You take the good you take the bad…

It has come to my attention that my post about a certain part of my anatomy might have stretched some peoples comfort zones. That was not my intention (well, it probably was… I am good at that!) My intention was more to make you laugh and stuff. If you were bothered, well, sorry about that!

It’s been a few days since I wrote anything. Weekend weight loss has all been resolved and I am back on the right track, at least until dinner tomorrow. I am down almost 16 pounds. I kind of wish I could say 20… but hey. It has been 30 days since I started this new lifestyle thing. I have worked out 29 days in a row and I believe today will be thirty. It is my every intention to keep this streak alive as long as I can. A couple days this week it was almost a chore, but I felt better when I was done. It was fun and stuff when you lose 10 pounds in a week, but then when you lose 6 more in the next 3 weeks, it starts to wear on. My “Calorie Coach” on the calorie count website says I am on track to have lost my goal (100 pounds) by Christmas of 2009. That seems like an eternity to me, but as I work out more and more, perhaps this will become even MORE of a lifestyle and not be something I think about all the time. I guess at 1 pound per week, we are looking at 85 more weeks. Yowza!

Ultimately it’s not so much about the number. I want to be healthy. My new outlook on the whole thing is helping me a lot. I am not training for this race, that race or this season… I am working out to get healthy. Yes, I want to race my bicycle. I really do, but instead of it being my primary focus in my exercise, fitness and health is. I believe that ultimately, it will probably make me a much faster bike racer. Great tactical mind, good sprint, lowsy fitness vs. Great tactical mind, okay sprint, great overall fitness has to win out every time! Get me to the finish and let me seal the deal!

Sorry… a little off thrack there… Ultimately, if I cant ride for a day, couple days or a week, I am doing something else. Yes… my rides are 90 minutes and my other workouts are as little as 30, but hey… 30 minutes is good. It’s more than I did in December! (I mean the month… not any particular day!). I have woken up sore a lot of days and just tried to walk through it. I have done stuff I don’t normally do (taken advil) and sometimes that gets me bunched, but you know what… I could do a lot worse things in life than drink coffee and take a little advil to take the edge off stiffness and soreness!

Thanks to everybody who has sent me encouraging emails and blog comments… that helps a lot. The longest journey begins with a single step, and I think I have go things going right this time. Hopefully with positive changes in my life/lifestyle… this will stick.

On a MUCH lighter note, Thule is now my official rack sponsor! Yeah, I have a rack sponsor! Pretty cool! I have a nice T2 Rack for my Matrix. Should make riding @ lunch and/or going to the velodrome a BIT easier!

Movement!

I have been sort of stuck. I have confess, it was getting me down. I mean, i know I didn’t eat all that great on my trip. I tried to be good, but reality… (it can suck sometimes). I did the best I could given the situation but the fact of the matter is I was still not making any weight loss progress for a full week. Heck, I even made un-progress. Right about now, funk soul brother …. I have jumped off the plateau and dropped another couple pounds putting my total at 14 pounds. Ultimately, that’s 14 pounds in three weeks… that is cool.

I really kind of needed this after the “blow to my confidence” we got in the mail last night. We get all kinds of catalogs. While some are entertaining, in general we have way to many. Well, I have made it to the fat people spam list now… we got “Living XL”. It’s a catalog of random products that fat people need like a scale with a 1000 pound capacity and 80″ x 40″ bath sheets. I was like “Great… I’m on the fat list’. Oh well, I’m also on the Victoria Secret list … so we have to call the lists a little “off”.

I did get a ride in yesterday as the weather is stuck in miserable here in the ATL and yesterday was the nicest day of the week. (44 degrees and 95% humidity). Fun ride actually! Twenty two days… 14 pounds… I’ll take that!

Back from LA

Well, I didnt have a lot of time to updated this as I was in Los Angeles to cover another World Cup.  It was a lot of fun, a lot of stress, a lot of work… but seeing the Madison was worth all of it!  WOW!  Having friends in the game… that made it even better!

I was committed to keeping up with my workouts.  I did it!  My steak is alive.  I got there on Thursday and went running.  Friday, between sessions, I walked at a good pace for 30 minutes, Saturday I ran before going to the velodrome, Sunday another walk and finally, tonight after the kids went to bed, Spanky and I went running.  It was good.  Twenty days straight w/intentional exercise!

It was kind of a rough trip.  My little guy got sick.  Sarah got him all sorted out, but I felt bad.  It’s good to be home.  My dog is snoring… clean sheets fresh shower… this will be a good nights sleep!

Train keeps on rolling!

