one year later

It's been exactly a year since I started losing weight. I started at around 205 pounds; this morning I met my revised goal, weighing in at 135 pounds. It's my freshman college weight. It's been both difficult and easy to do this, and in all honesty, I'm surprised I accomplished it. I sought out losing weight many times before eventually getting things into gear, propelled by a fresh vision of hope for the future. I can hardly remember what it was like being 205 pounds, except for the self-image issues, some of which still remain despite me looking ten times better. I'm right at the margin between my healthy weight and being underweight, and I promised friends and family that I wouldn't go underweight, and I intend on keeping that promise. I know I'll never look skinny as a rail like some people do, because (a) my body isn't built like that--I'm of short and stocky German stock with a body shaped like a barrel, (b) my metabolism isn't too fast, (c) even my dad has a belly and he runs around twenty-thirty miles a day and is a health-nut Nazi, and (d) I like food too much. 

I'm not going to try and lose anymore weight; instead, I'm inaugurating Phase 2 of my body transformation: muscle build-up. I'm focusing on building up my arms, chest, abs, and legs. Well, basically my entire body. I've devised a pretty rigorous training schedule, which I've kept to for the last week or so. I am already detecting changes. My friend Dylan, who used to weight-lift all the time, taught me some techniques that you don't learn at the gym, techniques which are really working. Hopefully by the end of the year I can gain twenty pounds in muscle, though that may be a stretch. Nevertheless, I'm already seeing and feeling changes, and that's great. I don't build muscle like most people, in the sense that I am one of those people whose muscles more easily tone than bulk (for instance, in my arms you can see the definition and contours of every muscle), but any little bit will be good. So, as for Phase 2, in the words of the Joker: "Here. We. Go."