So today I went to the gym. My plan for now is to cycle my way into the outer regions of fitness and then perhaps to add other things designed specifically to trim pudge here and there. The main focus is to get cardiovascular exercise, and if I can eventually get some muscle-tone, that’ll be an added benefit. So I got to the gym, checked in, and went to the cycling machines, which recommended that a person my age get his heartrate up to 154 and (as far as I could tell) sustain it for about an hour. So I ramped up and kept my heartrate up above 165 for most of the time, but I only cycled for about 25 minutes. I didn’t want to go into cardiac arrest on my first day, after all. I think it’s important to ease into this a little. I stopped way before I felt tired enough that it was imperative that I stop, and I think it was a good limit. I’ll do this for a week or so and then look at increasing to a tougher routine.

Lenny Kravitz’ album 5, it turns out, makes for great cycling music.

Once I had gone for about 25 minutes at a good rate, I slowed down for a couple of minutes to cool down, then wiped up my sweat puddle and headed down to the locker room. They had a scale, of course, and I weighed myself at 229. So I’m apparently down 18 pounds from two weeks ago, though I need to qualify that heavily by acknowledging that the weights were measured on different scales. I was dressed about the same on both days and my weight was measured at about the same time both days, so those variables aren’t a major factor. It’s not really about the pounds so much, though, as I’ve always been much heavier than I’ve looked. It’s gratifying to see progress, though, and I look forward to being able to measure progress (from one angle at least) on a regular basis rather than just every couple of months at the doctor’s office. I suppose I could break down and buy a bathroom scale.

On Tuesday, I go in to have my liver ultrasounded. My last two sets of bloodwork have turned up a high liver enzyme. This could mean anything, including things like Wilson’s disease, fatty tissue invading my liver (a likely candidate, I’d say), hepatitis (but not, as I tested negative for that), and cirrhosis (which isn’t always caused by drinking and which, when it is caused by drinking, takes really heavy long-term drinking but which, given some of my drinking history, is scary nevertheless; I don’t exhibit some of the usual symptons of cirrhosis, though, so I imagine I’m ok). We’ll see how it goes.