January 5, 2009

In the Interest of Avoiding the Topic of Surgery. . . Some Shameless Bragging

When I joined the gym back in the middle of October, you may recall that they measured my body fat percentage. I expected the worst, and it wasn't so bad. It came in at 21.6%, somewhere between "excellent" and "good."

I've been stepping on the scale every week or so and the numbers have stayed pretty much the same. They've fluctuated by a pound or two depending on how many cookies I ate over the holidays but I wasn't worried about not losing weight. That was never my intention. I just wanted to strengthen and tone.

So, I met with my trainer last night for the last time before surgery on Wednesday, and the body fat measuring thing was on the counter near where I was working out.

"Mind if I use this?" I asked him.

"No girl," he said as he filled in the info like weight and age and handed it over.

After a couple seconds, which felt like an eternity, the number popped up.

18.1% with a body mass index of 20.1.

My trainer flipped open his little book, found my age and traced his finger across. "Excellent" is 19.3.

18.1 people. 18.1.

This proves what I've known all along. I may not be losing weight, but I am definitely losing fat and replacing it with some serious muscle. Seeing progress like that is such a motivator. My goal is to return to working out as soon as I get my stitches out on January 14th and to return to karate the week of my birthday which is February 7th (I'll be turning 29 again, just in case you were curious).

And just so we're clear, even if I have to plan it myself, there will be a party.