Originally Posted by
HairyMan
I am sitting back on my couch relaxing after a nice 90 minute session at the gym. At the start of this year, I realized that my gut was getting a bit too large, I was starting to need new clothes as my waistline was getting larger than my pants size, and as a Type I Diabetic my A1c value wasn't anywhere close to what I wanted it to be. So I signed on at the local gym near my house in the same plaza that my favorite bar is, my grocery store, home depot, Subway, etc.
Yes, the first few weeks it was absolute hell. Unable to do much of anything on the bike for more than a couple of minutes before I was breathing so hard I was ready to throw up and my muscles turned to jello. All of this on the lowest resistance setting on the bike. Weighing 210 pounds is not fun. Now, at the start of my fourth week at the gym, I am able to readily do a 30 minute session on the bike with a resistance level of 10 (scale is 1-25) without getting my heart rate above 150 bpm. (At the start, it was going up to 180 after only about a minute. Now, it slowly rises from a 120 after about three minutes to a max of 150 at the end).
This feels great as I have already seen a nice increase in my overall feeling and mood. My friends noticed that my face looks a lot more slim and I've noticed that my pants are starting to fit a bit better. My weight after the workout today was 206 pounds. Yes, in three full weeks 4 pounds isn't a lot, but when you consider that my arm size has expanded by a good four inches and there is a LOT more muscle mass and definition, as well as overall strength, the fact that only four pounds of mass has been loss is a great thing. It means that a good deal of muscle mass (which is FAR denser than fat) has come on, so overall I've burned away a great deal of fat.
I've also had some help with a supplement I picked up at a health store which boosts natural testosterone levels while scavenging estradiol levels. (Estradiol is a hormone excreted by fat cells which causes more fat to be deposited around the body. By removing that estradiol from my body, I am able to prevent a build-up of fat while the increased testosterone levels result in more muscle mass forming). Before anyone chimes in on it, no, these are not steroids. This is an over the counter supplement that is perfectly legal.
The only downside to the working out in the gym is that the groin muscle I was told I pulled last May hasn't gotten any better. With a good deal of fat gone from the general area of the body, I can now feel a bulge where I shouldn't. Looks like the "groin pull" that the walk-in clinic said I had is more like a hernia. :( Sadly, I can't find a general practitioner in the area that is accepting patients at the moment, and even if I did, I'm not sure if I want to go and plan surgery to fix it. Though with the pain it causes when I move my left leg in the wrong direction, I don't think I have a choice. I just don't want to have to miss too much gym time as working out at the gym has gotten addicting.
In other good news, I got a phone interview for a very good, full time, permanent, work-from-home job tomorrow. Looks like my days of unemployment are about to end. :D
