They need no introduction, I assume...

All my loving

Can't buy me love

If I fell

A hard day's night (from the awesome movie)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Hand (like, groovy, baby!)

Because (ethereally haunting)

Help!

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Yesterday

For anyone who's interested, I thought I'd post the results of my workout and diet so far. The first picture is of me about a month ago, and the second is of me now:

What this means in numbers is that I've lost about 5 kg. I don't really want to lose any more weight, I just want to increase my definition, so for the next month or so I'll be on an even stricter diet and try to increase the intensity of my running. But I'm very encouraged by the results so far (BTW, I'm sucking in my gut the same amount in both pictures).

I guess you might say I'm self-conscious about the way I look. Ever since I started exercising around the 10th grade or so, fitness has been very important to me. But since I was more committed to my studies and getting good grades, I never became a 'fitness freak' who works out 2-3 hours a day or is some kind of awesome gymnast. But I have definitely made a lot of progress since high school. The thing I'm most proud of was pushing myself to do pull-ups from very early on, because I know that that's the hardest exercise to incorporate into the routine, and it's easy just to ignore it. But thanks to the Navy SEAL pyramid scheme workout, I gradually built up to the point where I can do about 3 sets of 8-10 pull-ups. It really is the best all-round arm and back exercise.

This summer I've set my goal to reveal my abs. Cardio is the part of the workout that's always been difficult for me. I just couldn't get used to the heart pounding, the legs aching, the heavy breathing. But recently I've decided to really push myself in that area, because I know that that's the only way I'm going to get significant definition. Thanks to increased cardio and a fairly strict diet (but I've actually still been pretty liberal with deserts and nice big weekend meals), I lost 4 kg in about a month. Now I'm not really looking to lose weight, but change the way I look, but it's still a fairly good indicator of progress. With that good start, over the next two months or so I'm really going to go heavy on the cardio, and do circuit workouts at the gym to increase my metabolism. Anyway, here's the workout program I do, for anyone who's interested:

Pull-ups (8 reps)

Push-ups (18 reps)

Sit-ups (25 reps)

Bar dips (8 reps)

That's one circuit. I do the whole circuit six times three or four times a week, and it takes me about five minutes to do a circuit. After that I go running on country trails close to where I live (we live outside the city). Lately I've been doing 4 km (about 2.5 miles) in an interval fashion. I sprint the first and the last kilometer lap, with jogging at a steady pace for the two in-between.

It's hard to be patient. I've seen some results in my definition, but not nearly as much as I'd like. I just have to keep perservering. And the post-workout feeling is really great!