One fat geek's SUCCESSFUL attempt to regenerate into a not-so-fat geek by watching the entirety of Doctor Who while walking on a treadmill

Morbidly Obese

Apr 14 2019
Morbidly Obese

As you, my dear imaginary readers, have surely noticed, I am not posting here nearly as often as I used to. The simple truth is that after two full years of writing on this blog very nearly every day, and after watching almost a thousand episodes of Doctor Who and its various spinoffs, I just don't feel the need to write on a daily basis. That doesn't mean that I am not working out, or that I am not still watching Doctor Who. Quite the opposite. It does mean that I have been shaking up my routine. That led to this past week's encounter which I would like to talk about. Here, then, is the tale of how I quite literally worked my ass off for two full years only to be called Morbidly Obese by a perky twenty-something personal trainer.

In the last few months I have been trying to shake up my routine. I did several sessions of hot yoga, which I quite enjoyed but which weren't really doing much for me physically. Even so, I would like to continue doing it at least occasionally. Last week the Time Treadmill Command Center moved out to our newly-remodeled garage space and I added an elliptical to the mix. Let me tell you, after so many miles walked on the treadmill the elliptical was a real eye-opener. It definitely kicks my butt.

But the simple truth is that for me to make any more progress, or to even really maintain my current level of fitness, I needed to add some true strength training. Yes, I started doing push-ups and sit-ups, and yes those were helpful, but those only work a very limited set of muscles. I needed a much broader program.

And that meant a gym membership.

So off I went to <undisclosed gym> and signed up for a membership. Said membership included an initial session with a personal trainer to do a thorough fitness evaluation. I spent an hour with her, and she seemed very nice as far as that goes. Of course, exactly where that went was an attempted hard sell to get me to spend an extra $200+ per month on private sessions with a trainer, and that wasn't going to happen. But even so, for the most part she was very nice and knowledgeable.

Among the things that were done was a body fat analysis and a BMI evaluation. The upshot of that was that I am still considered Morbidly Obese. Now don't get me wrong, I still have some excess belly fat that I would be happy to see gone, no question. But if any random stranger were to look at me I don't think they would describe me as "fat". They certainly wouldn't describe me as "lean" or "athletic", but if you were to close your eyes and conjure up an image of what Morbidly Obese looks like, it would not be me. This is because the whole BMI thing is a complete load of crap. I guess it is possible it might be somewhat accurate for a particular height range and body type. but definitely not for mine.

To her credit, she also pretty much said as much when she gave me that result.

This is specifically why I have never had any particular weight goal for this project, my only goal is to feel better health-wise. I still vividly remember how I felt when I was pushing 310 lbs, having to hold my breath when I tied my shoes because I literally could not breath while I was bent over due to the way my gut compressed my diaphragm. I don't ever want to go back there.

The encouraging thing, though, was that in terms of body fat percentage it turns out that my "ideal" weight is pretty much right were I bottomed out on this project several months ago. I have bounced back up a bit, which is frustrating, but generally speaking I am within range of where I "should" be, Morbidly Obese and all. So that's pretty cool.

I ain't gonna lie, though - I really want to be looking my tip-top best next month when I hopefully get to meet David Tennant, Billie Piper, and John Barrowman. 'Cause yeah, I can be just as vain as the next guy. 

Regarding Doctor Who, this past week I finished watching the newest Fifth Doctor BluRay set and started watching the Fourth Doctor set that just came out. The cool thing about that is that the first two stories (The Lesiure Hive and Meglos) are both stories that went out of print before I was able to get the DVDs and so the first time around I had to watch streaming versions of them from BritBox. This time I am getting to watch them on disc in much better resolution. The not-as-cool thing is that even though I started this past week by getting to watch Adric die again, by the middle of this week I have to slog through having Adric join the TARDIS crew. So, you know, plusses and minuses.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Fifth
Companion(s): Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa, Adric
Episode(s): Earthshock - Parts 3 & 4
Steps Walked (elliptical): 4,559 today, 4,561,827 total
Distance Walked (elliptical): 2.31 miles today, 2,387.95 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 75 today, 11,525 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 6,065 total
Weight: 265.86 lbs (five day moving average), net change -41.44 lbs


Doctor(s): Fifth
Companion(s): Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa
Episode(s): Time-Flight - Part 1
Steps Walked (elliptical): 2,151 today, 4,563,978 total
Distance Walked (elliptical): 1.09 miles today, 2,389.04 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 11,525 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 6,065 total
Weight: 266.46 lbs (five day moving average), net change -40.84 lbs


Doctor(s): Fifth
Companion(s): Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa
Episode(s): Time-Flight - Parts 2 & 3
Steps Walked: 6,861 today, 4,570,839 total
Distance Walked: 3.02 miles today, 2,392.06 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 11,525 total
Sit-ups Completed: 100 today, 6,165 total
Weight: 266.36 lbs (five day moving average), net change -40.94 lbs


Doctor(s): Fifth
Companion(s): Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa
Episode(s): Time-Flight - Part 4
Steps Walked (elliptical): 2,613 today, 4,573,452 total
Distance Walked (elliptical): 1.15 miles today, 2,393.21 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 11,525 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 6,165 total
Weight: 266.38 lbs (five day moving average), net change -40.92 lbs


Doctor(s): Fourth
Companion(s): Romana II
Episode(s): Leisure Hive - Parts 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 6,953 today, 4,580,405 total
Distance Walked: 3.07 miles today, 2,396.28 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 75 today, 11,600 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 6,165 total
Weight: 266.08 lbs (five day moving average), net change -41.22 lbs


Doctor(s): Fourth
Companion(s): Romana II
Episode(s): Leisure Hive - Parts 3 & 4
Steps Walked: 6,676 today, 4,587,081 total
Distance Walked: 2.75 miles today, 2,399.03 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 11,600 total
Sit-ups Completed: 100 today, 6,265 total
Weight: 265.40 lbs (five day moving average), net change -41.90 lbs


 
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