So here it is Sunday 1/29/12. This is really the record. The month of January 2012 has as many posts, as were made in 2009. Another milestone has been reached. Speaking of milestones I was successful with my goal of two inches every four weeks. On Saturday morning, (yesterday) I was down another 1/2 inch, which brought my total number of inches around my waist lost at well two inches. My waist is now 49 inches in circumference, (that's me on the left, tell me if you notice a difference). Or put another way, the height of the little person around my waist id now only 4 feet, 1 inch. I think a goal is to have the circumference of my waist to equal half of my height. Since I'm 5 feet, 7.5 inches tall, (67.5 inches), I would like my waist to be 33 inches. A worthy goal, considering that when I left Army basic training back in December of 1986 I weighed 170lbs, (down from 193lbs) had a 34 inch waist and I was 19 years old.
One has to be careful with that comparison. Even though the Army taught some good habits that I've stuck with haphazardly, It's not the end all be all of fitness. We ate A LOT of food, I'd say the better part of 3000 to 4000 calories daily, if not more. And we ran, almost daily. The other things we did were mostly calisthenics, and basic conditioning exercises, like PUSH UPS jumping jacks, (the Army calls the latter side straddle hops), squat thrusts, sit ups, leg lifts. We also did a lot of walking with lots of gear. We did a road march at night from one bivouac sight to another, wearing full gear, at a speed pace. We covered 12 miles in less than 3 hours. As a short guy in the rear I did not appreciate the tall guys in the front stepping it out beyond the authorized 30 inch steps we're all supposed to be taking. Yeah right!
So what I'm saying is that in during basic we did LOTS of cardio. There was not a muscle building component. We did not have access to a weight room, and even if we did we wouldn't have had enough calories to build muscle. With all of the cardio and conditioning we were doing, just to add muscle we would have needed to double our caloric intake at the very least. Believe it or not muscle bound guys are not what the Army is looking for at least not basic. Any body builders who had come to basic because of the restricted calories, and the emphasis on cardio and body weight conditioning they would have lost muscle as well as any fat.
You see in my MOS, (military occupational specialty), which was infantry, they wanted us lean and tone, and not "weighed down" by too much bulk, be it fat or muscle. Though I hate to make the comparison, but physically they wanted us to be more like Mel Gibsons character from Lethal Weapon, as in toned and defined with little fat. If you've seen Lethal Weapon, or even Lethal Weapon 2 you might understand some of the scenes I'm referencing.
In some ways what I started out to do with this post is to debunk the idea that perhaps for me a 33 inch waist is unattainable. My point to this is that now at 44 years old I know far more about nutrition then I did at 19. My diet now consists of mostly limited amounts of whole wheat carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. Had I known just to do that in basic, (limiting my bread/white flour carbohydrate intake), then perhaps I would have left basic training weighing 160lbs, with a 32 inch waist. And maybe I would have been spared one of drill sergeant Hinson's last remarks, after successfully completing my last physical training test, by which he stated, "damn Brown, after all this and you still have a bit of a gut!" Interesting what sticks with you, even 25 years later. He and drill sergeant Gibbs either left the Army awhile back, or if they've stuck it out, then they've got well over 30+years in, and are probably about to retire as command sergeant majors. Just reflecting a little.
Until next week.
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