I’m 85 days into my “Questin’ for Abs” and thought I’d check in with an update. Since my fattest state (around the time of Rev 3 Portland) I have lost over 23 lbs (yaay!). I’m aiming to lose another eight and then see how things are looking. I figured that when I dropped all this weight, I’d unearth my awesome taut muscles and look lean and buff, but instead I’ve found that my appearance is closer to “small” and “scrawny.” Before, when I had some junk in my trunk, I’d look at my massive legs and think “Ooh, once I lose some of this fat my legs are going to look muscley and awesome.” Now that I’ve lost some of the fat, they look dinky (and stumpily Asian, of course). I’m not as muscular as I thought, which is lame. I was going for the “Coach Bridget” look but instead have achieved the “Bosnian refugee.” Guess I need to do more strength training. Jason, meanwhile, has lost a whopping 37 lbs and hopes to lose an additional 13 for the upcoming season. This is the skinniest we’ve seen each other since we started dating over seven (yeah yeah “why aren’t you guys married already lol tee hee”) years ago. He doesn’t notice the weight loss on him as much as everyone else does–his face is so much slimmer and we had to go through his entire wardrobe and weed out clothes that are now too gigantic for him to wear. I also made the mistake of buying some new jeans that are now already too loose for me outside of the post-dryer 15 minute window of snug awesomeness. It’s a good problem to have, I suppose, but not when you just plunked down money on new clothes and already don’t fit them. (BTW, I don’t have pictures of our transformation but will write a post once we’re at our goal weights and do a Maury-type “before and after,” minus the part where we bust through a paper screen image of our old fat selves). Since Jas and I are dropping weight faster than my self-imposed deadline of June 4th, maybe it’s time to take it up a notch. Coach Mark and I discovered that we can get to Costa Rica using airline miles, so we’re possibly maybe potentially planning on traveling to Costa Rica to race the Rev 3 70.3 March 18th. Unfortunately, that means instead of having 200 days to ab up, I would now only have 117. Shit just got real. Costa Rica would be a lot of fun, but seeing as how I’d be going with Teresa “My Abs Have Abs” Nelson and Mark “No Body Fat” Webb as well as Darin “I Literally Have a Barrel for a Chest” Smith and his gorgeous wife, I’m gonna have to be able to hold my own when it comes to the “hard body in a swimsuit” part of the vacation (which would be the majority of the trip). The pressure’s on,...

It’s been 44 days since I embarked on my quest for abs so that I won’t race Honu 70.3 in shame. Jas and I are progressing along nicely, and save for a gloriously unhealthy weekend in Portland a few days ago, we’ve managed to shed some poundage thanks to the combination of constant exercising and counting calories via the My Fitness Pal app. Right now I’m back to my Ironman Canada race weight. Huzzah! I’ve also noticed that my running has felt noticeably stronger, probably because I’m hauling less junk in the trunk. After this week’s track workout, Bridget and her mom commented on my relative speediness (which was actually an optical illusion because my friend and multiple Boston marathon runner Kirsten slowed down to run alongside me for the evening, thus making me look way faster and giving the impression that I can hang with the 3:13 marathon runner): Karen: “You’re so fast!” Me: “Thanks, it’s amazing how being less of a lard-butt does wonders for your running.” Bridget: “So you have lost weight!” Me: “Yeah, 16 lbs so far.” Karen: “You know where I’ve noticed it? Right here!” She pats my back. Me: “Uh, so I’ve lost back fat?!” Good lord, I knew I was a bit chunky but back fat? Really? Bridget: “No! I think she means that you’ve got an hourglass figure now!” At this point I stifled a guffaw. Being the boobless and hipless wonder that I am, one would not in a million years describe my figure as “hourglass” shaped. That chick from Mad Men has an hourglass figure. Salma Hayek has an hourglass figure. I am built like an Asian boy. In fact, one time at Express the salesgirl wrinkled her nose when I asked why this pair of pants I tried on looked so funny and responded with, “Um, because, like, you have no hips.” Whatever, so I don’t have a womanly body. Today I headed to the UW Medical Center to get my weekly allergy shot so hidden evils like dust mites and pollen won’t someday kill me. While I was there, a newer nurse loaded up the syringe while my usual regular nurse, Josette the motherly African woman, popped her head in to ask a question. She noticed me sitting there, narrowed her eyes, and said in her slight accent, “Are you losing weight?” Her tone felt like it was an interrogation more than a casual question, so I uncomfortably replied with, “Uh, yes.” Josette: “Why?!” Now she sounded practically angry, as if I told her that I had just broken her favorite vase on purpose. Me: “Um…I’m just…eating better?” Josette: “But you looked good before!” Me: “Yeah, well, I’m visiting my mom in a couple weeks so I’m hoping to escape her harsh judgment unscathed.” Josette: “Oh you kids…you always think us parents are harshly judging you but we’re not.” Me: “…..yeeeahhh, my mom really does. She’s Asian and brutal.” I got my shot and sat in the waiting room for 30 minutes, then had my arm checked out by the newer nurse and was cleared to leave. On my way out, I passed by Josette, who chirped, “Bye sweetie!” Then she frowned and said, “No more.” Me: “No more what?” Josette: “No more weight loss!” I laughed and got the hell out of there, figuring it was a bad idea to tell her I actually wanted to drop ten more pounds. Great, now I have a motherly figure in Seattle who’s telling me I’m too thin and one in Michigan who always tells me I’m too fat. You can never please a...

