finally, some vindication

 "살이 엄청 많이 빠졌어요!" Sal-i eomcheong mani bbajyeosseoyo!

Basically, "You've lost a lot of weight!"

My favorite lady at our basement grocery store finally said something. Unlike our see-nothing security guard, who can't even detect the sweat from one of my recent workouts, she saw that I had dropped a lot of weight of late, and she said so. "Are you walking, or are you doing anything else?" she asked.

"Just walking," I lied. I was too tired to get into the whole Newcastle-Diet-and-different-exercises-on-alternate-days thing. But I was happy to be noticed by someone who knows me. This lady is married and has kids, but I jokingly think of her as my girlfriend. She's got to be in her forties—cheerful and never snotty, unlike some of the other grocery-store staff.

The truth of my weight loss probably lies somewhere between the see-nothing guard's point of view and my favorite store clerk's point of view. Fact is, my gut still hangs over the waistline of my pants. I still have man-boobs and a double chin. There's fat under my armpits and along the back part of my waist, making me look womanly. These problems aren't going away for a while, and I suspect that, even if I do manage to get back down to my college weight of 90 kg, I'm still going to be dealing with flab. I have no ambitions to become ripped or otherwise well-defined; being trim and healthy is enough of a goal for me, although I do wonder, sometimes, what it might be like to have an Olympian physique.

One bodyweight-calisthenics YouTuber talks about how long she struggled to do her first proper pushup. She says it took her about eight months, so she cautions all of us out-of-condition beginners not to expect too much for a long time—just keep at it. Despite my rotator-cuff problems, I tried doing knee pushups yesterday and the day before, and it's a struggle, despite all the buildup work I've done up to now, starting with wall pushups and then moving to incline pushups against a fence. It's a steep transition to knee pushups, so I'm going to take it slow. According to Hampton of Hybrid Calisthenics, I need to work up to two sets of 25 reps with knee pushups before I attempt a real pushup. I think I may have to start with two sets of only two or three reps at first, then build up from there.

Anyway, what I'm doing now seems to be yielding results, so I'll keep plugging away, despite the pain and the misery. Luckily, I enjoy walking, so that, at least, is a consolation.