I met with Dr. McVay, who took care of me in the hospital after surgery, and she seemed genuinely stunned by my progress. Of course, I was wearing one of my signature skin-tight Under Armour turtle neck shirts that paints my progress in bold relief. There was no faking or mistaking that look on her face. It was an irritated expression that said "Excuse me, where is my patient? Who the hell are you?"
I am your patient.
That was when the stunned reaction occurred. I can't blame her for being stunned. Just since 5/13/2011, I have lost some 38 liters of body volume. If I asked you to carry 38 liters of Pepsi to the car, you couldn't carry it all in one haul. Could you carry 19 x 2 liter bottles in one haul? That's not the total volume either. That's only a partial figure.
She loved the Bod Pod progress charts I showed her. She was amazed that I have been officially classified as a member of the healthy group. She totally understood what a bastard the Bod Pod test is... probably better than you and I do.
She went through the scripted questions to see if there have been any emerging complications. A funny moment occurred when she hit this scripted question: Are you having any problems keeping the weight off? She realized I was 12 pounds down from the last visit and 1.4 pounds down from the Bod Pod test last Friday just as I said "I'm still going down."
I've done so well that Dr. McVay has officially released me from the program for a year. I am not supposed to go back and see them again until 1/14/2013... if our human civilization should happen to make it that far.
Not only that, but this morning my weight was back down to 181.4. I don't know what happened to that 1.6 pounds over night, but it vanished. I didn't do much last night outside of watching a brutal BCS Championship game. "I'm still going down."
I think it is safe to say that I have exceeded there wildest expectations, but I am not going to stop here. I'm going on.
Tonight, I entered a new phase of training. I added the Rack to my workout. Contrary to the hype, the Rack is not a Panacea, but it is an excellent way to work your core, and add a few body weight exercises to the regime. I took it with me to the gym tonight, and I integrated the Ab Crawl, Bicycle kick, bar dips, an frog kicks (ne crunches) into the workout. The Ab Crawl is a bitch. The Bicycle Kick is worse.
I did a quick circuit routine that included all of the following exercises:
- Halo
- Swing
- Sumo Chin
- Bar Dips
- Bicycle Kicks
- Pull ups
- Ab Crawl
I repeated that circuit 5 times with each of the following kettlebells: 12kg, 16kg, 20kg, 24kg, 60 pounds. The whole workout took only about 40 minutes, including setup. I was so busted after the final circuit with 60 pounds, I could not perform the Turkish Get Up correctly. I lost control and flopped over as I was getting up. I took that as a warning that I was courting an injury, so I stopped.
At first, I was displeased with the workout. As I drove home, I changed my mind. I realized that this was a very CrossFit workout. I feel pretty dang worked at this point. I am going to sleep well tonight. I think I was very successful.
