One year of exercise in the books....

Today is the one year anniversary of Echelon.  I still think about that day in Costco and Merinda and I both thinking about the bike at the same time.   Yes, I did ask about the hot tub, but that's because I didn't think she would use it and I think I was right.  It was a tough year for her so we'll see how this year goes. 

I made a post on the Echelon groups and it was surprisingly difficult for me.   I'm feeling pretty emotional about this anniversary because of what a remarkable year it was.   I made a lot of positive changes for myself and exceeded every goal I could have imagined this past year, and I feel grateful to the Echelon community for helping me achieve them.   It's so much more than a piece of exercise equipment and I struggled to verbalize my feelings about that.  I didn't want to mention anyone by name there because I didn't want to skip anyone, but there was some irony in this falling on a tuesday.   My very first live ride was Sam's cadence 20 and I still take that class every week, so it felt right to ride that this morning.  

Since I've been metric driven all year let me share what I've accomplished this year:

• 761 rides
• 4706.21 miles
• 107 pounds lost

This doesn't even describe the changes in my health this past year or that I've had to buy all new clothes since all my old clothes don't fit, yes my waist went from a 44+ to a 36.  The last bit is the impact it's made on me.  I've had self image issues for so long that it's just been a part of my life, but for the first time I can remember, I feel good about myself.   I'm pleased with the way I look and feel and that is a welcome change.  

This year I have a few things to look forward to...  I'm going to start taking scuba lessons at some point.   That was one of the things I wanted to do if I lost weight.  Second, I'm going to get my cube for 1000 rides.   I expect that sometime in March.   Merinda and I have a few trips planned, and being healthier makes them so much more enjoyable.  

With that it's into year 2 of my fitness journey...  Thanks and talk soon!

That was quick...

 Upon some further reflection, and feeling shattered for most of yesterday, I've decided that trying to hit 450 miles for this month isn't feasible.  I mean, could I do it?   Yes, I could, but I think it's pushing myself much harder than I need to, so I think I'll revisit that goal.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

 I've always loved Christmas.   It is by far my favorite holiday.   I like Christmas movies, TV shows, decorations, the meals and of course Christmas day.   Coming from a divorced family I usually spent Christmas with my mom and as such associate it with family.  It's not meant as a slam or slight against my father, but I lived with my mother and my sister after the divorce and they *were* my family.  Sadly my mom passed away almost 17 years ago, but we're going to spend Christmas in Ireland with my mother-in-law, and I'm excited to finally get to have a true Boxing Day :) 

That said, I had a great November.   I'm maintaining my weight, actually I've lost a little more despite Thanksgiving, and have maintained my focus on exercise and demolished my mileage target for the month.  Let's look at what I wanted to accomplish:

• Maintain Weight
• Ride 450 miles - I am trying to hit 500
• Walk 20 miles
• Perfect Month in Apple

Weight results:

• Starting Weight: 225.9
• Ending Weight: 219.1
• Net Loss: (6.80)
• Total Loss: (108.90)

Exercise info:

• Number of rides: 99
• Time on exercise: 01:08:18:09
• Distance on rides: 608.24
• Number of walks: 6
• thTime walking: 2:38
• Distance walking: 7.3

Results:

Well as usual I didn't get my walking goal.   I tried to get there, but for some reason I seem to fall short of it.   Why?   I've been riding a lot this past month and I'm usually too tired to go for a walk afterwards.  I'm not going to mince words, it is what it is.   I thought I'd walk more when I was in Virginia for Thanksgiving, but ended up using my sister in law's bike instead.  I'll try again this month, and with us being in Ireland for 10 days or so, I'll need to walk to hit my exercise goals.   That said, I crushed everything else.   I set distance goals every month and I thought after hitting 500 the past two months I'd probably be around that.   Boy was I wrong...   I ended up hitting 600 miles this past month which was a substantial jump in distance.   It's almost assuredly from the challenge I joined but I'm not goign to complain.  In line with that I exceeded all my apple goals, as well as some other challenges I joined.  I don't expect that kind of mileage for December since I'll only be home for 21 days, but I am gunning for 450 miles which will be a stretch.   Good thing Merinda is away this weekend so I can try for a 50 mile day.

Alright lets set some goals for December:

• Maintain Weight
• Ride 450 miles
• Walk 20 miles
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple December exercise goal
• Gold in my December challenge

These look familiar because these are the same goals I set last month.  With the exception of the mileage goal, which I would have set at 550 this month if we were staying home, these will stay consistent going forward.   I just want to stay healthy and fit.  I really can't work out in Ireland, so it's going to be mostly walking and lower goals while I'm there.   Since Apple wants me to hit 79 minutes of exercise for the December goal I'm going to be busy.  I also need to be a little more careful with my weight.   I lost some more weight this month without trying so I need to tweak my diet a bit.

Final Thoughts:

I was pleasantly surprised by this past month.   I thought I'd gain some weight over Thanksgiving, but that wasn't the case.   Yes, we had food, hell I ate at two disparate Thanksgivings as well as some other junk, but I don't remember feeling like I'd grossly overeaten.  I just don't want to drop any more weight and I think 215 should be my floor.  Another thing from this past month is that I was able to set a bunch of PR's on Teresa's bike.   It's a lot "easier" so I will miss it because I have records that are going to take a long time for me to match.   I guess that's ok because I need to stay focused, but I'm not gonna lie...   It was fun finishing first in a class, and I did get a second today, but as they say those are  first world problems.  Maybe I'll try to buy her bike :)

Pretty busy at work today so this is going to be short.   Have a great month and as my year echelon anniversary is coming in 2 weeks we'll talk soon.  

About Obesity.....

<rant>

This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but quite frankly I don't give a shit.  I do believe that being obese is a choice.   If you've been reading my posts for the past year then you should be aware that I've struggled with my weight for over 40 years.   Yes, you read that correctly 40 maybe 45 years, so I think I have perspective here.  I got fat because I ate a lot of junk.   Candy, soda, other sweet fattening foods.   You don't think so?   Let me break it down, I would, and DID, eat 1/2 a large pizza or more, drink 2 liter bottles of soda, eat candy bars, fried wings etc...   I can guess why,   I was unhappy about moving, my parents divorce, unpopular with girls etc.....    It doesn't matter.   Some people use drugs or alcohol to feel better about themselves, I used food and as such I ate like a pig and I looked like one.  

Long story short, I've lost weight and gained it back at least five, or maybe six times.  I've weighed well over 300 pounds, had type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, arthritis, joint issues and back pain.

What I can't abide is this nonsense now about "body shaming" and how weight loss works.   If you're fat, you're fat.   Period.  I'm willing to bet most people who are fat are there because they overeat and dont exercise.   No, NOT ALL, but most.  Sure there are people who have medical conditions, but that's a small portion of society.   Humans haven't always been obese, it's a relatively recent change and I believe that our society pushes this on us, and specifically American society.   Fast food is utter garbage and will make you fat.   Most restaurants serve portions that are equivalent to an entire days worth of calories.  We spend all day sitting at our desks, watch television all night, drive everywhere and eat processed food and yet I'm supposed to believe people don't choose to be fat?   And if you think I haven't been made fun of for being fat guess again.   I've been called every name under the sun, and then some.  I asked four, YES FOUR girls to my senior prom and all of them said no, so I know all about feeling humiliated.  I was too proud or ashamed to go solo, so I missed my prom.  Yes it sucked, I cried about it, and it hurt more than I can remember.  So don't tell me being called fat hurts your feelings.   Of course it does.  Grow up.  Life is hard, it frequently sucks, people are mean.   Stop asking society to accomodate you, stop asking society to make excuses for you.  Take responsibility for yourself.

