to 1.8 pounds per week.

As you can see, it’s a slow and noisy process. But the results are very positive. It’s been challenging but not awful. And the results are not just on the scale, but in my real world experience as well:

This shows the difference between March 21st and July 14th. So not quite four months. Obviously, still a long way to go before I look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club (I will never look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club), but impressive results, and presumably health-changing improvements in my metabolism (though I need to return to the doctor to get bloodwork done).

I’ve also seen dramatic improvements in my athletic performance. I can do 8 neutral-grip pull-ups in a row now, which is 2 more than I’ve ever been able to do in my life up until now. And I ran a sub-7 minute mile for the first time ever, a lung-bursting 6:44.3 as the second mile of a 4 mile run, last week. That’s stunning to me, that I should be setting new personal records in speed and strength only a few weeks from turning 47 years old.

When my parents were my age, they were both already basically disabled by obesity, sedentary lifestyles, diabetes, musculo-skeletal issues, etc., etc., etc.. I don’t even really know what a healthy 47 year old man is supposed to look and feel like. What does it mean to be capable and strong and fit at my age? I don’t have personal examples in my life. Like everything else, I’m cobbling it together as I go along with no personal role models.

Last week I climbed a mountain with a neighbor who is 58, very fit, and on the Search and Rescue team for my county. It was exciting to see what I have to look forward to over the next ten years if I stay on top of my health and weight and fitness. And I know very clearly what I have to look forward to if I don’t.

So I’m proud of what I’ve done, where I am, and I’m excited to continue improving.