Six inches and twelve months ago...

I'm coming up on my first full year of kung fu, and I'm honestly surprised by my results and even a little embarrassed that I haven't worked harder. I've really put a lot of energy into my practice and class time, and it has paid off nicely so far. At present I am -only- ten pounds lighter than when I started, but I also have fair evidence of greater muscle mass (particularly in my legs, though also in my torso) and much less flab. All in all, my ten pound loss is probably really quite a bit more, but with a similar amount of gain, and I couldn't be more happy.

More telling, to me, is the six inches I've carved off my waist. Prior to joining up for kung fu, I broke down and bought a pair of khaki's that were 44"x30". Buying those really pushed me over the edge from trying to maintain my waistline haphazardly to needing to really do something. This weekend I went and tried on jeans, leaving with a comfortably fitting 38"x30". Six inches less, and room to spare on the waste, though my back side has apparently not caught up quite yet, else I might have gone smaller.

I'll be the first to say it. Six inches doesn't seem like a lot over the course of a year, but it's a huge deal to me, especially given that I've not been putting in hours every day (or even thirty minutes every day) and I haven't hardly begun to adjust my diet. On occasion I have made a better choice in what I eat throughout the past year than what I might have previously, but I have yet to really straighten out my diet. I expect this next year to be an even better showing. More exercise is in the plan, as well as more structure and discipline in my diet. I may not be beach worthy this summer, but by next summer, I expect to be flaunting it!