<p>Oh, I’ve pretty much tried them all! Dockers and Levis make a 33 inch waist which is pretty much perfect. Not tight at all in the waist, good through the hips and legs, although the Dockers D3 regular cut is a tad baggy through the legs. 32 is too tight around the pockets. Going down to their slimmer “straight cut” doesn’t work on me. They lower the waist.</p>
<p>Dress pants tend to run a tad smaller and also aren’t available in 33. I’m halfway in between a 32 and a 34, but I don’t think dress pants should fit tight, so I’m sticking with the 34’s.</p>
<p>I have the same issue with sport coats and suit jackets. A 40S is the right length and good in the chest/shoulders but a little baggy around the belly. Overall, probably the best fit for an ol’ guy rather than a fashion model.</p>
<p>A 38 Regular is a great tailored fit, bu a bit too long. I’ve got a new 40S Calvin Klein slim cut khaki sport coat (a $79 Marshall’s gold nugget) that fits me like a glove, but the slim cut 40S Polo Chaps are a bit tight in the chest and shoulders.</p>
<p>Had to change the script today. Way too gorgeous outside to go down to the basement and lift weights. 77 degrees, cool breeze out of the NW. Not a cloud in the sky. Had to do my standard 5K walk/jog to the park. Super nice little bit of exercise. The cooler, dryer air makes it a lot more pleasant.</p>
<p>^ so happy for you. I am firm believer in switiching things up to get outside on a beautiful day.
Miserable downpour here. My workout partner ditched me, so no gym today
I am actually okay with the rest day, though. Tomorrow I hit the gym, even if I go solo!</p>
<p>Don’t want to get too excited, but some clothes items are definitely fitting a little differently these days. I can’t wait to go shopping in my closet. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks I will be able to fit back into a majority of my stuff.</p>
<p>Very cool! I know how exciting it is to see the clothes start fitting again. I think that’s the worst part of putting on weight. Clothes and shopping become such a drag because the stuff just doesn’t fit right or look good.</p>
<p>I did a little shopping for some new fall/winter casual shirts and sweaters and fleeces and stuff. Lands End had some ridiculous bargains on their end of summer sale, like turtleneck cotton shirts for $6, cotton sweaters for $9. Sierra Trading Post had 25% off next order deals with a bunch of good deals on Columbia fleeces for $15 to $20. Found a couple of bargain basement deals at Kohls: two Arrow fitted dress shirts, one for $12 and one for $4, and a red Chaps cotton sweater (to continue a string of the exact same “Christmas” sweater in XL, L, and now M) for $11. I literally have nothing that fits – long sleeve casual shirts, sweaters, fleeces, jackets, etc. The stuff is all hanging off of me by two inches at the shoulders.</p>
<p>idad, I can totally relate on both fronts: no clothes and weird fluctuations in maintainence mode. When D came home from school this year she did a major purge of her closets/drawers and I actually “shopped” her Salvation Army pile. Every article of clothing I have is brand new and I need a few things for gardening, housework, etc.</p>
<p>Instead of a goal weight I’ve established a 5 pound goal range, because my weight fluctuates daily (sometimes for no reason, sometimes because I got into the margaritas). I still track my weight daily but never sweat a fluctuation.</p>
<p>I’ve got a bundle of “shrunk” LARGE t-shirts (some really nice Harley Davidson shirts and other assorted stuff) that I bagged up when I transitioned from XLARGE to LARGE. These had all been washed and shrunk and were on the tight side when I tried them on. So I’m hoping that will fill my knock around cotton t-shirt needs. Otherwise, i picked up a really nice cotton t for $3.99 on the clearance rack at Marshalls and threw one of the nice Lands End t’s on the order for $5.49. Those are the kinds of bargains I’m shopping for. I’d rather double up on the tech t’s because I go through those like crazy working out five or six days a week. I wear a clean one for an evening or two (after shower) and then workout in it.</p>
<p>What’s killing me are all the staples like cotton Izod polos, sweaters, sweatshirts, and fleeces. The stuff that is worn every day and you want enough so that there’s always something clean. </p>
<p>I had a closest full of LARGES, collected on the way up and on the way down, that are hanging off me. I had to wear that stuff baggy for years to accomodate my gut. Now, i can’t stand it when the shoulders are halfway down to my elbows. I tried washing a bunch of them in hot water and drying on high, but they didn’t shrink enough. I’m really partial to the super lightweight fleeces that are perfect for around the house in New England winters and those are all falling off me, too. I’m not paying $30 or $40 each for fleece half-zips when I wouldn’t know this year’s color (sage) from last year’s color (oregano) and even if I did, I wouldn’t care! Same thing with cotton crew neck sweaters. If I can find a black one for $9, that beats an identical black one for $40 at Kohls.</p>
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<p>Yeah. I guess I’m still trying to sort out what kinds of fluctuations to expect and learning to be confident that it will swing back. I figure the best way to ensure that I never get fat again is to never put on five pounds. So I’m a little gunshy of fluctuations.</p>
<p>BTW, speaking of hard core. My wife brought four huge ripe avocados, so I made homemade chunky guacamole with fresh tomatos, clilantro, vidalia onion, serrano chiles, and, cumin. She had a bag of chips and I did not eat one chip with the guacamole. </p>
