NSV - Wore a shirt without a jacket at the office today

... and got a ton of compliments!

The shirt in question.  No, I did not wear yoga pants to the office.

Normally I wear a suit at the office, because it's professional, and I'm a tight-ass lawyer.  That, and I have not been a huge fan of my arms over the past 10 years or so. 

Last night Mr. Fitness came over to kick my ass for our usual session (we did a "pull day", in case you were wondering), and we talked about the different things that motivate different people. 

Those of you who have read back into my earlier posts of this blog will know that I have an almost unholy love of spreadsheets and tracking apps.  I find the mere act of tracking my workouts and progress to be incredibly motivating.  After all, the more things that I track, the greater the likelihood that one metric, at least, is going to be moving in the right direction.  Since I have started working out more than 3 years ago I have, at various times, tracked my weight, body measurements, blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, A1C, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, cholesterol, resting heart rate, working heart rate, and workouts within various heart rate zones.  As these metrics have become - or remained - normal I have stopped tracking everything daily or weekly as I once did.  Fasting blood sugar, for example, I only track once in a while to check to see that I am still in the normal range. 

This came up in the context of discussing the Trainerize app that I regularly use with Mr. Fitness - - it's right in my sweet spot, a combination of tracker and something to check off every day.  I love that Mr. Fitness has this tool available.

But Mr. Fitness also talked about the non-scale victories that are also an important part of working out.  Like feeling more confident. 

It's no secret that I have been loving the changes that have happened since I have started working with Mr. Fitness.  He has really kicked my workouts into high gear and his targeted approach is yielding positive results.  I know that we're both working at this - - I try and eat well every day (or at the very least, more often than not, even in a bad week), and I work out 6-7 times a week, even though Mr. Fitness and I only get together once a week.  But the whole is really greater than the sum of the parts in my case, and I have started to really feel good about what I am looking like.  Still a long way to go, but I am definitely seeing noticeable improvement. 

I was feeling so good that this morning I decided to wear a form fitting top into the office without a jacket or other cover-up (it was casual Friday, after all).  Normally I would have hidden this under a jacket or sweater or bunny hug, but today I decided "screw this - I have been working on my arms for a reason - let's show 'em off!".

It turns out that jackets, sweaters, and bunny hugs have one major effect: they contrive to hide how much my shape has changed with my workouts.  It makes sense, in a way.  Adding layers hardly ever makes anyone look lighter, after all.  Layers just hide how heavy you are.

Well today I was coming back from making myself some tea in the Company kitchen and I walked past a group of people who sit near my office.  They were surprised to see me without my usual layers of camouflage, and said all sorts of nice things, the gist of which was: "Wow!  You look great!  How much weight have you lost with the trainer?" When I told them how much (13 pounds, which now that I think about it is wrong, it is 14 pounds now), they were suitably impressed.  "We never see you without a jacket!  You look amazing" was another comment. 

These guys work with me and have heard my stories about working out with Mr. Fitness.  This only solidified his reputation as a miracle worker.  Regardless, though, it was a really great feeling to have people say such nice things about how I look.  Especially considering how much work I put into it! 

Now I will admit that for the rest of the day whenever I left my office I made a point of walking with my shoulders back and sucking in my gut as much as possible - - thank god no one stopped to try and speak to me, because it would have blown the gaffe immediately.