# Weight loss journey - not to be confused with before/after results...



## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

Hello,

For the past few months I have been posting my weight loss journey within a different thread and managed to get someone's panties all twisted... As a result, I am adding yet another thread to the mountains of existing threads on the subject so as not to be the one responsible for launching the zombie apocalypse by not following the mandated posting structure....

At any rate, I will be reposting my weekly logs from the beginning (for continuity) and I will continue with my format for the forseeable future. I welcome anyone to comment on this with anything related to biking, dietary modifications, weight loss, or any combination thereof.... Should you be willing to post your own journey in any way you see fit, feel welcome to do so.... Also, should you have any helpful tips/pointers, those are obviously welcome as well... My philosophy is the more the merrier and any information that is relevant to the greater cause of improved health/weight is definitely welcome.... 

reposts to follow over the next few days

cheers!


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## SHNIPE (Jun 14, 2006)

Congrats on the journey! A Buddy and I were both 270+ and got down to 200 myself and he hit 185. Keep motivated!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

SHNIPE said:


> Congrats on the journey! A Buddy and I were both 270+ and got down to 200 myself and he hit 185. Keep motivated!


thats pretty amazing!!! I have been at it for... 5-6 months I think and have lost 15-20 pounds, it kinda fluctuates... right now I'm in that zone of having done the obvious things but need to do more to keep improving (and not lose focus on what I have already done...)

The best part of what I had going on the other thread was people chiming in with what they had done in order to make it happen (smaller portions, ride like a maniac, make smart choices, etc..) so anything you did that was helpful I am all ears... thanks for commenting and look forward to anything you may have to add


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## SHNIPE (Jun 14, 2006)

One of the biggest improvements for me was to get out of the long slow distance riding and make sure I was doing some sprints (obviously not very sprinty at first). It kicked my fat burn into overdrive. 

Also make sure you're eating enough. In the beginning I'd bonk because of lacking enough calories


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## 69clunker40CWC (Aug 12, 2014)

I had a body mass index that was a little high but not bad At 5 foot seven I weighed 180. I Retired and started walking and got down to 165 after about 4 years. I also started cutting calories, no more guy lunches at the work cafeteria. I started making my own Greek style yogurt out of whole milk (skim milk didn't hold me). I have a half cup yogurt, quarter cup of granola, a quarter cup of fruit, teaspoon of honey a splash of vanilla extract and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice all mixed together for breakfast every morning. I eat no lunch, but might have a small snack if I am going on a 7-10 mile ride, but not always. I eat one helping for dinner and try to leave a little bit behind. Now the hard part for me was evening snacking. I finally got a microwave popcorn maker at Wally world and make it plain or spray a little pure canola cooking oil on it. It took a long time to loose the snack urge, but I seldom snack now, and don't mis it. I go out to lunch with my friends every Tuesday and Friday. On those days I skip breakfast and have a small salad for lunch. I got down to 161 and for my yearly physical my fasting blood sugar was high. We have diabetes in the family so the Doc told me I was right at the overweight point and needed to loose more weight. I had been riding a bike but on the street. I started doing 7 to 12 mile trail rides 2 - 3 times a week this summer and I am down to 155. But if I eat and don't ride for a few days I go to 158 like nothing. It's hard to keep it off. In November I will go to Deer camp for 2 weeks and eat and drink like a fool, except for the Thanksgiving break where I will eat more like a fool, then there are the holidays and -20 F. I still have to figure out how to keep the weight off in the winter so I can control my blood sugar. I hope this helps others who are trying to loose weight. It takes time. They say weight loss is 20% exercise, 80% diet.


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## Nubster (May 15, 2009)

320 to 238 last year. It was tough. Took a lot of will power and a mindset that I needed to do it for me and my family and continue doing it for life. A little added muscle and a couple hiccups over the winter and I found myself creeping back up to around 262 but I've gotten back on track and back down to 253 as of today. My goal is to get down to 200 or even less so I have a ways to go. Continue the good work and post up. It's motivating to everyone else and can be motivating for yourself as well.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

to those that have commented, I am going to add my "journal" and then comment on your comments with quotes so as not to bury them under all of the stuff I put in/keep your comments towards the current end of the thread.. thanks for participating!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

3-6-14
And so it begins... 
Well, having read through the entire “before and after” thread and having seen the amazing stories everyone had, I guess it’s my turn to throw my hat in the ring on this but I am going to use a bit of a different approach to this (similar to what stormcrowe did back in 2005, but not quite at his level). As I am just getting started, my intent is to document things from the beginning and update as I go along and take whatever helpful tidbits come my was as I go…. I have noticed this thread has kind of died lately so maybe I can help get it restarted…..

About me: I am 40 years old, 5’10” and weigh in at 253 pounds. I was a decent athlete in high school (not great, but not too bad either) and was always stocky. I humbly state that I was fairly muscular/strong (not any kind of massive person, more of a body type kind of thing) which always led to me weighing about 15-20 pounds more than people would think…. (I state this because it is ludicrous for me to think about weighing 170 again as that is what I weighed at my absolute peak of physical fitness in high school. For me, 200 is a very appropriate target and then I will see where to go from there…) Throughout my 20’s and 30’s, I would occasionally do some sort of physical activity but overall I would rate myself as pretty sedentary… About 10 years ago, I started getting in to playing poker (both online and live) as a hobby (I currently either deal or play poker 3 nights per week)…. Well, that’s not the best thing for someone in my situation as 1) it’s even more sitting around and 2) you gotta have some beers while playing, right????? I have a rather sedentary job (do walk around some but pretty stationary overall.) I think you get the gist of my overall lifestyle….. 

Two years ago, I bought a bike with the intent of really getting into riding to get my weight down and to become healthier. Obviously that hasn’t gone according to plan…. Like so many, I have the whole gamut of excuses (married, 2 young daughters, busy with work, too tired, too cold out, etc, etc…) not to mention I am a MASTER procrastinator….. so over the course of these last two years, there have been attempts to really get this thing going but have ultimately failed. Period. 

A few months ago, I noticed my XL t-shirts were getting even more snug (to the point I was digging through my shirts to find all of the XXL and not wearing the XL) and my size 40 pants were turning into size 42….. Getting frustrated, the thoughts of “I really gotta get committed to this” started creeping into my head. These thoughts started to become more and more pervasive until I finally had that “aha moment”. I was watching my 2 daughters (age 1 and 4) play and it hit me that if I don’t get off my ass, there is a real possibility their father won’t be around for them someday sooner rather than later. 

At that point, it was cold outside (there’s using cold as an excuse than there’s the reality that it’s too damn cold outside!!! Colorado weather is funny like that.. One winter day can be sunny and 55 degrees and literally the next day can be snowy/overcast with a low of 5 degrees….) So I started using the treadmill with the intent of getting some legs under myself so when bike season returned I would be ready!!! At this point, the “I know I gotta do this” motivation was there but the actual practice of religiously doing this wasn’t quite in place… I would say I managed an hour on the treadmill 2-3 times per week. I alternated between the walk/run workouts and the incline workouts… Funny thing is, I found that even doing that little bit made a difference in my conditioning and I was able to increase the workload every week…. To further increase my motivation, I decided to get some clipless pedals and shoes (more on this later)….

About three weeks ago, I was finally able to get on my bike!!!! I have an 11 mile ride close to home that I like to ride (part of a much longer trail, like 100+ mile trail, that goes down to New Mexico and I think up to Wyoming) that has a good mix of flat and hills… The first time I rode really took a lot of effort but the crowning glory was that I made it out to do the ride and it was only 55 degrees outside (part of the aforementioned “too cold” category) I have already worked in two other days doing the ride and find myself improving with each ride. As an even bigger perk, it is something like 62 outside today so guess where I am going????

My current mindset: I find that I am really motivated to get out and ride my bike. As I was reading through this thread today I found myself literally wanting to just get out of my chair and go!!!!! I am conscientiously making choices that allow me to workout (e.g., even though I was tired yesterday, I skipped a nap and squeezed in 45 minutes of treadmill before going to dinner) 

However, knowing myself as I do, (I am not one of those jump in with both feet types) the eating better thing that a lot of people mentioned as being REALLY helpful isn’t totally on the table as of yet. I love my diet cherry pepsi/dr. pepper and neither my wife nor myself really enjoy cooking so you can only imagine how crappy my diet is as we eat out….. A LOT!!!! Not to mention that poker/beer thing I mentioned…. I have begun using portion control as a first step in this arena. Examples; ordering the regular size combo instead of the large, ordering 3 tacos instead of 4, not drinking on a given poker night, etc. For me, this is a necessary STEP that will help me get to eating better overall as it is not totally taking the things I love to eat/drink out of the picture but the simple act of decreasing my intake of such things has not only maintained my motivation but also improved it as I have ordered two salads in situations in which I have normally ordered cheeseburgers within the past two weeks. Admittedly with ranch……….. 

So there it is, in a not so small nutshell. As I mentioned above, I hope this turns out to be the motivator/accountability mechanism I envision it to be. Like I said in the beginning, I will be posting updates as I go along so feel free to chime in with anything that relates!!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

3-4-14 to 3-11-14: 2 trail rides (11 miles each), 1 trail ride (7 miles), 1 hour on the treadmill doing walk/run (4.2 miles). 

I find my endurance is improving in a couple of ways. 1) cardio – not so winded as I am riding nor when I am done 2) leg strength – I am forcing myself to stand up and “power” up climbs and have found it getting easier and easier each time I do it… Not that climbing is easy yet but I don’t feel like I need a break after each climb…

As of right now, I am repetitively riding the same trail because I just switched to clipless pedals and want to gain confidence on them before switching to actual mountain biking. Also, I know the trail pretty well which really allows me to gauge how I am doing. Within that, I cut 2-minutes off the ride time and if I recall correctly, improved my average speed by .5-1mph…. The reason the 3rd ride was cut short was I lost a screw out of one of my cleats (the metal thing that attaches to the bottom of the shoe) and after spending time trying to get my shoe off the pedal (without my foot in it…) I had to get home to go work my part-time job…. I was quite surprised at how easy the 7 mile ride was as that is the portion of the 11 mile ride that has all of the climbing (the other 4 miles are pretty flat with the exception of one hard climb)….

All-in-all it was a pretty good week, especially considering I got 4 workouts in. The weather is getting warmer and with the time change the sun is up even longer so I think I will be extending the rides a couple of miles over the course of the next week. I was doing 25 mile rides a few years ago and would like to not only get back to that, but increase to 30 within the next couple of months… 

P.S., anyone know how to get a shoe off a pedal that is attached with only one loose screw, thus, loose cleat?????


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

3-11-14 to 3-18-14: 1 “short” trail ride (10.86 miles), 1 “long” trail ride (12.91 miles), 1 incline treadmill ( 1 hour, 3 miles at 6-10% grade), 1 walk/run treadmill (1 hour, 4.23 miles)

Still improving in the endurance portion as I feel myself ready to accept an increase in difficulty. On one front, I had never done the treadmill at 6-10% incline for a full hour so that is new… It was tough to do but I made it through, can’t say it was a favorite activity... On the other front, I finally broke through my glass ceiling and added a little distance to my trail ride (thus the distinction between “short” and “long” trail rides). It felt good to add on the extra 2 miles and thought about going further as I felt pretty strong as I was doing it. However, it was a good thing I didn’t because once I got home I felt how tired my legs really were… It really did light my fire to get back to the 25 mile rides I was doing a few years ago.. Overall, my average speed was 12.6 and 12.7 on the rides. Interestingly, this is an increase over last week even though it was REALLY windy this week (have I mentioned how much I hate wind?) so I am stating to wonder if/when I can break the 13mph average for an entire ride sometime sooner or later…

In other news, ate a couple of salads instead of lesser alternatives this week and drank a couple less sodas… Also went to Red Lobster and got one less little platter of shrimp (2 instead of 3). Amazingly, I didn’t starve to death nor did I die from caffeine withdrawals ( little sarcasm towards myself there…) Also, opted to only drink water (no beer whatsoever) on 2/3 opportunities this week. Not anything to get too excited about but as I mentioned earlier, this isn’t the focus right now but hopefully these little moments slowly change habits overall.

I do have to admit that this whole accountability thing has something to it… There were two days this week where I had some pretty good excuses to not exercise at all and I found I was guilt-tripping myself into making sure I got something done. For example, yesterday the wind was gusting to 30mph and I still forced myself to go ride because I didn’t want to have to admit that I flaked out (coincidentally, this is the same day I did the “long” ride so I really accomplished two things there…) 

And finally, I seem to detect the pants are just a little tiny bit looser and I dare say I detect a little less chin… Not anything that anyone else would notice but one small step….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

3-18-14 to 3-25-14: 1 short trail ride (10.86 miles), 1 run on treadmill (1 hour, 4.07 miles), 1 incline on treadmill (1 hour, 8-10% incline, 3 miles)

Weather kinda ruined outside stuff this week so we moved the party indoors.... The 8-10 incline (not 6-10 as previously reported) was a little easier this time around, but still not a favorite activity.... The trail ride went well in that for whatever reason, i was rolling at a pretty good clip and found myself really working to hit that 13mph barrier... Alas, ended the ride at a 12.9 average... Almost!!!!!!

As for the decreased mileage on the treadmill, i was ready to increase the run time past the 30 seconds the walk/run program allows so i went manual... In order to make this feasible i slowed the walk to 3mph and did the run at 6mph for 1-minute intervals... This is down from 3.5 and 7 respectively... This was more of a logistics thing as it would take a lot of button pushing to get to 3.5 mph.... At any rate (ha!!!) about 1/2 way through, I figured out I wasn't going to get anywhere near the time i was doing with the program so i bumped the run intervals up to 75 seconds... Almost caught up...... Even though i didn't do the same distance, i think the longer running intervals were worth the trade-off as my legs were pretty tired afterwards, almost a little sore....

A little family vacation caused the cancellation of the 4th day and is really gonna screw up next week.... Guess i'll have to report that when the time comes....

Food: kinda the same situation as before, nothing really to report here

Overall, i find myself getting curious as to,what the scale says... 1/2 of me wants nothing to do with it as i have been working hard and don't want anything to break my mojo.... 1/2 wants to know where i am officially.... I do know that right after this vacation might not be a great time to get nosy..ps, typing this out on an ipad kinda sucks.... LOTS of editing...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

3-25-14 to 4-1-14: 1 short trail ride (10.86 miles), 1 run on treadmill (1 hour, 4.07 miles)

As previously mentioned, vacation was gonna hurt the numbers this week as there was only two official workouts. However, there are some bright spots: 
1) While on vacation, we discovered the cabin we rented had a perfectly sized hill for sledding right out the back door! Soooo, I did spend about 4-5 hours walking up, and sledding down, a hill with about 4 feet of snow on it… Don’t know how well that translates to working out but it wasn’t easy getting up that hill… (on a side note, I was VERY proud of my 4 year-old daughter, she was right there with me every step and carrying her own sled! Of course, she was walking on the sled path while I trudged through the snow..)
2) As for breaking that 13mph barrier… I don’t know what happened, but I not only hit the 13, but I averaged 13.5 for the entire ride!!! I will say that the wind I have been complaining about wasn’t blowing that day so there’s that… But I will also say I was pretty irked that I worked so hard on the previous ride and fell short by .1 and from the get-go, I was making sure I maintained my speed whenever I noticed I was slowing down….. Maybe an average of 14mph as a goal???

I’m still experimenting with how I want to do the treadmill but for this particular run, I decided on 1m15s intervals of jogging at 6mph and 1m45s intervals of walking at 3mph. Seems to work pretty well as I had a pretty good sweat going but on the other hand, I still didn’t get as far as the preprogrammed routine (.13 miles short) but I do know I am running 2.5x as much (1m15s vs. 30s) and I am feeling that to be beneficial… Thinking of doing 1m30 jog and 1m30s walk intervals next time…

Feeling like a slacker for not getting a longer ride in this week as that is one of my larger goals (that and actually mountain biking) but I really wanted to hit that 13mph average + time constraints came in to play again…. I guess I need to keep telling myself that it is better to have ridden a short ride than to have not ridden at all….

As for actual mountain biking… (if you recall, finally went clipless on the pedals and have been nervous about being locked in and needing to bail out…); I’m definitely more comfortable in the shoes and can pretty much get out of the clips at will… Still a little apprehensive about it as I definitely don’t want to be that fat old guy that couldn’t get out of his clips and fell over….. I guess I’m pretty much at the point where the preparation is just about done and it’s time to just go do it….. 

In the food arena, still just focusing on eating less crappy food and less overall…. While on vacation I ordered the 3 rib dinner instead of the half slab. However, it was one of those places where you can eat all the peanuts you want…. I dunno, maybe a draw on that one…. Conversely, grilled a ribeye and ate the whole thing, let’s call that a big minus….. The more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to have to admit maybe not such a good week here…. I’m gonna wuss out and blame it on the vacation as there were many situations that happened while on vacation that aren’t part of a typical week….

And finally… scale curiosity got the best of me so I dug it out of the closet and did all of the mental drama of “What’s it going to say???!!!!” only to learn…… it’s broken….. Or, if I choose to believe the scale, I weigh 40 pounds…..


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

4-2-14 to 4-8-14: 2 runs on treadmill (1 hour, 4.34 miles each), 1 incline on treadmill (1 hour, 8-10% incline, 3 miles)

Weather was really a pain this past week as it snowed a couple of times just enough to get the trails muddy… I don’t know about other parts of the county but around here it’s kind of bad juju to ride when the trails are muddy because you end up making deep tracks that never go away…. Alas, treadmill time….. Did the same levels as previous as they continue to be a pretty good challenge for me and at this point increasing in some way would be too much… Missed one workout this week due to family being in town all last week and it basically came down to being exhausted by being on the go so much…. 

Have to be honest and admit that the novelty is wearing off. Motivation dropped a little bit this week (possibly due to having to go treadmill and not ride at all) but commitment was still strong. I had to push back/show up a little late to family stuff this week just to get 2/3 workouts in… Pretty happy that even though motivation was not high I found myself committed enough to continue making the workouts happen because I definitely would have just skipped them in years past…..

Again, I’m going to make it a point to go do actual mountain biking this week. the forecast looks to be favorable so weather shouldn't be a problem this go around... Hopefully that will be a shot in the arm and get the motivation back up. Oddly, I am a little apprehensive about it because I’m nervous that I won’t do as well as I am anticipating.. Not that I expect to look like some all- star, but I am very hopeful (I dare say expecting) that I can do better than before.. In previous years, I expected to suck because I wasn’t in any kind of shape to have any climbing endurance whatsoever but now that I have been working on this, I have some level of expectation….. Guess there’s only one way to find out

If you read the previous posts, you will notice I have only been lightly addressing the food issue and pretty much have been focusing on just eating less and reducing intake of things that are obviously really bad.. This has been by design in preparation for when I really get in to the grind (aforementioned novelty wearing off…) so that I remain committed to this whole thing. I have to admit that all this working out AND a strict diet would probably do me in…. Although not there yet, I can feel the need to address the food part naturally brewing in a similar fashion to what 70sSan0 mentioned in that the question of “is it worth it?” is in my mind more and more… It actually has made an impact come meal time because while working out, particularly on the treadmill, I find myself thinking “man, it takes a LOT of work to burn off 100 (insert whatever random number…) calories and I am finding the ends do not justify the means… (*I realize the calorie counter on the treadmill is not an exact science, just taking it for what it is and using it as a reference point…) Having said all of that, I know that it is the food component that is really holding me back at this point so this going going to have to become more of a priority….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

4-9-14 to 4-15-14: 1 MTN bike ride (42 mins, 5.23 miles, 7.4 avg.), 1 short trial ride (10.88 miles, 13.9 avg.), 1 long trail ride (15.03 miles, 13.1 avg.), 1 incline on treadmill (1 hour, 8-10% incline, 3 miles)

Finally got that actual mountain biking in this week!!! I did fairly well, not great but pretty good… I was able to do the climbs like I had hoped although there is definitely room for improvement… One thing that held me back a little is I am either A) too far “up” on my bike when climbing, B) my rear tire is worn down, or C) a combination of A and B… Regardless, I kept spinning my back tire on big climbs which obviously killed the momentum.. I have kind of built it up in my head that being able to stand up and pedal while going up an incline is somewhat of an achievement conditioning wise so I’m gonna blame the tires……………. I guess the cheap and easy first solution is to switch my front and back tires and see if that makes a difference.. If not, I may just need to go buy some new tires…. Then hopefully not be sad that the tires weren’t the problem…. If anyone has any thoughts about proper technique, I am all ears!!! 

As for the trail rides….
Short rides: A couple of weeks ago, I was hoping to accomplish an average speed of 13.0-13.5 for the entire ride… Well, last week I hit 13.5 and this week jumped up to 13.9!!! I don’t know how I compare to the rest of the world (actually, couple of thoughts about that coming up…) but I have improved my average speed on my short rides by 2 mph over the past month, which feels like a pretty big accomplishment!!! For some reason, this is becoming a big motivator for me to keep trying to go faster than the last time and it’s really getting me to push myself throughout the entire ride. I would have thought a 14mph average over the course of any ride on this particular trail to be a pipedream… and here I am .1 away from actually doing it!!! I do find myself wondering what my ceiling is…. Of course, the downside to this is the time it takes to complete the short rides is decreasing as well (I have cut 4 minutes off the ride time!).. I see it as somewhat of a reward in that continuing to push myself to improve results in a shorter workout…. 

Long rides: I added 2 miles to the ride this week which turned out to be a big help breaking down a mental barrier. Case in point: the 2 miles I added are somewhat difficult in that there are a couple of pretty long, slow climbs.. I remember not really liking this particular section from when I used to do these rides so I guess I was avoiding it to some extent… Well, having done it, and found that it isn’t the worst thing to ever happen, the gate is now open to the longer rides that are much flatter and will really help me add distance to the long rides. I am planning on adding at least 2 more miles next week but we will play that one by ear (I will go longer if I feel up to it, but 2 is the minimum regardless..)

Treadmill: It is what it is, I will say I find it getting incrementally easier to do the 8-10% incline pyramid.. I won’t go so far as to say I actually like doing treadmill work but it does have its place as it is a different workout (both running and doing incline) and is also a timesaver during the week…

Food: Well, had to admit to myself that just eating a bit less wasn’t really cutting it and had to come up with a plan. Thanks to those that have posted lately indicating proper diet is imperative if you are really serious about dropping pounds. Like I previously mentioned somewhere in here, we all know what we need to do, it’s a matter of accepting it and actually doing it…. My current plan is a takeoff from when I did weightwatchers a few years ago but with my own spin so as to not get bogged down in the details.. I hated how I had to document every component of something in order to be accurate and when it came down to it, that is why I quit using it… So, along those lines, I made myself a little food log to grade myself on how well I eat throughout the day/week. In its initial/current form, it is a simple, 3-point grading system (1 = good, 0 = “meh”, -1 = bad) on which I grade myself on breakfast, lunch, dinner, and “other” food (nonmeals) There is an additional category I have labeled “beer” that is not part of the daily routine but does come in to play. I will admit that come Saturday, playing some cards and having some beers with the guys happens fairly regularly (< ---- understatement) and I think this should be included so that I am honest with myself with the impact beer has on my overall goals.. 

I am in the process of establishing my baseline and will work to improve each week as I go.. Once I know where I am on my scoring system, my aim is to improve my score each week until I find an ideal score to judge myself against. I’m not one of those ultracompetitive people that has to win at absolutely everything but I do have a competitive spirit so my hope is that while competing against myself on this, I will begin to see some more weight loss than I am seeing now.

When it comes to caloric intake, I have adopted the mantra “Is it worth it?” that I am asking myself before I consume anything. In the few days I have been using it, it has already changed my mind a few times before eating. For instance, not only did I order a salad for dinner Instead of fried chicken and mashed potatoes), I found myself doing the “dip the fork in the dressing” maneuver instead of just pouring it all over my salad.. and needing more… Yes there was a difference in taste, but it wasn’t terrible, and I found I used less than ½ the amount of dressing I normally use (maybe even 1/3!!!)… In my grading system, that took me from a “0” (good that I’m having a salad, but I do love me some ranch) to a “+” because of the minimal use of ranch. My hopes are that I become really invested in this and just take it and run with it…

As for “I don’t know how I compare to the rest of the world.” If you are reading through these posts of mine, it is pretty evident I had a better week this week when compared to last… However, there were two moments this week that were pretty much a sucker punch to the gut:

Moment 1: While on the short trial ride and feeling pretty good that I was going to do better than the 13.5 average of my last ride, Mr. Man comes WHIZZING by me and pretty much makes my “wow” pace look like I am walking………
Moment 2: While MTN biking there is one section that contains about 5 subsections that in themselves are not that bad… However, all 5 of those subsections are one after the other to make for a pretty scary looking section… Let’s say all together the “section” is about 15 yards long and the 5 “subsections” equate to a 10-15 foot drop total.. First off, I see the line that people take but I decide that it’s not worth it to try to ride as any miscue has the very likely result of explaining injuries to medical staff… So having done that, I am obviously not even going to consider the option of going UP as 1) there’s just no way I can do it, and 2) I really think it is IMPOSSIBLE anyone can do it!!!! So, having walked my bike up, pride still intact, I am getting ready to ride up what I consider to be an insane climb at the very top of my abilities, but at least it is relatively smooth…….. just as I am getting ready to go, a lady about my age, maybe even a little older (45+/-) comes RIDING around the corner!!! I ask her incredulously “Did you just ride UP that???!!!” and she responds “Yeah, but it was really hard!” I tell her she is an amazing rider and she says “thanks” and continues on her way….

Moral of the stories: Here in Colorado Springs there are MANY riders that are probably elite in their abilities…. If I compare myself to them, the only real option is to just go home…. I just need to compare myself to myself and as long as I am getting better each week then so be it…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

4-16-14 to 4-21-14: 1 incline on treadmill (1 hour, 8-10% incline, 3 miles), 1 short trail ride (10.90 miles, 13.8 avg.), 1 run (60 mins, 4.43 miles), 1 run (40 mins, 2.95 miles)

Time constraints and cold/bad weather kept a lot of activity indoors this week, but at least I got all 4 workouts in (well, 3 2/3…) For some reason, bad weather seems to be constantly looming over the horizon lately.. It has literally been in the low 70s one day then 35 degrees with snow the next….. the only reason I got the short trail ride in yesterday was because I finally said “to hell with it, if it rains it rains…” Regardless, summer is coming…. I just really hope some part of Colorado Springs isn’t ablaze again this summer…. (yes again, as in, we have had huge fires the last two summers…… the first of which was only ¼ mile from burning my house down… as it was, it did burn down something like 250 houses… and the one last summer burned 300+ homes…) Anyhow, on to the report…

As for the trail rides….
Short rides: I cut out a “pit stop” so instead of 2, now only have one break at the ½ way point.. I never planned on actually skipping the break but had just passed a couple of ladies running and didn’t want to have to pass them again as they weren’t too good at sharing the trail (by the way; why do people insist on running 2-3 abreast, on a trail that is no wider than a car lane, then not pay attention to the surrounding environment???!!!) For the sake of improved conditioning, I think that was worthy of costing myself .1 mph…. Although I reeeeallllly want to hit that 14mph average…

Long rides: N/A, These are supposed to happen on Saturday and with all of the Easter preparations going on, it just didn’t fit into the schedule….

MTbike rides: time constraints and weather blah blah blah…….

Treadmill: to make up for having to cut one run short, I increased my run intervals to 2-minutes, which equates to 1/5 mile each interval… However, it did take about 2 minutes worth of walking pace before I was ready to do it again so it ended up being 2 minutes running then 2 minutes walking. I think this is good in that I am getting closer to doing ¼ mile intervals because my goal is ¼ mile runs (at 6mph) with 90 second walking breaks in between… Once I accomplish that, I will increase the speed on the runs and hopefully get to a speed that can actually be considered running…. 

Food: This was REALLY on my mind this week as it was the first full week of keeping track of what I ate. On my aforementioned grading system, the best possible score I can get for the week is +28, and the worst is -28 (and then further down if/when beer comes into play…). For the week, I received a score of “+6” which will be my baseline. Note: this is not a true baseline as some effort was put forth to eat better… I think an honest baseline score would have been in the neighborhood of -10… At any rate, it is obvious some better choices could have been made over the course of the week but I feel pretty good in that I am heading in the right direction.

I know the mantra of “is it worth it?” is going to be a huge part of this whole thing as there were a handful of occasions where it really drove me to think about what I was going to eat and caused me to change course… However, not having it ingrained as a habit yet, I did forget all about it on a few opportunities… At this stage I am trying to use it to convince myself to simply make better choices than I have historically. For example, 16 ounce fatty steaks are turning into 8 ounce leaner cuts, large orders are turning into small orders, eating out is turning into making something myself… Hopefully it is evident I’m not breaking my arm patting myself on the back at this moment because big changes still need to come, but for the time being, improvement is being made as I am doing better than I was previously. I will say one perk is that smaller portions cost less money!!!

Now for the good news, I still don’t know about my official weight, but I do know that my clothes are fitting better!!! Pants that I barely (if even) fit into two months ago are almost an appropriate fit now and I’m almost to the point where I could dare tuck in a shirt if I were so inclined (not quite yet, but getting there). Also, my shirts are fitting better and ones that were getting bypassed because they were too tight are getting reintroduced to the rotation…. I will say some of my bigger shirts that fit comfortably are starting to look too big….

On a final note… I cannot even begin to explain how much typing out these updates every week has helped me to stay on track. There has been minimal response from anyone reading these posts (which is fine..) but the mere act of posting these updates every week has brought me a level of commitment I have never had before when it comes to getting in shape and dropping pounds. Multiple times per week, I find myself wavering on something and find myself thinking “..but then I will have to post it!” which convinces me to go ahead and do whatever that particular thing is. Case in point, Easter Sunday: with all of the family obligations going on (eggs with the kids, helping prepare dishes for dinner, spending the afternoon/evening at the in-laws…), I had every EXCUSE to not work out.. However, because I would have to admit publicly that I flaked out, and I didn’t exercise on Saturday for much the same reasons, I squeezed in a workout, ON EASTER, as not doing so would have resulted in only three workouts this week… Sure it was only a 40-minute stint on the treadmill (vs. the standard 60 minutes) but within that 40 minutes I broke down another barrier and increased my running intervals by 30 seconds which will now be my new standard (I hope anyways…) This would not have happened without the accountability I get from posting these updates. Another example would be the food log.. Without having to admit that I was doing all of this working out and barely losing any weight, it would have taken much, much longer for me to admit to myself the “eating less” approach wasn’t working.. Just some food for thought for anyone considering such an approach…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

4-22-14 to 4-28-14: 1 long trail ride (time: 1.13.22 17.02 miles, 13.9 avg.), 1 MTN bike ride (time: 41.05, 5.56 miles, 8.1 avg. ), 1 incline on treadmill (time: 60.0, 8-10% incline, 3 miles), 

What a week… things started out fantastic then came the weekend and it just totally fell apart…. I was all excited (and admittedly a little proud of myself for how well I have been doing with this…) and then next thing I know, I literally found myself asking “What the hell happened???!!!” I guess I was caught off-guard (maybe got a little cocky) when it came to staying the course. Ultimately, it boils down to I let others have too much of an influence on my weekend…

Workouts:
Short rides: No short ride this week.. 

Long rides: Added on those 2 extra miles for a total of 17. At approximately 7.5 miles into the ride (1 mile to go before turning around) a storm came in with huge gusts of wind and rain.. I literally had the bike turned around to head back into the trees to wait for the storm to pass and I thought to myself “f.. this!!! I’m getting the 17!!” and I turned around and continued on for the last mile.. Ironically, it was a really fast moving storm and it cleared out very quickly so the storm really wasn’t an issue for more than a couple of minutes…. The ride felt good and it was a perfect distance as I was definitely tired (and a little sore the next day) but wasn’t overly exhausted… I don’t know how I maintained the 13.9 average for the whole ride, but there it is… I will say I have identified that when I start to get tired I apparently let my legs/knees point outward. Riding with the clipless pedals obviously makes that pretty difficult (as I am not a contortionist) so not only am I keeping my legs/knees pointed ahead, I am also using that as a reminder to use the upstroke as well when pedaling.. Definitely helps with the speed… Considering the next few miles on the trail are pretty flat and straight, I will add two more on the next ride..

MTN bike rides: Got another ride in and honestly noticed a big difference when compared to the first ride.. I was able to climb A LOT longer than the first time and did more of it. I really don’t know how I maintained the 8.1 average as I would have guessed I was somewhere in the 5-6 range.. I guess those downhill sections were verrry helpful… Thing is, I did this ride the day after I did the long ride and as I mentioned, my legs were a little sore and they were definitely “tired.” This would lead to believe that I should do even better next time.. 

Treadmill: Ended up doing the incline routine instead of the short ride this week as it was stormy (again…) no big change here with the exception of it continuing to get just a little bit easier each time.. I think within the next couple of times I will have to bump the speed up a notch… Only real difficulty is it seems to put my lower back in somewhat of an awkward position as I have to stop at the midway point, not because I’m tired, but to stretch my back out some..

Food: -1… Yeah……….. Up through Friday I was cruising along… was already at +6 for the week (same score I had last week… already matched and ready to build upon) and was poised to end the week somewhere in the range of +10… I was doing so well that I even let a few peanut m&m’s (-1) sneak in as something of a reward for being so diligent…. Then the weekend came. I really don’t know how to describe it, it was like my brain turned off… Spent Saturday up in Denver doing kid/family stuff and of course my wife wants to have Wendy’s… Well, having already had their grilled chicken sandwich (which I really don’t like) and salad 2x recently, I decide to get a single cheeseburger and salad (-1 due to the cheeseburger..) Then comes poker night, which I had already figured was going to take a hit but was still doing well… Of course, after a couple of beers, eating healthy filters go by the wayside and it just gets ugly…(-1 for crappy finger food, -2 for beers)…. But then it keeps going!!! Come Sunday my wife suggests Chipotle for lunch… Before I even consider the ramifications (out of old habits?) I have a steak burrito… (-1 again…) Now here’s the kicker.. wife wants pizza for dinner!!! Arggh!!! So now is it not only -1 (again!!!) for dinner but that leads to another -1 for lunch the next day by having pizza leftovers for lunch…………

I am totally kicking myself for letting this weekend go down like it did… I am a big “internal locus of control” person as I believe at the end of the day it is ultimately ones own that decides their fate and it is ultimately my fault I let things get all wonky this weekend.. Having said that, it is definitely hard to stay the course when external factors come in to play and you aren’t used to avoiding those challenges… Ironically, I was all up-in-arms that I didn’t get my workout in on Saturday and then I go and really blow the food part of it.. To top it off, I didn’t even have the “mmph” to work out on Sunday as I spent a large part of the afternoon doing yard work… Can’t say I’m at the point where I spend a few hours doing yard work and go on a bike ride on the same day… It was unbelievable how over the course of a couple days I went from “yes!!! I got this!!!” to “what the hell happened???”

I guess the positive in this is that it was a big lesson hopefully learned.. Within that, I definitely learned that I am not at the point where I can “let my guard down” as evidence is strong that I can’t handle that at this point… the poker night was mostly factored in to the overall week but the fast food on Sunday, and ensuing leftovers, really caught me off-guard.. Hopefully the proof in “lessons learned” will come within next week’s report..


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

4-29-14 to 5-5-14: 1 long trail ride (time: 1.01.18, 11.55 miles, 11.3 avg.), 1 short trail ride (time: 45.02, 10.82 miles, 14.4 avg.)1 incline on treadmill (time: 60.0, 8-10% incline, 3 miles), 1 run on treadmill (time: 60.0, 4.5 miles),

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I HATE WIND!!! It seems like it has been nothing but windy around here in the afternoons lately… Even when it doesn’t seem windy by the time I get riding, there it is…. Brought a little variety to the program this week and barely rebounded from the food situation of last week… 

Workouts:
Short rides: Got that 14.0 average I was looking for (14.4 actually!!!) and that was with two things going against me.. First of which was the wind (see what I did there???) as it really affected the “strategy” of the ride as it kept me from using momentum in a couple of spots and forced me to have to work just a little bit more, particularly on climbs where I usually have some momentum… The second is when I stop at the ½ way point and take a break. I didn’t notice until I was ready to start back up, but apparently the sensor on my wheel was right at the sensor on my fork so as I stood there the sensors kept on connecting and telling the computer I was puttering along at around 2mph… I don’t really time my breaks (get my breath back, drink some water, then go) but let’s say 3-4 minutes I was standing there unwittingly decreasing my average…. If I remember correctly from when I stopped, it seems I lost .2 on the average while I was standing there.. Who knows what might have been??? Guess I will just have to do it again…. Overall, I will say it felt really good to hit that 14 average as that has been a big goal of mine the past few weeks… I know there will be a point where I just can’t really expect to keep going up like I currently am but the improvements I am seeing on these short rides are my big motivator right now…

Long rides: Decided to change it up this week as it snowed a little bit a few days prior (nothing big, just a dusting) and I didn’t know if the trail would be dried out, Also, I was curious about a road ride I had mapped out in my head so I figured “why not give it a shot?”.. This… ride… sucked!!! First off it was windy as hell (have I mentioned I hate wind???) the wind was blowing to the south which made the downhill part of it that much easier, it really made the first part of the ride a breeze (ha!!! 2x!!!)… Once I started going north, the wind was obviously in my face but to make matters worse, I learned (quite the hard way) that I was essentially on a 5.5 mile climb!!! Part of the reason I wanted to do the ride is I knew there were some long, steady climbs (I factored in 3 of these) and I wanted to see how I would do on those with the intent of getting in a little better shape for mtn. biking…. The part that I didn’t factor in was that aside from the actual climbs, the rest of the riding continued to be at somewhat of an incline.. To make matters worse, during one of the few points where I got a reprieve and was actually going downhill (into the wind) and should have really been able to coast and gain some momentum, it was so windy that the max speed on the downhill part was 12.8mph… Ridiculous!!! To top it off, combine the wind and the inclines together and you got a fat guy on a bike riding at about 5-6 mph…. that part was just pathetic but I couldn’t do anything about it…..Well, I made it at least and I will say this… I had the opportunity to flake out on the biggest climb of the whole ride (the last one) as I could have gone a different route and avoided it but I decided to stick with the plan and make myself do it… I’m sure in some cosmic way it was rewarding… Here’s the crazy part, I want to do the ride again on a day when it isn’t windy just so I can get a true sense of what that particular ride is really like without the wind and decide if it is worth adding into the rotation…

MTN bike rides: Didn’t do one this week.. This turned into a treadmill day, explanation forthcoming below (relating to yard work)… 

Treadmill: I increased the run split to 2 minutes running /1.5 minutes walking. This was hard, not impossible but hard…. Seems in my mind that I should have gotten close to 5 miles within the hour time frame. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed when it was only 4.5 miles when all was said and done… I’m not so bothered by the fact that it was 4.5 miles, rather, it was the fact that I worked much harder than when I was doing the 2/2 split (2 minutes for each) only to add .17 miles to the total… As for the incline workout, nothing new here aside from the fact I did get stretched out enough prior I didn’t have to stop midway and stretch my back…

Food: +1… Little better than last week but not quite right either… At this time of year (towards the end of the school year), little things just keep popping up and next thing you know…. I will say this, there were MANY opportunities this week for me to have had a worse week than last week. Ironically, there was a lot of effort that went into achieving the +1 so I actually feel pretty good about it. Now if I can just get those “out of nowhere” moments out of my day…. 

I am noticing my easy grading system isn’t so cut and dry as I find myself torn between using “better than I used to eat” and “healthy by every day standards” as the criteria. My original intent was to use “better than I used to eat” for x amount of time then progress to the latter when the former wasn’t cutting it anymore. However, I find I am grading myself really hard and ultimately using the latter as my criteria which in one way is good (have to eat even healthier to get the score) but in another way is bad in that it kinda feels like the bar is too high and gets frustrating… Guess I will keep going and see what falls out…

Now that spring is here, it should theoretically be getting easier and easier to get out and ride.. I have previously alluded to the fact that I am pretty busy (with life in general..) and I have to really, really work to make sure I get the workouts in. New factor emerged last week that I hadn’t really counted on when I started and that is having to do yard work at some point during the week… It usually takes me a few hours to do everything and I have traditionally done it on Saturday. Now that this workout thing is a factor the Saturday workout isn’t so easy… Case in point: Having spent a few hours in the yard last Saturday, the last thing I wanted to do was go for a bike ride… I compromised and forced myself (yes, literally forced myself because I did NOT want to do it…) to do the treadmill incline workout but that was only because the overall time involved was less than a bike ride, and to be perfectly honest, it was the lesser “evil” in that I didn’t have to strain terribly hard (running, climbing, etc..) to actually do it… I am going to see if I can do the yard work on Friday afternoons to free up Saturday but I’m a little pessimistic in that the last thing I want to do on a Friday afternoon is come home from work and get right on yard work…. The good news is my schedule really opens up in about three weeks and these problems will be resolved for sure at that time…

And now to end on a positive note… I was in a hurry yesterday and didn’t pay attention to what pair of shorts I was grabbing… The pair of shorts I ended up grabbing had pretty much been cast aside into the “doesn’t fit” category…. Well, as of yesterday, they are in the “hey!!! They fit!!!” category…. I still have no idea what weight I have actually lost (but am increasingly curious) but I do know it feels great every morning to put on clothes that I used to have to squeeze into and have them feel like they are the right size…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

5-6-14 to 5-12-14: 1 incline on treadmill (time: 60.0, 8-10% incline, 3.1 miles), 2 treadmill runs (time: 60.0, 4.51 miles, time: 60.0, 4.76 miles),

As you can see, the bike stayed in the garage this week. Lately, it seems every afternoon some kind of storm (wind rain, predictions of rain, snow…) comes rolling in which just brings me joy because I sure do love the treadmill (< -- sarcasm…) We even got about 4 inches of snow this weekend… To top it off, that whole “try to move the Saturday work out to Friday” thing crashed and burned as well.. I was going to get it in on Sunday but it seems there was some little holiday called “Mother’s Day” that is pretty important to some people…. Who knew????

Workouts:
Short rides: Nope

Long rides: Uh-uh

MTN bike rides: Nada 

Treadmill: On the first run, I continued the run split at 2 minutes running /1m30s walking but did the last segment at 7mph instead of 6… The 7mph didn’t kill me… Sooo, based on that, (and my aforementioned disappointment that I thought I was going to get more than 4.5 miles last week) I decided to bump my run segment up to 7mph for the entire hour… To not kill myself, I dropped the splits back down to 1m30s running and 1m30s walking (walking/recovering… same thing!!) Ironically, it was really hard in the beginning because I am not used to going that “fast” so I kinda had to work just to keep up with myself (I use the term “fast” loosely because even in my prime I was never, ever, ever considered fast… so bear with me on that…) Of course the workout was hard and I was definitely winded after each run segment but once my legs got used to the increased rate it almost got easier from an “I can do this” standpoint as the run progressed… Of course, I was totally wiped out after the run was over… Overall, I ended that run at 4.76 miles (in 1 hour) and was pretty happy with that. I checked against when I first started keeping data for this (in early March) and I have added over ½ mile (.56 to be exact) to the run within the same time frame (1 hour)!!! Pretty impressed with myself about that… As for the incline workout, I increased the speed to 3.1mph (up from 3.0 mph) and it was pretty amazing what that measly little .1mph can do to a guy over the course of an hour…. Again, not impossible, but the difference in difficulty was definitely noticeable…

Food: +5… Getting back on track… I started to “right the ship” as far as being consistent in what gets me a “+1” versus a “0” versus a “-1” At this point, it boils down to portion size and overall “quality” of the food/meal as being the determining factors. At my current level, I can still manage to get a +1 if I eat something that is “so-so” on the quality (let’s say chicken tacos.. corn shells deep fried, but after that, grilled chicken, some lettuce, a little cheese and verde sauce… no sour cream or beans) if I eat a smaller portion (let’s say 2 tacos instead of 3… or 4…) In addition to that, I am making progress by eating “good” food and decreasing “bad” intake.. I’m kind of getting used to eating healthier options but am curious as to the sustainability of this mindset. Right now I am definitely moving in the right direction as I am most definitely eating smaller portions and I am making better choices more and more (side salads instead of fries, veggies instead of potatoes, chicken instead of red meat, leaner red meat instead of fatty red meat…) For the sake of full disclosure and clarity, I’m not saying I have totally cut out the bad stuff, it’s just that I am in the process of minimizing it and trying to eat less and less of it…… However, knowing myself as I do, I am worried that I will hit the point of being sick of it and revolting against myself. I know it sounds weird but that is the best I can describe it.. I just get to the point where I do something I don’t want to do for so long and out of nowhere I suddenly say “f.. it!!” and revert back to old habits and throw away all the work I had put in… and end up where I am…. That is why I am going about this food change slowly (and if you’ve read my posts, why I avoided the food component for a while until I realized I wasn’t going to get far without it..) I really really (really!!!) want to make this work so the best thing I can come up with is a slow and gradual change versus going all “gung ho” and forcing myself to do stuff that I don’t want to do… which has been my plan all along (well, since I started anyway) and I seem to have lost sight of that lately…

WOW!!! Prior to typing the previous segment, all of those thoughts were kind of a muddled mess in my head… Over the past couple of weeks, the food thing has been difficult in that I kind of got lost as far as judging myself at my current level versus judging myself at a future level. I started down the path of grading myself really strictly (anything less than a grilled chicken breast and salad with calorie-free dressing equals a “0” or a “-1”!!!) and began to forget that I am not currently at that level and need to relax a bit.. With just typing it out, I was able to recognize that I am definitely implementing my plan, it’s just that I need to remember things I am trying to do (keep trying to get better each week, make smart choices, seize opportunities when they present themselves) and keep doing them and focus on the short-term.. The long-term goals will come… in the long-term…. There’s some quote that would be great here… but I can’t remember it… Something along the lines of keeping the important things important or the simple things simple… something like that…. Alas….

Musings: So I’ve reached the point where the mental aspect of the game is really coming in to play (see above rant…) Now on the exercise front. I’m at the point where I am doing things at a level I have never done before or at least haven’t done for a loooong time.. For example, the treadmill part and getting close to doing 5 miles within an hour… I’ve never been a runner (still hate running) so the fact that I am doing nearly 5 miles worth of distance within one hour is mind blowing to me because the FARTHEST I ever ran at once was a mile, back in high school.. and I HATED doing it then…. While doing the 4.76 mile stint I found that it wasn’t necessarily the physical aspect that was keeping me down (which was shocking in and of itself), it was the mental thoughts of “me? 5 miles? Whatever???!!!” that were keeping me back. Once I got about ½ way through I found myself thinking “I can get through this” and I was able to get through the entire workout.. The brain is an amazing thing, I guess I need to keep working on developing the “I can do this!” mindset and keep knocking down those barriers that have held me back in the past. I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times lately I have found myself thinking “that wasn’t so bad” after doing something (e.g., making better food choices, increasing exercise load) and obviously felt better about myself and my abilities afterward…

Here’s to hoping the weather clears up this week.. After typing all of this, I realized the long bike ride hasn’t happened for awhile so I’m kinda itchy to do that and get those extra couple of miles added on..


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

5-15-14
Had a moment today… My daughter’s preschool has something called “donuts for daddies” in which all the dads come in and have a snack with their kids (donut, -1 for “other stuff” today..). The premise is that since they are out of school during Father’s Day, they do it right before the end of the school year.. Part of the event is the kids all made some little Father’s Day presents… Within that, there was a little card where the teacher asked the kids about their dads and wrote down the responses. One of the prompts was “My daddy likes to:___” and my daughter answered “ride his bike and exercise”

Considering my “aha moment” (the moment I decided to start to change my life and start riding) was: “ I don’t want to die of a heart attack or stroke before I can watch my kids grow up;” this really, really, really meant a lot to me. I have to say, it made me so proud to know that I am doing something about my weight and have been at it long enough that she sees me as that person.. Incredibly powerful and moving is all I can say… Not that I was lacking in dedication or commitment before today, but I will say it is through the roof now..

Not to mention, it seems I am also planting the seed in her mind that exercise and being healthy is important… 

What a day!!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

5-13-14 to 5-19-14: 1 long trail ride (time: 1.21.30, 19.01 miles, 14.0 avg.), 1 short trail ride (time: 46.35, 10.84 miles, 14.0 avg.)1 incline on treadmill (time: 60.0, 8-10% incline, 3.11 miles), 1 run on treadmill (time: 60.0, 4.76 miles),

Pretty good week altogether. Got all of the workouts in and did ok on the food stuff. Was on track to do better but the best laid plans….

Workouts:
Short rides: The average dropped down from 14.4 to 14.0. Not too concerned about it as 1) on the table, I was tired… and 2) it was rainy and windy. Learned something new, little drops of rain hitting your eyeballs while you are riding a bike really sting… Never experienced that one before…

Long rides: Bumped it up to 19 miles finally. Did pretty well overall as the legs didn’t get sore and I didn’t feel like I was going to die afterwards. Definitely tired, just not on the verge of collapse…. Had a little deterrent that almost kept me from adding on the two miles; I had approximately one mile left before the turn around and there in the distance some big thing just sauntered across the trail… Took me a second to realize it was a BEAR!!! Not a small one either!!! (not huge, but definitely not tiny…) I know they live around here but have never seen one in these parts.. Not to mention, this particular portion of the ride is right next to the interstate so I was surprised to see him so close to all the cars… Had to think about how much I really wanted those last couple of miles and waited a couple of minutes but ultimately decided it wasn’t lurking off on the shoulder waiting to have me for it’s next meal.. Tell you what, I wasn’t screwing around and going slow that’s for sure… Obviously made it out unscathed…

MTN bike rides: One of the treadmill events was supposed to be a mountain bike ride but that didn’t work out… I was literally putting on my bike shoes and out of nowhere.. BAM a giant lightning strike not too far away.. following that was just enough rain to send me to the treadmill.. again, blah, blah, blah…. 

Treadmill: I continued the run split at 1m30s running and 1m30s walking while going 7mph for the runs. Still hard but I lived. I think my ultimate goal as far as this goes is to hit 5 miles but it may take a little more than an hour to do. Not terribly concerned about it at the moment as the current situation is plenty difficult at the moment. Kept the incline workout at 3.1mph and it was a little easier than the first time around. Now that the weather seems to have officially warmed up I really hope to be doing less of the treadmill and more riding. Of course, there’s still that damn wind and those afternoon rains (I hesitate to call them storms because they really are so tiny and pathetic I hesitate to admit they keep me indoors…) The other treadmill event happened on Saturday, after mowing the lawn…. All I can say is as far as I’m concerned I should get a medal for doing the yard for a few hours AND working out on the same day.. was not thrilled…. Good news is that shouldn’t have to happen again for a while…

Food: +5… Same as last week. Bad stuff first: I blew it pretty good on Saturday (poker night) as we were having a pretty good time and the beers were flowing.. Also had a work bbq/party last weekend. Had a couple of beers and the food choices weren’t optimal (all accounted for in the scoring). The win in this is that I at least minimized how much I ate (hot dog, chicken leg, and small handful of tortilla chips with homemade salsa) whereas I would have typically just loaded up and gone with it (it’s a party right?!) Still cost me some points (bad food, regardless of portion size, and beer) but I got the moral victory in eating less because believe me, there was plenty of delicious looking food there that I would have been more than happy to eat… Baby steps…. The other bad part is the family wanted pizza again.. Similar to the party, I found myself in a “situation” where I had to make the most of it.. still obviously sent me into the “-1” category (just can’t rationalize any amount of pizza being anything other than “-1”) for dinner but I made the best of it by going from 4-5 slices of pizza to a salad and 2 pieces of pizza. Again, not breaking my arm patting myself on the back but am at least trying to minimize the impact of the situation… Now for the success: I did very well in that there were other opportunities to really blow it this week (crazy schedule, snacks in lounge, etc.) and I, for the most part, amazed myself with my newly found self-control. For example, typically when there are snacks in the lounge, I am one of the first ones there loading up a plate… Lately, I have managed to either only grab a literal handful of the healthiest option there, or more likely, avoid it altogether… Another example: Last night, at my part-time job (dealing poker in a bar) I didn’t have a chance to eat dinner beforehand. Typically, I would have “folded” (ha! Did it again) in that I would have blamed the situation and ended up eating bar food at some point. Instead, I ate a granola bar beforehand and a handful of cheez-its when I got home (cheez-its aren’t the best option, but better than others.. not to mention I literally ate about 15 of them..) Also worth a mention, I now only drink water while dealing (a few beers is acceptable) and have even begun to grudgingly say “thanks, but I’m not drinking tonight” when someone offers to buy me a beer…. Incomprehensible by previous standards…

Musings: I am learning that when I am left to my own devices I do much better than when other people are involved and it turns into a group decision. Take all of the examples above, pretty much all of the negative scores I received came when I was within social situations.… Guess that identifies an area I need to work on… Again, would have never realized this had I not been typing this out…. The good news is, my life should become much more sane, beginning Thursday, and all of these random opportunities will be minimized…. 

Have to say “Is it worth it?” has been something of a miracle for me in that I have talked myself out of so many bad food decisions and into so many good decisions lately that I can literally feel my mindset changing every time I do it. Not once have I used it to talk myself into a better food choice and regretted it… not once…. I know my food scores don’t really show it but there is something really good developing here and I really anticipate once my life settles down next week my scores will really take off… 

Final note, actually something bike related: Got myself some new wheels and they should be waiting for me when I get home today!!! Kind of a “need” in that my current wheels are a little squirrely in some aspects and they are the stock ones that came with my bike so they aren’t the highest of quality (everyone I talked to said “replace the wheels!”) but more realistically a “want” because who doesn’t get a little case of upgradeitis every now and then???? So, once I get everything switched over I will apparently be riding on the greatest thing since sliced bread (at least that’s what everyone has told me…) I just hope everyone is right (about upgraded wheels being so great) because it was really a stretch to make it happen…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

5-20-14 to 5-26-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 47.50, 10.83 miles, 13.7 avg.), 1 Mtn bike ride ride (time: 1.27.45, 10.87 miles, 7.4 avg.)

Week was as crazy as I had feared… End of school year, graduations, memorial day…. all that craziness is at least in the rear view now…. And as for those piddly storms I mentioned… Must’ve really pissed off the gods because we got a couple of bona fide STORMS this week… One of which had a few inches of hail, another had over 1.5 inches of rain (which is huge for Colorado Springs..)

Workouts:
Short rides: Did this one with my new tires and wheels.. At the moment, I am pretty disappointed in my big investment. Not only did it not send me blazing down the trail at breakneck speeds, it slowed me down!!! Let’s just say I am really hopeful that the wind was the factor that caused my average to get below 14…. Another issue is I did this ride on Memorial Day… lot’s of walkers I had to maneuver around… and horses I flat out had to stop for because they took up the entire trail….. I will say, it felt like I was flying while I was coming back… At any rate, I want to get a few more rides in before I pass judgment… fingers crossed this was an anomaly...

Long rides: Got cancelled for graduation...

MTN bike rides: One of the most amazing rides I have ever been on!!! Rode with a couple of guys that were way better riders than I am but I am happy to report I was able to hang on the nearly 2000 feet of ascension we did (yes, 2000 feet!!!) Now going downhill was another story… They took off like rockets and it was all I could do to merely try to keep up with them… I will say I now have a better understanding of why people bother with full suspension… It was really fun to have them to ride with: 1) being able to judge where I am ability wise, 2) pick up some tips about how to ride better, 3) not have to worry about where I am going or how to get back.. I was just able to focus on the ride and it was so much fun to do… 4) And of course the most obvious, who doesn’t love blazing down mountain roads and single track????? While going up, I noticed these big berms on a lot of the turns and didn’t really “get” why there were there…. Coming down… I “got” it!!! Had to use the first couple as “oh ****!!!” safety features…. Used the rest for fun, now that I know what they are for… I didn’t even miss having my iPod...

Treadmill: Not this week.. had to watch the kids during allotted time...

Food: +2… Honestly, it’s pretty amazing I didn’t end up in the negatives this week.. I caved in on some opportunities but was able to hold strong on others. I’m not going to get too up in arms about the week. I will say, it’s hard to grade myself when I don’t even know what it is I am eating. At the graduation party there was a lot of food I was unfamiliar with… Seemed relatively safe (scoring wise) but wasn’t sure so I only ate a little and called it a day

Musings: Well summer is finally here so it’s time to “put up or shut up” about my life being so crazy… Stay tuned for that!!! I will say I am going to get in an extra ride today to make up for missing 2 workouts last week.

Had to take my daughter to the doctors office this week as she keeps getting ear infections (ear tubes here we come…) and while there I took advantage of the doctor’s scale… I am down 9 pounds. On the one hand I am excited that I am getting places but on the other hand, it seems I should be a little farther along. When I did weight watchers a few years ago it seems I dropped 2-3 pounds per week (instead of the 1 per week I am seeming to do now) but I hated doing it, the food was terrible. I guess that is what a diet is good for. Reasoning it out: Even though I am not losing weight as fast, I am much happier with my current situation in that 1) I am not going nuts trying to document every little thing I eat (I kinda like my easy system..) 2) I am still eating foods I like/kinda like vs. the crappy tasting food I had to eat then 3) I am slowly developing portion control with the goal of lifelong habits developing, obviously didn’t develop any lifelong habits with weight watchers…..


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

5-27-14 to 6-2-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 45.59, 10.79 miles, 14.1 avg.), 1 long trail ride (time: 1.34.49, 21.03 miles, 13.3 avg.), 2 Mtn bike ride ride (time: 52.26, 6.19 miles, 8.1 avg; 2.41.41, 15.1 miles, 5.5 avg.)

huge week riding!!! got some big long rides in and was also able to improve on the food part as I had hoped. i don’t know why people do it but I was in a beautiful place where I was actually compelled to follow the group and take a picture of my bike against the beautiful scenery. It was then I learned my bike is pretty dorky looking as I have never really looked at it from a “does my bike look cool?” perspective… For the first time I noticed my handlebars (the kind with the riser) and grips (the kind with the flange on the end to take some pressure off your palms) really nerd up my bike… I will say this, my goal is not to show off and be cool, I want to be as comfortable riding as I possibly can be so it is what it is…. In other news, my farmer tan is off to an AMAZING start!!!!!

Workouts:
Short rides: I am so tired of the wind, alas, I am even more tired of complaining about it so this is the last time… I HATE WIND!!!!! Every ride I did this week, where I had some expectation of a target rate, was totally impacted by the wind…. At any rate, I rebounded a little on my average speed and got back above 14 mph average… There is some debate now about how far I am actually riding as I recalibrated my odometer for my new wheels and it seems my distance is a little shorter than previously indicated. Regardless, I am only measuring against myself so it really isn’t that big of deal…… Just a little annoying that it doesn’t add up…..

Long rides: Managed to get up to 21 miles which is on track for what I was wanting to do… Felt fairly strong throughout the ride but kind of ran out of gas the last mile or two… wind…. Only two more rides until I hit my target of 25 miles which I will consider a success! I’ve decided that my target/ceiling is 30 miles so once I hit that I will stay there for awhile… I don’t want to limit myself but I think time wise (over two hours) that should be plenty sufficient.

MTN bike rides: First ride was at the local nature park by my house. Felt pretty good throughout the ride and am trying to increase my skill level by not taking the path of least resistance all of the time. Had fun taking on more challenging stuff but did not have fun crashing two times. I guess it’s kind of along the lines of: “if ya ain’t crashin, ya ain’t trying!” (I by no mean live by that motto but it seems to fit….) Part that got to me was I was climbing and decided to “attack” a boulder and had the front wheel over it then I don’t know what happened but I lost the back wheel and spun out…. didn’t get the feet out of the clips in time either…. annnnd of course I fall downslope…. onto rock…. nothing hurt but the ego a little bit… I will say that it kinda got in my head as far as getting all spunky for the rest of the ride… Second ride was with the same guy that took me on last weeks amazing ride. It was a complete loop around a local reservoir. Really technical riding and there were numerous parts too dangerous (for me anyways) to ride/impossible to ride. Not to mention, I learned that tight/technical single track on a mountainside is not a favorite past time of mine as I have never been really fond of heights and there were many legs of the tour where failure was simply not an option… I will say it was a beautiful ride with lots of scenery you’re not gonna see unless you really get out there and do it (either hardcore hiking, biking, or via boat)

Treadmill: Not this week.. too busy riding my bike!!!!

Food: +9… Improved as I had hoped and improved my personal best by 3 points. This is with my slacking off some as I knew I was having an awesome week. Case in point: After that long marathon ride (around the reservoir) I decided I earned a double cheeseburger and fries from Wendy’s…. I have to say, it wasn’t "worth it” (per my mantra of is "it worth it?”……) First off, I was STUFFED halfway through eating the thing. Secondly, the ends didn’t really justify the means as after eating it, it was more like “man, that was a lot of calories and it wasn’t really any tastier than anything else I’ve been eating lately” I guess that’s a good sign that I am truly turning the corner of eating better as I even told my wife I don’t think I will be eating anymore double cheeseburgers… Also lost 3 more points when the wife said “do you wanna go play poker tonight?” so really could have been even higher… As for the rest of the story. I really find that I am turning down more and more opportunities to eat crappy (formerly delicious!) food and just putting something together at home because I have more time. I’ve eaten a lot of peanut butter and jelly or ham (no cheese) sandwiches for lunch lately instead of eating fast food, even when I’ve had all the justification in the world to make an excuse to do so… Now if I could just do something about those poker nights….

Musings: Started summer off with a bang and I really hope to continue to improve as I did this week. I am TRYING to get myself up and moving and get the bike ride done earlier in the day (complete before lunch) but I am NOT a morning person and doing so is proving to be a challenge.. Let’s jus say, lunch can happen any time in the afternoon… Gonna continue to work on that...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

6-3-14 to 6-9-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 44.47, 10.78 miles, 14.5 avg.), 0 long trail ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0avg.), 1 Mtn bike ride ride (time: 51.54, 6.01 miles, 7.0 avg.) 1 incline on treadmill (time: 60.0, 8-10% incline, 3.11 miles), 1 run on treadmill (time: 60.0, 4.35 miles),

Got all of the workouts in this week but the food score dropped a little. Kinda disappointed that the weather kept me from a Saturday adventure this week as those rides are really fun...

Workouts:
Short rides: Got back up to that 14.5 average for the ride so obviously felt pretty strong and enjoyed the ride. Nothing really newsworthy on this front...

Long rides: N/A

MTN bike rides: Had a good ride and felt really strong throughout which I was a little surprised about! Came up to the spot where I crashed last week and was going to try again until I stopped and really tried to analyze what made me crash.. Turns out, while on an incline (with little momentum), I thought it was a good idea to go up an 18 inch rock (give or take, it was well over my hub on my wheel…).. no wonder that was a fail… It was weird, the adrenaline in me wanted to try again but common sense kept me keep away from it. As previously mentioned, I am seeking out more difficult lines on the rides and it is actually making it more fun and hopefully improving my skill level a little. Within the same park, i am getting better at climbing and am nowhere near as winded as I used to be when climbing.

Treadmill: It was too “that weather that shall no longer be mentioned” (windy) one day so that cancelled a ride and resulted in doing treadmill incline. Got through it and felt pretty good afterwards. Another day, I was short on time to go riding so I ended up running. I learned I really didn’t like the 7mph average stuff + it had been awhile since I did the run so I did it and stuck at 6mph. It was a pretty good workout and I dare say I had fallen out of shape a little bit… Nothing too difficult but it definitely was a workout. Funny thing, even though I am doing a lot of things that are leg based, the absence of an activity (running) for awhile led to a decrease in performance (overall ease, not the performance itself…)

Food: +6… As far as food, in and of itself, goes, I did really well this week… Really sticking to my guns as far as making better food choices and eating smaller portions. The problem is the poker nights…. Since I am on summer vacation I don’t have the “I have to work tomorrow” mentality and instead it has morphed into “heyyyy, don’t have to work tomorrow!!!!” so the beer takeaways are really dragging down the scores, and consequently, the weight loss as well. In all honesty, I was a little worried this was going to be the case and in theory I was up to the challenge of sticking with the routine I have been up to. In practice, some old habits are proving harder to break than others… In sticking with my mindset, I know it is up to me to rise to this challenge but so far I have not done so. Very frustrating because I thought that I was going to be able to do it without it becoming an issue but it’s kind of like starting all over again in that I have to “recommit” to what I am wanting to accomplish but at the same time, this is my release time and has always been something I have really, really enjoyed (hanging out with friends, having some beers, playing cards, cracking jokes all night long…) Kind of a pain when your old interests and new interests don’t get along with each other….