<p>I grilled fresh haddock, coated in Yucatin achiote paste, and had the guac as a side/topping the first night, then with sliced pork roast the next night. I figure the chips are carbs I don’t need. I am kind of amazed, given that I used to plow through a bag of tortilla chips or Doritos.</p>
<p>I still have some of my really old stuff so I can pull those out of the basement to wear. I’m not into buying a lot of stuff right now and I actually like loose tech clothes for running. I have some Ls that look and feel better than the XLs. I plan to place an order from our company store for some T-shirts in the near future. They’re relatively cheap for logo stuff as they are generally used as promotional materials. I like wearing tech company t-shirts too.</p>
<p>I also have a lot of old white cotton dress shirts that I wear to the office with some really old shorts (old as in age - not as in appearance). I have taken a bunch of my clothes and made a pile on stuff that I want to retire because it is too big - I have to put it away in the basement or give it away. I haven’t decided on what I will do for the fall and winter but it looks like I’ll need to do something.</p>
<p>Hi all! Once again I’m back at the gym after a hiatus of about 12 days. I guess the good thing is that I keep going back, as opposed to just stopping completely. I was getting some more exercise of the “moving” variety, though – moved S to school on Saturday and helped D move into her grad school apatment yesterday. Honestly – enough with all the moving!</p>
<p>Love all the fresh, native produce in the summer! It’s hard not to eat healthy.</p>
<p>So true. I had tomatoes with a little balsamic and an ear of corn (little butter on it) an a raw red pepper for dinner. Probably should add some protein–I’ve been reading The New Rules of Lifting for Women. The diet outlined in the book looks interesting; similar to what I’ve been eating, but much more protein. If you don’t eat meat, how do you get more protein? Protein powders?</p>
<p>Bromfield, if you are vegan, you have to have both grains and beans as your sources of protein to get all of the essential amino acids. If you eat eggs, yogurt, fish - you are fine wihout grains.</p>
<p>Cassandra Forsythe wrote the nutrition section in New Rules of Lifting for Women. She got her PhD under Jeff Volek at UConn, who is probably the #1 low carb researcher in the country (and an author of the new Atkins Diet book). Volek is also a former weight-lifter and his department does a lot of research with nutrition and sports fitness. She is also an experienced low carb researcher:</p>
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<p>She’s not a dogmatic low carber. One of her major research projects at UConn was a feeding study of athletes on very low carb ketogenic diets and she definitely found some athletes who really suffered on ultra low carb (20 g per day) diets. I think she would fall into the camp that believes each person has a carb tolerance/need threshold based on their metabolism (with skinny marathon runner ectomorph types needing/tolerating more carbs and chunky weight-lifter endomorphs needing/tolerating less), but that, in general, lower carb will be beneficial, especially for anyone trying to lose or maintain weight.</p>
<p>This may well pertain only to <em>me</em>, so it may be of limited value to anyone else, nor is this based on anything even remotely scientific, but after experimenting with various approaches, I have come to the conclusion that higher protein is the way to go. To maintain the muscle I have and put on more, I have to take in substantially more protein than I would naturally do in my food choices.</p>
<p>And I find it to be very tough to get that higher protein without a lot of carbs. I will eat meat and do, and I like fish, but I am not physically able to eat the amounts that would give me what I believe to be optimum protein. I like legumes and beans, but as a source of protein they seem to deliver too many carbs for weight loss — so I am left with a heavy reliance on the shakes. A situation that I have a hard time with because I strongly believe in getting your nutrition from actual FOODS and as a committed cook, I hate reliance on processed stuff-- and it doesn’t get a heck of a lot more processed than those protein shakes. (Believe me, it feels very weird to be essentially saying some of the same things as many bodybuilders, bro )</p>
<p>I am hoping that when I reach my ideal weight I will be able to tweak the diet and find a more comfortable solution for me, but mean time I am not arguing with success, so pass the shake and bottoms up! (ugh!)</p>
<p>It is just so gorgeous here. 42 degrees at 7am and 48 by 8am but strong sun and so dry that I was hot in a long sleeved shirt! 60 by the end of my 6 mile run. Ran on part of the pro bike tour race that is coming through here this afternoon. H is excited to see Cadel Evans and the other Tour de France hotshots. I’m more worried about whether the restaurants will be too crowded. This is a tiny town. The stage ends here today. All the streets are closed. It’s pretty cool.</p>
<p>We just watched the hand cycling criterium race. These guys and ladies are true athletes, they have different levels of disability ranging from some ab/chest muscle to only arm usage. They are either kneeling or reclining and pedaling with hands/arms. They were FLYING! These were the best in the US- national and world champions. Very cool. Pros due to hit town in about 45 minutes.</p>
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