Two Month Before and After Picture and Report

Before and After Pictures - two months results 4/1/2013

Displayed above are the before and after pictures after two months of Kettlebell training. I finally pulled them into a photo editor to crop and enhance them to show approximately the same size and lighting images in one picture. Unfortunately, the lighting wasn't the same for both photos and the before (of which that's the best image I have) is a bit out of focus. Still, the results are reasonably visible even through the less than optimal photography.

I pulled the two pictures up separately from this blog so I could evaluate the them and I observed the biggest difference in improved stomach size all around. The love handles start higher and don't protrude so far (not so roll-y looking) and there's not as much hanging over the belt line up front. The pictures do not show the chest definition at this angle very well. I might see if I can grab the Asus Pad side photos I took a couple of days after the "before" photo to compare before and after side views.

This past month ended with a slacking on the Kettlebell exercises excused by the visit of my daughter and her boyfriend from Germany. We have traveled every day and I wasn't on my regular schedule with the result that last week I only performed one set of 240 KB swings. That's not to say I didn't exercise! Between the two-plus hour kayak Saturday and miles and miles of walking the rest of the week, I am satisfied with my calorie expenditure levels.

That said, my calorie intake levels took a big hit last week. Mexican restaurants twice, (lots of chips and salsa) BarBQ twice with added BBQ leftovers consumed for lunch yesterday. I ate pizza Saturday and lots of cakes and even two donuts! The result is that I am now working on the fourth week of bouncing around within two pounds of 184 lbs. Talk about a plateau! This week I hope to get back to my 1800 calorie per day limit and hopefully break through the plateau to get below 180 lbs. Now that my 180 lbs weight goal for Melissa's arrival has passed, I am now setting a goal to reach (and afterwards maintain) a weight of 175 lbs by July 4th holiday.

This morning I chose to get back into the swing of things by getting back on the 16 session Kettlebell strength bandwagon and I added 60 extra KB swings too. For calories I intend to go very light during the day every day and partake lightly in the guest feasts in the evenings to bring my average back below 1800 calories.

For your entertainment, I took the photo below this morning. I tried to emphasize my physique with some chest flexing and sucking my gut in without it appearing obvious I was doing so, but as you can see the stiff neck and face muscles gives away any attempt to appear to have a relaxed pose.