Look, I really don't care what people do, as long as it doesn't directly affect me or my family.   If you want to overeat, do so.  I love food too.  I really do.  It's part of why I wanted to start the food truck, but I had to accept that I can't eat giant portions and be healthy.   That is a fact.  We went on our cruise and I remember seeing someone one morning who was grossly overweight, and this person had 2 full plates of food for breakfast.   Piled high with food.  Maybe two days of calores in one sitting.   I'm sorry, that is a choice.   I too made a choice, I got up a little earlier, went to the gym and did a little exercise and then had some huevos rancheros.  Is the difference clear?    Thanksgiving was last week here in the US.   We went to two thanksgiving dinners, and I ate at both of them, yet I didn't eat until I felt sick like I used to, and I even exercised in the morning.

Listen, I'm not saying what I did will work for everyone, but I refuse to believe that people can't take responsibility for their LIFE DECISIONS, and change them, and it won't work for MOST people.   Everything in life that's meaningful takes time and effort.   I say this all the time, it's easy to get fat.   Eat what you want, don't exercise and see what happens.  However, if you want to lose weight, without drugs which I think is only a short term fix, and keep it off you need to address the reason you're overweight.  I had a friend ask me how I lost weight, and my answer was "a lot of hard work" and that's it.   I do my best to stay accountable to myself and stay disciplined.  It's ok to splurge, eat some dessert, have an extra helping of stuffing or sweet potatoes, but you can't let that snowball back into bad habits, and remember that you still have to burn off those calories at some point, just like if you spend extra money on fun stuff, you still have to sacrifice somewhere else...

</rant>

Happy Halloween

 Halloween is one of those holidays I just don't get.  My family never made a big deal about it, and I never liked dressing up in costume.  Maybe it's because I didn't have any kids of my own, but once I stopped wanting to go trick or treating I stopped looking forward to it.  I have nothing against it, and we get candy for the kids, although we barely see any, but I don't get into costume parties etc...   If that's your thing enjoy, for me I'll pass.   I don't really need or want the candy in the house either.   I'm much better at willpower when there isn't a giant Costco sized bag of chocolate in the house calling to me by name.

So I hit my weight goal this month and it's been different.   I'm definitely eating a bit more and I've been successfully keeping my weight around 225.   It's only been three weeks but it's a start and given past experiences this will be harder than losing the weight.  I did join a pile of challenges through the Echelon community so I'm using those to keep my motivation up, but we're also going up to VA for ten days or so for Thanksgiving and my sister-in-law's 50th birthday.   The good news is she has an echelon bike which I can use, the bad news is they don't cook at all so it's on Merinda and I to make sure we have decent food.  On that note, let's recap what I planned for October:

• Weigh 225
• Ride 450 miles
• Walk 25 miles
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Get the October exercise goal in Apple.
• Finish the TDE

Weight results:

• Starting Weight: 230.90
• Ending Weight: 225.90
• Net Loss: (5.00)
• Total Loss: (102.10)

Exercise info:

• Number of rides: 86
• Time on exercise: 01:06:07:51
• Distance on rides: 537.29
• Number of walks: 10
• Time walking: 06:21
• Distance walking: 18.3

Results:

All things considered, I would have to call this a mixed month.   The good is I hit my overall weight loss goal and have stayed right where I want to be.   I destroyed my mileage goal on the bike, and in fact had my best month yet.  I hit all the apple goals I wanted, including the walking one, which I thought would be difficult.   However I did miss a few things, some by design, some by accident.  I didn't finish the TDE.   Those long hills classes seem very daunting, and typically when I have an "on-demand" day I watch some Picard while doing a just pedal 60.   I also found out that Echelon finally added a group for the 2023 TDE but they didn't credit me for the 17 stages I completed, just the one I did this month, so in order to get the accomplishment I would need to restart it.  I also seem to have missed my walking total again.   Not sure how that came about, because I had to record 30 miles in Apple to get the October award, but it happened and I'm disappointed.

So lets talk about November and what that looks like.

November Goals:

• Maintain Weight
• Ride 450 miles - I am trying to hit 500
• Walk 20 miles
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple November exercise goal

I think these are going to start looking familiar.  I'm going to have a few days off the bike this month due to travel so I didn't increase my distance target.   To be honest, I'd like to bump it to 500 miles for this month/next month, but I'm not sure how I can hit that without becoming a complete exercise junkie.  If I took a few more days off, which I probably should, I'd be under 500 this month and I'm not going to set goals that require all out effort to hit.   On a brighter note, I'm in the #longwayup challenge, which is a team based mileage challenge, so that will encourage me to ride further if not always harder, so I might start sacrificing output for distance.   I'm going to try for 500 this month but it's a soft goal, so not reall.  I'm also going to try to walk more, like I do every month, because cross training is important.  The rest should be self-explanatory.  I didn't work my fucking ass off for 10 months to gain it all back so those are lifestyle changes and will be here to stay.

Final thoughts:

I knew this time would come, and I am struggling a little bit.   Not with the exercise motiviation, although a lazy day sounds awesome, but with my diet.  It's hard to sacrifice for almost a year and then continue to sacrifice.   I remember why it was so easy to fall into bad habits now.   It's natural to want to reward yourself, and to be honest I do reward myself.   We went to Berns for dinner, and I ate a lot of food.   Steak, potato, onion soup, salad, pate and bread pudding.   I didn't finish all of it, although I brought 1/2 the steak home, but it was easily the largest meal I've had in a very long time and I just have to keep reminding myself that I can't be a pig.  I still log my food intake and I am on a calorie budget because I need help with that, yes it's 1000 calories/day higher than it was when I was trying to lose weight.   The next two months should be a good test with being away for both Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as my birthday..   Wish me luck!

I've rambled for what seems like a while.   Happy Halloween and talk soon...

One year ago...

 I know I'm almost at the end of the month, and normally I might have waited for a few more days but I was reminded of the actual event that triggered my desire to affect change and thought I'd share it.

You see it was one year ago, October 28th 2022 that Merinda and I went to see a band play at the Woodwright.   It was a Grateful Dead inspired event that she found for me and she even dressed up in a "costume" of sorts.   Normally the type of event I would enjoy, but I couldn't.  I was in such bad shape that standing for more than 20 minutes, yes the event was standing room only, was effectively impossible for me, and I was in severe pain and we had to go find somewhere for me to sit down.

John and Merinda Oct. 2022

The thought of becoming a cripple at 54 years old was a very sobering moment for me.   I would say "what about in 10 years", but the reality was that I was going to be a crippled in five if I didn't make some changes and make them quickly.

Sick

I have to admit that I've been lucky about getting sick this year.   I haven't been sick since around New Years when I had the flu, no it wasn't Covid, I was supposed to see the doctor and was tested and it came back for flu-b.  I assumed it was Covid, but I seem to attract the flu on cruises.   Regardless of past history, getting sick is never fun and while I'm grateful that I don't get sick often, it's still no fun and this is an inopportune time.  Matthew turns thirty this week and Merinda wants to go see him, and as she got sick first we're hoping it's not Covid, and it doesn't seem like it, stuffy nose and light congestion.  I'm pretty sure it's just a cold, but in the covid era everyone jumps to the assumption that it's Covid.   That's what I did in January too, but the seasons are changing and its that time of year.   Family is important, but that's not the focus here and this is also less than ideal for me.  You see I just started two, yes two, challenges to help keep me motivated to workout.   One is a weekly challenge to do three or more thirty minute workouts and the other is a team based distance challenge.

