Day 18

209.8 lbs. 13.7 lbs lost in 17 days. I've gone on a hot streak during the past 4 days and dropped 4.5 lbs, so I've now reached my original goal of 210 lbs. The last time I was sub-210 was 2001.

I've increased my exercise since last week a little. I upped my rounds on the bags from 5 to 6, and after I hit them tonight I'll have completed 13 sessions of exercise in the past 4 days.

Day 17

211.3 lbs. 12.2 lbs lost after 16 days.

The lighting is a lot more complementary in the second photo, but even so there's still quite a contrast.

Day 1 vs Day 16

Day 15

213.5 lbs. 10 lbs lost in total.  1.4 lbs lost during Week 2. The weight is coming off much slower now. I put in a total of 15 sessions of exercise during Week 2:

5 sessions in the gym (4¼ hours)
4 sessions of football (4 hours)
6 sessions of boxing (35 rounds)

Before and After Pics for Weeks One & Two

 

Despite the appearance, my skin is the same shade now as it was two weeks ago. I've not been using the sun bed! 

Poker

I caught up a little on my poker volume, and managed to get 56k hands in. My total profit for the two weeks is $12,400 (with bonuses) although I haven't been playing very well.

Click Image to Enlarge

So my time spent exercising took a bit of a hit due to the increased volume I put in at the poker tables. 14 hours of exercise + 48 hours of poker + 8 hours of preparation and travelling = 70 hours total.

During Week 3, I'm going to aim for 20 sessions of exercise and 50k hands of poker...

Day 12

214.4 lbs. +0.6 lbs since yesterday. My exercise routine and diet haven't changed at all, so I'm not concerned with the natural day-to-day fluctuations. I'll probably just update every 2-3 days from now on.

Day 11

213.8 lbs. 9.7 lbs lost in total. An increase of 0.6 lbs since yesterday. As mentioned on Day 1, I felt that I would experience a bit of a plateau once I reached this point:

"The first week will be very easy, and I should drop a lot during this time. I could even be as low as 216 lb by next Monday. Once I reach that weight I expect my loss to slow dramatically, before reaching a plateau for several days."

I would expect to see small fluctuations from now on, but hopefully I will still be able to shift about 2lbs during the next week.

Day 10

213.2 lbs. 10.3 lbs lost.

Day 9

213.5 lbs. 10 lbs lost in 8 days. I suppose I should have had my body fat measured before I started this plan. It would have enabled me to set a more accurate goal as to what I can achive, rather than set a somewhat arbitrary target. E.g. Supposing I had 20% body fat when I started (223.5 lbs) then a reasonable goal may be to get down to 10% body fat, which would put me at 205 lbs. That's probably a fairly accurate estimate, so as of right now I'm aiming to get down to 205 lbs.

Any muscle that I put on at this time is going to be pretty negligible, as I'm quite sure I'm not capable of adding more mass through natural means. There are many regulars at the gym who take one form of performance enhancer or another in order to bulk up, but I'm not interested in getting bigger and potentially hurting my long-term health. I'd estimate that more than half of the male adults at my gym who take working out at least as seriously as me aren't natural.

Rather disturbingly, I think my penis may have got a little smaller during this past week, although it's hard to be certain. Here are a couple of photos for comparison, but it may just be part of my imagination.

I'm going to see a Sports Therapist friend of mine on Friday. I need some advice on improving the many "imbalances" that my body has. I've had bad back problems since before I was an adult, and that has always been a massive impediment, especially when I was playing football competitively back in England. I also need to became more flexible and to stretch far more. Last year alone, I had three hamstring pulls in the first six months, followed by a pulled calf muscle. My posture also suffers because of it. I've been advised to take up Yoga or Pilates, something my mum has been encouraging me to do for a long time. So I guess I'm going to have to go shopping for a leotard...