Musings: Really hit on what has been on my mind lately within the “food” section. I will say I ran into an acquaintance this week and he said he noticed a difference right away. Personally, aside from my clothes fitting better, I really don’t see a huge difference in my physical stature but it was a boost that it was the first thing he mentioned.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

6-10-14 to 6-16-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 44.49, 10.84 miles, 14.5 avg.), 1 long trail ride (time: 1.56.47, 25.03 miles, 12.9 avg.), 1 Mtn bike ride ride (time: 48.48, 6.81 miles, 8.4 avg.) 1 incline on treadmill (time: 60.0, 8-10% incline, 3.2 miles), 0 run on treadmill (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles),

Took some finagling but got all of the workouts in this week. Found another way to make the food thing a challenge…. And let me just get this off my chest…. I said I was NOT going to whine about wind anymore but this is absolutely ridiculous…. I finally found a website that tracks wind speeds and reports it for the day… I have been struggling through steady 20mph winds the past few weeks with gusts up to 30+ while riding…. How is this supposed to be fun?????? I have been telling myself that it only makes me stronger (which has helped me get through the rides) but seriously… Can't a guy get one ride in without being blasted by the wind?????? It’s gotten to the point where I have tried early in the morning to avoid wind.. nope, late in the afternoon…nope, midday… nope……. I sarcastically noticed that it wasn’t windy at 9:00 the other night and mentioned maybe this is when I need to go ride and my 4 year-old chimed in “but how are you going to see daddy?” Rant over….

Workouts:
Short rides: Even with the wind, I maintained the 14.5 average… Kinda makes me wonder what I could be doing if it wasn’t gale force out there…. Like I mentioned, I keep telling myself it is an extra challenge and it’s making me stronger and some day… some day… I will get to measure where I am without the influence of wind

Long rides: Was supposed to only do 23 miles this week and then 25 next week but I decided what the hell….. So I have now matched my previous distance record and was able to do so without feeling like I may/may not die afterwards.. I was pretty happy about that because in previous efforts (past years) I literally came home and just laid on the floor feeling physically ill…. Conversely, I came home, took my family out to lunch, and then went and played in the pool for a couple of hours with my daughters…. Pretty good feeling to be able to do that.

MTN bike rides: Did this day after the 25 mile + pool today… Maybe not the best of ideas (thought I learned this lesson before but apparently not)…. I got through it but for full disclosure, it was maybe 2/3 mtn. biking, 1/3 running an errand that I needed to do so the average speed is a little inflated… At any rate… My quads were still fatigued from the prior day. I still did okay doing everything (emphasis on “okay”, not great, not terrible) but the extra “oomph” just wasn’t there for me during the ride. Pretty much fell into the “I did it and got it done” category….

Treadmill: I bumped the speed up to 3.2 on the incline and got through it without issue. Little surprising because when I tried this awhile back, it was “no way am I going to be able to do this for an hour” so yay for that...

Food: +3… Well hell…. improved a little on the poker/beer situation but as I alluded to, I found a new way to challenge myself… Turns out, a LOT of “0” (not bad, not good) scores don’t do much for the overall average…. particularly when the “-1” and “+1” scores nearly cancel each other out. Overall, I didn’t eat terribly, I just didn’t eat well enough to get the better scores

Musings: 
The week: As you can tell from my overall tone, kind of a “blah” week even though I hit the 25 mile barrier. If you think I’m complaining a lot about the wind on these reports, you should hear me live and in person…. It really does take the fun out of riding (for me anyway) and is making me want to not ride… Put that together with the food scores the past few weeks and it gets a little… blah… It’s weird in that I am not lacking motivation or commitment, it’s just that so many challenging situations coming up on such a regular basis and having to overcome them (particularly the “now that summer is here” issue) seemingly everywhere I go is starting to get a little irritating… I guess this is me kind of staring up at that “next level” that I didn’t know existed… I think I may be at that fork in the road where most people have had some success, get confronted with challenges, possibly get complacent, and then fall off the wagon… Rest assured, I am not falling off my wagon, I’m just dealing with challenges I did not really anticipate/have never really experienced.. I GOT THIS!!!!

Food: I mentioned in an earlier post that when it comes to me being the only person involved in making food decisions, I generally utilize much better options than when others are involved.. That probably rings even more true here in the summer time as it is rare that I am the only one involved in making food decisions… In typing today, I came really close a couple of times blaming the situation and others but caught myself and got a better understanding of who really needs to shoulder the blame here…. I guess I need to take that next step and really get adamant that I don’t want to go to "such and such" place for dinner or eat something that is easy even though it will cost me. I also found I was starting to “negotiate” with myself trying to justify things. For example, working out isn’t factored into the food scores so days when I work out and feel I deserve something that is maybe a little questionable (not bad, just questionable…) there’s no reflection of a workout in the overall score on the food side… I started to debate whether I should include working out as part of the food grading system but realized the only reason I wanted to do it was to inflate my scores….. Scoring system stays as is...

Distance: In an effort to get the motivation up some, I looked at my data sheet and calculated how far I have travelled since I started documenting my workouts (in early March). There are about two undocumented months but since I have no info, they aren’t factored in… All recorded events included (all bike riding, running on treadmill, incline on treadmill) I crossed the 400 mile mark this week (404.08 to be exact.) I have to say, I am pretty proud of myself for doing this as i don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere near this much distance… not that I ever counted but I’m pretty sure it’s safe to assume this is a new PR by far…. Now that the long rides are up to 25 (and a little more to come) miles I started to wonder “what will the total be before it’s too cold to do anything outside?” I have the image of 1,000 miles dancing in my head but I don’t know if that’s realistic or not… I guess there is one way to find out!!!

Weight: Because I had such a great week (sarcasm) I decided why not weigh myself???? Well, the gamble paid off because I seem to have lost another 4 pounds since last report so total weight lost now stands at 14 pounds!

Okay, I had my b*itch session and as always, typing this report out has brought me some clarity about what I need to focus on and has also shown me that even though there have been some challenges the past few weeks, I am still on the right path. My food score will be much improved next week… MARK IT!!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

6-17-14 to 6-23-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 44.15, 10.77 miles, 14.6 avg.), 1 long trail ride (time: 1.59.38, 26.02 miles, 13.0 avg.), 1 Mtn bike ride ride (time: 53.13, 6.55 miles, 7.4 avg.) 0 incline on treadmill (time: 0.0, 0% incline, 0.0 miles), 1 run on treadmill (time: 60.0, 4.45 miles),

Decent rebound on the food this week but not as high as anticipated. Got all of the workouts in and tried a new place to ride.. didn’t work out so well… Continuing to venture into the uncharted north… Pretty decent week overall...

Workouts:
Short rides: Still windy but happy to report not as bad as it has been lately. got a new PR with an average of 14.6 and that was with a lot of “traffic” (people walking 3-4 abreast, high school team practicing running sprints, families out riding, etc…) 

Long rides: Bumped up to 26 miles (increase of 1 mile) and was disappointed that I didn’t really get that sense of accomplishment I was looking for afterwards. Kinda strange because I feel like being able to do this is my biggest accomplishment so far… maybe something to do with my mood at the time because I honestly didn’t really feel like doing it when I did it but it was the best time to get it done… Similar to the short ride, it was breezy but not too bad but the one stretch where it was windy was the long straightaway where I expect to cruise along with pretty good velocity so there was some wind impact there.. no big deal as the focus here is on distance, not the average speed. Now that I think about it, I am getting better on the climbs that are associated with going further than the short rides so I got that going for me, which is nice… Onward to Canada!!!! (keep heading north on the trail until I get to 30 miles, round trip..)

MTN bike rides: Tried a new place to ride…. it sucked…. First off, the “blue” trails were anything but…. during numerous climbs I would come to a blind turn only to find rocks and even steeper climbs (with virtually no momentum), but only during the turn… afterwards, no big deal… Did cause me to crash and scrape myself up pretty good but nothing major… Other sections were literally riding down a cliff (okay, 10-20 foot cliffs, but still cliffs…) that I wasn’t about to dare attempt…. The icing on the cake was I saw a storm moving in so I decided it was time to pack it in before it got to me…. Wellllll, as I mentioned, new place for me so I missed whatever turn I needed and ended up going around in circles trying to get back to my truck… Obviously I got caught in the storm so that was even more fun… I didn’t mind riding in the rain so much (once I put my iPod and phone in a ziplock) but 1) the nearby lightning made it a little tense, 2) I don’t like being the guy to put tire tracks in the trail, and 3) I hadn’t really planned to spend the next hour and a half cleaning my bike and oiling the drivetrain… On the + side, I have a REALLY clean bike now!!!!

Treadmill: Added another 5 seconds on the run to make it a 1:35/1:25 split… Did well enough.. Even had enough moxy to bump up the last segment to 7mph instead of 6…. It’s strange how the difference from 6 to 7 is such a big deal… At 6 I can cruise along and be just fine, but something about jumping up to 7 turns it into a sprint instead of a good jog… I’m perplexed about what I’m going to end up doing about this come winter.. Luckily I don’t have to worry about this for awhile...

Food: +8… Got things a little better under control this week as my score is much improved compared to last, but honestly, my goal was to get to at least 10… I even did the “no thanks, not drinking tonight” maneuver to make sure my score stayed at 8 instead of going lower… I had it all typed out explaining where some of the points went this week (that prevented me from scoring 12) but instead of blaming others I will accept responsibility for it… again… I will say this; sometimes you get stuck between a rock and a hard place as far as options go…. Gonna keep working on this so stay tuned….

Musings: 
I’m learning I’m not much into the super hardcore mountain biking stuff (e.g., really steep drops, riding on the side of a cliff) as I find I am more fearful for my life instead of having a good time... I’ve never really been the daredevil type so that stuff really doesn’t appeal to me. There have been so many times lately where I have been puttering along then all of a sudden theres this huge 10-20 foot drop that is all rock that you could literally kill yourself on if you don’t take the ONE, EXACT path that will get you through it. Kinda kills the enjoyment of riding, at least for me anyhow, because believe me, I need options…. Also makes it harder for me to venture out and try new things because the past few times I have played the “ hey, haven’t ridden this before” card, this is what I end up riding...Having said that (and made myself look like some ninny grampa….), gimme a good challenge that isn’t death defying (i.e., gimme some margin for error in case I do screw up…) and I’m all about it.. I’ve continued to work on my technical skills and have been able to implement the use of speed better in that I am maintaining some speed on downhill sections so I can go down some fairly decent drops rather effortlessly because I have the speed (whereas a few months ago I would be going too slow, thus, wouldn’t have the momentum to get through the drops without my front wheel catching) so I am happy about that.. 

Sheesh, had to type this out to realize I set not one, but 2 PRs this week…. Strange how I really didn’t put that together until now… Guess I was too busy focusing on the bad ride and the food difficulty to see the positives...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

6-24-14 to 6-30-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 46.11, 10.80 miles, 14.0 avg.), 1 long trail ride (time: 2.10.43, 28.01 miles, 12.9 avg.), 1 Mtn bike ride ride (time: 49.03, 5.98 miles, 7.3 avg.) 1 incline on treadmill (time: 60.0, 8-10% incline, 3.2 miles), 0 run on treadmill (time: 0, 0 miles),

Stuck with old standards this week (i.e., didn’t try anything new, thus, didn’t hurt myself…) and for once, was able to make most of my food decisions without extraneous influences…. Extremely happy to report wind was a minimal impact but still a factor… 

Workouts:
Short rides: Absolutely no wind when I started and I started to believe it was finally going to be THE day I got the ride I have been waiting for… Well, that lasted for about 1/3 of the ride and I smashed my split time (under 24 minutes to the 1/2 way point) and I was STOKED!!!! Well, I guess all good things must come to an end because the wind was there for the way back and I went from wondering how close to a 15.0 average I was going to get down to 14.0…. At this point, I think I psychologically broke a little bit here as I was soooo disappointed that I wan’t going to be able to shoot for that perfect ride and I really let the mild-moderate wind slow me down, thus, the low average…. I still have that dream of a day without wind…. Kinda feeling like Bodhi Zafa in Point Break chasing that perfect wave…. some day… some day…. and it will ALL be worth it...(apologies for referring to ANYTHING involving Keaneau Reeves…) 

Long rides: Now up to 28 miles (increase of 2 miles.) There was some wind on the ride but nothing to get too upset about. For once, the wind was going the way it is supposed to go (from north to south) so the “hard” part of the ride (going north, into the wind) was actually the hard part and the “fast” part of the ride (going south) was actually the fast part… I don’t remember exact speeds but suffice it to say I was puttering along on the hard part and I was pretty tired after the northward journey. Being fearful that I was too wiped out and not going to do too well on the way back, I happily found myself FLYING (by my standards anyway…) on the way back!!! I knew I had this in me (which is why I have been so frustrated about the wind) and finally being able to carry pretty good momentum for the return trip was, dare I say… FUN!!!! I am pretty jazzed that I will hit my goal of 30 mile rides this week, that is a HUGE one for me. Once I hit this mark, the emphasis will switch from increasing distance to improving time on 30 mile rides. 

MTN bike rides: After last week, I needed a session that was familiar so I stuck with the park by my house. On one front, I am getting pretty good at climbing a certain section I ride with regularity (I actually like going up and down this particular section) but there is another section that is just a looooong, slow climb that still gets the best of me. At this point, I need to stop 2-3 times going up but I hope to get that down to zero… I am trying to figure out a loop that I can ride (i.e., my own personal race track) but haven’t been able to do so without including a section i am scared to ride… Thought I had it all worked out until I found out I was riding a hiking only trail, oops…. Still gonna explore and try to work it out because I am finding that competing against the clock is a strong motivator for me...

Treadmill: Did the incline option this week. Continues to get easier but, based on the sweat soaked shirts, it is still a challenge. Don’t know that I am ready to bump the speed up to 3.3 but it is looming somewhere out there...

Food: Get ready for this……+13… Finally had a week where I wasn’t between the aforementioned “rock and a hard place” most of the time regarding food intake… Conversely, i was making most of the decisions on what I ate and look what happens… (previous best was +9) Funny thing is, it wasn’t even that difficult….. Had some pretty good opportunities to really blow it and really found it wasn’t even a hard choice…. I’m readily ordering chicken and a healthy side now and honestly, am not even missing hamburgers or other bad food that I am trying to minimize… Another change that I have made is I have quit ordering “bar food” on nights that I am at the bar (working or otherwise…) and am instead now ordering a big ol’ salad… Funny thing is, I’m using less than an ounce serving of ranch for the whole thing (sorry, not giving up the ranch…) whereas I used to use 4-5 ounces for the same amount…. Further, I’m even liking the salads…. Now let’s see if I can keep it up…..

Musings: 
As I hit on in the food section, had a great week and it didn’t even really take too much effort, even the exercise part… It seems all I need to do is minimize negative influences and stand firm in my commitment and I’m heading in the right direction. Now I’m not gonna pretend that a score of 13 on the food is the pinnacle of success, quite the contrary actually as the absolute best I can do is +28 but it felt good to make some strides in the right direction…

I will say this, my legs feel…. tired…. It’s weird because it feels like I am continually improving every week (overall) and my endurance is getting better and better but there have been times lately where I feel I just don’t have “it”…. I don’t think I am overworking them as I only overtly work out 4x a week and only the Wednesday-Thursday combination is back-to-back but even with those days off I don’t feel like I am as “explosive” as I could be lately.. It’s kinda like the brain says “go!” but the legs say “don’t worry about it, we’ll get there…" Any thoughts on this would be appreciated….

Never really saw myself as a “goal oriented” type of person but this little journey has proven that to be quite true. I like the little successes of trying lines that I’ve avoided before and overcoming them and also seeing and riding new places (as long as it doesn’t kill me…) but I have to acknowledge that competing against myself is really my big motivator… Improving my average speed on the short rides and increasing the distance on the long rides really seems to give me that sense of accomplishment that leads to wanting to continue to improve. I remember not too long ago I was hoping to average 12.5-13 mph on the short rides and now here I am, ticked off that I fell down to 14.0 this week. Tomorrow is the day I do the “short ride” and I can honestly say, it has a little bit of that “game day” feeling to it….. And as for doing 30 mile rides; that was kind of a pipe dream when I started as I have to admit I had my doubts but figured I would give it a shot… Now here I am scheduled to do it on Saturday Also looking forward to doing that ride this week….. Gonna be a great week!!!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

7-1-14 to 7-7-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 45.19, 10.85 miles, 14.4 avg.), 1 long trail ride (time: 2.27.58, 30.01 miles, 12.2 avg.), 1 Mtn bike ride ride (time: 53.27, 7.25 miles, 8.1 avg.) 0 incline on treadmill (time: 0, 0-0% incline, 0 miles), 1 run on treadmill (time: 60.0, 4.45 miles)

Had a friend spend the week with us so the food took a dip, accomplished some goals, didn’t quite make it on others. Of course, 4th of July brings bbqs… Learned a little about the power of the mind this week as well.. 

Workouts:
Short rides: Pretty average ride as there is really nothing to report here that hasn’t been said before. Did rebound on the average some (back to 14.4) so that was good. It was going pretty slow for awhile and I found I was chanting “make it happen” to myself and that got me moving a little faster. Funny, because it wasn’t something I intentionally did but it did happen.. Still have that lingering feeling that I can do better so I will get it, it’s just a matter of time...

Long rides: Hit that 30!!! Wasn’t easy as I did my best to make it as hard as possible… First off, I “may" have neglected to eat a proper breakfast beforehand and only eaten a granola bar prior to riding and at the 1/2 way point… NOT enough calories…. Secondly, I also “may” have neglected to check the pressure in my tires prior to the ride and only noticed when it was too late to do anything about it (as in “Why am I so tired already?” after only 7 miles of riding… and I don’t carry a pump with me…) Turns out I was doing this on 20psi, when I normally ride at 30… what a difference 10 psi makes is all I can say…. At any rate, it took me all day (2 1/2 hours) but I did it!!! I can only hope that it goes a little smoother next time because I did not have a good time on this particular excursion…. 

MTN bike rides: Went out with bike guru and a new associate this week. Nothing really adventurous happened as we were on pretty tame terrain throughout the ride. The only exception would be one instance where we were going downhill and there was a hump hidden by the grass so I wasn’t ready for a jump and found myself way further forward than I would have liked. Landed front tire first but was able to keep control… barely….

Treadmill: Did the run option this week. Very similar report as the incline report from last week as it continues to get easier but, based on the sweat soaked shirts, it is still a challenge. I could push myself a little harder but don’t really see the point as running isn’t the focus right now and I only do it every 2 weeks (alternate incline and run) so I am just going to leave it “as is” until the biking season is over and the indoor stuff becomes the focus.

Food: +4… Really strange how the “machismo” kicked in a little bit with my friend being here for the week. In a way, I was a little embarrassed that I am doing this and didn’t want him to know so I was letting bad food through the gate… After the first few days I noticed I was going to end up having a really, really bad week so I had to put that machismo bs away and get back on the program….. Then, of course, 4th of july kicked in and let’s just say there were very, very, very few “good” options even available for a couple of days this weekend… then to top it off, we go to Burger King for lunch (1st time since starting this) and I get a grilled chicken sandwich and a side salad… Well, I sure as hell didn’t know that the only way they manage to get any flavor on the thing whatsoever is to SLATHER mayo all over it…… Not doing that again I can tell you that much! Guess I’m gonna have to have another “rebound week”.. again….

Musings: 
I guess this week’s musings focus on the psychology of the whole thing. First off, on my rides, it took sheer will power to make the short ride average happen and to make the 30 mile ride happen. In both instances, the motivation was lacking (especially on the long ride once I figured out the hurdles I presented myself with) but on the other hand, failure was absolutely not an option and I made it happen. I don’t know if I am explaining it very well at all because if you would have asked me if there was a difference between “will power” and “motivation” I would have probably said “no.” but here we are… And then the whole thing with my friend being here… I don’t know why it was embarrassing to me but it was, luckily I caught what I was doing and somewhat righted the ship before I ended up in the negatives for the week (which was a real possibility…) I guess it has to do with the old-school mindset of it’s a girl thing to eat healthy (which is dumb in and of itself but there I was doing it…) I guess it falls into that whole admitting you have a problem thing….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

7-8-14 to 7-14-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 43.58, 10.79 miles, 14.7 avg.), 0 long trail ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 2 incline on treadmill (time: 60, 8-10% incline, 3.2 miles), 0 run on treadmill (time: 0, 0 miles)

Interesting week as it took some kniving to get all the workouts in... Commitments to other things made it difficult but I got creative and kept with the program, at least tried to anyway... Having to type this out while on vacation (and some parts from memory) so not going to be as detailed as normal...

Workouts:
Short rides: Set a new PR on average speed (14.7)! And that was with some wind, not much but some.... I know I have a 15 average in me, I know it! 

Long rides: I didn't get a long ride in this week as I owed a family friend a trip to laser tag (my wife was his nanny back in the day... So he is 14....) My intent was to count the 1.5 hours running around shooting people as the "long workout" this week but it wasn't as strenuous as I had hoped.... Did get some cardio in so at least it was something, maybe 1/3 the effort of my bike ride... For those that are curious, if the zombie apocalypse should ever occur, I will most likely be one of the first to go as I apparently cant shoot to save my life.... Or at least keep from getting shot...

MTN bike rides: I had to watch the kids a couple of times this week so while I wasn't able to go ride, I was able to do the treadmill while they slept...

Treadmill: I didn't feel like running so I did the incline 2x.... Nothing too exciting to report

Food: +6 or 8… Trying to recall the score from memory (don't have my log with me so the details are a little fuzzy...) I feel like I did okay this week but the score doesn't really reflect it... Seems I am in the midst of a plateau at the moment so I have been a little more strict on the grading system... I don't want to do it but I am seeing the worth of setting actual guidelines for scoring to make it less subjective... We're gonna wait and see how this goes for awhile before we go and do anything that drastic...

Musings: 
A busy week really provided a lot of fairly valid excuses for not working out and for having a lower score. I really had to work to make sure I got 4 workouts in and although the laser tag wasn't as challenging as I had hoped, it still had me running around for an hour and a half.. I am happy that I didn't cop out and found ways to make sure I got four workouts in...

The next few weeks are going to be a real challenge for both exercising and eating well.. First challenge will be the family vacation this coming week (actually on it now, thus the lack of having my log handy... And the tardiness in reporting last week.) having said that, we are in my favorite biking location in the whole world (I'm sure there's better, just the best I have ever experienced) so there will be plenty of mountain biking within the next report.. After that, an old buddy will be coming to visit then almost immediately after that my dad will be coming to visit as well.... I'll tell you what, if I can make it through the next three weeks without totally falling off the wagon I'll be pretty impressed!!!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

7-15-14 to 7-21-14: Little different format this week!!! See below...


Spent the week in Grand Lake, Colorado this week which is one of my favorite places in the world and rode my favorite trail in various forms over the course of the week and also rode what I thought was an impossible ride for me (slowly, but I got there!) Since all workouts were mountain bike rides, I’m gonna break them down a bit (and maybe just relive the memories!)

Food: +4 Did okay this week all things considered, I kind of let some vacation specific things happen (smores over the campfire anyone?) but with all of the riding I did this week I’m not too upset about it. I largely avoided all of the junk food we had laying around but there were some fumbles. Even though I kept the portions relatively small, there were some meals that were a “no-win” situation (e.g., pizza, taco salad). Again, group decisions vs. my own personal agenda….

Workouts:
Ride 1: 1hr. 45 mins. 10 sec., 11.06 miles, 6.3 avg.
This was the ride I have been waiting ALL summer for!!! Got to Grand Lake and the first thing I did once we were all settled in was hop on my favorite trail in the whole wide world!!! (had to wait til the next day as we got there in the evening) I’m not saying you may think it is the best trail out there but it is PERFECT in my eyes… It fits my skill level perfectly (a couple of sections are too difficult/technical but by and large it fits me) and that feeling of being out in the middle of nowhere (even though it is right next to a golf course) makes it everything I could ask for, not to mention there are LOTS of signs pointing you in the right direction (something us directionally challenged people appreciate when meandering around in a forest). Being on this trail literally brings me a sense of serenity that I get from nowhere else… A great mixture of rocky climbs/descents, tight/twisty single track, and wide open forest roads give it a ton of variety and really force you to work to do the ride but at the same time, there are only a few spots that are truly advanced… Now, the trail that I just described is only about 8 miles round trip (the last two rides below) but there is a bridge that crosses the Colorado River and the trail continues on into national forest but I had never ridden that before…. Soooo, being all "adrenalined out" that I was in my own personal utopia I figured it was time to find out what was beyond!!! Being close to the river the initial section was pretty dense forest (that hasn’t been killed by the beetles) and boggy/marshy grasslands. Being from Arizona and living in Colorado Springs, this isn’t something I am really familiar with so that was a fun new experience for me. The grass was so thick that it pretty much covered the trail and it was pretty obvious I was going past the beaten path… Once I got through that it was on to a part of the forest where the pine beetles had decimated the trees so the forest service had the logs all stacked up in this little “teepee” village, pretty interesting… After that, it was a long steady climb up a forest service road for as long as you care to go… I did a few miles before I decided to head back and the scenery of the forest and surrounding rocky mountains was amazing… I have to say I was soooo happy with how well I did on the ride! First off, my fitness level was what I had hoped it would be as I was able to maintain what I felt to be a respectable speed and i was able to climb everything that was within my skill level and keep on going!!! It felt really, really, really good to be able to do it as when I did this ride (the first part before the bridge) last year there were lots (and lots) of breaks to catch my breath…. Secondly, there was one section that caused me to crash every time I attempted it last year.. Learning that I haven’t been maintaining my speed when approaching something I deemed to be difficult, I went for it… Happy to report I made it over my little hurdle successfully each and every time! A good feeling to overcome something that was once an obstacle… Now for full disclosure, when I was on my way back and riding the the swampy grassland, my hand was wet and the instant I took my hand off my grip to wipe it on my shorts I found a big ol root…. Have to say, it was the softest, easiest crash I had ever endured… The ground was so soft and muddy but at the same time the grass was so thick I didn’t get a speck of dirt on me, or my white shirt….. I actually had to laugh about it as I was sitting there...

Ride 2: 1hr. 48 mins. 55 sec., 15.75 miles, 8.7 avg.
I didn’t really intend for the ride to happen the way it did but at the same time, once I figured out where I was going I didn’t prevent it from happening either… While driving around doing “forest stuff” last year we found this county road/forest service road that was really steep and very rocky with the smallest rocks being the size of softballs and larger rocks about the size of basketballs (and bigger) all over the place… Like I said, I never intended to try and bike this road but once I was there I didn’t not do it either… I don’t know how long I had to do this (as I didn’t pay attention) but i would assume it was somewhere between 1-2 miles of this… Needless to say, lots of pit stops were required just to catch my breath…. I am still calling this a success because the fact I even rode it at all was way above anything I thought I would have been able to do, breaks or not…. At any rate (ha!!!), I finally got up/through this first part and ended up on rideable forest roads, some of which were public and some of which I think were just there for forest rangers/firefighters… Funny thing is, once I puttered around for awhile I did find some single track there as well and it was really fun… did you catch that part earlier where I said I liked the signs on the trail because I am navigationally inept????? Well that was a little foreshadowing there on my part because I… got… LOST!!! Not that I was aimlessly wondering around the forest (because i was on forest roads after all) but I didn’t know how to get out as the way I had mentally mapped my exit was wrong… I have to admit I was starting to get a little freaked out as I didn’t know how to get out and I had already gone around in circles trying to get out and my water supply was starting to get a little low… (Smartly, I brought both of my water bottles as I didn’t know where I was going so I figured it was better to be overprepared vs. underprepared and let me tell you, if I would have only had one bottle I probably would have gone in to freak out mode….) Soooo I ended up doing a couple of bonus loops of the area before I ran into a photographer and he pointed me in the right direction… I think I added an additional 6-8 miles on to what was supposed to be a relatively short/tame ride but being out in the forest was awesome… As an added bonus, I found a perfect little spot for my daughters to play in the water of a creek while I was out there… (Even more shocking is the fact that I actually found it driving the next day!!!!)

Ride 3: 1hr. 10 mins. 31 sec., 8.32 miles, 7.1 avg.
Well now that I have turned into nature boy and was finally starting to figure out the lay of the land, I realized the turnaround point of my favorite ride (the bridge spot) was literally just down the road of the cabin we were staying at (the wife was very appreciative of this as it meant she could have the truck to go shopping while I was out riding…) so it would be an easy warm up to get to my ride so I figured it would be interesting to do the ride in reverse… I had not realized the second leg (now the first leg) was much easier as there was less climbing in this direction… Oddly, I found the climbing to be easier this way as I was definitely warmed up once it was time to do the climbs when I came back (the original first leg)… At this point I was starting to get familiar with the trail and was able to plan for obstacles as they arose.. This made the ride even more enjoyable as I wasn’t so surprised at every turn and was able to more efficiently plan my lines… Have I mentioned this is my favorite trail in the whole wide world??????

Ride 4: 1hr. 06 mins. 40 sec., 7.82 miles, 7.0 avg.
Same ride as ride 3 above, but I had to sneak this one in the morning we left as I just had to get one more ride in… I even dragged my lazy ass out of bed at 7:30 just to do it (I am NOT a morning person)!!! It was kind of bittersweet as it was almost a “farewell tour” in that I knew it would be the last time I ride it for at least another year…. On the other hand, given a couple of more days I think I would have explored further out and found something new.. Kind of hard to maintain something as your favorite if you have it all the time...

Musings: 
I had a great week biking (as if you couldn’t tell…) and would probably have to call this the greatest 4 ride combination i have ever put together.. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever considered doing over 40 miles of pure mountain biking over the course of 5 days.. ever… Now to be honest, the quads were/are a little sore/tired but nothing that would prevent me from doing another ride in an instant…. It’s all of this riding that made me okay with only scoring a “4” on the food part as I am pretty sure I used whatever extra calories I packed in… 

It’s funny that I find this inner peace whenever I am in Grand Lake, small little mountain town without much going on. I so much prefer this over any of the resorty places (e.g., Breckenridge, Aspen, even Estes Park) as it is so low key (not a single stop light!) where those other places remind me too much of L.A. (also lived there for 5 years…) in that everyone seems so wrapped up in showing off how rich they are… Don’t even get me started on the weather there… 70-75 degrees in the middle of July.. are you kidding me??? that in and of itself makes it perfect in my book, I don’t care how many feet of snow they get in the winter (which I also consider to be in the “the more the better” category)…. And as for the mountain biking??? Fuhget about it!!! There’s not a ton of trails up there but what is there is so perfect in my book that I wish I could go up there every weekend… Even better, I have gotten more familiar with what is out there so I can venture out further next time and really get lost in the woods….

And finally, something from the “you gotta be kidding me!" category… Old buddy is coming to visit from Arizona and we are going to Grand Lake/Rocky Mtn. Nat’l Park!!! If only for a night… now let’s see if I can talk him in to taking the bikes with us!!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

7-22-14 to 7-28-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 48.02, 10.84 miles, 13.5 avg.), 1 long trail ride (time: 2.26.55, 30.02 miles, 12.3 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 0 incline on treadmill (time: 0, 8-10% incline, 0 miles), 0 run on treadmill (time: 0, 0 miles), 1 hike

Insanely busy week this week and it shows in the results. Friend came to town for a few days and that impacted the scores (both riding and food) as I had feared but it was worth it as far as enjoying time with an old buddy... 

Workouts:
Short rides: No mojo in this ride whatsoever…. I don’t know how I go from setting a PR (14.7 avg.) down to 13.5 over the course of one week. A storm blasted in while I was on the ride but even before then I knew I was going nowhere fast… Maybe a “hangover” from the combination of getting a new PR, having to squeeze this ride in, and also finishing my vacation...

Long rides: This 30 mile ride felt a LOT better than the first one… There was only slight improvement in performance (12.2 avg. to 12.3) but I felt a LOT better afterwards as I made sure I ate breakfast beforehand and that really helped. Since it was hot out I also made sure I took lots of breaks to make sure I wasn’t “that guy” that passed out from heat exhaustion… Overall I guess slight improvement with not feeling like I needed to pass out (figuratively speaking) afterwards is improvement… I really want to get this ride closer to 2 hours instead of 2.5 hours….

MTN bike rides: n/a

Treadmill: n/a

Hike: while we were in Grand Lake (again!) I took my buddy hiking on one of the trials I had ridden… I was totally bummed he didn’t want to bring the bikes (he doesn’t ride…) and I almost ended up bringing mine anyways… I ultimately figured that wouldn’t be too cool so I settled on the hike which I kind of had to drag him out to do as it was… We did get rewarded with seeing a moose and a deer but that still didn’t motivate him to get too adventurous with going on a 2-hour hike like I was hoping as I figured that would qualify as a decent workout… Alas, at least I did something physical while he was here...

Food: +3… Between my friends visit and my wife’s birthday it was really hard to stay on the wagon this week. I found there were a lot of times when we were eating out where the healthier options were really limited and what was available was literally only a minor improvement over eating crappy food.. To cap it off, my buddy likes to hang out and have a handful of beers pretty much every evening so the whole time he was here so were the beers… 

Musings: 
Well, Im through week 2 of my 3 week summer challenge (1 week of vacation and 2 weeks of having people come to see us on their vacations) and I have learned it’s really hard to do this when vacations come in to play (as I had feared…) Even getting some free time where I can type this out has been a challenge the past couple of weeks so really being able to seek out opportunities to improve myself have been even harder.. Getting workouts in has also been a challenge and it’s really frustrating as I have been working so hard on this and it’s really getting screwed up right now… I go back to work in a couple of weeks and I’m really hoping that will bring the stability back that I have been working to develop the past few months...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

7-29-14 to 8-4-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 45.04, 10.80 miles, 14.4 avg.), 0 long trail ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 2 incline on treadmill (time: 60, 8-10% incline, 3.2 miles each), 2 runs on treadmill (time: 60 and 60, 4.34 and 4.45 miles), 

Still incredibly busy but due to the crappy food scores the past few weeks I had an opportunity to get an extra workout in so I took advantage of that… didn’t really have the time to get a big ride in so missed out on that so will have to make that up this coming week (already have a good ride planned for this coming weekend..)

Workouts:
Short rides: Got some of the missing “mojo” back this week and although it was only a 14.4 average it felt like a pretty good ride, and that is with a lot of sand on the trail due to recent downpours..... I experimented with staying in my big ring (2x10) when going up the hills and it worked out pretty well as I was able to do it, thus retaining some momentum/speed I was giving away by going down to the small ring… I will say with this crazy schedule I have had lately, and the fact I got the treadmill going again, it seems a positive effect is that my legs don’t feel so tired anymore… I pretty much felt ready to go on this ride 

Long rides: nay

MTN bike rides: nay

Treadmill: Got four of these in this week and as I mentioned earlier, it seems this is helping the riding by providing some variety to the workouts.. Still pretty much doing the same programs I have been since I haven’t really been doing this lately.. I’m almost wondering if I manage to get a better workout in doing this over riding because I sure am dripping sweat when I am done…. Needless to say, there will be plenty of time to investigate this theory come winter...

Food: +3… 3 again…. I dunno… I am always eating grilled chicken something or the other and salads but at the end of the week, here I am… again…. I’m almost at the point where I am ready to go back to work next week just to get some stability back to my week where I can get rid of all of these bad influences and go about my day… I enjoy and appreciate that people want to come visit us on vacation but it is hell on someone who is trying to eat healthier…..

Musings: 
I felt pretty good about myself for getting that extra workout in and it took off a little of the frustration about the food thing, but still frustrated about that nonetheless… My wife has lots of plans for us this coming week so I am going to have to really, really work to get workouts in…. Should be interesting to say the least… Again, I just can’t wait for my life to get back to normal where things happen the way I expect them to...


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## 69clunker40CWC (Aug 12, 2014)

Keep it up, Takes time and attention, you got both.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

8-5-14 to 8-11-14: 0 short trail ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 0 long trail ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 1 Mtn bike ride ride (time: 1.11.38, 8.21 miles, 6.9 avg.) 0 incline on treadmill (time: 0, 8-10% incline, 0.0 miles each), 0 runs on treadmill (time: 0, 0.0 miles), 1 paddleboat ride (time:30 mins.)

Little late on the report this week as the astute observer will notice I relocated my posts… Little better on the food but I did miss a workout and got a flimsy workout in…. More storms came through plus the craziness of taking care of last minute things before going back to work… With the return to "normalcy" within my weekly schedule, I am expecting order to be somewhat restored… I'm sure something will come alongto screw up that last statement...

Workouts:
Short rides: nay 

Long rides: nay

MTN bike rides: Got one in, it wasn’t an epic marathon like I was anticipating but it was still a good ride… Rode a state park under Cheyenne mountain and I really liked that there were no death defying cliffs to navigate and we could pretty much ride… As I have reported with other rides in new places, even though the trail was fairly open, I still didn’t have the eggs to totally take the finger off the brake lever and let it fly… I convinced myself to do it a little bit but it’s still difficult to just let it go when you don’t really know where you are going… Having mentioned death defying… did get to hear a presumed rabbit get killed by something… the screeches were a little haunting… 

Treadmill: A solid run…. I am working on plans to continue to challenge myself with a combination of treadmill and gym work once it gets too cold outside to ride..

Paddleboating: yes, paddleboating… Thought I had a win on this (family time and working out!) as the family went paddleboating and I knew I was going to be doing 98% of the legwork on a 1-hour “ride”… I was right on me doing 98% of the legwork but wrong in that it was supposed to be an hour and the girls only lasted about 30 minutes before they were absolutely done with it… I will say doing most of the work moving a 4 person paddleboat isn’t easy but to top it off, those things aren’t very comfortable to try and pedal in the first place…. Kinda got a workout in here but I am by no means calling it a victory…

Food: +6 Small improvement over the last few weeks scores and if I wouldn’t have made some bad choices would have been a really good rebound. I’m not going to theorize here and just let next weeks results speak for where I am…

Musings: 
Well, I made it through the “gauntlet” but I don’t think I was successful… Just goes to show that this is a long process and even when you have made changes and solidified yourself in some areas, there are more challenges ahead that you may/may not be ready for… I definitely learned I wasn’t ready for challenges that arise when the routine is broken… obviously that is something I will continue to work towards now that I recognize it… I am happy to report that routine will be the order of the day for awhile so things should be on the upswing… Also have realized that, due to all the changes in routine, I have really gotten away from taking 100% responsibility for myself so I need to “readdress” this as well… 

In other news, some anus had a problem with me posting on the “before/after” thread… Technically he is right but I really think he got his panties in a bunch for no real reason…. Kind of came off as one of those “gotcha” moments where someone saw an opportunity to make a point and made it even though it really had no impact on his life whatsoever, except for maybe the fact his success story wasn’t front page news on a virtually dead thread… I was really hoping using that thread would kick start some conversation and get people to actively engage with what I was doing.. I was successful in that to a limited extent because even though there were only a handful of random comments (which were really, really useful) there were 100s (if not a thousand or so..) of people viewing the thread every week which to me would indicate someone, somewhere was interested in what I was doing and maybe getting motivated to lose weight themselves… It will be interesting to see if anyone participates in this new thread….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

SHNIPE said:


> One of the biggest improvements for me was to get out of the long slow distance riding and make sure I was doing some sprints (obviously not very sprinty at first). It kicked my fat burn into overdrive.
> 
> Also make sure you're eating enough. In the beginning I'd bonk because of lacking enough calories


A local writer wrote about this a while back and he said pretty much what you did in that you could do wonders with a handful of full out 100 yard sprints.... I have been doing the walk/run workouts on the treadmill at 3 and 6 mph for 1:30 intervals on each.. Not quite sprinting but up the same vein... In your opinion, would it be more beneficial to do the set program of 3.5 and 7 for 1:30/:30 intervals?

As for making sure I eat enough..... by and large, that is NOT an issue.... pretty much what got me here in the first place... All kidding aside, I do get what you mean, if you read about my 30 mile ride a couple of weeks ago I definitely did not eat enough prior to the ride and definitely learned exactly what you are talking about...

Also, love the use of the word "bonk"...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

69clunker40CWC said:


> I had a body mass index that was a little high but not bad At 5 foot seven I weighed 180. I Retired and started walking and got down to 165 after about 4 years. I also started cutting calories, no more guy lunches at the work cafeteria. I started making my own Greek style yogurt out of whole milk (skim milk didn't hold me). I have a half cup yogurt, quarter cup of granola, a quarter cup of fruit, teaspoon of honey a splash of vanilla extract and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice all mixed together for breakfast every morning. I eat no lunch, but might have a small snack if I am going on a 7-10 mile ride, but not always. I eat one helping for dinner and try to leave a little bit behind. Now the hard part for me was evening snacking. I finally got a microwave popcorn maker at Wally world and make it plain or spray a little pure canola cooking oil on it. It took a long time to loose the snack urge, but I seldom snack now, and don't mis it. I go out to lunch with my friends every Tuesday and Friday. On those days I skip breakfast and have a small salad for lunch. I got down to 161 and for my yearly physical my fasting blood sugar was high. We have diabetes in the family so the Doc told me I was right at the overweight point and needed to loose more weight. I had been riding a bike but on the street. I started doing 7 to 12 mile trail rides 2 - 3 times a week this summer and I am down to 155. But if I eat and don't ride for a few days I go to 158 like nothing. It's hard to keep it off. In November I will go to Deer camp for 2 weeks and eat and drink like a fool, except for the Thanksgiving break where I will eat more like a fool, then there are the holidays and -20 F. I still have to figure out how to keep the weight off in the winter so I can control my blood sugar. I hope this helps others who are trying to loose weight. It takes time. They say weight loss is 20% exercise, 80% diet.


sheesh!!!!! all the way down to 155 and still have blood sugar issues.. that sucks!!! I will say you got jipped in that it seems like you have done all of the right things and you can't even relax a little (well obviously a little but it seems you end paying the price for it).. I am slowly but surely learning about the 80/20 split... I originally thought if i just started riding a lot the weight would start to fall off, not so much.....


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

Nubster said:


> 320 to 238 last year. It was tough. Took a lot of will power and a mindset that I needed to do it for me and my family and continue doing it for life. A little added muscle and a couple hiccups over the winter and I found myself creeping back up to around 262 but I've gotten back on track and back down to 253 as of today. My goal is to get down to 200 or even less so I have a ways to go. Continue the good work and post up. It's motivating to everyone else and can be motivating for yourself as well.


interesting real experience story in that you pretty much made it then fell a little bit... what did you do/quit doing that made you go back up?

Thanks for the encouragement as for the posts being motivating, I appreciate it.. I mentioned somewhere one time that typing these posts has been an amazing motivator and probably the number 1 influence in sticking with it.... well, that and the motivation to do so in the first place, you get the idea....

Thanks for posting and keep it up!!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

69clunker40CWC said:


> Keep it up, Takes time and attention, you got both.


thanks! I still can't get over that you still have to eat so diligently after getting all the way down to 155.... that just blows my mind...


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## Huskywolf (Feb 8, 2012)

Dang son you thought of starting a blog too??? Awesome work keep it up!


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## 69clunker40CWC (Aug 12, 2014)

That is the problem. A few times I got down pretty good high 160s. I was still eating lunch then, but only ate vegetables. Then I started eating a little more because I figured I didn't want to loose more weight. I gained weight. The hard part is to maintain a weight and not to gain. Gaining is so easy, darn, but maintaining it is very difficult for me.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

8-12-14 to 8-18-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 44.25, 10.76 miles, 14.5 avg.), 1 long trail ride (time: 2.17.55, 30.01 miles, 13.1 avg.), 1 Mtn bike ride (time: 24.57, 3.2 miles, 7.7 avg.) 1 incline on treadmill (time: 35.0, 8-10% incline, 1.75 miles), 1 run on treadmill (time: 60, 4.42 miles) 

Had a pretty good week this week and the “rebound” pretty much went down as I had hoped… Implementing some new tools this week and am meeting with mixed results… Friend talked me into using Strava and for “checks and balances” I also started using something called map my ride.. To be honest, I’m not terribly impressed with either but I am liking map my ride better as it has more options and seems to be a little more functional for me… 1st problem is I have to put my phone in my seat bag so I don’t have any way to stop the counters when I take a break, 2nd problem is they both have gotten messed up (stopped/paused for no real reason, I will be fair and admit I probably inadvertently did something…) and not recorded a ride, 3rd problem is because I can’t stop the timers when I take a water break, it makes my averages look really slow…. This one can be debated either way in that you could: a) look at the average for the entire outing with breaks included or b) only track speed and time while actually moving… (I prefer option b because it is more representative of what you are actually doing while engaged in the activity…) and the 4th problem is neither match up very well with my odometer but I think the apps are probably right in this one whereas my odometer is probably just a little bit off (even though I programmed it to my specific tire/rim combination)… Between the three options, there was about ¼ mile difference of opinion on my 30 mile ride and obviously less of a difference but still some variation on the shorter rides… on the + side for the two apps is they are pretty much (not totally) in agreement about the distance and average when compared against each other… I am debating whether or not to get a bike mount for my phone so I can observe as I go…. (Any recommendations for a good bike mount?????) All this when my odometer on my bike works just fine as far as I’m concerned….

Workouts:
Short rides: Had a pretty good ride and am happy to report that for once, wind wasn’t really a factor… I got a pretty good average for the ride (14.5) and felt pretty strong throughout… I felt really good on the climbs but noticed the long “flat” (relatively speaking) areas are where I am letting my speed drop… Need to work on that.. 

Long rides: This went pretty well all things considered.. Set a new PR for this at 13.1 average but all that really shows is I continue to improve as I have only done this three times and each one is a little better than the last… I caught myself sluffing off numerous times and had to really pay attention to how much effort I was putting forth so as not to just putter along.. The last part of the ride out is not a favorite of mine as it is a loooooong sllooooooooow climb.. (so subtle in some stretches you wouldn’t even notice if you were walking or driving a car, but believe me, it’s there!!!!) and that is one of my big weaknesses so I am pathetically slow on these parts…. Conversely, I can cruise along at a pretty good clip (16-21mph) on the way back so I guess that makes up for it… I’m just glad I have to do the hard part before the fun part because if it was the other way around I’m pretty sure I would find some way to avoid it…. According to map my ride, I burn well over 2000 calories on this ride (2200 if memory serves but I’m not sure) so that was an unexpected boost in motivation as it’s pretty hard to thumb your nose at a workout that burns so many calories… I’m not really up on how accurate this is but it seems to me that the gearing on the bike would impact the calorie count in some way… Regardless, this ride takes a lot of energy and that’s kinda the point of this whole thing….

MTN bike rides: If you notice, this ride was pretty short (25 minutes) as weather became a factor… Like so many times before, clouds were moving in but it seemed like I was on the edge of the storm and it wasn’t supposed to come in for a couple of hours so I decided to go ahead and ride… Of course I was having a great ride and really enjoying myself as everything was clicking… Breathing was right for the climbs, I was covering obstacles as intended, and was able to lay off the brakes and “let it ride” as I was riding the park by my house so I was familiar with the trails…. Even skipped a couple of recoupment sessions after climbs… Then the lightning started and at first, it was over the mountains a few miles away so I figured “no big deal”… Then it started to rain a little, no biggie as I was sure this storm was going to pass over within a few minutes but just to be on the safe side I started riding towards home and decided I would evaluate the situation when I got to the trailhead… I was about to the trailhead (and thinking I would still stay out and ride) when suddenly BAM!!!!!! Strike of lightning so close that there was no time difference between the flash of light and the thunderous “BOOM!!!” I’ll tell you this; I think I set a world land speed record on the ride home!!! The distance was less than ½ mile and realistically I don’t know how long it took but I guarantee you I will never be able to cover that distance any faster than I did that day!!!

Treadmill: Since the mtn bike ride got cut short, I finished the workout with an incline session on the treadmill… I was cruising along really well and feeling solid with little muscle fatigue and plenty of breath support which led me to start to wonder “why such a big difference?” Turns out that in my haste to finish the workout I only programmed the speed at 3.0 (vs. 3.2).. What a difference .2mph makes… I’ve gotten to the point where I can do 3.2 with little duress but it’s still a challenging workout. Conversely, 3.0 was just a breeze, very strange… Had another solid run…. Similar to the incline workout, I’ve gotten to the point where I can do the run without feeling exhausted but still get a pretty good sweat going… However, a problem is developing in that even though I just lubed the belt the other day, the belt is stopping when I run, not a very enjoyable feeling… I think I have pretty much worn off the “padding” on the underside of the belt which appears to be pretty instrumental in keeping it slick… Gonna have to get this worked out sooner or later…

Food: +11 The return to normalcy was definitely a help and I’m pretty happy that I was able to put together a better score this week. Once I realized that the week wasn’t shot and I had the potential to come through with a decent week, I found some motivation to continue to get the good scores.. Case in point, my wife wanted pizza for dinner the other night and I flat out told her “you guys can have that if you want, but I need to eat something healthier than that” so ended up with a roast beef sandwich and a salad, of which the only questionable contents were the bun and the ranch dressing… Not perfect but definitely a more viable option than pizza… Over the long-term, I am noticing that I am eating less and less meat, not by design (intentional design anyway…) but it seems the only way to get the “+1” score is to eat something that doesn’t contain much meat… 

Musings: 
Very happy that I got all four workouts in as I had to skip a scheduled workout day for back to school night with my daughter but made it up on Sunday which is a scheduled day off… Also very happy that the food score was better than it has been the past few weeks… These two things together really improved my current outlook on my little journey and got some of my mojo back… I can feel the motivation returning… Having said that, the food thing needs to continue to improve… I’ve turned my eye to how much milk I still drink and have realized that even though I drink skim, there are still a lot of calories in it… I will be honest and say I’m not ready to cut down my milk intake but I have recognized that something needs to happen to get me to that next level… Gonna have to decide if milk is worth it but as it stands right now, I love me some milk…. I think the most realistic outlook it to decide how much is acceptable in a given week and limit myself to that…

I’m not going to break my arm patting myself on the back but I am going to give myself some kudos… Any time I was ever on any sort of exercise routine in the past I always used going back to work as an excuse to take the first (and most likely second) week of work off from exercising as I was just too tired… Not the case this time!!!! Conversely, there were two obstacles in my way this past week (the lightning storm and back to school night) and instead of letting them become excuses I found a way to make the workouts happen… There’s some satisfaction in that!

And finally, over 700 views in the first week of the thread!!! For some reason, the fact that so many people are looking at it is a real motivator for me so thanks to everyone that has stopped by!!! (I’m sure there’s some vanity in that but I can’t pinpoint it….) As I pointed out on the first post, any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated as, at minimum, they are food for thought and at some level I have implemented a lot of what people have recommended in the past and it has been a HUGE help…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

15.2!!!!!!!


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## Adim_X (Mar 3, 2010)

Good job on your journey so far. As someone whom has lost 140 pounds, nothing comes for free and it takes a lot of hard work. Some weeks results are better or worse than others. I have learned it's long-term change in strategy and not a quick win situation.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

8-19-14 to 8-25-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 42.34, 10.76 miles, 15.2 avg.), 1 long trail ride (time: 2.16.36, 30.01 miles, 13.2 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.) 2 incline on treadmill (time: 60.0, 8-10% incline, 3.2 miles each), 0 run on treadmill (time: 0, 0.0 miles) 

Another good week but as always, some surprises that aren’t part of the average week… Set two PRs this week (still not getting excited about the long ride averages but it is what it is…) and continued the upward trend on the food score…

Workouts:
Short rides: As my random post the other day indicated, new PR by .5 MPH (14.7 to 15.2!) Funny thing is in the beginning I didn’t really have a feeling as to what the ride was going to be like because my legs were a little tired from doing incline the day before and I could feel they were a little fatigued.. I will say I pushed really hard throughout the ride because once I got started, I could feel it was ”the day” as there was no wind to speak of and I figured out my problem of not maintaining enough speed throughout the ride. Felt good to hit this…

Long rides: Another PR but as I stated last week, nothing to get excited about as I am just getting better at the ride, not really at a level that I would consider to be worth getting excited about… There was a breeze and I didn’t think much of it as it was at my back for the first ½ of the ride… I will admit I was feeling reeeeeally good about how the ride was going at this point as I was cruising along at a pretty good clip and not really having to strain terribly hard to do so…. I actually got through some of the harder sections and thought to myself “huh, not too difficult today, I got this!” Then came the second leg…. Turns out the breeze was pretty helpful on the 1st leg because now it was straight in my face…. I did okay riding into the wind but it was hard and took a lot of energy but I didn’t let it ruin the ride… I learned that a couple of waffles for breakfast may not be enough calories as I pretty much crashed (energy wise) with about a mile to go as I was out of gas… Conversely, when I did this ride the last time it was after lunch and I did much better energy wise… I might have to switch this to later in the afternoons….

MTN bike rides: Another stormy afternoon so this turned into the second treadmill session… Good thing I kept it indoors because it ended up pouring rain when I would have been riding…

Treadmill: Made sure to put in the right speed this time and got the proper workout in (both times..) I didn ‘t run as I hadn’t “tuned up” the machine yet and I really don’t like that stopping sensation when I run. I did get the belt lubed up and tightened so we will have to see how it goes next time… Fwiw… treadmill belts are expensive… Based on the age of my treadmill (about 10 years old..) I’m thinking I will just run it into the ground and buy a new one… or most likely a good used one when the time comes..

Food: +12 Actually a little disappointed in this score even though it is the second best I have recorded.. I was on track for a “PR” week but my cousin (whom I haven’t seen nor hardly spoken to in 25 years) suddenly announced he was going to be around and I also had a birthday party to attend and there were not very good food options.. Both of these things caused a dip but I guess it is good that those things happened and I still landed where I did… 

Musings: 
Now that I’ve been at it for a while I’ve had a chance to assess my food grading system’s efficacy. I think I have a pretty good thing going here in that it seems to accurately gauge how well I am eating and my corresponding weight change. When I first started the change in eating habits the associated scores seemed to correspond pretty well with the weight I was losing. Conversely, With all of the low scores I have had towards the end of summer, my weight loss has been pretty stagnant… Now that I am getting better scores I find myself suddenly expecting the weight to just fall off and I know I need to temper those expectations because it seems that those results would occur with scores at, or around, +20… So obviously my plan is to start getting the scores up in that range. 

Having typed the above paragraph, tailgating season is now upon us (I go to all of the Air Force football games..) so I’m going to have to figure out how to minimize that impact…. Thing is, not only do I need to figure out how to minimize the food score impact, I also have to figure out the workout situation as well as Saturday is a standard workout day… To be honest, I would almost rather forego the football games so as not to have such a negative impact on my weekly score… Gonna have to work on this…

On a final note, I challenged myself with three fitness goals this year: 
Hit an average speed of 15.0 mph average on a short ride: CHECK
Reach 30 miles on the long ride: CHECK
Log 1000 miles: 794 (I probably have more but this is what I have documented so this is the number…)

I have now met 2/3 goals I set for myself. I don’t know how long it will take for me to hit the 1K but I figure anything within a year timeframe is pretty successful, especially considering this factors in treadmill time…. I will say I have aspirations of getting it done before it gets cold outside… When I set these goals, I really didn’t know how realistic they were (if you recall, I was originally excited about hitting 12-13 mph averages on the short rides…) but now that I am hitting them I have to say there is some sense of accomplishment…


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## astorm (Nov 26, 2012)

This is awesome! I like that this seems to be helping with goal keeping. Thanks for the motivation! I am just over 200# at one point over 300#. My most comfortable was at 175-180# so have crept this past year. Looking to get back down to where I would like to be -- in the 170-175 range.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

astorm said:


> This is awesome! I like that this seems to be helping with goal keeping. Thanks for the motivation!


thanks! it definitely keeps me more focused than without it



astorm said:


> I am just over 200# at one point over 300#. My most comfortable was at 175-180# so have crept this past year. Looking to get back down to where I would like to be -- in the 170-175 range.


losing over 100 pounds is quite amazing... what were your most successful tools that helped you lose so much?


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

8-26-14 to 9-1-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 47.45, 10.83 miles, 13.6 avg.), 1 long trail ride (time: 2.15.48, 30.03 miles, 13.3 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.) 1 incline on treadmill (time: 60.0, 8-10% incline, 3.2 miles), 0 run on treadmill (time: 0, 0.0 miles). 1 gym session… 

Well, the treadmill crapped out… Lots of people on the trail this week and did some things I never thought I would do… Although the results aren’t amazing this week I overcame some obstacles so I’m actually pretty happy with the week…

Workouts:
Treadmill: I got the belt tightened and all lubed up and everything went…. down the tubes… On my first attempt I tried to run and it shut down but I was able to use it for the incline workout… On the second day, the machine would go for about 5 seconds and then shut down…. So now I’m officially in the market for a new (to me at least) treadmill…. Not wanting to be defeated by this, I looked over at the gym I have (and haven’t used for years) and went for it… Wasn’t supposed to start moving weights until it was cold outside but the situation necessitated it…. I was pretty shocked that I found a different way to work out as historically I would have admitted defeat with the treadmill breaking and called it a day… bonus point for me!!! (figuratively speaking) I ended up doing squats, leg extensions, and leg curls… I used really, really, really light weights (so light I refrain from even reporting…) as all I really wanted to accomplish was reintroducing the movements back into my life, particularly the squats…. I can tell you this; I don’t care how many miles you have logged riding or on a treadmill… Those activities do NOTHING to get those inner thighs ready for squats (proper ones anyway, where the thigh gets parallel to the ground)!!!! I offset the pathetic weight amount by doing 20 rep sets and I about exploded after the second set so I had to resort to just doing the motion without weights and even then I nearly pulled something… Let’s just say I was a little sore afterwards and standing up/sitting down was no fun for a couple of days…

Short rides: So the squat session happened on Thursday and I found my solution to my problems regarding the football game on Saturday… Get up really early and do the ride before the football game!!!! Genius!!! Those that really know me find it difficult to believe that I got up at 6:00 on a Saturday morning to go ride my bike but that’s exactly what happened… Personally, I’m a little shocked myself… At any rate, the time was pathetic (13.6 average) but I’ll take it for a few reasons: 1) My body was ½ asleep for the first 10 minutes or so.. 2) my legs were INCREDIBLY sore so just getting them moving was good enough for me as I was just really wanting to get the soreness out 3) many, many, many runners and walkers sharing the trail in the early morning…. Most of which don’t pay the least bit of attention to anything besides their conversation or their ipod (more on this later in the musings…) 

Long rides: I continue to inch those PRs up 1/10th of a mile at a time, currently up to 13.3…. Ride was very similar to the last one in that the wind was helpful pushing me on the first half and was a big pain on the way back.. However, I found myself at peace with the situation this time (e.g., I didn’t get annoyed that it was windy) because I knew it was supposed to be windy so I just accepted it.. Really helped with the mindset throughout the ride.. I ate a bigger breakfast and also a granola bar at the ½ point and that really helped me with the energy factor towards the end of the ride as I was able to finish fairly strong all things considered… I was wiped out after the ride but the situation was better than last time.. After eating lunch and then taking my daughter to the pool and playing with her in the water for about an hour and a half I actually felt pretty good… I dare say I’m starting to develop a little fondness for this ride whereas I pretty much hated it before… just a little though…. Have I mentioned the runners and walkers yet?????

MTN bike rides: More afternoon storms drove it inside again, I noticed I haven’t had a mtn bike ride in a few weeks now so I really hope the clouds will stay away this week, particularly since I don’t have a treadmill at the moment…

Food: +10 Considering all that happened this week, I will take the “10” and go with it. I found a pretty crafty solution to my tailgating food quandary.. Grilled chicken, baked beans, and fruit!!! Pretty proud of myself for crafting that little menu instead of just giving up and eating a bunch of crappy food… Would have been even better had I actually brought the baked beans instead of forgetting them at home…. I did eat a handful of chips and dip but it was literally one handful… Now for full disclosure, of course beers were flowing (all accounted for in the points) but I made it light beer so as to not totally ruin the program completely… baby steps…. On the other side of life, my wife got some chicken alfredo… Enough to have for dinner and left overs.. yayy!!! As for the rib fest on labor day… I got a small moral victory by at least keeping the servings small, and no beer… Still dinged me on the point system… Couple of similar situations also popped up but I’ve already covered that in previous posts (only options available causing me to lose points)…. I guess an appropriate goal is to get to +15 on a consistent basis… then get to the +20… 

Musings: 
For as complicated as the week was (busy schedule, tailgating, labor day, treadmill breaking), I will take it because it could have been a lot worse… To that point; I actually feel pretty good about the week because even though there were so many challenges, I actively sought out opportunities to at least reduce the impact of those challenges. I really didn’t emphasize how monumental it is that I got up early to ride on Saturday but that would have never happened before… I will admit I am pretty proud of myself for making it happen… And as for just eating grilled chicken at the tail gate, historically I would have just gone with the flow instead of trying to find healthier alternatives… So yes, the score was “okay” but with all the lifestyle changes that went in to making that score it really shows that I am genuinely making changes to how I eat. 

Now for the new “friends” I am meeting on the trails….. I am learning why runners/hikers don’t really like riders and vice versa… For some reason, there were 100s of people on the trail this weekend, 98% of which were hikers/runners. In my view, the trail is like driving on a highway.. You travel on the right and pass on the left (more middle than left..) then get back to the right side… Of course, this only applies to big wide trails (in this case about the width of a wide car lane), not single track or anything like that… I can’t even begin to describe how many times I nearly got in a major crash because people simply weren’t paying attention!!! I’m going to relay 3 stories just to get it off my chest!!! First: On the early AM ride on Saturday morning, a pack of women were walking 5 wide on the trail (yes, 5 wide, across the entire trail..) From 30 yards out behind them I yell “on your left!”, 20 yards out same thing, 10 yards out same thing… I am finally right behind her, having lost all momentum and slowed to their walking pace, and am about to reach out and tap her on the shoulder when her friend finally notices me and grabs her by the arm and pulls her over.. She was so entrenched in her ipod she had no idea I was there… Secondly, same ride… a pack of middle school boys (presumably a cross country team) were training and there were about 20 of them jogging in little packs.. of course one pack is all the way over on “my” side of the trail.. Similar to the first anecdote, I start trying to get their attention from about 30 yards out… 20… 10… Different is that I am coming at these boys head on, not from behind… There is one boy that is preventing me from getting by (whilst still being on the trail) and I can see he is 90% asleep…. From about 10 feet away I yell “dude!!! Wake up!!!! Only then does he look up and see I am riding right towards him and manages to give me the slightest little sliver of trail…. Third, I am on mile 29 of my 30 mile ride… It’s me and Mr. Runner and I am approaching him from behind.. for some reason, he is running on the rocks (off the path at this point) on the FAR left side of the trail… I give him the same announcements I gave everyone else… 30, 20, 10… He doesn’t hear me and suddenly moseys over onto the trail (still left side).. At this point, I decide to just pass him on the right as he is totally oblivious to my presence.. Of course, he decides to start merging to the right and is on a direct collision path with me (keep in mind, we are the only two people in the area at this point…) So knowing he didn’t hear me when I announced myself before, I screamed “DUDE!!!!” right as he was running into me.. At this point I had already jammed on my brakes to prevent us from crashing and only now did he hear me… He nearly sht himself and almost fell over once he saw me but I was nearly stopped at this time…..

Now I’m not gonna say I’m a perfect angel on the trails as I also ride with my ipod… However, I keep the volume low (so as to hear someone) and make sure to stay to the right and I always (well, almost always) look when I change my trajectory (either to pass someone or to avoid obstacles etc.) Is this such a hard thing to do????? To top it off, the dirty looks I get from hikers (not so much from the runners) when they are the ones meandering all over the path and also traveling 3-5 abreast, thus preventing anyone from passing them or at the very least making it very difficult, just astounds me…. Okay, rant over, I feel better….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

9-2-14 to 9-8-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 41.56, 10.82 miles, 15.5 avg.), 0 long trail ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 1 Mtn bike ride (time: 47.16, 5.91 miles, 7.5 avg.) 0 incline on treadmill (time: 0.0, 0% incline, 0 miles), 0 run on treadmill (time: 0, 0.0 miles). 1 gym session… 

One of those weeks where nothing really goes as planned, particularly over the weekend.. Lots of weather (rain, not a lot of it but enough to get, and keep, the ground wet…) Good experiences on the bike… Had to cancel a planned workout and then lost a scheduled day due to a day up in Denver (including a treadmill purchase!!!) so only got 3 workouts in but that could have easily been only 2 workouts but I wasn’t going to let that happen… And have to come clean about some workout details…

Workouts:
Treadmill: Bought a “new” treadmill this weekend and it pretty much took all day which is one reason the 4th workout didn’t happen.. I decided to get a used “commercial” treadmill that has been updated (belt and deck replaced, tuned up…) so I basically should be good to go for the rest of my life…. Thing weighs something like 400 pounds (literally) so getting it down to, and into, my basement was quite the workout in and of itself… It’s there, just got to make sure it is set up correctly and will hopefully have something good for the next report….

Short rides: 15.5 average!!! (up from previous PR of 15.2), and this is with some (just a little) wind!!! Honestly, I thought the 15.2 was going to stand until at least next year as I really didn’t think I had it in me to go any higher right now so I was a little surprised when the average kept going up throughout the ride. Of course, once I realized I had the potential to set a new PR that really got me going to work for it…. It was one of those days where everything just felt right… Legs felt good, breathing was right, very few people on the trail, songs on the ipod were right… Stars were pretty much lined up for this one.. I’ll take it!!!

Long rides: Had something special planned for this on Friday and I even took the day off work to do it… Alas, a few rain storms Thursday night into Friday morning cancelled it. The ride is rescheduled for this Saturday so hopefully the weather will cooperate this time around… Stay tuned….

