I'm still working on continued improvement... Waist is now 31, and I'm still hovering around 165 (6'). I added weighted vertical crunches to my routine, and I really feel it. My abs felt like a got tackled on a football field with no gear on after I did that the first day! My goal is to keep in the shape I'm in, and not to add any super-tough routine that I can't keep up. That would be a recipe for failure. The vertical crunch photo is the first day I did it, and since then, I added a 10-lb dumbell held behind my neck for added resistance. Nobody wants big abs; just flat, defined ones. I'll see which direction this goes, and modify accordingly. It's a really cool bench for the vert crunches. I had been trying to do those by hanging upside down, but it was hard on my back. This bench is easy on the back, and has a back rest to fall on in case I'm exhausted and can't pull up for the last rep. Easy to get out of too, as compared to being strapped by the ankles upside down. I almost had to get help one time when I was trying to do it that way :nerd:
My eating habits are fairly well secured in place, and I have found that I no longer even feel like eating things I shouldn't. The results of all this work (passively for the past 10 years and aggressively for the past 15 months), are so rewarding that they outdo any desire to eat a pile of fries, or whatever. The feeling of accomplishment, and the fear of losing it, is keeping me 100% in line.
I've been working on bulking up also, which burns any extra calories effortlessly (well, if you don't count 90 minutes, 4 times/week lifting). Effortlessly meaning that I don't have to count calories, or anything. Once you increase lean muscle tissue, it eats up any calories before they have a chance to look for a place on the belly to get stored up for a rainy day. Also, I spend more time doing physical stuff than I used to spend with my vintage TV restoring hobby. I even pretend I'm a kid sometimes, and horse around on my old BMX freestyle bike. THAT burns a lot of calories. (both photos Jul 09)
Charles
