Well, I sure feel good today.

Not from Boot Camp.  As usual, that pit-bull of fitness instructors, Jessica, was brutal.  I only get about 12 hours to recover from my Friday treadmill work before Boot Camp rears its ugly head at 8 am.  Sympathy is not one of the things I get Saturday mornings.  Not even a card.  Yet, through all of this adversity and abuse, only two things keep me from giving it 100%:  my flexibility has not had a chance to wake up by 8 am and, believe-it-or-not, I still have a considerable gut.  Crunches or any ab-related exercises are just not easy yet.

What DID make me feel good were these things, in no particular order of importance:

NUMBER 1:  My health assessment numbers.  Cori at the Lake County General Health District was great.  We discussed my progress and my diet.  My only concern was what I feel is a "glitch" in Vitabot:  I always get a bad report card for "excessive vitamins".  What?  I can accept a bad grade for throwing erasers in class or not handing in my homework on time.  But, excessive vitamins from eating Total cereal every day?  Most of those vitamins are water-soluble, which in excess, are not harmful.  They only lead to a colorful, almost psychedelic, bathroom experience.  Total gives me everything I need vitamin-wise before I walk out the door in the morning, so I will stick with it - at least until I have accumulated the full set of toys - one each found in every box.

To make a long story even longer, my body fat percentage was down to 23.7% from 34.6% - a 30% decrease!  My BMI went from 34.3 to 30.1 - a 12% decrease.  The BMI number would have been even lower if I was able to find a way to gain a few inches in height.

NUMBER 2:  The weigh-in.  Even before the all-important number was revealed, it was certainly my pleasure to put faces and personalities on some of the names of the other contestants.  All of these people I previously knew only through their blogs and Facebook.  I spoke with about 12 of you, all interesting stuff.  And sincere thanks to all who complimented me on my blogs.  I discovered that we are all truly united with one common goal - getting up off the couch and finding the person who hid the Doritos.

NUMBER 3:  The "number".  All of my hard work and commitment is paying big dividends.  My official weight was 193.2 - a 19.4 pound loss representing over 9% of my overall body weight.  I'll take it.  We can argue about the scale's accuracy later, because believe it or not, I thought the loss would be closer to 21 pounds.

The REALLY good news is that crunching the numbers, I lost 27 pounds of fat, yet my weight "only" dropped 19 pounds.  This means I built up the difference (8 pounds) in muscle.  This means more fat-burning, even as I sleep.

To celebrate, I had a healthy Subway sandwich for lunch before I went home to cut up and pack my veggie snacks for the week:  broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots, and grape tomatoes.  I eat this stuff like candy.  Since my girlfriend is working today, I also prepared dinner - pork tenderloin, roasted acorn squash, and salad fixin's.