So....   Long story short the alarm went off this morning and I decided to skip the 8am cadence class.   I was feeling ok yesterday and last night but it was a little too much this morning.   I'm definitely feeling less than 100% and have a stuffy nose and cough.  I have backup classes I like to take in case I just miss early ones for work, but feeling .  I just have to figure out how to pull my weight in my team challenge, and get two more thirty minute workouts in this week.   I know, first world problems, but I'm not trying to solve world peace, just stay fit.

Overtraining

 Yes, I'm posting a bit more but I'm trying to figure out my path so, as Merinda would say, bear with me...   I've been thinking about over training lately and whether I've fallen into that trap.   I pushed very hard at the end to get to my target weight and that's left me feeling drained.   Now add in that I'm fitter than I've been for a while and some distance goals and I find myself needing to work out more and more right at the point where I want to add some rest days in and do other activities like walking in lieu of a day on the bike.   You see, I've wanted to compete in a triathalon since the 90's.   Back when I was running I knew I couldn't be competitive at my age group in a run, but I could bike and swim, so I thought a triathalon might be fun.   No, I have no aspirations on an ironman or anything like that, but a sprint triathalon (5k run, .5 mile swim and 25-30 mile bike)?   Sure.

That's going to mean time off the bike.   That means my bike workouts need to be longer to meet my 450 mile goal.   Now I'm not planning on starting triathalon training today, or even this month, I am planning on days off.   Even at one day off per week I'll need to average slightly over 18 miles/day to hit my goal this month.

Here's the problem.   Although I felt strong today, it was a really nice change but probably due to a decent nights sleep and a fair amount of protien and carbs yesterday, it hasn't been my recent experience.   I was fatigued on Friday and Sunday and only did a 30 minute low impact on Saturday trying to give myself a break.  I felt overworked all of last week, but that could have been stress.

It's just shaping up to be a tough month.   I still need to walk two miles eleven more times this month, the good part is I get to eat more.   Maybe more just pedal 60's or long endurance rides and fewer 20's which goes well with the long distance challenge starting on the 15th.

Let's see how this week goes....  

Goal achieved...

I expected to hit my weight goal this month, but I didn't expect to hit it in the first week, and with everything else going on it feels a little bittersweet and anti-climactic.  Regardless, I was  surprised this morning when I weighed under 225.   By the way, Lose It if you see this, maybe you should make those milestones something that shows up.   I got something at every milestone except for the ones where you hit your goal, or even the weight lost.  For the record this is approximately one hundred pounds I've lost.   Probably a little more from my peak, but I didn't get on the scale then.

So, where do I go from here?

Well, my plan is to make this the exception and keep the weight off.   How do I plan to do that?  I'm going to continue to target 30+ minutes of exercise a day, weigh myself, and continue to log my meals.   Those are changes from previous times when I've lost weight.   Normally I "celebrate" and almost immediately start going back to where I was.   To avoid that I've done a few things to help me along with this.   First was buying an actual bike.   We're in nice weather season here in Florida and I should be able to go for an actual ride next weekend.  Second was joining the distance challenge through Echelon.   I'm on a team and I do better when there's either competition or someone is relying on me.   I'm going to continue to do those.   Third is Merinda wants to get a little more fit, so we're starting to go for walks and I'm very happy to swap some riding days for those.  In line with that I'm considering changing my workout routine and swap in some evening rides instead of only the morning.   Yeah, I prefer morning rides, but I did a few evening rides over the past two weeks and remembered that I like those instructors too.   So, I might have to add in a Tuesday/Thursday night ride.

That brings me to my last topic today and it's fatigue.  I accepted this at the end of September because I was pushing myself very hard to hit my targets, but I didn't expect to feel shattered this morning.   Janet's class felt a little hard and I got into zone 5, but it wasn't until I got into Sam's class that I crashed.   I struggled with the arms and then could barely keep myself going during the intervals and if I'm being honest I thought I might have to quit.  I fought my way through the rest of the morning but damn...   Yeah I worked out last night, and can accept my arms/shoulders being shredded but not sure about the bike workout.  It's not like I really stretched myself here.  I'm going to take it easy tomorrow, go to yoga in the morning and maybe try a low impact ride afterwards, and then do my normal Sunday workout, and maybe I just need some days to recover.   One thing I did last night was to take a bath with some muscle soak in it.   It felt great but my blood pressure was pretty low afterwards and it took me a while to stop sweating afterwards.   I guess I'm just a sweaty bastard and if my BP keeps crashing I'll talk to the doctor again.

Anyway, on to the next episode...   Have a great weekend and talk soon!

Loss

 The past 24 hours have been pretty rough here.   I've been planning to start a business with a friend of mine who happens to be an outstanding chef.  I'm not exaggerating, he is truly gifted.  So we've been talking about it and finally started planning this year.   Earlier this summer we put things in motion and he came to Florida to start kicking the tires.

What I didn't know was that he has a serious drinking problem.   The kind of problem where you can't stop once you start.

We closed our eyes to it because we thought "he's on a mini vacation... Once we start working it will get better"..

Fast forward to last month and he arrives.  First thing he wants to do is drink...   Ok, fine we're celebrating the launch of the business...  He spends 2-3 days drunk/hungover and then we get going.   Get licensed, get inspected, all that stuff.   Meanwhile he's still having benders every 5-7 days, yes in three weeks we had three benders, all of which went 2-3 days.  I feel like I can't relax at home because if I have a drink I have to offer him one, but I don't need to get wasted every night, nor do I want to finish every bottle I open, and to be honest we were over after effects.   I might have dealth with the drunk time, but it was the mood swings and all around shitty attitude we couldn't take.

It's a last weekend and we're finally set for an event this coming Friday.  We're having a nice relaxing Sunday talking about the event, making some snacks for football, and he starts drinking beer.   Two beers in he goes "Lets drink tonight!"   I say no because of all the above, plus I don't want a hangover on Monday for work.   He sighs, then goes and buys a handle of vodka.   Proceeeds to drink half that night and the other half once he got up on Monday.   Tries to do some work on Monday but kept drinking and passed out in the afternoon.   Missed all the planned work activities on Tuesday either sleeping, or sulking or watching videos.   Finally, around 6pm Merinda and I confront him and he couldn't give a shit.   Made no effort to say he was sorry, wrong, hell anything beyond asking "what did you do today?".   Mind you I was ordering items for the popup *and* working my 9-5 which is funding the startup.   At that point I lost it and pulled the plug on the business and after a day of him sulking and not talking to use he finally left this evening.   This was every bit as awkward and unpleasant as you can imagine.  It wasn't dissimiliar from the last time I saw my first wife when she moved out of our home.

As I commented to someone, it's one thing to have a friend who's an addict, it's something different to have it be a business partner that you have to rely on.   He was the chef and chief food guy, he made all the decisions yet I was told I was controlling.

