199.4 lbs
You would think I would be disappointed with only a 1 pound loss but, again, I am not. My body fat percentage is now 23% and I have added some weight training into the mix. It is not a lot of weight training, just a bit. I also suspect salt has something to do with the smaller Monday weight loss, it always does. This week will work as a bellwether for what comes next week. I might have to adjust things, meal wise, to get down to where I want to be. I have come to the conclusion that when I was in my teens I had a much lower skeletal and muscle mass. This makes a huge difference. I want to be thinner but I also don't want to be fatter at the same time. It's all about balance and the next month will make me feel like I am on a tight rope.
Throughout this whole thing, I have been seeking balance. There are so many factors that come into play when it comes to weight loss and weight gain that I try to put it all in a more concrete context. My mental context for the past week or so, one that explains the whole spectrum of what I don't want to become, is Saturday Night Live. Moreover, I am trying to avoid becoming an actor on Saturday Night Live. Sounds bizarre doesn't it? Please allow me to explain.
William Blake once wrote, "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." Now I have been down this road more than once and I am not sure how wise I am because of it. Perhaps I didn't travel far enough down the road. Some of the people I have admired in life have and they have paid dearly for it. One such person was John Belushi and another was Chris Farley, both wildly funny and both sadly deceased at the age of 33. Belushi died of an overdose and so did Farley. Both had weight issues due to overindulging in everything that life had to offer. I look back and realize I might have been one or the other at some time in my life. My hedonism knew no bounds at one point - minus the drugs, of course. A line from Animal House says it all: fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. I am only now learning my lesson.
Of course there is the other extreme: the Joe Piscopo extreme. I personally thought Piscopo was very funny on Saturday Night Live and I absolutely loved him in Johnny Dangerously. I love quoting his lines from the latter. You shouldn't hang me on a hook Johnny. My father hung me on a hook once... once. But something happened in the late 80's, Piscopo transformed himself. Gone was the tall loveable lug from Jersey and in his place was a walking wall of muscle. I know he did this because of health reasons, not the least of which was a bout with cancer in the early 80's. It just seemed to be so excessive and it put everyone off. It just didn't seem like the same rubber-faced funny guy we saw bantering with Eddie Murphy. I guess he has always been into physical fitness but perhaps he kicked it up a notch too high.
I don't want to be a Piscopo and I definitely do not want to wind up like a Farley or Belushi. Perhaps there is a happy medium, more towards the Piscopo side of the equation. The whole point of what I am doing is not to be too extreme and that is a hard line to walk. You can get caught up in it all and then, before you know it, you become exactly the thing you feared most. Just like the pearly gates, the palace of wisdom can wait for awhile.
Throughout this whole thing, I have been seeking balance. There are so many factors that come into play when it comes to weight loss and weight gain that I try to put it all in a more concrete context. My mental context for the past week or so, one that explains the whole spectrum of what I don't want to become, is Saturday Night Live. Moreover, I am trying to avoid becoming an actor on Saturday Night Live. Sounds bizarre doesn't it? Please allow me to explain.
William Blake once wrote, "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." Now I have been down this road more than once and I am not sure how wise I am because of it. Perhaps I didn't travel far enough down the road. Some of the people I have admired in life have and they have paid dearly for it. One such person was John Belushi and another was Chris Farley, both wildly funny and both sadly deceased at the age of 33. Belushi died of an overdose and so did Farley. Both had weight issues due to overindulging in everything that life had to offer. I look back and realize I might have been one or the other at some time in my life. My hedonism knew no bounds at one point - minus the drugs, of course. A line from Animal House says it all: fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. I am only now learning my lesson.
Of course there is the other extreme: the Joe Piscopo extreme. I personally thought Piscopo was very funny on Saturday Night Live and I absolutely loved him in Johnny Dangerously. I love quoting his lines from the latter. You shouldn't hang me on a hook Johnny. My father hung me on a hook once... once. But something happened in the late 80's, Piscopo transformed himself. Gone was the tall loveable lug from Jersey and in his place was a walking wall of muscle. I know he did this because of health reasons, not the least of which was a bout with cancer in the early 80's. It just seemed to be so excessive and it put everyone off. It just didn't seem like the same rubber-faced funny guy we saw bantering with Eddie Murphy. I guess he has always been into physical fitness but perhaps he kicked it up a notch too high.
I don't want to be a Piscopo and I definitely do not want to wind up like a Farley or Belushi. Perhaps there is a happy medium, more towards the Piscopo side of the equation. The whole point of what I am doing is not to be too extreme and that is a hard line to walk. You can get caught up in it all and then, before you know it, you become exactly the thing you feared most. Just like the pearly gates, the palace of wisdom can wait for awhile.
an even keel...
ReplyDeleteJoe Piscopo. Havent thought of him in a dogs age. He was in a good undead movie with Treat Williams.
Then he got scary big and muscley.
He got really big real fast didn't he? How far have both Treat Williams and Joe fallen? Wow. But hey, I have to give them props. I know I do whenever I can still find Tom Berenger in something.
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