MTN bike rides: Similar to the short ride, stars were pretty much lined up for this one as well because everything felt great on this ride… My big accomplishment for the ride is I made it up a particularly difficult 1/4-1/3 mile climb without stopping.. I’ve never done this particular climb without having to rest as it has always KILLED me so I was pretty happy with this… On top of that, I found it in myself to keep going once I got to the top of the climb!!! I also finally mapped out my “track” through the park but wasn’t able to avoid “hike-a-bike” for one small section, guess it has to be… The “track” has a pretty good mix of climbs and descents so it will be a good workout + it will have some entertainment value as it includes all the fun stuff… I’m actually pretty excited about this as I have been wanting to do this for a while…. 

Gym: (The lack of a treadmill this past week caused me to get started on the gym portion of this journey a little earlier than I anticipated (before it is cold outside)… I figured I have already gone through the painful part (soreness) so I might as well keep with it… So with that, the “gym” section of my weekly novel is getting added…) 

Before the gym report…. here’s the admission: Alright, I copped out last week (actually the past few months) because it was quite frankly embarrassing to admit how pathetic my strength levels were/are… Over the past week, I thought about it and realized that it was pretty ironic (and lame) that I am putting myself out there about my weight but then got embarrassed about how weak I had let myself become… Sooo, guess I gotta come clean… First off, quite some time ago, I realized I should probably add some sit-ups into the mix… I initially didn’t report them because I could only do 10 sit-ups before I lost all semblance of reasonable form (e.g., arching back, kicking my legs, etc…) yes, 10…. Pretty sucky… In keeping with my motif of slow and steady improvement, I added one more sit up each day I worked out … Fast forward a few months… I am now up to 92 with the goal of getting to 100… Secondly, once the sit-up thing started to take off, I figured, “time for some push-ups!!!” Soo, having never been good at push-ups in the first place (emphasis was always benching heavier weight with less reps… way back when mind you…) I sucked up the pride and started with 25 “easy” push-ups (knees as the fulcrum.) I was able to go up about 5 per day doing them this way and once I got to 50 I added in “real” push-ups… I started with 40 “easy” push-ups and 10 “real” push-ups and have tried to take one away from the “easy” set and add it to the “real” set (e.g., 39/11, 38/12, 37/13, etc.) each session. The “real” push-ups are quite challenging and as a matter of fact, I was stuck at 25 for 4-5 sessions as I physically couldn’t do any more… I kept at it and am currently at 22 “easy” push-ups and 28 “real” push-ups… My goal is to get to 50 “real” push-ups then see where I go from there… I’m still pretty embarrassed at how low my tolerances were but I am pretty happy that my plan is working and I am making improvements in these areas…

Now that that’s out of the way…. On to the gym workout… My ultimate goal with the gym part is to really bridge the winter until I can ride again (consistently) next spring while keeping myself in reasonable shape… I’m not of the mindset where I need to put on muscle and turn in to a power lifter... Conversely, I just want to get an aerobic workout to provide workout variety and regain some overall strength (I’m not gonna lie, I am looking forward to actually being able to move some real weight around someday…) so the focus will be high reps with lower weight…. Keeping all of that in mind, my intent is to do a simple upper and lower body workout and continue with the treadmill.. Upper body: bench press, curls, and tricep extensions. Lower body: squats, leg extensions, and hamstring curls. In theory, those workouts combined with the treadmill will carry me through the winter….. So here’s how it will look (for the record, I am working this out as I type so I am putting all of this in the weekly report to see how it works… and so I can refer to it later if need be, apologies if this makes the report run long):

Gym: 1 leg workout (squat: 4/20/95; LE: 4/15/70; Ham: 4/12/45); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 3x, 22/28; sit-ups: 3x, 92

So for the workouts, the first number is the total sets, second number is reps per set, third number is weight used. For the push-ups, 3x = 3 times this week, first number is “easy”, second number is “real.” I think it will be easiest to simply report the highest number I achieved for the week (vs. how many each time). For the sit-ups, how many times I did them this week and highest number achieved… Now on to the actual report:

Had to work this one in as I had a meeting at my “real” job and had limited time before my part-time job. The squats felt a LOT better this week when compared to last and my inner thighs didn’t feel like they were going to explode. Gonna add a little more weight next time (again, emphasis is on gradual increases…) Leg extensions were fairly straightforward so also need some more weight. Leg curls, weight is good for now. Push-ups felt reasonably good and I was able to keep form for the entire 28 reps… onward and forward… Sit-ups are going according to plan…

Food: +10 Similar to last week, there were a lot of obstacles to getting a better score.. I continue to amaze myself in that there ALWAYS seems to be some kind of situation that throws it off somehow.. I flat out asked my wife this week “Do you want a fat husband???” and to that she replied that she didn’t think I was fat (keep in mind, I started this weighing in at 254… and not an athletic 254 either…) So with that, I’m pretty much in this routine of eating as healthy as I can when I am by myself but when it comes to dining with my family that is where I lose a lot of my points….. I’ve been trying to address this for a few weeks (months?) now but haven’t found that happy median yet… I guess I’ll continue working on it as I REALLLY want to get to that +15 I mentioned…

Musings: 
Phew!! Didn’t plan on writing a novel when I sat down to write this but here we are…. Since the body of the report is so long I will keep this short and just say I feel really good about the workouts and motivation is on a huge upswing.. I will get to 15 on the food score, I will get to 15 on the food score, I will get to 15 on the food score…..


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

9-9-14 to 9-15-14: 0 short trail ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 1 long trail ride (time: 1.06.38, 15.92 miles, 14.3 avg.,), 1 Mtn bike ride (time: 2.40.07, 25.79 miles, 9.7 avg.) 1 incline on treadmill (time: 60, 2.56 miles), 0 run on treadmill (time: 0, 0.0 miles). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 3x, 21/29; sit-ups: 3x, 95


Had a fairly decent week, kinda middle ground all around… Got to use the treadmill (once) and it didn’t go as planned… I finally did the “bucket list” ride that I alluded to last week and it was almost the end of me…. Along those lines, injuries forced the cancellation of the 4th workout of the week…

Workouts:
Treadmill: Tried to do an incline workout but it proved pretty worthless as all I managed was 2.56 miles over the course of an hour… I obviously don’t know the machine very well and I was trying to increase the speed (and the incline) but I wasn’t doing it right so I ended up just puttering along… According to the heart rate monitor I didn’t even get my heart rate over 100bpm which doesn’t even really qualify as exercising…. Got the manual afterwards and I think I figured out why I couldn’t increase the speed so hopefully I won’t have to crawl along like this again… On the + side, the treadmill feels really sturdy….

Short rides: Didn’t get one this week as it kinda turned into a hybrid of a short/long ride so I put it in the long ride category.

Long rides: Rode down to the short ride starting point, did the short ride, then continued on to my daughter’s soccer game (ha!!! Got the ride in and made it to the game in time!!!) I felt pretty slick that I was able to find a way to work out and still make it to my daughter’s soccer game and I was actually right on time when I arrived… Solved that logistical problem I did!!!! As for the ride, nothing too exciting, it was pretty windy so the 14.3 reflects that…

MTN bike rides: Took a ride down Pikes Peak on Saturday.. yes, THE Pikes Peak!!! Took a van to the very top (14,110 feet!) and started from there… 
Stage 1: the first 2.5 miles were on the road.. First off, it’s a road that was built on to the side of a mountain…. Incredible views but who has time for that when you are riding 30-40mph on a mountain bike on a mountain road with hairpin turns in sub 30 degree weather with wind gusts upwards of 30mph???!!! I’m just glad my brakes worked and my wheels are true…. It was pretty scary going that fast in the wind and it literally blew me sideways a few feet on occasion (I don’t know how people ride motorcycles in windy conditions.. seems to me they would get blown over!!!) I made sure to hold on tight as there was little-no room for error as there was nothing there to prevent you from tumbling down the mountain if you went over the edge..
Stage 2: Got on the trail, still above tree line and there was literally a single-track path (maybe a foot wide?) etched out of the side of an otherwise very steep slope. The good news is this particular mountainside blocked the wind so the weather improved dramatically at this point… The bad news is I don’t like heights and I’m not an adrenaline junkie so yes, I was terrified… All I could do was look straight ahead and make sure I stayed on the path… I kept thinking to myself; “If you fall over, fall right.. If you fall over, fall right…” because falling left would have resulted in careening down a huge mountain slope of nothing but granite rocks…. To top it off, there were a couple of sections where you had to dismount and go over some boulders… Luckily the trail was a little wider at these points… 
Stage 3: Okay, made it to the trees.. who would have thought that the option of crashing into trees would be a relief????? At this point, the weather was beautiful (70 some degrees, no wind, all sunshine) so we got rid of all of the winter clothing and proceeded on our journey… This was the longest portion of the ride and the trail was steep and rocky but manageable… There were a few “hike-a-bike” sections and still some cliff side sections but at this point I had accepted that there was really nothing I could do about it... 
Stage 4: Got to the point where there are some trail options which are pretty popular and had to go down a trail mainly (pretty much exclusively) used by hikers. Our goal was to minimize this and stay off the beaten path so as to minimize hiker interaction so as not bother them and not have them bother us… Well, the trail we were going to use was pretty much washed out so we ended up having to share anyway… The trail itself was fast with a lot of roots, rocks, and railroad ties that resulted in some pretty good drops/technical sections… I had to find that “happy place” whereas I carried enough speed to get over the obstacles but wasn’t going so fast so as to be out of control… It was nerve-wracking but I have to say, I am pretty proud of myself for how well I did because I can’t even begin to tally the number of times I thought to myself “Oh sh!t, just go straight and get the front wheel up!!!!” I managed to make it through some pretty intense sections but I still traveled at a much slower pace than my two counterparts…. In retrospect, had I even thought to lower my seat, it would have been a LOT easier to go through the difficult terrain… If I had only thought about it…. 
Stage 5: Made it to where we could use a connecting service road to get to the trail they wanted to be on.. Thing is, this resulted in about a ½ mile hike uphill (up mountain???)… This actually was relieving to me as I could relax and not fear for my life for a little bit…. Ahhh, the serenity of walking a bike uphill for a ½ mile in biking shoes… who knew this could be so relaxing?????
Stage 6: Last mountain biking section… This consisted of a very long, VERY steep, VERY rocky service road… Had I only thought to drop my seat… The other two guys thought this was great and they flew down this… I, on the other hand, thought it would be a good time to see how hot my brakes could get (I said VERY steep!!!) and it turns out you can get your mtn bike breaks hot enough to steam water when poured on the rotors…. And hot enough to give out completely…. Alas, slow and steady…. So we’re getting towards the end and the road seems “easier” than anything I have been on all day, and I feel bad about the other guys having to wait for me so much, so I let off the brakes a little…. Of course, I find myself in a bad line and try to alter my trajectory and next thing I know I’m sliding through the rocks…. Without my bike… No big deal, couple of scrapes but all-in-all I feel okay as far as crashing on a rocky road goes…. Well, I get up, dust myself off, and keep on going.. Little tired, little beat up from the crash and ready to be done as I know we are only a short distance from finishing… Lo and behold, I let the speed get up again and once again, I find myself on a trajectory I don’t like so I try to change it by getting out of the “rut” and taking a different line… Once again…. But this time I was apparently going faster because I slid a LOT further and crashed MUCH harder…. So now both my legs are all scraped up and bleeding and I also punched myself in the ribs with my handlebars this time so I have to sit there and regroup for a minute… I finally catch up with them and they make sure I am alright and we make it through the gate..
Stage 7: I have openly stated I don’t like riding on the road because I don’t trust drivers… So, of course, the final leg of the ride (to get us back to our trucks) entails riding down a highway that goes through a mountain pass (twisty/curvy…) and has little-no room for bikes on the side… Of course!!!! After this day where I am scared out of my wits for hours on end, why wouldn’t I get to ride alongside cars going 60mph on a twisty mountain road???!!! All in all it wasn’t that bad but breathing and riding was pretty difficult as my ribs were really hurting… Finally made it to our destination…. Further inspection upon arriving home reveals 7 road rash sites of varying degrees of depth… obviously the legs got the brunt of it but the arms, shoulders, and back did not escape unscathed… However, the ribs are really sore… remarkable how much you use those rib muscles throughout the day…..

Gym: no gym.. kept on track with push-ups and sit-ups… 

Food: +12 I sure am eating a lot of salads to only end up at 12 points for the week... I looked through my numbers and have found that it’s not really a whole bunch of “minuses” that are keeping me down, rather, it’s the number of “zeroes”…. Need to get more diligent about those details that are taking the “+1” scores down to “0” 

Musings: 
My wife asked me if I had fun riding down the mountain and after thinking about it, I honestly told her that I was too scared to really have any fun… Kind of a bummer but it is what it is… Like I said in the opener, it is/was a “bucket list” item and I don’t think I will be Riding down Pikes Peak again… Having said that, I’m coming to find out I’m more of a cross country rider as the crazy stuff really doesn’t appeal to me… Sure, I like to do some technical stuff (I’m really impressed with some of the stuff I made it through on the Pikes Peak ride!!!) but when serious injury is staring me in the face, I prefer to not put myself in that position.. I will say my riding buddy did give me some kudos for doing the ride on a hard tail and he commented that he was pretty impressed with how “well” I did (relatively speaking of course) so that did boost the ego and spirits a little… I really regret not thinking of dropping my seat down because I really think that would have helped tremendously….

I’m really hoping the body recovers quickly because I don’t want to fall out of the routine while I recuperate.. I can deal with all of the road rash stuff but the bruised ribs are what’s really keeping me out right now… Sitting up/down and especially laying down and getting up are quite painful at the moment… I’m hoping to at least get some treadmill work in tomorrow but will have to wait and see…

More and more people are commenting that I look “healthier” I guess that’s a nice way of saying not so fat… My x-large shirts are fitting better and pretty much look appropriate on me now… Kinda strange because I have “mental associations” with shirts (“oh, I don’t like that one because it’s too tight”) but try them on and they now fit better…. Aside from knowing my clothes fit better, I don’t know that I really see a huge difference when I look in the mirror (I see some change, but not what I’m striving for)… I’m using that as a motivator to keep moving forward….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

9-16-14 to 9-22-14: 0 short trail ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 0 long trail ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.,), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 3 incline on treadmill (time: 60, 3.0 miles; time: 60, 3.0 miles 1168 vert.; time: 60, 3.0 miles 697 vert. ), 0 run on treadmill (time: 0, 0.0 miles). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 0, 21/29; sit-ups: 0, 95

Spent the week recovering from aforementioned crash… Road rash sites are healing nicely (thank you Neosporin!) but those bruised ribs are something else… The ribs feel better each day but overall they are still limiting my overall range of movement, thus, limiting my workout options… Therefore, all workouts this week were done on the treadmill as I just didn’t feel my ribs could handle a bike ride… Alas, gave me some opportunity to get better acclimated to the machine... I wasn’t able to even consider doing anything until Saturday (soreness in ribs) so the fact I did 3 workouts is a feat in and of itself… Almost made my food goal… almost….

Workouts:
Treadmill: The workouts, in and of themselves, were pretty easy and I have figured out the only way I can replicate my old workout routine is to do it manually… Not really a desirable option… The one workout I did this way (manually adjusting incline every minute) netted an overall incline of 1168 feet… The workout where I finally quit trying to adjust things and just let the machine do its thing only netted 697 feet… Basically learned I need to buy a heart rate monitor to really use the machine effectively….

Short rides: N/A

Long rides: N/A

MTN bike rides: N/A

Gym: yeah right…. Until yesterday I couldn’t even stand up or sit down without my whole left side sending me into a tizzy..…. 

Food: +14 Started the week strong and the wheels came off a little at the end… Don’t get me wrong, +14 is a pretty good score (PR I believe…) but I feel I really should be hitting at least 15 on a regular basis… I did have a “come to Jesus” with my wife about how I really want to be successful in this and her wanting junk food all the time really doesn’t help… She seems a little more “empathetic to the cause” so hopefully these revelations will get me some more points… 

Musings: 
Really bummed that the ribs are keeping me from working out like I have become accustomed to… Not that I’m any kind of fitness star but I am at fitness levels I haven’t seen since high school… Specifically: 1) I was really excited that I was going to hit 100 sit-ups this week… kinda one of those milestone things… 2) It’s gonna take a lot of work to get the push-ups back… I don’t even know how long it’s gonna take for the ribs to feel like I can do them again… 3) Even more so, I am super bummed that this has cost me about 40 miles on my bike this week, with the possibility of more… The weather is definitely changing and time is running out on my chances to hit 1000 miles before it gets cold outside… This is my BIGGEST goal right now…

I have figured out that the philosophy of my “new” treadmill is much different than that of my old treadmill. I was driving myself nuts trying to get the machine set to act like the old one … On my old treadmill, I could set a desired speed on the incline options and that was that, speed wouldn’t move regardless of incline…. On the new one, it is designed to modify speed depending on how steep the incline is (higher incline = less speed and vice versa..) so once I got to the higher incline percentages (10% +) I was literally puttering along at 2.0 mph… not much of a workout as my heart rate still never went above 100… Then there’s the other side… once the incline went down, the machine wanted me to run…. Not that I am opposed to running (well, I am this week.. but overall…) but my old treadmill conditioned me into the mindset of: incline workout = walk, no incline = run, not mixed… Guess I have a new challenge looking at me… I have pretty much figured out a heart rate monitor is necessary to really use the machine effectively (most of the programs are designed to monitor heart rate and modify workout accordingly) so I will be buying one this week…

Have started using google drive to be able to keep my data log with me at all times so as to better facilitate documenting meals as they happen vs. recalling them later… I’m not gonna call it a debacle but it certainly isn’t going as easily as I had anticipated.. I’m sure it is my error but somehow I keep getting the data messed up. Case in point: I figured out the days were messed up (only 6 days on last week’s total) so instead of the 12 I reported I actually had a 14 last week… I’ve pretty much come to the point where I will use the google drive document as my “right here, right now” method and keep my xcel document as my “master” document…. I was hoping the google drive would be the master but I’m finding it just isn’t 100% reliable as things keep getting changed… Plus I really hate typing on my phone….


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## Montanadan (Sep 19, 2014)

I'm subscribed here. Your description is me to a T...from size, age, background, activity level...everything. I think the only difference is I might weight a little less...15-20 lbs. I have similar motivations, and have chosen cycling as a way to help me accomplish my fitness goals. I have love bicycles since I was a kid, and have not been without a bike since I was about 6. The true love of my life is motorcycles, but if it has 2 wheels I'm in.
Thank you for taking the time and effort to chronicle your journey. I think I'll be trying to journey with you. As for how motorcycles deal with strong gusts/sidewinds, for 1, you have much more weight on your side than yo udo with a bicycle, and you're moving faster so you have more momentum to help you overtake the wind. Secondly, a good sidewind can slew you sideways, but you just have to lean into the wind to compensate. A constant sidewind is more tolerable, as you can slightly lean the bike into the wind and stay there. Gusts are a different story. They usually vary in strength, and you have to deal with each gust as it hits you. It's exhausting to ride in that kind of gusting wind.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

@montanadan, thanks for all the comments! It would be awesome to have someone else join in and post their trials and tribulations here as well... As for the wind, i have some friends that ride harleys and they pretty much said the same you said.... Still not getting me on one... Of course, i never thought i would be riding down pikes peak...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

9-23-14 to 9-29-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 43.53, 10.75 miles, 14.7 avg.), 2 long trail rides (time: 1.06.11, 15.97 miles, 14.5 avg., time: 2.10.25, 30.0 miles, 13.8 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 1 treadmill (time: 60, 3.11 miles, vert. 1343). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 0, 21/29; sit-ups: 0, 95

Got back in the saddle again and felt pretty good riding.. so long as I didn’t have to hop over anything…. Road rash areas are chock full of fresh pink skin and with the exception of one pretty deep knee scab the flesh is essentially healed… The ribs aren’t quite there yet but thanks to my good friend advil, it is tolerable for the most part…. Got a hard lesson about taking a day off… 

Workouts:
Treadmill: Got the heart rate monitor literally minutes before doing the treadmill workout. Seems to work to me…. I’m actually a little excited to use it to coordinate the workout and utilize the machine to its potential but have to wait until the ribs are better to be able to run.. (I tried to run whilst kicking the soccer ball with my daughter and that lasted all of 3 steps…. Amazing how your body takes over and says “nope, not gonna happen!”) At any rate, I just put the machine on “random hill” and went for it… I’m not sure (as I don’t really have any data to compare to…) but it seems to me 3.11 miles and 1343 vertical feet within 1 hour is pretty good…

Short rides: This went fairly well all things considered… The only real problem I had was when I had to pull up on the front wheel (like say to get my front wheel over a water run-off crevice) as that took a lot of effort to do (ribs)… The good news is it didn’t really hurt, just didn’t have the strength to really do it without a lot of effort….. I’ll take the 14.7 average speed as it was the first time I did this ride since crashing….

Long rides: 
Ride 1: This was my first time getting back on the bike since I crashed and it was a little weird… Even though I had pretty good speed throughout the ride, I was nervous about someone crashing in to me and hitting my ribs… I literally did not want anyone to be within 10 feet of me and got nervous if they were…. This ride pretty much equated to “getting back on the horse” and whatever happened speed-wise was fine by me… Turns out, the ride went pretty well..
Ride 2: The football game was a little later in the afternoon on Saturday so that afforded me the extra time needed to do the long ride! I have to say the ride felt pretty good and there were no sections that really got me down. There were a lot of people on the trail (some sort of charity “race”) but their impact on my ride was minimal (we all stayed to the right and it worked out pretty well…) There was a little bit of wind but like I mentioned before, it is pretty standard fare so I’ve just accepted it. The wind slowed me down some on the southbound journey but wasn’t all too bad… The good news is I set a new PR by .6mph average for the 30 miles!!! I wasn’t really shooting for it but like I said, the ride felt pretty good throughout and I ate the right amount of food at the right time beforehand to have enough energy…

MTN bike rides: N/A

Gym: N/A Although, I did try and do some sit-ups and push-ups… As for the sit-ups, lying completely flat is my most uncomfortable position right now so I decided to do a variant where I started in the sitting up position and went back until I was at about a 45 degree angle and returned to sitting up (upright crunches???)… I couldn’t tell if I was doing myself harm or good in doing them so I decided to lay off for a while and not push things too far… As for push-ups… Well, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to do “real” push-ups without really getting awkward, I decided to do the “easy” push-ups…. To further complicate matters, the big scab on my knee was the contact point on the floor… So, still wanting to do something…, I decided to just spread my knees out a little to get off the scab… Pretty awkward as I really felt myself using bad form to compensate for the ribs.. Let’s just say I think I may have to forego sit-ups and push-ups for a while until I can use proper form and leave it at that….

Food: +2 ugh…. I wasn’t having a great week to begin with but the football game/tailgating really threw it down the tubes… First off, my wife wanted to have a burger for dinner one night and I decided “why not?” Then a couple of other unplanned “-1” scores (lunch at a Mexican restaurant, my wife’s leftover pizza….) came along and next thing I knew I was looking at a bad week but I figured it was still salvageable to have only a slightly bad week… Little did I know….. Having just come off my 30 mile ride (and admittedly feeling pretty good about myself…) I figured why not relax a little and just go with the flow…. Bad idea…. Between the beers and all of the junk food I absolutely ruined my week…. I’m gonna put this in the “it happens” category and not beat myself up too much about it and do what I can to keep this from happening too often…

Musings: 
My goal for riding this week was to really just make sure I didn’t lose too much from not riding so the fact I had such a good week in this aspect was a pleasant surprise… I still don’t want anyone near me while I ride but I feel myself relaxing little bit by little bit… I do know I want to go mountain biking but that is pretty much going to have to wait.. I have a friend who is a nurse and she said even minor rib bruises like mine can still take 6-8 weeks before they are healed….. lovely…

I’m really in awe about how much the tailgating day brought my score down, but to be honest, the punishment probably fits the crime… Gonna have to get this worked out because there is another game next week and even though tailgating will be a factor, I don’t want it to be as big of a factor as it was this week…

I am only 73 miles away from 1000!!!! I got to thinking the other day that if it weren’t for all of the bad weather days that happened this summer that cancelled bike riding and turned into treadmill days I most likely would be there by now…. I already have my “1k reward” all picked out…. I have begun to wonder what my 1-year total will be once March comes around… I’ve begun to wonder if 1500 for a full year is a realistic goal? (not too much riding time available in the winder…)??? Further, I have also begun to wonder what the goal will be for the next year…. First things first….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

9-30-14 to 10-6-14: 2 short trail rides (time: 43.24, 10.8 miles, 15.0 avg.; 44.12, 10.8 miles, 14.7 avg.), 0 long trail rides (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 1 treadmill (time: 45, 2.25? miles, vert. ?). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 1, 25/25; sit-ups: 1, 97

What a week…. Sigh…. First off, Technology really let me down this week (not one, not two, but THREE fronts!!!)… Secondly, had to miss a work-out for one of the stupidest meetings I have ever endured (I will spare you those details)… Third (Tertiarally???) I still can’t seem to get ahead on the points system…. On the plus side, the ribs are feeling better and I was able to get back to some old exercises (push-ups and sit-ups) and I had a really good ride this week…

Workouts:
Treadmill: The machine has a fitness test that tells you your fitness level and I was really curious as to where I would land so I was actually somewhat excited to do this…. Well, it’s a 15-minute test and each time (yes, each time….) I attempted to do it, I would get about 20 seconds in and the HR monitor would stop responding, thus, ending the test… I tested the HR monitor on other programs and it worked just fine, just this particular program has the glitch… Fast forward…. After fiddling with this for about 20-25 minutes (and doing a treadmill “workout” this whole time…) I decided to stand off to the side and let the machine run for 2-minutes to get past the “barrier” and then jump in… This allowed me to get past the barrier but created its own problem… Disclaimer: the machine has a built in safety feature in which it ends the test if your HR goes above 150 BPM for 60 seconds…. Had everything worked the first time I would have been fine (starting HR = 78 and didn’t go over 135 on previous workouts) but since I already put in a 20+ minute workout on the treadmill (and had admittedly gotten pretty po’d by this time…) my “starting” HR was elevated (say 115ish..) I made it up to 13% (maybe 14%?) incline at 3.4 mph and had 45 seconds left when it stopped the test because my HR was over 150 for a minute… Awesome! At any rate, with all of the starts, restarts, and program changes I pretty much had to estimate my distance so since I was down there for 45 minutes I just figured out 75% of 3.0 miles and called it a day, not even gonna attempt a guess on the elevation.. I know I did more than that as I was usually going somewhere between 3.2-3.4mph but I figure it’s best to be conservative when estimating….. Hopefully have a better report on this next week….

Short rides: First ride was awesome!!! No wind, fresh legs, right motivation, everything was great!!! Then the bike odometer let me down… The odometer hit 1000 miles (not the goal 1K, cumulative total to include last year) during this ride and suddenly it craps out and gets all wonky and quits recording, at least accurately anyway… Strange that this happened right as I hit 1000… Not the end of the world as I have the Strava and Mapmyride going so I decide not to fret.. I figure the problem is the sensor slipped some on my fork so I adjusted that prior to the second ride and made sure I was good to go before the second ride… Not so much… As for the ride itself, it was an average ride, not great not bad.. I will admit I was a little lacking in the motivation so it was more of a “do it to get it done” sort of ride… At least this time the wind was at my back on the return trip (slight decline) so I got to have some fun making up the speed I lost on the trip up (slight incline). Since the odometer crapped out, I did all of the math for the mountain bike stuff (compared strava to old odometer readings and got what appears to be semi-accurate time and averaged out the distance, then did the math for the average…)

Long rides: N/A. Football game again on Saturday so this turned into the treadmill debacle…

MTN bike rides: N/A. Even though the ribs are feeling much better I think I am still a few weeks away from doing this. I might give it a shot soon just to see where I am…

Gym: As I was stretching for my second ride I decided to give some sit-ups a shot and see how I did… I’m not gonna say I was completely comfortable/pain free but I was comfortable enough that I went ahead and went for the full set. Got through it okay but I kind of ran out of gas on the last 10-15 reps.. I will take it considering it has been a few weeks since I have done them.. I couldn’t remember where I was exactly (96 or 97?) so I went ahead and did 97… 3 more to go!!! As for the push-ups, I went back a little to the 25/25 split and was surprised that I got all 50 in without great duress… 

Food: +9…. Frist off, this is an estimate (although I think it is pretty accurate.. Let’s say +/- 2 points just to be safe..) as my google sheets didn’t save right.. I had Tuesday and Wednesday entered but when I went to do Thursday (on a different device) they weren’t there so I had to fill them in from memory… Regardless, I’ll take the “9” considering there was another tailgate party and also my daughter’s birthday party… Factor those two things out and I had a pretty good week… Factor them in… meh… The good news: there is only 1 football game/tailgate over the course of the next month… The bad: there are 3 more parties (birthday and otherwise) this month as well… More on this within the “musings”

Musings: 

Random thought: I will say I am beginning to hate pizza.. Not that I hate pizza in and of itself, but I am beginning to hate it because it really ruins my points and it seems every week there it is for one reason or another and that always equates to leftovers that I end up eating so as not to waste it… double whammy from something I didn’t even want to eat in the first place!!! Even better: Of course my daughter’s end of season soccer party is where????? I have figured out that I’m going to have to peruse the menu and see if I can find something more appropriate to eat….

In the area of caloric intake, I’ve been thinking that I have done a lot to eat healthier and have cut out a lot of calories when compared to what I used to eat so I really began to question why it is I am not continuing to lose more weight (e.g., “Why am I plateauing?”)… I am currently eating salad (either meatless or with grilled chicken with minimal dressing) on average 4-5 meals a week; I have really, really minimized (nearly eliminated) my “bad” meat (beef, fried..) consumption as well… I have also really modified the quantity of food I eat within a given meal and would have to say I have reduced an average dinner size by 30-40%; and I am eating healthier snacks/avoiding bad snacks… I’m not saying my food intake is ideal at this time (see above pizza rant…) but when compared to where I started it is definitely wayyyy better… What gives???? I realized there are really two things holding me back: First off: I have mentioned it before and I have come to realize one thing holding me back from that “next level” is my “bad” liquid intake…. The beer part I can minimize and not really have any issues with as that is more of a “situational” issue (poker nights, tailgating) and it is already factored into the points... The real problem comes with the milk and soda, both of which I have come to realize I LOVE and don’t really want to even minimize, much less give up entirely… Secondly: these damn random events that CONTINUALLY come along and screw up my points for the week… Until I started doing my point system, I never realized how many random things come up within a day/week that really bring unhealthy food with it, but it seems like at least 2-3 times a week I am in a “no win” situation in that the point total is going down no matter what I do (e.g., lunch at a Mexican restaurant because that is where coworkers decided that’s where we are going; birthday parties with pizza and nothing else; fast food because it’s already 6:30 and the kids have to be in bed soon; dinner with friends “we got pizza, is that okay with you guys?”; “I got chicken alfredo for dinner”; etc. etc…) Between the two I am more prepared to address the latter as even though I have recognized the impact milk and soda are having, I would rather add more to a workout than get rid of them.. I dunno, I guess a middle ground approach would be to at least address the soda aspect….

Sheesh, didn’t know I was so pissy this week but there it is… I guess all of my electronics going wonky and still not getting my 15 points gets me a little irritated…

Having gone on that rant, I guess I currently have 4 goals:
1.	Get the 1000 miles on the bike
2.	Get 15 points 3 out of 4 weeks on average
3.	Win the “no win” eating situations (kind of a “3A” but worthy enough to stand on its own)
4.	Develop and implement a plan to reduce soda intake


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

10-7-14 to 10-13-14: 1 short trail rides (time: 47.02, 10.85 miles, 13.9 avg.), 2 long trail rides (time: 58.11, 15.95 miles, 16.4 avg.; 2.15.11, 30.02 miles, 13.3 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 1 treadmill (time: 60, 3.22 miles, vert. 1353). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 4, 28/22; sit-ups: 4, 100

Soooo… ummmmm… yeah… Have to sheepishly admit that maybe I need to have all of my facts straight prior to going on a rant about plateauing…. After typing out last week’s report I figured “why not really get frustrated and find out what the scale says???!!!” Apples to apples (using the same home scale) I lost 12 more pounds since I last weighed myself for a cumulative total of 26 pounds… I literally had no idea… I mean, yeah, my pants are falling off me all of the time now but I chalked that up to them being stretched out with a little bit of weight loss (I need a belt now but don’t even own one because I haven’t needed one for years)… I dunno, when I get out of the shower I don’t notice a whole lot of change, not 26 pounds anyway…. Needless to say, I was literally shocked!!!! I thought about editing/redoing last week’s post but I figured I would just leave it as that was what I was thinking at the time… I had a health “check-up” (not a real check-up with the doctor, more of a get your vitals, run some blood tests type of thing…) and according to them I now weigh 226, which would be 28 pounds lost but who’s counting…. Blood results will be forthcoming in a couple of weeks.. I dare say I am eager to see what those results are… 

So based on that…. Had a pretty good week as I found a whole new level of motivation (amazing what a couple of numbers can do… one week all frustrated, next week chock full of that feeling of having accomplished something…) and really used it to make sure I stuck to the program this week… which was helpful Accomplished a handful of goals as well… Got the odometer situation rectified (new batteries all around…) so I think I am back to having reliable (reliable being a relative term… maybe consistent?) readings on bike rides again… Of course, there’s that whole matter of the odometer, strava, and mapmyride not agreeing on anything but I digress…

Workouts: Treadmill: Still monkeying around with the settings/fitness test…. Figured out I have to not do any warm-up activities prior to the test as that gets the heart rate a little elevated (thus too high for the test by the end…) so I still haven’t completed the test.. As for the workout, did an incline routine, nothing really newsworthy…

Short rides: There were a LOT of variables that came in to play that should have cancelled this ride altogether (e.g., bad weather, meeting at work, plumber coming to remove a toy my daughter used to clog the toilet) but I was only 6 miles from my goal so nothing short of a blizzard was going to keep me from getting this session in… Since I wasn’t going to be able to do the ride on Monday (meeting, plumber) I did it on Sunday morning. I wasn’t planning on doing the ride until the afternoon but I randomly looked at the weather and saw a storm was supposed to come in about noon… Like I said, not doing this ride was NOT an option so I hopped out of bed and got moving.. Of course this wasn’t even 24 hours after doing my 30 mile ride so physical abilities were, shall we say…. diminished…. On top of that, I hadn’t eaten breakfast and forgot to bring a granola bar along so I also ended up doing the ride on a totally empty stomach….. As for the ride itself, the edge of the storm was already upon us so it was fairly chilly and the wind had already set in… So combining the weather with the lack of “fuel” it was pretty obvious there would be no land speed records this day… HOWEVER!!!!! It was on this ride that I crossed the 1,000 mile threshold!!!! 

Long rides:
Ride 1: This …ride… was… amazing! 16.4 average speed!!!! That’s a full 1 mph higher than I have ever done on any ride, regardless of distance!!! From the get go, I was on cloud 9 about figuring out how much weight I had actually lost and on top of that, riding conditions were perfect!!! Put those two things together and you have one moderately less fat dude flying around on a bike path at speeds never before seen (…at least by aforementioned moderately less fat dude)!!! According to my Strava readout, I set all sorts of PRs up and down the route and I could really tell I was zipping along.. Climbs? No problem! Long slight incline? No problem! Hikers in the way? No problem! I really didn’t know I had this in me… All I can say is I’m a firm believer in 110% because there are lots of times where you may actually be giving 100% as that is all you have… Then there are those times (like this ride) where everything comes together perfectly and that extra little something you didn’t know you had (in this case, the adrenaline rush knowing that this is actually working!) and you find yourself performing at levels you didn’t know you had…

Ride 2: I started out pretty fast and it took “Mr. Smartypants” here a couple of miles to figure out the wind was helping me move along at a pretty good clip…. I knew that the wind would turn against me once I turned around so I just went with it… The ride back was pretty challenging and I honestly didn’t think I had that good of a ride but I compared this ride against the other 30 mile rides and learned I had my 2nd fastest average, go figure… It had been a couple of weeks since I did this ride so the legs were a little bit sore afterward but nothing bad….  

MTN bike rides: Not yet…

Gym: The ribs are still fairly tender but I still got the sit-ups and push-ups in…Have to admit I might be pushing it a little as the ribs really hurt for about the first 10 reps but then after that I kind of get settled in… They still hurt when I am done but this doesn’t create any long-term discomfort so I think it’s okay to keep doing them… Reached another “milestone” in that I hit the 100 sit-up goal I’ve been working toward… As for push-ups… I have built back up to 22 “easy” and 28 “regular” push-ups… there was one session where I just didn’t have the “oomph” to do the 28 so had to take a rest at 20 then complete the set.. The next one was better and got all 28 in without stopping.. 
 
Food: +15…. I knew I could do it! Learning that I had lost some weight (thus, this is working) really improved my motivation and helped me stay the course… Avoided a lot of obstacles this week (random stuff was minimized) and even implemented the goal I set last week (win the “no-win”) in that we ordered a much smaller pizza than normal (at my daughter’s end of the year soccer party) so I ate a salad and 3 little pieces of pizza, no leftovers…. Still a “-1” for the meal but it didn’t carry over to the next day or the day after by not having leftovers (which would have cost me another 1-2 points.) Also had my birthday so that dinner kinda shot things down a little, as did the cake… Sacrificed 2 points that are normally pretty reliable… Other than that, the food was pretty unremarkable as I did what was necessary to get through that glass ceiling of 15 points…. So now that I have a “good” week in the books, I really want to keep it going…  

Musings:

Lots of things came together for me this week and I am really proud of what I have accomplished:
Learned I have lost 26 pounds
Hit my 1,000 mile goal
Hit my 100 sit-up goal
Set an amazing PR for average speed, and it wasn’t even a short ride… (although I wish it was so I could really see what I could have done)

Kind of ironic that all of these things came together within one week, even more ironic is this all came together the weekend of my birthday… would have been pretty cool had I set the goal of “I am going to do such-and-such by my birthday) but in all honesty, it was just random coincidence…. I will admit that I am a little bummed that I am really the only one in my “circle” (family, friends) that really comprehends the magnitude of my accomplishments as all I got from my friends that I even bothered to mention to was a “so what?” look… My wife wasn’t much better with the “wow, that’s awesome!” I mean seriously… within 7 months I went from: my bike and treadmill being dusty furniture to having traveled 1,000 miles on them; from only being able to do 10 sit-ups to 100 with relative ease; and going from weighing 254 to 228 pounds and I get a “that’s awesome”??????????? Hate to be negative here but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for some sort of recognition from at ;east my wife for all my efforts….. To be fair, she tries but she has never had to exercise or monitor her eating habits in order to be thin (and healthy…) so she really has no idea how hard I have worked to get to this point… Good thing I realized that I was the only one that was going to make this change happen because if I was relying on others I’d probably be sitting on the couch eating a bag of chips….. At any rate, a few months ago I decided that once I hit the 1,000 miles, I was going to reward myself with a new paint job on my bike… As it is now, my bike is green and I have always hated the color…. Can’t wait to get that “custom” paint job on it, I think it’s gonna look pretty sweet!

All-in-all, I’m really proud of myself for achieving the above list because, in all honestly, all I really had when I started was the hope that I was going to follow through and accomplish these things, expectations would have been a bit audacious... Now, 7 months later, these hopes are becoming a reality and I find myself doing things I have either never done before or didn’t think I would ever do again… Having said that, I do realize that I am only ½ there in regards to my weight loss goal and there is still work to be done.. I am just ecstatic that I now KNOW I CAN DO THIS!!! All I have to do is stay the course and continue to find ways to improve…

After typing out the goals I set for myself from last week I realized I should probably keep a running tally of them all… I’ve decided I am going to make a cumulative list of everything I am working on, as well as some things I have yet to address and leave them here and update as applicable so as to remind myself:

Long-term goals:
1. Weigh 200 pounds: 254, 240, 228
2. 1000 miles on the bike/treadmill: Done 10-12-14
3. 2000 miles on the bike/treadmill: 1006
4. Set new PR on short-ride: 12.4, 12.7, 12.9, 13.5, 13.9, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 15.2, 15.5, *16.4 (15.95 mile ride)
5. Ride 30 miles: DONE 7-3-14
6.  Improve time on 30 mile ride: 2:27:58, 2:26:55, 2:17:55, 2:16:36, 2:10:25
7. Be able to do 100 sit-ups: DONE 10-9-14
8. Be able to do 50 push-ups: 28
9. Increase bench press (4 sets, 20 reps):
10. Increase squats (4 sets, 20 reps):
11. Get 15 points 3 out of 4 weeks on average: Current: 1/1 Total: 0

Short-term goals:
1. Win the “no win” eating situations: 1/1
2. Develop and implement a plan to reduce soda intake: Phase 1: no soda in the house


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

10-14-14 to 10-20-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 42.12, 10.78 miles, 15.4 avg.), 1 long trail rides (time: 2.16.33, 30.01 miles, 13.2 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 1 treadmill (time: 60, 3.41miles, vert. 1282). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 3, 30/20; sit-ups: 3, 100

Yet another really busy week (is anyone surprised at this point?) as the plumber came to fix a broken toilet (thanks to my 2 year-old for clogging it with a toy), leak detection guy came to find where water was coming from, insurance adjuster came to assess hail/water damage (hail damaged roof leads to water leaking into the walls), wife had appts., etc… so only managed to get three workouts in. It was nearly only two workouts but I managed to get one in on an unscheduled day… Due to my inability to read a calendar I missed the football game, thus tailgating, because I promised my daughters I would take them to the pumpkin farm on that particular day so that helped the food score…. Learned that I am FINALLY able to run again as I ran a little whilst playing with my daughter and it didn’t hurt my ribs at all… Diving into the psychology of this whole adventure and finding the brain is a powerful, and important, tool…

Workouts:
Treadmill: I finally completed that test (vo2 max or something…) I’ve mentioned.. According to the results, I am in “superior” condition for my age… I don’t buy that for a second but that’s what it said... I don’t give a lot of credibility to a test that is on the verge of cutting you off for your safety if your heart rate is above 150 for a minute but then rates you as “superior” when you barely stay under that heart rate and complete the test (literally talking 5-10 heart beats per minute difference here)… At any rate… I did a workout which was new to me as I was finally able to run without my ribs killing me. The program called for me to run at 6 mph for over 4 minutes and I was pretty surprised that I was able to do it.. Of course, my heart rate monitor wasn’t reading correctly so I tried to stand off to the side to adjust it.. I put my hand on the safety rail and of course I hit the stop button (not once, but twice) so that ended the routine (such a stupid place to put a stop button, right where your hand goes on the bar…) Pretty frustrating as I was just finishing the run portion and was about to slow down and do the incline portion… I ended up just manually doing the incline for the rest of the workout….

Short rides: I did this the day after the 30 mile ride and it was really windy out so I had no business pushing for a new PR but there I was… I fell short of tying my PR for this ride by .1 mph average but I still felt pretty good about the ride as I did this in what was a pretty strong wind. It was strange in that my legs definitely felt tired (especially on climbs) but for some reason I was still able to maintain a pretty good speed. Even more so, I was able to hold a decent speed going into the wind… I’m pretty sure I would have set a new PR without the wind but like I’ve mentioned recently, I’ve accepted the wind as somewhat of a training tool in that it does make me work harder so there is some benefit in it (just because I’ve accepted it doesn’t mean I have to like it!!!) as I will be that much better prepared for when it isn’t windy….

Long rides: 
Ooof… this was one of those rides where my heart just wasn’t into it… This was the make-up ride I ended up doing because I missed two workouts earlier in the week and without it, I would have only had two workouts… In addition to that, the weather was perfect outside (high 60s, sunny, slight breeze) and I had already cleared the time with my wife so even though I didn’t feel like doing the ride I had no excuse not to, with the exception of a severe lack of motivation… Onward and forward… Similar to some previous comments, the ride felt slow but once I was done my average speed of 13.2 was decent all things considered.. I was really, really slow riding “up” but once I turned around I was able to cruise with some decent momentum and make up some lost time… 

MTN bike rides: I’m finally going to give this a shot in the coming week. I have a ride scheduled with my neighbor so hopefully will have a good report within this section next week

Gym: Still doing the sit-ups… been debating about incorporating something different to get some variety in, but I need to investigate what is effective and what isn’t.. That planking thing has piqued my interest but I don’t know if it is a good exercise or not.. Anyone have any thoughts about this? As for the push-ups, built up to 30 this week.. It’s funny how the brain sometimes takes over and convinces the body it can/cannot do something… Case in point: One day I just didn’t think I could do 29 real push-ups and sure enough, I wasn’t able to do it without a quick break.. A day later, I thought to myself “why can’t I do 30?” and sure enough, did 30… At any rate, onward and forward…

Food: +14…. Dammit!!!! Had a rough start to the week but thought I was still going to be able to make the 15… On top of that, my wife’s friend came in to town so off we went to a Mexican restaurant… I tried to find something reasonably healthy on the menu to at least salvage the “win the no-win situations” for the moral victory but there just wasn’t anything on the menu… Furthermore, upon reviewing my daily log, it seems the snack scores were the “difference makers” this week. Not that they are terrible, it’s just that I have let some “snacky” stuff in which took a few reliable “+1” scores down to “0” scores… To top it off, I still would have made the 15 but there just had to be two tables covered with pies in the employee lounge on the last day of the week!!!!! I gave in and had a small piece so that took away a “+1” which got me short of my goal.. Ironically, this week I didn’t expect to be anywhere near 15 because of the football game (tail gate party) but when I realized that wasn’t going to happen I thought I was going to get the score… Alas, I Guess I have my work laid out for me over the next 2 weeks as I need to get 15 on both of them to reach my goal of +15 score for 3 out of 4 weeks… I did implement “phase 1” of the soda reduction plan and did not buy any when I went to the store… the house has been soda free for over a week now.

Musings: 
Really finding the psychology of this whole experience to be pretty interesting lately. I have been thinking about that “otherworldly” ride I reported last week and what actually happened mentally to get to that level.. Best I can figure, being all excited that I had lost some weight tapped into the superego and that resulted in the juices (adrenaline, and whatnot) really flowing… Conversely, when doing push-ups, I’ve never been one that does push-ups so doing 30 straight is such a foreign concept to me, and to some extent, I still don’t believe I can do it… To a limited extent it really is mind over matter in that the only reason I don’t make the full set on occasion is because I doubt my ability to do so.. Conversely, when my mindset is “right” I can do the full set… Another example would be running at 6mph for 4 minutes straight… I really didn’t know if I could/could not do it but since the machine made me do it, there I was…. Oddly, I wasn’t totally wiped out afterwards so I need to remember that so when I do it again I will have the right mindset… Of all things in this world, the thing I have been chanting to myself while working out lately is “do or do not, there is no try” …and I’m not really a star wars fan but there is a lot of wisdom in that quote…

Long-term goals:
1.	Weigh 200 pounds: 254, 240, 228
2.	1000 miles on the bike/treadmill: Done 10-12-14
3.	2000 miles on the bike/treadmill: 1053
4.	Set new PR on short-ride: 12.4, 12.7, 12.9, 13.5, 13.9, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 15.2, 15.5, *16.4 (15.95 mile ride)
5.	Ride 30 miles: DONE 7-3-14
6.	Improve time on 30 mile ride: 2:27:58, 2:26:55, 2:17:55, 2:16:36, 2:10:25
7.	Be able to do 100 sit-ups: DONE 10-9-14
8.	Be able to do 50 push-ups: 30
9.	Increase bench press (4 sets, 20 reps):
10.	Increase squats (4 sets, 20 reps):
11.	Get 15 points 3 out of 4 weeks on average: Current: 1/2 Total: 0

Short-term goals:
1.	Win the “no win” eating situations: 0/1 (this week)
2.	Develop and implement a plan to reduce soda intake: Phase 1: no soda in the house


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

10-21-14 to 10-27-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 41.11, 10.81 miles, 15.8 avg.), 0 long trail rides (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 1 Mtn bike ride (time: 1.23.15, 12.22 miles, 8.8 avg.) 1 treadmill (time: 60, 3.94 miles, vert. 841). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 3, 32/20; sit-ups: 3, 100 (54/46)

Finally did some mtn. biking this week and am happy to report the ribs were not an issue in the least!!! Also made it to “scab-free” status this week as well so I would say I am about 95% recovered (ribs are still a little tender when I lay flat…) Set a new PR on the short-ride and am getting more familiar with my treadmill… Had to miss a workout during the week (happy birthday father-in-law) and wasn’t able to make it up over the weekend…. Almost blew the food goal for the week but just barely managed to hang on….

Workouts:
Treadmill: Did a program called “Alpine Pass” and officially hate it as you run, in my case 6 mph, for a chunk of time (let’s say…. 5-6 minutes) then your reward for getting through that is to jog for 4-5 minutes at a slightly reduced speed, let’s say 5 mph (+/-), with the addition of incline, 7-10% if memory serves… At this point, having ran for this “long” (relative term…), I needed a “break” so I slowed down to a fast walk (3.7 mph I think) for a bit… Once you get through that… the treadmill really kicks in the incline, 12% +/- but slows down to a ridiculously slow speed, something like 1.9 mph….. So I ended up increasing the speed to 3.0-3.5 for the incline sections… To end the session, I did a jog at 5.5 mph for something like 7 minutes … Now unofficially….. I kind of liked that the machine made me run so much because the longest I was running on my old treadmill was 90 seconds… I don’t know that I would have voluntarily ran for 5-6 minutes and then jogged for another 7 minutes on my own… Quite frankly, I haven’t done that kind of running since high school and I honestly didn’t think I would ever be able to do it again…. Now here I am, doing it…. Here’s the kicker… I kind of got into a groove while jogging (the 2nd long chunk) and really felt I could have gone longer…. I was watching my heart rate as I was going and it never got above 165 which means I was definitely working hard but wasn’t going overboard

Short rides: As I was getting ready for this ride, I noticed there was no wind so I kind of got a little excited… In keeping with my current mentality of trying to tap in to that “little extra sumthin” I started getting myself motivated about an hour before I went on the ride (visualizing myself zipping along, “inspiring” music, etc…) and right before I rode I decided it was going to be the day I averaged 16 mph for this ride.. The ride went pretty well but admittedly I didn’t feel it was exceptional… I ended up at 15.8 which was a new PR by .3 mph but in all honestly, I was really disappointed I didn’t get the 16… I really thought it was the day… Further, because of that ride a few weeks ago (where I was so excited about realizing I had lost 10% of my body weight, thus, performed at an entirely different level…) I didn’t even set any segment PRs according to strava… Never would have thought setting a new PR would be so disappointing… Having typed this out, I actually just laughed at myself as I remember how proud I was for hitting 13.5 a while back… my how times have changed….

Long rides: 
Traded this in for mountain biking!!! 

MTN bike rides: Did the aforementioned ride with my neighbor. A few days before the ride he asked if a friend could come along, of course this was no problem so now we have 3… The thing he neglected to tell me (until we were meeting up for the ride) is that his friend is a triathlete….I already knew I was outclassed by my neighbor but having a triathlete in the mix admittedly made me a little self-conscious as I didn’t want to be the one holding up the group… We went on a ride at the Air Force Academy (Falcon Trail) and once again I was on a trial I had never been on… Good news is, there weren’t any death defying sections that made me fear for my life so I was able to enjoy the ride for the most part….. Bad news is there was a 1-mile climb of about 1,000 feet (these numbers are per my neighbor)…. Of course the other two guys thought this was “fun” and they were even having a conversation as we were riding up.. I, myself, was doing everything in my power to keep relatively close… Ultimately, I made it about 2/3 of the way up before I had to start taking some breaks… Overall they were really good about when they had to wait for me (particularly after the climb) but I have to say, I was able to hang with them for the most part so I felt pretty good about that… Other than the climb, the ride was pretty fun and I would like to do it again, especially since we had to cut it short (got off the trial and got on the road back to the car) due to time constraints… 

Gym: Since I haven’t really worked out what to do next with the sit-ups, I decided I was going to keep on adding more to the initial set before taking a break… So, I am now at 54 before resting then completing the 100… Nothing too special going on here… As for the push-ups, built up to 32… Still working on that “mind over matter” thing to keep going further and it is helping..

Food: +15…. I made it despite my best efforts to screw it up!!! I started the week off like a champ and was actually on pace to have an amazing week… Then came the weekend… Wife wanted to go out to dinner and have some drinks (date night) and I definitely wasn’t going to turn that down… Some other situations also came but I managed to minimize the damage and maintain the points for the week… As for the soda, still none in the house and getting used to the concept… Almost ready to initiate phase 2 (not ordering in restaurants) but not quite there yet.. possibly within the next few weeks…

Musings: 
Had a fairly decent week overall and all things considered, I really don’t have anything to complain about… However, I find that I am at this level where I am not satisfied… I’m constantly nitpicking myself for those things that come up that keep me from feeling like I did well…. For example, I REALLY thought I was going to hit 16 mph average for the short ride and was super disappointed I only got 15.8… Never mind the fact I improved my PR by .3 mph….. another example would be the food thing.. I got my score of 15 this week but am mad that I didn’t score higher… I literally get frustrated now when I get myself in a situation that is going to cost me points….. Don’t even get me started on how frustrated I am that I have only gotten 3 workouts in each of the past two weeks… I guess this is a good thing overall as it shows I’m not satisfied with where I am….

I’m really diving into the psychological stuff I’ve mentioned over the past few weeks… It is really helping me with the push-ups as I am making myself believe I can do them, thus, am doing the amount I should be.. It also helped with the running.. HUGE barriers broken down while doing all of that running and there were a few moments where I really didn’t THINK I could do it and almost quit… Before quitting, I asked myself “am I really that tired or do I just think I am?” Turns out the body was doing fine, it was just the brain…. However, on the long climb within the mountain bike ride, it backfired… Since I had never been on that trail I didn’t know how long the climb was… I was using all of my energy (both mental and physical) and I thought that once I got to the top of what I could see, I would have finished the climb… well, I got to the top of the section only to see that there was still more climbing to do, a lot more… At that instant my brain sold me out and instantly told my legs “shut it down!!!” and I was dead in the water…

Well, my first holiday season (under the new lifestyle) is fast approaching…. I can already see that this is going to be a real challenge…. I’ve already started to strategize in that I need to really seize the opportunities to get the “+1” scores whenever they are available so that I can absorb the “-1” scores and not send myself into a spiral… As for working out,, gonna have to make it happen… We are going out of town over thanksgiving and I am considering taking my bike… or my running shoes… I like riding better but obviously running shoes are a lot more portable…..

Bike is disassembled and at the paint shop as we speak!!!!

Long-term goals:
1.	Weigh 200 pounds: 254, 240, 228
2.	1000 miles on the bike/treadmill: Done 10-12-14
3.	2000 miles on the bike/treadmill: 1079
4.	Set new PR on short-ride: 12.4, 12.7, 12.9, 13.5, 13.9, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 15.2, 15.5, *16.4 (15.95 mile ride), 15.8
5.	Ride 30 miles: DONE 7-3-14
6.	Improve time on 30 mile ride: 2:27:58, 2:26:55, 2:17:55, 2:16:36, 2:10:25
7.	Be able to do 100 sit-ups: DONE 10-9-14
8.	Be able to do 50 push-ups: 32
9.	Increase bench press (4 sets, 20 reps):
10.	Increase squats (4 sets, 20 reps):
11.	Get 15 points 3 out of 4 weeks on average: Current: 2/3 Total: 0

Short-term goals:
1.	Win the “no win” eating situations: 1/1 (this week)
2.	Develop and implement a plan to reduce soda intake: Phase 1: no soda in the house


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## MrRoxy (Jun 15, 2014)

Let me say, I follow your thread whenever I feel like giving up on riding and being healthy. I started riding and walking and lost over 30lbs., then traveling and colder weather hit and all motivation goes out the window. I have put on 20lbs. in the last 2 months and just reread your thread to give myself the kick I need. Thank you,
Robert


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

MrRoxy said:


> Let me say, I follow your thread whenever I feel like giving up on riding and being healthy. I started riding and walking and lost over 30lbs., then traveling and colder weather hit and all motivation goes out the window. I have put on 20lbs. in the last 2 months and just reread your thread to give myself the kick I need. Thank you,
> Robert


Hey Robert,
Thanks for the note and you're welcome! I think it's pretty cool that the thread is motivating for you!!! It's awesome to learn someone else is finding it beneficial...

That's a bummer about losing 30 then getting 20 back so fast..... If you are interested, I would be happy to share a couple of tips for what I feel is helping me&#8230; Let me know


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

10-28-14 to 11-3-14: 0 short trail ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 0 long trail rides (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 4 treadmill (time: 60, 3.28 miles, vert. 1728, time: 60, 2.81 miles, vert. 465, time: 60, 3.75 miles, vert. 189, time: 60, 4.18 miles, vert. 5). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 4, 35/20; sit-ups: 4, 100 (55/45)

Bike is off getting painted so all workouts were on the treadmill…. Good news is, I got all four workout in… As for the food thing, kind of ran into a brick wall this week….

Workouts:

Treadmill:
1. Got tired of monkeying around with the programs on the treadmill so I said screw it and went manual… Got a good workout in as I did an incline routine similar to my old treadmill (up and down the incline at 1-minute intervals) and varied from 9-11% incline at 3.2 mph… Ahhh, the comfort of that which you are familiar with……

2. This “workout” was crap… I chose “random hill” with a maximum speed of 3.5 mph and maximum incline of 14%.... I’ve previously mentioned that the speed goes down as the incline goes up, which is why I set the max incline so high as I figured “so long as I am going to be puttering along at 2 mph I might as well climb the side of a mountain…” I puttered along at 2 mph alright, but I never saw that mountainside… At no point within the entire workout did I go above 7% incline….. Conversely, every time the speed got respectable (3mph+) the incline went down so much I couldn’t even tell I was on an incline (5% or less….) Needless to say, this was pretty pointless…. 

3. Did the “Dynamic Heart Rate” workout… Within this, the treadmill is supposed to monitor my heart rate and adjust incline AND speed accordingly…. Basically, the machine is supposed to make it increasingly difficult to increase your heart rate to the “max” (maximum programmed into the machine, in this case 140bpm) and then make it easier until your heart rate hits the minimum (in this case 120bpm) then go back up… repeat, repeat, repeat… Turns out, all it did was adjust the speed up and down, no incline movement in the least….. On top of that, I set the maximum heart rate too low so the workout was pretty worthless as every time I got going I would hit the max heart rate and go back down…. 

4. Ok, I think I’m starting to get the hang of this…. Did the “Dynamic Heart Rate” workout again but this time I set the maximum heart rate at 150 bpm and got a better workout with an end result similar to what I was doing on a “run” workout on my old treadmill… Different from workout 3, I was prepared to have a “run” workout and factored out the incline and with the knowledge gained, the higher max heart rate necessitated I run faster (usually 5.5 mph +/-) for longer… I will give credit where credit is due in that even though I traveled the same distance I used to, I spent a lot more time either jogging or running (albeit at a slower pace) than I used to…

Short rides: Bike getting painted!

Long rides: Have I mentioned my bike is out getting painted? 

MTN bike rides: Guess what…. 

Gym: Brain farted how many sit-ups I was supposed to be doing before break so I am only at 55/45… Not a big deal… Now up to 35 push-ups, couldn’t quite get above that…. I see the gym equipment over there but I have been reluctant to give up some cardio time to do it…. On top of that, I really want to get more familiar with the treadmill so that every day isn’t some new random adventure…

Food: +8…. Ummmm, so now I know why recovering drug addicts don’t hang out with their drug addict friends any more…. Turns out Halloween brings snickers and kit-kats into the house (who knew????) and yeah…. I tried to “only have one” which led to “two isn’t so bad…” which led to “hello, my name is la10slgr, and I have a snickers and kit-kat addiction…” Add on Halloween itself, a birthday party (why do people keep having these things????) and some “convenient” dinners and this week pretty much went down the tubes…. I guess this is what rebounds are for….

Musings: 
On the + side, I am happy I finally righted the ship and got all four workouts in, still had to use Sunday as a make-up day but at least I got all four… On the – side, two of the four workouts were pretty worthless… I was really getting frustrated with the preprogrammed workouts so I was glad to finally get one in that was within my abilities. I think bumping the max heart rate up to 160bpm will give me a pretty good workout next time… Additionally, now that I am learning “the game” of my treadmill, I think I have a plan as to how to do the same workout but make it do incline adjustments (set the speed at a narrow range, 3.0 min – 3.5 max and hopefully the treadmill will use the incline to make the heart rate go up and down) so we’ll see how that goes….

Pretty bummed I screwed up the food score because I wanted to meet that +15 food score 3/4 weeks goal and I would have gotten it had I not screwed it up this week… Guess I start the season 0/1…. It was weird in that once I realized I was on that slippery slope I found myself saying “well, the week is screwed up anyway so why not?” and that definitely is NOT the mindset I am trying to maintain… Live and learn, live and learn….

Long-term goals:
1. Weigh 200 pounds: 254, 240, 228
2. 1000 miles on the bike/treadmill: Done 10-12-14
3. 2000 miles on the bike/treadmill: 1093
4. Set new PR on short-ride: 12.4, 12.7, 12.9, 13.5, 13.9, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 15.2, 15.5, *16.4 (15.95 mile ride), 15.8
5. Ride 30 miles: DONE 7-3-14
6. Improve time on 30 mile ride: 2:27:58, 2:26:55, 2:17:55, 2:16:36, 2:10:25
7. Be able to do 100 sit-ups: DONE 10-9-14
8. Be able to do 50 push-ups: 34
9. Increase bench press (4 sets, 20 reps):
10. Increase squats (4 sets, 20 reps):
11. Get 15 points 3 out of 4 weeks on average: Current: 0/0 Total: 0/1

Short-term goals:
1. Win the “no win” eating situations: 0/4, if not more… (this week)
2. Develop and implement a plan to reduce soda intake: Phase 1: no soda in the house


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## MrRoxy (Jun 15, 2014)

Thank you, honestly it's just trying to figure out the best motivation and clothing to keep going when it's cold. Also not allowing myself to drive for fast food or junk food. If I want it I have to ride or walk, makes me think about it more. Thank you again and keep up the good work.
Robert


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

11-4-14 to 11-10-14: 0 short trail ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 0 long trail rides (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 4 treadmill (time: 60, 3.44 miles, vert. 1397, time: 60, 3.94 miles, vert. 861, time: 60, 2.92 miles, vert. 1330, time: 60, 4.58 miles, vert. 0). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 3, 36/20; sit-ups: 3, 100 (65/35), hanging crunches: 12

Got a decent (not great) rebound on the food score but it took an integrity check to make sure it was accurate&#8230; Not a whole bunch of news on the workout front as I am just plugging along. Having said that, I did figure something out for how to continue to improve the abdominal workout&#8230; Got basic results from the bloodwork I had done&#8230;

Workouts:
Treadmill: 
1. Alpine Pass workout.. this was pretty tough (3.44 miles with 1397 in elevation) and I had to take a small break in the middle and that muddled up the routine as once you hit the stop button it causes the machine to start over to some effect (I don't know how to describe above it assumed I needed to warm-up again, even though I was ½ way through the routine&#8230

2. Honestly, I don't remember a whole lot of details about this&#8230; Seems doing essentially the same thing 4 different times within a week makes for some monotony&#8230;..

3. Did the "I don't feel like messing with the adjustments so I will just do my own incline routine" maneuver&#8230; Again, stupid machine thinks it knows what speed I really really want to do better than I do so it cost me just a little on the overall distance&#8230; Overall a pretty good workout as the incline (1330) was a respectable distance..

4. Just did a flat out "how far can I go in an hour?" routine.. Although I used the manual mode, the machine still wanted to monkey around with the speed&#8230; As far as I'm concerned, if you are in manual and you hit 3.0 mph, the damn thing should go 3.0 but nooo, it has to drop down to 2.0 and build up to it&#8230; same for the running speeds&#8230; At any rate&#8230; I randomly decided to alternate running speeds and time so I ended up doing 5.0 mph for 6 minutes and 6.0 mph for 5 minutes with 3- minute walking "breaks" in between&#8230; I was able to do this for the entire hour and even though I was pretty tired when I finished, I never felt like I couldn't do the routine&#8230;. I'll take it but now I want to get up to 5 miles within an hour&#8230;

Short rides: N/A

Long rides: N/A

MTN bike rides: N/A

Gym: Made up for my error so am now at 65/35 split for the sit-ups. Improved push-ups to 36 but I knew I didn't have it in me for 37 so had to take a small break and then do the rest&#8230; I will say I am getting through the first 25 or so fairly easily now&#8230; Got sick this week so skipped the push-ups and sit-ups one day just to make sure I wasn't doing too much while getting better&#8230; Decided my new addition to the abdominal workout would be hanging crunches (pulling knees up towards chest&#8230 Similar to the sit-ups I started at 10 and will just add one on each workout.. Oddly, the thing that is making it difficult is the hanging component, not the exercise itself&#8230;

Food: +13&#8230;. Had a decent week (not great, not bad) but I did catch myself trying to "negotiate" better scores in order to meet my goal of 15 points&#8230; Case in point, had lunch with my daughter which included chips and I was trying to figure out a way to weasel a +1 out of it (e.g., "I only had a granola bar for breakfast so that should offset the chips&#8230;.") Had a little "discussion" with myself about owning the moment (be it good or bad) and making sure I stay the course&#8230; I think I got it worked out&#8230; Got what can best be described as a "24 hour flu" this week and left dinner up to my wife&#8230; That ended up being chicken nuggets, tater tots, and macaroni and cheese&#8230; Also had my first cheeseburger in quite some time (you've been working hard, go ahead and get a cheeseburger..") First off, it wasn't worth it&#8230; good? Yes.. worth it? No&#8230; Secondly, it was amazing what it did to me&#8230; My face literally felt all greasy and oily about 10 minutes after eating it&#8230; crazy how it makes such an immediate impact&#8230; Considering all of the bad stuff I just listed, it's pretty amazing I got a "13" overall (and that is with the reality check of "did I really deserve this score?")..