I have an alcoholic father, I was in my 30's when I told him he wasn't welcome to be in my life anymore because he behaved like my friend (yes dad got sober).   My wife has an alcoholic mother who also behaves like this and neither of us wanted to be someone's nanny.  I don't want to worry that this is the weekend where he won't be able to work and fucks up our business, and as I learned it won't be the first time.

Regardless, I'm feeling pretty low.  Yes the business failure is disappointing, but more importantly I've lost a friend that I've known for over a decade and I just hope he finds help before he ends up in a worse place...

Hug your loved ones....   Be safe....

Fall...

I like living in Florida, I really do.   I don't mind the heat and humidity and have no issues with the summer here.   I was glad to trade snow and ice for the heat.   We have a pool and I jump in when it's hot or I can go in the air conditioned house.  That said, it's amazing here when the summer heat finally breaks and we get into the cooler weather.   It also is bringing some welcome changes for my exercise routine as I'm hoping to finally get some cross training and a little less bike time.   It's not that I'm sick of the bike, but since I'm effectively at my goal I'm trying to find the happy medium where I can maintain my weight and exercise routine.

So with all that said lets talk about September.  Here were the goals I set:

• Weigh 230 or less
• Ride 400 miles
• Walk 15 miles
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Get the September exercise goal in Apple.
• Finish the TDE

Weight results:

• Starting Weight: 237.64
• Ending Weight: 229.30
• Net Loss: (8.34)
• Total Loss: (98.70)

Exercise info:

• Number of rides: 89
• Time on exercise: 01:05:58:52
• Distance on rides: 515.57
• Number of walks: 4
• Time walking: 02:02
• Distance walking: 6.2

Results:

I like to start with what went well and I hit all my major goals.   I hit my weight goal, I crushed my bike distance goal, more on that in a minute, had a perfect month in Apple and achieved the September exercise goal.  What I didn't expect was to hit the end of the month and discover that I needed five days of 80+ minutes of exercise to hit my September challenge.   I assumed this would be no problem, do my regular workouts then go for a stroll at night and I'll get that, easy peasy.   Wrong.   Being more fit means my heart rate doesn't spike during a walk and it's not a workout.....  Needless to say I had to push myself on the bike a lot more than I planned and really burned my legs out in that last week.   Yeah I demolished my mileage goal, hell I had my first 500+ mile month, but I need some rest days, and I need them pretty badly.  By the end of last week I was feeling shattered and struggling on the bike and I hit bottom on Saturday when I was barely able to keep pace in my class.   I finished but it was a struggle and I was far below what I expected in terms of pace and output.  Let me finish by saying I also missed two goals last month.  I didn't walk enough nor did I finish the TDE.  I still have three long hills and a speed class to go and have no excuses.   That said, it ended up being a decent month and I was satisfied with the month. 

So, lets talk about October.   Getting to the "end" doesn't mean going back to the old ways and here's what I want to do this month:

October Goals:

• Weigh 225
• Ride 450 miles
• Walk 25 miles
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Get the October exercise goal in Apple.
• Finish the TDE

Yeah these should look familiar.   My monthly fitness goals are probably going to look like this going forward although some will vary but these are all tied to specific activities and challenges.    My revised weight goal has been 225 for a while.  I just want to get there and maintain it for a while.   I don't think I need to be "skinnier" although I'd be happy to lose some stubborn belly.  I know a flat stomach is out of the question, but it's demoralizing to work this hard and have handles I can grab that I know will never go away.   Not just a pinch either but a fistful of flab.  Hopefully if I keep working I'll trade some of that for muscle and can tone myself up.   Time will tell, but if it doesn't resolve itself I'll talk to the doctor about it and see what I can do.  I think the ride and exercise goals are pretty self explanatory.   Apple has a workout goal to walk two miles fourteen times this month, so I should get that for a change and it will help me with some variety and days off the bike.  Merinda is interested in getting in better shape so we're going to try to walk two miles a few days per week to get both of us moving.   I'm also hoping to get this food side hustle going and that's going to take away my weekend workout times after this coming weekend so we'll see how that impacts things.   Not sure how I'll finish the TDE this month, but I'll just slug away at it as I only have three long classes left.

Final Thoughts:

I'm heading into what's traditionally been tough times for me.   Typically, once I get rolling I can hit my weight loss goal and feel great then I start eating more and working out less and eventually end up back where I started.   I'm trying to avoid that this time.   I just don't want to throw away all the work I did this year.   Yes, I had a cheat weekend in terms of food, but I did work out all weekend and to be fair, I needed it.   As I already said I was pretty shattered by Sunday.  I skipped Dani's class because I needed some rest and I wasn't sure how I'd do physically that morning.   I did sixty minutes later while watching the red zone, but it was well needed both physically and mentally.  Other things that are exciting are I installed the challenges app last month and like it.   I've got three challenges going this month so= I hope it's going to keep Merinda and I motivated, and I joined a long distance echelon challenge which starts on the 15th (go east coast riders!).   I'll post some updates about that, but it sounds like fun and should keep my mileage up, especially since I still have a 450 mile target for the month.  I'm hoping the walking days help me with fatigue.  Still have to get the Bianchi in for a tuneup but the weather is getting nice and maybe riding outdoors will help.  TLDR?  This should be the last month of losing weight and hope these other things help me lose the last few pounds and stay on track.

I did forget to mention that 10/1/2023 was eleven years of no smoking...  I miss it sometimes but c'est la vie.  That's more than enough for a Monday morning, so have a great month...   Talk soon.

500...

A year ago I would have laughed if you told me that I would have done 500+ spin classes in a year, but here we are.   I don't really comment on ride counts, weight loss or any of the fitness things I've done anywhere but here, because I'm not doing any of this for accolades or praise, don't get me wrong I like it but that's not what drives me.   However, I do want the cube and I'm halfway there.

Someone else posted this image, thank you Tom, and it completely describes my focus.   I was looking at my month, and I'm 10 days away from October, yes that too is hard to believe, but I seem to have hit another weight plateau.  I'm not bothered by it, but it is a little annoying.  If I believe my scale my body fat has lowered substantially, and that's always a possibility, but I tend to take the body measurements from smart scales with a grain of salt.   We'll see how it looks at month end.

Two years ago...

 Two years ago Merinda and I closed on our house in Florida.   Kind of hard to believe we've already been here that long.   It feels like we've been here for a long time and we just moved here, at the same time.   I don't know how to describe it.   Regardless, despite all the things people gripe about in Florida; Heat, Snow Birds, Hurricanes, Flordia Man (really Florida People) we both like it here.   Yeah I miss a few things from up north, mostly some people, I don't miss Ashburn as a place to live.   It was without a doubt, the least charming place I've ever lived and utterly without appeal.

On the fitness note I've been struggling a little bit to find my rhythym since we got back from vacation.   I seem to be a little more tired than usual and having challenges waking up on time.    If you add in some Echelon  schedule changes, that I'm less than pleased with, they removed classes I took and didn't replace them, some work meetings that interfere, it just has made it harder for me to make a regular routine.  I've just don't like having to squeeze my ride in at random times and that's only going to get harder soon.  Hopefully they put some classes back into the schedule on Monday and Thursday mornings.

I also bought a new ride.   I've always had a particular fondness for Italian bikes, and since a Ducati probably isn't the best choice I got a Bianchi.   Looking forward to getting out and riding this soon.

