What I'm not going to talk about much

I'm not going to talk about one big thing much: Weight.

The W word for many is the evil force in many programs.  So much focus on losing weight, that health ends up suffering for it, and we start to measure our worth by the number at our feet every time we step on a scale.

Measuring by weight is a real problem.  Many athletes in prime condition would be judged to be obese by normal BMI calculations.  An Iron Man participant at my height frequently weighs 230lbs.

I am doing my best to ignore the number on the scale.  The numbers that I try to make matter to me are, I think, better indicators of health: resting pulse, body fat percentage and waist size.

I know waist size isn't exactly all that much better than weight or BMI, but for a guy who likes clothing, it is a big deal for me.  I'm not shooting to be really skinny, but I do like to have some choice at good clothing stores, so maintaining a waistline that allows me to buy good clothing is an important factor.  There's nothing more depressing for me than walking into a store, looking at some beautiful shirt, only to find they don't have it, or anything else much, in my size.  Ultimately people do judge us on how we look, and I prefer not to look slovenly or slobbish, so finding good clothing that's easily available is pretty critical for me.

Resting pulse is fairly obvious; this tends to drop with higher levels of fitness.  This is something that's kinda not going as well as I'd hoped right now, but more on that later.  Body fat percentage is now easily measurable by a good set of bathroom scales.  These days they come with some nifty electronics that measure the resistance profile of your body, which tells you how much of your body is fat.  The scales we have have this feature, but lately, it's kinda been on the fritz, so I'm not sure what to do about that.

For the record, I started this journey at 270lbs, my lowest so far was 234lbs, and I'm hovering around 248lbs right now.  My waist size has dropped from a 42" to a 38", so I'm now in the upper band of what most good clothing stores carry in most looks.  My shirt size is still mostly an XXL, so above what you can frequently find.

I'm gonna post body measurements once in awhile, but not often.  I'm not counting calories, and I'm not counting pounds, at least not on a daily or weekly basis.  What I am counting is exercise.