Time of my Life

I haven't posted here in ages since I've been spending my blogging time over at my LA site so I've decided to turn this old blog into a public record keeping device for my personal fitness. If anyone decides to read it, great! If not, it will enable me to look back years from now on that time I decided to stop being a fat guy.

Ok, now for the embarrassing stats and pictures:

This picture was taken way back on January 19th, 2008. I think it was the fattest I've ever been. I didn't bother to take my weight or body fat percentage at the time but I did when I first arrived in LA the following June (6 months later). I sure as hell didn't lose any weight in that six months so in this picture I probably weigh 182 lbs and have around 27% body fat. Notice how my torso looks just like an elderly Walter Matthau's face.

Flash forward to October 18th, 2009. I did some working out but I think most of the results came from a diet change that started some time that previous summer (meaning most weight loss occurred in around 4 months). In this photo I am 166.8 lbs and 22.5% body fat.

Flash forward again to November 13th, 2009. 163.6 lbs and 21.1% body fat.

And today. After way too much food and beer and beer and tequila and beer over the holidays I am 165.4 lbs and 21.6% body fat. Time to get back to it.

My whole life I've struggled with feelings of inferiority and low self esteem. Even though I've been told by people I've been good at something I find reasons to shrug it off and look at the work of others and always consider it better than my own. Even if I felt good about accomplishing something personally I'd never show off as I've always felt that's poor form.

I think these feelings made design school difficult. Later in life when I felt like I had a good grasp on something I decided that it would be great to teach it. As an instructor I always felt like I was failing my students. Like I wasn't giving them the education they needed even though when my instructor reviews were returned to me all but one of them (over three semesters) said I was an excellent instructor. I can't remember what all the good ones said but the bad reviewer didn't even bother to bubble in the scantron section of the form and only wrote this at the bottom: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.". It still messes with me and I don't think I'll ever forget it.

Well, today I discovered a definition for my frame of mind:

The Dunning–Kruger Effect

I really feel like I've been busting my ass at the gym by doing interval training (HIIT) every day and lifting weights every other day. Today I decided to weigh myself again and I've gained 2 lbs since my last weigh. I don't think it's muscle as my body fat percentage has gone up too! Crap. I'm hoping that the means by which the scale calculates my body fat is inaccurate. I don't feel like I've been going crazy with the food or anything. I did eat out twice last weekend but other than that I've behaved myself. I guess this is a sign that I need to strictly stick to 1650 calories a day. I'd really like to get below the 20% body fat mark.