Through lean natural food and staying active, I've dropped ~10 pounds recently.
The muscle I built up for baseball is paying off with dominating stats and power this season, and now it's time to tone up for more speed. The way my recent home run rocketed told me the story in a nutshell. Hard work pays off and it feels good. Age is but a number.
I've been hammering away with squats and legs (increasing the weight each time), and this is adding good muscle volume. My core is seeing significant improvement as the spot where the pounds are clearly coming off. I've done so much core and trunk work underneath for my rotation-based sport, and can now finally see the benefits. If I wasn't pushing it with my legs, I probably would be down a few more pounds, but I need to have a strong base for durability on the field.
My clothes are fitting great, or I shrunk everything in my last laundry run. Where I had a little extra around my stomach, it's now gone and flat.
I also feel that I look much younger. Someone trying to guess my age this weekend was 6 years too young on their first guess, and 9 years too young on their second. The look on their face (and the others) was worth it when I filled them in when their third guess was still way off.
The lesson is that anyone can do this if they commit to the cause. Our bodies reward us when we take care of them, and really reward us when we do the extra work. You are what you eat and drink. Do yourself a big favor and get rid of processed foods, soda, unhealthy snacks, sugar and chemicals. Your body will jump for joy when you take care of it.
One way I tricked myself to do extra work was a rule for a minimum of 44 push-ups a day, even if I worked out (except on baseball days when I pitch). That really helped my chest, shoulders and triceps stay active and develop as a baseline. I've also tried to build on a minimum of 22 bar squats and 22 bar curls at home to this (which I've not been as disciplined with since hurting my back). This base work keeps my metabolism active and body growing stronger.
After missing a full week at the gym with a pulled lower back, I'm healed up and more than ready to keep this up. Even though my back was locked at times, I still forced myself to do push-ups. It hurt, but I felt better for staying true to my cause afterwards.
Here's a half-selfie to cover my quota for a while. I like the layers of reflection in the backdrop. I took one like this 5 month ago so it was time for an update. I've come a long way, especially in the last month.
I consider this millennial art.
I also now see that the barber messed up the hairline on the back of my neck the other day.
Here's the scale from tonight in clothes/shoes, and after a big chicken salad. If I had to guess, I'd put myself at 198 pounds now. When I was lifting hard earlier in the year and eating a lot to bulk up, I was near 210 pounds. My peak was 212.
I don't want to lose much more. I'll probably settle into an equilibrium between the muscle I gain roughly equaling the fat I lose. If I got down to ~192, which I could easily do in a few weeks, I'd probably feel good at the park on the weekends, but I want to keep lifting hard and stay at this level to maintain my strength for baseball.
In general, I'm simply trying to take advantage of my youth while I still have it, stay healthy, and have a strong foundation for my future. Many people talk about it and aspire, but don't take action. The harsh reality is that time is working against us. We only have our bodies for so long, and they will atrophy if we don't keep them strong. Laziness and apathy are our enemies here.
I've always had quick success and results when I commit to the cause. I'm lucky in that sense, but much of it is muscle memory from all of the years before. I've historically let life get in the way from making myself the priority to waste precious maintenance/progress, so I'm trying to take advantage of this window for as long as I have it.
So far so good.
