Tag Archives: body

Day 350: A hot mess

Day 350 - front

  • Weight: 139.4 lbs.
  • No workout today; next: Workout C, Aug. 17
  • Total inches: 125.4
  • Protein: 122g (10g under target)
  • Calories: 2,221

This will take some research, or some lazy crowdsourcing, but I’ve noticed an important thermostatic shift in my body in the past year of Project Bulk.

I’m hotter.

Not in the “I’m too sexy” sense, but in the body temperature sense.

When I started Sept. 1, the weather was getting cooler. What I noticed was that I wasn’t walking around the house freezing as lower temperatures settled in. As a skinny person, I used to bundle up because I felt cold all winter long (and I didn’t necessarily want the thermostat to be set at 85 degrees).

Winter temps didn’t get to me — I felt rather comfortable indoors and outdoors.

But summer has been even more telling.

Usually, I find a sweltering Alabama summer to hit the spot. I loved 90-degree days, and driving with the windows open, skipping the full-blast AC. The rare moments I would feel any sense of humidity is coming off a hot shower, and continuing to sweat even after toweling off and getting dressed.

Now that I’m 20 pounds heavier, I am sweating. I am sweaty. I am a faucet of perspiration. Summer has tried to wring me dry through my upper body and head.

No one told me I’d endure male menopause this year.

I am assuming that the change to my physiology has wrought this sweaty problem. I used to sweat profusely after working in the yard or running on the treadmill, naturally. But nowadays, I sweat in a T-shirt driving in my car, or sitting still on my couch.

I take comfort in that today marked an unusually cool day for August in Alabama, some 20 degrees lower than normal. Sweet relief.

But as my forehead glistens through the rest of summer, I wonder if I’ll ever be cool again.

Day 350 - side

Day 70: Good posture is hot

Day 70 - front

  • Weight: 132.4 lbs.
  • Workout A: 17 minutes, 7 seconds; next: Workout B on Nov. 15
  • Total inches: 121.8
  • Protein: 128 g (2 g over target)
  • Calories: 2,034

The 75 minutes of exercise had a number of important effects on Fleur’s physique that went beyond fat loss and ass building.

Most important, it fixed her kyphosis (from the Greek kyphos, meaning “hump”), a postural problem common to millions of computer users. From desk work and muscular imbalance, she had a shoulders-forward, concave-chest slouch before beginning the program. Five weeks later, she stood and walked with shoulders back, which created the perception of both a smaller rib cage and larger breasts.

Good posture is hot.

— page 167, “The 4-Hour Body” [Amazon |iTunes aff. links]

Those last four words have somehow stuck in my brain during the past 2-plus months.

So much of my time is spent in front of my laptop and at desk jobs over the years that slouching is part of my natural state. Once I realized that my posture was terrible, I kept sitting up straight.

I catch myself often in slouch position when working, and I immediately correct it, almost subconsciously.

My friend Biff, who hadn’t seen me in months, noticed it Saturday. I stand taller. Certainly, I hadn’t practiced on my feet, but I think it’s my small way of pushing myself to be a little better.

This harmonizes well with my overall determination to be more “in the moment,” to be aware of my environment, my breathing and my body. I have always been easily lost in my work or with distractions, but to live purposefully means to practice focus on the now.

No point in building up my upper body if no one can see it when I’m scrunched up. Chest out, head up.

Day 70 - side