HOW MUCH DOES MUSCLE WEIGH?

9 April 2003

People have been telling me that muscle weighs more than fat. I sure hope so, 'cause I was very disheartened this morning to discover I'd gained weight, while other than that hamburger and onion rings at Plainfield Station on Sunday, I'd been pretty good with eating this week.

But I've also exercised a lot, for me. (probably not a lot for normal people). I've been to curves every day. I've gone to the new club four times now to work out on the treadmill. Cindy and I have been biking and I've gone on some long bike rides on my own. My butt doesn't jiggle as much any more--it's still big, but it's big and more solid instead of big and squishy.

So maybe I'm just going through the heavy-muscle syndrome. And how long does that last?

I was so discouraged to see the scale go up this morning that I decided to check my measurements. I don't know how often they measure you at Curves--every month, I think. But I picked up a bunch of brochures yesterday to bring to our office and of course they always show the most extreme weight loss successes, but one woman had lost so many inches in the first few weeks, that I thought I'd just check to see if I've lost any inches.

They say you need to attend at least 3 days a week, and that you get better results if you attend more frequently. I've gone every day since I started--2 weeks now?--except for Sunday, when they are closed. So I was curious to see if there was any noticeable change.

I freely admit that my measurements might be different from theirs--maybe we're measuring in different spots or something. However, from what I get, my bust and abdomen remain the same, but I've lost a full inch on my waist, 0.5 inches on my hips, an inch on my thighs and 0.5 inches on my calves. I hardly dare hope that these measurements will match those at Curves, when they are taken, but I was pretty pleased to see that, and it took the sting out of the weight gain.

This weekend, I hope to begin yet another activity. One of the reasons I joined the new club is that they have a swimming pool. I can't remember the last time I was in a pool. My father has been dead over 15 years, so it's been at least that long. As for a public pool, I think Nixon may have been in office at the time.

But Olivia made me buy a bathing suit last year, on the theory that we were going to start biking in the Napa area, stay at spas, and use the pool(s). Well, that never happened, and I came across the bathing suit the other day--with all the tags still attached.

Now that I'm starting to feel more comfortable allowing my body to be seen in public, jiggling away, the next step is to let all that jiggling flesh be seen uncovered.

On Friday I am meeting some friends in one of the towns in the Sierra foothills. Suzanne Wingrove is a playwright from Connecticut whose comedy,  Flights of Fancy, is being produced at a theatre frestival there and I said I wanted to go to see it, and to meet Suzanne. So I've booked a room in a motel...with a pool...and it seems the perfect place to test out the bathing suit and see if I still remember how to dog paddle and stay afloat. Once I've done that, the next step will be to actually enter the pool at the club. Once I've gone swimming once, it won't be a big deal any more and I hope to begin doing lap swimming. There is a lovely pool there and it seems a shame not to take advantage of it.

So...who cares if I've gained weight this week?  (I even ate breakfast before weigh-in this morning!)  This week has been a great one for movement, apparently it has been a good one for firming up this too jiggily flesh, and I have to keep reminding myself that this is what I got into this for--the "getting healthy" aspect of it, no matter what the numbers show.