A pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas

It's been about seven weeks since I've started shovelgloving, though I've only been doing it regularly for about four or five--I had a ten day interruption in service thanks to my jaunt to the Bay Area for the RWA conference.

Y'all. I'm amazed at the differences I see. I have biceps. When I flex, they pop up AND CREATE SHADOWS. I have the beginnings of pectoral muscles. I can actually feel my tricep muscles. And my quads are actually noticeably harder than they were before. Mind you, my arms aren't so awesome that I can see definition even when they're relaxed, but they're getting there. I haven't tested my maximum carrying capacity yet, but I can tell you this: I used to max out at around 40 lbs. How do I know this? Because I buy cat litter in 40-lb. bags, and it used to be all I could do to hoist that shit onto my shoulders and stagger from my car to the door. Nowadays, I can pick those bags up, no problem. I'd say that my max is now closer to 50, possibly 60 lbs. My back is definitely stronger, but because I have a fuckton of subcutaneous fat in that region, muscle definition is still non-existent.

I'm very slowly but steadily losing weight. The shorts I bought this summer are now pretty loose--I can take them off without unbuttoning or unzipping, though they still fit comfortably, even if a couple of pairs have a distressing tendency to fall off my ass if I try to run in them.

In all, I think I'm going to upgrade to a 10-lb. sledge by mid-October, because the 6-lb. is starting to feel light and unsatisfying.

I'm also contemplating throwing in 14 minutes of cardio on my elliptical machine on top of my 14 minutes of shovelgloving, though I don't know if I'll have the time and motivation to do it every day, especially Tuesdays and Thursdays, which are really brutal schedule-wise (I'm usually in school for about 12 hours on those days and don't get home till past 8). Maybe on odd days of the week? It's not much, but 14 minutes of faffing around with a sledgehammer didn't seem like a whole lot, either.

In all, I'm really happy with my progress, and can't wait to be EVEN MORE AWESOME.