Worth Weighing (HJ)

I've been really seeing how much more fit I am than I was when I started to get back into the exercise at the end of last semester:

* I feel stronger in anything I do after I've rowed in the morning. I stand straighter can get up and down more easily and simply feel strong and more energetic.

* I sleep better (usually) if I've rowed in the morning.

* For some reason, I'm less likely to be beguiled by bad food choices (or at least major blowouts) if I've rowed that morning.

* During the week I got my 20 stair repetitions under 7 minutes. When I first got to 20 repetitions it was taking over 8 minutes. I decided that I needed to keep the exercise going for at least 7 minutes, so yesterday I switched to "how many times can I have started the stairs before the timer goes off at 7 minutes" The answer was 22. And I didn't die.

* My stroke rate at the rowing machine is getting better, too. I can quite easily sit on 38 strokes a minute for my "normal" rowing speed. My three minutes of fast rowing can get as high as 48 strokes per minute, but try as I might, I couldn't push it up to 50. Next week I'm going to increase the fast minutes to 4 minutes at a time, taking it out of my normal rowing speed time.

So all this exercise has been making a difference to how I feel. It has also started to make a difference to how my clothes are fitting, which is a relief. And this week, finally, the scales have registered a downward blip.

This morning I weighed in at 78.7kg, a drop of 1.4 kilos since before Christmas. That's a lot of work for 1.4 kg, because my weight since the last weigh-in has been ridiculously stable until Wednesday of this week.

I'm hoping that common report that muscle takes more keeping up than fat will start to kick in any time now. My body is welcome to eat as much of itself as it wants to.

I also had to laugh at some myth busting going on in the internet exercise world. Apparently, muscle doesn't weigh more than fat. A pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat. No Kidding!?! Of course, the same volume of muscle will weigh more than the same volume of fat. So, apparently the myth is wrong, because it typically doesn't include specific mention that we're speaking volumetrically. Would not logic dictate?... never mind.