Musings: 
Weather has really changed this week (went from highs in the 60s to highs in the teens literally within one day&#8230; Colorado weather for ya&#8230 so any biking will be a full bonus for the foreseeable future&#8230; Even though I am complaining a lot about the treadmill, I don't really mind doing it, I just wish the programming on the machine made more sense&#8230; I can't decide how much cardio should be sacrificed in order to start with the weights but I am working on it&#8230;

I still think my wife is subconsciously trying to sabotage this whole thing (I'm ½ joking ½ serious here&#8230 We went to Costco last week and whereas I'm grabbing granola bars, cheez-its (my tradeoff for potato chips), and peanuts she's grabbing industrial size bags of doritos, twinkies, and cupcakes&#8230; I mean seriously!!! It's one thing to have to give this stuff up but am able to do so when it's not in the house but to have it sitting right there??????? Needless to say, this cost me a couple of points&#8230;. But literally only a couple&#8230; enough to cause me to miss my goal for the week&#8230;

Got my blood test results. They came out "okay" as the numbers are definitely improved (blood pressure is normal) but I am a little disappointed about some things, namely my triglycerides and cholesterol as I had really hoped to be closer to normal than I am&#8230; Don't get me wrong, they are definitely better than they were at this time last year but considering all the work I am putting in to this I was really hopeful that they would be better&#8230; I have to look into what it is I am doing to keep them high so as to improve in this area&#8230;

The food scores have some real challenges the next couple of weeks (last tailgate party, Saturday poker tourney, thanksgiving and associated travels) so it will require a lot of diligence to hit my goal of "+15" I'm the only one that can make it happen!!!

To end on a high note, I got my bike back and I love it!!! Honestly, I'm not too sure about the white cables but otherwise it is exactly what I wanted&#8230; I highly recommend a reward such as this!!!! The original version is the green one and the black is obviously the new version:















I did put some personal touches on the bike that have a lot of symbolism for me... I created a logo a few months ago to represent what it is I am working for and to also serve as a motivational tool for whenever I needed it... It's kind of hard to see (who knew matte black and glossy black would be difficult to photograph??????) but the logo itself reads "254 evolve" and if you notice, the letters get smaller and smaller as you read it. the "254 represents what I weighed when I started this journey, the "evolve" part represents the evolution/change I am going through, and the decreasing font size of the letters within "evolve" represents my body decreasing in size from big to small









Long-term goals:
1.	Weigh 200 pounds: 254, 240, 228
2.	1000 miles on the bike/treadmill: Done 10-12-14
3.	2000 miles on the bike/treadmill: 1108
4.	Set new PR on short-ride: 12.4, 12.7, 12.9, 13.5, 13.9, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 15.2, 15.5, *16.4 (15.95 mile ride), 15.8
5.	Ride 30 miles: DONE 7-3-14
6.	Improve time on 30 mile ride: 2:27:58, 2:26:55, 2:17:55, 2:16:36, 2:10:25
7.	Be able to do 100 sit-ups: DONE 10-9-14
8.	Be able to do 50 push-ups: 36
9.	Increase bench press (4 sets, 20 reps):
10.	Increase squats (4 sets, 20 reps):
11.	Get 15 points 3 out of 4 weeks on average: Current: 0/1 Total: 0/1

Short-term goals:
1.	Win the "no win" eating situations: 0/4, again&#8230; (this week)
2.	Develop and implement a plan to reduce soda intake: Phase 1: no soda in the house


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Great thread!, I am at the very beginning or my lifestyle change to include mtb cycling, at my age and condition I am looking for gentle sloped easy trails and building my stamina, after that who knows ! My new bike should be here Tue 11/18, way over Stoaked

Your description of yourself as "Montanadan" posted is me also. I wanted to add I have a gym in my house and to this date have not used it with any regiment or regularity that will change. I have a frozen left shoulder and it only helps to move it! 

a buddy of mine wrote a great book about me and other called "out running my shadow" by Keith Aherns , this is not a plug but a great story of how he battled back for weighing over 400 pounds

la10slgr, again thanks I hope to be able to inspire someone the way reading this has inspired me, Bo


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

11-11-14 to 11-17-14: 0 short trail ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 0 long trail rides (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 4 treadmill (time: 60, 3.14 miles, vert. 1890, time: 60, 4.48 miles, vert. 3, time: 60, 3.14 miles, vert. 1501, time: 60, 4.34 miles, vert. 804). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 4, 40/20; sit-ups: 4, 100 (70/30), hanging crunches: 2,14

Cold weather/snow prevented any chance of a bike ride… Got some good workouts in… Still struggling with the food scores…

Workouts:
Treadmill: 
1. Incline workout.. Did pretty well considering over 3 miles and nearly 1900 feet vertical 

2. Run workout… I can really feel my legs and lungs coming together for the running… I was able to get the 4.48 without any major duress (tired yes, but not completely wiped out..) I loved it when the machine thought it needed to add some incline to the routine, if only for 3 feet…

3. Incline workout.. Exact same workout programmed into the machine as “workout 1” above, yet nearly 400 feet less of vertical…. I did this workout Saturday morning and I guess a little lack of motivation (said differently, still being ½ asleep…) caused my heart rate to go up faster, thus, caused the machine to make the workout a little easier…

4. Alpine Pass: This was a pretty intense workout! 4.34 miles and 800 feet of vertical wasn’t easy… I have to jog/run for pretty much the entire workout with the only exception being when it slows down some for the incline at 10% or more… I was still jogging (about 4.5 mph or so) when the incline was up at 6%... That really got the heart rate going! I was able to do the entire workout without taking any breaks or changing any of the programmed parameters so I was pretty proud of myself for this

Short rides: N/A

Long rides: N/A 

MTN bike rides: N/A 

Gym: Still was a little foggy on how many sit-ups I should have been doing so I erred on the side of caution this time. As it stands now, I am at the 70/30 split. I wasn’t too sure this was going to have any benefit doing it this way (adding to the 1st set) but I can still feel myself getting better at doing them (e.g., maintaining good form for more reps) so that’s obviously a happy development. I’m up to 40 push-ups now… Honestly, I really can’t believe I am doing this…. Up to 14 on the hanging crunches, completely forgot about them the last two workouts…. I’m not too sure about these as the hanging component really puts some stress on my shoulders (the joint) and it is quite uncomfortable. I’ll stick with it for a while and see how it goes. I’ve decided I will start the actual gym (bench, squat) work after thanksgiving.

Food: +12…. Take out the tailgate party alone and the score jumps to +17…. My decision, my results…. 

Musings: 

I’ve never done this much running in my life and quite honestly, I am getting better and better each time… I am breaking down mental barriers left and right and that is really helping me get through the routines. Oddly, the physical aspect (ability to run for longer and longer periods) is what is helping to break down these mental barriers. I dare say I think I have 5 miles in me within 1-hour…

Read a post from the other day on the before/after results page.. Guy went full out and dropped something like 180 pounds (I don’t remember exactly)… He laid out his routine in pretty good detail and mentioned that he weighs his food portions and counts all of the calories and does all of these other things to get to, and maintain, his new weight. I think it’s awesome that he did it and it got me thinking about his level of commitment vs. mine… Obviously his is much higher… He even mentioned that doing these things is a small price to pay in order to live a long and healthy life… It got me thinking about when I first started doing this and how it took me a little while to get to the point where I was willing to do something about the caloric intake… In debating whether or not I need to take it to the next level and do some of the things he has done I remembered that doing those exact things was exactly what made me quit my last weight loss attempt because I HATED the minutia that went into it; I don’t want to have to count every calorie, or weigh my meals, …) or some of the other things he did, and I definitely don’t want to give up drinking milk (something he ironically mentioned specifically… At the same time I do want to get down to 200 and I do want to have healthy levels of cholesterol and triglycerides… I guess my answer at the moment is to “master” my current approach (start consistently getting scores of +15 or above) and see what it does for me and adjust as necessary… (once again, typing this out really brought some clarity to what was a big jumbled mess of random thoughts…) 



Long-term goals:
1.	Weigh 200 pounds: 254, 240, 228
2.	1000 miles on the bike/treadmill: Done 10-12-14
3.	2000 miles on the bike/treadmill: 1123
4.	Set new PR on short-ride: 12.4, 12.7, 12.9, 13.5, 13.9, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 15.2, 15.5, *16.4 (15.95 mile ride), 15.8
5.	Ride 30 miles: DONE 7-3-14
6.	Improve time on 30 mile ride: 2:27:58, 2:26:55, 2:17:55, 2:16:36, 2:10:25
7.	Be able to do 100 sit-ups: DONE 10-9-14
8.	Be able to do 50 push-ups: 40
9.	Increase bench press (4 sets, 20 reps):
10.	Increase squats (4 sets, 20 reps):
11.	Get 15 points 3 out of 4 weeks on average: Current: 0/1 Total: 0/1

Short-term goals:
1.	Win the “no win” eating situations: 0/1, … (this week)
2.	Develop and implement a plan to reduce soda intake: Phase 1: no soda in the house


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

Thanks Bo,

I would like to hear updates as to how this is going for you. In some sort of cosmic way, we are all in this together!


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

My update for today is UPS claims my new bike is out for delivery! I am so stoaked,, Thanks for including me, and you are correct we are here in this together and can support one another, ride on !


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

captbo said:


> My update for today is UPS claims my new bike is out for delivery! I am so stoaked,, Thanks for including me, and you are correct we are here in this together and can support one another, ride on !


how'd that first ride go????????


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

The first ride has been an adjustment and shake down here in the back yard . I can feel the cycling position in my triceps , I have never rode a bike with a front shock, this one has a lockout so I gather I can get the old feel if I need it,, I have never had a bike with hyd. disc or any disc brakes for that matter and these are boss! I am planning of some good saddle time this weekend down along the river. I named the bike Big Orange ! here she is!


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Nutrition is a big subject. I make no bones about it! I like to eat, and I like to eat good food. portion control is the most important for me. I have learned to steam fish, in a bamboo steamer, I use seasoning that is no salt or low sodium ! Sometimes I slice apple very thin and steam them along with the fish,, its outstanding! I also eat steamed veggies,, but then temptation strikes , its all control !! so I need to stay on the bike ! fruit is the candy of the healthy !


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

big orange seems appropo.... you could have gone old school truck pulls and gone with "orange blossom special"!!!

re: triceps... you brought back some memories on that as I had the same thing going on... amazing how little you use those things

my 2 cents: I would say nay on using that lockout, how are you going to get used to the shock?????


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

captbo said:


> Nutrition is a big subject. I make no bones about it! I like to eat, and I like to eat good food. portion control is the most important for me. I have learned to steam fish, in a bamboo steamer, I use seasoning that is no salt or low sodium ! Sometimes I slice apple very thin and steam them along with the fish,, its outstanding! I also eat steamed veggies,, but then temptation strikes , its all control !! so I need to stay on the bike ! fruit is the candy of the healthy !


my biggest "helper" is just using baby steps... just trying to do a little better each day makes it 1) easier to adapt to and 2) seems to be pretty instrumental in making lifelong changes vs. just something you are doing for now..


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Good morning We had great weather over the weekend and I got out both Sat and Sun. after church. The place I rode was an old farm plantation along the shore of the Paxtuxent river. It is now a park called Jefferson- Patterson park. some beautiful real estate in Calvert county, Maryland, the ride is very flat in comparison to other terrain in the county. The park is still a working farm with some cool old world displays( Indian long huts) It make me want to camp there but its not permitted ! Bummer. Sat. mid morning I started the ride with some pavement. then the trails . I had a slight wind blowing and the temp was around 50 the glove were nice, I managed to stay on the bike for about 30 to 45 mn. I found myself extending my back upward and only having my fingers on the bars, I was thinking I should look into a different stem? biggest take away from the ride Sat. was bring water! like a fool I had none. 

Sunday: I could tell I had been on the bike but no fear I had a strong urge to ride again Sunday. I brought water and had another great day second guessing the stem issue I will leave things alone for now, It was warm enough to ride in shorts a long sleeve tee and a wool sweater ! I could not be happier with BIG ORANGE! not sure when I will get back to the park but I will ride maybe Tues , as I have some tenderness in the saddle area! for y state of condition the flat trails are what I can handle, I have to get it in my head that this kind of riding for me anyway is not a race I weight 326# this Monday am. All the best


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

Great job getting started! 2 cents if i may.... Theres a lot of "learning" that has to happen when you first start (e.g., the arms and the bum getting sore...). It gets better over time so as you mentioned, maybe hold off on going shopping.... Unless you really want to...

Water, yeah, just a little important!!! Rookie!!!

Now that you've gotten started, keep at it! You CAN do it!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

11-18-14 to 11-24-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 43.58, 10.79 miles, 14.7 avg.), 0 long trail rides (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 2 treadmill (time: 60, 3.14 miles, vert. 1514, time: 60, 3.2 miles, vert. 1754). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 3, 41/20; sit-ups: 3, 100 (73/27), hanging crunches: 2, 15

Snuck in a bike ride! But... only got 3 workouts in due to travel food scores still taking a hit.. Food scores... Again....

Workouts:
Treadmill: 
1. Incline workout.. Incline was a little low.. Seems someone (he who shall remain anonymous...) didn't pay attention to the sticky note, right under his nose on the treadmill, and programmed the heart rate parameters too low...

2. Incline workout… Didn't really feel like running so did incline again... This one went a little better

Short rides: Yay!!! It was a little too cold for this but I hadn't been able to go on a ride since I got my bike painted and tuned up... So I snuck one in... I could tell I hadn't ridden for a couple of weeks but it felt good just to get out there. I will say this, this was probably the best my bike has ever been tuned (even when it was brand new) and it felt incredible! No lag whatsoever when shifting and it just felt incredible...and I haven't even put on my x9 derailleur yet.... 

Long rides: N/A 

MTN bike rides: N/A 

Gym: sit ups are going according to plan... Got the push ups up to 41... Some days I can do it without stopping, other days I cant.... Moral of the story is I am still on an upward trend and am getting closer and closer to my goal...

Food: +10 One would get the idea I am trying to make my scores go down.... Seems like ever since I set out to score +15 my scores have continued to go down... Traveling for thanksgiving definitely didn't help but the score wasn't that great even before this... This has really gotten to be an issue for me as I feel I should be overcoming these obstacles but I am not...

Musings: 

Its getting hard keeping track of all of these different numbers and keeping everything straight.. between push ups, sit ups, hanging crunches, 4 different treadmill routines (that are still getting modified each time), daily food scores, and whatever riding I manage to get in, its getting hard to keep everything organized... I even have the treadmill routines on a sticky right under my nose and still managed to do the wrong routine (settings as high as they should be..) On top of that, add in that the holidays are in full swing now and Im feeling a little scattered... As it stands now, I am typing this a day late, on an ipad, while visiting family.... Thing is, all of these things are important and I don't think I can get rid of anything.... I guess I just need to keep working to make these things more ingrained....

Im getting a little flustered over all of my good intentions and the food scores... The effort is there, but next thing I know, the score is going to be below 15... Again.... Try try again...

Long-term goals: 
(I will update next week, don't have my spreadsheet with me)
1. Weigh 200 pounds: 254, 240, 228
2. 1000 miles on the bike/treadmill: Done 10-12-14
3. 2000 miles on the bike/treadmill: 1123
4. Set new PR on short-ride: 12.4, 12.7, 12.9, 13.5, 13.9, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 15.2, 15.5, *16.4 (15.95 mile ride), 15.8
5. Ride 30 miles: DONE 7-3-14
6. Improve time on 30 mile ride: 2:27:58, 2:26:55, 2:17:55, 2:16:36, 2:10:25
7. Be able to do 100 sit-ups: DONE 10-9-14
8. Be able to do 50 push-ups: 40
9. Increase bench press (4 sets, 20 reps):
10. Increase squats (4 sets, 20 reps):
11. Get 15 points 3 out of 4 weeks on average: Current: 0/1 Total: 0/1

Short-term goals:
1. Win the “no win” eating situations: 0/1, … (this week)
2. Develop and implement a plan to reduce soda intake: Phase 1: no soda in the house


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

*Captbos' journey !*

Sun Nov 30 2014. A very cheap cycling computer came in I had found on amazon, for $5. If it works it will suit my need. It records time 12/24 hr. speed, current, highest, average speed, and overall, mileage, or Kilometers so far top speed is 19 mph in tallest gear cranking, The hardest thing about setting this super cheapo up was getting the 29" tire circumference, found it on the net so I am sure it's not dead nuts right, but shows me data I find helpful.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving meal I smoked a Turkey and cooked a ham. Being a food junkie a holiday like this I do not need I kept myself in pretty good check, and did not overdo it too much.

Today Sunday I rode Jeff Pat Park again and parked mid-way in the place this allowed me a nice warm up ride before going off road. I decided to ride it in the opposite direction from what I had ridden it before and I like it a bit better, Nice easy down-slope with a turn and a bump at the bottom, again finding the right gear is a bit rough coming up to the climb, have not nailed it yet, but I hope to soon, then an easy pedal along the river, It was warm so I opted to get off the path and go carving through the cut corn, BAD move, fat guy , soft ground,= push bike, Ooops. I have to get more saddle time in during the week if I want to improve my wind, still only have a 30 plus window before I burn out!
Mon. Dec 1 2014 324lbs. The computer function fine it will be a nice addition to gauge me. Have a great week !

Weight goal 190 , currently 324


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

11-25-14 to 12-1-14: 0 short trail ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 0 long trail rides (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 3 treadmill (time: 60, 4.82 miles, vert. 0, time: 60, 3.2 miles, vert. ?, time: 45, 3.30 miles, vert. 620). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 1 upper workout (bench: 4/20-20-15-15/95; curls: 4/20-20-15-15/45; tri: 4/20-20-15-15/35); push-ups: 3, 42/20; sit-ups: 3, 100 (76/24), hanging crunches: 1,15

Road trips and eating better go together about as well as dynamite and matches…. Even though I was on “vacation” for 5 days I still managed to get three workouts in, which is pretty damn impressive in my book.. Having driven for 13 hours on Friday, I just didn’t have the energy/desire to get that 4th workout in… Bummer too because it could have been a bike ride… Expanded the workout as intended to include some gym work…

Workouts:
Treadmill: 
1. Run workout.. Got this workout in at the hotel some family was staying at (we stayed at my wife’s uncle’s house…) so yes, I was that guy that snuck in to use the gym equipment…. I was hoping the change in elevation was going to really make this easier (more oxygen…) but in all honesty, I didn’t notice anything along those lines… To the contrary, I did notice the extra humidity and I got a pretty good sweat going.. I did the 5mph for 6 minutes and 6mph for 5 minute and decreased the break (walking time) in between the two down to 2 minutes and was fairly successful with this… I think with maybe another minute added on to each I can get to the 5 mile mark…

2. Incline workout… Same as above (snuck into the gym) but this machine doesn’t keep track of elevation.. I did the “pyramid” and it bottomed out at 8% incline and topped out at 13.4% incline so I know I got a pretty good workout in… Not to mention, this happened on Thanksgiving day…..

3. Alpine Pass: I cut the time down to 45 minutes to get the gym work in… it almost seemed harder than doing the full 60 for some reason…. The only time I wasn’t jogging was when I was at 8% incline and above so there was literally no easy spots within the whole routine….

Short rides: N/A

Long rides: N/A 

MTN bike rides: N/A 

Gym: Sit-ups progressing as planned. Managed to get the push-ups to 42, still hit and miss but like I said before, as long as I keep progressing it doesn’t really bother me that I am not going up every time… Got started on the gym work, did arms/upper body... My goal is lightweight with high reps and as it stands now, I didn’t have 4 sets of 20 reps in me for each exercise so I did 2 sets at 20 and 2 sets at 15… I kind of feel like a weenie doing such lightweights but I’m not trying to bulk up so this is what I came up with… Seems like I’m at a good starting point as the arms are a little tender but not terribly sore…

Food: +9…. Well, all of my fears have come true… Results have shown that I am just not at that level (yet) in which I can get out of the routine and still get the scores I need to be getting.. Funny thing is, it wasn’t even Thanksgiving itself that screwed me up.. It was all of the crappy meals surrounding it while traveling and going out with family etc… and all of the junk food all over the place…. The next few weeks look to be fairly routine as I don’t see anything coming up so I am really looking forward to righting the ship with this… My frustration level alone indicates I should have a good week coming up… 

Musings: 

Obviously the food scores aren’t where they need to be and I am really disappointed in myself for the past few weeks.. About a month ago, when I recognized the challenges the past few weeks were going to be for me in the area of improved diet, I was really optimistic that I was going to be able to face the challenges and come out on top…. Well, having pretty much failed, I at least have a better understanding of my weaknesses and what I need to do to address them… Having said that, I am relatively pleased that the working out portion is going pretty much according to plan….



Long-term goals:
1.	Weigh 200 pounds: 254, 240, 228
2.	1000 miles on the bike/treadmill: Done 10-12-14
3.	2000 miles on the bike/treadmill: 1151.92
4.	Set new PR on short-ride: 12.4, 12.7, 12.9, 13.5, 13.9, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 15.2, 15.5, *16.4 (15.95 mile ride), 15.8
5.	Ride 30 miles: DONE 7-3-14
6.	Improve time on 30 mile ride: 2:27:58, 2:26:55, 2:17:55, 2:16:36, 2:10:25
7.	Be able to do 100 sit-ups: DONE 10-9-14
8.	Be able to do 50 push-ups: 42
9.	Increase bench press (4 sets, 20 reps): 95
10.	Increase squats (4 sets, 20 reps):
11.	Get 15 points 3 out of 4 weeks on average: Current: 0/1 Total: 0/1

Short-term goals:
1.	Develop and implement a plan to reduce soda intake: Phase 1: no soda in the house


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Monday Dec 8 2014,
I continue to be getting more comfortable on this bike. I found a new place to ride in St. Marys County called Myrtle Point. it is exactly what I have been looking for, rolling fire trails, single track trails and a few measured Kind of technical for my skills trails. It is located along the river woodland and shoreline . I rode the place both Sat. in the rain, and Sunday after Church in the sun shine. Sat ride was about 34 min long and Sunday I was able to bump it up to 50 minutes the hydration pack is a godsend!, 

The cheap bike computer performed flawlessly I am very satisfied with it. I upgraded my pedal to Azonic 420 platform, I like them! no other new gear to speak of other than I dug out some 20 plus year old bike shorts and wore them under my camo shorts!,, again how could I have forgotten how essential these things are to rider comfort. I am digging out bike tools I have not seen or used in almost as long as the 20 year old shorts Man I should have never let life get so busy that I stopped cycling!. I am putting together a cycle maintenance area in my basement and soon I will be good as its in a room right next to our gym.

I have picked up a few things that I have always been meaning to buy for the gym a rope for tricep work and a curl bar with a bearing in it so I don't have to let the bar roll in my hand all is coming along well.

One issue I can't change is the park is in the opposite direction of my way to work,, or else I would ride it in the morning!



Weight goal 190 , weight journey currently 324,313 also using an app called Lose it, I find it is very helpful, Have a great week and Yes! yes you can.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

captbo said:


> Monday Dec 8 2014,
> I continue to be getting more comfortable on this bike. Sat ride was about 34 min long and Sunday I was able to bump it up to 50 minutes the hydration pack is a godsend!,.


Awesome job, already increasing the stamina!



captbo said:


> The cheap bike computer performed flawlessly I am very satisfied with it. I upgraded my pedal to Azonic 420 platform, I like them! no other new gear to speak of other than I dug out some 20 plus year old bike shorts and wore them under my camo shorts!,, again how could I have forgotten how essential these things are to rider comfort. I am digging out bike tools I have not seen or used in almost as long as the 20 year old shorts Man I should have never let life get so busy that I stopped cycling!. I am putting together a cycle maintenance area in my basement and soon I will be good as its in a room right next to our gym..


love this! putting together all of the things that are making it a new hobby/something you are having fun with instead of something you have to do... creating that life long change! Pretty soon you are going to NEED to go out and get some of that new stuff you were talking about (vs. wanting to just because...)



captbo said:


> Weight goal 190 , weight journey currently 324,313


Are you saying you have already dropped 11 pounds???!!! If so, that is awesome!!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

12-2-14 to 12-8-14: 1 short trail ride (time: 45.10, 10.82 miles, 14.4 avg.), 1 long trail rides (time: 2.15.58, 30.05 miles, 13.3 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 1 treadmill (time: 45, 2.35 miles, vert. 1522). Gym: 1 leg workout (squat: 4/15/105; LE: 4/20/45; Ham: 4/15/35); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 3, 43/20; sit-ups: 3, 100 (79/21)

Had a good week but had to miss the 4th workout due to a meeting at work (and not having enough time to get the workout in before job #2). Weather has been passable (above 40 degrees) so got a couple of bike rides in… Finally reached the target food score and continue to implement new ideas… In an effort to streamline this a little, the format is changing… The report will be the same, just a different layout…

Workouts:
1. Treadmill/gym: Wasn’t feeling terribly motivated to run so I did the incline routine for 45 minutes with the heart rate set to range from 130-150.. Within that, the incline ranged from 8%-20%.. Needless to say I was huffing along pretty good when the incline got to 17%+… Got started with the squats, leg extensions, and leg curls.. Again, the weight is pretty pathetic but I am just focused on getting through the soreness before I worry about doing any real weight… I kept the squats and leg curls at 4x15 and did the leg extensions at 4x20… Arms are still a little sore/weak from arm workout the other day so push-ups suffered… Had to take a break at 30 but got the 42 in… Sit-ups are good… 

2. Short bike ride: The weather was a little questionable (50 degrees, cloudy) but I wanted to do a bike ride to stretch my legs out some as they were sore from the first workout… Even though the legs were sore and it was cold, I still managed a decent time but all I was really concerned about was stretching out my legs and working out some of the soreness… Sadly, the legs were even more sore after doing this… Have I mentioned my legs are sore????? Arms were a little bit better, but still fatigued, so I managed 35 push-ups before having to rest… did another 10 after resting just because I wanted to try to get better in some way…

3. Long bike ride: Started the day with intentions of doing the treadmill and arm workout, then progressed to a short bike ride, then figured “why not? The weather is above 60 degrees and I have the time..” so I ended up doing a long bike ride…. I was a little nervous having not done 30 miles for a couple of months but I figured this was going to be the best bang for my buck as far as a workout goes… The ride went pretty well, almost great! I compared the time and average to previous rides and found I actually got my 2nd best time on this ride… I will definitely take it! To top it off, I was a little nervous that I was going to be totally wrecked afterwards but I got through the ride (and the rest of the afternoon) without any ill effects.. And, I finally got all of the soreness worked out of my legs… Life’s a little strange when your quads are on fire all day long… Mustered up the conviction to get 43 push-ups.. Almost failed on #43 but I got it… barely…

4. Fail…. Damn “real world” stuff getting in the way of my workout regimen…. Kind of bummed because this was supposed to be the day I do another upper body workout (since I ended up doing the long bike ride on workout #3) and I want to keep that ball rolling now that I have gotten it started…


Food: +15…. Made it!!! It took a lot of finagling but I finally rebounded and got up to 15… As I mentioned last week, I have been really irritated about my food scores being low the past few weeks so this was my main focus this week.. There were ample opportunities to fail, yet again, but I managed to steer clear of just enough “roadblocks” to make it to 15… Case in point, wife wanted Q’doba… again… took a score that is normally a “-1” and turned it into a “+1” by having a whole wheat tortilla, meat, fajita veggies, and salsa and skipping the flour tortilla, beans, cheese, and sour cream… According to their website, I took a 970 calorie meal and turned it into a 565 calorie meal… Virtually cut the calories in ½ with only negligible change in taste/flavor… Did I miss the cheese and sour cream? You bet! Was the decrease in calories worth it? Absolutely! Of course, there were a couple of unexpected events that cost me some points (aren’t there always???) but I had enough forewarning to make sure I could absorb the “-1” scores and not drop below 15… Now, let’s see if I can manage 2 in a row!!! 

Musings: 

Felt great to get a couple of bike rides in this week.. Felt even better that I was still in good enough shape to do them, particularly the 30 miler… Little proof in the pudding that the treadmill work I am doing (particularly the running) is paying off in regards to maintaining bicycling stamina over the winter.. I did decide the “hanging crunches” weren’t worth it… The pain in my shoulders (the shoulder joint) definitely didn’t justify the exercise… I will find something else to replace it… As I mentioned before, I am interested in that planking thing but still need to investigate… Maybe some sort of leg lifts in the meantime…

Also felt great to get to 15 points on the food score this week… It really is a “monkey off my back” to finally get it after the few weeks of frustration… I have finally begun to accept that dairy is a big problem so I started working to reduce that (ranch, cheese, sour cream, etc…) but milk continues to be my sacred cow (ha!) in that I just don’t see myself giving that up.. I am consciously trying to drink a little less of it… I got balsamic vinaigrette (thanks spellcheck!) on my salad the other day and I have to admit, it was pretty tasty.. don’t know why I have been so against it (oh yeah… I love ranch…) but I think we have a winner in the new dressing…

Overall, I really needed to have a good week and am very glad it happened.. I can literally feel the shift in my mindset as November pretty much equated to “I have to do this” and ended up with mixed results and with one good week I have already shifted back to “I want to do this!” and am back to actively seeking opportunities to get “+1” scores wherever I can. It’s my daughter’s birthday next weekend so I know that is going to cost 1-2 points but other than that, the week should go pretty smoothly… time will tell…



Long-term goals:
1.	Weigh 200 pounds: 254, 240, 228
2.	1000 miles on the bike/treadmill: Done 10-12-14
3.	2000 miles on the bike/treadmill: 1195.14
4.	Set new PR on short-ride: 12.4, 12.7, 12.9, 13.5, 13.9, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 15.2, 15.5, *16.4 (15.95 mile ride), 15.8
5.	Ride 30 miles: DONE 7-3-14
6.	Improve time on 30 mile ride: 2:27:58, 2:26:55, 2:17:55, 2:16:36, 2:10:25
7.	Be able to do 100 sit-ups: DONE 10-9-14
8.	Be able to do 50 push-ups: 43
9.	Increase bench press (4 sets, 20 reps): 15-20 reps @ 95
10.	Increase squats (4 sets, 20 reps): 15 reps @ 105
11.	Get 15 points 3 out of 4 weeks on average: Current: 1/1 Total: 0/1

Short-term goals: 
1.	Develop and implement a plan to reduce soda intake: Phase 1: no soda in the house


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Very happy with the progress and I have indeed dropped 11 pounds in the first week, This is typical for me and soon I will have to settle for the one to two pound per week loss, and I am good with that. The Lose it app has a scanner feature included so I can go into the grocery store, scan a heat and eat lunch and it records it, , it also allows me to share a meal I commonly eat so the entering stuff is minimized!.

I have a very old Schwinn Air Dyne and it appears the bottom bracket needs some attention, looks like its an old style cone and caged bearing bracket,, yeah more wrenching !


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Good Morning, this is my Dec 15 Monday update:

I have to rank this as a not so good week. Thurs Dec. 11 was not a great day as far as my eating went. It was our company office party, some people made breakfast and after entering my calories in “lose It” I was blown away with what I had eaten. Before diner I was 490 calories OVER my daily budget and still had to take my daughter out for her birthday dinner and she picked Mexican!, another temptation downfall

This Monday I must record a weight gain of 3 lbs (314) and I hate showing this as I am working very hard to beat this addiction or control it rather than it controlling me.

The “lose it” will not let you show a caloric way to lose more than 2 lbs. per week and I know from a health standpoint that is the best way, Daily it offers me an intake of2304 calories per day and I am running on average about 1400, the gross weekly total I am 4239 under for the week, I worked out at home in the gym and on the Airdyne, On Sunday I made it out to the woods and overall had a great ride, although I had stuff on my mind and was looking for a way to quit early. I did not cave and cranked onward! 
This week I ope to recapture the weight loss and focus better ! 

Until !


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

12-9-14 to 12-15-14: 0 short trail ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 0 long trail rides (time: 0.0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 1 Mtn bike ride (time: 31.48, 4.53 miles, 8.6 avg.) 3 treadmill (time: 60, 4.8 miles, vert. 0; time: 45, 3.31 miles, vert. 621; time: 60, 3.14 miles, vert. 1429). Gym: 1 leg workout (squat: 4/15/105; LE: 4/20/45; Ham: 4/15/35); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 4, 45/20; sit-ups: 3, 100 (83/17)

Had a great week as everything went according to plan. All workouts happened as scheduled and food score came in as intended (said differently, nothing screwy came along this week to mess me up…) Did have some mixed results on the workouts but nothing to worry about… In a continued effort to streamline the report, I am not posting the goals at the bottom each week as it seems rather redundant redundant….

Workouts:
1. Mtn. Bike: Kind of had a case of “spring fever” as the temps were getting into the high 50s/low 60s (gotta love Colorado weather!) so I decided to go for a mtn. bike ride!!! I kinda (ok really..) misjudged how much daylight I had left as I didn’t have my arse in the saddle until about 4:30… At that time, the sun was already hiding behind the mountains but the temps were still good.. I figured I had at least 45 minutes available…. The riding was awesome! Similar to the 30 mile ride last week, my legs were fresh and strong and I had good breath support as well so I was able to handle everything I attempted. According to strava, I set 4 PR’s for sections within this ride… However, the park kinda goes down into a valley so needless to say, it got pretty cold (34 degrees according to my computer) and dark rather quickly so I had to cut the ride short (only about ½ hour) and pretty much had to ride out in the dark… Those lines aren’t so easy to pick out in the near dark with all those shadows, particularly for a guy that has some colorblindness… Sit-ups are good… Got 43 push-ups again. I was going to get the squat workout in when I got home (since the ride was so short) but my wife had dinner ready when I walked in the door so that pretty much canceled that out….

2. Treadmill-run: In an effort to hit the 5 miles, I added a minute on to each run segment (5 mph for 7 minutes, 6 mph for 6 minutes) and I even added on 2 minutes at 8 mph and still only managed to get 4.8 miles….. Pretty disappointed that I added on about 5 extra minutes of jogging/running and I was still .2 miles short…. I guess the silver lining in this is that I was able to handle the extra jogging time I added in… However, that 8 mph stuff was pretty tough, if only for 2 minutes…. I dare call that actual running… I got up to 44 push-ups! Mindset was “right” and I had little/no doubt I was going to get them… I’m still blown away that I can do this… 

3. treadmill-alpine/gym: Strange workout. I started with what I thought was sufficient motivation and felt I was ready to go… HOWEVER, I barely got through the sit-ups and I already realized I didn’t have “it” today… Whatever motivation I thought I had was totally false as I struggled to do everything… The treadmill really kicked my arse and I had to take a couple of breaks within just to get it finished. Probably a bad idea to do the toughest workout in my arsenal on a day when motivation is lacking… As for the leg workout, I was pretty fortunate in that I am still doing really light weight with the high reps because anything over what I did probably would have doomed me.. As it was, I got through this part fine and the legs were only minimally sore… sit-ups were uncharacteristically tough and I almost needed 2 breaks to get to 45 push-ups (I did make it with a 30/15 split… barely…)

4. treadmill-incline…. Having made it through the last workout, I went with the motif of “it can only be better” and sure enough it was.. The incline seems to be my “best” (for lack of a better term..) treadmill routine because even at 3.2 mph and 17% incline I was much more relaxed and able to “git r done” when compared to jogging or combination routines.. So, with that, everything went fine on this workout. I do need to increase the heart rate ceiling to be able to challenge myself a little more. 83 sit-ups before the break, then the remaining 17… Managed 45 push-ups!!! Again with the mindset stuff, I knew it was gonna happen (ok, I had little doubt…) and it paid off…


Food: +18…. Woo hoo!!! PR!!! I maintained (increased even..) my focus on this from last week and largely avoided the pitfalls that have been wreaking havoc of late… and that is even with my daughter’s birthday party and a holiday party as well… A huge difference maker was I took some of those “0” scores and changed them to “+1” by making some adjustments that really weren’t too difficult to make… Now to keep it up and make these things a habit vs. an anomaly…

Musings: 
Feeling some satisfaction in that I was pretty much right in that I can do really well with this as long as there few, if any, disruptions to what I consider to be a routine week. I do have lurking in the back of my mind that there is always something going on that will give me more than enough opportunity to have a bad week.. This is compounded by the fact that we are in the thick of the holiday season…. As it is, I’m going to enjoy the feeling of things going the way I planned for pretty much 2 weeks in a row now (last week wasn’t perfect, but passable…) and try to keep the ball rolling. I do know the next 2 weeks will be a challenge as there is Christmas and New Years.. On top of that, I will be off work for 2 weeks as well… Good news is, no road trips this go around…

I am loving how well I am doing on these random bike rides that I am working in due to such “balmy” weather…. It feels really good to be able to approach the same rides I was doing when it was warmer and finding I have sustained my stamina… I don’t know if it is the treadmill work or the fact my legs have gotten some “rest” (let’s say not so worn out from riding 3-4 days a week…) but I have been very pleasantly surprised. Either way, I’ll take it!

I have begun to implement “phase 2” of the soda situation, which is to not order it in restaurants (notice the use of the words “in restaurants” vs. “whenever we eat out”) I don’t’ intend to 100% eliminate this as there are some times when a soda really hits the spot or is necessary because the water is a little skectchy but I don’t see a problem with decreasing this by 90-95%.... So far so good as I have just ordered water a few times and oddly, I didn’t fall over and die from soda withdrawals… Not to mention the $3-4 savings off the bill…


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Good morning, Dec 22, the past week was a good week. I had my birthday on the 17th, and God gave me another year!. I took the Airdyne and had the bottom bracket repaired, no she is solid again. This week did not allow me much time to ride as most if not all of my saddle time is on the weekends and Barb and I went to west Virginia Sat. and Sunday was yard work a firewood collection, Lose It is still very helpful, I am eating about 1400 calories per day as it seems to be working well. I know I am dieting I plan to get on the weights this week at least 3 x and ride the Airdyne as well 3x. Today weight in 306.4 making the total loss of 54.6 since March 2014 Lose it shows me 8009 calories under the budges amount for someone who is going to lose 2 lbs per week? Merry Christmas one and all !


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## MrRoxy (Jun 15, 2014)

Just wanted to check in and let you know I am still following your journey. I finally got my warranty parts for my bike so hopefully I can get back in the groove. Happy Holidays and here's to hoping you guys can stay on track as I have lost my way once again with the weather.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

12-16-14 to 12-22-14: 
Ummm yeah, what a week….. so first off, had to miss workout 1 due to my daughter’s birthday… Had to miss workout 2 due to a dentist appointment and having to work job #2 so there wasn’t enough time to get a workout in… Then came the sickness… I’m not gonna go so far as to call it the flu, but I’m not gonna say it isn’t the flu either (note the use of the word “isn’t” as I am writing this 3 days late on Friday the 26th and still feel crappy)… So there went workouts 3 and 4….. Throw on the whole “days before Christmas” craziness and there’s the week…. 

As an added perk!!! I got tired of all my data getting messed up on google sheets so I have just been setting up a text (to myself) and inputting everything on my phone, which has been working pretty well….. except…. Somehow the text got deleted so what exact information I did have is now gone… I did know where my points were for the week so it isn’t a complete loss but it has been about three weeks since I put all of that data on my “master” spreadsheet so now that looks a little wonky….. Luckily I have my weekly reports here on mtbr to refer to….

So with that, the only real report this week is food:
Food: +14…. As I mentioned, I am reporting this from memory (memory chock full of Dayquil/Nyquil and an absolutely insane week…) so the details are a little lacking… hazy at best… I was barely hanging on this week with all of the preholiday craziness and my daughter’s birthday, but I was still on track to make the “+15”… I had it until I met up with some friends and threw away my 2-week string of +15 or better…. I will still be on track of 3/4 weeks at this level so if next week goes a little bit better it won’t be an issue.. just a bummer to throw away the security blanket of being ahead of the game…

Musings: 
Really bummed about not working out at all this week but that’s the way it went down… There was no way I was going to workout with this sickness as it would have done more harm than good…

As for the food, Captbo over there is giving me a little motivational kick in the a$s to take it up a notch…. I feel like I am ready to take another step and continue to look at ways to improve and am feeling up to the task (ironically as I missed my food score goal this week…) But in my defense, this week’s score could have easily been in the single digits (and we’re not talking 8 or 9 either…) but I made a lot of choices to keep the score up…

Continuing to implement “phase 2” of the soda situation (not order it in restaurants) and am getting close to turning the corner in that I am feeling the benefits (health and financial) are greater than my lust for soda… 

Next week’s report should be better but probably still a little off schedule in that Christmas obviously cost some points and the illness is still lingering around… Have to see how it goes…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

MrRoxy said:


> Just wanted to check in and let you know I am still following your journey. I finally got my warranty parts for my bike so hopefully I can get back in the groove. Happy Holidays and here's to hoping you guys can stay on track as I have lost my way once again with the weather.


get on the bus roxy!!!!!!


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Dec 29, 2014 This is my last post here in 2014, I wish all a healthy and happy New Year. Dec 24 my weight was 304 I was very happy and had worked very hard the week prior to earn that score, then it happened, I slacked off and fell back into my old eating ways, today the scale read 313, I know why and I know what to do , I am just a bit mad at myself for backsliding 
Barb got me some great cycling glove and a very nice jersey, I will recover and get back on the old horse very soon ! , Have a very happy and safe new year!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

12-23-14 to 12-29-14: 0 short trail ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 0 long trail rides (time: 0.0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0, 0 miles, 0 avg.) 3 treadmill (time: 60, 3.14 miles, vert. 1488; time: 60, 4.84 miles, vert. 0; time: 60, 4.51 miles, vert. 29). Gym: 0 leg workout (squat: 0/0/0; LE: 0/0/0; Ham: 0/0/0); 0 upper workout (bench: 0/0/0; curls: 0/0/0; tri: 0/0/0); push-ups: 3, 45/20; sit-ups: 3, 100 (84/16)

Well, set a new PR for tardiness for my weekly report…. Had a fairly decent week all things considered as I got 3 workouts in but couldn’t manage to get the 4th in… Along those lines, should have made my point goal for the week but made a decision that cause me to miss… I’m accountable for what I do but the holidays are tough for this, plain and simple… 

Workouts:
1. treadmill-inclilne:Still not feeling 100% but good enough to get something done on the workout front. Pretty standard workout with nothing remarkable either good or bad. I was able to do the entire routine without feeling like I lost any conditioning so I guess that is a positive...Sit-ups took a little effort but not too bad… Push-ups on the other hand… those were pretty difficult. I don’t think I have ever differentiated that sometimes I do them with my hands flat on the floor and sometimes using some grips… The grips make it much more difficult… At any rate, did them with the grips today… Got to 30 before failure then had to rest before the last 15.. 

2. Treadmill-run: I didn’t do anything special effort-wise as far as trying to get the 5 miles, therefore, I got closer than I ever have at 4.84…. go figure… Had I known I was going to get so close I would have tried to get it…Push-ups on the grips are still a killer… did get up to 35 before failure then added the 10… Sit-ups were a little difficult for some reason...

3. Treadmill-run: did the program where the treadmills adjusts based on my heart rate so that’s where the random 29 feet of incline come in… Push-ups stayed at 35/10 with the bars.. Sit-ups are still a challenge for some reason...

Food: +14…. I knew there were going to be some pitfalls this week and thought I had worked it just well enough to land on +15 right on the dot… Well, I messed that up… friends talked me into a couple of extra beers at a poker night and I went with the “well, I don’t have to work tomorrow…” so that was that… I spent a lot of mental energy trying to rationalize/justify some way to still manage the 15 but caught myself doing it and realized the only reason I was doing this was to still get the good score, which isn’t true to the system…. Live and learn...

Musings: 
I’ve mentioned this before but now I have lots of proof… This is not easy to do during the holiday season… Soooo many things going on and it really wore me out trying to find ways to still get decent food scores for the week.. very frustrating…. Since I am writing this on Saturday and another report is due on Tuesday, I can already tell you this story continues next week as well….

I did get lots of bike toys for Xmas so I really want to be able to ride but the weather has been crappy here so anything outdoors isn’t going to happen...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

12-30-14 to 1-5-15: 0 short trail ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 0 long trail rides (time: 0.0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.) 4 treadmill (time: 60, 4.34 miles, vert. 804; time: 45, 2.34 miles, vert. 1345; time: 45, 3.65 miles, vert. 0; time: 60, 3.25 miles, vert. 1400). Gym: 1 leg workout (squat: 4/20/105; LE: 4/20/45; Ham: 4/15/35); 1 upper workout (bench: 4/20/95; curls: 4/15/45; tri: 4/20/35); push-ups: 4, 45/20; sit-ups: 4, 100 (89/11)

Well, as I alluded to, food score pretty much sucks this week… At least the holidays are over and normalcy should return for the foreseeable future… Did get all workouts in so that is somewhat of a relief… 

Workouts:
1. Treadmill-alpine: This is by far my hardest workout on the treadmill.. I almost hate doing it but then I look at how hard it makes me work and I know it makes me better so that causes me to stick with it… Compared to last time, this was a little better but still needed a couple of mini-breaks within as it seems I’m still not at the level of being able to jog/run for 50/60 minutes… Got through 30/45 push-ups using the hand grips before having to stop. Sit-ups are plugging along….

2. Treadmill-incline/gym: Treadmill went fine, nothing amazing to report on that… Finally got around to doing an upper-body workout… All things went pretty well and I was able to do the high reps/low weight combination without struggling too much… That is with increasing the bench to 20 rep sets (vs. two sets at 20 and two sets at 15)… Arm stuff went according to plan. The real perk is I did this without any soreness afterward so it seems the muscles are coming around to the idea… Got 35/45 push-ups using the hand grips so some improvement there… Sit-ups are sit-ups… 

3. treadmill-run/gym: Did the heart rate guided run program and felt like I did pretty well on it… I kinda feel like I am getting the hang of the nuances of the treadmill and I am definitely boosting my stamina as I can get through the routine pretty well. Increased the squats to 4 sets of 20 (instead of 4x15) and was able to get it done, but it was definitely hard getting those last five in each time… This is definitely hitting that anaerobic workout stuff I was talking about! Leg extensions went well, almost easy, so I need to add a little more weight on to that.. Leg curls are good at sets of 15 as I am pretty wiped out by the time I am done. Got 40/45 push-ups before having to take a break! Almost caught up to where I was without the push-up grips… Still doing sit-ups…

4. treadmill-incline…. So I was pretty happy with workout 3 above, especially since I wasn’t sore afterward… Well, then I went to bed…. So, back to having sore legs... Not the worst case ever, just an annoyance at this point… Felt ready to do this workout as 1) I wanted to work the soreness out of my legs and 2) I really needed to get it in to at least offset the crappy food score for the week… And then came reality… It seems I have this thing about being able to sleep the night before going back to work after a vacation… So although the “want” was there, the reality was I was doing this on hardly any sleep and my first day back at work after two weeks off… not ideal…. I got through the treadmill portion fine, although it was more difficult than normal and took a little more effort… The real problems came doing the sit-ups and push-ups… I got the 89 sit-ups in before resting but the last 10 took a LOT of intestinal fortitude… As for the push-ups… Took everything I had just to get to 30 and that was it… 31 was not gonna happen…. I rested a bit and got the last 15 in but even then, it wasn’t without its own difficulties… 


Food: +5…. Nothing like New Year’s Eve and the new year to really, really set a bad tone for the week…. Started off ok, not great, just ok, then came the family outing for pizza, and then came the party food…. And then came the party food leftovers, and then came the poker night, and then came the meeting friends for pizza (yes, pizza 2x!!!!)….. To top it off, our family fills the stockings with candy so even though EVERYONE in my family knows I am working to lose weight I am now in possession of more red vines than once could even imagine, 2 big bags of m&m’s, and the mother of all snickers bars (this thing is about a foot long and about 3 inches wide!!!) AND my wife decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies… (my wife doesn’t bake!!!!!) I was initially able to refrain from eating these things but once I realized there was no way I was gonna hit the “+15” for the week I found myself not even really putting forth any effort and snacking on this and that here and there…. Needless to say, my snack scores really, really “helped” with my failure for the week…. 

Musings: 
Well, I now see why it is so easy for people to gain weight over the holidays… I’ve never been in this position before (caring about what I eat over the holidays) and I have to say, it is really, really hard…. I am already very curious to see what I do differently next year and how well I do with the knowledge/experience I now have… The good news is the little dietary success I did have (success being a relative term here…) combined with the working out kept me from gaining anything… I am holding firm at 227 (same as a couple of months ago) which in itself is somewhat disappointing but in the context of the past month, I will take it…. (understanding that at 227 I probably gained some weight back over the holidays but it didn’t take me back from the last time I weighed myself…)

Never thought I would workout on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s day…..

I did pass the ¼ point for my 2nd set of 1000 miles (1232.46) Not bad considering the amount of treadmill work I have been doing…

Continuing to resist ordering soda in restaurants and am feeling like I am making progress on that… Conversely, due to the “party” (New Year’s eve with the family…) there is some soda in the house… Almost have it finished so will be back on track once it is gone…


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Hello all I am a day later than I regularly post, Time just got away from me Monday! In the riding dept. Time has gotten in the way too as well. However after the last two Holiday and really watching everything I put into my body ( Its very easy with the Lose it app) I have regained my weight loss and my control . I am going to testify that in my case, enjoying a "good meal" is really not good Its abuse of my body! Plain and simple. I prove this to myself every day when I eat appropriately and feel great. I own my failure and I will control myself and retake the responsibility to eat the good stuff. Ready...... I am 1 pound from dropping to below 300 lbs. having started at 361 I am stoked BUT must remain focused as I want to see 300 lbs in the rear view mirror soon I do not want to live there! when I started my journey I had a 52" waist for Christmas I got a pair of Carharts in 46x30 and today they are a little big! My lovely Wife got me a cycling jersey and some MTB baggies that are XXL just about 1 " from fitting on the shorts , the jersey fits fine! she also got me a metal detector ? who knew and it turns out I am having a ball Dirt Fishing.. all I have fished is a small part of our three acres at the castleBgroovy but have found coins back to 1965 cool becuase I built this house in 1986, this place was an old farm. I found a cool website that has old aerial photos PM me if you would like the link! Thanks for all your support!

La10slgr you are the top of the list !


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## cpfitness (Nov 19, 2012)

La10slgr good work. Haven't read your whole thread but did read most of page 1 and most of this last page. I have one suggestion, in your long term goals you are citing some strength training goals that are all very high repetition. Do some heavier lifting with lower reps, especially for legs. It will increase your max strength and really help you power over climbs when riding and it will also fire up your heart rate more and burn more calories. Keep up the good work. 

PS. Former personal trainer here so not just giving you some fluff advice


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

cpfitness said:


> I have one suggestion, in your long term goals you are citing some strength training goals that are all very high repetition. Do some heavier lifting with lower reps, especially for legs. It will increase your max strength and really help you power over climbs when riding and it will also fire up your heart rate more and burn more calories.


thanks for the tip, I really appreciate it! I'm going to pm you (if you don't mind) about my philosophy behind the high reps and what it is I am trying to achieve with the weights and incorporate your suggestions so as to be more effective


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## Baldrige450 (Jan 8, 2015)

Hello guys. Congratulations on your results to date.

I'm back after 4 years away. On 1/3/10 I started a weight loss journey and went from 303 to 238 by august of that year Once my last child was born on July 18, I slowly stopped my 5 day a week workouts and started making poor choices with eating again.

Fast forward to today and I'm 6'0" 331. Barely any exercise, but I am recommitted. I started back Monday with a trainer 3x a week and will be all in on eating by Monday. 

This forum inspired me and I never felt more alive or healthy during that journey. My goal is to lose 100'lbs this year and do it by being active and eating right. I want it to be a long term plan, so I'm ok if it takes more than a year. 

I don't ride, but bought a cannondale 29er four years ago and hope to be in shape enough from the stationary bike and elliptical (including the 3x weights/core) to be riding by summer.

Good luck. You are inspiring!

MN


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## cpfitness (Nov 19, 2012)

la10slgr said:


> thanks for the tip, I really appreciate it! I'm going to pm you (if you don't mind) about my philosophy behind the high reps and what it is I am trying to achieve with the weights and incorporate your suggestions so as to be more effective


Ask away


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## cpfitness (Nov 19, 2012)

Baldrige450 said:


> Hello guys. Congratulations on your results to date.
> 
> I'm back after 4 years away. On 1/3/10 I started a weight loss journey and went from 303 to 238 by august of that year Once my last child was born on July 18, I slowly stopped my 5 day a week workouts and started making poor choices with eating again.
> 
> ...


No need to wait til summer. Get out and ride it now, even if its just on the streets.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

captbo said:


> Ready...... I am 1 pound from dropping to below 300 lbs. having started at 361 I am stoked BUT must remain focused as I want to see 300 lbs in the rear view mirror soon I do not want to live there!


Awesome!!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

Baldrige450 said:


> Hello guys. Congratulations on your results to date.
> 
> I'm back after 4 years away. On 1/3/10 I started a weight loss journey and went from 303 to 238 by august of that year Once my last child was born on July 18, I slowly stopped my 5 day a week workouts and started making poor choices with eating again.
> 
> ...


here's to hoping it "sticks" this time around!! I know for me, personally, the mindset of slow, steady, tolerable life changes has been instrumental in me keeping with it... by no means am I where I want to be but I do know that I am on the right track, albeit slowly... keep us updated!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

I gotta say, the posts that have mentioned that this thread is helpful and/or motivating are pretty awesome!!! makes it even more worth it to know that others are getting something out of this... thank you!!!


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Hello All Its Jan 12 2015,It was been a very weird week I crossed the 300 lb threshold and even got to 297.6 and eating along the same lines my body drifted right back to 300 today? My Lose It app shows my calorie intake is the same as all other good weeks but I can tell you my body needs the exercise, Most days here it has not gotten out of the teens! Today was 37 but raining all is good and the motivation is high! I have a lot going on this week and Weds will be a trying day keep me in your prayers see you all next week, keep cranking !


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

I've been lurking this thread for sometime. Great work and effort for all who battle the bulge. Best wishes for success in 2015.

One thing I noticed in reviewing the posts here was all the complexity around food and diet. And I'm guilty of the same cravings and bad decisions that riddle most of us too. 

Fed up with being stuck at 258 lbs, cutting calories only goes so far. I knew more was needed. 

So, I went vegan/vegetarian for the new year. 

The needle is not stuck anymore. I eat mostly vegan, however when I'm out or at an event where vegan isn't an option. Cheese is always there, but diary is not your friend really (cheese = cheese on you). I am eating eggs, but no more then I did before going veggie. I confess that I like eating veggies as much as animals. So it's a bit easier then you folks that still don't eat your veggies (time to grow-up) 

It's actually not hard, especially if you are already eating and cooking whole foods. Just swap veggies and beans for hunks of animal protein. If you eat mostly processed foods including "diet" foods your at the whim of the manufacturer. They don't care about your health, they just want your money. And they want you to keep buying their stuff, so you really won't lose the weight. It's a treadmill and your the hamster. That goes for all the veggie meat products too -highly processed and should be limited to a few times a week at the most. 

Eating whole foods aids in digestion which is also key in weight loss. I've worked on my bodies pH level for the last few years and it stopped the yearly weight gain I was seeing. This year I want to lose the gut - not just maintain. So I'm veggie until further notice. I've been stacking up the miles and I'm not starving during or after a ride. I feel a lot less puffy already and my jerseys are getting looser. 

Just wanted to share from my .02 - Entitled veggie I'm not. I will bite into charred animal flesh one day again. In the meantime pass me that roasted butternut squash.


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Thanks it all helps !


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

1-6-15 to 1-13-15: 0 short trail ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 0 long trail rides (time: 0.0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.) 4 treadmill (time: 45, 3.46 miles, vert. 18; time: 60, 5.11 miles, vert. 0; time: 45, 3.23 miles, vert. 593; time: 60, 3.25 miles, vert. 1641). Gym: 1 leg workout (squat: 4/10/135; LE: 4/20/55; Ham: 4/10/45); 1 upper workout (bench: 4/20/95; curls: 4/15/45; tri: 4/25/35); push-ups: 4, 45/20; sit-ups: 4, 100 (92/8)

Strange…. Week went according to plan… Got all 4 workouts in and made the grade on the food score as well…. Hit a MAJOR milestone in the running department so cigars all around!!! (figuratively speaking of course, those things are nasty….)

Workouts:
1. Treadmill-run: Did the HR monitor controlled run and everything went according to plan.. Ankle has been a little tender (apparently slept with it in an awkward position…) so I was hoping to get that worked out.. Well, felt “okay” throughout the workout but was even more tender afterwards… Weight stuff went pretty well, got all of the reps in at the target weights and as an added bonus there was no soreness afterwards… I dare say I’m almost ready to add some weight.. (note, consulting with cpfitness about lowering the reps and increasing the weight…) Got 40/45 push-ups using the hand grips before having to stop. Progress… For some reason, while doing sit-ups, I just decided to stop and take a break at 50… no real reason, just stopped…. Best I can say is I didn’t feel like doing 90 sit-ups before taking a break… still did all 100 of them 

2. Treadmill-run: Kinda had a funny feeling that this might be the day so even though I ran on the last workout, I decided to run again on this one (tender ankle and all)… In my continued quest to reach 5 miles within an hour I decided to eschew the 5mph/7 minute chunk and just do 6mph/6 minute part with two minutes of walking in between…. Well, 5.11!!!!!!!!! I spent pretty much the entire workout trying to do the math and figure out if I was going to make it or not and when I did I was pretty stoked!!! Even better, I still had some left in the tank so the prognosis is good that I can continue to go further… I’ll admit it, pretty proud of myself on this one… A year ago, I would have bet against myself ever going 5 miles within an hour on my own feet…. Got 37/45 push-ups using the hand grips before failure… These are still really hard… Sit-ups are sit-ups… only 9 more to go before reaching my goal of 100 without stopping

3. treadmill-alpine/gym: Even though it was only 45 minutes (cut some time off on days that include weights…) I felt I improved some on the alpine routine as I made it through everything without taking any break whatsoever. I’m making slow but steady progress on getting my brain to catch up with my body in that jogging/running for 15+ minutes straight is no longer such a foreign concept that I psych myself out about it… Took cpfitness’ advice and changed the leg workout to lower reps/increased weight, at least for the squats… So within that, did squats at 4x10 sets (4 sets/10 reps each) at 135 pounds with no soreness whatsoever.. . Still a weenie weight but I want to take this slow and gradually increase the weight (don’t really have the urge to slap on a bunch of plates and go all crazy…) Left the leg extensions at 4x20 and increased the weight to 55 pounds. Again, felt good for the weight.. Changed the leg curls to 4x10 and increased the weight to 45 pounds. This feels like a pretty good weight at the moment as I was pretty tired towards the end (last exercise before finishing). Got 40/45 push-ups before having to take a break and then did 7 more in an effort to get past the 40 hump I am stuck at.. Still amazed at how much more difficult these are with the bars… Still doing sit-ups, up to 92… According to cpfitness I shouldn’t be doing sit-ups at all and should be doing crunches instead… Need to brush up on how to do crunches properly…

4. treadmill-incline…. Almost had to cut this short due to needing to get to night job but I managed to get it all in... Pretty routine workout with the exception of when I compare it to the same workout from last week I got over 200 more vertical feet in within the same distance… I don’t know that I will ever figure out the logic behind the programming in my treadmill but I will say it keeps me guessing…. I got the 92 sit-ups in before resting… Feel kinda silly taking a break only to do 8 more but it is what it is… In the push-up department, I got to 35 then my daughter got in the way and made me stop.. did 12 more to keep trying to get a little bit better… 


Food: +15…. No big surprises = passable food score for the week!!! Funny thing is, this didn’t take any monumental effort on my part, simply needed to have a week in which there were no “festivities.” 

Musings: 
It took a while but I am finally getting to the point where I am starting to feel ready to increase the difficulty on the treadmill… I just need to figure out what it is I am going to do… It’s not an official goal but I do think I want to start striving for 5.5 miles within an hour with the ultimate goal of hitting 6 miles within the same time frame.. Problem is, I still need to work on that “mind over matter” aspect and convince myself I can run at higher speeds for longer periods… 

I really want to go out on a bike ride… Weather has been cold and snowy off and on over the past few weeks… My winter biking wardrobe consists of shorts and a sweatshirt so you can see where there may be some problems…

Someone, he who shall remain nameless, needs to brush up on his math skills…. ¼ of 1000 is 250, not 225 as implied last week…. Just caught that myself… Still close to ¼ of the way, not there just yet…

Next week is gonna be unique, going snowmobiling (“sledding” as those that are into the sport call it..) so between preparing to go and actually going the workouts are going to be few and far between for the week…. 

Really loving that people are commenting on the thread!!! For a while there pretty much felt like I was talking to myself…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

JHH said:


> So, I went vegan/vegetarian for the new year.


Thanks for the advice. As for me, they key factor that I have hit on is slow, steady, tolerable change with the intent of these changes becoming lifelong habits... Within that, in all honesty, a vegan/vegetarian diet is not something I would want to do so forcing myself to do it would be counterproductive, even if it did help me lose some pounds quickly...

Having said that, you are right in that the more fruits/vegetables one eats, particularly in place of other foods, the better off they will be....


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## cpfitness (Nov 19, 2012)

i want you to look at running the same way as strength training. More intensity, less duration. I'd like for you to not run much more than 20 minutes max but I want the intensity much higher. When riding season hits, that will get you plenty of steady state endurance type cardio. higher intensity, short runs will melt more fat away and the added bonus is it will happen in less time!


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

cpfitness said:


> i want you to look at running the same way as strength training. More intensity, less duration. I'd like for you to not run much more than 20 minutes max but I want the intensity much higher. When riding season hits, that will get you plenty of steady state endurance type cardio. higher intensity, short runs will melt more fat away and the added bonus is it will happen in less time!


 Thanks for the info, At my size it is not safe to run can I apply the same to working on the Air Dyne? please unpack this for me, Thanks in advance ! Bo


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## cpfitness (Nov 19, 2012)

captbo said:


> Thanks for the info, At my size it is not safe to run can I apply the same to working on the Air Dyne? please unpack this for me, Thanks in advance ! Bo


yes you can apply that to the airdyne. And you are already running now so I'm not sure what you mean by it not being safe? Risk reward, there are certain exercises and things that put the body at risk. We need to be sure that the reward is worthwhile. I think running is one of those things. Yes, it can put some pounding on the joints so we need to be careful in how we do it. For now, just swap out one of your running workouts with a simple 1 mile run as fast as you can go. Yes it's more pounding but instead of pounding for 1 hour, you will be pounding for 10-15 minutes so we can argue that it's actually less risk. IF you are doing this on a treadmill, you are good. Treadmills absorb so much of the impact. if you run outside look for dirt to run on vs concrete or asphalt


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

cpfitness said:


> yes you can apply that to the airdyne. And you are already running now so I'm not sure what you mean by it not being safe? Risk reward, there are certain exercises and things that put the body at risk. We need to be sure that the reward is worthwhile. I think running is one of those things. Yes, it can put some pounding on the joints so we need to be careful in how we do it. For now, just swap out one of your running workouts with a simple 1 mile run as fast as you can go. Yes it's more pounding but instead of pounding for 1 hour, you will be pounding for 10-15 minutes so we can argue that it's actually less risk. IF you are doing this on a treadmill, you are good. Treadmills absorb so much of the impact. if you run outside look for dirt to run on vs concrete or asphalt


just to clarify, that question was from captbo, not me


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

cpfitness said:


> i want you to look at running the same way as strength training. More intensity, less duration. I'd like for you to not run much more than 20 minutes max but I want the intensity much higher. When riding season hits, that will get you plenty of steady state endurance type cardio. higher intensity, short runs will melt more fat away and the added bonus is it will happen in less time!


that sounds good to me, I'm all about better gains in less time!!! I will give it a shot but will probably pm you witht eh plan of implementation


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

la10slgr said:


> Thanks for the advice. As for me, they key factor that I have hit on is slow, steady, tolerable change with the intent of these changes becoming lifelong habits... Within that, in all honesty, a vegan/vegetarian diet is not something I would want to do so forcing myself to do it would be counterproductive, even if it did help me lose some pounds quickly...
> 
> Having said that, you are right in that the more fruits/vegetables one eats, particularly in place of other foods, the better off they will be....


well I'm not sure eating vegetables is ever considered counterproductive.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

1-13-15 to 1-19-15: No workouts per se…

In an effort to preserve my sanity, I ended up taking the week off from working out as it got to be pretty hectic getting ready to go out of town for the long weekend. Had an okay week with the food part (I think….) but once again, I have to estimate my points as the text with all of the data got deleted…. I thought I had saved it but nope….

Workouts: Didn’t do any formal workouts this week but did ride a snowmobile for 7-8 hours over the course of the weekend… Snowmobiling has it’s physical components and I know I expended some energy but I’m not going to go so far as to call it a workout….

