Getting My Lance Armstrong On

I know it sounds a little dramatic, but today was the first day of the rest of my life. A life focused on physical fitness, one of the essential building blocks to my long-term health and survival of this foolish disease.

After getting Lenz's blessing yesterday, I ventured back to the gym and hit the weights tonight. Right before my session, I went to the Nike store with Will and found a great shirt that encapsulates my new attitude toward fitness. The shirt, in a response to Nike's famous tag line "Just do it," simply says "Doing it." And that's just what I did at Educogym tonight. 

I thought I'd tiptoe back into a challenging workout, but that's not exactly how it played out. Started with some squats (don't worry, various caretakers, I did NOT engage my core), followed that with walking lunges, followed that with hamstring curls, then leg extensions, then seated calf raises.

By the time I got to standing lunges, I already felt incredibly sore. My quads, hamstrings, and glutes were all on fire. These muscles were on an extended vacation, but I'm pretty sure they know that maxin' and relaxin' time is all over now. Who knows what walking is going to be like tomorrow, but I'll embrace the soreness and look forward to some new muscle tissue. I'm so, so excited to be back at the gym and actively helping myself reach optimal health. 

After my workout, I hopped on the scale and checked my progress with my trainer and good friend, Wayne. The results were pretty exciting. It turns out that I've lost about 15 pounds since my surgery, but only 7 of those pounds were muscle. Not only did I lose all the cancer cells in my body, I also dropped 8 pounds of fat. Pretty awesome news, right? I also shaved two inches off my waist and another inch off my tummy, although the credit for those numbers should be attributed almost solely to Dr. Sugarbaker and his incision line which took my belly button and some belly in the process. Dr. Sugarbaker is the bearer of many good things.

My first day back to the gym couldn't have been better. I can't wait to continue to work hard, live strong, and get this body of mine in the best shape possible.