Fantasy Football

 Are you ready for some football?   Just sticking this up here

Fall is coming

Fall doesn't quite feel the same in Florida as it did up north, but it's still a welcome change.   I'm looking forward to some cooler weather as the last two months down here have been hot...   Yes, Florida hot...  Hot enough that Merinda and I have been retreating into the house in the evening instead of sitting outside.  The real reason I'm looking forward to cooler weather is I think I'm ready to start riding outside.   I thought I'd found a bike but the guy flaked out on me, so I'm back to square one.   I decided to buy a used bike to save some money.   It's also going to signal the end of hurricane season and while we've been very fortunate here, I'm ready to for that to end again too.

August was a busy month with vacation and Idiala so let's look at my results.   As always, here were my goals I set in July:

• Weigh 240 or less
• Ride 225 miles
• Walk 25 miles
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Get the August exercise goal in Apple.

Weight results:

• Starting Weight: 248.50
• Ending Weight: 236.99
• Net Loss: (11.51)
• Total Loss: (91.01)

Exercise info:

• Number of rides: 52
• Time on exercise: 22:00
• Distance on rides: 377.84
• Number of walks: 10
• Time walking: 4:29
• Distance walking: 13.0

Results:

 This is the first month in a while where I exceeded all my goals.  I know that Strava didn't capture all the walking we did in San Francisco, but Merinda and I took roughly 60,000 steps in the weekend.   Yes that's correct 60k steps.  I got my first 50km award in Pokemon Go so I think I can give myself a pass on that goal.   Strava and Apple only record the distance if you start a workout and I didn't do that every time we walked somewhere.   Regardless we walked all the time and I hit that goal.   What I didn't expect was a decent bike in the hotel in Cali or a decent bike on the Miracle which helped me crush my mileage goal for the month.  I expected to hit the perfect month in Apple, the only goal I had to change was my stand goal on the day we flew home, and I figured I'd get the August Apple challenge because it was an easy one.   All that said, I saved the best for last.   I did not expect to hit my weight loss goal for this month.   We were going on vacation for two weeks, and we spent the first few days in San Francisco.   I had no intentions of calorie counting on vacation, or saying no I can't eat that, and I didn't.  I ate what I wanted, when I wanted when we were on vacation.  I can't remember any instance where I thought "you can't eat that because its fattening" and my realistic goal was to come home within five pounds of what I weighed when we left.  What I didn't expect was to come home weight neutral, and once that happened I thought I could hit my weight goal.

On that positive note let's think about September.

September Goals:

• Weigh 230 or less
• Ride 400 miles
• Walk 15 miles
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Get the September exercise goal in Apple.
• Finish the TDE

In terms of my original plan I am effectively at the finish line.   I've passed my original target weight and have my revised goal in my sights.   That said I want to maintain and continue to work on being fit.  I have zero intentions of getting fat again, so I'm setting my intentions as such.  I also think that keeping up with Apple health will be a good motivational tool to keep me moving.   I still have seven TDE stages to complete this month.   Not sure how i'll fit in the four long hills classes, but with some of the scheduling changes Echelon has done I might try to do one a week on either Wednesday or Sunday.  We'll see how that goes.

Final Thoughts:

This was an awesome month.  We had a great vacation where I was able to test and prove out my "new" lifestyle changes.   I had a great month for fitness and Idialia missed this area.   I even had a few days where I dreaded getting on the bike but felt pretty good afterwards.   I've started scheduling in some off days and going for a walk instead, and that should be nicer now that it's hopefully cooling off.   I also joined a fitness challenge group, there's an app to compete with some other folks that I will talk about if it's any good, and a distance challenge group through Echelon.   I'm hoping these help with some accountability as my friends here are can be hit or miss on exercise and sometimes are more interested in food and partying.  Merinda and I are planning on getting back to walking in St. Pete this month and I am going to find a bike and start riding outside on the weekends.  I'll probably start on the Pinellas trail, but I want to find a cycling club so I can ride with other people.   Lastly, I get to start rewarding myself for achieving my goals.   Yes, I'll be getting a hot tub at some point, and I'm still irritated at the bait and switch I saw on Prime day, but more importantly is the scuba diving.   I'd love to to get to swimming more and doing a little more cross training. 

Have a great month to anyone reading this.   Hopefully September is even better than August.  I'm going to try and post a little more, but we'll see how that goes.

Back from vacation.

That was, without a doubt, the best cruise Merinda and I have gone on.   I don't know if it was the weekend in San Francisco, or the cruise to Alaska, or a bit of both, but both of us loved the trip.   We ate a lot of good food in Cali, saw some redwoods, walked all over, and then repeated the same on the boat.   Food was much better than expected.   The weather, with the exception of Juneau, was better than expected.   Just a relaxing trip where we didn't have to answer to anyone else.   We met some great people that I hope we stay in touch with and we both didn't want to come home.  Sometimes when we cruise we come home exhausted and that wasn't the case here.   Sure, we stayed up too late last night, but we were still on Pacific time and slept on the flight home. 

Beautiful British Columbia

Good news on the fitness front.    My weight stayed constant over the trip; 250 when we left and 249 this morning.   Yes I still exercised every day, but I'm trying to make this a lifestyle change, not another lose and go back period.   I did eat pretty much what I wanted and when I wanted it.  It was pretty reassuring to me that if I stick to  30-60 minutes of exercise and avoid being completely sedentary my weight will maintain itself.   I just have to stay focused.

Enough random shit for today.  I overslept and missed the live class I planned to take, but I'll make up for that now.  Have a great weekend and talk soon...

Another month over...

 And just like that another month has passed by.   July wasn't exactly the best month for a variety of reasons and I'm glad it's over, but I finished ok.  No need to dwell on the bad, shit happens, and that's just the way it is.  I'm trying to stay focused on my goals and the positives.

So, how did I do in July?  As a reminder here were my goals:

• Weigh 245 or less
• Ride 400 miles
• Walk 20 miles
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Get the July exercise goal in Apple.

Weight results:

• Starting Weight:  255.4
• Ending Weight: 248.77
• Net Loss: (6.63)
• Total Loss: (76.23

Exercise info:

• Number of rides: 59 and 13 fitpass 
• Time on exercise: 1:01:48:08
• Distance on rides: 424.75
• Number of walks: 8
• Time walking: 04:12
• Distance walking: 12.2

Results:

There's a lot more of it this month so let's start with the bad and get it out of the way.   I missed my weight goal...  again.  I thought I would get it as I was only 1.5 pounds away going into the weekend, but we had a a couple nice dinners out and my weight popped up a little bit.   Nothing to be concerned about, as it's normal for weight to go up/down but it's a little frustrating.  I also managed to miss my walking goal.   I've been struggling with motiviation for evening walks, so I put a reminder into the Withings app to prompt me.   Maybe I'll start walking more after vacation as I know I'll walk plenty during the trip.   I also managed to fuck my apple watch streaks up.   I completely blew the stand goal by hanging out with some friends on a weekend and then somehow lost my move goal.   I suspect it was me deleting a phantom workout, as I thought I hit it every day the bike was broken and even took walks and fitpass classes to ensure I hit it, but it's gone.   Now my goal is to surpass 179 days and I only have 160 days to go.

There's some good:
That's a lot of bad, lets talk about some of the good things.  Despite having the bike break and missing a full week of spin I beat my monthly mileage goal.   I didn't think that would be possible, but I almost eclipsed last month's distance.   I also crushed the monthly exercise goal in Apple.  Granted it was an easier one, but so what.   I hit 400 rides which means I should be somewhere around 750 and end of year.   That means I'll get my cube next spring.