Food: +13-15…. Did fairly well all things considered (preparing for road trip, traveling there, being away, traveling home, etc…) but it wasn’t without it’s trials and tribulations… The bad: Got some tacos from jack in the box (4 vs. the previously typical 6 or 8) as we were preparing to leave…. Haven’t had those in quite some time and they were sinfully good… Good thing jack isn’t too close to me or there could be some problems (yes, I LOVE jack in the box tacos…) Upon arriving at our destination we went out to dinner.. Lo and behold, all you can eat crab legs…. Um, yeah…. I will say I used minimal butter and ate a side salad but other than that… and of course, traveling with kids brings lots of snacks… I admittedly ate some, not a bunch, but some…. The good: Largely avoided the pitfalls of traveling and avoided burgers and fries the whole week. Actually, aside from the stop at jacks, I avoided fried food the entire week (not that this is an accomplishment in and of itself, but when travelling….) so I at least managed that…. 

Musings: 
I will say I am pretty happy with my food intake while traveling for 4 days… Not the best but definitely a vast improvement over what I would have normally eaten while on a road trip… All about those baby steps…

It was actually pretty nice to have the week off from working out, haven’t done that since I started last March so I figured I could use the break… I will say it is like playing with fire though because one could easily fall off the wagon if a break gets to be too long…. No worries though because I’m pretty excited to implement some new things within the workout department (thanks cpfitness!) I should be able to save myself some time and improve the workout at the same time, I’m all for shorter and more beneficial!!!!

Had I been home this weekend, the weather was nice enough to have gotten a ride or two in.. alas… 

(PS, my 5 year old LOVED snowmobiling… made the whole trip worth it…. My 2 year-old… not so much…)


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Hello All Its Jan 22 2015,It was been a very weird week again I crossed the 300 lb threshold and even got to 295.2 and eating along the same lines my body drifted right back to 300 today? I was so busy this week with parenting and other issues My Lose It app shows my calorie intake is the same as all other good weeks but I can tell you my body needs the exercise, Most days here it has not gotten out of the teens! Today was 37 but raining/snowing all is good and the motivation is high! I have a lot going on this week and Weds will be a trying day keep me in your prayers I thanks all who read this and took a second to say a prayer, I lost the hearing in the left ear almost over night in Dec. and had a bunch of Doctor visits, The cause was either a tumor or a virus that killed the nerve. Last night I got the word from the Doc, that my MRI was clear. again thanks for thinking of me, ! until next week! keep crankin !


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## Ironchefjon (Mar 23, 2007)

Keep it up man. Inspiring stuff


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

Ironchefjon said:


> Keep it up man. Inspiring stuff


thanks, appreciate it!

also, your quote at the bottom made me laugh... so random and ironic...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

1-20-15 to 1-26-15: 0 short trail ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 0 long trail rides (time: 0.0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 0 Mtn bike ride (time: 0.0, 0.0 miles, 0.0 avg.), 1 road ride (time: 54.41, 10.1 miles, 11.1 avg.) 4 treadmill (time: 26, 2.05 miles, vert. 0; time: 60, 3.25 miles, vert. 1546; time: 27, 2.25 miles, vert. 0; time: 60, 4.85 miles, vert. 0). Gym: 1 leg workout (squat: 4/10/155; LE: 4/10/70; Ham: 4/10/45); 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/105; curls: 4/10/55; tri: 4/25/45); push-ups: 4, 45/20; planking: 2x5 minutes, crunches: 2x100 (2x20, 6x10 and 5x20)

Big week in the workout department… Found the time to not only get all 4 workouts in, but managed to get an extra one in as well in the form of a bike ride!!! Also managed to do well in the food department so had a great week overall… Now if I could just do this consistently I think I would be on to something….

Workouts:
1. Treadmill-sprint: Kinda screwy so hang with me on this… As for the run, implemented new routine (as far as I can in 20 minutes) by running at 8.8 mph for 1-minute then walking for 2-minutes.. So with adding on the 3-minute warm-up and the 2-minute cool-down I made it 2.05 miles within 26 minutes (the warm-up was supposed to be 4 minutes but I decided to start at 3 as I needed a warm-up jog…) On the “+” side I probably ran about 90% of my max speed (guessing here, I have no idea what it is…) and got my heart rate up to 170 or so which was the intent of the workout… On the “-“ side I think I “left some on the table” in that I think I could have gone a little longer than a minute but I have never done a routine like this before (at this speed… 8.8 is pretty fast in my world…) so I didn’t want to overextend myself in the beginning only to crash towards the end… Now that I have that baseline, I will add a little on next time and go from there… Found a planking routine online and decided to give that a go as all reports indicate this is the greatest thing since sliced bread… I’ll spare you all the technical details of each exercise but it is designed to be 5-minutes total in duration… It was supposed to be with no breaks in between but I needed a little time to regroup before starting the each one… I almost got the entire workout in but I couldn’t do the last 15 seconds.. I would have to say that is pretty successful for the 1st time ever doing it (I’m sure an observer would have something to say about my form but that will improve as time goes on…) My initial impressions are mixed… On the one hand, it didn’t really seem like I was doing anything (aside from holding my body up in different positions) but on the other hand, my body sure started shaking as the time went on…. Got 38/45 push-ups using the hand grips before having to stop and then added on another 12 to make up for not making the 45… I think I will take that for having been off for a week… Due to having to deal with the snow (we got about a foot!!! Pretty rare here…) I ran out of time so had to cancel the upper body stuff… Honestly, I wasn’t too sad because between the planking and the push-ups my arms got a pretty good workout as it is… However, there’s a little “sumthin sumthin” down in workout 3 so stay tuned….

2. Treadmill-incline: With all of the changes going on with the workouts it was kind of nice to do something that was familiar… Got the full hour in and bumped up the speed a tad to 3.3mph… noticeable at first but once I got settled in I hardly noticed the change… Got 40/45 push-ups using the hand grips before failure and then added 10 more.. Someday I will get the 45 I was doing without the bars and progress to 50.. someday…… Turned the sit-ups into crunches… Did 2 sets of 20 before having to go down to sets of 10.. Altogether did 100…. I’m sure someone that is proficient at doing crunches would have had a good laugh watching me as I had what felt to be good form but once muscle fatigue set in all sorts of contortions happened (e.g., legs would fly up, I would barely lift my head/upper back off the ground…)

3. Treadmill-sprint/gym: Got a little more organized on the warm-up stuff. Therefore, the total time on the treadmill was 27 minutes (5 minutes warming up including a 2-minute jog, 20 minutes sprint/walk, 2 minutes cool down) I added 5 seconds onto the sprint so it was 65 seconds sprint, 115 seconds walk… Did pretty well and didn’t fall over dead so I guess the next step is to bump it up some again… Will have to decide if it is time or speed… Lots of increase all around on the workouts. As for the legs, squats went up 20 pounds from last time and got through it with little difficulty. Leg extensions went up 15 pounds. Again, felt good for the weight.. Kept the leg curls the same since I am pretty much done by the time I finish the set. Felt bad about having to skip the arm stuff in workout 1 and I had the time, soo…… Bench increased 10 pounds, curl increased 10 pounds, and triceps increased 10 pounds. Felt good to clear my conscience about having to skip it earlier in the week!!! Smart guy here figured out maybe one shouldn’t do push-ups and follow it directly with the planking routine so I did the planking before the treadmill and the push-ups afterward… Needless to say, it went a lot better… Within the planking, I still needed a little bit of a break between each pose (for lack of a better term….) but was able to complete the entire time allotment for each.. Did better holding form as well…. Got 40/45 push-ups before having to take a break and then did 10 more in an effort to get past the 40 hump I am stuck at.. I think I had 41-42 in me but the mind pretty much said we made it to 40 so we’re done here…. I kept the “2nd set” at 10 so there are baby steps being made… 

4. Road ride: (imagine that! Foot of snow on Wednesday and bike ride on Sunday.. gotta love Colorado !!!!) I had some spare time on my hands so I decided to get a bonus workout in!!!! Finally have all of the pieces for the “back up” wheelset (sans the skewers, forgot about those… and even worse the magnet for the odometer… have to use strava/mapmyride for documentation on this….) Anyhow, I threw the wheels on and went for a ride on the road… The ride is a 10.1 mile loop with the majority of it being a long, steady climb (miles 3-6) and then has a pretty steep climb for mile 7 (for a total climb of 898 feet) then a drop and cruise for miles 8-10… I had done this ride a few years ago when I was in much worse shape than I am now so I was admittedly a little intimidated by it because that last ride made me feel like I was never gonna ride a bike again... Honestly, I was a little surprised to learn that the climb was only 900 feet but what do I know???? At any rate, I kept my expectations low as this was the first time I had done this ride in quite some time and I just wanted to see how it went…. As we all know, I hate climbs (which is why I force myself to do them…) but I have to be honest and say it wasn’t toooo bad… I was quite surprised at the 11.1 average (would have guessed wayyy below 7….) but I did stop somewhat frequently for “air” so as not to go overboard without knowing the ride…. I dare say this has piqued my curiosity enough that I look forward to comparing future times to this one…

5. Treadmill-run…. So between the introduction of “sprinting” this week, increasing the squat weight this week, and the road ride that was nearly all climbing…. my legs were a little sore and tired…. So why not try and get a 5-mile run in????? I intended on doing the 6 minutes at 6 mph with 2 minutes walking for the entire hours… Well, I got through 40 minutes before I was pretty much done… The only thing that got me past 20 minutes was intestinal fortitude…. It didn’t help that I saw my heart rate was getting up to 185… I felt bad for flaking on the routine so I found a compromise and ran until my heart rate got up to 170 then walked until it got down to 130… All in all I was surprised I still got 4.85 miles in which was only .25 short of what I did last time I did this routine, guess I’ll take it… Did much better on the crunches and bumped it upt o 5x20 for a total of 100… Definitely felt like I had more control when compared to the 1st time but I will say it is putting some strain on my upper back and to a lesser extent my neck… I’m hoping it it just because I’m not used to the motion but as it stands right now, my back is just a little sore in areas I really don’t want to be sore… In the push-up department, I got to 42 (yay!!! Progress) with the bars and then added on 10… baby steps…


Food: +17…. Kind of surreal feeling. I didn’t make any drastic changes to what I did throughout the week, rather, the weird stuff didn’t happen and lo and behold, look where I landed… Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy about the score, it’s just that it seemed so easy (when the week goes according to plan) that it is actually frustrating to see how much those random things really screw me up….

Musings: 
Made the food score and not only got all 4 workouts in but was able to add a 5th!!! Now that’s what I will call a good week… Need to do this consistently…

Felt pretty good to get back on the bike…

I find I have put a lot of work into getting this whole gym routine worked out only to find myself with the question “What am I going to do when it’s nice outside?” Obviously the bike riding is the “Main thing” and I am a big subscriber of “keeping the main thing the main thing” but I don’t want to have to start over with the weight training stuff again next fall…. I’m just glad I have time to work this out….

I’m happy about making the 17 but at the same time I feel like maybe I should be doing more because I haven’t been dropping any weight lately (weighed myself, stable at 226).. I dunno, maybe it comes down to the fact it has been so hard to get the +15 scores consistently and now I get a 17 with what really feels like no effort (again, nothing crazy happened to throw the week out of whack…) and I start to question things…. I guess I need to get a few more of these good weeks in and then evaluate where I am…. I’m starting to get the feeling that maybe it is time to up the bar some and get even more strict about the food intake but as I reflect on the week, I really did give myself appropriate scores… 

Would you believe I hate writing???? Aside from the “nonworkout” week, these posts are getting to be pretty long… I really have no intention of writing a novel every week but it seems this is what is necessary to get all of the pertinent information in.. I guess the 1st step is not having to explain all of these new routines. The reason I put so much detail into this is so I can look back every now and then and compare where I am to where I was.. Very instrumental in helping to maintain the focus but something’s gotta give….


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Plateaus' suck the motivation from me, So does cold weather and not being able to get outside and ride !


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

Simply not eating meat for the last 22 days, limiting diary product intake, limiting the amount of grains I eat instead of meat has resulted in a loss 9lbs. This includes enjoying some pizza, ice cream, beer and some other questionable choices that I can afford to make since the overall reduction of fat and calories from ditching meat and largely diary is a given each day. 

Digestion is better consuming a more pH balanced diet, leading to more efficiency in processing food and getting the most from the calories I eat. Muscles are recovering faster after workouts, And surprisingly you don't need a cheeseburger or 2 crispy beef tacos rice and beans after 20 miles and 2500' of climbing thru the forest. A good falafel or veggie burrito will do. 

Good luck with all your journeys.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

1-27-15 to 2-2-15
Gonna try and simplify by changing the format just a tad… Workouts went great and as my pattern goes, found a couple of ways to really shoot myself in the foot on the food scores…

Workouts:
1. Treadmill-sprint: treadmill (time: 27, 2.30 miles, vert. 0); 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/125; curls: 4/10/65: tri: 4/25/45); push-ups: 42/12; crunches: 100 (5x20)
Added on an additional 5 seconds to the sprint so that, and whatever other randomness happened, resulted in a .25 mile increase within the same time.. I was huffing pretty good on the last two sprints so I think I will stay at this level for another week or two before adding another 5 seconds on to the run. Messed up the weights on the bench and put on more than I had intended, end result is once I figured that out I had also figured out I was able to do the weight so I kept it.. Added on 20 pounds I did ( cockney accent)…. Added on another 10 pounds to the curl and had no problem so I will add on another 5 next time.. Kept the triceps at 25 reps and was pretty tired at the end (I don’t like using the curl bar for triceps because it is too easy to send the elbows out so I am using a 45 pound plate at the moment (narrower, so the elbows are in tighter)… gonna have to figure something out for the long-term…) Push-ups went fairly well, got 42 so I replicated results from the last time and then added 12 (instead of 10) so I’m slowly getting there…

2. Treadmill-alpine: treadmill (time: 60, 4.34 miles, vert. 803); push-ups: 31/19; planking: 5 minutes
Realized I hadn’t done the alpine routine (my favorite!!! No, no it’s not…..) in a few weeks so decided it was time to tackle that… it worked me over pretty hard but in the end, I did the whole routine without stopping but I was beat… I did notice the sprinting is already paying some dividends because I did find myself thinking “yeah, I’m STILL running, but it’s only 5.5 mph… that’s easy” so I got that going for me, which is nice… (if you went to high school with me that would be really funny right there….) Found out my arms were a little fatigued as I got 31 push-ups in before being done… Guess I need to get in better shape… Did the 2nd set of 19 and called it a day… Planking stuff went pretty well. Still need a break in between exercises but they are shorter… I do find I am worried about the position of my toes and feet (I have a history of foot problems, particularly with popping off tendons on my Achilles, NOT fun…) so I need to build up my ballet strength and stay up on my toes more…

3. Treadmill-sprint/gym: Treadmill-sprint: treadmill (time: 27, 2.28 miles, vert. 0); 1 leg workout (squat: 4/10/155; LE: 4/10/70; Ham: 4/10/45); push-ups: 42/15; crunches: 100 (4x25)
Did not have the desire to do this workout but this was Superbowl Sunday and I already knew the food score was going to be bad so I just couldn’t totally ruin myself…. The run went well but I was definitely done at the end… Squats went amazingly well all things considered so the weight will go up next time. Same goes for the leg extensions… I guess I will have to make the leg curls go up a little just to make sure I’m not being lazy on those…. Push-ups continue to improve at incremental levels as I am still at 42 but did 15 on the 2nd set… I’ve found I am solid up until about 35 and then that is when it starts to get a little questionable… I’m still not loving the crunches as it still feels awkward but I did increase to 4x25 (from 5x20)… Sometimes I just feel more strain vs. muscle contraction (if that makes sense….) Gonna review the form on youtube and see what I’m doing wrong…. 

4. Treadmill-incline: treadmill (time: 60, 3.25 miles, vert. 1404); push-ups: 44/10; planking: 5 minutes
The workout felt great and I even got a little adrenaline boost about midway through so I pretty much cruised through this…. Don’t know why, but the machine decided I needed to do about 100 feet less on the incline than what is normal…. Pretty happy about getting up to 44 push-ups… getting there! The planking went better and I am starting to get the hang of the positions. Think I’m going to have to increase the time by about 5 seconds for each one…

Food: +10…. All I can say is I got the score I deserved this week, I own it…. Went out with the guys for the first time in a while and you wouldn’t have been able to guess I was trying to be healthy… Same thing for superbowl… Further, realized that the food scores have become more important to me than the overall goal of eating healthier because once I realized I was sunk on the score for the week I pretty much just went with that motif….

Musings: 
Seem to be reinvigorated with working out. Initial impressions are that sprinting stuff is already showing some benefit as the workouts I considered challenging a few weeks ago are now considered the easy ones… I’m not getting carried away but I will admit it is a little exciting for the weight limits to be shooting up like they are. I feel good doing the 4x10 sets and I think it is giving me a fairly reasonable workout. Now that I am past the beginning stages (all the soreness) I predict the squat weight is really going to shoot up over the next few months… I know there will be a ceiling at some point but the increases I am seeing are motivating… I’m getting a little anxious to see how well the winter work translates to riding…

As for the food, I’m still committed to the long-term and when I look at it, I am definitely making slow and steady progress… For instance, single digit scores (not doing the math, but 5 seems to be about average) were pretty common when I started in April up through August. Since then (August-January) scores have been in the 10-15 range for the most part (a couple that were lower(8ish) and a handful that are higher) which is good… However, I’m getting a little tired of the food situation being so volatile and I really feel like I should be consistently hitting somewhere in the 15-20 range by now… And dropping more weight… Despite all of my efforts and good intentions, there are all of these pitfalls that keep popping up and it seems I continually fail when these challenges present themselves.. A few years ago there was a fad with prepared meals and all you had to do was heat them up. It seems that would solve a lot of my issues for the short-term but it also seems that fad has died…. I haven’t really looked into it but I believe that is what nutrisystem is all about….. However, from what I recall, it seems pretty cost prohibitive…. At any rate, I am giving some consideration to incorporating new measures to get the food scores up and the weight down, if only for the short-term… One thing that JHH has mentioned that got me thinking was really, really hyperfocusing on superhealthy eating so that when these pitfalls do occur, I am better able to absorb the hits and still have a successful week (but I’m still not going vegan/vegetarian!!!!!) so thanks for that idea.


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Man another week of crazy cold my body is starting to protest! still floating in the 300 ish range ! I would like to report that in all my medical visits last month my BP is 125/70 and all other labs are greatly improving I will post when I get my hands on the hard copies !


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

captbo said:


> Man another week of crazy cold my body is starting to protest! still floating in the 300 ish range ! I would like to report that in all my medical visits last month my BP is 125/70 and all other labs are greatly improving I will post when I get my hands on the hard copies !


good job getting the Dr. off your back some bo!!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

well crap..... there's a whole range of expletives I would like to use here but for the sake of not attracting the forum police I will leave them to your imagination... Feel free to insert the best in your arsenal….

First and foremost, I’m making some assumptions/connecting the dots on what I have put together.. I have no actual “hard” evidence, just some logical interpretations…. At any rate… Based on my aforementioned frustration with not losing weight lately, I had to start doing some research to figure out what I am doing wrong… Well, turns out my worst fears have come true and some drastic changes are still needed… Changes I THOUGHT I had made…. 

As I have learned, the level of dietary improvement that I have been implementing of late, let’s call this “level 1” was apparently good enough to get me down from 254 to 227… Level 1 consisting of replacing red meat with chicken, fried with grilled, regular meals with salad, etc… However, as I have mentioned, I have been stuck here for some time…. Based on others commenting that counting calories was instrumental to their success, I did some research and counted the calories for the “level 1” meals I have been eating that I considered to be pretty healthy/low(ish) on calories…. Let’s just say that upon seeing the numbers I think I have identified the problem… 

Needless to say, I’m pissed (among other things)….. For the past few months I have been putting all of this energy (both mental and physical) into this only to find out I was hardly doing anything to improve myself because my caloric intake is apparently much higher than I thought it was/needs to be to lose weight…. Because of this, I now need to totally reevaluate the food side of things (what I eat, how I document it, etc.) and come up with a plan that is better than what I have been doing…. I guess the 1st step is to start counting calories as that seems to be the universal component for those that have been successful…. I hate doing that crap but apparently it is necessary…..

So I guess the 1st step is to get an accurate calorie count for everything and document everything I put in my mouth (more expletives…) I think I will start at 1500 per day and see where that gets me

I guess on the positive side, I am now better educated about this whole thing and have travelled the road necessary to get to this point (the point of realizing, and accepting, that I need to do more to take the next step..) In all actuality, had I come to these revelations a few months ago, or had I not gotten to this point on my own (i.e., doing it because someone “made” me…) I don’t think I would have accepted the challenge… However, I have been at this for so long (almost a year) and this journey has become such a part of me that I am now willing to do this if it is what needs to be done in order for me to be successful…. Even if it means counting effin calories…


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## hzuiel (Feb 5, 2015)

How many calories were you consuming? I just started using the "My fitness pal" app on my smart phone to document calories, and since it has a large item database, it's easy to add items and keep track. 1500 calories seems a bit low. If you are 227 lbs at 40 years of age, you should lose weight when consuming around 2000 calories per day, and it should take 2500 calories per day to maintain your weight, even working a desk job and never exercising. I only recently started actually journaling my diet in order to keep losing weight, so I can't really comment on whether the calorie estimates for how many you can eat and still lose weight, hold true or not.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

hzuiel said:


> How many calories were you consuming? I just started using the "My fitness pal" app on my smart phone to document calories, and since it has a large item database, it's easy to add items and keep track. 1500 calories seems a bit low. If you are 227 lbs at 40 years of age, you should lose weight when consuming around 2000 calories per day, and it should take 2500 calories per day to maintain your weight, even working a desk job and never exercising. I only recently started actually journaling my diet in order to keep losing weight, so I can't really comment on whether the calorie estimates for how many you can eat and still lose weight, hold true or not.


I was doing everything i could to not count calories.... I would estimate i was pretty much in the 2k range per day.... One guy posted recently in the before/after forum that he went down to 1200 per day so based on that I went with 1500 as a starting point because in theory, i dont know that i have it in me (at this point) to go down that low...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

hzuiel said:


> I just started using the "My fitness pal" app on my smart phone to document calories, and since it has a large item database, it's easy to add items and keep track. 1500 calories seems a bit low.


Thanks for the recommendation, i have it downloaded on my ipad and it seems like it does everything i need (and then some...) it says i should lose 2 pounds per week with 1720 calories... I will start using it on tuesday


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## hzuiel (Feb 5, 2015)

Just as an update, 3 days of my fitness pal and i broke past my plateu and got under 280, to 279.5. I was previously stuck hovering around 281. Based on my size, height and weight it says i should lose 2 lbs per week eating 2100 calories per day. I am eating about 2100 calories and doing some exercise, which when you add it to your diary, raises your daily calorie limit, which has left me with an average of about 500 spare calories from exercise, per day, on top of what it says should have me losing 2 pounds per week already. I track literally everything. If i have a tic tac, it's in there, and I overestimate on calories when in question. 

If you are eating salads to save calories, but not counting the dressing, and using a lot of it, you could be totally undoing your work. Some dressing is INSANELY overblown on the calories, and a lot of people glob it on. Bolthouse farms has a series of low calorie dressings that are delicious, most of them made with greek yogurt instead of butter milk or cream, and not a bunch of added sugar or corn syrup. The highest one they offer might be 50 calories per serving. Their ranch which is delicious, is i believe 40 calories per serving. Their balsamic vinagrette is 30 calories per serving. Things common on salads like olives, cheese of all sorts, nuts, crunchy toppings like tortilla shells, croutons, rice noodles, can all be pretty dense in calories, and have to be watched carefully. They used ot have a salad at wendy's that came with a package of almond chips, and a package of rice noodles, and I would ask for 2 packages of dressing, 2 packages of almond chips, and 2 packages of rice noodles. Little did I know that salad was over 1200 calories. 

Personally I like the flavor of most produce and can eat a salad of any kind with no dressing if necessary, but my current favorite to flavor up a salad is to use some variation of seasonings, mustard and vinegar. I have a salad dressing shaker that i made a dressing that has a hint of olive oil, and equal parts spicy brown mustard and seasoned rice vinegar, with fresh cracked black pepper. There are a lot of seasoning mixes from McCormicks, mrs dash, etc, that are sodium free and 0 calories, so you can really dump it on there, and add good flavor to salads. Mustard itself is a great topping, I keep a bottle of spicy brown mustard with horseradish, in my lunch box for salads at work. 

If you put chicken or tuna in with your salad, pretty much any seasoning that would taste good on those, would taste good sprinkled on the rest of the salad as well. Like for instance i add mccormick's pinch perfect salt free garlic pepper, to a can of tuna fish, and dump that in with the salad, for some protein and omega fatty acids. 

Just some ideas. When you are dieting it feels like the entire world is out to get you. Food makers put added sugar and fat into everything for no real reason. So you have to watch labels like a hawk. I love icecream, and occasionally stop at dairy queen....I got a blizzard there the other day, 1500 hundred calories. FIFTEEN HUNDRED. You could eat an entire cup of plain 0% fat greek yogurt with a serving of honey stirred in, and 2 cups of frozen mixed berries, for under 500, and it actually has some nutritional value. Co-workers, friends and family try to lure you to eat out all the time. Today i had co-workers dragging me to a buffet, so I had a salad with no dressing and 1 slice of pizza, and ate some chicken and fruit before leaving to head to the restaurant so I wouldn't be hungry and eat stuff i would regret later.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

1. You basically read my mind with the holy sh!t about all the hidden calories.... Thats what kinda sent me over the edge yesterday when i put together all of these calories in what i thought was a lower calorie alternative to the obviously bad stuff... I knew there were some here and there (like in ranch and croutons) but the cumulative effect pretty much blew me away....

2. Thanks for all of the food tidbits, gonna be putting together something similar...


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

la10slgr said:


> 1-27-15 to 2-2-15
> One thing that JHH has mentioned that got me thinking was really, really hyperfocusing on superhealthy eating so that when these pitfalls do occur, I am better able to absorb the hits and still have a successful week (but I'm still not going vegan/vegetarian!!!!!) so thanks for that idea.


right on!

I've lost 12 lbs. in a month of going veggie. 
I've had more beer and ice cream than previous months.
I feel more energetic hours after a ride eating a lighter post ride meal. 
It's been easy
Results are inspiring
Big effort days require big eating before and after!!

Knowing what I did eat and knowing that sustained loss means further tuning
My goal is to tighten in the food even further by minimizing the carbs and when eating carbs ensure their are as good as possible.

The intention of going veggie was to help me break thru a plateau it's worked

I encourage readers to cehck this out:
https://www.phreshproducts.com/wp-content/gallery/charts/alkaline-food-chart-wm.jpg

I've been on the healthy pH belief for a few years and noticed it's benefits in recovery. Now with even less of my caloric intake from acidic foods my recovery and healing from a cut or bruise is even faster I've noticed.

Cheers to all's sustained effort for their goals


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

2-3-15 to 2-9-15
Only got two workouts in this week as there were a variety of reasons but ultimately, it came down to taking some time off to regroup and get ready for changes starting this coming week.

Workouts:
1. Treadmill-sprint: treadmill (time: 27, 2.30 miles, vert. 0); 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/125; curls: 4/10/65: tri: 4/10/45); push-ups: 44/10; crunches: 100 (4x25)
Matched previous results with sprinting and got through it a little better than last time. Still feel 1m10s is a good sprint duration. Weight stuff went pretty well and I will increase the bench again. Curls feel like they are good where they are… Decided I needed to give the curl bar another chance with the triceps and it went okay. Did 4x10 at 45 pounds just to make sure the form was there. Will add on some weight since that is the same weight I was doing with the plate. Push-ups stayed at 44/10.

2. Treadmill-run-ish: treadmill (time: 60, 3.95 miles, vert. 0); push-ups: 0; planking: 5m 40s
This was the day I came to realize I wasn’t doing enough with the food portion and needed to do more… Needless to say, my heart wasn’t into the workout and on top of that, my shins were a little tender….At any rate, I ran for a couple of the cycles then just didn’t want to anymore…. I couldn’t just quit so I ended up going on a long walk for the last 40 minutes or so… Honestly, I was quite surprised I still got to 3.95 miles…. Yet, within all this, I increased each plank pose by 5 seconds… Skipped the push-ups….

Food: -- Well, I decided that since my system wasn’t getting me anywhere I needed to change things up… I downloaded an app called “My fitness pal” which is pretty favorably reviewed and will be using that for the foreseeable future to replace the food scores. I will start reporting this next week. In the meantime, I took the week off… I REALLY took the week off… I don’t really know how to describe what I did but suffice it to say, I basically ate all the bad food I could get my hands on because I know that I’m not going to have any of that stuff until I meet my goals…. 

As for the new program. I am allotted 1720 calories per day. According to the program, that will allow me to lose 2 pounds per week. There is also an allotment for working out (it seems you get more calories if you work out) but I haven’t used it yet so will have to see how it goes. I have gotten rid of everything in my house that is not considered healthy (everything I like anyway….) and bought a bunch of frozen diet food to keep me from going out to lunch. I have also mapped out calories for meals I like to eat so I will hopefully be well-informed prior to eating. Obviously, some things fell off the list… In theory I am ready to go… Two things I have already learned: 1) even fat free milk is 270 calories per glass (this is my #1 problem right here….) and sunflower seeds (my snack to replace chips etc.) are stacked with calories as well (I don‘t remember how high because once I read that I decided they weren’t worth it and am not eating them anymore.) I never would have dreamed that “ounce for ounce” fat free milk (12 ounces = 135 calories) would have nearly as many calories as a fat tire beer 12 ounces 163)… Moral of the story is: calories are everywhere…..

Musings: 
If it wasn’t obvious, I was pretty crushed that I realized the only way I am going to reach my goals is to do the one thing I was adamant about not doing when I started this journey, that being counting food…. When I started this whole thing I was pretty sure that riding and maybe a little bit of food modification would get me where I wanted to be… Well, obviously that’s not enough…. I gotta be honest and admit that my heart isn’t in to this strict diet thing but there are two factors that make me willing to do it. 1) commitment to my overall goals and 2) the realization that once I drop the weight, I will be able to relax the dietary restrictions and go on a maintenance schedule/this is short-term… I am hopeful that I will reach my target weight of 200 in about 16 weeks. Of course, I do realize that once I hit my target weight there is still work to be done, but let’s worry about that when the time is right….

Okay, I’ve had my 4-5 days off and even though I have been really negative about having to monitor calories, I think I am ready to do it. As I mentioned the other day, it took traveling the path I have to get to this point and now that I am here, there’s no reason not to


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

The cool thing about going veggie. I don't count calories. For sure I pay attention to what I eat, but I don't count calories. The choices I make now by default are lower calorie, lower fat, very little hidden ingredients and calories. As other posters commented there are a lot of hidden calories in processed foods. And many of those hidden calories are from sources that work against weight loss. 

By just eliminating meat, reducing cheese to only couple of times a week and eating mostly whole foods its makes calorie reduction easy. Most Americans eat at least 2 servings of meat a day, often combined with cheese. And many of those portions are at least 25% to even 100% larger than the suggested serving size for protein. So if you eliminate just that one thing. Your going to drop 20-40% of your caloric intake right there and if your good you are replacing meat with nutrient dense calories like veggies and beans well you won't be hungry. Stuff yourself with more carbs, not good.

I'm not professing this to be easy and I love my vegetables. However, this approach is working with minimal effort. I'm starting to increase my level of effort in my riding, increasing my endurance and as I previously said my recovery after is quicker. 

I used to go on a 15 mile 2500' mtb ride and eat 1000-1200 calories at least to recover(2 crispy tacos (beef) rice, beans, chips or a cheeseburger and fries). I no longer do that nor have the need too. This has been one of the biggest surprises - that eating less calories of the right kind of calories can sustain me to put in the miles and time on my bike. It took some mental re-programming to change that one. A lot of weight loss is a mental game. Shutting down the monkey mind chatter that distracts you off your path, breaking those patterns in your brain and forging new ones based on new parameters. 

I feel that going veggie has surpassed my expectations on results and provided a fresh perspective on the weight loss journey. I confess that I may have a red meat attack in the coming days. I keep thinking about a grass-fed NY steak smothered with sauteed mushrooms on a bed of arugula. 

As always best of luck on your paths. Stay the course!


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## manpurse (Feb 6, 2011)

I have used My Fitness Pal for quite a while. Once I got a good idea of how many calories were in the regular food I eat I don't use it as much. I am down about 15 lbs. from January as I try to shed off my winter/holiday weight. I'm not too strict about food intake right now. My rules are: 1. keep it under 2k calories a day and try to make healthy choices 2. Water for the majority of meals, no alcohol, soda, milk, and occasionally some juice 3. At least 30 minutes of cardio three times a week.

I know if I were more strict then I could progress faster, but I do what works for me and am on track to be <200lbs. by the time biking season starts.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

rossluzz said:


> I have used My Fitness Pal for quite a while. Once I got a good idea of how many calories were in the regular food I eat I don't use it as much. I am down about 15 lbs. from January as I try to shed off my winter/holiday weight. I'm not too strict about food intake right now. My rules are: 1. keep it under 2k calories a day and try to make healthy choices 2. Water for the majority of meals, no alcohol, soda, milk, and occasionally some juice 3. At least 30 minutes of cardio three times a week.
> 
> I know if I were more strict then I could progress faster, but I do what works for me and am on track to be <200lbs. by the time biking season starts.


My Fitness Pal seems to work pretty well and it looks like it will help me go further than I was going on my own, I look forward to getting to that point where it's not so involved....


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

2-10-15 to 2-16-15
Pretty good week both working out and with starting the new food routine… Weather was nice and the time was available so got a bike ride in! Felt great to be able to go for a ride. Got the new food tracking system in place and it seems to work pretty well…

Workouts:
1. Treadmill-sprint: time: 27, 2.30 miles, vert. 0, cal: 381; 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/135; curls: 4/10/65: tri: 4/10/55); push-ups: 40/15; crunches: 100 (4x25)
Running went pretty well… Think I may incrementally increase the speed. Weight stuff went well as I increased bench and triceps 10 pounds and was successful. Bench and curls are good where they are but triceps need to go up again. Got stuck at 40 push-ups…. The jury is still out on the crunches…

2. Treadmill-incline: treadmill (time: 60, 3.25 miles, vert. 1541, cal: 657); push-ups: 40/15; planking: 5m 40s
Haven’t done the incline in a while so I am happy everything went according to plan. Planking is getting easier but I still need some breaks in between (5-10 deep breaths then do the next one). Still at 40 push-ups but I will say I have noticed that I am doing good reps in that they are slow and deliberate…

3. Mtn bike ride (time: 48.15, 6.3 miles, 7.8 avg; push-ups: 40/15; crunches: 100 (4x25)
Must be something to what I got going on in the “gym” (my basement) and on the treadmill…. Had a GREAT ride and set 5 PR’s on sections within the ride and I think two or three 2nd fastest times… Needless to say, I was cruising along pretty well by my standards…. Peculiar that I was able to pull this off with virtually no saddle time over the past few months… Push-ups and crunches are the same…

4. Treadmill-run: time: 60, 4.67 miles, vert. 47, cal: 725; push-ups: 40/15; planking: 5m 40s
The run felt pretty good and in all actuality, I need to increase the difficulty a tad.. I’m going to increase the min. and max heart rate so as to give myself a little more challenge. Not that this wasn’t a good workout, I just know I kind of got away with not having to work as hard as I could have… Push-ups are the same, sure would be nice to get over this hump… As for the planking, getting better and better at it although I did catch myself arching my back some (I was wondering why it felt easy) so I gotta stay on top of that….

Food: In order to keep this from becoming a novel, I’m just going to hit on some hi-lites…. I still don’t like having to count calories, but I have to admit, My fitness Pal makes it about as painless as possible… I drastically cut down the milk, so now it is only 1 glass per day…. And a couple of sips at night… I’m also using the boxed diet lunches (most days at work) to save calories which really opens up my options for dinner.. So, within that, I made my calorie goal 6/7 days and on the day I missed, it was by 57 calories (forgot to count bbq sauce when I calculated how much I could have…) On the flip side, I cumulatively left about 2400 calories in the bank on the other 6 days

Musings: 
So far, it seems I was 80-90% on track with my own food program as I really didn’t have to change a whole bunch to stay within the 1700 calories per day. The biggest thing is/was the milk (anyone that has read through my posts shouldn’t be surprised here….), downsizing lunch (particularly at work), and then eliminating a snack when I get home from work… Even with that, I am doing pretty well staying within my daily allotment and have actually left a lot of calories on the table (ha!). One thing that does have me a little nervous is the generous amount of calories I get back for working out…. For example, if I burn 700 calories in a workout I am allowed to add that much to my intake for the day and still be within limits….. Time will tell but I’m not sure I want to take full advantage of this so at this point I am trying to just stick within the 1700…

One thing the my fitness pal app has going for it is at the end of the day, it tells you what you should weigh in 5 weeks if every day was like that particular day…. Very motivating and I will be ECSTATIC if it is right… Conversely, if it isn’t right….

I have to admit, this change has really boosted my motivation/commitment. It really seems to have tapped into my superego as I suddenly find myself looking to own the situation versus hoping it would go the way I want it to.. All week long I found I was actively avoiding calories versus passively taking them in and hoping for the best.. For example, up until this week, I could easily drink ½ gallon of milk in a day and now I am drinking 1 glass at breakfast and literally 2 ounces before bed (used to having a whole glass before I go to bed, if not more, so this is to satiate the craving…) 

So, according to the scale, I lost 5 pounds this week (was at 227, found out I went up to 230, and now check in at 225…) I am excited but in all honestly, it kinda feels a little too good to be true so let’s see what happens over this next week and go from there…..


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## hzuiel (Feb 5, 2015)

la10slgr said:


> 2-3-15 to 2-9-15
> Only got two workouts in this week as there were a variety of reasons but ultimately, it came down to taking some time off to regroup and get ready for changes starting this coming week.
> 
> Workouts:
> ...


Just as an update, since starting my fitness pal, not only did i break past my plateau of 282, I've seen 269.5.

You are right that the calorie requirements will loosen when you hit a maintenance phase rather than trying to lose 2lbs a week, but you come across like you are approaching this diet like a convicted criminal heading to the gallows. I'm actually enjoying this. I like the flavor of a lot of things I eat, and if you pick the right things, you can eat a lot of it.

The sunflower seed kernels are for sure dense in calories, but they also have a lot of other nutrients. I've actually been using in shell sunflower seeds as an appetite suppressor. It takes dedicated effort to shell and eat them, so it's basically impossible to over eat, and sucking on the sunflower seed and cracking it, satisfies your cravings. It can help also to combine a low calorie snack with something that takes up a lot space and takes some time to digest. Broccoli is a good candidate. A couple sprigs of broccoli, a few roasted almonds, and some black coffee, could easily be under 70 calories, but make you feel full for an hour or two. If you space things right, you can honestly be poking food in your mouth all day long and not exceed your calorie limit. I know a guy that eats that way and has dropped from 340 to 215, and 40% to 12% bmi, and people are always commenting on how they never see him without a snack in hand.

Something i know i struggle with is sweet tooth, but i've found that sweet fruits more than satisfy my cravings in this regard, especially once you cut unnecessary sweeteners out of your diet, your taste buds adjust. A common desert for me is plain non-fat greek yogurt and frozen berries. I'd almost pick it over icecream in a side by side, but has 1/3 the calories per same volume if not less.

Something to keep in mind is this cold weather a lot of us are suffering through right now peaks your appetite really hard. Come spring it will get easier.



JHH said:


> The cool thing about going veggie. I don't count calories. For sure I pay attention to what I eat, but I don't count calories. The choices I make now by default are lower calorie, lower fat, very little hidden ingredients and calories. As other posters commented there are a lot of hidden calories in processed foods. And many of those hidden calories are from sources that work against weight loss.
> 
> By just eliminating meat, reducing cheese to only couple of times a week and eating mostly whole foods its makes calorie reduction easy. Most Americans eat at least 2 servings of meat a day, often combined with cheese. And many of those portions are at least 25% to even 100% larger than the suggested serving size for protein. So if you eliminate just that one thing. Your going to drop 20-40% of your caloric intake right there and if your good you are replacing meat with nutrient dense calories like veggies and beans well you won't be hungry. Stuff yourself with more carbs, not good.
> 
> ...


Eating vegetarian does not have any direct correlation to low calorie. Who said low fat is necessarily the goal? Fat is more calories per gram, but that isn't the only consideration.

Fats are slow metabolizing so they play a role in keeping your energy level up between meals/snacks. You need fatty acids in your diet. It takes a certain amount of fats to maintain your circulatory system.

There are plenty of things that are jam packed with calories that qualify as vegetarian. Nuts and avocados are loaded with calories(and fat). Potatoes are dense in calories. Certain fruits can be extremely dense in calories, and high in sugar and low in complex carbohydrates.

It always comes down to specific choices you make in picking foods. There are stories of people all over the internet that went vegan without doing any research and just thought they could eat whatever they want as long as it wasn't an animal product, until they started losing muscle mass and gaining fat. The more physical activity you do(like biking) the more protein you need to rebuild your damaged muscles. Most vegetarian foods are not that high in protein, you have to be really picky or you end up way exceeding calorie intake to meet protein needs, or just not getting enough protein. Besides just the quantity of protein you need, there is also the quality to consider. Protein is not just protein. There are hundreds of thousands of known proteins, not all of which are utilized by your body. Proteins are just chains of amino acids. In order to make the proteins our body uses, our digestive tract has enzymes that break apart proteins into amino acids, which are carried in your blood steam to cells that synthesize the proteins from them that our body needs. There are quite a few amino acids, and our bodies do not use all of them, and unfortunately most plants do not use the same types of amino acids, in the same ratios as a human(and most animals) would.

Think of it this way, if you eat a pile of beans and tofu to meet your daily protein needs and actually get there, it could be like building a house and setting out the materials to build it, but there are only a handful of 2x4's, and nails, and enough insulation and bricks to build 3 houses. What you could make from that will not be a whole house, you'll have a partially built house and a ton of leftover material you can't use for anything. The body cannot store protein or amino acids, we have no mechanism for it. You pee out whatever amino acids you don't use.

By comparison chicken meat for instance almost perfectly matches the amino acid profile needed for human nutrition. Vegans have found that they can achieve similar results by mixing proteins from more than one plant at a time. Pea, bean, and rice protein seem to do the trick, but consumed in their raw form, you'd never eat enough to get your RDA of protein without eating too many calories. To do some math here, if you eat 1 cup of cooked red kidney beans, 1 cup of black eyed peas, and 1 cup of cooked brown rice, you will get about 25 grams of protein. However that will come with about 560 calories. Multiply that by 4, to get your RDA of around 100 grams of protein for a lightly active lifestyle and you are staring at 2240 calories as a baseline. Estimates vary on how much protein you require, body builders obviously require more, athletes in general require more, people with very active lifestyles require more. The general concensus is somewhere between .7 and 1.1 grams per pound of lean body mass per day for most people, more for those trying to increase muscle mass. A lot of vegans who stick with it long term use vegan protein powders to make it easier(but it still needs to be a blend of proteins, not just straight rice protein, or straight pea protein), and cut out a lot of the carbs that come with eating protein from beans and rice.

By the way, 12 cups of beans and rice would net you 106 grams of dietary fiber, a lot of that being insoluble. Besides the dietary fiber, beans also contain a lot of non-dietary fiber as well. Fibers we can't digest require bacteria to break them down, which produces methane. See how long your family wants to be around you when you're eating 106 grams of fiber in a day.

By comparison average bargain basement chicken breast(the more expensive chicken is usually leaner) is 250 calories for 30 grams of protein. A cup of plain non-fat greek yogurt is 130 calories for 22-24 grams of protein. 4oz of sirloin steak is around 220 calories for 24 grams of protein. Pork sirloin is about 150 calories per 24grams of protein. A whole egg is around 5-7grams of protein for 50-80 calories(depending on size). Egg whites are about 100 calories for 20 grams of protein, and fat free. Besides protein, they're low in sugar and carbohydrates, and high in potassium.

To give you an example, a breakfast for me might be something like 1 egg, and 3 servings of egg whites, 1 serving raw oatmeal, a banana, and half a cup of non-fat plain greek yogurt. That totals 465 calories. The oatmeal has 0-1 grams of sugars, it's all complex carbs. The Yogurt has around 3 grams of sugars, because it has lactose. The banana has around 14 grams. The totals will come out to 465 calories, 8g fat, 2g saturated fat, 38g protein, 60g total carbs, 7g dietary fiber, 17g sugars, 1072mg potassium, 394mg sodium, 15% calcium and iron RDA. That's not veggie, but try and pick that apart on a macro or micro nutrient level.


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

hzuiel;11783911
Eating vegetarian does not have any direct correlation to low calorie. Who said low fat is necessarily the goal? Fat is more calories per gram said:


> Dude, I'm not VEGAN. Your not telling me anything I don't know here. But all that number crunching is way too much work for me. I'd rather listen to my body and follow it's signals. Eating needs to be intuitive not forced or managed by an app for me. Clear findings.
> 
> 1. Eating less fat, especially animal fats is making me less fat.
> 2. My blood and body is pH balanced meaning that I can fight germs, viruses, and recovery from exercise better then one whose pH is more acidic. Mentally I feel more lucid and positive.
> ...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

hzuiel said:


> You are right that the calorie requirements will loosen when you hit a maintenance phase rather than trying to lose 2lbs a week, but you come across like you are approaching this diet like a convicted criminal heading to the gallows. I'm actually enjoying this. I like the flavor of a lot of things I eat, and if you pick the right things, you can eat a lot of it.


Convicted criminal to the gallows may be a little strong but admittedly, not too far off the mark... When I first started this whole thing I was REALLY hopeful that just riding would do the trick... I was adamant that I wasn't going to go back to counting calories and I think I even stated as such somewhere back in the day&#8230;. Obviously, that hasn't been the case and over the course of this endeavor (my reports) you can see the evolution that got me to where I am... However, within my last report, you will notice that I admitted that it hasn't been so bad (so far so good...) and if myfitnesspal/counting calories works as well as purported then I will be a full-fledged convert...



hzuiel said:


> The sunflower seed kernels are for sure dense in calories, but they also have a lot of other nutrients. I've actually been using in shell sunflower seeds as an appetite suppressor. It takes dedicated effort to shell and eat them, so it's basically impossible to over eat, and sucking on the sunflower seed and cracking it, satisfies your cravings. It can help also to combine a low calorie snack with something that takes up a lot space and takes some time to digest. Broccoli is a good candidate. A couple sprigs of broccoli, a few roasted almonds, and some black coffee, could easily be under 70 calories, but make you feel full for an hour or two. If you space things right, you can honestly be poking food in your mouth all day long and not exceed your calorie limit. I know a guy that eats that way and has dropped from 340 to 215, and 40% to 12% bmi, and people are always commenting on how they never see him without a snack in hand.


This was my philosophy as well (sunflower seeds as a somewhat desirable snack option) but at the end of the day, I just didn't see the seeds being worth 200 some calories&#8230; Especially when the calories are at such a premium right now


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## hzuiel (Feb 5, 2015)

JHH said:


> Dude, I'm not VEGAN.


Irrelevant, you are encouraging the same nutritional restrictions as a vegan, just not necessarily for the same reason. The topic is nutrition, so whether i say vegentarian, no animal products, vegan, or whatever, you still know that i am referring to a diet that mostly bars animal products. Also me mentioning vegans(people who do this as long term lifestyle, not just a diet to lose weight) and the lessons they have learned, is not the same thing as me calling you a vegan.



JHH said:


> Your not telling me anything I don't know here. But all that number crunching is way too much work for me. I'd rather listen to my body and follow it's signals. Eating needs to be intuitive not forced or managed by an app for me. Clear findings.


Not crunching the numbers is how people end up with nutritional imbalances, you may find it tedious, but that doesn't mean everyone does. I personally enjoy the mental freedom of knowing i'm not cheating or lieing to myself, or worrying that I may have screwed up my diet for the day at some point.

If listening to your body worked, we'd all be in perfect health, but we aren't. There are only a select few studies that have showed the body has the ability to crave specific things in relation to nutritional deficiencies, and that I am aware of, that list is limited to water and sodium. If it was any more specific, there would be something in gummi bears or blizzards that my body desperately needs more of. I know it is the conventional wisdom, but not necessarily backed up by science.

There is also the factor of pscyhology involved in food cravings that throws a real monkey wrench into the works. If you put people in a lab though, and asked them what foods they were craving, then ran blood work on all of them, do you think they would be deficient in specifically nutrients that are related to their cravings? Find me the credible study to prove that.

I'm not sure what your basis is for saying that eating NEEDS to be intuitive and not forced. People often have no appetite and are forced to eat whether they want to or not. People often over eat and need to force themselves to stop. If they listen to their bodies they end up in a bad place. It doesn't have to be an app, but the app is easier and more accurate than keeping a running count in your head, and easier than pencil, notepad, and calculator.



JHH said:


> 1. Eating less fat, especially animal fats is making me less fat.


I'm not really sure where to start. Based on your described breakfast you aren't even eating low fat persay, nuts and seeds have a good amount of fats in them. Besides that, anecdote does not = data. There are a plethora of factors involved in human nutrition, fitness, health, and longevity, and changing things doesn't happen in a vacuum. In order for scientific data to be relevant they have to put forth at least some effort to keep things consistent. For instance having people maintain a set sleep schedule, set diet, set exercise and activity routine, and only changing one small factor and then noting the results, and accounting for other variances like genetics, and placebo effect. Did you change NOTHING else, including caloric intake, besides switching away from animal products as a common component of your diet? Or is it possible your overall awareness of healthy lifestyle choices changed, and you may be doing other things that have an effect on the results?

Also results themselves can be misleading if they happen for a reason different than why we think. I will come back to that point.

The body is a chemical factory, and a bio-chemical machine. We are powered by chemical energy. A calorie is a unit of chemical energy. We can estimate pretty precisely how much chemical energy it takes to move a certain load a certain distance, and how much chemical energy it takes to operate your heart and lungs. If you eat too many calories, your body has mechanisms to store that chemical energy in fat reserves. If you don't eat enough calories, your body has to dip into it's reserves in some capacity, to allow you to keep operating. It really is that simple. Fat doesn't make you fat, excess calories, sedentary lifestyles, and poor nutritional balance along with genetics, make you store more fat on your body. The only exception is that protein is a very poor source of chemical energy. Our bodies are capable of harnessing the chemical energy in all 3 macro nutrients, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins, but the easiest to accomplish from a bio-chemistry perspective is carbohydrates. Proteins are the most difficult. I will come back to this later as well.

Then in that same chain of thought about the body being this chemical factory and machine, do you know how it is powered and can you explain why one source of fuel is superior to another source of fuel? Fats are chemical compounds, one of many used in the body. From a perspective of bio chemistry, what fats are in plants that are superior for you, and what fats are in animals that are inferior? What is a fat anyway?

Fat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Fats are a wide group of compounds whose basis is in long-chain organic acids, called fatty acids. More particularly fats are esters of such organic acids formed with the alcohol glycerol. Glycerol is a triol, meaning that it has three chemically active -OH (hydroxyl) groups. Fats are made when each of these three -OH groups reacts with a fatty acid."
Fats are just organic compounds of a specific type, that are found in all organisms, and they are utilized at a cellular level all through your body. Most of the fats our bodies need can be synthesized, and our digestive tract is pretty efficient at breaking fats down into their more basic parts and then synthesizing the ones we need. Some essential fats like certain omega 3's and omega 6's are readily available in nuts and seeds, but they are also available in meat. So for instance linoleic acid( Linoleic acid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) can be gotten from a lot of seeds and nuts, but it can also come from chicken fat, and egg yolks. Can you explain to me why getting linoleic acid from a flax seed is better than getting it from an egg or a chicken breast?

In general, studies have been growing that show that fat isn't what we once thought. Recently a study was published with over 14 years of data from 350,000 study subjects, one of the largest series of medical studies ever done. It largely vindicated fats from everything they've ever been blamed for.

New study puts final nail in the "saturated fat causes heart disease" coffin 
Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease

Overall, studies have shown that there are many very healthy people from various geographic locations, that eat diets that are both rich in fat, and contain meat and even dairy products, who are very healthy and long lived. Some of it comes down to genetics of course, but the japanese aren't so long lived and healthy on a diet that contains a lot of seafood and other meats, because it's so unhealthy. Mediterranean diets commonly contain land animal meats, cheeses, olives, nuts, and sea food.



JHH said:


> 2. My blood and body is pH balanced meaning that I can fight germs, viruses, and recovery from exercise better then one whose pH is more acidic. Mentally I feel more lucid and positive.


How do you know that the PH of your blood or any other part of your body has significantly changed? Do you have PH probes in your arteries? How do you knwo your body is more capable of fighting germs and viruses than it was before? There are some scientific studies that have linked more alkaline foods with some health benefits, but ultimately our body has a system for regulating PH, otherwise we wouldn't be able to survive. Find me one study or shred of scientific data that indicates you can significantly alter the PH of your blood through diet. Rolling back a step, when there are groups of people famed for health and longevity, and their diets include plenty of acidic items, how do you explain this? If recovery from exercise was dependent on eating foods that are very alkaline, most body builders and performance athletes would've never recovered from their first workout with the amount of whey isolate, eggs, cottage cheese, and yogurt that a lot of them consume.

How you feel mentally, how lucid, and how positive can again have a lot to do with other factors you aren't giving credit to, as well as placebo effect. A scale doesn't lie, your mood can. A body fat caliper doesn't lie, but you can lie to yourself. Even the raw data of your athletic performance can be biased by a positive attitude, independent of nutrition. That's why in a clinical study they would have a control group that is told they are receiving something different than the other test group, but are not. It is there to weed out placebo effect. If you tell someone you put steroids in their wheaties and suddenly they lift more, it was in their head.

Just changing your sleep schedule, not staying up so late, and getting more rest, which people often do when they get more health conscious, has a huge effect on how you feel overall. It is why in a study the scientists want everything to be as equal as possible between all study groups. Like all of the groups sleep 7 hours per night and go to bed at the same time, after the same meal plan, and same activity routine. They study them, and then change one little thing, and try to document any changes.

Because celebrities have endorsed it, alkaline dieting has become a thing, but it is not thoroughly researched at this point. I would classify it as a fad myself. It brings me back to what i was saying about how our body utilizes protein, carbohydrates, and fats differently from one another, and how there are so many other factors involved in dieting. Beyond that, there is the issue that often things work for a different reason than people believe they are working.
To start with, most people know that simple sugars are the primary chemical fuel source for our cells. What a lot of people don't know is that those cells can use fats and proteins as cellular energy too, but it is more difficult. Besides being building blocks for cellular structures, proteins and fats contain chemical energy, as indicated by their caloric value. In order to use them though, some things have to change. You have probably heard of ketogenic diets, and atkins. Well all those diets are doing is pushing your body to rewire to run off of fat and protein as it's primary fuel source. If you starve your body of carbohydrates, it will make the changes at a cellular level to use whatever energy source if any is available.

It is akin to a factory that runs on AC current from the power plant. If you switch the power coming from power plant to DC, nothing in the factory will work anymore without going through and rewiring things and replacing some parts, but then it can run on DC also. Focusing on atkins specifically, protein is the most convoluted of the 3 for our cells to convert into energy. If you eat a high protein diet with moderate fat, and almost no carbs, your body will switch to running off of protein, and it's pretty wildly inefficient, and by it's very nature you will low your caloric intake from where it used to be. Besides that, if you read the atkins material, they will have you not only cutting calories, but sleeping more, exercising more, etc. So ultimately, atkins works for people losing weight, but not for the reason people think, when it really just boils down to calorie reduction and a healthier lifestyle overall. What would be different than just overall reducing your calorie intake and calling it a day? Yet you can't convince a lot of people that atkins isn't the only way possible to lose weight. There are many many diets that people try that they lose weight on, or show some temporary signs of success, but it doesn't mean that those diets are necessarily good or healthy, optimal, or better for you than a balanced diet withing an appropriate caloric envelope for your age, height, weight, and activity level, with attention paid to macro and micro nutrients that your body needs to function.



JHH said:


> 3. People like to tell you that you need to eat meat. I'll let me body tell me. Like Valentines Day - I was craving a burger for a few days - So I ate one. It served it's purpose and I'm not craving it.


Again cravings do not necessarily dictate what you need. Find me a study that proves that in any definitive way. As far as people saying you need to eat meat, did i not make it clear that it boils down to amino acid availability? There are performance athletes that are vegan, but like I said, they have to make sure they get the right nutrients, including the amino acids they need for cellular maintenance and repair.



JHH said:


> Frankly your breakfast sounds heavy to me. Try mine.
> 1 T Raw Filberts
> 1 T Raw Cashews
> 1 T Raw pumpkin seeds
> ...


Define heavy. I don't feel burdened in any way by such a breakfast. I may not have included it in that sample breakfast I gave, but I often have berries, almonds, cashews, and pecans with breakfast. Pumpkin seeds and chia seeds will be in the mix at some point. However my overall point was the macro and micro nutrient profile of the meal, which is important. People develop links in their head to certain foods that they've heard are healthy, but they don't think about why, or how much they can really eat before it becomes too much of a good thing. There are a lot of things that can play a healthy role in your diet that could become really bad for you if consumed in excessive quantities.

As far as what you posted:
Tablespoons doesn't tell me anything for non-liquid items like nuts and seeds, weight would be a better indicator, or even the number of nuts/seeds. 
1oz(weight)/28g of filberts is 177 calories, 4g protein, 3g fiber, 1g sugar 
1oz cashews is 155 calories, 5g protein, 1g fiber, 2g sugar
1oz pumpkin seeds is 151 calories, 7g protein, 1g dietary fiber, 0 sugar. 
1oz raw almonds is 162 calories, 6g protein, 3g dietary fiber, 1g sugar
1 oz chia seeds is 137 calories, 4g protein, 11g dietary fiber, 0 sugar. 
1 cup mixed berries 5g dietary fiber(good) 10g of sugar, 7g complex carbohydrates, 80 calories 1g protein
2 tbsp honey 32g sugars, only 2g complex carbohydrates no protein 120-130 calories

I would hope you are not talking about full oz's of these items. If we said half oz's, the totals would come out to around 600 calories, 42g sugar, only 14g of protein(not terrible but below rda and like i said, not necessarily able to be utilized 100%, can't know without knowing the amino acid profile), and 14.5g dietary fiber. Not necessarily out and out bad, but to meet my rda of protein i'd need to eat in the ball park of 4000-5000 calories. I would gain weight, or lose muscle, one of the two. Sugars are simple carbohydrates like sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, lactose, and a few others. They metabolise quickly because they are really easy to convert into chemical forms that a cell can use for energy. If you consume too much sugar, it can be more difficult for your body to regulate blood sugar levels. Complex carbohydrates take more chemical reactions to reduce them into simple sugars for the cells to use, so they tend to digest and make their way into the blood stream more slowly, which is easier to regulate, and tends to lead to less variation in blood sugar levels. For frame of reference, the amount of sugar in your breakfast is about the equivalent to a 12oz coca cola classic. Not necessarily a horrible amount, but a bit more than most people need. Obviously if you were about to run a marathon, your cells could use all that cellular energy up, but if you are just headed to your desk job, that much sugar is unnecessary.



JHH said:


> We can have different approaches and points of view. (for instance, I've been told egg whites are BS - you need to eat the whole egg or else you get little from the whites alone and they don;t digest easy)


While I agree that there are multiple approaches that can be successful, it has nothing to do with point of view, and everything to do with scientifically verifiable data that is explainable. I have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to digesting egg whites, or why the egg yolk together with the egg white would make a difference in whether or not the enzymes in your body can break the proteins down.



JHH said:


> At the end of the day it's about what makes you happy. I'm super happy with what I'm doing, my wife notices the results, my animal magnetism has returned and women are checking me out telling me I look nice. I put bigger chainrings on my bike and climbing faster. It's working, I'm adjusting currently to get even better results in the coming weeks and it's easy. My original comments where mostly based on the fact the the OP seemed to eat a lot of highly processed foods and was stuck. So I shared my experience of going veggie and how it's rebooting my thinking around food and simple to execute. Diets fail people because they are to complex. I wish you luck in attaining your goals.


It is about what makes you happy but a poor diet can easily make someone unhappy, or short term a person can think they are happy on a bad diet. There can be a hefty placebo effect, that can cover over the significant data associated with it, which is why in clinical trials they always have control groups. In a lot of situations with diets it may not even be totally wrong, just less than optimal, or not sustainable over a long period of time. I know if I food journal(the more detailed the better) and carefully select my sources of various nutrients, and stick to it, it will work, and I can do it indefinitely. If i go on a fad diet, it may work for a while, but ultimately I will probably have to modify it anyway. The biggest threat is getting lazy and starting to just eat whatever i want again. 
I would disagree with the cause of a lot of dietary failure being undue complexity(not that food journaling with a relaly simple app is complex), I think the issue is a lot more multifaceted than that. When i gained all the weight i have now, it's because i was working a ridiculously hectic schedule and hours as a contractor, traveling all over, and never having the same hours two days in a row, which led to eating whatever i could get, whenever i could get it, and not really thinking about what food i was eating, and what role it plays in my overall nutrition.



JHH said:


> my wife notices the results, my animal magnetism has returned and women are checking me out telling me I look nice. I put bigger chainrings on my bike and climbing faster.


Again anecdote does not = evidence, but also how do you quantify animal magnetism in scientific terms, and where is the study that links vegetarian diet to animal magnetism? I think you are referring to the effects of confidence, charisma, charm, attractiveness to selective members of society, etc. All of which people can develop in a variety of ways that don't necessarily require eating a specific diet, or restricting certain food groups. Anyone who loses weight is likely to become more attractive to people who value slenderness in a persons look, and is also likely to start feeling more confident in themselves. I might even go out on a limb and say that someone who is feeling more confident also might start taking better care of themselves as far as daily body maintenance, grooming, etc goes. There are a lot of things that can play a role in your animal magnetism.


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## hzuiel (Feb 5, 2015)

la10slgr said:


> This was my philosophy as well (sunflower seeds as a somewhat desirable snack option) but at the end of the day, I just didn't see the seeds being worth 200 some calories&#8230; Especially when the calories are at such a premium right now


A package of generic gas station fritolay salted in shell sunflower seeds is 170 calories for the entire package. I think it would take me 3-4 hours of dedicated cracking to eat them all. If i'm sitting at my computer and eat a couple at a time here and there, I might get 10-20 calories a day out of them, and it tricks me into feeling not hungry.


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## hzuiel (Feb 5, 2015)

JHH said:


> I used to go on a 15 mile 2500' mtb ride and eat 1000-1200 calories at least to recover(2 crispy tacos (beef) rice, beans, chips or a cheeseburger and fries). I no longer do that nor have the need too. This has been one of the biggest surprises - that eating less calories of the right kind of calories can sustain me to put in the miles and time on my bike.


Also about this specifically, this isn't even close to right. Haven't you ever read about olympic athletes that eat 6000 calories a day or something like that? As I mentioned before, calories are a unit of chemical energy. Energy translates directly into work done. It takes a certain amount of calories to do a certain amount of work. What you are saying is roughly like saying that if you put BP gas in your gas tank instead of off brand, you can drive for 2 hours and not have used any of the gas. If you went on a 15 mile mountain bike ride up 2500 ft, you burned a CRAPLOAD of calories. If you are losing weight that just increases your calorie deficit, but well beyond what medical science considers to be a safe reduction. Your body was either fed enough calories, or it had to cannibalize some of your body's tissues to keep going. If you were already a skinny triathlete with 5% bodyfat, and you were doing extensive workouts without eating enough, you'd pass out or have a heart attack(and it happens). Just picking your sources of calories doesn't do what you are describing. Obviously complex carbs, fats, and proteins will take longer to metabolize than sugar, and are therefore better for long term energy and endurance, but eating some seeds and berries doesn't rewrite the rules of physics to somehow make you able to do work for free. That energy is coming from somewhere, and it's either in your diet, or coming from the stores of energy in your body. Marathon runners have always loaded up on food in advance of a race, so they have the energy stores to keep going during the race, and they most certainly eat afterwards to recover. A lot of endurance athletes carry glucose supplements to keep fueling their cells during the middle of the race even.

In general, diet is supposed to be proportional to your lifestyle and activities. You can eat more when you are more active, and less when you are less active. YOu need more sodium, potassium, and other electrolytes when you are very physically active and sweating a lot, and people actually develop psychological problems form prolonged electrolyte depletion. There is a specific amount of sodium and potassium you should add to your diet per hour of exercise you do in a day. If you are more physically active your body needs more protein to maintain your muscles, and a lot more if you intend to build any additional muscle, compared to a mostly sedentary person. It's all proportional. If you don't get enough protein your body has to tear down muscle cells to get the amino acids to needs to fix other muscle cells. 3 damaged cells, sac one to repair the other two. If you don't get enough calories your body has to burn it's backups, and when the backups run out, that's it.


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

Thanks for all your data amigo. Over and out.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

Well, now that we got that all taken care of......


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## hzuiel (Feb 5, 2015)

JHH said:


> Thanks for all your data amigo. Over and out.





la10slgr said:


> Well, now that we got that all taken care of......


