We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and bones.
- Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)
So after the competition I took about two months off with very little exercise and no calorie limitations. I did this both to reward myself for the hard work and also as an experiment as to how long it would take to pack the weight back on. I started working out again when my weight tipped over 200 (I originally thought I could easily maintain a weight less than 195 just through moderating my food intake - seems I need to be better disciplined than that).
As of today, 2013.06.21, I weigh 198 lb and still look and feel moderately fit. I'm working out about 3 times a week - sometimes I get an extra workout in and others only get two days - I'm trying to juggle a lot of balls these days and sometimes they feel like bowling balls. I still have the short term goal of getting down to 195. I'm at the point that I need to get back into heavy weight training - so far I've only been doing the hour to hour-and-a-half of cardio when I go to the gym or walk the neighborhood.
My plan is to introduce my heavy weight lifting routine after 4th of July weekend - I'd also like to hit the 195 weight by then - I keep drifting close to it after workouts so I believe I can get there but I may need to go to the gym daily to get to that level - we'll just have to see how my scheduling works out.
-- John