Earlier this year I had been down in the dumps because I was injured and had gained all the weight I had lost training for Ironman Canada. I felt like a beached whale that has a family size bucket of Ezell’s fried chicken within fin’s reach. But now that my body is mostly on the mend, I’ve established a renewed interest in getting strong and fit for the remainder of the 2011 season and heading into the new year. I recently mentioned my goal of getting abs by the end of May so the bikini beach photos of me with my teammates won’t be profoundly embarrassing. With 262 days remaining, I thought I’d check in with an initial progress report. I’ve never been fat fat, but I get to a breaking point where my jeans don’t fit, my muffin top is starting to spill over onto Jason’s side of the bed, my increased thigh mass gets inexplicably itchy, and my arms resemble sausagey pterodactyl wings. I don’t like being in that weight window for the following reasons: Race photos look worse than usual (my tri kit probably won’t look good on me when I’m skinny, but it sure as hell doesn’t look good on me when blubber is challenging the load-bearing capacity of every seam) I feel worse than usual I look like an ogre next to my petite female teammates, who are all “Tee hee look at my abs while I eat this lettuce leaf and race a sub-5 hour half Ironman!” My mother would consider me morbidly obese I race slower than usual So far I’ve lost 11 lbs from my “Good lord you’re a chunker” fattest state. I’m currently two pounds off my “I just ate my way through Puerto Rico” weight, five pounds heavier than my Ironman Canada race weight, and 7.5 pounds heavier than my lightest weigh in last year. My goal is to pull a Costanza and take it up a notch by losing 15-20 more lbs, which would put me about 7-12 lbs lighter than last season. I’m progressing along nicely with the help of the free My Fitness Pal app, which helps track my calorie intake and burn. Seeing the numbers add up has forced me to be more mindful about what I eat. For example: “Ugh, I don’t want to run today, I’m feeling lazy.” *checks app* “Aw shit, if I don’t run I won’t be able to have a hamburger bun with my lamb burger for dinner tonight.” *sighs* “Damnit…Jas, where are my running shoes?” Hence “Runnin’ for the bun.” (And that lamb burger was damn good, too, courtesy of Bill the Butcher.) Two other factors are fueling me to lose weight (other than having sexy stomach for Honu and being lean and mean for Ironman Canada next year): Jason’s tracking his calories too in hopes of losing 35 lbs for Ironman Coeur d’Alene (we’ve split our races for 2012 since he thinks Idaho will offer a better “big guy” course than hot Canada, whereas I signed up for Canada again because I want the extra two months of training coming off an injured season). Losing weight is always easier when your significant other is on board to take the journey with you and support you. So far we’re both doing pretty well, making more meals at home and being more mindful of portion sizes and not eating like horrible gluttons. I’m visiting Michigan October 19th, which means I’ve got 40 days to slim down to what my harsh Korean mother considers to be an acceptable weight (I don’t know what that weight is, but so far I’ve always failed). The last time I...

Shortly after I signed up for Ironman Canada, I started doing strength training once a week with a personal trainer. My goals are pretty straightforward: I want to get stronger, slim down, and be able to do some pull-ups without flailing and looking like a sad little weakling. I have managed to get stronger over the past few months and the pull-ups are getting less tragic-looking. As for the weight, well… My strength trainer is a big nutrition buff. Shortly after I first started working with him, he urged me to write down everything I ate for about a week. I obliged and appalled him with my food log (I believe he referred to me as a “carboholic”). He made several recommendations (eat every three hours, don’t eat carbs until after my workouts, cut out fake sugars and stick with more natural foods) and told me to check back in a while. I was all gung-ho until the holidays hit, at which point I gained back what I had lost and chubbed up to my fattest weight ever. It was pretty depressing – I wouldn’t call myself “fat,” but I was definitely at my flabbiest. I checked back in with my strength trainer, who agreed that I looked a bit “chunkier” (sigh) and told me to start writing down my food again. He also bullied me into sharing my weight every week, so instead of my vague “I’m down a pound,” I’d have to start giving actual numbers. Crap. This week I turned in my food log and was told I had made a marked improvement in the slop I was shoving down my gullet. I’ve so far lost about 6 lbs but have a ways to go to hit my goal weight. I’m basically going for “skinniest I’ve been since I got my tonsils removed when I was sixteen” weight, only with more muscle mass and fewer popsicles. (It was the “subsist off popsicles and tea” diet, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t poop for a week. Damn was I skinny though!) The one thing that threw me for a loop was when I got my body composition tested. To me the fat percentage seemed inaccurate – it was about 4% higher than I expected and placed me in the “poor” category. Normally I wouldn’t think much of it, but I don’t look that fat, for crying out loud, and I do stay pretty active even if I do tend to eat utter garbage. Also, bear with me here as I introduce an example derived from VH1 of all places. I caught part of an episode of Celebrity Fit Club on TV this week, and one of the “celebrities” getting weighed in looked considerably chunkier than me but apparently had 2% less body fat. Granted, she was about 3 inches shorter than I am, but still. She was told that if she lost 20 lbs, her body fat would drop about 4% (I forget the exact number), yet my strength trainer told me that if I lost 20 lbs to hit my goal weight, I’d drop 10% of my body fat. That seems like a pretty big difference for two people with apparently similar body compositions and weight goals. This whole body composition nonsense kind of confuses me. Either way, I know what I want my goal weight and my body fat percentage to be, so I guess it doesn’t matter too much what the test says I’m currently at. All I know is that racing should be a bit easier when I’m hauling 20-25 fewer pounds through the water, on the bike and while I’m running. I’d...