Sorry to derail the topic, I'm just really passionate about good nutrition data because i feel like it's been obfuscated for so so long. Hopefully no hard feelings JHH, as long as we all reach our goals that's the most important thing. I weighed in this morning at 266.5. I think at this point i've lost about 5lbs of fat and 35lbs of water weight.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

hzuiel said:


> Sorry to derail the topic, I'm just really passionate about good nutrition data because i feel like it's been obfuscated for so so long. Hopefully no hard feelings JHH, as long as we all reach our goals that's the most important thing. I weighed in this morning at 266.5. I think at this point i've lost about 5lbs of fat and 35lbs of water weight.


No worries.. You guys were on topic so it relevant to the thread. It was interesting to see a good debate.. Like the use of the word "obfuscated"


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

2-17-15 to 2-23-15
Hell yeah!!!!!!!! Another 5 pounds in the books so now standing at 220 for a current loss of 34 pounds!!!! Full disclosure: the weigh-in happens in the morning before I eat or drink anything while dressed in my skivvies so it is definitely a “best case” scenario but that’s how all weigh-ins have come so it is consistent…. Super stoked!!!! Obviously had a good, nay GREAT!, week as the food change is showing results and all of the workouts are happening on schedule…

Workouts:
1. Treadmill-sprint: time: 27, 2.34 miles, vert. 0, cal: 392; 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/135; curls: 4/10/65: tri: 4/10/65); push-ups: 45/15; crunches: 100 (4x25)
I upped the run by .2 mph so now when I program in “8.2” that means I really run at 9.0-9.1 (I will never understand why they designed the machine this way….) and it worked me pretty hard… Mentally, I could really feel that I was hucking along pretty good so I was a little surprised to see that it only increased my distance by .04 and the calories by 11…. At any rate, it’s those baby steps that you build upon…. Getting some mojo on the gym workouts and have to admit, it makes feel a little better to have the big plates on when benching…. FINALLY got to 45 push-ups!!!! Almost had to get the party hats and noisemakers out…. It seems like I am getting a little better control over the crunches but I’m still not sold on them… I am making just enough progress that I will keep with it but it still feels weird…..

2. Treadmill-incline: treadmill (time: 60, 3.25 miles, vert. 1597, cal: 665); push-ups: 40/15; planking: 5m 40s
Treadmill was pretty standard stuff… Arms were a little tired from previous arm workout so the drop to 40 push-ups didn’t really bother me… Working on taking shorter breaks on the planking…

3. Treadmill-sprint: time: 27, 2.35 miles, vert. 0, cal: 397; : 1 leg workout (squat: 4/10/165; LE: 4/10/80; Ham: 4/10/55); push-ups: 45/15; crunches: 100 (4x25)
Did a little better with the increase in sprint speed this time around and even added an extra 10 seconds onto the last sprint just to see if I could do it… I could but I was definitely huffing…. Happy I was able to replicate the 45 push-ups and although I wouldn’t say I am good at doing the crunches yet, I am starting to find what feels to be proper form….

4. Treadmill-incline: treadmill (time: 60, 3.25 miles, vert. 1749, cal: 690); push-ups: 45/15; planking: 5m 40s
Strange workout as 1) my legs were sore from the leg workout and 2) I ended up sleeping with my foot in an awkward position so of course my ankle was all sore and tender… I had intentions of making this a run but based on the above factors I opted for incline…. I increased my max heart rate and I got nearly 200 more feet of vertical and an extra 25 calories out of the deal…. Tuned out to be a pretty good workout

Food: I have really cut down (virtually eliminated) the milk and that is opening up a lot of calories for other stuff which seems to be a good trade-off… I’m doing well on the calorie counting and seem to be settling in. As was the case last week, made the calorie goal 6/7 days and the day I missed was only by 50 calories or so…

Musings: 
Still riding that wave of motivation being at an all-time high… Seems losing 5 pounds in a week will do that to a guy… I know I can’t expect this to continue but I am definitely going to take it while I can get it!!!! I have to admit, I find myself looking in the mirror a lot more and now that I am seeing results it has changed from a negative motivational tool (e.g., “ugh, I have to do something about this..”) to a positive one (e.g. “hey, I can tell my gut isn’t as big!”) and that is really, really motivating. 

One thing about the frustration I was going through a few weeks ago: I knew I was working hard in the workout department and I just couldn’t believe I wasn’t losing any weight, and was actually starting to put a little back on… It is somewhat validating (as far as how much/hard I am exercising) to see such huge improvements by simply getting the daily calorie count under control…. Of course, this comes with the guilty admission of wishing I had starting doing this earlier….

I’ve mentioned this before but it has come around again, that being the mental aspect of this whole thing is HUGE… I recognized it some before but my awareness of it is going even higher and I find I am realizing that not only weight loss, but so many other things in life are purely a mental game…. I couldn’t even begin to summarize it enough to include here, but needless to say, it is very interesting to say the least…

There are some scheduling conflicts over the next week so I am going to have to get creative to get the workouts in….


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

Nice results la10slgr. Keep it up!

Regardless of what that other flurry of ASSumptive replies stated......I feel that nutritional information is NOT obfuscated - it's clear as day on most things people buy to eat. Or as easily accessed as say a calorie counting app. :thumbsup:

Most people ignore the information or more importantly fail to understand their nutritional needs. Me included. That's one of the reasons why my focus is more on a plant based diet to find a balance between plants and animals in my diet. It's working... 

In non scientific terms - results and findings

1. I continue to lose fat by eating less fat - specifically animal fats.
2. I continue to rip loud farts but no more then I did when I ate meat really. 
3. In 7 weeks I've lost 16 lbs - no up and down. I feel stronger too.
4. I'm not a slave to an application and a number. (I've got enough of that in my life already.)
5. I am a slave to making good choices and this gets easier each day as I break the neural patterns that where bad choices before. (just because the doughnut is free, doesn't mean it's not without a cost) 
6. I'm blown away at how my body recovers so quickly after heavy exercise now. 
7. I'm tightening the reigns on my consumption of grains, specifically wheat flours as I noticed I ate bread, pizza and drank more beer in the last month. 

Best to all of you warriors out there fighting your fight. KEEP IT UP!


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Hello all This month marks my one year anniversary in my weight loss journey, I am still at my lowest low in terms of pounds I am wearing smaller clothes and feeling much better, I am bummed by the weather and not being able to spend any time in the saddle,, lets hope March warms up fast !


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

2-24-15 to 3-2-15
As predicted it was a crazy week and some things didn't go as planned&#8230; On the good side, not only managed to get all 4 workouts in but I added an additional workout as well! On the bad side, there was a reason that additional workout came in to play&#8230;. Let my guard down a little on the food side but still managed to hit a major milestone!!! Not as great as the past two weeks but still a good week nonetheless, if anything, the fact that it was a crazy week and remained somewhat focused on the end goal is a feat in and of itself..

Workouts:

Bonus: Tues. Treadmill-incline: treadmill (time: 60, 3.25 miles, vert. 1674, cal: 678); 
My wife suggested pizza and without any research I agreed&#8230;. Well, did that research when I got home and promptly decided an hour on the treadmill was necessary&#8230;.. Didn't totally resolve the issue but did largely minimize the damage (to the astute observer; no, 678 calories on the treadmill did not wipe out the pizza, not even close&#8230; luckily, I had a pretty good stash of calories in the bank for dinner&#8230 Nothing like a high dose of guilt to get a guy to add an extra workout to an already busy week&#8230; Mental note: No pizza until I reach my goal&#8230;.

1. Wed. Treadmill-sprint: time: 27, 2.35 miles, vert. 0, cal: 395; 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/135; curls: 4/10/65: tri: 4/10/65); push-ups: 40/15; crunches: 100 (4x25)
Kept the run where it was and am building up the endurance. Added on 15 seconds to the last sprint and was still able to do it. Giving consideration to moving the time down to 1-minute and increasing the speed but I can't figure out if that would be beneficial or detrimental&#8230; Went down to 40 on the push-ups, no real explanation as to why&#8230; Still not loving the crunches&#8230;. I've watched numerous videos and I think I am doing what they say but at the end of the day, it is causing my back to hurt (which shouldn't happen so I don't know what I continue to do wrong&#8230

2. Sat. Treadmill-sprint: time: 27, 2.35 miles, vert. 0, cal: 395; Gym: 1 leg workout (squat: 4/10/165; LE: 4/10/80; Ham: 4/10/55); push-ups: 46/15; abs: 100 (2x25, 25, 25)
Got through the treadmill pretty well&#8230; Leg workouts are improving and I will increase the squat weight next time. Hit 46 push-ups, 4 more! Been thinking about changing the ab workout stuff so now it is 2x25 crunches and then 2 sets of leg lifts (set 1: basic up and down in a controlled motion, set 2: giant "v" swings, also slow and controlled) I did some research on different ab workouts and it there were some references to leg lift type activities so I went with it and I have to say, it felt a lot better than trying to do 100 crunches&#8230;

3. Sun. Treadmill-run: time: 60, 5.19 miles, vert. 0, cal: 856; push-ups: 35; planking: 5m 40s
This workout was supposed to happen on Thursday but like I mentioned last week, crazy week&#8230; Good news is I still got the workout in! Haven't done my "long run" in a while so decided to dust it off&#8230;. There was a point where I was leaning towards decreasing the workload but I convinced myself I could do it without changing anything and lo and behold, I got through&#8230; I was pretty wiped out after the run and gave some consideration to not doing any push-ups but decided that would be flaky so I managed to get 35 in&#8230; Funny how times have changed, used to be happy to be able to do 35 push-ups not I sheepishly admit that is all I did&#8230;.

4. Mon. Treadmill-incline: treadmill (time: 60, 3.25 miles, vert. 1996, cal: 729); push-ups: 46/15; abs: 100 (2x25, 25, 25)
Got about 300 more vertical feet and about 50 more calories (using what I believe is the same increase in max heart rate from last week)&#8230;. It was a little rough in the beginning as the incline stayed at 19-20% much longer than previously, I did need to put my hands on the bar above the display (cheating a little to not be hunched over due to steep incline) to regain some air but I got there&#8230; Very happy that I was able to replicate the 46 push-ups&#8230; I can smell 50!!!!! I'm still feeling much better about the change in the ab workout, gotta confer with those who know but I can definitely feel the muscles being used!

Food: Let my guard down a little this week so there were two bad days and one day that was just barely out of the good range&#8230;. Overall, I met my calorie goal 4/7 days but for the week came in about 1500 calories under the total allotted for the week. I did an extra workout to make up for one (pizza day) and had to work out on a day off as snow/schedule caused Thursday's workout to get cancelled. Had I been able to get that workout in as normally scheduled, the points for the day would have been right and it would have been 1 bad day and 1 so-so day. Will be looking to regain the focus this coming week

Musings:

So&#8230;.Much&#8230;.Data!!!!! Even with writing everything down I am still getting lost on how much I did and when.. I have all of my workout stuff on a white board to refer to and find that even with that, I still get a little mixed up (e.g., "did I write down that extra 5 on the max heart rate?") and with all of the workouts being so similar they are starting to blend together&#8230; I have started to make notes on my posts after each workout but even with that, I still get things a little mixed up&#8230; Ironically, even though it has caused me to track more data, the myfitnesspal app is what is keeping me the most organized&#8230; I am looking forward to riding so there is some variety&#8230;.

Lost 1 pound this week, pretty much what I deserved as I didn't do everything necessary to lose more as the food scene got a little out of control this week. However, I hit this major milestone:









This is how much weight I have lost over the past year! Not where I want to be but definitely better off than I was&#8230;I have to say, picking up this plate and feeling the 35 pounds I no longer carry with me is somewhat of a surreal feeling.. On the one hand, I am proud of myself for dropping the weight.. On the other hand, I'm a little (nay, a lot&#8230 embarrassed that I had that much weight to lose and still have about another 20 to go&#8230;.. I will get there!!!!!!


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## hzuiel (Feb 5, 2015)

Never be embarrassed about your past as long as you are working towards doing better in the future, that goes for anything, not just weight. Sometimes we are our own worst critics, and that often creates complexes in our minds that make us worse off. People nitpick at themselves about everything they do wrong until they develop depression, social anxiety, eating disorders. Better to just focus on the future and keep yourself motivated. 

I weighed in at 263 last night, and 262 this morning. Even if i was a little dehydrated last night, I've still probably lost a solid 3lbs since that 266.5 measurement. That's 20lbs since i started using the app, and 13lbs before the app. So about 33 total lost. The highest i ever weighed was 304 but when i started losing weight in late december I was at 296. 

I went to brazilian jiu jitsu class and it was much easier rolling at 265 than it was at 295, which was encouraging. I wouldn't say a 2 hour class was a breeze, but it was certainly a lot easier.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

hzuiel said:


> Never be embarrassed about your past as long as you are working towards doing better in the future, that goes for anything, not just weight. Sometimes we are our own worst critics, and that often creates complexes in our minds that make us worse off. People nitpick at themselves about everything they do wrong until they develop depression, social anxiety, eating disorders. Better to just focus on the future and keep yourself motivated.


You are right about all of those bad things that can happen. However, for me, that negative feeling is a driving force for me to continue to improve myself as I don't want to feel or look like that (or worry about future health problems due to obesity)anymore/ever again... Remembering/acknowledging the negatives definitely helps me remain focused on the positives that I am striving toward



hzuiel said:


> I weighed in at 263 last night, and 262 this morning. Even if i was a little dehydrated last night, I've still probably lost a solid 3lbs since that 266.5 measurement. That's 20lbs since i started using the app, and 13lbs before the app. So about 33 total lost. The highest i ever weighed was 304 but when i started losing weight in late december I was at 296.


Seems we are on pretty similar trajectories... Does it start to blow your mind when you realize you have lost over 10% of your whole body? I think about that on occasion (my percentage, not yours, that would be weird...) and it really is quite an accomplishment... of course with more work to be done...

I wish I would have started using the app a long time ago but as I mentioned, I wasn't ready for it then... If only I knew then what I know now...



hzuiel said:


> I went to brazilian jiu jitsu class and it was much easier rolling at 265 than it was at 295, which was encouraging. I wouldn't say a 2 hour class was a breeze, but it was certainly a lot easier.


this was kinda my point with the 35 pound plate, it's amazing what you can do (strength, agility, energy) when you don't have to lug that extra weight around every second of every day!


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## hzuiel (Feb 5, 2015)

la10slgr said:


> this was kinda my point with the 35 pound plate, it's amazing what you can do (strength, agility, energy) when you don't have to lug that extra weight around every second of every day!


And to think at one point i got down to 213, that was like not lugging around 83 extra pounds.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

hzuiel said:


> And to think at one point i got down to 213, that was like not lugging around 83 extra pounds.


And yet we have those little guys worrying about 100 grams here and there..... Pfft... We've both essentially dropped our bike weight to -5 pounds... Take that mr. Carbon fiber!!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

Today is my 1-year anniversary for starting this journey!!! A lot has happened over the past year so I thought I would take a little time to summarize some hi-lites and to also note some lessons learned…

Hi lites!
Riding
•	I have traveled over 1,337 miles on my bike and treadmill (mostly bike) over the past year. 
o	According to google that would get me from Los Angeles California to Whitefish Montana…. 
•	I have gone from barely being able to ride 10 miles to 30 mile trail rides (nonpaved)
•	My sprint rides (10.8 miles): have gone from taking 52m32s (starting) to 41m11s (best time)
o	I used to take 4 breaks on this ride, now I take 1 at the ½ way point
•	My “long” trail rides have increased in distance from 12.91 miles to 30.0 miles 
•	My 30 mile trail rides have gone from taking 2h28m (starting) to 2h10m (best time)
•	A ¼ mile climb in my local mtb park used to require 3 stops for air, now I don’t have to stop until I am at the top (still winded though!!!)

Cardio/treadmill
•	I went from barely being able to do 10 sit-ups to 100 (without stopping!)
•	I went from only being able to do 20 push-ups on my knees to 47 (best effort, usually 40-45) real push-ups without stopping and an added 15 after a break to continue to improve… (using push-up bars nonetheless)
•	I went from barely being able to jog 4.07 miles within an hour (slightly faster than a brisk walk) to 5.1 miles within the same timeframe on the treadmill
•	My “sprint” speed has increased from 6mph to 9.2mph (actually did 10.1 mph for 30 seconds the other day!)
•	I went from being winded at 8% incline on the treadmill to being winded at 20% max incline… 8% almost feels like level ground now…

Appearance/activities of daily living
•	I have lost about 4 inches from my waistline
o	My belt that was too small (couldn’t even get to the 1st hole) and is now nearly too big (just about using the last hole)
•	Pants that were getting to be too small are now way too big
•	Shirts that used to be skin tight now fit appropriately
•	Shirts that used to fit appropriately are now loose and baggy
•	I can now go up multiple flights of stairs without getting winded
•	I can comfortably bend over to tie my shoes with my feet on the floor (those that know.. know…)
•	My body is healthier (I don’t suffer from random aches, pains, and soreness that I used to, although I’m not as young as I used to be…) and my resting heart rate is normal (I still need to work on cholesterol but I’ll see where I am once I hit my target weight)

Lessons learned
•	Losing weight takes an extraordinary commitment. I have a better understanding as to why so many people (myself included) have failed.
o	Yoda was wise: “do or do not, there is no try” I find this to be so very true when it comes to losing weight… Basically, it comes down to: “quit making excuses!”
•	Internal locus of control - I am the only one that will determine my success or failure, other factors may come into play, but it is ultimately up to me to set myself up for success
•	Calories are EVERYWHERE!!! Choose wisely….
•	Sometimes your brain is your biggest enemy, sometimes it is your greatest ally (mental aspect is HUGE!)
•	Continually challenge myself, but keep expectations realistic
•	I have to continually evolve, something that was good may just be ready to give way to something that is better..
•	Find what works and do it!

As it stands, the weight loss portion of my journey is about 65% complete. Of course, these are life-long changes I am working towards so complete is a relative term. To be completely honest, when I started this journey, I would have guessed (expected?) that my journey (the weight loss part) would be complete by now but there were some lessons that had to be learned and I don’t regret that as I think I will be better off in the long-run… At this point, I can honestly say I am much better off today than I was one year ago and will hopefully be that much better off one year from now than I am today. 

I would like to send a big thank you to everyone that has contributed to this thread. I read each and every comment and have received some great tips and advice. I am truly appreciative as those insights have been instrumental to my continued improvement…


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## hzuiel (Feb 5, 2015)

la10slgr said:


> Today is my 1-year anniversary for starting this journey!!!


Congrats on the mile marker. The description of your fitness gains is pretty impressive.

A note about the cholesterol, if you are doing regular cardio and stay at least modestly active throughout the day, you should have no plaque buildup, regardless of cholesterol. Get a yearly stress test, and if they have a scan that can check for plaque, maybe one of those every 2 or 3, and don't sweat it. There are some people who will have "bad" cholesterol numbers no matter how much they exercise or what they eat, due to genetics.



la10slgr said:


> Lessons learned
> o	Yoda was wise: "do or do not, there is no try" I find this to be so very true when it comes to losing weight&#8230; Basically, it comes down to: "quit making excuses!"


This is so true, you are your own worst enemy sometimes.

A lesson i've learned is that other people are one of the most serious stumbling blocks to your plan, and generally jerks when you are dieting or in general, trying to improve yourself. They can cause you to break down mentally if they try to push food on you, tell you that you don't need to lose any weight, or generally discourage you. I have become a bit fidgety because of my fitness goals, I can hardly stand to sit still, so I will be at people's houses pacing to collect steps, and they will almost be offended that i'm walking around and talking to them instead of sitting and talking to them. Even when they understand that my personal fitness goals are important to me.

It must come either from ignorance of the situation(like someone who has a high metabolism and a modest appetite, and has never ever struggled with their weight, and just doesn't understand what you are going through) or someone who is themselves in a bad spot, and is on some level offended by someone else taking steps to better themselves, because it makes them feel worse about not doing something.

I just weight in at 261 evening(after drinking over a gallon of water that day) and 259.5 in the morning.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

hzuiel said:


> Congrats on the mile marker. The description of your fitness gains is pretty impressive.


. 
thank you very much!



hzuiel said:


> A note about the cholesterol, if you are doing regular cardio and stay at least modestly active throughout the day, you should have no plaque buildup, regardless of cholesterol. Get a yearly stress test, and if they have a scan that can check for plaque, maybe one of those every 2 or 3, and don't sweat it. There are some people who will have "bad" cholesterol numbers no matter how much they exercise or what they eat, due to genetics.


. 
hope you are right.. At 41, I'm due for a complete physical so it would make sense to look into that.. I hope you are right in that activity should keep the plaque from building



hzuiel said:


> A lesson i've learned is that other people are one of the most serious stumbling blocks to your plan.


.
You got my point exactly, I have found the only person I can really truly rely on in this stuff is myself (and even then, I'm not 100% reliable...) I will give my wife credit in that she is one of those "eat anything yet remain totally healthy and lean people" and has been somewhat of a hindrance in the area of calorie reduction over the past year but she is now trying to be helpful in this endeavor by helping me avoid bad situations (we had a little chat after the pizza incident last week and since then has made multiple efforts to keep my away from too many calories...)



hzuiel said:


> I just weight in at 261 evening(after drinking over a gallon of water that day) and 259.5 in the morning.


onward and forward!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

3-3-15 to 3-9-15
Another week down… Got 3/4 workouts in and stumbled a little bit on the calorie side but was still able to call the week a mild success… Hit yet another goal that I have been working toward!

Workouts:
1. 3-4-15. Treadmill-sprint: time: 27, 2.40 miles, vert. 0, cal: 406; 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/135; curls: 4/10/65: tri: 4/10/65); push-ups: 46/15; abs: 100 (2x25, 25, 25)
I was tired and I didn’t really have that extra “umph” for the run but I managed to get through.. I decided to take it easy for the day and not add on the extra time on the last sprint… Well, felt like a slacker so added on an additional 30 seconds at 10mph when I was supposed to be cooling down… I gotta say, it actually felt kinda good to go that fast.. Although, I will admit it made me a little nervous because if anything went wrong (like say tripping over my own feet..) it would not have been a good result… Weightlifting stuff was pretty good, feel like I am ready to add weight on all 3 lifts but I don’t know how well it would go over doing that all in one day so I think I will add the bench next week then the curls and tris the week after… 46 on the push-ups… Starting to get to the point where I expect to do this many. Really liking the 2 sets of 25 crunches then the leg lifts.. much easier on the body and the burning feeling I get in my abs really lets me know something is going on… hopefully something good…

2. 3-5-15. Treadmill-incline: treadmill (time: 60, 2.96 miles, vert. 1873, cal: 668); push-ups: 47/15; planking: 6m 0s
Decided to give the ol’ “let’s let the machine pick the hill for today” a try again… fail… after 15 minutes I had traveled a grand total of .52 miles with 42 feet of incline.. yes, 15 minutes…. So I had to cancel that and do my own program of 3.3 mph starting at 10% and doing each percent for 1-minute up to 20% then back down to 10.. I busted my ass (particularly on the 19, 20, 19 “peak”) but wasn’t able to make up the lost time… almost but not quite.. since I did work so hard the last 45 minutes it ended up being a decent workout… Got the push-ups to 47.. didn’t really think I had it in me today but I found a rhythm and next thing I knew…. Added an additional 5 seconds to each plank “pose” (are they called poses?) so that makes the total time 6 minutes now (up from 5 starting).

3. 3-7-15 Sat. Treadmill-alpine: time: 60, 4.34 miles, vert. 804, cal: 782; push-ups: 50; planking: 6m 0s
The things that motivate…. Poker game which (includes partaking in “some” light beers…) scheduled so I wanted to have documentable calories burned on the workout to be able to report on my fitness pal (the app doesn’t count weightlifting workouts in the calorie count…) so I switched out the squats for the Alpine Run… In my eternal quest to continue upping levels I was trying to find a way to challenge myself more but between jogging for most of the hour and the incline parts being enough to keep my heart rate well elevated (145-155 if memory serves…) I think I am doing okay and will leave well enough alone at the moment… Did pretty well on the planking as I didn’t really notice too much of a difference the increased time made until the very end… And finally, drumroll please!!!! 50 push-ups nonstop!!!!! I wouldn’t have guessed this to be the day as I didn’t really feel I had “it” in me and frankly would have been happy just getting 45… Well, at about 38 I realized I had enough in me to go for it and lo and behold I made it!!!!! Been working on this a long time (especially when I was stuck at 40 for so long) so I feel really good about being able to do that… To top it off, I still did the extra 15 in an effort to make sure I can do it again….

4. 3-9-15 Mon. 
Monthly meeting was held so between that and job #2 there was a grand total of 45 minutes free time… Not conducive for getting a workout in..

Food: Had an okay week overall but wasn’t as diligent as previous weeks…. Altogether stayed within calorie goals 5/7 days and left about 900 calories on the table for the week. Did go over one day simply because I had to have that damn dinner roll with butter… Ironically, the poker game (Saturday) was not one of the days I went over as I made sure to eat super low calorie food that day and got in a high calorie burn workout…. 

Musings: 
I am seeing the difference between what makes a week “good” and what makes a week “great” so it’s nice to be able to pinpoint how my choices impact the week… Of course now I have this guilt complex whenever I do something that is questionable as it relates to the long-term goal which I think is good.. However, even my “bad” choices aren’t terrible in that I am still making progress…

I lost 1-2 pounds this week (kinda hard to see exactly on my scale…) so I will take it based on how everything went. 

Still trudging along on the treadmill… Had about 3 weeks where it seemed like it did nothing but snow but we are finally thawing out a little so I am very hopeful that I can get a ride in this weekend!


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

Nice progress la10slgr. Keep it up. 

I'm continuing to lose weight staying on my mostly plant based diet. it's been 75 days and 225 meals - only 6 have included meat or fish. That's just under 3%. I'm in between weigh-ins as that is part of my strategy to focus on how I feel vs. focussing on calorie counting apps and the scale. Most of my friends that maintain height weight proportion, do so with simple moderation and good decisions. Again my approach is fundamentally that by eating less animal fats, eating whole foods and very little factory food and less sugar I can lose weight in a manner that will ultimately re-program my food decisions and impulses. I've managed to sustain results thru business events, parties, dinners with my wife and friends and even a few pints. I eat until full and finding that my eyes are bigger than my stomach for possibly the 1st time in my life ever. The lack of complexity seems to be the trick for me. 

So how can I claim I'm steadily losing weight without weighing myself in over 2 weeks?My clothes are getting looser, baggier and my "skinny jeans" are slid into with ease. That was not the case last time I weighed myself. 

However, biggest tell tale sign of weight loss is that I am surfing again. Not just paddling around, but riding waves and starting to swing the board thru maneuvers again. This is what's really been the goal as after a injury from surfing 2 years ago. I had hit a stalemate. It was either lose weight and be able to surf more akin to my youth or give up and ride a big longboard and be the fat old guy(51) that cruises and eventually gets too fat, to weak to even pop-up to my feet. A lot of miles on my bike wasn't enough. I tried calorie counting and wasn't feeling it. This is working for me. 

Props to la10slgr for starting this thread and I hope that some other lurkers will start posting about their journeys and results as there are little lessons we can all benefit from regardless of how you do it

Somebody's bbq smells awesome in the neighborhood. Damn I just might grill some chicken tonight.


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## jae (Apr 19, 2004)

la10slgr said:


> my fitness pal seems to work pretty well and it looks like it will help me go further than i was going on my own, i look forward to getting to that point where it's not so involved....


Calorie counting with MFP was most helpful for me in the last half of my weight loss journey. I started at ~235 pounds and got down to ~210 pounds just by mentally tracking my eating and keeping intake under 2000 calories. As I got leaner and my body required fewer calories for maintenance, though, I had to reduce my daily target to the point where it started to get difficult. I hit my weight target over a year ago but continue to track just because it's worked so well for me and I'm a creature of habit.


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## k2rider1964 (Apr 29, 2010)

I agree with JHH....don't just concentrate on the weight number because as you're gaining muscle, you're still losing fat. I started a detox/cleanse healthy eating program back in January and I'm down 25 lbs from 217 to 192, on my way to 180. More importantly, I feel better, have more energy, sleep better plus I'm down 3" in my waist and my clothes are falling off me.


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## captbo (Nov 13, 2014)

Hello all Today is March 16th. I have been off the bike for about 2 and 1/2 months due to hateful weather. I have managed to sustain my weight loss by eating better that I ever have , This is not with out distraction, however overall I am doing ok,the warmer temps are hear and Its time to get back on the saddle, I sure have missed it !. Stay strong stay focused !


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## m5161968 (Jan 26, 2013)

Weighed myself 3-13-15, to my surprise the scale read 250lbs. Started riding roughly 2 years ago, my weight then was about 370ish...down 120lbs. My diet is still bad, just cut back on what I do eat and try not eat(heavy)after 7:30. With the long breaks in between riding I probably could've been down a lot more. My goal last year was to get to 250lbs so that I can do a tandum skydive, 250lbs is the max weight that I can be. Being at my goal NOW with the riding season just starting, I want to try and get down to about 225lbs..do the jump..and maintain about 230lbs. The lightest I've been since the 6th grade. Will always be a Clyde, just not a BIG Clyde...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

jae said:


> Calorie counting with MFP was most helpful for me in the last half of my weight loss journey. I started at ~235 pounds and got down to ~210 pounds just by mentally tracking my eating and keeping intake under 2000 calories. As I got leaner and my body required fewer calories for maintenance, though, I had to reduce my daily target to the point where it started to get difficult. I hit my weight target over a year ago but continue to track just because it's worked so well for me and I'm a creature of habit.]


Well done on the ~25 pounds.. I hope to be there with you (in the 210 range) soon! I'm glad you posted about continuing to use MFP because I was thinking about that and I also figured I would have to continue using it (after reaching my goal) as I want to make sure the weight doesn't come back... First things first though....


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

k2rider1964 said:


> I agree with JHH....don't just concentrate on the weight number because as you're gaining muscle, you're still losing fat. I started a detox/cleanse healthy eating program back in January and I'm down 25 lbs from 217 to 192, on my way to 180. More importantly, I feel better, have more energy, sleep better plus I'm down 3" in my waist and my clothes are falling off me.


Thanks for chiming in! I agree with you in that I am not really a fanatic about what I actually weigh, rather I am more concerned about the fat I am carrying around and overall health.... Having said that, I learned that I needed something to push me in the right direction so that is how MFP and calorie counting (and weight tracking) came in to play not too long ago. Since I started doing this, I have broken through my glass ceiling and restarted losing weight whereas beforehand I was pretty much stuck in one spot... So at this point, it's kind of a necessary evil....


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

3-10-15 to 3-16-15
Had a pretty good week as I got all 4 workouts in (including a 30 miler!) and did fairly well with the food program… Got a new toy for my bike so am learning how to use that and ended up with a much greater challenge than I bargained for…

Workouts:
1. 3-11-15. Treadmill-sprint: time: 27, 2.38 miles, vert. 0, cal: 463; 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/145; curls: 4/10/65: tri: 4/10/65); push-ups: 46/15; abs: 100 (2x25, 25, 25)
My wife had a meeting so I had daddy duty until about 7:00… not an ideal time to start a workout as I had already eaten dinner and was much more inclined to skip the workout… Alas, “do or do not, there is no try”…… so off I went… The push-ups went over like a ton of bricks but based on my motivation I wasn’t going to get too uptight about it… I was going to change the sprint routine around a little bit but decided to stick with what I know.. All in all the run went pretty well, better than I would have anticipated actually… I ended the run by adding an additional 30 seconds on to the last sprint so that got me a little further distance wise (and calorie wise) but not anything earth shattering…. The only motivator I had to increase the bench weight (like I mentioned I would do last week) was the fact that I had already written it down on my whiteboard… Amazing what a difference 10 pounds makes… I made all reps but the last few on the 3rd and 4th sets weren’t without their challenges… Almost had to go short but am happy to report I made it…. I really focused on form during the curls and tri extensions and feel I did a pretty good job…

2. 3-12-15. Treadmill-incline: treadmill (time: 60, 3.24 miles, vert. 2167, cal: 725); push-ups: 50/15; planking: 6m 20s
Got mixed up on the planking time and inadvertently added on some time… So as it stands, I am now doing an additional 10 seconds (over the initial minute) on each stance… As for the treadmill, I upped the max heart rate (to go with the increased minimum heart rate from a couple of weeks ago..) and really got a workout in.. About 35 minutes in I hit a full on adrenaline rush and was feeling like a rock star, even while I was pushing along at 18-20% incline (maybe I was even singing along to the music….) I need to look it up but I think 2157 feet of vertical is a PR… Keeping the adrenaline flowing, I replicated the 50 push-ups and really had to “muscle through” the last 3 but I got it! Still doing the bonus 15 to help make the 50 easier.. Oddly, I kinda like the bonus 15 as that seems to be where I really notice the good work going in as I make sure they are nice and slow so after doing the primary set I can really feel how it is working the different muscles…

3. 3-15-15. Long trail ride: time: 2.27.45, 30.0 miles, 12.1 avg.; push-ups: 50/15; abs: 100 (2x25, 25, 25)
Hopefully, this upcoming novel reads as “happy to get the ride in but it wasn’t without it’s challenges, but nothing was going to make this a bad ride!” Weather was ideal so I (as well as ½ the city…) decided it was time to hit the trail!!! It felt great to get on my bike and not be freezing cold but before I even left my house I knew it wasn’t going to be a fast ride as this was the 1st weekend in quite some time that was nice so I knew it would be crowded… No worries, I was just happy to be among them… And of course, what’s the first ride of the season without a couple logistical issues???? 1st off, my odometer on my bike got all wonky so the readings were off. 2nd, I forgot to check the tire pressure so I had to stop at the bike shop along the way and air them up as 30 miles on 20 psi isn’t ideal in my book… Ok finally got going.. ish… 3rd, scores of people taking up the trail left to right and not paying attention to people trying to pass… Again, no worries, just happy to be here! So after finally getting past the crowds… the ride was slow and steady, partly because I am not used to doing it and partly because it was windy.. Windy enough that I wasn’t able to coast at any point on the ride so I ended up having to “push” the entire ride with no soft spots to take it easy… But still, just happy to be out there!!!!! (I have resolved to quit complaining about the wind this year so I will be trying to merely mention it as a factor and move on…) Another factor, particularly towards the end, is I have decided to work on standing during descents (*see motivation below!) to improve/lower my center of gravity so I was in an “attack” positon (low on the bike, pedals level, legs in a low squat position…) much more frequently than I have ever been in the past... Needless to say, my quads were past tired, past sore, they were on FIRE when I finished the ride.. They were so spent I couldn’t find the right stretch to alleviate the burning sensation so I just had to wait it out… The good news is this was only temporary (about ½ hour) and once I ate (got some fuel back in the body) I felt fine… Replicated the 50 push-ups again but it took some effort to get those last 7 in….

*I have an acquaintance that was looking to get rid of a Rock Shox Reverb and as luck would have it, it fit my bike perfectly… Soooo, next thing I know, it’s mine!!!!!! The reason this comes in to play is that although there are only a few hills on this ride, I wanted to use them to familiarize myself with the seat post before using it while actually mountain biking. Within that, I was standing/using my quads a lot more than normal.. 

4. 3-16-15 Mon. Treadmill-incline: treadmill (time: 60, 3.25 miles, vert. 1965, cal: 695); push-ups: 0; planking: 6m 20s
Started the workout and everything felt fine. About 20 minutes in I realized I was still pretty wiped out from the bike ride yesterday… I made it through the treadmill and planking but when it came time to do the push-ups I just couldn’t… I actually did about 10 and you would have thought I had a person standing on my back… I decided the world wouldn’t end if I stopped, so I stopped….

Food: Had a pretty good week with the food/calorie counting on finished on target 5/7 days.. One day was a couple hundred over and the other was 65 over… Aside from that left a couple thousand on the table… On Sunday (day of long ride) I had something like 3200 calories for the day so I pretty much let loose (particularly because I was STARVING after the ride…) and I gotta say it was nice to enjoy food without worrying for once.. Not to mention even after eating to my heart’s content, I still had 700 calories in the bank…. 

Musings: 
Could have gotten a bike ride in on Monday but opted for the treadmill as that is a bigger calorie burn… I knew I was going to need them so had to go with the greater number… Never thought I would sell out a bike ride for a treadmill session based on calories….

I lost another 1-2 pounds this week (still kinda hard to see exactly on my scale…) which I will admit is a tad disappointing as I really thought I was in for 3 or more… No worries though.. As long as I am still going down…

Going to have some challenges over the next couple of weeks as weeklong vacation and associated activities are planned… This didn’t go so well over Christmas so let’s see if I am better prepared this time…


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## hzuiel (Feb 5, 2015)

la10slgr said:


> Thanks for chiming in! I agree with you in that I am not really a fanatic about what I actually weigh, rather I am more concerned about the fat I am carrying around and overall health.... Having said that, I learned that I needed something to push me in the right direction so that is how MFP and calorie counting (and weight tracking) came in to play not too long ago. Since I started doing this, I have broken through my glass ceiling and restarted losing weight whereas beforehand I was pretty much stuck in one spot... So at this point, it's kind of a necessary evil....


That's where i was at, plateau'd before i started with the app. Just guessing and trusting my senses didn't work. The weather has cleared off pretty much now, so let the riding commence. The scale isn't the entire story by any means, but where I'm at right now, it's the largest determining factor of whether or not i'm succeeding, because until i've dropped another 10% body fat, there is no way my muscle growth will out pace my fat loss at this calorie deficit. When i get down to around(roughly) the 20% mark, i will get a set of dial calipers to estimate my body fat% and worry less about the scale. Plus i want less weight on my knees for walking, running, hiking, etc. I'm going to the himalayas in 2 months to hike the base camp of everest. I want as few pounds holding me back as possible. Trying to make 235 by then, that might be insane but I'm gonna try.

Meanwhile I've also been walking a lot and the jiu jitsu is getting even easier. A lot less huffing and puffing and turning red. I've seen 256 on the scale, I'm not sure what i think of that, i was probably pretty dehydrated at that weigh in. In any case, it's a lower number than my former lowest number. 21lbs to intermediate goal.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

hzuiel said:


> The scale isn't the entire story by any means, but where I'm at right now, it's the largest determining factor of whether or not i'm succeeding, because until i've dropped another 10% body fat, there is no way my muscle growth will out pace my fat loss at this calorie deficit.


exactly!



hzuiel said:


> I'm going to the himalayas in 2 months to hike the base camp of everest. I want as few pounds holding me back as possible. Trying to make 235 by then, that might be insane but I'm gonna try.


that's not an every day adventure!!!! I would want to be carrying as little as possible as well!!



hzuiel said:


> Meanwhile I've also been walking a lot and the jiu jitsu is getting even easier. A lot less huffing and puffing and turning red. I've seen 256 on the scale, I'm not sure what i think of that, i was probably pretty dehydrated at that weigh in. In any case, it's a lower number than my former lowest number. 21lbs to intermediate goal.


its amazing how doing something a few times increase stamina.. Take those lowest numbers any way you can get 'em!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

m5161968 said:


> Weighed myself 3-13-15, to my surprise the scale read 250lbs. Started riding roughly 2 years ago, my weight then was about 370ish...down 120lbs. My diet is still bad, just cut back on what I do eat and try not eat(heavy)after 7:30. With the long breaks in between riding I probably could've been down a lot more. My goal last year was to get to 250lbs so that I can do a tandum skydive, 250lbs is the max weight that I can be. Being at my goal NOW with the riding season just starting, I want to try and get down to about 225lbs..do the jump..and maintain about 230lbs. The lightest I've been since the 6th grade. Will always be a Clyde, just not a BIG Clyde...


120 is awesome!!! I am interested to see how you continue to progress with the admittedly "bad diet" as that was the one thing I didn't want to have to do but as you can see, I wasn't getting anywhere lower than 227 without the dietary changes... Out of curiosity, why did you decide 230? Seems you have come so far so why stop there?


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

I've forgotten to disclose I do rely on one app to help me gauge and quantify fitness: Strava. 

Yesterday I got 2 PR's on tough climbs at my local trail system. The cycling jersey is getting baggy on me as well. I guess I will jump on the scale soon so I can edit my weight in Strava. 

Nothing but positive vibes to all those working it. Extra mojo for my buddy hzuiel to hit his goals before he goes trekking in the Himalayas. Exercise at altitude is no joke, it's a zone where only the fittest survive. Good luck!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

JHH said:


> I've forgotten to disclose I do rely on one app to help me gauge and quantify fitness: Strava.


I knew you were a closet data keeper!!!!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

3-17-15 to 3-23-15
A little late on the report so extraneous details I usually add will be brief… Got ¾ workouts in but I have already made up the missed workout as of this typing… Food continues to plug along… Weight is down to 215 so 15 to go!

Workouts:
1. 3-18-15. Treadmill-sprint: time: 27, 2.42 miles, vert. 0, cal: 395; 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/145; curls: 4/10/75: tri: 4/10/75); push-ups: 50/15; abs: 100 (2x25, 25, 25)
My daughter’s soccer season started so this workout was rushed as I only had 1h 10m to complete everything (stretching, abs, treadmill, weights, shower..) so there was minimal time in between all exercises… Changed the sprint program up a little bit and did 60 seconds (8.8-9.1mph) sprinting and 90 seconds walking.. True to form, my last sprint was at 10mph for 40 seconds so that probably made the difference in this resulting in a .05 increase in distance which isn’t much but those little increases add up over time… Got all 50 push-ups and the bonus 15 as intended. However, replicated the increase in weight while benching but fell 1 rep short on the last set. Increased curl and triceps to 75 pounds (25 pound plates on each side?????) and fatigue really set in on the curls as it went 10, 10, 9, 6… To state the obvious, my biceps were pretty spent… However, I did get all 40 reps on the tricep portion so that was good…

2. 3-19-15. Treadmill-run: treadmill (time: 60, 4.96 miles, vert. 184, cal: 791); push-ups: 50/15; planking: 6m 20s
Came to the realization I haven’t done a regular run for a while so off I went… All-in-all it went pretty well but I wasn’t a fan of the treadmill deciding some incline was necessary in order to get my heart rate up to 170… At one point I was chugging along at 6 mph doing 7% incline… Obviously the treadmill and I aren’t in agreement about what makes a run workout a run workout… I guess I need to look into increasing the speed a little more but am admittedly a little nervous about what the treadmill would do with that (7mph @ 7% incline????) as for the push-ups… I really felt like I cold have quit at about 10 but that already happened last week so I had to keep going… Well, all said and done I made it to 50 and I can feel I am improving as I finished fairly strong (at least when comparing myself to previous efforts….) I have begun to wonder if I should consider shooting for more… Planking continues to be a pretty good challenge where it is…

3. 3-21-15. Treadmill-incline: treadmill (time: 75, 4.09 miles, vert. 2427, cal: 868); push-ups: 55/15; abs: 100 (2x25, 25, 25)
Had an all day poker tournament so went a little extra on the workout as I knew there would be some beers involved…. Got through the treadmill and the added time just fine… As an added bonus, the mindset continued over to the push-ups and next thing I knew, I did 55!!!! 

4. 3-23-15. Had to skip this workout but made it up on Tuesday so it will be a bonus workout next week.


Food: Had a pretty good week with the food/calorie counting on finished on target 6/7 days but still had over 1500 left in the bank for the week.. Started the week out by missing Tuesday but stayed on point for the rest of the week… Noticed that I am doing pretty well budgeting my days as far as knowing that workout days afford me a little leeway whereas nonworkout days I have to stick to the straight and narrow…

Musings: 
Nothing really big going on. Weather is starting to warm up so riding will be an option here soon.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

3-24-15 to 3-30-15
Crazy week but in a good way…. Food scores were probably the worst since starting MFP but thanks to an abundance of working out this week, they didn’t have a negative impact.. In fact, thanks to the workouts, it was actually a really good week! Ironically, my plans for the week changed and instead of wondering how I was going to get all of my workouts in I ended up going all willy-nilly and had to talk myself out of working out every day of the week…. Had a great time on the bike and may have set some pretty high standards for the rest of the summer….

Workouts:
1. 3-24-15. Short trail ride (time: 45.18, 10.81 miles, 14.3 avg.), push-ups: 55/15; abs: 100 (2x25, 25, 25)
This was the make up for missing the last workout last week. It was a breezy day but otherwise weather was close to ideal (74 and sunny.. but breezy) . Headwind kept me slow on the first ½ but gave me a boost for at least part of the second ½. I would still prefer the air to be still but I will admit I had some fun cruising with the wind when it was beneficial. Felt pretty good about my legs and lungs but I could tell I wasn’t at my best so the 14.3 average is pretty good all things considered. I look at that and realize this is only my 2nd or 3rd time doing this ride this season and it leads me to believe there are big things to come this summer! Powered through the push-ups pretty well and probably could have cranked out 60 but 55 was my target so once I hit that I stopped. I can’t believe I am typing this, but I am giving consideration to continuing to build on the push-ups…

2. 3-25-15. Treadmill-sprint: (time: 27, 2.41 miles, vert. 0, cal: 391); 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/135; curls: 4/10/75; tri: 4/10/75); push-ups: 50/15; abs 100 (2x25, 25, 25)
Treadmill was fine and I felt like I had some juice in the tank so I got this wild hair to sprint for a full lap (1/4 mile) at 9mph… I made it… The hardest part was the middle of the “lap” but once I got to the point I knew I was going to do it (about ¾ of the way..) it almost seemed easier… Don’t get me wrong, I was pretty wiped out by the end but I did make it…. Seems to me with the progress I am making with the curls and tricep extensions my bench would be going up as well but as it stands, the 135 is a pretty good burn…. I guess the push-ups beforehand may be a factor but still….

3. 3-26-15. Treadmill-incline: treadmill (time: 60, 3.24 miles, vert. 2161, cal: 722); push-ups: 55/15; planking: 6m 20s
Looked at some older results from this workout and it seems the standard vertical portion of the workout used to be 1500-1600 feet and has increased to 2100+….. I didn’t change anything so I guess my conditioning has improved enough that my heart rate is lower, thus causing the machine to make me work harder (more incline) to achieve the higher heart rate… Got all crazy and broke out with 55 push-ups again… Who is this guy???!!!! Conversely, the planking presented it’s difficulties for some reason.. Still did it but it was more challenging than normal…

4. 3-27-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 43.38, 6.19 miles, 8.5 avg.), 
I did do all of my stretching prior to the ride but skipped the push-ups and ab routine since this was a “bonus” workout. All I can say is: This….. ride….. was… AWESOME!!!!!!! I decided it was time to put the dropper post to the test and went to the “park” across from my house. I felt fast on the climbs and was able to do it with power (relative to myself…) and I felt really strong. As for the downhills… it was almost like I had never ridden there before because I had to use entirely new lines because I was zipping along at speeds never before experienced.. The dropper post really allowed me to lower my center of gravity which allowed me to carry a LOT more speed throughout yet still feel like I was in full control.. LOVED IT!!!! All-in-all… I set 6 (yes 6!) PRs, 3 2nd best times, and one 3rd best time… Needless to say I had a really good ride! 

5. 3-28-18 Moving	
Had to cancel a regular workout (which would have been a ride dammit…) as I promised some friends I would help them move… I don’t have actual calorie counts etc. but it was 3 hours worth of work (4 hours total.. lunch break, driving…) which included a decent amount of heavy lifting and some stairs, but at least all stairs involved were going down… I put 2 hours of light/moderate calisthenics into my MFP and it gave me credit for 692 calories… I don’t know how accurate it is/isn’t but I do know for 3 out of the 4 hours it was go-go-go so I erred on the side of caution and only put 2 in….

6. 3-30-15 Mon. Treadmill-alpine: treadmill (time: 60, 4.31 miles, vert. 837, cal: 747); push-ups: 49/15; planking: 6m 20s
For some reason I was craving the challenge of the Alpine workout… soooo, I did it…. Pretty standard workout/results but I will say it was less challenging mentally this go around as that motivation carried me through pretty well… I did increase the incline by 1% (11% max) but when comparing it to previous results it didn’t make much, if any, difference…. Only got 49 push-ups… I was plugging along just fine then broke my rhythm (at about #39) and next thing I knew I was really struggling… I technically did 49.5 but I just couldn’t get that last one finished…. The follow-up 15 wasn’t too easy either…. As for the planking, the only thing really holding me back from increasing the time is my arms, particularly my deltoids.. For some reason they are just spent after each “set”, particularly after the 1m10s intervals…

Food: Had an up and down week as it was spring break and my wife and daughters talked into not one but two pizza trips… The good news is that with my newfound calorie counting my pizza consumption was greatly reduced and we can now order a small/medium (12 inch or so) pizza for the four of us and everyone gets enough without any leftovers… That coupled with the workouts and I managed to toe the line… As for the rest of the week, I made the goal 5/7 days and had about 2000 calories left over for the week….

Scale says 211 so that is a 4 pound drop for the week… 43 cumulative….

Musings: 

Didn’t really plan on having 6 workouts for the week (in various forms) but that’s how it played out… It was almost 7 as the weather was nice and I almost worked in another ride but I decided I could probably use the break plus I had some other things to do…. I can say I am really loving my saddle time and with the perfect weather of late it is really easy to find the motivation to get out and go…. 

It’s weird, yes the clothes are looser (smaller pants I bought now have room to tuck in my shirt if I were so inclined…) and yes the physical appearance is much improved… but, I really don’t feel like I have lost this much weight and looking at myself I wouldn’t guess this much either… Now that I am here, I know I still have a ways to go and I would now guess it is more than the 11 that I am scheduled for (based on remaining belly…) Guess I will deal with that when I get to 200…

First world problems: I love my bike and have done every modification to it I could possibly want to do… Therefore, I really don’t have any bike “carrots” to dangle in front of my nose to motivate/reward myself with….. Strange sensation being totally satisfied with what I have…. At any rate, I like the reward aspect of working towards something (you know, aside from the obvious rewards of improved health, quality of life, etc…) so I guess I am going to have to think of something fun for when I reach 200… which isn’t terribly far off!!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

la10slgr said:


> 2-10-15 to 2-16-15
> 3. Mtn bike ride (time: 48.15, 6.3 miles, 7.8 avg
> Must be something to what I got going on in the "gym" (my basement) and on the treadmill&#8230;. Had a GREAT ride and set 5 PR's on sections within the ride and I think two or three 2nd fastest times&#8230; Needless to say, I was cruising along pretty well by my standards&#8230;. Peculiar that I was able to pull this off with virtually no saddle time over the past few months&#8230; Push-ups and crunches are the same&#8230;





la10slgr said:


> 3-24-15 to 3-30-15
> 4. 3-27-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 43.38, 6.19 miles, 8.5 avg.)
> I did do all of my stretching prior to the ride but skipped the push-ups and ab routine since this was a "bonus" workout. All I can say is: This&#8230;.. ride&#8230;.. was&#8230; AWESOME!!!!!!! I decided it was time to put the dropper post to the test and went to the "park" across from my house. I felt fast on the climbs and was able to do it with power (relative to myself&#8230 and I felt really strong. As for the downhills&#8230; it was almost like I had never ridden there before because I had to use entirely new lines because I was zipping along at speeds never before experienced.. The dropper post really allowed me to lower my center of gravity which allowed me to carry a LOT more speed throughout yet still feel like I was in full control.. LOVED IT!!!! All-in-all&#8230; I set 6 (yes 6!) PRs, 3 2nd best times, and one 3rd best time&#8230; Needless to say I had a really good ride!


Holy cow!!!! This is the same ride!!! So apparently I set a bunch of similar PRs back in February and now come March I go and beat those&#8230;.. I must have been walking before&#8230;

(yes, I read through my old posts to see where I have been and to make sure I am continuing to move forward&#8230;.)


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

3-31-15 to 4-6-15
Did well on working out and even got rides in on 2 of the 4 sessions but ran into some issues on the food front… Finally got caught “toeing the line” so paying the price on the scale… Live and learn… live and learn….

Workouts:
1. 4-1-15. Treadmill-sprint: (time: 27, 2.41 miles, vert. 0, cal: 391); 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/135; curls: 4/10/75; tri: 4/10/75); push-ups: 50/15; abs: 100 (4x25)
Used some different variables today and ironically, ended up at the same distance.. 1st off, I increased the programmed speed to 8.3mph (increase of .1) which should have sent me up to 9.2mph or so but for some reason the machine was usually at 8.8 or 8.9 (did peak at 9.1) so that didn’t really change much… 2nd, I decided to program 10mph and go for a minute at the end… The machine went up to 10.8-10.9 and I think I have found my max speed as far as sprinting for a full minute goes (I’m sure I could go a little faster but not for a full minute) as I was a little nervous about tripping over myself the last 15 seconds or so…. I had full visions of the carnage that would ensue had I tripped or something… would not have been good…. Weight stuff was pretty unremarkable.. did the routine... I got the 50 push-ups but it took some grunting and groaning the last few… Changed the ab routine a touch and I think I found something I really like: 25 crunches, 25 “v sits” (1/2 sit-up, 1/2 simultaneously pull my knees to my chest), 25 leg lifts (straight up and down, up to about a 50-60 degree angle), and 25 “v” shaped leg lifts (up to about a 70 degree angle while shifting my legs to the side then down, then to the other side) It seems like this is a pretty well rounded routine and I like that I can do it without other body parts getting in the way (e.g., like how my deltoids are impacting the planking…) Not to mention, I can really feel it in my abs after completing each set.

2. 4-2-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 60, 5.31 miles, vert. 0, cal: 851); push-ups: 50/15; planking: 6m 20s
Decided it was time to dust off the long run… Did the warm-up then 6 mph (of course the machine decided each interval needs to start at 6.4 and work its way down to 6.0…) for 6 minute cycles with 2-minute cooldowns. I gotta say, the run felt good… It was definitely a workout (over 5 miles and over 800 calories…) but at no time did I hit the “I can’t do this” phase… I was definitely pleased to see that the sprinting is helping to make this easier.. Planking was the same as before (could probably do more but the deltoids are spent…) and managed the 50 on the push-ups… I am noticing that the planking is impacting the push-ups as the days that involve planking coincidentally are the same days the push-ups are more difficult….

3. 4-6-15. 1 Mtn bike ride (time: 42.49, 6.27 miles, 8.8 avg.),push-ups: 55/15; push-ups: 50/15; abs: 100 (4x25)
Although it was Easter, the weather was too perfect and I needed to get a weekend workout in so I squeezed a ride in… Similar to last week, the ride was amazing yet again and I continued to get better as I set 5 more PRs and had 5 more 2nd best times (more on this within musings). With the increased speed I have started jumping off obstacles and am experiencing how much smoother this can make the ride. I went off a couple of jumps, with I’m guessing 1-2 foot drops, and was pretty impressed with my bike as I landed on more rocks and it was smooth as butter… This is making me want to go find a drop I have avoided in the past and see if I have the courage to do it now….

4. 4-6-15. 1 short trail ride (time: 41.18, 10.81 miles, 15.7 avg.); push-ups: 50/15; abs: 100 (4x25)
I debated between riding and doing the treadmill as according to all available resources the treadmill is a bigger calorie burn (more on this within musings)… I decided to ride for the obvious reasons… Ride felt really good and I felt really strong throughout, even with the wind (which contained some significant gusts) as I carried pretty good speed throughout. So good, in fact, that I was pretty interested to see how many PRs I set when I got done… Joke was on me though as even though the 15.7 average was my 3rd fastest ride EVER (2nd on this specific ride and then there was a longer ride back in October where I was just out of my mind..) I only managed one 3rd best time!!!! No PRs, no 2nd best times, just a single 3rd best… Alas, the 15.7 average made me feel pretty good especially when the wind is factored in… I am finding that the 50 push-ups are still a challenge as I am having to work pretty hard to get all 50… Part of the program I guess but based on those few times I cranked out 55 I was really under the impression that the 55 would be the standard by now… For logistical reasons (needed to charge my phone, which has the timer, for the ride; barefoot…) the planking became the crunch, v-sit, leg lift routine… All went well…. Me thinks I may have to add a 5 or 10 pound weight to my chest for the crunches and v-sits….

Food: For some reason I was starving this week and just couldn’t satiate the hunger so I was literally on the search for something to eat all week…. No matter what I ate it seemed like I was hungry an hour later all week long… On top of that, Easter was somewhat of a debacle in that I had budgeted the deviled eggs (love ‘em!) for the day but I just couldn’t stop grabbing handfuls of m&ms which my in-laws have all over the house… As for the rest of the week, I made the goal 5/7 days but only had about 900 calories left over for the week (compared with the usual 1500-2000)….

Scale says 215 so that is a 4 pound increase for the week… Seems Mr. Hungry here went the wrong way…. Don’t really have any real explanation for that much of an increase as I expected a pound or two (especially with the Easter debacle..) but 4 was a little surprising… I guess the pizza from last week caught up with me as well… If anything, this will cause me to refocus and make sure I am on the straight and narrow… 

Musings: 

I have a new plan for sprinting… I’m gonna start with continuing to sprint at about 9mph for a minute then rest until my heart rate goes down to 130 (regardless of time) and then repeat with the intent of building up to ¼ mile sprints (speed yet to be determined but obviously this will take much more time than 1-minute..) This should decrease my recoupment time (to about a minute or so if memory serves) and should keep me from slacking as I find I am “milking the system” somewhat in that I feel like I could probably do the sprint again when my HR hits 130 but since I am basing my “rest” portion on time (currently 90 seconds) there is about 30 seconds each cycle where I could be running but am only walking as those are the current parameters….

So last week I had a statement here where I basically mentioned it doesn’t feel like I have lost 41 pounds. I think I have found some clarity in what I was trying to say… What it boils down to is I don’t look like I thought I would look like at 211 (now 215) as there is still plenty of belly that needs to go… I’m sticking with the statement of “I’ll deal with it when I get to 200” but it is becoming pretty evident that I will need to go beyond that if I want to get rid of the belly…. Honestly, this kind of brings me down a little but it is what it is…

Re: Personal Records on the rides… So, I’ve been setting all of these PRs on the recent mountain biking rides so that caused me to get a little more interested in Strava as I wanted to see how much better I was doing compared to previous rides… Turns out some of these sections are literally only 40-50 yards long…. At the end of the day, an increase in speed is an increase in speed but I kinda figured each section would be an actual section instead of various chunks within a section… 

I was gonna save this for next week but since it’s on my mind I might as well…. I’m learning that all of these “scientific” calories counts are a little loose in their calculations… It seems the most scientific approach I am currently using is my treadmill as it seems to be pretty dialed in distance wise and I use a heart rate monitor so I am left to believe that this is the most accurate calorie count I have… Here are the general numbers:
Incline - Doing 60 minutes for about 3.25 miles with 1700-2000 feet of incline gives me about 700-750 calories
Sprinting – Doing 27 minutes gets just over 2.25 miles and gives me just under 400 calories
Running – Doing 60 minutes for 5.25 miles gives me over 800 calories. 
As for the biking, Strava does seem to give some credit for mountain biking (although not overtly so….) but overall it feels like the calorie counts are low:
Trail riding - Doing 45 minutes (ish) for about 10.8 miles (just under 300 feet of climbing) gets me just under 400 calories
Mtn biking - Doing 45 minutes (ish) for about 6.5 miles (about 700 feet of climbing) gets me just under 600 calories
I dunno, to me it seems like I am working harder than this on the bike and the calorie counts really should be higher but I really don’t have a feel for how much.. The reason this has become an issue for me is that with my limited time I want to get the most bang for my buck and as it stands that would be doing the treadmill… Who wants to do treadmill work when riding is an option???!!!! Anyone have any thoughts about this?


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

Your working hard bro! Don't fret too much on a little swing up. It could mean your putting on some muscle mass. A week of being hungry is a sign. Your body is needing something and it's not those M&M's or too many deviled eggs. 

wrt effort. If you look at the numbers more time on the treadmill and more vertical feet = More effort, more calories. steady, easier exercise where your heart rate stays in the aerobic zone (approx 130 and under) is where you burn the most fat. I go on specific rides that I call fat burners where I'm in that zone and after 30 minutes I just feel like a pat of butter in a hot pan melting away. Coincidentally I tend to feel in a greater flow state after those rides too. I focused my rides on steeper harder climbs for awhile and have dialed that back to burn more fat these days. Of course losing weight is having a dramatic affect on making hard efforts easier.


WRT food and BELLY: To beat the dead horse. This is exactly why I focused on a plant based diet. I continue to shrink. My belly is smaller, my legs, arms, face are all leaning out without doing specific work in those areas. My obliques are starting to show there general location as is my abdominal muscles. It's all not a round sphere anymore. 

I'm only eating meat 4% of my meals since the beginning of the year. And again I do so when my body is craving it. My wife was happy to see me order adobosilog for breakfast and eat a chicken sausage at dinner because my body was craving meat last week. This was after a cheeseburger earlier in the week as well. (i felt so full after the burger) Not to rub it in - I'm lighter this week then I was last week. My results are not as dramatic week by week, BUT there is not yo-yo-ing and this choice is now ingrained in my mind and body. Frankly I don't feel as good when stuff myself with meat as I did at the bday party catered by a taco truck. (boy where those chorizo tacos TASTY!) 


I'm convinced - Diet is what wins this game. Specifically, what you eat matters more then just adding up calories an not focusing on truly healthier foods. I know this from my past failures. The "largely" plant based approach is working for me. It's sustainable no matter what life throws at me even if it's chorizo tacos ;0

Just another perspective here for consideration. 

Keep up the good work!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

JHH said:


> If you look at the numbers more time on the treadmill and more vertical feet = More effort, more calories. steady, easier exercise where your heart rate stays in the aerobic zone (approx 130 and under) is where you burn the most fat.


Gonna look into the HR/fat loss thing.. I've heard of this before but if I were to do the treadmill and only keep my HR at ~130 I would feel like I was doing nothing... operant conditioning at it's finest.. (bigger, faster, stronger is all I've ever really known when it comes to exercising...)



JHH said:


> I'm convinced - Diet is what wins this game.


I agree.. If you remember I was in a pretty big rut until I started counting the calories... Still don't love it but it is taking me where I want to go (so long as I follow it... ahem, last week, cough cough....)


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## hzuiel (Feb 5, 2015)

la10slgr said:


> I agree.. If you remember I was in a pretty big rut until I started counting the calories... Still don't love it but it is taking me where I want to go (so long as I follow it... ahem, last week, cough cough....)


I also think diet is key, just a bit less specific than jhh. I've found I can make some pretty big missteps and still be okay though. I've had unplanned cheat days and not gained anything or even lost. Friends that only have mountain Dew, doritos, and oreos at their house can be problematic but I just count the calories in all the junk and try to not exceed my limit. The only real set back I've had was last week I got a cold with a high fever, so my stomach wasn't messed up, but I had no energy, so I was laying around a lot, and eating. I've already corrected the fluctuation though and gone back to progress. Weighed in already 248.5 last night and 248 this morning.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

hzuiel said:


> I just count the calories in all the junk and try to not exceed my limit.


that's what I am doing as well... I'm sure I could be more strict but right now I'm "playing the game" in that if I want something and I have the calories I go ahead and go for it... (with the caveat that in the back of my mind I know that everything has a price that has to be paid) At the end of the day though, this keeps me on board with the calorie counting/eating better so it's a good trade-off in my book... and it's working!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

10,000 views! I'm pretty sure that 95% of them are me but that means someone else has visited 500 times!!!! Hopefully other people are benefitting from this journey being put out there for all to see, I know I have!


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## cpfitness (Nov 19, 2012)

JHH said:


> Your working hard bro! Don't fret too much on a little swing up. It could mean your putting on some muscle mass. A week of being hungry is a sign. Your body is needing something and it's not those M&M's or too many deviled eggs.
> 
> wrt effort. If you look at the numbers more time on the treadmill and more vertical feet = More effort, more calories. steady, easier exercise where your heart rate stays in the aerobic zone (approx 130 and under) is where you burn the most fat. I go on specific rides that I call fat burners where I'm in that zone and after 30 minutes I just feel like a pat of butter in a hot pan melting away. Coincidentally I tend to feel in a greater flow state after those rides too. I focused my rides on steeper harder climbs for awhile and have dialed that back to burn more fat these days. Of course losing weight is having a dramatic affect on making hard efforts easier.
> 
> ...


FALSE! Low heart rates are where you burn the highest PERCENTAGE of fat I regards to total calories burned. But higher heart rates are where you burn more calories and thus burn more fat. Example (not using precise numbers just tryi,g to,demonstrate the principle) At rest sitting in a chair 50% of calories burned may be fat but in an hour of sitting down you only burn 100 calories so you burned 50 cal of fat. At 80% max hr you may only burn 30% fat but an hour worth of exercise at that level burns 1000 calories or 300 fat calories. Which do you th I,k will get you thin faster? Another example is marathons. Marathons are loaded with overweight people. They run a lot of slow miles and take in too many calories because they think they are working so hard But,they aren't. They are just working slow and steady


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

cpfitness said:


> FALSE! Low heart rates are where you burn the highest PERCENTAGE of fat I regards to total calories burned. But higher heart rates are where you burn more calories and thus burn more fat. Example (not using precise numbers just tryi,g to,demonstrate the principle) At rest sitting in a chair 50% of calories burned may be fat but in an hour of sitting down you only burn 100 calories so you burned 50 cal of fat. At 80% max hr you may only burn 30% fat but an hour worth of exercise at that level burns 1000 calories or 300 fat calories. Which do you th I,k will get you thin faster? Another example is marathons. Marathons are loaded with overweight people. They run a lot of slow miles and take in too many calories because they think they are working so hard But,they aren't. They are just working slow and steady


Don't take it personally but your examples suck dingleberries. Your reply doesn't factor in the individual. No clyde is really going to sustain 80% max HR for an hour - therefore you work within the numbers that you can sustain. FOR ME, maybe not YOU - Easier longer rides give me the results I'm seeking vs a shorter more intense ride that punishes me more.

