Dumbbell

When it comes to lifting weights I have no fucking idea what I’m doing. Have you ever seen that old Garfield comic strip where Jon’s flexing in the mirror and telling Garfield about how muscles can earn you respect and get you chicks? He then turns to face Garfield who is now flexing himself and looking entirely buffed. “Did you know you can flex fat?” Garfield says. Well, it’s true. I think that my bulk has given the illusion of me being beefier than I am over the years. This week I have proven to myself that I truly have the stereotypical wimpy artist arms. How did I prove that to myself? I went and bought myself a dumbbell set.

In an effort to start toning my muscles up, both for general health and in hopes that it will help my skin tighten up, I started doing some basic toning exercises this week. Honestly, I feel really good about starting to do this for myself, but damn am I a wimp. I have rarely/never set foot in a gym with weight equipment my entire life. It has always just been something I have had no interest in. So, needless to say I am almost completely green with these weights.

I picked up a basic dumbbell set from Target. It’s a 19 or 20 piece set that allows you add more weight as you move up. I figured that was good. I can also purchase additional weights if I go past the top amount allowed by the set – so that’s good, though I am not planning on becoming Arnold or something – as mentioned I just want to tone up. I started on Tuesday evening by doing some basic toning exercises that I learned in one of the classes I took at the Bariatric Institute - thosec along with crunches, leg-lifts, and things of that nature.

Speaking with Brian, a co-worker of mine with whom I have shared the battle of weight-loss over the years, I found out that in his younger days he was very much into lifting weights. He took me into the recreation room at work where we have some basic exercise equipment and gave me some great pointers on new and improved exercises to do for toning. I’m very excited to try them out tonight. It is odd indeed to think that I am getting excited about such things. I guess it just makes me feel good that I am doing these things for my body and my health.

The next step is to find a more regular exercise activity. I am racking my brain and fielding research to find something that I will actually enjoy doing for an extended period of time… My Dad is a 5th degree black belt in Taekwondo and I trained in that for a couple of years when I was younger under his instruction. I have been considering martial arts again – possibly Aikido. Dad has expressed interest in doing that with me, so that would be very cool. I have also given some though to boxing. I have more thinking to do, though…

On a slightly different note, I have not weighed in over two-weeks now, so I am not really sure what my weight is doing. It’s a bit frustrating as I was at 413 at last weigh-in. I was hoping that by now I would be under 400 so that my home scale could read me – thus far it has not been able to. However, I go in next week for my six-week follow-up at the hospital already, so I will get a definite weight there. I am certainly looking forward to that!

This dumbbell pushes on folks.

He pushes on.