So Wednesday I did get down to the velodrome.  Had a great ride actually.  I finally am feeling comfortable on this bumpy oval.  It’s kinda crazy I must say… The track is so bumpy, you get bounced all over the place.  My friend Kirk pointed out that as I lose weight, the bouncing wont be as bothersome.   I probably rode for 90 minutes.  Good deal.

Thursday, I was pretty busy and it was raining so I ran inside.  I did 2 miles in 22 minutes which included my walk/warm up.  I know, thats slow but considering I don’t run, I was reasonably proud of it.  I then did some lifting.

Today, I was basically beat.  I stayed up way to late last night and today, I didnt want to ride.  It sucked.  Well, I decided I had to to keep my streak alive.  I headed out for a short ride… 45 minutes.  Ooops…. 85 minutes later I got back to work.  I actually got kinda lost and that sucked, but I did ride today and that was cool!

Ten days… a smidge over 10 pounds.  Going well!

I beat the TEAMS on big fatty!

I think I need to do a Dictionary Entry…. but Big Fatty = NBC’s Biggest Loser…

They are currently running a team competition. People are paired up with their friend, teammate, wife, brother, etc… and they all weigh in together. In this particular week, I beat all of them on COMBINED weight loss… The numbers are in and after a lot of stress, anxiety and random self inflicted suffering… I lost 8.2 pounds. I wish I could do that every week for 3 months and be done with it. Now starts the hard work… keeping motivated, working out, keeping motivated….

To catch you up…

• Tuesday didn’t work out the way it was planned. I got my outdoor ride in, so that is cool, but it was not when I wanted to. That is the hardest thing. I ended up working from 7-3:30 straight, with no lunch break … so no ride. I left early and did about 15 ish miles near home.
• Today I will go do the track after work. I don’t do any track specific workouts (outside of riding the track in a group of people which fine tunes your track skills), rather I get to hang out with like minded people (dorks as many of you call us! ), ride my bike and enjoy the ambiance of East Point, Georgia.

Things are going well. I tomorrow it’s supposed to rain so I will probably be “cross training” or something. This weekend I will be trainer boy, or something… maybe it will be hiking day. Sarah will be out of town so it’s me and the munchkins. I can handle it… just finding 30 full minutes for intentional exercise might be a challenge. The YMCA does have help on the Saturday, so that is an option as well!

Previous attempts were sidetracked…

I’m gonna be honest with you. My last trip on the bandwagon was ended abruptly by buffalo sauce, blue cheese, pie and much more. Nothing really out of the ordinary, but … well, food none the less.

Scroll forward to last wednesday… that was the official re-kick-off of my “deal”. I am trying very hard to keep motivated, keep doing things and hopefully in the long run, we will see progress. Here is how things have shaken out since the second…

1. 1/2 – Wednesday – 20 minutes walk/run combo on the treadmill followed by some really girly weight lifting
2. 1/3 – Thursday – BASICALLY the same thing, this time more lower body than upper.
3. 1/4 – Friday – Harder run. 20 minute, but no walking. Did upper body this time. This was a much harder run with almost no walking.
4. 1/5 – Saturday – Running on the road for 25 minutes w/Spanky. Hard… but fun. 1.8 miles! After that we went to the gym and did some crazy machine that was like an eliptical machine, but w/crazy arm movement
5. 1/6 – Sunday – Trandem biking for about 45 minutes and biking on the tandem alone for about 45 minutes. Total of about 25 ish miles? Rollers for 20 minutes before bed.
6. 1/7 – Monday – Lunch ride – to the Silver Comet trail “and beyond!”

Tomorrow its supposed to be nice, so I will likely try to ride outdoors. Wednesday is track night, if my legs don’t quit!

ouch…….

So here it is… hold me accountable!

In my last post (about 10 minutes ago) I said I was trying to lose weight. Well, here it is… I weighed in at 267 pounds this morning. This isn’t my heaviest in recent months, nor is it my lightest. My goal is to lose 100 pounds. In previous discussions, Sarah has said she doesn’t think I could weigh 167… I don’t know. Let’s address that when we get closer.

My plan, as lame as it is, is to try … eat right, take it one day at a time and see where it gets me. Just 1 day at a time. It’s kept me sober for 20+ years, so hey, maybe if I apply that as a good principle… maybe it will work. Anybody that wants to support/help/encourage me is welcome to, but it’s not a requirement of spouse-hood, sister-hood, in-law-hood or any other hood… I would just really like to get back in shape. I have no admitted it most publicly, so if you see me eating pie, nicely remove it from my grasp!