This thread isn't out to prove people wrong btw. It's about sharing your experience so others can benefit from it. What experience do you have being overweight or losing weight?


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

alrighty boys..... I'm all for a healthy debate but let's remember to keep the main thing the main thing...


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## cpfitness (Nov 19, 2012)

JHH said:


> Don't take it personally but your examples suck dingleberries. Your reply doesn't factor in the individual. No clyde is really going to sustain 80% max HR for an hour - therefore you work within the numbers that you can sustain. FOR ME, maybe not YOU - Easier longer rides give me the results I'm seeking vs a shorter more intense ride that punishes me more.
> 
> This thread isn't out to prove people wrong btw. It's about sharing your experience so others can benefit from it. What experience do you have being overweight or losing weight?


What do I know? I only had a 10+ year career in the fitness industry. These are well known BASIC concepts that apply to anyone. My example sought to keep it simple rather than use deep science based words and concepts nobody would understand. PLENTY of people can sustain high heart rates for long periods of time and it doesn't have to be all at once. Low heart rates = low total calorie burn.


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## cpfitness (Nov 19, 2012)

As for my personal knowledge, in college I didn't get the,freshman 15, I got the,junior 60. I went from 200lbs to 260lbs in 1 school year (Sept to may) lost it all and added muscle. Have bounced up and down a,bit over the years depending on how focused I've been and whether my sport was in season or not.

FYI, you are also incorrect in citing the aerobic zone as under 130bpm. Heart rate zones vary completely from person to person. You probably th I,k 220-age calculates max he but that is probably the biggest crock of **** in the fitness world. I'm 37 years old, my hr goes up to 192 on hard efforts when riding yet 220-37=183????? That formula is,from the 1920s and based on a very small sample size. Its,totally bogus.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

4-7-15 to 4-13-15
Another fairly good weeks in the books…. Got a long ride in and found a new way to test myself on the treadmill…

Workouts:
1. 4-8-15. Treadmill-Sprint: (time: 27, 2.49 miles, vert. 0, cal: 400); push-ups: 35; planking: 6m 20s
Ran for 60 seconds then changed the recovery period to HR of 130bpm (instead of 90 seconds) and it yielded some better results (did the programmed 10mph/10.9 run for a minute at the end as well just so I could compare apples to apples…). It added about .10 of a mile and 9 calories so I did get a little bit better run in.. It started out just as I had hoped as the break was under a minute but as time elapsed the breaks got longer and longer (up to about 1m40s I think) as my HR was going higher and higher within the sprints… Overall it was a positive change but I’m debating if I am going to keep it vs just going back to time and using that and decreasing the break manually.. Added 10 seconds to the last plank position just for the sake of doing something to continue to improve… Got 35 push-ups in before I just knew I wasn’t going to make the 50 today…. Here’s the kicker.. was trying to get everything in before having to go to my daughter’s soccer game and in theory, I had enough time… Well, just as I was working on the push-ups my wife came down to tell me it was time to go… I still needed to do the weightlifting!!! (which, ironically, was going to be legs because I haven’t done that for a few weeks due to riding…) Alas, sometimes you gotta prioritize….

2. 4-9-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.24 miles, vert. 2181, cal: 705); push-ups: 57/15; abs: 100 (4x25)
Thought I was up to the task today and results seem to support those thoughts… The treadmill stuff went fine and it seems like I am continuing to add more and more vertical feet without changing any settings (I guess the heart rate is staying lower so the treadmill keeps it at a higher incline to get the HR up)... Having said that, I think I am about ready to increase the speed a touch (whole whopping .1 mph!!!) just to keep with that… I was a little irked about the last push-up performance so I gave it a little extra “mmph” and managed 57….. Did the crunches with a 5 pound plate on my chest and while it didn’t seem to do much in the beginning it was definitely noticeable towards the end!!! 

3. 4-11-15. 1 long trail rides (time: 2.05.25, 30.1 miles, 14.4 avg.); push-ups: 60/15; planking: 5m 10s
First things first… based on the push-up results from last time, I figured “why not shoot for 60?” Next thing I know… it wasn’t pretty but I got there!!! Having spent a lot of “arm energy” on the push-ups, I knew there was no way I was going to do the full duration of the planks because I did them immediately afterwards (there was no way they were getting done after the ride…) It wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be but I stand behind my thoughts of there being no way I was doing the 6+ minutes…. As for the ride... I had been planning on doing this ride for a few days so I was mentally and physically ready… It went so well that I considered skipping some breaks but I didn’t want to do that only to run out of gas later… My compromise was I still took all the breaks but I made them pretty short…. I have to say, I felt great throughout the ride and carried good speed, even when the clouds moved in (see what I did there? Covert way of saying there was some wind….) The one problem I had was my bike computer can’t decide what exactly constitutes 15.0 miles (turn around point) so I ended up doing 30.1 miles (30.3 according to strava…) The reason this matters is I want to break 2 hours riding time (note the use of riding time, not total time…) and adding extra distance isn’t really conducive to such endeavors…. All-in-all, I set 27 PRs (1st-3rd best) throughout the ride… yes, 2-7!!!! Of which, 16 were actual PRs…. As I stated last week, I know there is some goofiness with Strava regarding what constitutes a segment, but still… Can’t help but to feel a little good about myself…

4. 4-13-15. Treadmill-Sprint: (time: 24, 2.21 miles, vert. 0, cal: 347); push-ups: 50
Meeting at work went long and I had about 45 minutes to stretch, get a workout in, get cleaned up, and get to job #2 (historically, this would have been a missed workout…) In thinking about what I was going to do I hit upon the idea of “I haven’t run a mile straight yet” so off I went… Since I was venturing into unchartered waters I decided to play it safe and do 6mph… The first mile felt pretty good, almost easy to be honest… As I was going I got to thinking “Wow, I haven’t run a mile without stopping since high school… Actually, I don’t know that I have ever run 2 miles without stopping” soooo, once I hit the mile, I continued on… So within that time above, 2 miles occurred in 20 minutes… I don’t’ know much about where that falls in the running world (pretty damn slow I’m sure) but the fact of the matter is 1) for the first time in about 24 years, I ran 1 mile nonstop and 2) for the first time ever, I ran 2 miles straight… Even better, the HR never went above 160… Of course, this means I probably should have been doing 6.5-7mph but let’s not worry about that right now…. I don’t know that I would have bet on myself ever running a mile straight a year and a half ago, much less 2 miles….. I got 50 push-ups in but it very well could have been 35 again… will power alone got me to the 50… skipped the 15 extra and abs due to time…

Food: Had an up and down week but for the most part the working out took care of the calories… Did attend a bbq on Saturday so the long ride was definitely helpful in keeping the calorie count for the day where it should be (whew!) but on the flip side had dinner at the in-laws and Sunday and just couldn’t say no to the cherry pie a la mode…. That pretty much sums up the week… As for the total week, I made the calorie goal 5/7 days and had about 1000 calories left over for the week… Getting a little irked that I am continually going over 2 days a week…

Scale: 210 - Rectified the 4 pound gain from last week and added (lost?) another one for 5 total for the week.. I’m sure there is some scientific explanation for gaining 4 one week then dropping 5 the next but that’s above my level… Regardless, I’ll take it… Just because I thought of it in time to actually do it; I weighed myself before and after the 30-mile ride…. 210 on both accounts… so much for that experiment…. 

Musings: 

It’s weird, I teeter-totter between 1) being a full-fledged addict and feeling guilty for not working out on off days and 2) feeling like “eh, I’m almost there why not (insert poor choice here…)” I will say the addict is staring to gain the edge as I am constantly thinking about riding and getting to 200… I just wish the riding time was as efficient as the treadmill time (calories per hour…)

These little lumps are starting to grow on my upper arms, I think they are called triceps and deltoids, might have to consult with a doctor to see what’s going on… Legs aren’t looking too bad either…..

I found my next push-up target… Once I get to 60 consistently, I’m going to change from pumping out as many as I can to slow and deliberate and really concentrate on feeling the burn as I do them… That should fix my wagon for awhile…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

4-14-15 to 4-20-15
Got all of the workouts in and a bonus one to boot but that didn’t keep me from burning my hands a little while playing with fire….

Workouts:
1. 4-15-15. Treadmill-Sprint: (time: 27, 2.50 miles, vert. 0, cal: 398); push-ups: 50/15; planking: 6m 20s; 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/145; curls: 4/10/70; tri: 4/10/70)
Crazy busy day… Had an extra meeting and daughter’s soccer game so I didn’t do the workout until nearly 8:00 at night…. Not ideal but you gotta do what you gotta do…. Switched it up and did the planking before the push-ups with the theory that I will at least get the full plank routine in and then do what I can on the push-ups…. I was pretty amazed that I got all 50 push-ups in but admittedly, the last 3 took some real grunting and groaning… The bonus 15 were particularly difficult but I got there… Did the sprint the same way as last time (run when the HR got down to 130) and ended up getting that extra .01 to make 2.5 miles even but it cost me 2 calories… go figure (not an issue in the least, but doesn’t make any sense…) Finally got a gym routine in and I was pretty pleased that I was still able to do everything after having not done it for a few weeks.. . Did find a moment to realize the benefit of all of these push-ups… Within the 2nd set the fatigue was starting to show itself and out of nowhere I felt the most perfect form I have probably ever felt while benching… The muscles were a little tired (having already done the planks and push-ups) and I just suddenly felt all of the right muscles come together and move the bar, no straining, not even a hint of bad form coming into play.. It was pretty cool… Within the curls, I lost my focus on the 2nd set and only got 8 but after resting for a few seconds I got the other 2 in… I know it was mental because I got the full 10 on the last two sets….

2. 4-16-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 60, 5.14 miles, vert. 115, cal: 792); push-ups: 55/15; abs: 100 (4x25)
Got in a pretty good run as I increased the max speed to 6.5 so that allowed me to run faster and to decrease the need for the machine to include the incline to achieve the heart rate…. Other than that, nothing really worthy of reporting… Push-ups were standard at 55 so I’ll take it… Used the 5 pound plate for both crunches and v-sits… An observer probably would have had a good laugh the first few v-sits (since the hands were holding the weight, thus, in a different location) as I was a little awkward but I got it worked out.. Definitely made things a little more challenging but not to the point where I couldn’t do it…


Bonus. 4-17-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.29 miles, vert. 2449, cal: 749)
Wife decided we were going out for hamburgers and before I could say anything the kids were already on board… I decided to just go with it (the grilled chicken sandwich didn’t even look appetizing in the picture, and we all know that is the best case scenario… not to mention the questionable availability of a side salad with light dressing…) and do a bonus workout when we got home… Soo, once again, down to the treadmill I went at 8:00 at night…. At least it was Friday… The original intent was to just go until I hit 500 calories to offset the 450+/- that dinner sent me over… That took right at 40 minutes and I decided “what the hell, what’s another 20 minutes?” as I did pilfer some of my daughter’s milkshake… Can’t say I was terribly motivated for this but it did feel good to get right on the calories for the day.. This whole workout is a direct reflection of me complaining that I was getting tired of consistently going over on the calories 2 days a week…

Partial bonus: Took the dog for a about ½ hour walk… forgot to start strava and didn’t 100% pay attention to how long it took (roughly ½ hour) so the only reason I mention it is that it was an attempt to keep the calories from the birthday parties in check … The dog was happy…

3. 4-18-15. 1 Road Ride (time: 51.12, 10.35 miles, 12.1 avg.); push-ups: 50/15; planking: 6m 30s
Did the push-ups first and got the 50 with some effort.. maybe could have hit 55 but I was planking immediately afterwards so I decided 50 was enough.. Planking went fairly well all things considered.. well enough that I added on the token 10 seconds on the last one…. Did a road ride I have only done a couple times before (loop around my “neighborhood” with a pretty good climb and descent at the end..) I can’t say it felt great but it was definitely much improved over previous efforts… much improved… I don’t remember exactly how many rests I took previously (I’m thinking at least 8..) but I did knock it down to 4, and even then I think I could have gotten away with 3.. This was the first time I had done the ride since Strava came along so if anything I have a baseline.. Speaking of Strava… decided to check my time on the big climb and within one section (.4 miles, 15.2% grade, part of about .75-1.0 mile climb altogether…) superbiker guy here came in 680/717!!!!! So yeah, not the best out there, but I guess I did do better than 37 other people!!! (just because sarcasm doesn’t really come through when typed, I am making fun of myself here…) In my defense, this is a pretty popular route for road riders (and I presume actual racers of varying levels as I see people riding in “teams” that are pretty decked out with top of the line looking stuff… at least that’s what it looks like, hard to tell as they whiz past me…) so my mountain bike and I are at a competitive disadavantage…. Again, I mock the situation as all I am really worried about is doing better against myself, but it is a little blow to the ego when you are puttering along and trying hard (and feeling pretty good about yourself for doing better) only to have people come flying past you like you aren’t even moving…..

4. 4-20-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 4.30 miles, vert. 837, cal: 723); push-ups: 55/15; planking: 6m 30s
In the rotational “what haven’t I done lately” the Alpine (½ run, ½ incline) treadmill workout came up…. I gotta say, with the sprinting and endurance running sure is making what was once nearly impossible a lot more palatable… Sure, it was a good/hard workout but at no time did I feel like I wasn’t going to be able to do it (like in previous efforts…) so there is definitely progress… Have decided that push-ups and planks are just going to have to work together as it is logistically better that way… Push-ups were fine but I had to really muscle out the last 3 (seems to be a pattern these days…) Planking went well as well with the exception of I felt the slightest of pulls in my quad when doing a raised leg position… Nothing to be worried about but I do feel it now (day after…) so I guess I need to be aware of that….

Food: Thought I had reduced my going over 2 days per week to only 1 but forgot I went over by 88 calories on one day, so 2 days over it is… Even did that extra workout to try and make sure of it … I guess the optimist would point out that the extra workout kept me from going over 3 days this week… So I got that going for me, which is nice… Alas, if anything, I really got my money’s worth for going over on Sunday…. 2 birthday parties will wallop you in the calorie department… not to mention, this was the day before weighing in (see below…) Still had over 1,000 calories left over for the week but that didn’t really seem to matter… Again, see below… 

Scale: 212 (+2) – Well hell…. Looking at my food intake for the week it isn’t a total mystery where the 2 pounds came from but on the other hand, I thought I did pretty well counteracting the additional calories with working out…. Especially with the extra workout (to offset the hamburger night) and taking the dog for a walk (to help offset birthday party Sunday)…. Both of which occurred on nonworkout days nonetheless..) As I have alluded to, there were a few days where food was an issue but I figured if I was right on the calories (i.e., I worked out to make sure I used the extra calories I ate) I would still be on the right track…. Nope…. Alas, I know what I need to do….

Musings: 
Lesson of the week: Calories are not the end all… Just because the calorie count works doesn’t mean you can eat just about anything as long as you are under the daily allotment…. 

A friend of mine is doing some rapid rate loss thing (some natural liquid that you would otherwise have to get as a shot from the doctor…) where he lost like 35 pounds in 2 months and is getting ready to do another “cycle” and hoping for similar results… It’s interesting to see how two people go about doing the same thing in two completely different ways…. I am very interested to see where we both are 6 months to a year from now….


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## cpfitness (Nov 19, 2012)

Keep in mind "you can't outtrain poor diet" now with that said, amping up workouts when you,know you are gonna have more food,than,normal isn't a bad thing, just don't expect the scale,to,keep dropping. You are doing great, continue to set performance based goals and don't sweat the scale


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

cpfitness said:


> Keep in mind "you can't outtrain poor diet" now with that said, amping up workouts when you,know you are gonna have more food,than,normal isn't a bad thing, just don't expect the scale,to,keep dropping. You are doing great, continue to set performance based goals and don't sweat the scale


Thanks for the message. as always, you are on point... As for not sweating the scale, I still don't technically care what I weigh (part of that whole losing fat/adding muscle debate...) particularly since my target weight is 200, but I have found it to be the best "barometer" overall as it matches up pretty well with how things are going.... Therefore, I have found I am relying on it more and more.. Is this such a bad thing?


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

4-21-15 to 4-27-15
Worked hard and played hard this week… All things considered I will take the results…

Workouts:
1. 4-22-15. Treadmill-Sprint: (time: 27, 2.47 miles, vert. 0, cal: 398); push-ups: 50/15; abs: 100 (4x25); 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/145; curls: 4/10/70; tri: 4/10/70)
I had a bike ride all planned out that would allow me to workout AND get to my daughter’s soccer game on time but a rainstorm was supposed to come in and the clouds coming over the mountains supported that theory… So no ride for me… The kicker is, not a single drop of rain fell…. At any rate, I at least got to eat dinner before the soccer game so it allowed me to get the workout in a little bit earlier than last week…. Needless to say, the motivation was a little low for this go ‘round…. Did the push-ups and was happy to get 50… Continued using the 5 pound plate on my chest for the abs, no striking news here.. I upped the run speed to 8.4 (so the machine believes I meant 9.1-9.2) for a .1 increase in speed.. I did the programmed 10.0 for the last minute of running but didn’t pay attention to when I started (as happened a few times before…) so I went over somewhere between 5-10 seconds to make sure I wasn’t slacking… All of this and I lost .03 from last time but still managed to get the exact same calorie count… Go figure…. I wanted to flake out on the arm workout but just couldn’t let that happen… Got it done is the crowning glory here…. I’m really not loving starting a workout at 7:30-8:00 at night….. 

2. 4-23-15. 1 road ride (time: 58.07, 11.57 miles, 12.0 avg.); push-ups: 57/15; planking: 6m 30s
Tackled another road ride (since the “road” wheels were still on the bike) that really kicked my ass last (and the only) time I did it previously… This go around went MUCH better when compared to last time as I only took 1 break whereas I was having to rest a Lot last time (too many times to count). Granted, the wind was blowing something fierce last time (the wind was so bad that I still vividly remember it virtually stopping me on downhills…) but still… Since I had only ridden this ride one time before I was planning on pretty much taking breaks wherever I did last time. However, once I got to the target spots I found I really didn’t need a break and kept on going… As an added perk, I got to cruise down the backside of the climb and according to my odometer I maxed out at 48mph!!! That was pretty fun and definitely helped with enduring the long climb up… Made myself do 57 push-ups simply because I was tired of being stuck at 50 or 55… couldn’t get 60 though… I feel I am ready to increase the time a little bit on the planking but one pose (40 seconds upright push-up position with one leg lifted then 40 seconds with other leg) really keeps me from moving forward… That thing is a killer and once I do that I am pretty well spent… Maybe I’ll increase the other ones and leave this one at the 80 seconds…

3. 4-25-15. 1 long trail rides (time: 2.14.22, 29.99 miles, 13.4 avg.); push-ups: 57/15; planking: 6m 30s
Push-ups and planking were pretty standard with the only exception being I did make it to 57 push-ups so that was good. Yet another storm was blowing in (so it was windy) but I decided to go ahead and do the 30 miler… That wind kicked my ass… By the time I had fought it all the way north, I was a little fatigued and didn’t have a whole lot of energy to really take advantage of it going south. In fact, for some stretches, it felt like I was going against it still… Having said all that, I think a 13.4 average for the day is pretty decent. As for Strava… I got 20 more trophies (1st-3rd best times), of which, 9 were PRs… I’m beginning to wonder about this a little bit as I wouldn’t have guessed any PRs happened on this ride, much less 9….

4. had all of 20 minutes available to get a work out in…… life happens….

Food: Sooo, had the week pretty well under control and then the weekend came…. Saturday was a poker game and “night out with the boys” so that was pretty much that…. Aside from that, there was only 1 other day I went over and that was 200 calories which can directly be attributed to working and a friend offering me a chicken strip… would have made it had that not happened…. The other 5 days were according to plan 

Scale: 210 (-2). Go figure, blow the week with a poker night and still manage to lose 2 pounds… Guess the rest of the week kind of propped me up… I know the scale isn’t the “end all” in this whole thing (particularly since my “new” pants are getting looser and looser) but at the same time, it’s the best measuring stick I have to go by and am done with hovering around 210…. Good news is, this is motivational…

Musings: 
A picture of when I went down Pikes Peak last year got posted on Facebook… It posted on my page so pretty much everyone I know has seen it and I got a couple of “sooooo, you look… different?” comments… Tactful way of saying “You don’t look as fat, but you haven’t really said anything…Have you lost some weight?” I didn’t mind….. Had a really good conversation with a nurse friend (who also happens to know rapid weight loss guy) and she basically said I was doing it right whereas she is a little concerned about his methods… Kinda nice for someone that knows of such things to be complimentary towards my efforts, little validation goes a long way!!!!

As I mentioned in the scale section, getting really tired of hanging around at 210… It is forcing me to analyze what it is I am doing and seeing what needs to be done to get that 200…. Internal locus of control… internal locus of control…..

Strava: I’m getting a little leery here… First and foremost, I’m sure that if I really broke it down, everything would match up and there are no issues… Having said that, I just find it odd that I keep on setting all of these PRs, especially on days where I don’t feel like I really did anything better than before…. You probably could have gotten me to bet you $5 that I didn’t set any PRs on the 30 miler then to find I set 9 (by varying margins) is a little curious in my book….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

4-28-15 to 5-4-15
Pretty good week and got an awesome ride in. To state the obvious, any week where 3/4 workouts are on the bike has to make for a really good week… Little better on the food part and I think I have figured out why the weight isn’t going down as much as I would anticipate…

Workouts:
1. 4-29-15. 1 “long trail” ride (time: 57.17, 15.86 miles, 16.6 avg.); push-ups: 60/15; Abs: 4x25 
I hesitate to call this a “long trail ride” at it was only 16 miles, about 4 of which were downhill, but I don’t want to have to create yet another category on my spreadsheet….. Rode down to the trail and then did the short ride and then continued down to my daughter’s soccer game (ha! Got my ride in and got to soccer on time!!!). Similar to the other time I did this, I carried amazing speed throughout the ride, this is even when factoring out the 4 miles of downhill… I guess the downhill part gets me a little more warmed up or something, I dunno…. Some wind but not terrible so that was good… 6 trophies/2PRs…. I don’t get how I can set a PR for overall speed for the entire ride (+.2mph avg.) and only manage 2 PRs but there it is (the other 4 were all 2nd..) I really wish Strava and my odometer agreed more but I just have to remember that these things are not exact science and go with it… Got 60 push-ups in so that was good… Ab stuff was fine…

2. 4-30-15. 1 Mtn bike ride (time: 41.44, 6.21 miles, 8.9 avg.); push-ups: 60/15; planking: 6m 30s
Had a great ride and got some more trophies (6; 4 PR, 2 2nd best) but the stock value of these is falling in my eyes… They did some trail maintenance since the last time I rode here (last week) and to my surprise there were some pretty sizey berms in places where there used to not be such things… I skipped a couple of breaks and wasn’t really any worse for the wear afterwards so that was an improvement… Replicated the 60 push-ups and although the planking time was the same, I worked a little harder by really making sure the form was the best I could make it.. Oddly, after doing the push-ups and planking back-to-back, the follow-up push-ups, which are usually pretty taxing) were pretty easy and I almost ended up doing more…

3. 5-3-15. 1 Mtn. Bike Ride (time: 1.19.56, 10.50 miles, 7.9 avg.)
Replicated a ride from last year that really kicked my ass last time (over 1700 vertical feet in about 5 miles) and knowing I am in much better shape this year than I was last year, I was pretty excited to see how it went… This was one of those rides… From the beginning, I could tell the day was going to be AWESOME! I was able to do the climbs and not only was I able to maintain speed, I was able to accelerate if I needed/felt like it.. I also didn’t feel like I needed a break every hundred yards.. Conversely, I was just ready to keep going and going!!!! A friend was/is recovering from an illness and my other friend hasn’t been riding much so for the first time in my life (I mean ever!!!) I was the one that had to wait for others to catch up… But wait, it gets better!!! (But first a brief review…. these are the same two guys I did this ride with last year and going downhill they really kicked my ass. They had to stop several times and wait for me as I didn’t have the experience or confidence to attack the trail like they did and I really slowed them down…) Now for the downhill… While still bringing up the rear, I was able to remain relatively close to them and they didn’t have to stop and wait for me at all.. I didn’t realize my skill level had improved this much but I was flying down these chutes (think bobsled track…. With options) and using the banks as intended and also jumping over obstacles that totally crushed me last year…. It was sooooo much fun!!! Even though I had better lungs on this ride, in no way am I anywhere near the skill level of the other two guys so the fact I am typing that I kept up with them (to some extent) is a major accomplishment in my book! 

4. 5-4-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.34 miles, vert. 2189, cal: 723); push-ups: 55/15; planking: 6m 30s
Rain was coming so back to the treadmill… Hadn’t done full incline workout for a while and seem to remember that I bumped up the speed to 3.4 (even though my board still said 3.3) so I went with it… It was pretty obvious I hadn’t done this in a while because it was pretty challenging… Nothing impossible but I definitely worked up a good sweat. Had to really use some intestinal fortitude to get to 55 push-ups as I really could have stopped at about 40… Planking is still plagued by it being harder on my arms than on my core…. I’ll get there…

Food: Had a good week but admittedly had to rely on the exercise calories to stay within daily parameters… Having said that, I made the goal 6/7 days… It’s becoming evident that I need to rely less on the workouts giving me more calories per day and stay within the allotted 1650, regardless of exercise…. In all actuality, hadn’t really realized this until I started writing this segment so +1 for the blog…. 

Scale: 209 (-1). I really worked hard this week to make sure I “toed the line” as far as food intake goes so the 1 pound loss is a little disappointing, particularly considering how much riding I did… (again, the weight isn’t the end all, just a barometer…)

Musings: 
I could have written a couple more pages about the ride on Sunday… I had an adrenaline high that lasted a good 5 hours after the ride… One of those rides that happens only so often that really fuels the fire to ride more and more….

Pretty good revelation above that I may need to quit relying on workout calories….

Weather is supposed to be pretty crappy over the next week so it seems the party will be moving back indoors to the treadmill


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

5-5-15 to 5-11-15
Terrible week on the food side and also had to miss a workout due to family commitments and illness (who gets a cold in May????)… Rain pretty much dictated that anyone with any common sense was not riding their bike in the dirt this week, not that it kept everyone off the dirt… Although I got 3/4 workouts in, it really should have only been two but I got lucky with a short meeting at work…. 

Workouts:
1. 5-6-15. Treadmill-sprint: (time: 27, 2.45 miles, vert: 0, cal: 393); 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/145; curls: 4/10/70; tri: 4/10/70); push-ups: 45/15/15; abs: 4x25
This was the perfect cocktail of a busy day (meeting, daughter’s soccer game), rainy day (no riding to soccer game) and lack of motivation (not a big fan of starting a workout at 7:30 p.m.) so let’s just say I did it to get it done… The cherry on top is that I haven’t done this workout for quite some time….. Did the running fine, not terribly motivated but fine… It has been so long since I did it last, I was a little hazy (“was I running for a minute or a minute and 10 seconds?”) so I went with the extra 10 seconds just to be sure…. Probably a good thing as it turns out I was doing the 1m10s… As for the gym, very obvious I hadn’t lifted weights for a few weeks…. I made it but it took way more effort than it did last time…. As for the push-ups, wasn’t getting anywhere close to 60 so stopped at 45 and rested for about 10 seconds then did the other 15… As for the bonus 15… barely got them accomplished… barely…. All-in-all it wasn’t a glorious workout but the positive is I did get it done….

2. 5-7-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 60, 5.14 miles, vert: 90, cal: 785); push-ups: 55/15; planking: 6m 30s 
Got a pretty good run but wasn’t the best. This is one of the heart-rate based workouts and apparently I was working a little harder than normal as I didn’t get the typical distance or incline….. I think one factor is the fact I haven’t been doing much treadmill work lately as I have been on the bike so it’s not anything concerning….

3. 5-11-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 45, 2.46 miles, vert: 1813, cal: 558);
This workout was supposed to get cancelled but luckily meeting at work was short so I squeezed in what I could (especially considering I didn’t get a weekend workout in either…) to at least do something before going to job #2… Since it was only 45 minutes I would say it went pretty well as I did work up a pretty good sweat… Not to mention still carrying this cold around….nothing really amazing happened otherwise… Due to time, skipped the ab stuff and the push-ups…

Food: Oof… was having a pretty good week and was on track for a good week overall and then the wheels came off…. Mother’s Day weekend pretty much left the food choices up to the wife and I got to the point where I got tired of swimming upstream all of the time so there were a handful of meals that would really not give the impression I was trying to eat better….. I didn’t bother to count the calories for the week (as I normally do) as this pretty much equates to one of those games where you don’t even watch the film afterwards…. Just file it in the oval file and move forward……

Scale: 209 (-0). Of course… have a horrible week on the food side (and miss a workout) and I was fully expecting the worst and I end up weighing in flat for the week…. It’s crazy but I will take it…..

Musings: 
Well, life has been crazy busy lately and I don’t really like every minute of my day being accounted for… Good news is, summer is around the corner and things will definitely slow down… 

Because of the raised national security level, people without a DOD ID (department of Defense) are not allowed to use part of the trail that goes through the Air Force Academy…. This seriously screws up my riding schedule as pretty much all of my “training rides” (sprint, and long rides) include this section…. Gonna have to put together a “plan b” as I don’t see them changing the security level any time soon….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

5-12-15 to 5-18-15
Rain rain go away…. I don’t think we’ve ever had 2, going on 3 weeks, where the ground has been wet every day…. At least not while I’ve lived here (13 years…) So with the rain comes treadmill time, even though I did manage a road ride… Ok week on the food but not terrific….

Workouts:
1. 5-13-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 30, 2.73 miles, vert: 0, cal: 424); push-ups: 57/15; abs: 4x25
Okay, this should be the last workout affected by soccer for a while (end of year pizza party….) As it stands… Again, had to get the biggest bang for my buck as far as the 40 minutes I had to work out… I decided I needed to do the push-ups and abs since they got skipped twice last week and then to run for as long as I could within the 30 minutes… Push-ups went surprisingly well, I will definitely take the 57… I think I have my mental block figured out in that if I think of it as “50% done” or “1/2 way there” I lose my focus. However, if I think about it in sets of 10, then I do much better… Why? I dunno, I just know that is what has been happening….. Abs were a little more difficult (due to inactivity) but nothing really worth noting…. As for the run, I did a 5-minute warm-up (including a 2-minute jog at 5mph) and then jogged at 6mph for 23 minutes straight for a total of 2.3 miles continuous then cooled down for 2-minutes…. Not bad in my book…. Increased my lifetime best of 2.0 by .3 miles… and the only reason I didn’t do more was I ran out of time…. This is kinda feeding the fire of wanting to get 6 miles within an hour, or maybe an hour plus, but 6 miles nonetheless…. Seems like I am pretty close to being able to do it…..

2. 5-14-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.27 miles, vert: 2435, cal: 743); push-ups: 60/15; planking: 6m 30s 
Really couldn’t decide what workout to do so since I did some running yesterday gravity took me to incline. This was my manual routine where I started at 10% and went up every minute to 20%, back down to 10, and repeated for the hour.. All went well…. Managed 60 push-ups for the first time in a while… still trying to jinx myself by figuring out how much I completed percentage wise (50% done, half way there…) but stayed relatively focused on just counting the sets of 10… Screwed up and did the 15 bonus push-ups before the planking so that was an added challenge keeping myself upright through all of the planking positions… Again, more of a challenge for the arms than it is for the core…..

3. 5-17-15. 1 road ride/Woodmen Loop (time: 51.15, 10.33 miles, 12.1 avg.); push-ups: 60/15; abs: 4x25
I originally planned for this to be both of my road rides combined to create a semi-long ride (with climbs!) but my wife had other plans…. To top it off, I apparently live in Seattle now because it has done nothing but rain for the past two weeks… Regardless, I saw a break in the clouds and went for it… Notice I now named this particular ride “Woodmen Loop” for organizational purposes… this is the ride that once I get started is pretty much all incline to varying degrees from pretty much mile 2 through mile 9. It’s funny, I don’t usually set out with a particular goal in mind but rather, they just happen once I get moving… Today’s thought process went something like: “Well, I needed a bunch of breaks the first few times I rode this, last time I only needed a couple, I wonder if I can do the whole thing without stopping at all?” and off I went. Lo and behold, I did the whole ride without stopping! Ride was pretty good compared to previous results as within the 16 segments I set 13 PRs, 2 second best, and 1 third best… I’m sure not stopping played a role to some extent but I think I have strava set up to not count time when stopped… Got the 60 push-ups again so that’s two in a row now…Ab routine is officially easy but I don’t want to add any more to it….

2. 5-18-15. Treadmill-Alpine: (time: 60, 4.25 miles, vert: 906, cal: 717); push-ups: 53/7/15; planking: 6m 30s 
The cycle continues so it was time to do the Alpine program again. Have to say, the running has paid off some as this routine is getting easier, even with only doing it every couple of weeks…. During the running part I was able to tell myself that I have been running faster for longer stretches so that made the running part flow better. The incline was challenging but not terribly difficult… Push-ups got stuck at 53 again but I did the make up after a quick break and still did the bonus 15.. Amazing what a 5 second rest can do because I wasn’t getting to 60 but with that little break the remaining 7 were relatively easy… Planking was a smidge easier…

Food: Hovered right around my daily allotment all week long but there were 2 days which I had about 500 left over and one day in which I went over about 500. Not a bad week but could have been better…

Scale: 206 (-3). I don’t get it….. After last week I had a better focus on the calorie counts but admittedly I wasn’t “laser focused.” As I have mentioned, I have been really busy lately, some of which has included home maintenance (lawn, spring cleaning type stuff) which requires some energy but I haven’t bothered to add to the “workout”/calorie count as I figured it would offset some previous indiscretions… So within this, I would have been happy with a 1 pound loss and I go and get 3…. I will say I have been ravenous lately… My wife pointed out that I am practically inhaling food when I eat and then scavenging from her and my daughters once I am done with my own (my daughters, age 5 and 2, are wasting a LOT of food and when good food is being wasted….) Needless to say, I was pretty happy to discover 3 pounds for the week…..

Musings: 
I’ll admit it… I’m 6 pounds away from a goal that was a dream when I first started and I’m getting pretty excited…. But, I do also have to admit that 206 doesn’t quite look like I envisioned…. As I mentioned previously, I’ll worry about that when I get to 200…

Have a friend that is working in Steamboat… Working on putting together a little adventure out that way this summer, getting excited about that….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

5-19-15 to 5-25-15
Good week working out but bad with the food…. Honestly, a life event happened this week and I really just don’t have the energy to give a report as normal. Here is what I put together….

Workouts:
1. 5-20-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.23 miles, vert: 2328, cal: 724); push-ups: 40; abs: 4x25
I didn’t have it in me today. Wasn’t motivated to do the push-ups so once I hit 40 that was pretty much it. Today was supposed to be the day I got the arm workout back in the mix but I knew that would be a disaster so I just stuck with the incline routine as I knew I could get through that…. All things considered, I will definitely take the results…

2. 5-21-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 60, 5.13 miles, vert: 86, cal: 785); push-ups: 60/20; planking: 6m 30s
Run went pretty well, got a little more sweaty than normal so that was fun…. Going to increase the max speed a little bit as I am ready for it. Based on yesterday’s performance, really had to make sure I had a good session with the push-ups. Grunted out the 60 and felt pretty good doing the bonus 15 so I went ahead and threw in an extra 5… For some reason, these bonus push-ups are the most rewarding exercise at the moment…. Planking went a little better than normal… But, ever since I realized that figuring you what % I have completed makes it harder (within the push-ups, but applies here as well) it seems that is all I want to do… Kinda like the moth attracted to the bug zapper… you know it’s bad but you just can’t help yourself……

3. 5-23-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 66.40, 6.10 miles, vert: 0, cal: 953); push-ups: 60/15; abs: 4x25
I decided it was time to get that 6 miles in, even if it took longer than an hour… Did two things within this: 1) I obviously got the 6 miles.. 2) I jogged for 3 miles straight without stopping…. Pretty proud of myself on both fronts. Having said that, it’s pretty amazing what adding on that extra 2/3 mile can do, I was way more tired than I thought I would have been…. 60 push-ups again, I like it...

2. 5-25-15. Road ride/Woodmen and Fillmore Loop (time: 1.41.29, 20.37 miles, 12. avg.); push-ups: 60/20; planking: 7m 00s
So due to the academy being blocked off, I think this is going to be my new long ride until they open it back up.. Bummer for me is that while it adds a whole bunch of climbing (1684 total), I lose 10 miles… Ride was definitely a challenge but i did pretty awesome all things considered. Only took 1 break the whole time. Now of course, was probably slower than a turtle but I did it and the speed will improve...

Food: blah…. I don’t even feel like getting in to it….

Scale: 209 (+3). yup, routine gets broken and look what I go and do…. again….

Musings: 
I really don’t have anything…..


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

5-26-15 to 6-1-15
Wasn’t too sure I had a decent week with the food but upon reviewing the week turns out it wasn’t so bad after all… Spent some time on the bike but regrettably, most of it was on the road (and I don’t have a road bike…)

Workouts:

1. 5-27-15. Woodmen Loop (time: 49.00, 10.23 miles, 12.5 avg., cal: 421); push-ups: 60/15; abs: 4x25
Still doing road stuff because it is still pretty muddy/soggy out there in the dirt… Ride went pretty well and I am getting used to the climbing. I feel kinda jipped only getting 421 calories out of it (I’m sure I am using more, particularly with the climbing factored in) but nothing to worry about… Push-ups and abs are on track….

2. 5-28-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.33 miles, vert: 2241, cal: 728); push-ups: 60/20; planking: 7m 00s
Added a little speed (.1 mph…) so I got a little more distance than last week but also less on the incline. At the end of it all, it netted me a few more calories. Still hitting the 60 on the push-ups and am working on making sure form is what it is supposed to be now that I am hitting the target on a semi-regular basis. Feeling good that I increased the planking time as even though it is tough, it is doable….

3. 5-30-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 54.23, 6.52 miles, 7.2 avg., cal: 421); push-ups: 60/15; abs: 4x25
After weeks and weeks of rain (we set a record for the month of May….) and watching numerous people fill the parking lot at my local riding trail, I decided it was my turn to go ahead and go… Because of the rain and run-of, it was a whole new trail system Some parts were completely washed out (tree roots 2-3 feet up out of the ground, right in the middle of the trail) and some parts had so many ruts that it was nearly impossible to pick a line… At any rate, I was just happy to be out there, albeit muddy and wet… Somehow, I still managed 3 trophies but I was really just riding to ride today….

4. 6-1-15. Road ride/Woodmen and Fillmore Loop (time: 1.35.43, 20.38 miles, 12.8 avg., cal: 1019); push-ups: 60/15; planking: 7m 00s
This was one of those days I really didn’t feel like doing the long ride but I didn’t really have an excuse not to.. (even though I did screw around enough beforehand that I almost didn’t have the time to do it…) I talked myself into it and ended up having a pretty good ride as I shaved off over 6 minutes and got 23 trophies with 12 PRs... Hills are getting more and more manageable and if memory serves correctly I am hitting about 7mph on climbs where I was doing 4.5-5.0mph so the climbing skills are definitely improving… Not loving the extra time on the planking but having said that, I am pretty happy about being able to do the increased time… In some odd way, it almost feels a little easier… I guess those deltoids are finally coming around to the idea...

Food: Pretty good week overall now that I review it.. Made the goal 5/7 days and one of the days I missed was only by 35…. Now as for the other day...

Scale: 205 (-4). Well, I honestly don’t know that I deserved to lose 4 pounds this week but here we are…. I would really like to know what it is I do to spur these big weeks….. Cause I would do it more often if I knew what it was….

Musings: 
I’m not really one to put my personal life out there for all to see (said the guy who’s been writing this blog for over a year… I get the irony...) and I wasn’t going to put anything about last week on here but it is having somewhat of an impact on my working out…. Plus this is pretty much my place of being somewhat anonymous, so I figured I might as well…. My brother died unexpectedly last week, at the hands of another…. In the time following this, I have found that working out and playing poker are my real escapes to get my mind off of it, if only for a little while.. Thing is, while working out, my mind floats back to him and I tend to get pissed… This in turn gives me this shot of adrenaline that I really can’t control at the moment so I end up using a lot of energy during the adrenaline rush then find I am wiped out afterward (with plenty of workout still to do…) Guess time will get that under control….

I have two weeks of vacation staring at me… Honestly, my goal for this is 205 and if I can hold that for these two weeks I will call that a win… Stay tuned…..

Couple of people have been trying to get me to get a road bike to do greater distances… Not happening as I had to do a lot of convincing to get what I have now…. I will admit, I am curious as to what I could do on a road bike though…...


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## JHH (Jul 4, 2013)

Very sorry to hear about your loss. Keep up the good work and go ride some new trails. Nothing like a new trail to keep your mind focused on what's in front of you, what's next and in the moment. Forget the road bike.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

JHH said:


> Very sorry to hear about your loss. Keep up the good work and go ride some new trails. Nothing like a new trail to keep your mind focused on what's in front of you, what's next and in the moment. Forget the road bike.


Thanks, as for the new trails, excellent idea and ironically,i have already been exploring just that... The rain seems to have stopped for a few days so i think i might.... As for the road stuff, i would never get one as riding on the road scares me as you never know who is coming up behind you, but like i said, they got me curious as to what it would be like, if only for one ride...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

6-2-15 to 6-8-15
Kinda lost my way a little this week but fortunately it didn’t hurt on the scale… I’ll take it!

Workouts:

1. 6-3-15. Treadmill-Sprint: (time: 27, 2.50 miles, vert: 0, cal: 400); 1 upper workout (bench: 4/10/145; curls: 4/10/75; tri: 4/10/75); push-ups: 60/15; abs: 4x25
Guilt about not sprinting and doing weights finally caught up to me… Sprinting went surprisingly well considering how long it has been since I have done it… Did determine that it is a little too difficult to keep track of 70 seconds sprinting and 80 seconds walking (treadmill is in manual mode to do this) so I am going to stick with 60/90 splits and increase the speed. As for the weights, the whole session went exceedingly well, especially considering I threw my girls around in the pool for 2 hours this afternoon… Pretty surprised I was able to do it but I do have to admit I used a lot of that anger adrenaline that I currently possess…. All this and still got 60 push-ups….

2. 6-4-15. Missed the workout. Getting the family ready for vacation will do that to a guy...

3. 6-5-15. Road ride/Woodmen and Fillmore Loop (time: 1.35.43, 20.38 miles, 12.8 avg., cal: 1019); push-ups: 60/15; planking: 7m 00s
Ok, so it rained the entire 2nd half of the ride (misjudged those clouds I did…) so I had to wash all the mud off my bike and dry it off when I got home. In doing that, I accidentally deleted the ride stats from my bike computer so I checked this ride against my last time doing this route on Strava and it was almost identical so I am reposting the results from that ride and calling it good… As for the ride, it went well. I am getting used to this new route and the climbs continue to get easier and easier every time. I set 20 achievements, 8 of which were new PRs… I think most of that was trying to hurry home and get my dumb ass out of the rain…. 

4. 6-8-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.34 miles, vert: 2084, cal: 708); no push-ups or ab work
Pfft, didn’t have any mojo today whatsoever… I’ve been on such an emotional roller coaster lately (literally up and down) and i think I am finally leveling out some so I think I was just wiped out… On top of that, my neck has been a little sore so in an effort to not make it worse, i skipped push-ups and abs… 

Food: I honestly had a really rough week keeping track of stuff. So much going on that “I’ll put that in later” turned into “now what was it I ate?” Overall I did okay but not up to normal standards by any means… If anything, got that reminder of diligence being key that I need every now and again… and again….

Scale: 205 (-0). I’m good with this… Like I said, this is part of the vacation so anything that isn’t an increase is fine with me right now….

Musings: 
Vacation time and working out and eating healthy is a really difficult trifecta to pull off…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

6-9-15 to 6-15-15
Still hanging in there…… Obviously tardy on the report… so much going on and “eh, I’ll do it later” kinda gout out of control….

Workouts:

1. 6-10-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.32 miles, vert: 2000, cal: 690); push-ups: 60/15; abs: 4x25
This was supposed to be a long bike ride but it was overcast and it sprinkled while I was getting ready so I turned it into treadmill. The cherry on top is there is something wrong with the dish receiver so I didn’t even have tv to watch while doing it… I messed up the system a little by pausing for a couple of seconds to tie my shoe.. Machine interpreted that as start all over again from the beginning to the results were a little lower than normal… Not the end of the world.. Did push-ups and abs but regretted it instantaneously… Kink in my neck is not getting any better….

2. 6-11-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 60, 5.31 miles, vert: 0, cal: 851); push-ups: 40/0; planking: 5m 00s
Started to up the overall speed for the workout but realized if I did that then I would end up running the entire hour nonstop (programming with he treadmill…) so I stayed where it was. Got through it but it was pretty evident I haven’t been running lately… Shoulder/neck is still sore so I got to about 40 push-ups before it really started to hurt so I stopped there. Still managed to do 5 minutes worth of planking.

3. 6-13-15. Road ride/Woodmen and Fillmore Loop (time: 1.39.11, 20.38 miles, 12.3 avg., cal: 1019); push-ups: 60/15; planking: 5m 00s
I thought I did pretty well on this ride but when I compared it to the last time I did it, I was actually a little slower… Maybe because it was warm and humid (by our standards anyway…)??? I set 17 achievements, 3 of which were new PRs so that is starting to level out a bit… 

4. 6-15-15. ???
I did the treadmill but for the life of me I can’t find the data….. 

Food: I did okay this week all things considered….

Scale: 205 (-0). Still hanging exactly where I had hoped…..

Musings: 
This will teach me to wait so long to do my report… stuff goes missing and I can’t hardly put together the week…..


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

6-16-15 to 6-22-15
Life is still crazy at the moment but I did a better job of keeping track of things this week (note the use of the word “better” instead of “good”) I really felt like mountain biking this week so the calorie counts suffered some but I think in all actuality I probably did just fine… Plus, I got to actually do some mtn biking!!!! Food intake is still out-of-whack but this has been going on long enough that I am a little sick of it…. I’ve mentioned my sore neck/back so I’m still taking it easy on the planking...

Workouts:

1. 6-17-15. Mtn bike ride Ute Valley Double Loop (time: 48.03, 6.41 miles, 8.0 avg., cal: 432); push-ups: 60/15; planking: 5m 0s
A couple of sections are still pretty well washed out which has made it much more difficult to ride. Having said that, there are some spots where the trail has been relocated to avoid some pitfalls… Felt good while riding but only managed 2 trophies, 1 PR. Neck/shoulder situation is improved but still lingering. Went ahead and did all push-ups and I felt it a little but wasn’t too bad. Same goes for the planking so I am keeping it simple at the moment

2. 6-18-15. Mtn bike ride Ute Valley (time: 54.29, 6.36 miles, 7.0 avg., cal: 447); push-ups: 60/15; abs: 4x25
Decided to explore some other parts of the park that I haven’t been on lately with the goal of making to a road on the far side of the park. I had a good ride and made it down some fairly technical sections but did have to hike-a-bike a little coming back. I did discover that one of our local tv stations is tucked away back there… lived here for 13 years and never noticed that…. I do like that one can get “lost” in the park without ever really having the feeling of being lost...

3. 6-21-15. Mtn bike ride Ute Valley Double Loop (time: 45, 6.42 miles, 8.5 avg., cal: 421); push-ups: 60/15; abs: 4x25
421 calories my ass…. It was hot enough that by the time I was done I felt like I normally do after my 30 mile rides.. I was that wiped out!!!! At any rate, had a reasonably good ride and even though I only had 3 trophies, the lone PR was on the hardest climb I have in my arsenal, and that was when I was starting to feel pretty wiped out + I pedal struck a berm (one of those aforementioned flood control berms that magically appeared a few weeks ago) and had to restart from a dead stop within the climb… 

4. 6-15-15. ???
Daddy Day-Care pretty much took this out of the equation….

Food: Still kinda out there but am looking to start reigning things in…..

Scale: 207 (+2). I own it, and I knew this was pretty much going to happen, especially after father’s day…. I’ll get it back so no worries here but the gain has caught my attention….

Musings: 
All of this craziness the past few weeks is starting to get on my nerves and the thing is, there is still more to come. I’ve pretty much reached the end of my rope as far as “vacation mode” goes and I feel the focus wanting to return. I have 3 more trips of varying lengths within the next few weeks so there will be some challenges but like I said, I am feeling the need to focus….


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## TampaDave (Mar 20, 2015)

I go to the zoo, and look at the tiger, and everything is clear. He needs to be in the jungle, he wants to be in the jungle. I look at the camel, and things are not clear. He needs to be in the desert, but he doesn't want to be in the desert.

A bear comes down out of the mountains and settles in Las Cruces, takes a job as an bookkeeper and rents an air-conditioned trailer at the base of the Organ mountains. In the wintertime, he is prone to fits of depression. He looks out at the mountains and wonders why he can't get out there to ramble around. He dreams of standing elbow deep in icy water, waiting for a fish to come by. The next day he tells himself it is not good, to not know where your next meal is coming from. But he is still depressed.

I live in a rich ecosystem that is teeming with scavengers and parasites. There is, likewise, a healthy population of apex predators and obligatory carnivores. I am none of these things. I don't like these things, but have no reason to fear them either. 

The fact remains: very day I spend in this condo, in this office, in this ecosystem, I grow weaker.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

TampaDave said:


> The fact remains: very day I spend in this condo, in this office, in this ecosystem, I grow weaker.


sometimes you gotta step back and reprioritize and put riding at the top of that list..... It's good for the soul!


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

6-23-15 to 6-29-15
Still living this zany life and all of it’s craziness…. Missed a couple of “official” workouts but got a couple of “unofficial” workouts in walking around in Vail for my anniversary then playing with the kids in the pool…. Couple of crazy days on the food side (surf and turf and associated adult beverages for ann’y dinner, etc…) but came out a little bit ahead overall...

Workouts:

1. 6-24-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 60, 5.56 miles, vert: 0, cal: 872); push-ups: 60/15; planking: 6m 0s
Haven’t been running lately (actually riding!!!) so I figured I should probably get a jog in…. Did pretty well but lost a little bit since it has been a little while…. Getting back up on the push-ups and planking (sore neck/shoulder) and even though it doesn’t feel great, it does feel good enough to go ahead and keep doing it….

2. 6-25-15. Anniversary/no workout
Took my wife to Vail for a few days to celebrate our anniversary… Didn’t take my bike (or running shoes) as I didn’t want to “ditch” her but man, it looked like there is all kinds of riding up there as bikes were EVERYWHERE...

3. 6-27-15. Blah…. 

4. 6-29-15. Road ride/Woodmen and Fillmore Loop (time: 1.38.19, 20.35 miles, 12.4 avg.); push-ups: 60/15; abs: 4x25
Put the “road tires” on the bike and hit the road… Nothing really spectacular to report but I will say I am continually getting incrementally better at the ride. The climbs, while still tough, are getting easier and I am carrying a little bit more speed on the long/slight inclines….

Food: Slowly but surely finding my back to the main thing being the main thing…. 

Scale: 206 (-1). Nothing great but at least heading back in the right direction….

Man, this summer is absolutely crazy…. If it’s not one thing going on it’s another…. Two getaways coming up this month, one of which is to my favorite trail in the whole world (In Grand Lake) and the other will be an adventure out to see a buddy who is working in Steamboat Springs so I’m gonna venture out there for a few days… Pretty excited about both as any time I get up to the mountains is heaven in my book….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

6-30-15 to 7-6-15
Great week of riding with the notable exception of a crash in which the ribs took another hit.. Good news is, it wasn't too bad... Still treading water with the food ( and presumably weight loss) but I kind of expected this...

1. 7-1-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 57.49, 7.28 miles, 7.6 avg., cal: 444); push-ups: 60/20; planking: 6m 0s
Everyone seems to love Palmer Park and after last year’s debacle, and looking for a little change of scenery, I decided to give it another go around…. I budgeted two hours for the ride and was really optimistic that I would have a better go at it this time… Well, after about an hour I was done with the place… First off, I have publicly admitted I’m not very good at finding my way around but it seems like there is absolutely no flow to this place whatsoever… My Strava lines look like I got drunk and started wandering around aimlessly… Second, I still contend that the “blue” trails have some sections that are most definitely “black”…. They need to reevaluate their ratings as far as I'm concerned…. At any rate, I did it and it’s done.. I really don’t anticipate going back there again unless someone talks me into going with them and then they show me how to get around in that place… Push-ups went well enough that I added on an extra 5… Planking is becoming more of a chore but I don’t really have a back-up plan so I’m sticking with it…..

2. 7-2-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.34 miles, vert: 2168, cal: 719); push-ups: 60/15; abs: 4x25
Was originally going to double my Ute Valley Loop ride today but the weather forecast was prohibitive… Of course it didn’t rain a drop while I was working out and actually got sunnier as time went on…. Alas, I’ll do it this weekend…. At any rate, same old story (haven’t done it for a while so it was a little harder than I remember…) but it was a good workout and got a really good sweat in. Kind of aggravated my neck a little doing push-ups so hopefully this is only temporary….

3. 7-4-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 56.48, 6.89 miles, 7.3 avg., cal: 444); push-ups: 0; planking: 0
Had a ride all planned out in preparation for my vacation in that I wanted to get a nice ride in and be all ready for Grand Lake… I had it all mapped out, double my Ute Valley course and call it a day…. Anyone see where this is going?????? 1st off, they closed one of my favorite sections due to rain run-off… I get it, but that doesn’t change that it totally screwed up my plans… Okay, no problem, plan b… um, plan b… so I decide to meander around and be done at 1.5 hours or 12 miles, whichever came first… Well, I bomb down the section I usually bomb down and all is well.. I get to an easy section and find myself in a rut, no problem… Oh ****!!! the rut drops off into about a foot deep and very narrow rut!!!! SO, trying to stop, next thing I know my front brakes work really well and over I go… Have I mentioned this is probably the easiest part of the whole ride???? Of course, jam the handlebar into my rib (again….) so hello tender ribs… No worries, I’ve dealt with this numerous times… So I continue to putter about and actually get excited that I found my way to this one section I have ridden before but have never been able to find (not that I have looked terribly hard, just wasn’t where I was going…) It’s a tough climb with a few hike-a-bike sections but I was happy to be on it… I get through it and ride from the top back to familiar territory so I know how to get there with intention… So I ride back and drop the seat all the way down and do pretty well on the downhill.. Made it over some pretty hairy terrain so I was feeling pretty good… Then came the rain.. Wasn’t supposed to rain until later in the day but there it was.. So now, I’m getting soaked, my tires are caked with mud and sand, and I have some technical riding with a lot of climbing in order to get home…. This sucked…. Colorado hard pack (slick when wet) combined with the aforementioned tire conditions made it terribly difficult to get anywhere.. Lot of walking… To top it off, only managed a little over an hour and hardly any more mileage that I typically do… Oh well, at least it was an adventure…. As for push-ups and abs, my back and neck are still giving me fits… Any time I put any real strain I can just feel this searing pain go up my back and into the spot where the muscles connect at the base of my skull… gonna hold off on this stuff for a little bit and then go see if I can get it worked out….

4. 7-6-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 1.33.31, 10.29 miles, 6.6 avg., cal: 622); push-ups: 0; planking: 0
Made it back to my favorite ride in the whole world (Grand Lake)!!! Ride went great with the exception of my nemesis... One little dip that my tire fits in just perfectly enough that it throws me if I don't get my front wheel up... Thought I had it with a slightly different trajectory but nope.... If anything, kinda helped me work out the nerves of the sore ribs... Onward and forward... It's interesting to note my improvement over the past few years because the initial 5 mile loop that I used to consider a pretty good ride is now just a portion.. I rode 5 miles out and back to make it 10 and had to head back before the rain got too bad... Got a little wet but nothing to worry about... I did really well overall and was pretty impressed with my climbing abilities and my endurance.. However, I only climbed 611 feet but it sure felt like a lot more in some sections.... At any rate, I was in heaven!!!

Food: Still in vacation mode and have had some off days but overall nothing horrible...

Scale: forgot to weigh myself before leaving for vacation....

Musings: was pretty irked that I crashed right before my trip but it seems that although the ribs are sore, I can manage to ride with minimal negative impact....

I love me some Grand Lake.. Have I mentioned this?

Next week will be short on the workouts (traveling to Az.for my brother's memorial party) but the rides that will be reported will be from Grand Lake still...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

7-7-15 to 7-13-15
Got 3 of 4 workouts in, which is actually pretty good because I was expecting to only get 2… Ribs are still tender (as a matter of fact I was lying on my side the other day and felt a big pop… don’t know if that was bad or good but it definitely caused a good deal of discomfort..) Still sliding down the calorie slide but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel...

Workouts:
1. 7-7-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 56.37, 5.83 miles, 6.2 avg., cal: 305); push-ups: 0; planking: 0
Ride #2 whilst enjoying Grand Lake!!! Time was short due to weather and also family plans so I had to make it short and sweet... Also, I intend on doing a longer ride tomorrow so I didn't want to go too hard... Again, I had a blast and couldn't be happier on my bike... I rode out until I figured I would have enough time to get back as expected.. I found a good stopping point and sat and listened to the quiet of the forest for a few minutes then headed back... As an added bonus, I brought my family to the trail later in the afternoon for a 2-mile hike to show them the trail and to hang out by a pond (with lily pads!!!) that’s something you don’t see every day growing up in Arizona…). Of course it rained on us nearly the entire hike but my 5 year-old did think it was pretty cool that I ride my bike over "all the bumpy bumpy rocks."

2. 7-8-15. Mtn bike ride (time: ?, 15-16 miles, ? avg., cal: 861); push-ups: 0; planking: 0
Last day riding in Grand Lake so I had to make it a good one... I originally planned on doing 20 miles but I also had to take a "wait and see" approach as I didn't know for sure what I was getting myself into.... First off, the forecast was for rain ALL DAY and the weatherman got it right this time... However, I wasn't going to be denied... Secondly, I didn't know where I was going exactly... So off I went, in the rain, and 50 degrees..... It took about 10 minutes to realize, and accept, that I was going to get soaked and filthy dirty.... Once that happened, I adjusted to the situation pretty well and just got myself soaked through and through... I was a little more careful with everything being all wet but not drastically so.. I will say logs can get pretty slick.... On the long climb I finished with on the first ride (last ride from last week) the ground was pretty saturated which made climbing much more difficult.. And slow... I eventually made it all the way up and turns out I was only about 50 yards short of hitting a forest road... once I got there the ride went much easier and the failure of doing only an 11-12 mile ride turned into a pretty good 16 mile ride (according to my odometer it was 16, according to strava it was 15). The numbers are pretty hazy as somewhere along the lines (after the 1/2 way point) my odometer crapped out on me... At any rate, within these miles, I got to ride through rock gardens (both up and down), soggy marshes, river side (multiple times), and along forest service roads.... I could not have been happier, even with being all wet... Even better, I marked my "intersections" well enough that I didn't even get lost!!! There were multiple times I wanted to go off on some side adventures (smaller trails) but this was about at the turnaround point and I had spent a lot of energy climbing up those muddy hills and I didn't want to get myself in a situation so I just stuck with the main "road" and went with the distance grab.... I was a little surprised I only climbed 1266 feet because the mud and water made it feel like much more.. Especially when miles 4-8 were all uphill on a mountainside..... At any rate it was a blast.... Now there was the matter of cleaning up that mess afterwards.... Interesting side note; it has been raining so much here (and beetles have killed a lot of trees) that trees are literally rotting away and falling over... Not once, but twice this week I happened upon a tree that had fallen over across the trail since I was there the day before.. Kinda crazy...

3. 7-9-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.34 miles, vert: 2155, cal: 718); push-ups: 0; abs: 0
Got back from Grand Lake and figured “Hey, I have time for a workout before poker!” and I would typically rest after getting home form vacation but I knew I needed to get a workout in based on what has already transpired and what was about to transpire (bad calorie days…) Nothing really remarkable from the treadmill standpoint in that it is the same as always….. My back and ribs are still sore so I am still skipping the push-ups and abs…..

Food: Still in vacation mode…. Next week the focus is back…..

Scale: 212 (+5) i knew all of this traveling/eating out/lots of beer was going to catch up to me and it finally did. Have my work cut out for me for the rest of the summer….

Musings:
Have learned a few things the past month or so… First off, I am trying to serve a lot of masters… There are so many things I am keeping track of/always trying to do better (e.g., more push-ups, planking longer, running further, biking further, biking faster, etc, etc.) that it is really hard to keep improving as the biking (the favorite activity) is the focus right now so every time I finally get around to something on the treadmill (much less the gym.. remember when I used to do that???) is so much harder that it was last time I did it… I guess I just have to know that biking is the main thing right now and all of the indoor stuff will resume when it gets to be cold…...

I think I figured out why my mid back is always hurting… i think it has something to do with my posture on long rides….

Still kinda lacking in the motivation department when compared to what I had before… However, the recent weight gain his lit my fire at least a little bit… However however, I am still quite a ways off from having “it” but i am still plugging along...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

7-14-15 to 7-20-15
Forgot to do the complete write up before I left for bike trip so i’m having to pull this up from memory (the summaries, not the data) so it will be pretty short….. To top it off, my odometer broke (battery died) so all the information is from Strava so results aren’t really apples to apples… at least I still have strava to back me up…. At any rate, I got an extra workout in to make up for lost one last week and weight loss was what I had hoped for...

Workouts:
1. 7-14-15. Road ride (time: 1.38.36, 10.1 miles, 11.1 avg.cal: 996); push-ups: 0; abs: 0
missed yesterday due to traveling so I made it up on a scheduled day off…. This pretty much sent my sore back over the edge so I have an appointment to get it stretched out next week…. Between this and the ribs….

2. 7-15-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 60, 19.8 miles, vert: 1683, cal: 836); push-ups: 30*; abs: 0
Needed to get a good run so that’s what I went and did… Back was still sore but needed to do something so I did 30 1/2 push-ups but still no abs due to ribs….

3. 7-16-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.28 miles, vert: 2432, cal: 744); push-ups: 40*; abs: 0
Incline day, nothing amazing to report…. Did a few more push-ups easy style but still avoiding the abs.. Did take my dog for a nice walk at the mountain bike park across the street but strava didn’t agree with me as far as documentation…. I’m guessing it was about 2 miles with a couple of hundred feet ascension…. Enough to wear my dog out that’s for sure….

4. 7-19-15. Short trail ride (time: 1.03.06, 13.3 miles, 12.7 avg.); push-ups: 0; abs: 0
Friend bought a bike so I traded in a typical workout for taking him on his initial ride… WE went on the trial that is either paved or hardback trail with some hills (part of my original trail workouts but only to the gate of the Academy…) I was going to do this and then still do an incline workout when I got home but I ran out of time… The big win here is I got someone interested in mtn. biking!!!!

5. 7-20-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 35.54, 4.5 miles, 7.6 avg., cal: 301); push-ups: 0; abs: 0
took buddy to mountain biking park across the street and showed him around a little… Honestly, not much of a workout for me but again, it’s good to have a local riding buddy…. I will say once he gets his lungs and legs he will be a much better rider than I am… He is already going down stuff without stopping that I only started capably doing within the past year…. Guess I gotta milk it while I can…

Food: Had focus this week and all things went according to plan….

Scale: 208 (-4) Amazing what a little consistency can do for a guy… now as for next week….

Musings:
Nothing to really contribute this week… Going to ride Steamboat Springs next week so that should be an interesting mix of great riding and questionable calories (little foreshadowing there since it already happened….)


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

7-21-15 to 7-27-15
Most of the week was spent up in Steamboat Springs finding trails up there… Food (and beer) counts were an anomaly for the week so that was a step backwards but not as bad as I would have guessed…. did get a new battery for the odometer so results are back to apples-to-apples….. All three rides I did while up there were fairly similar so I will just say that the scenery on each was amazing and I was really happy with the riding available there…… If ever given the opportunity, I highly recommend taking your bike to Steamboat... Missed the 4th workout as I was taking care of stuff that was put off while I was in Steamboat...

Workouts:
1. 7-23-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 2.08.02, 16.78 miles, 7.9 avg., elev. 2300, cal: 1225); push-ups: 50/15; abs: 2x25
Longest ride of the week was the first…. I needed to rest some from the climbing as it was pretty consistent for the first 1/2 of the ride but other than that the ride was awesome and I was able to handle all of the terrain… i felt really good about how this ride went but I will say I forgot my iPod so listening to myself huffing and puffing throughout was rather annoying…. Decided I HAVE to get some of the ab stuff and push-ups going before I totally lose it so ribs be damned… well, until they start fighting back so I kept the ab stuff to just leg lifts… I broke the push-ups into 2 sets of 25 and that seemed to alleviate some of the pain I was feeling in my neck

2. 7-24-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 1.29.18, 10.65 miles, 7.2 avg., elev. 1633, cal: 880); push-ups: 50/20; abs: 2x25
Ride #2 was just as enjoyable as ride #1!!!! Had a great time but this ride was a little shorter so didn’t use up as much energy….I did manage to climb up about 1/2 of a 500 yard expert level climb before the back wheel broke lose and I had to walk the rest… I was pretty proud of myself for that…. Kept the push-ups and abs at the same level as yesterday and it seems it is actually helping the recovery effort (maybe psychological at this point….)