August Goals:

• Weigh 240 or less
• Ride 225 miles
• Walk 25 miles
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Get the August exercise goal in Apple.

 Let's talk about this month and why my goals are so different from previous months.   First off, we won't be doing the 5k walk in St. Pete.   You'll also notice I've lowered my weight loss and cycling goals while raising the walking distance, and you might ask why?   The simple answer is Merinda and I are going on an Alaskan cruise this month and I think my normal goals would be extremely unattainable.   While I plan on walking and staying active on the cruise, in fact my plan is to get up and do 30+ minutes of exercise in the morning, I don't think they have spin bikes on the boat, so that's out of the question.  I had a work trip this past week and used the mediocre bike at the hotel and if thats what I see on the boat I'll try to do fitpass if the Wifi works, and if not, just the treadmill.  I'll also be on vacation so I will probably eat more, although the food on the last cruise was mediocre, so we'll see.   Realistically I would like to be weight neutral when I get back so that means about a 5 pound loss for this month.  I was able to do that in January, so I'd like to do the same here.   It's a good test to see if I can maintain my 30 minutes of exercise I want to do post diet to learn to maintain my weight.

Final Thoughts:

This was a very difficult month.   Despite feeling pretty upbeat going into this month the bike broke on the 3rd and I had pretty invasive round of  dental surgery on the 7th.   No complaints about Echelon's customer service I had a new bike in a week, but it was still frustrating to break mid-ride.  I was able to do some weight and walking  workouts and walk but it threw me off my game a little bit.  The new bike feels like it rides "harder" or scores me lower, so the PB's that I was seeing on a regular basis before it broke are now out of reach.  I'm not completely goal driven but I do like competition and whether it's me holding back or the bike being different, it feels like I'm far below my old scores so it seems like its a herculean task to get those old records.   I kind of wish they could be archived and then reset so I can get closer.   On top of this Irish got sick, he started off by abruptly not eating.   Dog's won't starve themselves by choice so it's a sign of an illness.   We hoped it wasn't serious, but in a 12.5 year old dog that's unlikely and we had to put him to sleep this month since he got so weak he couldn't stand up or walk.  That put a real drain on me this month.  Last but not least, I feel a little burned out.  I hear the instructors talk about overtraining and I wonder if I've done that.  Between the dog and my father in law both Merinda and I are ready for some time away to relax and recharge.   Now, before you think it's not all doom and gloom there were good things this month.   My original weight goal was 245 and I'm only 3 pounds over that.  I also went through all my clothes and have five trash bags of clothing that doesn't fit and I'm donating.   Clothing I bought in April doesn't fit anymore and I've bought my first clothies with a 38" waist so despite the tangible metrics, as in weight loss and bike scores, slowing down I still can't dispute the results. 

Enough of my ramblings.   Have a great month and I'll check in with a post-cruise update...

Not the July I wanted

 This has been a really tough month...   I wish I could say the worst thing that happened was the bike breaking, but in hindsight I would take that anytime over losing Irish this past weekend.   He'd been sick for a while, and we knew it was getting close, but I didn't expect it this past weekend and I really wasn't ready to say goodbye.

Yes, we still have Stormy and Brody, but Stormy is really Merinda's girl, and Brody was my dad's dog.   They help, but losing Izzy and Irish in the past year has been tough.  This is the first time I haven't had a dog in a long time.   I'm sure we'll have another dog but I think it's best to wait a little while first...

Rest in peace guys.  Hopefully there are apple trees and groundhogs and dirt to roll around in.  I miss both of you...

Happy Bastille Day!

 So the replacement bike arrived on Tuesday which was a little earlier than I expected.   I've been back to riding and it's been a little harder than I remember...   Maybe this bike is calibrated differently, but I've actually hit HRZ 5, which I never did before, and I'm definitely feeling it when I try to get the resistance up.   It's all good, even if I can't get close to a PB. 

I am most likely going to miss my goal for the month, which is disappointing even though understandable.   What I did get out of not having the bike for a month is more fitpass classes, and quite a bit of walking, so I think I'll be doing a wider range of exercises going forward.   I'm also making slow and steady progress on weight and eating a bit better again.   We'll see in 2 weeks :)

Happy Bastille day, and a very happy birthday to my Mother in Law.   Have a good weekend all.

Wow it just keeps getting better...

Not what I was looking for this month.  Happened about two thirds of the way through my ride today.   The bike started making a lot of noise and I thought the magnets were loose or something like that.  Next thing I knew the pedal sheared off.   Fortunately it was during a light jog so I didn't get hurt, and I was going to miss a few days of riding for my upcoming dental surgery, but it's still annoying.   Apparently this has been an issue with their bikes for a while.  Save your receipts folks.   I was lucky that Costco could provide a copy.

And just like that...

 I stopped paying attention to my stand goal....   Great start to the 2nd half of 2023 😠😠😠

Half the year is gone

I feel like I say this every month, but I can't believe it's already July.   Where is the time going?   I believe that time "accelerates" as we get older because our perspective on it changes.   A month at 55 is a much smaller percentage of our life, than a month at 25.  Despite this turning into my fitness blog, it is titled just some random shit afterall...

I had another mixed month and up until the end thought it was going to be a disaster.   Although my overall fitness seems to be improving rapidly, as evidenced by my first podium finish, and more PB's in rides, my weight loss has substantially slowed down, which is very frustrating   I'd be ok with that if I was only 10 pounds from my target, but after talking with my doctor I adjusted it down a bit and still have about 30 pounds to go.  On top of that I've been dealing with some hip and knee soreness which is hindering my exercise routine.   I do have some good news, I'm off one of my meds, and my BP medication was reduced.    Enough of that, let's talk about how I did.  These were my May goals:

• Weigh 250 or less
• Ride 400 miles
• Walk 20 miles
• Perfect Month in apple

How did I do:

• Starting Weight: 262.12
• Ending Weight: 255.10
• Net Loss: (7.02)
• Total Loss: (69.9)

Exercise info:

• Number of rides: 72
• Time on rides: 23:52:37
• Distance on rides: 429.5
• Number of walks: 1
• Time walking: 8:25
• Distance walking: .39
  

Results:

I always like to start with the good.   I beat my mileage goal again.  Despite moving it up and being away for a week I easily passed it and all while doing 11 fewer rides than last month.  Thanks to my sister in law, who also has an exercise bike, I was able to keep up with riding.   I did have to adjust my stand goal for a few travel days, because there was no way I'd be able to stand 12 hours and drive for 14.   It's just not possible, but I kept my move and exercise goals constant and hit those, so I was able to have a perfect month in apple.   I would have liked to get that monthly move goal, but I just couldn't get there.  July's goal seems much more attainable...  

Now for the bad:

I missed my weight loss mark again, and until I went to VA thought I'd have a flat month, which would have been very discouraging.   I don't feel like I'm overeating, or eating poorly, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.  I did pop up a touch when I got home, but hopefully I'll have a few weeks of salads to help get me back on track.  I also didn't walk again.  Not sure what's going on overall, but the sore hip/knee kept me from doing that when I got home.   I think we're going to do the walk in St. Pete this month so I'm planning on walking more, hell I'm planning on exercising more overall.

