Get Excited!
Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 05:44PM
Keith

I was at the gym last night doing an intense upper-body workout. As it turned out, it was customer appreciation day at the gym, so there were lots of giveaways and other neat things going on. One of the services offered was a measurement of body fat percentage.

My wife and I signed up for the door prizes (we both won, BTW. I got 3 MONTHS FREE at the gym at she won a month's unlimited tanning) and made our way over to the table where they were measuring BMI. My wife went first and came back with an impressive 22% (the highest category on their chart). As I started the process of programming my age, weight, height, etc into the device, I made a mental prediction of my pecentage. I figured I'd come in somewhere close to my wife's measurement. All set, I held the device in front of me as the attendant pressed the 'start' button. A few seconds later, my BMI came out.

I'm at approximately 16% body fat - fitness level!! Only a few percentage points shy of the "Athlete" level.

I started this process at around 28% body fat.

I'm EXCITED!!

On another progress note, my wife and I decided to go for an evening run down by the lake on Sunday. Part of the way through the running course, there's a little fitness station with a pullup bar and a balance beam that we can do pushups against. We get to the station and I step up to the bar.

I have this personal goal. Every October the state fair comes to North Carolina, and every year the United States Marine Corps sets up a tent. At this tent, they have pullup bars where attendees at the fair can win prizes by performing a certain number of pullups. I think the first level of recognition is 10 pullups. My goal WAS 15. I think I'm going to up that goal. Why?

With 5 more months of training left before the state fair, I did 10 pullups this past Sunday when we stopped at the bar near the lake!! OH YEAH!!

Pictures going up in the next day or two. Life is GOOD!!

Article originally appeared on Fitness for the 40-Something Crowd! (http://www.weightingon40.com/).
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