Cruise update

I'm back.  We had a great time, even with all five of us in one small (very small!) cabin.  Therese and I did tour the fitness center on the ship, and marveled over all the fancy machines, but that was pretty much it for me.  They also had a jogging track that I didn't use.  (I did think it would be funny to wear the GPS watch while running around and around the jogging track while the ship was moving, then check the map printout.  It would be just a huge curly cue well out to sea.)

As expected, the food was good and abundant.  You could have Chateaubriand with a side of Chateaubriand, not that I did that.  Much.  There was a chocolate buffet one day, but luckily no midnight buffet.  And we did walk a little, since our room was in the fore part of the ship and the dining room was aft...

So, the envelope please!  11.8 pounds.  Up, of course.  Which I an actually VERY happy with.  On one hand, I'm back in the 260's (260.8), which is depressing.  On the other hand, I can gain 12 pounds in a weekend at home, so after a week on a cruise ship I expected massive damage, not just 12 pounds.

But since 12 pounds is 12 pounds (and since Therese and I signed up for a half marathon in 5 weeks), it's time to head out for a run.  I also want to do this in 3 weeks (Therese thinks the half is a good place to start, so 50 miles), so I've got to train for that as well.  I'm running out of time...

Getting ready for my cruise

Looks like I once again will not reach a pre-vacation goal.  I wanted to get in the 240's before I went to Hawaii and didn't make it till I got back, and I wanted to get in the 230's before the cruise and 243 was as close as I got (a few weeks ago, ugh!).  This past Friday I was up to 249.  I'm playing basketball tomorrow, but we leave Friday afternoon, so the 230s will have to wait until September.  Until that time, enjoy this picture of the weight that Therese apparently hopes to get down to, since she's clearly not happy with her current weight.

There are so many things wrong with this photo...

Hat tip to Dan Flook for the pic.

Body fat percentage update

I had Peggy check me again last week (thanks, Peggy!), and I'm down to 23.65% now.  When I was measured in December I was 26.6% and I was 29% when I started.  Those numbers don't seem that impressive, but when cleaning off my desk over the weekend, I did find a piece of paper from my original body fat analysis where one method (there are several ways to derive the number) had me at 34%, so I'm down more than 10% from that number.  I'm not sure why (other than embarrassment) I used the 29% number officially.  I apparently still have 58 pounds of total fat on me (247 x .2365), so a zero body fat Jim would weigh 189.  I'd be happy to split the difference and lose 29 more pounds and be 218.

But my new percentage is exciting because now I'm just overweight!  Goodbye obese category!  (BTW, there's no feeling in the world like dieting and exercising for almost a year to get "down" to ... "overweight"?  What an accomplishment!)

Here's a chart I found online:

Men

Age	Underfat	Healthy Range	Overweight	Obese
20-40 yrs	Under 8%	8-19%	19-25%	Over 25%
41-60 yrs	Under 11%	11-22%	22-27%	Over 27%
61-79 yrs	Under 13%	13-25%	25-30%	Over 30%

So another 4.65% gets me to the "healthy" range.

Drew Carey loses 80 pounds in 8 months!

Wow, way to make me look like a piker!  That's an insane pace, and good for him.  I just hope he keeps it up.  At least I'm not a public figure so there's not nearly the pressure that he has.

It sounds like he's doing hard core Atkins, which is even more impressive, since I know how hard that diet is.  I mean really, 8 months of no bread??  I can't go 8 minutes...