July Goals:

• Weigh 245 or less
• Ride 400 miles
• Walk 20 miles
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Get the July exercise goal in Apple.

These should look familiar.   Other than lowering my weight target they're probably going to remain consistent for a few months.   I am going in for some dental work in a week so this could have two effects.   One is I won't be able to ride for a few days, this is ok because I need rest days and I'll probably go for a walk.   This will also help the weight loss because I won't be able to chew food for probably two weeks.  I have protein powder.   It will force me to push harder when I get back to riding, and probably go for some longer distance.   I'll definitely be doing that this week as it leads up to the surgery.

Final thoughts:

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.   I shouldn't be, but I am.  Maybe it's me, maybe it's normal, but it's frustrating to work hard, and I do work hard, and not see the numbers on the scale.   Yeah I know it's normal, and I still get up and do my workouts, but I'd like to see better results.   I should take the victory in the tremendous improvement in my overall health, but it just feels like a hollow victory.   Clothing I bought 3 months ago is loose and needs replaced.   I'm setting new bests on the bike frequently.   My blood pressure is way down, and my medication was lowered.   My blood sugars are *normal* and I don't need any meds for that anymore and finally, my resting heart rate is routinely 55-65 which is remarkable compared to where it was six months ago.  I can do light workouts and not even spike my heart rate.  Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased.   Hell, I'm more than pleased.  FFS my Doctor was very pleased and commented on my results.  I look better and more importantly feel better, but the self doubts and decades of being embarassed by my weight are hard to escape and lets not even discuss that I see myself in the mirror every day and how that makes me feel.  What I have to remember is that while I have a weight loss goal the actual goal are lifestyle changes that will be permanent.

Enough self pity.   I have a workout to do so happy Independence day to my US friends, happy Canada day to my Canadian friends and have a great month all.   Talk soon!

Plateau's and why they suck.

 It's early in the month for an update, but I'm stuck in a plateau and wanted to vent a little bit.  Yes, I'm eating a little more than I mean to, but we have company, he's a remarkable chef, and despite that I'm staying pretty close to my diet plan.  I'm also working harder on the Echelon than ever before and despite this my weight doesn't want to budge below 260.   Shit, I weigh more than I did at the end of May.   Yes, I'm getting more fit.  I see that in the results on the bike.   I've been hitting PB's or close to PB's in most classes lately and I am consistently getting higher on the leaderboard.   Yeah yeah yeah, I know muscle weighs more than fat, and finally, I know it's not easy to undo years of being a lazy slug, but it's frustrating to work hard and not see the results you expect.   I know it gets harder the leaner you go, but I still have 25-30 pounds to go, so it's not like I'm upset over 5 pounds....

That's all....   Just wanted to complain a bit.  I'll check back in later and hopefully have better results then.

June Already.

 Happy June!   It's hard to believe June is here, this year seems to be flying by.   May was another month of mixed results, but I'm satisfied with the month and keeping a positive outlook.   The weight loss seems to be slowing down, which is frustrating, but my performance on the Echelon is definitely improving, my waist seems to be shrinking, I look better in the mirror, and my blood pressure has come down substantially.   Merinda was away for almost the entire month and that makes it a little harder to stay on top of everything.   With that said, here were my May goals:

• Weigh 255 or less
• Ride 300 miles
• Walk 20 miles
• Perfect Month in apple
• 4 75 minute Sunday fusion classes

How did I do:

• Starting Weight: 271.98
• Ending Weight: 261.22
• Net Loss: (10.76)
• Total Loss: (63.78)

Exercise info:

• Number of rides: 83
• Time on rides: 1:02:20:55
• Distance on rides: 455.53
• Number of walks: 1
• Time walking: 54m
• Distance walking: 2.77

Results:

Let's start with the good.   I crushed my cycling goal.  I joined a challenge on Strava to ride 600km and blew it away, in fact I beat every cycling challenge on Strava I joined for the month.   I had a perfect month in Apple and I should have had 4 sunday fusion classes.   I couldn't join one Sunday because of the Internet so I subbed some other classes in and had somethign "equivalent".   I'll take a C on that goal.

Now for the bad:   

I missed my weight goal.  I can't make any excuses for that.  I felt like I did a good job staying on my diet plan, but the weight loss seems to be slowing down.  I don't think it's feasible to eat less so maybe losing 15 pounds a month isn't realistic.   I did lose 10 pounds this month and I look much better, but it's more than a little frustrating to not see the results on the scale.   What's worse is my weight goes up, up up then DOWN, then up, up up then DOWN.   Regardless, I'll keep plugging away and try to hit my goals.   I do need to eat a little more salad and fruit this coming month and less "other" food.   Having Merinda and Tyler here doesn't help, and having company really doesn't help but that's just something I need to deal with.

I completely missed my walking goal.   I got focused on the cycling goals and kind of skipped walking.   I know cross training is important, and have nu excuses, so I'll focus on that more.   

June Goals:

• Weigh 250 or less
• Ride 400 miles
• Walk 20 miles
• Perfect Month in apple

Final Thoughts:

A couple things.   I've increased my monthly mileage on the bike to reflect my overall better fitness.  Yes it means more time on the bike, but so be it.  I can't get results if I don't reflect progress in goals.  I need to work on getting better at rest days.   There were a few days last month where I felt just wiped out and still forced myself on the bike.   Those are the days I need to go for a walk and get some rest.   Obviously closing "rings" on apple makes that harder, but walking should be ok.   I set a 10 pound weight goal this month because 15 seems unattainable.   That doesn't mean I'd prefer to weigh 245, which ironically, was my original target weight, but it's a little demoralizing to see my weight and know I'm going to miss that goal with a week or so left in the month.   I'll shoot for 245, but consider 250 to be a win.   I also dropped the Sunday ride goal.   Yes, I'm going to make best effort to join those weekly because I enjoy them, I even hit a PB this past Sunday, but having Internet issues cause me to miss a goal is frustrating and occasionally I might need to do something different on Sunday morning.  I'll still do something substantial, or catch it on-demand, but setting a goal on something that I might miss by no fault of mine seems silly.   

Overall I'm pleased with my progress.   I've had to get rid of clothes which no longer fit, which is a nice feeling, and as I mentioned earlier my blood pressure is much better, today it was 115/67 and my resting heart rate is in the mid/low 60's and even went to 55.   These are real results and might result in lowering or removing some meds which would be awesome.   One of my long-term goals is to maintain activity once I get to my target weight.  Maybe I'll talk about my targets this month.   Anyeay, have a great month and look for more updates.

April showers bring May flowers

 So....   Here's my April update and it has both good and bad outcomes.   I'll start with the bad because it's important to explain why my month went sideways at the end.   I stay away from personal stuff here because I want to talk about other things, but my Father-in-law has been having some health issues, and he passed away four days after my mid-month update, and as such I missed a week of bike.   This caused me to miss  a few goals.  Obviously, I'm not goign to get down on myself over that, family always comes first, and I did my best to stay active while away.

April Goals:

• Weigh 265 or less
• Ride 270 miles
• Walk 25 miles
• Complete 4 live 75 minute Sunday fusion workouts
• Perfect month in Apple health
• Have one swimming workout

How did I do?

