My Journey to Fitness, Month 3
3 months ago today, August 11, 2017, two friends and I had our first workout in order to become fit again.
Several years of zero activity, aside from the occasional walk or hike, led our body compositions to become unhealthy. I had only gained 12 (twelve) pounds since my last bout of fitness five years ago, but had gotten to 27.9% body fat, with muscle down to 33.2% (as measured by my Omron scale).
My Visceral fat was at 11, and my Body Age was at 57, 10 higher than my chronological age. Although my arms and shoulders were skinny, my belly stuck out like I was 8 months pregnant.
And yet, none of these things alone motivated me to get back in to shape. Nope, it was my genetic collagen condition called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Hypermobility type. It makes my connective tissue too stretchy and too brittle, making me very prone to injury. What's worse, the ligaments are too weak to keep my joints together.
A couple of years ago, a rheumatologist told me that as I age, my ligaments will get worse at holding my joints together, and I would need to improve all of the muscles around my joints so that they can keep my joints together. Earlier this year, my shoulders and elbows started aching more than normal, and nothing was making them better.
I decide that I need to build the muscle mass now, before it's too late, so began working out with my two friends at my house. We convert my living room temporarily, every day, into a gym for the three of us, 6 days a week.
Months 1 and 2 of Becoming Fit
Read about the first month of my journey to fitness in these articles:
My Journey to Fitness, Month 1
My Journey to Fitness, Month 2
Month 3 of Becoming Fit
At the beginning of October I decided to pay more attention to my diet. Yes, I had improved my diet during months 1 and 2, but "improved" is an extremely subjective term; I was "improving" it from a very bad spot, and "improved" still didn't mean "good."
We also picked up Insanity Max:30 to cycle some of those routines in when we felt we needed more cardio, or couldn't do a strength routine from P90X3.
It took me about a week to dial in my diet, and then the changes really started to happen. I used an app to manage my diet so I could make sure I get the right amount of protein, fat, and sugars (not just carbohydrates) per day, and once I did that, I discovered I had more traction in body changing.
I still have alcohol a few days a week, but I log them and can see in my food diary app what I'm doing.
As of today, 11/11/17, my stats are:
Weight: 179.4 (down 8.4 from start)
Fat%: 22.4 (5.5 down)
Muscle%: 36.3 (3.1 up)
Body Age: 52 (5 down)
Visceral Fat: 9 (2 down)
As you can see, I made more Fat% and Muscle% movement in month 3 than I had in months 1 and 2 combined.
In the last few weeks, I've added brisk walks following the intense workouts, and the additional calorie gain from them is a great boost.