3. 7-25-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 1.16.31, 10.6 miles, 8.3 avg., elev. 1629, cal: 955); push-ups: 50/20; abs: 2x25
Ride #3 was a little different in that even though it was very similar to ride #2, I just didn’t have “it”. There was a combination of being tired from the first two rides and there may have been a few adult beverages the night before that also impacted the ride (not too many, but enough….) Instead of a loop this ride was an “out and back” and about 1/2 up the climb I was just out of gas… I had to take a lot of breaks on this ride but I eventually made it up.. When looking at the data between the two rides I was fairly surprised that I had a higher average on this one but there it is…. At any rate, I managed to have fun on the decline coming back but I son’t think I’m really cut out for that let if fly/bombing downhill stuff…..

Food: Well, I was hopeful the week wouldn’t go like it did but in all honesty, I knew better… My buddy that I stayed with in Steamboat is single and no kids so he pretty much lives the associated lifestyle… That lifestyle being out eating and more than a couple of beers each night, particularly when he has guests such as myself… Alas, you gotta live….

Scale: 210 (+2) Got what I deserved… again…..

Musings:
Okay, all the summer traveling and weird situations that aren’t normal should be done and wrapped up for quite some time… Looking forward to knocking down these last 10 pounds….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

7-28-15 to 8-3-15
Pretty decent rebound this week but not as much as I had hoped…. Things have been little busy lately so most workouts were on the treadmill as it is just easier to get down there and knock it out real quick versus all of the preparation for a bike ride…. Food was okay as was the weight loss...

Workouts:
1. 7-29-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 48, 4.48 miles, vert: 0, cal: 704);push-ups: 50/15; abs: 4x25
Short on time today so treadmill it is… and shortened at that… To adjust for the decreased time I decided to do two 20-minute sections of two miles each within the total time… It was pretty evident I haven’t been running lately but I had the right mindset so I made it happen.. Legs were actually a little bit sore afterwards… I’m liking the sets of 25 within the push-ups as it allows me to work on that form I have mentioned previously.. Did the full ab workout with no ill effects…. 

2. 7-30-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.34 miles, vert: 1939, cal: 685); push-ups: 2x25/15; abs: 4x25
It was a little hot out when I had time to workout today so I kept it indoors again… Apparently I am a little tired because even the treadmill knew it… Same settings as always yet I managed 40-50 calories and at least 200 vertical feet less than normal…. I am still considering this a “win” because I was 80% not even going to do it but I guilted myself into making it happen….. I do need to mention the reason I was tired and felt like skipping the workout was I spent about 3 hours in the morning carrying 5 aspen trees uphill out of my backyard after they were cut down and cut into manageable pieces…. little weightlifting and cardio in and of itself…..

3. 8-1-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 48.35, 6.39 miles, 7.9 avg., elev. 740, cal: 446); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Thanks to my neighbor informing me that my route was indeed available (I thought one critical part was closed but all they did was alter it, with no signage…) I was able to do my typical ride across the street… Ride felt good but it was hot… I got through everything as I would have expected and felt pretty good… Then I looked at my results… No PRs in the least, not even a bronze…. Oh well… After comparing this to last week (in Steamboat) I am giving consideration to doubling the ride (doing it twice) in an effort to continue to improve…. We’ll see… I did bump the push-ups up to three sets of 25… Did more with less straining.. I’ll take it!!!!! For some reason I’m really feeling adverse to doing planking right now… I think I might just drop it back to 5 minutes and leave it at that so I don’t have the dislike of doing it..

4. Treadmill-Run: (time: 45, 4.33 miles, vert: 0, cal: 686); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Once again, "daddy day-care" prevented me from getting a full workout in before going to night job… So, once again, tried something new in order to challenge myself… This go-around ended up being 4-minutes worth of warm-up, then 4 miles jogging nonstop (just a shade under 40 minutes at 6mph… just a tad faster to start), then a 1-minute cool down… Gotta say, I was surprised I had it in me.. Once I made it past the first 20 minutes the rest was just a matter of letting it happen (e.g., not talking myself out of it mentally….) Little sore the next day but in a good way… Liking the push-ups situation still but still haven’t seemed to find my way back to planking….

Food: Well, Little better this week, not a lot but trending in the right direction…..

Scale: 208 (-2) Honestly, went up a little then really buckled down the last couple of days to recoup… Guess it worked… 

Musings:
Well, gonna have to admit that summer living makes it difficult for me to finish off these last few pounds… Go back to the real job next Wednesday so I guess that’s when I will really start to finish that last lap… I did learn a lot this summer though. Namely, once I reach 200 it will still require a mindful eye to keep from putting anything back on…


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## grumpy old biker (Jul 29, 2014)

Good job la10slgr !

Remember, that getting weight to proper range is just a beginning of new path, to stay there I believe one needs to accept that new way of living in order to be able to stay on that new path. I plan to set new goal to myself when I'm at 200, after 6 months from that point I try to still be on 200, that might keep me focused. 


For me quite helpful has been making spreadsheet of what stuff is in what I eat and weighting what I put to my mouth, that way for example hidden sugars and such become revealed and I have found out that I have been actually eating too little in order to loose weight properly.

Also recommendations of nutrition seem often be bit weird, when in reality what you need is directly connected to calories you burn instead of ounces or grams those recommendations tell you. Understanding that and finding out how to calculate what I really need has been quite revealing. 

I was over 300lbs 3 years ago, in one year I could get to around 240, then to 230, last summer I was first time for my adult life under 220, but medical conditions prevented any training for 6 months and I'm struggling at 230lbs now, slowly and steady getting down, but stepped on nail and can't walk at the moment, so this will be quite a test of will now to keep my diet balanced.


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## losiracer10 (May 18, 2015)

grumpy old biker said:


> Good job la10slgr !
> 
> Remember, that getting weight to proper range is just a beginning of new path, to stay there I believe one needs to accept that new way of living in order to be able to stay on that new path. I plan to set new goal to myself when I'm at 200, after 6 months from that point I try to still be on 200, that might keep me focused.
> 
> ...


I hear you my friend in january of the this year i weighed 331 lbs and im 6"3 cycling changed my life im now down to 257 and losing still hopefully by xmas ill be 230 is my goal its the best thing i ever did for my life

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

8-4-15 to 8-10-15
Once again, I doddled along too much and procrastinated getting my post written so now I have to piece together my reports from memory… Someday I will have finally learned my lesson…* At any rate, missed a workout due to availability (lots of daddy day care going on right now…) so only got 3 in…* Continuing to work on plugging some holes that have creeped into the scene….
*
8-6-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.34 miles, vert: 2059, cal: 704); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Got a little mojo back and was able to regain some lost effort (vertical increased by 100 ft. or so since last time) so that’s a little bit of a relief.* Conversely, push-ups were quite the struggle today…* Still gonna have to address the elephant in the room (i.e. planking….)
*
8-9-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 1.10.24, 9.13 miles, 7.8 avg., elev. 1003, cal: 584); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Upped the ante on my neighborhood mtn bike ride some and fell a little short of what I was trying to accomplish (the aforementioned doubling of the ride…) but still managed to do 1.5x what I did previously…* Ended up having to ride pretty much during the hottest part of the day which just drained my energy and as an added component, I was, yet again, crunched for time…* I would really love to know if I, in fact, only did 584 calories because I was wiped out afterwards…..
*
8-10-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 60, 4.73 miles, vert: 31, cal: 691); push-ups: 15/3x25; Planking: 5m 0s
Running around doing “back to school” stuff made a bike ride fall by the wayside but I did manage to get this in…* Not a stellar performance by my standards but it’s what the heart rate dictated….* Planked for the first time in forever and it was pretty evident…..
*
Food: still getting back on the wagon but not completely there yet…* Still having situations come up that aren’t ideal but at the same time, life happens…

Scale: 208 (-0) At first I thought I had lost 2 but data revealed all I did was maintain…* Not heartbroken but not impressed either… 

Musings:
I think I have figured out where my decrease in performance is coming from….* I haven’t been doing any sprinting at all this summer (goes hand-in-hand with lifting weights which went by the wayside when my back and neck were giving me problems…) so I am going to have to make an effort to get that back in the rotation…* Hopefully that is all it is….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

8-11-15 to 8-17-15
Thought that all things considered I had a pretty good week.. All four workouts, back to a variety of workouts, okay week with calories (but bad weekend) and I go and add two pounds back on… I’m sure there is some logic somewhere in this but it is beyond me….

Workouts:
8-12-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.37 miles, vert: 2513, cal: 773); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Took matters into my own hands and did my manual incline routine so as to factor out the machine making it easier on me… Strangely, it didn’t feel toooo much different… As it is, I got an additional 400 feet and a couple extra tenths on the distance which resulted in about 70 some more calories than last time… That’s better….. 

8-13-15. Treadmill-Sprint: (time: 60, 5.26 miles, vert: 0, cal: 819); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s 
Whew!!! Put my theory of not sprinting lately to the test and yeah… this is probably where things are falling short… Definitely could tell I was working the quads harder than I have been lately and the shins got pretty tight as well… The good news is I am still strong enough on the cardio that I was able to do a reasonable job of sprinting at 9.3mph for 60 second increments without dropping over dead afterwards… Need to get the speed up a little but overall I am happy with what I did… Starting to get used to the three sets of 25 push-ups and am liking the change. Did the planking again and as always, if it wasn’t for the deltoids this would not be terribly difficult…

8-15-15. 1 road ride/Double Road Loop (time: 1.41.03, 19.9 miles, 11.9 avg., elev. 1694, cal: 991)
Took a friend (a firefighter) along for his first ride in years.. He’s quite a bit younger than me (mid 20s) and was in pretty good shape so I was pretty impressed with how well he did. However, lack of saddle time caused some… discomfort… so he bailed out at the ½ way point… As for me, puttered along pretty good and was happy I got the ride in before it started getting too hot out… Got 10 medals within the ride (4 PRs) so that was good… Due to the early start time, I figured I was justified in skipping the abs and push-ups….

8-17-15. Treadmill-Alpine: (time: 60, 4.33 miles, vert: 937, cal: 734); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Continuing my “what haven’t I been doing lately?” tour and realized I haven’t been doing the Alpine (jog and incline) in quite some time… I was a little nervous having not done it for a while but it actually went pretty well.. Actually seemed easier than I recall… My guess is that the distance jogging I have been doing translates really well to this routine… Push-ups were challenging but not impossible.. I think a couple of weeks ago I wouldn’t have made all three sets but since I have been doing it for a little bit now I was able to manage… Abs are there… 

Food: Had an up and down week in that there were days I literally had 700+ calories left over and days I went over about the same…. I wouldn’t have thought I was going to end up adding weight due to this but there it is….

Scale: 210 (+2). I don’t get it….. The improved effort I have been mentioning the past few weeks was there but apparently not to the level necessary… I had a decent week but the weekend wasn’t ideal… Quite the contrary.. guess I need to get serious if I want to knock out these last few pounds and stay there….
Musings: 
I’m getting a little tired of this hovering around 208-210 business… It has opened my eyes that if I want to get to 200 and stay there then some more changes need to happen…. I’m really hopeful that getting back to the variety in my workouts will be paying some dividends soon…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

grumpy old biker said:


> Good job la10slgr !.


Thanks!



grumpy old biker said:


> Remember, that getting weight to proper range is just a beginning of new path, to stay there I believe one needs to accept that new way of living in order to be able to stay on that new path. I plan to set new goal to myself when I'm at 200, after 6 months from that point I try to still be on 200, that might keep me focused.


 Couldn't agree more.. I have been hovering around 208-210ish for a few weeks now.. If that was my end goal I would be doing great.. However, 200 is what I am really shooting for...



grumpy old biker said:


> For me quite helpful has been making spreadsheet of what stuff is in what I eat and weighting what I put to my mouth, that way for example hidden sugars and such become revealed and I have found out that I have been actually eating too little in order to loose weight properly.


I never wanted to really get in to the "food measuring" business in the 1st place so I finally admitted I had to count calories and started using MyFitnessPal (a recommendation made on this very thread!) and that has been a huge help... If I follow it with fidelity..... I have been a little (lot) lax about inputting data with fidelity this summer and also staying within allotted counts...



grumpy old biker said:


> Also recommendations of nutrition seem often be bit weird, when in reality what you need is directly connected to calories you burn instead of ounces or grams those recommendations tell you. Understanding that and finding out how to calculate what I really need has been quite revealing.


see above...



grumpy old biker said:


> I was over 300lbs 3 years ago, in one year I could get to around 240, then to 230, last summer I was first time for my adult life under 220, but medical conditions prevented any training for 6 months and I'm struggling at 230lbs now, slowly and steady getting down, but stepped on nail and can't walk at the moment, so this will be quite a test of will now to keep my diet balanced.


Words of wisdom: Don't step on nails.... In all seriousness though, I have learned that the diet is primary and the working out is secondary in this whole weight loss thing.. Namely, you can't go putting thousands of extra calories in your body and expect ot magically make them go away... I don't know that it is the "end all" but one can get pretty far with simply working with calories in vs. calories out... Good luck and feel free to keep chiming in, would love to hear about progress or challenges and what you did to overcome them...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

losiracer10 said:


> I hear you my friend in january of the this year i weighed 331 lbs and im 6"3 cycling changed my life im now down to 257 and losing still hopefully by xmas ill be 230 is my goal its the best thing i ever did for my life


Awesome! It is nice to have some success in your pocket and know that what you are doing is working.. Keep it up and feel free to update here!


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## losiracer10 (May 18, 2015)

la10slgr said:


> Awesome! It is nice to have some success in your pocket and know that what you are doing is working.. Keep it up and feel free to update here!


Thank you my biggest thing that helped was my diet on what and how much i eat i have been eating lots of veggies mainly cucumbers 1 cucumber is a decent amout of food and its 90% water lots of apples tomatoes no pasta no bread no potatoes pretty much cut my carb intake to 15 or less a day and im full of energy i ride my bike every other day 5-10 miles and just mainly watch what i eat i havnt had fast food since jan i dont drink anything but water or flavored water no soda especially i drink straight black coffee in the am for breakfast usually like 1 apple and 1 cucumber for lunch and a salad or boiled veggies for dinner and usually have a snack during the day which is usually some kind of jerky i make my own and i just weighed myself today and im 255 which gives me a total loss of 76 lbs since january and i i keep going the way i have been i prolly will be 215 by xmas its prolly the hardest thing i have ever done but i feel incredible and i am having to buy new clothes i was wearing a size 46 pant in jan now im in a 38 its very hard to commit but after 6 minths it pretty much becomes a routine i am so proud of myself that i have come this far so im not gonna stop now if i get down to say 215 by xmas that will give me a total loss of 115 lbs which is a entire person i have to fight temptation at every corner but its worth it in the end its life changing and makes your look and feel like a new person i wish you the best of luck and dont frown there were times in my journey that i would hover at the same weight for 2 weeks then all of a sudden 2 weeks later id loose 6-7 lbs just be patient and keep up the hard work if you have any questions on how i have done anything feel free to ask

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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

losiracer10 said:


> Thank you my biggest thing that helped was my diet on what and how much i eat i have been eating lots of veggies mainly cucumbers 1 cucumber is a decent amout of food and its 90% water lots of apples tomatoes no pasta no bread no potatoes pretty much cut my carb intake to 15 or less a day and im full of energy i ride my bike every other day 5-10 miles and just mainly watch what i eat i havnt had fast food since jan i dont drink anything but water or flavored water no soda especially i drink straight black coffee in the am for breakfast usually like 1 apple and 1 cucumber for lunch and a salad or boiled veggies for dinner and usually have a snack during the day which is usually some kind of jerky i make my own and i just weighed myself today and im 255 which gives me a total loss of 76 lbs since january and i i keep going the way i have been i prolly will be 215 by xmas its prolly the hardest thing i have ever done but i feel incredible and i am having to buy new clothes i was wearing a size 46 pant in jan now im in a 38 its very hard to commit but after 6 minths it pretty much becomes a routine i am so proud of myself that i have come this far so im not gonna stop now if i get down to say 215 by xmas that will give me a total loss of 115 lbs which is a entire person i have to fight temptation at every corner but its worth it in the end its life changing and makes your look and feel like a new person i wish you the best of luck and dont frown there were times in my journey that i would hover at the same weight for 2 weeks then all of a sudden 2 weeks later id loose 6-7 lbs just be patient and keep up the hard work if you have any questions on how i have done anything feel free to ask


That's some commitment with that diet!!! Do you have plans for how you are going to modify your diet once you hit your goal? For me, there are many factors (mainly personal choice, but also life.. such as kids..) that have me taking the slow and steady (steady being a relative term at the moment...) route that I can live with and deal with the slower weight loss in an effort to make it a permanent lifestyle change that continues to evolve as I go along... It has become a cycle of: lose some weight, hit a plateau, then figure out what the next step is to keep losing the weight... By that time, I am usually much more open to making the necessary changes then going full bore all at once... So far that has been what has been my "process" in that had I gone about it your way I probably would have not gotten to where I am now as I probably would have said "screw this!" That's the cool thing about doing this, there is no single way that it has to happen....

In other news... your name "losiracer" leads me to believe you race RC???? I had a pretty cool Losi way back when they 1st came out (late 80s/early90s if memory serves...) until my brother got it run over driving it in the street....


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## losiracer10 (May 18, 2015)

la10slgr said:


> That's some commitment with that diet!!! Do you have plans for how you are going to modify your diet once you hit your goal? For me, there are many factors (mainly personal choice, but also life.. such as kids..) that have me taking the slow and steady (steady being a relative term at the moment...) route that I can live with and deal with the slower weight loss in an effort to make it a permanent lifestyle change that continues to evolve as I go along... It has become a cycle of: lose some weight, hit a plateau, then figure out what the next step is to keep losing the weight... By that time, I am usually much more open to making the necessary changes then going full bore all at once... So far that has been what has been my "process" in that had I gone about it your way I probably would have not gotten to where I am now as I probably would have said "screw this!" That's the cool thing about doing this, there is no single way that it has to happen....
> 
> In other news... your name "losiracer" leads me to believe you race RC???? I had a pretty cool Losi way back when they 1st came out (late 80s/early90s if memory serves...) until my brother got it run over driving it in the street....


Yes thats correct i race rc i tun 1/8 scale buggy and truggy indoors in the winter time up here in michigan the winters can get pretty bad although i just oredered a specialized fatboy to try for winter riding so the rc stuff may change its fun but its also a money pit lol

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## grumpy old biker (Jul 29, 2014)

la10slgr said:


> Words of wisdom: Don't step on nails.... In all seriousness though, I have learned that the diet is primary and the working out is secondary in this whole weight loss thing.. Namely, you can't go putting thousands of extra calories in your body and expect ot magically make them go away... I don't know that it is the "end all" but one can get pretty far with simply working with calories in vs. calories out... Good luck and feel free to keep chiming in, would love to hear about progress or challenges and what you did to overcome them...


I have been working on a spreadsheet to figure out my maximum possible daily deficit and I put what I eat, what I workout also there, it shows nicely that there really is calories coming less in than I sweat out.

Yesterday for example 4700 calories out and 3200 in, I try to keep somewhat ok nutritional value, so it is bit difficult to just drop amount I eat, need to balance a bit and so can't easily reach maximum possible deficit of 2300 calories.

For you those last pounds are of course difficult also because it is not possible to loose them at rate you could loose at beginning, it is only 69 calories for each kilogram of body fat that you can burn fat in a day and 1 kilogram is roughly 7000 calories.

1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds, so for each 2.2 pounds of body fat you could burn 69 calories in a day, it takes then to know body fat percentage to find out how many pounds of body fat there is. Going below 8% starts to be very difficult, something like 13% is lower normal range for males I believe.

For me, spreadsheet helps to keep sweet tooth in check, also motivates to get on bike more often, so that I can eat proper amount 

Currently nice thing is that predicted weight loss by formulas in spreadsheet shows 2.2 pounds for last 6 days, scale seem to match to that, with time I might try to have bit more deficit, it is now around 29% for long term average.

I guess some method of logging is good to have, so that one can verify from long term statistics that calorie intake is enough low compared to calorie usage.

If I have for example 2000 calorie deficit for one day, looking day by day statistics it would easily 'give permission' to slip from eating, but knowing there is also 650 calorie deficit day in a week makes one try bit harder to stay on path.

Some days weight just goes up even it is certain there is less calories in than consumption is, fat cells take water in instead of fat, then in day or two there should be big drop, for me today was such day, now I wait, hoping that I see that drop.

For me average day seem to be such that I use around 3700 calories, so I need to eat at minimum 1400 calories to not burn too much muscle.

Also timing when eating and when sweating seems to matter a bit. It will be interesting ride


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## grumpy old biker (Jul 29, 2014)

I'm now 233 on new scale, was 240 10 days ago, so there is progress, roughly 4 pounds / week weight loss rate. 

Only issue is with protein, no matter how I try, it seems I can't get enough without blowing my calorie budget. 

I'm using 3000-4000 calories typically, it seems, and consuming 2400 as an average, to get enough protein I would need to eat about double and I eat mostly meat, so I guess I need to change to chicken in order to reduce amount of calories from fat and gain more protein. 

Last week I did exercise for 21 hours, (mtb, firewood and log lifting/carrying/splitting, head size rock throwing/carrying) 11 435 calories burned, feels good.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

8-18-15 to 8-24-15
Grrrr, good workouts and good week calorie counting and the results don’t support that…. 

Workouts:
8-19-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 40, 3.73 miles, vert: 0, cal: 590); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
Got home a little late from work so only had 40 minutes to do something (soccer practice for the kid..) after warming up… Decided a good bit of running was the best bang for my buck so since I was only doing 2/3 normal time I upped the speed to 6.2 (from 6.0) and did that for 20 minutes straight. After a “break” (walking for a couple of minutes) I decided I had enough in the tank to do 6.5 mph for 10 minutes straight.. Went surprisingly well but I definitely worked up a sweat! Overall I ended up getting a pretty good workout in. Push-ups are improving as I am really working on slow and controlled movement (well, slower…) and actually did pretty well with the planking as well…

8-20-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.38 miles, vert: 2513, cal: 776); push-ups: 15/3x25; push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Had to hobble through this as I have learned not really wearing real shoes lately (lot of flip-flop footwear of late..) has caused my feet to get delicate, thus, my heels have been rubbed raw by my running shoes…. So I spent the whole time trying to make sure I didn’t make my heels any worse versus worrying about the workout so there’s that…. Push-ups and abs were standard…

8-23-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 49.06, 6.39 miles, 7.8 avg.); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
Took fireman friend out for another ride to the local open space park… He’s getting acclimated to clipless pedals and hasn’t been riding lately so let’s just say I got some extra breaks in… As for me, I felt great (particularly with these extra breaks) and felt that I was able to ride pretty aggressively throughout the ride… I rode most of the way down a pretty steep descent (I have mentioned this section in the past) that I had never attempted before and was pretty happy I did it. I still don’t know that I can do this one little section within this part, otherwise I would be totally stoked I did it… Having said all that, only one medal for a 2nd place… Push-ups and planking went pretty well…

8-25-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 36, 3.38 miles, vert: 0, cal: 529); none
A meeting that was cancelled a couple of weeks ago got rescheduled during my workout time… the nerve… Anyhow, I had 36 minutes to work with so I decided run, run, run… (again…) even to the point of skipping push-ups and abs…. I warmed up for 4 minutes then ran for 30 straight at 6mph then cooled down for 2 minutes… I still can’t believe I can jog for 30-minutes nonstop but I seem to be doing it fairly regularly lately…

Food: Peaks and valleys this week (small ones) so overall I pretty much ended up right at the calorie count I was supposed to be at. Weekday eating is under control but it’s still those weekends that are proving to remain difficult….

Scale: 212 (+2). So let me get this straight… Best calorie week in months + 3.5 good workouts = an increase of 2 pounds…. All I can figure is I have been drinking a pretty hefty amount of diet soda the past two weeks in order to actually be awake and functioning in the a.m. (I don’t drink coffee) so that has to be impacting the weight loss somehow… On top of that, I have been drinking a lot of water as well as 1) I can only drink so much soda.. and 2) it has been fairly warm lately (both indoors and out) so I am pretty much drinking water all day long… That’s all I can figure….
Musings: 
Finally took some time to update my spreadsheet with all of my data from the summer so that, in combination with being up to speed on these reports, seems to be helping my focus and motivation…

Last I knew all of this was supposed to result in weight loss but in reality, I have been slowly climbing back up and up… I’m pretty pissed about this but I guess I need to just stay the course and know that overall what I am doing works…..


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

grumpy old biker said:


> I'm now 233 on new scale, was 240 10 days ago, so there is progress, roughly 4 pounds / week weight loss rate.


Those are some pretty awesome results on the weight loss front, keep it up!!!



grumpy old biker said:


> Only issue is with protein, no matter how I try, it seems I can't get enough without blowing my calorie budget.


I am going through that now.. Working out and really hungry afterwards really hurts the calorie budget if one isn't careful..



grumpy old biker said:


> I'm using 3000-4000 calories typically, it seems, and consuming 2400 as an average, to get enough protein I would need to eat about double and I eat mostly meat, so I guess I need to change to chicken in order to reduce amount of calories from fat and gain more protein.


I have found chicken to be a savior when it comes to getting that "meat fix" as long as it isn't fried. I have learned that grilled chicken is a pretty good "bang for your buck" in that you get a pretty significant quantity for pretty low calorie counts, even with the skin on... Now once you go adding stuff to it (e.g., sauces..) that's where the trouble comes in...



grumpy old biker said:


> Last week I did exercise for 21 hours, (mtb, firewood and log lifting/carrying/splitting, head size rock throwing/carrying) 11 435 calories burned, feels good.


What, are you training for the world's strongest man competition???? Those are some pretty manly activities!!!


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## grumpy old biker (Jul 29, 2014)

Remember, scale lies, horribly lies! 

For example it might be that you have had bit more sodium, more water and as a result fat cells have taken water in, when it balances out you will loose weight, but even that you burned fat it might have been replaced by water which is heavier than fat.

Also doing workout might increase muscle mass too, that again depends on protein intake as well as amount of calorie balance. 

My weight also did go up from yesterday, even I had 1490 calorie deficit, sometimes weight gets up and after day or two there is huge drop, I have read it is related to water retention in fat cells.

Eat before workout at least half of your workout amount, then after workout eat rest, takes bit of preparing and planning, but kills hunger and calories go straight where they get used instead of storing them as fat, also workout is much more fun as there is plenty of fuel. Only issue is that doing very hard workouts within 30 minutes from eating is not possible. 


I like my chicken dry, but some tex mex seasoning never hurt anyone (seriously at least), going to stay clear of sauces though 


My goal is to be able to carry my own weight without getting shirt dirty, that is really long term, but 40-50kg is not a big problem currently. 

I have bit of land here so there is always little something to do, then helping older people with their farms and such, it is quite manly living in this rural area if you think about it, especially when comparing to city life, wilderness starts from back door. 


Today I needed gravel for pothole, so I took few stones and sledgehammer, then started beating stones to gravel, great workout. 

I did calculate that it was bit over 200kg worth of stones in my cart when tire failed, then I pulled it up about 10% incline on grass, for strongest man competition eliminator round I would need to push wheel cart with 400kg load, but perhaps not to uphill, anyway I think I need to more than double my strength to be any good compared to those guys, but every day something.

During the winter tree felling is few weeks of excising, amount of snow makes sometimes things challenging.


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## targnik (Jan 11, 2014)

I applaud your guys dedication. 

Originally I got into MTB'ing (her-indoors idea) to lose weight. But, that quickly become secondary to all the fun I was having. Now, it's still secondary to the fun and the new learning I'm under going.

For the record I was 253lbs and now I'm hovering around 220 =) not that I'm counting 

-------------------------------------
Opinions are like A-holes... everybody 
has one & they're usually full of...??


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

8-25-15 to 8-31-15
Got some fun and adventure this week!!! Didn’t lose any weight but I’m okay with that for this week… Foot has been killing me so I’m gonna have to go get that looked at… 

Workouts:
8-26-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 50.52, 7.00 miles, vert: 822 8.3 avg., cal: 486); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
This was my typical route by my house with the addition of dipping out of the park for my daughter’s soccer practice then finishing up afterwards… I felt really good on this ride and really attacked the technical parts to the best of my abilities… I find I am really trying to find a way to ride down and up previously considered impossible hills and am making progress,, but I still can’t envision myself doing 100% either way…Overall, I got 3 medals with 2 PRS.. However, one PR came on the big climb to finish up after I had been resting for an hour so there is a little disclaimer on that.. (but but… I did have to do a similar climb that isn’t part of the normal ride to get back into the park from soccer practice…) Push-ups were good (great even..) but that segued into a pretty tough planking session.. Again, I’m only talking about the deltoids, not the core…

8-27-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.37 miles, vert: 2335, cal: 724); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
I wanted a light workout in order to be well rested for the big ride on Saturday so I went for walking with incline… After spending about 17 of the first 27 minutes at 20% incline something had to give ( was on track for something like 3000 feet of vertical within the workout)…. I don’t know why my heart rate wasn’t going high enough to make the machine go back down but I was just plugging along and not getting any relief.. Sooo, since it had been so long since I had been dumb enough to try and change the settings on my treadmill I went for it.. Bad mistake… I spent pretty much the entire second half of the workout trying to get things adjusted and never really got back into a groove… So much for that easy/straightforward workout…. Push-ups and abs were standard…

8-23-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 2.53.52.06, 28.49 miles, vert: 1886 9.8 avg., cal: 1275); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
After swearing I would never do it again, I went and did it again… That being riding down Pikes Peak.. it was weird, I had no intention of ever doing this after last year’s ride but as soon as I got the call this weird gravity just drew me right back in… Whereas last year was pretty stressful this year was much more fun! I attribute it to the experience of having already done it, improved riding skill when compared to last year, and the ever so important dropper post… I was able to “attack” all of the downhill with much more confidence when compared to last year and did a pretty good job picking out appropriate lines.. Of all things, there was actually almost 1900 feet of climbing so believe me, this wasn’t just a downhill cruise… Once we got to the forest service “road” (more of a roller coaster with granite pebbles about 4-5 inch deep if you ask me…) I took it easy as this is where I crashed both times last year… Happy to report I made it without one single incident!!! 3/4 other guys did crash but nothing too serious… Glad I wasn’t the one crashing this time….

8-31-15. Treadmill-Alpine: (time: 45, 3.18 miles, vert: 727, cal: 542); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
For the first time in a long time my foot felt fairly decent so I wanted to do something but at the same time, I didn’t want to aggravate my foot since it was feeling better… I couldn’t pick between incline and running (since they both have their plusses and minuses as far as the strain on my foot…) so I compromised and just did both in the form of Alpine… I could only do 45 minutes as I had some errands to run so that was all I could fit in… Anyhow, I got a good sweat in and felt pretty good afterwards.. My foot didn’t really feel any worse for the wear so I was pretty happy about that.. Overall the heartrate never got above 155 (give or take) so I guess the heart and lungs are feeling pretty good at the moment… Push-ups and planks were standard…

Food: I am continuing to get back on track and am getting the calorie count under control… I do expect to start seeing some results of this within the next couple of weeks.

Scale: 212 (-0). I’m actually okay with this as I had to “load up” on Friday before the Pikes Peak ride and also on Saturday during… and maybe there was a little celebration afterwards as well… 
Musings: 
As I mentioned, I am expecting to start seeing some steady results over the next couple of weeks.. I know the effort is there so I just need to make sure the effort translates into good decisions, thus, good results…

Within the Pikes Peak ride, met a guy that is a pretty good match for me ability-wise.. He is a smidge better than me in the areas of conditioning and downhill ability but still within the same general category overall.. We talked about riding together in the near future so I am looking forward to that.. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden with anyone I would consider an equal (most times people are significantly better than me…)

I have a dr appointment today to get my foot looked at… According to my web research, I am developing a bunion ( <-- such an ugly word) on my right foot… I am nervous the dr. is going to say I need to cease/limit activity for a while and let my foot do what it needs to do to get better…

I am giving consideration to giving up planking as it puts some pretty good strain on my foot.. I will have to see what the doctor says but as of right now, putting all of that pressure on my big toe (when it is already throbbing all day long) doesn’t feel too good… Thing is, I will have to find something else to do to replace it as I like the variety it brings… Guess we will see…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

targnik said:


> I applaud your guys dedication.
> 
> Originally I got into MTB'ing (her-indoors idea) to lose weight. But, that quickly become secondary to all the fun I was having. Now, it's still secondary to the fun and the new learning I'm under going.
> 
> ...


Thanks! I agree with you in that I can't think of a better workout as it is most definitely fun with the addition of the health benefits (as long as one remains upright...)


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

9-1-15 to 9-7-15
Had to miss a workout during the week but was able to make it up over the course of the weekend… Food stuff was great for the 1st part of the week but labor day festivities messed up the weekend (not terribly so but enough to be noticeable) so all-in-all the week was pretty good but could have been better. Foot has been feeling pretty good this week (thanks Aleve!) so it’s not a factor any more but I did manage to find a way to keep my body from being in pristine condition...

Workouts:
9-2-15. Treadmill-Sprint: (time: 37, 3.25 miles, vert: 0, cal: 509); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Once again had to cut short for soccer.. Decided sprinting was in order so did the 1min run/2min walk routine.. Started at 8.4 (so that translates to 9.2 to the machine) and felt pretty good so increased to 8.5 and still felt good, so increased to 8.6 and still felt good, so increased to 8.7 (9.5) and finally found my spot… Did that for the second half of the workout and got a little adrenaline kick so I finished the run at 10.0 (11 something) and was pretty well cooked after that.. Overall the run felt pretty good and to top it off, my foot is continually feeling better so that didn’t really hold me back at all!!! Push-ups were good and abs felt pretty good too…

9-5-15. Road ride (time: 1.34.59, 20.49 miles, vert: 1684 13.0 avg., cal: 1042); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
Time to do some “work” so road ride it was… Ride felt pretty good throughout and even though the climbs are still very challenging, I am doing better at them (or at least feeling better about them…) as I am getting used to them. Overall I had 8 achievements (1 gold, but that was on a downhill…) Overall, it feels like I am getting better at this.

9-6-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 1.15.48, 9.79 miles, vert: 1090 7.8 avg., cal: 642); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Wanted to go play in the dirt so off to Ute Valley.. I’ve been meaning to add some distance (and time…) to this ride so I took some time and explored (albeit backwards from the actual plan of implementation) to figure out how to do just that.. I think I have it all worked out. As for the ride, felt pretty good and the new loop hill/climb is pretty challenging and it requires a couple of breaks.. Thus, going down is pretty steep but all manageable if you do it right… I’m still working on that challenging descent I have been working on but I just don’t know if I can get past that one part that is holding me up… I see the correct path but it still has no room for error whatsoever and I need that extra “room”

9-7-15. Mtn bike ride (time: 1.08.08, 9.16 miles, vert: 1003 8.1 avg., cal: 586); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
I was a little excited to try out the new loop at Ute Valley so since I had the time (labor day = day off!) I went for it… The ride went just as I had hoped and the addition of the new loop was a success.. with one little exception…. Once again, I made it through the hard part on the descent and on a perfectly reasonable stretch of hiking path I crashed again… All I know is the front wheel slid on some rocks (pebbles) and I must have overcorrected or something because next thing I knew… The good news is I only scraped up my knee a little bit and for once I managed to not jab my handlebars into my ribs…. Otherwise the ride was great!

Food: did awesome throughout the week but labor day bbq’s got in the way over the weekend. The good part is I did all of those rides beforehand so the calorie counts actually came out pretty good (pretty good = right at the daily limit or only over by a little bit) with a small exception. Someone brought these al natural mini muffin looking things. And by all-natural I mean flax seed and oats and a whole bunch of other healthy stuff.. On the + side, they were actually pretty good so I ate 3 of them thinking they would be of minimal consequence. On the – side once I went to add them to the daily calorie count I then discovered they were something like 140 calories EACH….. Oops… So much for that healthy crap….

Scale: 211 (-1). Talk to me about this on Friday afternoon and I would have been pretty ticked but since the weekend happened I guess it is okay… I am making better choices when compared to the fast few weeks so even though the weight isn’t the “end all” it is a motivating factor for me to do the right thing… 
Musings: 
So glad the foot thing is pretty much taken care of, that was really a pain… literally and figuratively…

Still hanging in there with the planking.. I will say I am making sure I have shoes on while doing these and the push-ups and I think the extra stability is nothing but good… I still think I am working my arms harder than my core but there seems to be a fairly strong opinion that this is a good exercise + being an optimist for the moment, it is getting my deltoids in better shape….


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

9-8-15 to 9-14-15
Overall a pretty good week and would have been even better had I not had a football game (translated” tailgating and associated beverages…) Even with that, I was otherwise pretty well focused and things are going according to plan…

Workouts:
9-9-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 45, 4.10 miles, vert: 137, cal: 660); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
If anything, the dedication is in full swing as I had some errands to run before soccer but I got them switched around to make sure I got this workout in…. Really would have been much easier to skip this altogether… Decided a good ol’ fashioned run was in order so used my 45 minutes to do just that… Machine must think I am in better shape than I was a few weeks ago because it worked me pretty hard.. Once the HR got down to 125 (just like I programmed for once) it immediately sent me back into a run so I really only got 30 seconds or so of walking in before I was back to running… The machine kept on adding on incline to force my HR up to the target of 170 so I think I am going to increase the programmed max speed up to 6.7 or so and see if that takes care of that… Great workout and for only being 45 minutes I will definitely take the 660 calorie burn…

9-10-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.30 miles, vert: 2213, cal: 734); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
Was on pace to have a pretty good workout but I had to take an important phone call right in the middle of the workout. Having learned my lesson before about stopping and restarting the machine, I just “floated” my way through the pause (only 90 seconds for a pause so I stood there and restarted it every 85 seconds or so then paused again) and that really screwed up the machine and I ended up getting a lighter workout in than originally intended.. Cost me across the board but at the end of the day it was only about a 45 calorie loss so not a huge issue …

9-12-15. Road ride (time: 1.32.27, 20.40 miles, vert: 1682 13.2 avg., cal: 1061); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Training time again… I really didn’t feel too motivated for the ride but I was going to a football game later and I needed to get as many calories in the bank as I could and since this is the biggest one…. Once I got going I actually felt pretty good.. Even better, once I got past the easy stuff (the downhill before any sort of climbing) I still felt pretty good and was able to hold pretty decent momentum. I felt so good that I went ahead and skipped my break at the ½ way point and ended up doing the whole ride nonstop… All in all I got 16 medals (13 PRs), of which, many were on climbs… Not to mention, I’m getting much better at drinking water while continuing to ride….

9-14-15. Treadmill-Alpine: (time: 60, 4.32 miles, vert: 937, cal: 734); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
Had a pretty good run/climb! I will say I felt a little lazy as the HR never really got above 155 until the last few minutes but at the end of the day, the calorie count was there… I haven’t updated my workout spreadsheet lately (so…much…documentation…) but I think this one compares pretty favorably compared to past efforts, especially when the relative “ease” of the workout is factored in.. I was really trying to flake out on the planking but I realized that’s all I was doing so I got it done… As for the push-ups, not much to say that hasn’t been said but I am paying attention to making sure the elbows are in and the up and down motion is true… 

Food: Another good week that met with some challenges over the weekend.. The calorie counts were good and even on Saturday (football game, tailgating) I only went over by a couple hundred… Overall I can tell the focus is generally improved

Scale: 210 (-1). Inching my way back down… 

Musings: 
Little bit by little bit getting back into the groove. I am paying a lot more attention to the calories than I was a couple of weeks ago… I have begun to wonder what I am going to do once I hit 200… In that, I am wondering if 200 is my real target or will I be happier overall in the 205 range? I’ve made a lot of changes to get to where I am and I have been able to live with these changes but part of that has been to include a little “treat” every now and again and I don’t want to end up a slave to the scale just to remain at a number… Well, first things first, I have to get there…..


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

9-15-15 to 9-21-15
Had a good week with working out and an okay week with the food… Got pretty sick this week and am just now getting that under control so here’s the update finally…

Workouts:
9-16-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 35, 3.19 miles, vert: 0, cal: 507); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Traffic/road construction driving home from work made the workout even shorter than it has been lately… So in an effort to counteract that (and based on results from last run) I upped the programmed average to 8.8 which resulted in actual speed of 9.5-9.7 for the 1-minute sprint/2-minute walk intervals… I chugged along pretty good and honestly, by the time the end came I was no longer too sad that I was only doing 35 minutes… I also managed to still do the 10.0mph (actually 11.0) for the last minute… I would think averaging somewhere between 10-11 minute miles when walking 2/3 of the time (not to mention the 3-minutes worth of warm-up) is pretty good… I will say I have realized this is not a full out sprint for me and I have started to wonder what that would really look like but I am a little nervous to program the treadmill any faster than the 10mph… Maybe I’ll check that out though…

9-17-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.35 miles, vert: 2255, cal: 733); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
Compared to last week I went .05 miles further and 42 feet higher within the same amount of time yet did 1 calorie less, go figure… (it’s not a big deal, just noticed…) Snagged a pretty quick 15-minute nap in before the workout and my mindset went from “I don’t wanna” to “I got this!” amazing what 15 minutes can do…. Other than that, nothing really exciting here….

9-20-15. Mtn bike ride: (time: 1.35.21, 10.45 miles, 6.6 avg., vert: 1382, cal: 906); push-ups: 0; abs: 0
Did a new ride with “the group” as we trekked on out to Canon city to a place called Oil Well Flats.. Place reminded me a lot of Sedona as it was desert but sill mountainy as well.. Had a good time on the ride and only a few spots that caused me to do any hiking, namely short stuttered climbs (think: stairs…) I was pretty proud of myself for making it through some fairly technical sections… A rider within the group that is much better than me (but on a 26er he wasn’t terribly comfortable with) had some trouble in areas I made it through and I would be lying if I said I didn’t notice that… Not saying I’m on the same level he is but for one day… Conversely, a guy that hasn’t been riding was with us so I got a lot of breaks in… Got informed that I am now referred to as the “little engine that could” as I insist on working on those climbs more than the rest.. I’ll take it… Skipped push-ups and abs as I had to leave the house at 6:30 in the morning…. Not my ideal start time but gotta be a team player…

9-21-15. Mtn bike ride: (time: 1.05.57, 9.07 miles, 8.3 avg., vert: 965, cal: 579); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Got out of work a little early and was still feeling some adrenaline from the great ride yesterday so I figured why not ride the bike at Ute Valley instead of doing the treadmill…. (tough choice huh, mountain bike or treadmill???) Mentally I was all over it and was ready to go.. Didn’t take too long to find out physically I was still a little tired from the previous ride… Don’t get me wrong, I had a good ride, but in my mind I thought I was due for a great ride… I managed 5 medals (1 PR) so I guess I had some “mmph” left in the tank… I thought I had the route perfected but noticed two little points where it can be better so small changes were, and will be implemented.. The first of which gets rid of the road connection and keeps me on the trail and cuts out just a little bit of climbing (not too sad about it as this is for the new part that has a LOT of climbing..) The second appears to get me out of the area that I haven’t been able to tame going up or down.. In one aspect I am a little sad that I am giving up on the challenge of actually doing it but in all reality I don’t know that I have it in me regardless, so why not find a way around that keeps me on the bike???

Food: Good week but apparently put too much in the tank before and druing the big ride on Sunday… 

Scale: 210 (-0). Meh… I guess…. 

Musings: 
Great news! The Air Force Academy is meeting with local government to look into reopening the trail I use for training!!! There is optimism it will be reopened sometime this fall… Just in time for the end of the riding season!!!! Well, at least it should be available for those days where it gets warm enough to go outside… Seriously though, I am excited that it looks like it will be back open but I am still a little irked that they closed it to begin with…

Just updated my spreadsheet… Since March 6, 2014 I have ridden and ran over 2100 miles… Since I started keeping track of elevation March 7, 2015, I have gone straight up over 101,000 feet (that’s over 19 miles!!!) Even though I have been slacking on the diet/weight loss of late (and I STILL have 10 more pounds to go…) I think it is safe to say I am in this for the long haul…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

9-22-15 to 9-28-15
Got a pretty good cold this week so had to skip a couple of workouts.. As for the two I did get in, light and easy was the order of the week… 

Workouts:
9-23-15. Nope 

9-24-15. Nope

9-26-15. Road ride: (time: 50.38, 10.28 miles, 11.9 avg., vert: 888, cal: 547); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s 
Was still feeling pretty sick but I thought I was feeling well enough to get at least a little something in… I decided the first half of the road ride was in order so off I went. It was somewhat of a victory in and of itself even being out there so in an effort to make sure I didn’t set myself back health-wise I made sure to take it relatively easy.. I took two breaks within the ride (normally do this nonstop..) and I think that was a good idea as the chest congestion wasn’t very helpful.. Surprisingly, I got two trophies (2nd and 3rd) so I guess I was putting in some effort… Having said that, just as I was getting comfortable with the mindset of “hey, I‘m just trying to make sure I workout somehow this week…” A guy on a road bike whizzed past me at a pretty good clip.. Wasn’t a big deal to me as road bikes pass me all the time on this ride… until I noticed he only had one leg…. I’ll give the guy his props, he could probably hang with most people as fast as he was riding…. Definitely made me appreciate the fact that I only have a cold and am not having to overcome the obstacles he is overcoming, albeit very successfully from what I saw…

9-28-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.24 miles, vert: 1975, cal: 673); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Same mentality of the bike ride (do something, but take it easy..) so the numbers are down when compared to last week.. Did about 600 less vertical feet and just a little shorter distance and about 100 fewer calories.. I will take it as my goal was really to hit 500 calories and be done with it… Glad I got the workout in as I probably felt better while doing it than I have for the past week…

Food: Kind of up and down dealing with the cold.. Overall I did okay.. I will say this, once I started getting my appetite back I was totally craving junk food… I gave in some but since I was eating so little to begin with I stayed within parameters (give or take…) 

Scale: 208 (-2). Well, I guess there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned cold to help with the weight loss… 
Musings: 
Being sick sucks, it’s not the worst thing to happen to a person but at the same time it just sucks the life out of you…

Looking to get a couple more good rides/new adventures in before the weather turns… A copule of things are in the works, hopefully they get done..


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

9-29-15 to 10-5-15
Still have some lingering effects from the cold but nothing to prevent me from going about my business.. Week was busy but got everything done… Weather was crummy this weekend so didn’t get any riding in… I think I’m going to shorten the weekly reports, at least as far as treadmill workouts go, as I find I am struggling to find any real valuable information to add..

Workouts:
9-30-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 40, 3.58 miles, vert: 0, cal: 556); Push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Last soccer shortened workout for a while!

10-1-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.27 miles, vert: 2437, cal: 745) 
Time was limited and opted for the full treadmill workout and cut out the push-ups and ab work…

10-4-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.34 miles, vert: 2228, cal: 729); 
Wasn’t going to workout but had a bad weekend calorie-wise and the guilt kicked in… Glad I did it…

10-5-15. Treadmill-Alpine: (time: 60, 4.32miles, vert: 937, cal: 734); Push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
Was going to try and make this a bike ride but didn’t have the time to do what I wanted to do… 

Food: Had a good week but the weekend was pretty much a disaster First off, had my daughter’s birthday party.. Did you know each slice of a pepperoni pizza from Costco is over 700 calories??? I didn’t either until I looked it up… On top of that, Sunday dinner brought fried chicken.. I leveraged a little bit by eating way less than I normally would have and I think that actually helped some…

Scale: 207 (-1). Inching along.. I will say I am happy about this considering how the weekend went… 

Musings: 
I really don’t get it as far as the weight loss goes.. Weeks where I am “nose to the grindstone” sometimes add up to weight gain and weeks like the last two (maybe not so great calorie wise) result in weight loss.. I think my cold had something to do with it but still… 

I’m getting close to where I was at the beginning of summer (205) I really want to get there and finish it off and finally get to the maintenance phase.. I have begun considering what my target maintenance weight is once I reach 200… Right now my thoughts are as long as I stay between 200-205 I am good with that…


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## grumpy old biker (Jul 29, 2014)

Weight decrease and calorie intake does not always follow any sane logic.

I have been exploring alternatives for beef, found one quite nice, horse meat, price is same as beef, taste is lot better and protein/calorie balance is way better. Around 3% fat, 23% protein.

Works really well in pizza, taste is bit similar to kebab actually, also as cheese has very high fat % and thus high calorie content, horse meat balances out pizza really well.

Problem comes when you have horse loving daughters in family, even murder would be easier to get away :-\

Chicken is of course easy way, but it tastes, well, chicken, it has no richness in flavor what is needed from meat in pizza. 

But best taste from anything has been my experimenting with moose meat pizza, similar in calories, but taste is something which makes any other meat in pizza to taste rather plain. 
Cost of moose is around double compared to beef and horse, so definitely not your every day substitute, but when having friends over you can gain some points with it.


I'm lucky to have local farmer's meat shop nearby so I get these alternative options easily, not sure how available they are where you live. 


Now I'm on hunt for white tailed deer meat, that is not so easy to come buy, farmer's meat shop tells they can't get it, so not sure if I need to hunt one by myself.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

grumpy old biker said:


> Weight decrease and calorie intake does not always follow any sane logic.


I couldn't agree more...



grumpy old biker said:


> I'm lucky to have local farmer's meat shop nearby so I get these alternative options easily, not sure how available they are where you live.


I'm a city boy through and through so I can't say I've even seen most of the things you listed (available in meat form that is..), much less ever really considered them... I bet dinner conversations around your house are something else! I've pretty much found ways to employ chicken every chance I get... all about the preparation and the seasoning...


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

10-6-15 to 10-12-15
Moseying along.. All four workouts but two terrible days foodwise…

Workouts:
10-7-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 60, 5.36 miles, vert: 0, cal: 834); Push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Bad dinner = run like hell for an hour… 1-minute sprints at 9.8 mph with 2-minute cooldowns at 3.5 mph… Was pretty well wiped out after this…

10-8-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.34 miles, vert: 2212, cal: 727); Push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
Pretty good sweat on this one but results are down just a tad from last week

10-10-15. Road ride: (time: 1.33.57, 20.44 miles, 13.1 avg., vert: 1682, cal: 1010); Push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Heart wasn’t really into it but I had to do this ride for the calories as tailgating followed later that day.. All-in-all I got 11 trophies and set 3 PRs. The PRs were all on the climbs… I guess not being terribly motivated worked out for the day..

10-12-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 22, 2.09 miles, vert: 0, cal: 335)
Meeting and 2nd job… choice was to not do anything or at least get something in… Since time was short increased running speed to 6.5 (from typical 6.0) and ran until I hit 2 miles… skipped abs and push-ups

Food: My annual pilgrimage to Red Lobster for all you can eat shrimp… Used to do this 3-4x so once isn’t the end all… And another football game…. Otherwise the week was great!! (little self-depreciating humor there…)

Scale: 209 (+2). Know exactly what I did… 

Musings: 
No real thoughts to contribute..


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

10-13-15 to 10-19-15
Parental unit came to town for the weekend so missed a workout. Food was pretty good except for one day…

Workouts:
10-14-15. Road ride: (time: 45.49, 10.31 miles, 13.5 avg., vert: 884, cal: 535); Push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Day was too nice not to get some kind of a ride in, and since soccer isn’t currently an issue.. A little run-down at the moment so I went with the mindset of “it’s a short ride, so push it!” and made things happen… 8 medals for the ride, all of which were new PRs.. Within that, 7/8 were climbing in some fashion or another… Of course, as I was finishing the last climb of the ride “Mr. Man” comes cruising by me hardly breathing… I try to keep it all in perspective but it still bugs me when someone goes cruising by me…

10-15-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.42 miles, vert: 2532, cal: 785); Push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
Upped the speed to 3.5 for 2 of the 3 “peaks" on my personal incline routine. Results pretty much show this was a pretty good workout…

10-19-15. Treadmill-Alpine: (time: 60, 4.32 miles, vert: 937, cal: 745); Push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Wanted to do a bike ride but logistics weren’t in favor of that.. Got a pretty good workout.

Food: Birthday dinner and associated treats one day, otherwise the food stuff was pretty much where it should have been.

Scale: 209 (-0). Pretty wild ride this week on the scale.. Bounced up to 214 at one point but got it back down to where I was before. Considering we went out for pizza and I missed a workout I will take the results for the week.

Musings: 
Weather is starting to get noticeably cooler… Gonna get those logistics worked out and get some more riding in before the opportunity is gone..


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

10-20-15 to 10-26-15
After fighting and fighting (internally) the past few weeks I finally “broke” and ultimately took the weekend off from denying what I have been craving lately, and boy did I have to count some calories… Actually can’t believe the penalty wasn’t any bigger than it came out to be… Haven’t been on the bike but have kept up with the treadmill…

Workouts:
10-21-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 60, 5.67 miles, vert: 0, cal: 896); push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s 
After warming up, ran for 30 minutes straight at a little faster pace than previously attempted. Knocked 10 seconds off of each mile. Helluva run by my standards.. Push-ups were hard for some reason…

10-22-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.35 miles, vert: 2221, cal: 730)
Had to cut something out (there’s always something it seems) and since I usually cut the treadmill time down I decided to give my arms a break and skip the push-ups and core stuff

10-24-15. Treadmill-Sprint: (time: 27, 2.41 miles, vert: 0, cal: 391); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Early football game so sprints were in order to at least get some kind of a workout in beforehand.. Since the time was short I upped the speed a tad and reinstituted the last sprint at 11mph.. Felt good but tiring.. Arms still tired… Overall, not a bad workout for 40 minutes…

10-26-15. Treadmill-Incline: (time: 60, 3.34 miles, vert: 2230, cal: 729); Push-ups: 15/3x25; planking: 5m 0s
Standard workout.. Arms felt a little better but still not up to par… Curious…

Food: Had a good week until the weekend… I was trying and trying to maintain some semblance of “normalcy” this weekend but I eventually said “hell with it” and gave in to a pretty crappy weekend food wise… You name it and it probably happened… I think I finally hit rock bottom though as I have been slipping little bit by little bit the past few weeks and I feel as I have regained some of my focus now that I finally bottomed out and just went with it…

Scale: 210 (+1). I will take it considering what all I did this weekend…
Musings: 
As has been the theme with this report, I think I have finally had my break and consumed that which I have been wanting.. Hopefully that baby is put to bed for a while..

Have really been missing the bike the past few weeks but the calendar just keeps getting filled…On top of that, have kind of fallen into the habit of the treadmill being right there ready to go and being able to knock out the workout before moving on to whatever else it is I need to be doing.. This isn’t a bad thing as calorie-for-calorie it is a better workout but riding is obviously way more fun (duh!!!) Hope the weather holds out…


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## grumpy old biker (Jul 29, 2014)

I did loose over 7 pounds last week on my scale, had bit more calorie deficit and lots of more log hauling in swamp forest, best day 5.5 hours non stop sweating.

Around 2 pounds of those have came back, that is liquid balance, during the day hydration changes easily that 2 pounds, some days even 4 pounds just from liquids, that is dehydration.

Currently almost exactly at 220, every day loosing a little, solely by calculating and weighting what I eat and burning any excess off by some form of exercise.

That slipping happens, I try to make sure that I don't deny too much from myself, but I also require myself to burn any excess out before bedtime. I find that works best for me, probably not for everyone.


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

10-27-15 to 11-2-15
This week was better than the last few but still not ideal. Lost a workout due to meetings but did get a bike ride in and it was pretty fun!

Workouts:
10-28-15. Nay, meetings at work..

10-29-15. Treadmill-Alpine: (time: 60, 4.32 miles, vert: 937, cal: 734); Push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Upped the incline another tad so now going up to 12%... could probably do 13..

10-31-15. Mtn bike ride: (time: 1.16.28, 9.92 miles, 7.0 avg., vert: 1090, cal: 651); push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Not quite the ride I had planned on (was trying to get to a place I hadn’t ridden before here in town but logistics..) but I still had fun. It has been a couple of weeks since last real ride so it was refreshing to get out there… Borrowed a gopro and shot the interesting parts of the ride.. Sadly, video doesn’t really convey the incline/decline very well… Yet ANOTHER random crash (not on video, sorry…) for no reason.. Damn gremlins are getting on my nerves… 

11-2-15. Treadmill-Run: (time: 60, 5.14 miles, vert: 50, cal: 780); Push-ups: 15/3x25; abs: 4x25
Seem to have lost a little distance for some incline… Haven’t been feeling well the past few days (yet another cold coming on…) so wsa pretty tired about ½ way through.. Still made it though…

Food: Had a good week until the weekend… I was trying and trying to maintain some semblance of “normalcy” this weekend but I eventually said “hell with it” and gave in to a pretty crappy weekend food wise… You name it and it probably happened… I think I finally hit rock bottom though as I have been slipping little bit by little bit the past few weeks and I feel as I have regained some of my focus now that I finally bottomed out and just went with it…

Scale: 209 (-1). Well, can’t say I was a perfect angel with all of the Halloween candy laying around… But, still managed to drop one so I’ll take it…
Musings: 
Not quite the food rebound I thought I was going to have (still screwing around some) but better than the last two weeks that’s for sure.. 

Pretty much been on cruise control the past few weeks and can’t seem to snap myself out of it.. I guess the good thing is that my insistence on working out is part of the cruise control.. On the other side, I need to continue to regain the focus in the food department…


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

grumpy old biker said:


> That slipping happens, I try to make sure that I don't deny too much from myself, but I also require myself to burn any excess out before bedtime. I find that works best for me, probably not for everyone.


I think that's what I have been going through lately in that I have been denying myself of "bad" stuff for a while and finally broke down and had some and now it seems I can't get enough... I try and do the same thing you do (work it off within a day) but that doesn't always work out... Mental thing I guess..


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## grumpy old biker (Jul 29, 2014)

How is your weight loss journey going? 

I'm at 196.5 pounds now myself, mostly just weighting and booking everything I eat, measuring any activity with heart rate monitor and making sure I stay at deficit. 

Not much to drop anymore, any more than 15 pounds and I'm overdoing it, might be that only 10 pounds is at limit, I think that I'm cutting deficit now to be quite bit less and try to do workouts which should help rest of the fat to turn into muscle, well, I wish!

Long time heard how it has been going with your adventure, don't give up, even if you slip, it is about lifestyle not so much about getting less weight, with lifestyle changes weight loss is side effect, fat percentage decrease is a result


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## la10slgr (May 1, 2012)

grumpy old biker said:


> How is your weight loss journey going?
> 
> I'm at 196.5 pounds now myself, mostly just weighting and booking everything I eat, measuring any activity with heart rate monitor and making sure I stay at deficit.
> 
> ...


Still puttering along but obviously not with the diligence required to keep up with the updates... I was really feeling the burden of all the documentation (the workouts, the meals, the posts, etc..) All that on top of working 55 +/- hours a week and once the holiday season started to roll around something had to give... Turns out it was the updates here and the food documentation.. To top it off, had a foot injury that sidelined me for a while.. However, once I mostly recovered, I kept up with the workouts and am still solid at 4 days a week... All things said and done, I found 10 pounds that I lost somewhere so I need to get that taken care of... At minimum I will try to get back in the habit of these updates but I need to find a quick and easy way vs. what I was doing... Stay tuned and thanks for asking!

And good job you on getting to where you need to be!!!


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## grumpy old biker (Jul 29, 2014)

la10slgr said:


> Still puttering along but obviously not with the diligence required to keep up with the updates... I was really feeling the burden of all the documentation (the workouts, the meals, the posts, etc..) All that on top of working 55 +/- hours a week and once the holiday season started to roll around something had to give... Turns out it was the updates here and the food documentation.. To top it off, had a foot injury that sidelined me for a while.. However, once I mostly recovered, I kept up with the workouts and am still solid at 4 days a week... All things said and done, I found 10 pounds that I lost somewhere so I need to get that taken care of... At minimum I will try to get back in the habit of these updates but I need to find a quick and easy way vs. what I was doing... Stay tuned and thanks for asking!
> 
> And good job you on getting to where you need to be!!!


Great to hear news from you, despite the fact that life is throwing some challenges at you, they will eventually just make you stronger!

For me, I have spreadsheet like this, of course it gets completely messed up when posted here, but maybe you get the idea:
Corr. Cal	HRM cal	Hours	Cal total	Cal eaten	BMR balance	Deficit	Deficit %
908;	1106;	2,17;	3098;	2345;	455;	-753; 24 %;

All exercise I do with heart rate monitor, that logs time and calories, then I have another spreadsheet where I put how much I eat and it calculates calories which I put to table above, it is quite quick to do after working all the formulas into spreadsheet.

I weight myself every morning and evening, at morning I also do waist measurement which is currently most important measurement I follow.

So I don't log exercise type or any other details, I think burned calorie is burned calorie, no matter what the sweat was 

Problem is that posting that data would really require screenshot as copy paste messes up lines and columns, so it might not help you to get updates done faster, but logging stuff might be more important after all so you know where you get extra calories as that is probably main thing when reducing weight.

For example exercise of 1000 calories a day will be roughly 1/3rd of total daily energy expenditure, that is 2000 calories for living + 1000 calories for exercise = 3000 calories a day and that is quite lot of exercise if one manages to do 1000 calories per day as an average.

So based on that, when time is tight, it might be more beneficial to drop part of exercise in favor of time spent with calorie counting.

I'm at 192.5 pounds now and mainly I have been focusing on knowing how many calories I eat/drink, weather has been excuse for my lack of exercise. Maybe changing focus on calories might help also you more than exercise?

1/4 pound of protein per day split on two serving seem to also help me a lot, keeps hunger and cravings in check, carbohydrates have been less than 1/2 pound, often around 1/4 pound, I need to really make me eat twice a day, I would be okay to eat only half what I eat, but in two days I would start to feel terrible because lacking of proper nutrition.

Of course it might not work same way for you, but those tricks have really made a difference with me.


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## Jing (Sep 4, 2013)

Hey Grumpy, what do you use for a heart rate monitor? I'm starting to track all this better myself. Thanks


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## grumpy old biker (Jul 29, 2014)

Jing said:


> Hey Grumpy, what do you use for a heart rate monitor? I'm starting to track all this better myself. Thanks


I have lowest price unit I could find, it is Sigma brand, I had better Sigma brand, but 266F in sauna was too much for chest belt it seems as it started to warp and does not get registered anymore, so if you like hot sauna, don't try to dry the belt in sauna with you.

This current one is PC10.11, it does not record even maximum heart rate, only average, calories, time and time in zone, it does have 2 pre-set intensity ranges and one user set, so very basic unit, does not have even back light in it.
You might get something with better features for same price on your market area:
Amazon.com : Sigma PC10.11 Heart Rate Monitor (Grey) : Waterproof Heart Rate Monitor : Sports & Outdoors

I think that I shovel some money out to these two soon, so I can get my bike rides tracked in Strava or Sports tracker with heart rate curve, that would perhaps help to plan rides and follow development little better.
VKWORLD VK700X Android 5.1 Quad-Core 3G Phone w/ 5.0" IPS HD, GPS, 8.0MP+5.0MP, 8GB ROM, Wi-Fi - Free Shipping - DealExtreme
Bluetooth 4.0 Heart Rate Monitor Strap for Iphone 4S / 5 / Ipod Touch 5 / Ipad 3 / 4 - Black - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

That would be a lot cheaper option than Polar GPS + HRM belt. Accompanied with some proper handle bar mount/cover I think it would be quite durable setup too.

I'm mostly interested from climbs so rate of climb and heart rate would be interesting for me. Also I'm starting running so that is where some stats would help too.

That said, even the most basic heart rate monitor is good investment, it is so much easier to keep at right intensity zone when HRM beeps to push harder or ease off a bit, getting some idea of burned calories is nice thing too. Also rather simple to use and very fast and easy to get calories from it are a bonus over a smartphone + Bluetooth chest strap, price will also be somewhat lower.


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## AndyMc2006 (Mar 12, 2014)

grumpy old biker said:


> Great to hear news from you, despite the fact that life is throwing some challenges at you, they will eventually just make you stronger!
> 
> For me, I have spreadsheet like this, of course it gets completely messed up when posted here, but maybe you get the idea:
> Corr. Cal HRM cal Hours Cal total Cal eaten BMR balance Deficit Deficit %
> ...


Thanks for posting this stuff I am 6ft 4" 255lbs, down from 262. Goal is 235 in 3months. I have a fitbit surge that keeps track of everything and I use a calorie tracker app. I am 52 and in descent fitness but this is first honest attempt to eat healthier and take the weight off


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## bavass (May 9, 2016)

Love the thread. I started in May 5'9" 300lbs down to 276. I'm having a blast riding on the road and some trails. Getting better each week. My breathing is so much better, along with blood pressure (not that it was high before). My resting heart rate has dropped from 83 to 58.


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