Not a lot to report in week 10. I’m still at 260 lbs and holding. Though I had to go from my (dare I say it) size 42 jeans to my size 40 jeans which I had stored away for this occasion. Two inches is just the start … I hope. My 42 jeans were getting way too loose. So I climbed up into the attic and brought the 40′s down. In there was a pair or 36″ jeans … oh someday soon(?). Actually that might be a ways off. It took me a while to put the weight on. It will take a while to get rid of it too.

Still on the Men’s Health TNT plan. Never thought I’d eat steak, pork, or chopped meat ever again. But here I am, a week and a half into this thing, and I’ve found my inner carnivore. I forgot how much I LIKED steak! Yum! I’ve been cooking pretty much every night. Unless I’ve cooked enough pork chops or chicken for two nights. Protein. Protein. Protein. And so it goes.

The main reason for this writing was to post my gym workout sheet for people to

I’ve been doing this now for 9 weeks. I had lost only 15 lbs in the first 7 weeks and hit a plateau already. Okay did I just say ONLY 15 lbs! Oye! Let’s be real. That is pretty good! Having gone through this loss and plateau situation before I kind of knew what had to be done. A change up in my workouts or maybe get a trainer again.

At the end of one of my workouts last week I talked to one of the trainers at LA Fitness. What I found out, I didn’t like. The cost was rather prohibitive & I had to sign up for “X” amount of months and chose “Y” number of sessions per month. Plus I had to pay a $149.00 fee up front. Um … I don’t think so. So I did ask for my one free session.

On that following Monday Meadow worked me out. He was nice enough to put together a group of exercises for the entire week, even though he was only training me for one day. It was a good 30 minute workout of “super sets.” By the time I was done … I WAS DONE! So job well done Mr Meadow!

I can’t believe that it’s been six weeks since I started working out again. In that six weeks I’ve dropped fifteen pounds. Yes FIFTEEN POUNDS! I have been workin’ my butt of figuratively and literally. And it feels good!

If I were a goal oriented kind of guy … I’d like to be 198 by my 53rd birthday. That might be unrealistic … but hey I sure can try! BTW … for those of you interested and wanting to lavish gifts upon me the date you need to mark in your calendar is January 20, 2010.

All this past summer I was feeling very self-conscious and very ashamed of how “large” I was. None of my previous bathing suits fit me & Chris went out and bought me a single pair of trunks XXL. Fuck! Whether it was the chemotherapy drug (Methotrexate) and the steroid Prednisone I was on last year, fucking up my metabolism & me just feeling like crap for so long … who knows! The end result was being 180 lbs … and not liking it one bit.

I joined LA Fitness two weeks ago, after having gone through a free week previously giving myself and the gym a test run. I can’t believe it’s been three weeks already. Wow! And it’s already starting to pay off. I wish I could say I already looked like my picture to the left, circa early 2002 … but I have lost 8 lbs already.

Way back in August of 2001 I started back to the gym “the first time.” Well at least the first time in Seattle. My weight then was around 242 lbs. It was the heaviest I had been at the time. My goal then was to be under 200 lbs by my 45th birthday, January 20, 2002. With the help of a great trainer, whom I worked with for a few months, I reached my goal weight. I was 198 lbs by my birthday.

This time around I have a similar goal … but who knows if it’s possible to lose almost 80 lbs in that same amount of time & do it safely. Right now I can’t afford a trainer. So I’ll give it another month using all the knowledge and routines

Sometimes I wonder where the time goes. Most times I’m so caught up in the mind-numbing sameness of the every day, that I often don’t realize time has passed. Or maybe I just don’t want to consciously recognize I’ve gotten another day older … and as the song goes … deeper in debt.

And to look at the line before, and the one in the song too … I’m also afraid I’m reaching the 16-ton mark. Okay maybe that’s a “little” exaggerated, but I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been. And that is certainly a frightening thought to an aging man. Well at least this aging man. I can’t speak for us all.

My vanity will not allow me to reveal my current weight. Well okay … I currently weigh 20 stones. You do the math! It’s with this in mind I figured it was time. Time to get back to the gym. My doctor has been urging me to. He also offered up this little nugget too. “Joe … you should get back to the gym. Especially now that you are being