• Starting weight: 279
• Ending weight: 271.98
• Net loss: (7.02)
• Total Loss: (53.02)

Exercise Info:

• Number of rides: 42
• Time on rides: 13h 52m
• Distance on rides: 244.4
• Number of walks: 20
• Time walking: 7h 12m
• Distance walking: 20.9 with an additional ~15 miles walking that wasn't logged as a "workout"

Overview:

I was having a pretty good month until the end.   I think I might have hit my weight goal, but it was the only one that was concerned about missing.  I didn't weigh myself in Ireland, but I didn't gain weight and I'm already down a bit again.  I was able to stay active while away and hit my activity goals.

May Goals:

• Weigh 255 or less
• Ride 300 miles
• Walk 20 miles
• Perfect Month in apple
• 4 75 minute Sunday fusion classes

Final Thoughts:

Yes I keep setting aggressive goals.   I got home from Ireland and immediately started working out again.  I really want to achieve my ultimate goal, and I won't get there by slacking off now, despite people saying how much better I look.  Yes, I know I look better, but to be blunt, I looked awful when i was fat so any progress is good progress.  I'm going to have some rest days, and some light days, but when I work out I'm going to hit it hard.  That's how you make progress.  On a brighter note, the trip has helped me keep getting up early so I'll continue to do that.

Have a great month and I'll be keep you all updated...

Mid Month update

 I'm a little bored today so I thought I'd put out an update with about 2 weeks left in April.   I've had a pretty good month and I feel like I'm on track even with the conference and missing almost a full week of the bike.   I was able to get up in the morning and hit the treadmill in the hotel and I walked all over Disney so I kept myself pretty active.   The food choices were good so I kept my food intake right where I wanted it.

Here are the goals I've set and where I am today:

• Weigh 265 or less
• Ride 270 miles
• Walk 25 miles
• Complete 4 live 75 minute Sunday fusion workouts
• Perfect month in Apple health
• Have one swimming workout

My weight was 271 this morning.   Six pounds in 12 days is going to be cutting it close but we'll see.   As of this morning, I've ridden 169 miles this month so I will easily hit 270.    According to Stava I've only walked 11.5 miles this month and have a ways to go.  I'm guessing it didn't catch the walking I did during the conference because that wasn't a "workout" but Apple has me walking ~16 miles while there so I believe I hit this already.   I've done 2 of the 75's, including Reed's savage class so barring an illness I'll hit that, and despite my move goal going up agian, I'm on track for another perfect month in Apple health.   The only thing I'm unsure about is swimming.   I got in the pool so maybe that counts?

Enough said, enjoy the rest of the month folks.

March Fitness stats and update

Good to be back.   I was going to post mid-month but changed my mind.   Overall, I had a good month and I'm satisfied with my progress despite a few setbacks, namely minor surgery, a new scale and a light gout flare-up. 

Here are the goals I set for March:

• Weigh 275 or less
• Ride 300 miles
• Complete a 45 minute spin class. Ideally I'd like to complete a 60 minute class but we'll see how that goes. 
• Do 100% of all standing activities in classes for the month 
• Walk 15 miles 
• Add swimming in for some cross training.  Our pool is still too cold, and the aquatic center is closed, but I might see about swimming in Clearwater

So how did I do?

March Results: 

• Starting weight: 290.2 
• Ending weight: 278.3
• Net loss: (11.9) 
• Total loss: (46.7) 

Exercise info: 

• Number of rides: 64
• Time on rides: 21h 6m
• Distance ridden: 355.4
• Number of walks:  9
• Time walking:  5h 13m
• Distance walking: 15.2

Overview:

All in all I had a good month.   I hit all my exercise goals, with the exception of adding in swimming but the doctor said I couldn't submerge my arm after the surgery, which eliminated half the month, so I'll take a pass on that one.  I've started taking regular 75 minute fusion classes, which add in weight training, which are both tough and rewarding.  I had a top 5 finish and a couple that were just outside top 10.  I'm definitely getting stronger and faster in the classes and can do things like accelerate into the 80's when I'm standing which I couldn't do before.    

I'm disappointed that I missed my weight goal but I'm sure if I had used the same scale for the rest of the month I'd have hit it.  I changed it this week and I'm already back to where I was on Sunday.  I also occasionally need to skip some standing parts of classes.   I'm not happy about it, but I think I'm 90 maybe 95% there and I'd rather finish the class than completely bonk and get a DNF on the class, which I was worried about last Sunday.   Regardless, I'm goign to continue to work on this.

April Goals:

What do I want to accomplish in April?  I'm going to set my cycling goal lower because I'm going to a work conference next week and will miss a few days on the bike.   I'll be walking daily, but missing 4-5 days on the bike, including a Sunday, will make 300 miles almost impossible if I schedule in some rest days.  I'veincreased my walking goal by 10 miles this month to accomodate for it.

• Weigh 265 or less
• Ride 270 miles
• Walk 25 miles
• Complete 4 live 75 minute Sunday fusion workouts
• Perfect month in Apple health
• Have one swimming workout

Final Thoughts:

I know I set another month of aggressive goals.   I did schedule a few days off the bike even with missing a week.  We all need rest days and I can use those for other activities like swimming and longer walks or even to catch up if need be.  Surprisingly I found that I like to get up early and work out in the morning.  That seems to set my day up nicely so I'm going to continue scheduling morning live classes.  I won't lie, I love shoutouts and got two this morning :) and it's nice to compete with people who are live too.   

Have a great weekend and if I don't post by then, Happy Easter.   

Talk soon...  Cheers!

Fitness Update

I might as well talk about this here. I doubt my facebook friends want to hear about cycling, fitness and weight loss, and neither do people on Instagram. Pictures of food, travel and bourbon are far more interesting than sweaty selfies.  Regardless, I feel like sharing and no better place than into this echo chamber, so here goes. 

 As I posted earlier, we got an Echelon spin bike before Christmas.  Merinda suggested it, much to my surprise, and even more surprising is how much I enjoy it.  I took some motivation from my sister in law who works out ~30 minutes per day, lost some weight, so I decided to follow her lead.  Since I had some dental surgery in December I was already eating less, not by choice but by circumstance, and that shrank my appetite and I had lost a little weight.  I was pretty upset over my weight, I had peaked up to 330 pounds and was having some issues as a result of it.  We have some plans for this year and I didn't want to be the fat guy who can't do anything. We had a cruise booked over New Years, and I'd decided to be mindful of what I ate, but to not be obsessing over food and fitness until after I got home.  I'd been riding the bike a little in december but the plan was to really start when we got home.  

Long story short, I started on the Echelon on 12/12/2022 and missed 2 weeks for vacation and the flu (no it wasn't covid the doctor tested me and I was flu-b positive). 

Goals:

• My starting weight was about 325 lbs.  I didn't do a "weigh-in" but I'd weighed at 330 at the doctors office last year.
• My goal is 240 lbs but this might change.  Merinda is worried I'll get too thin.
• The current exercise plan is have 30 minutes of exercise per day. 
• I usually ride five or six days a week and walk the other two days. 
• I want to be riding outdoors this fall.   It's too hot in Florida to ride in the summer.
• Note: I don't have monthly stats for January because echelon doesn't aggregate data like that, I started using Stava which aggregates the data nicely but didn't start until the end of January. 

February statistics: 

• Starting weight: 301.4 
• Ending weight: 287.0 
• Net loss: (14.4) 
• Total loss: (38.0) 

Exercise info: 

• Number of rides: 55 
• Time on rides: 14:10 
• Distance ridden: 245.7 miles 
• Number of walks: 7 
• Time walking: 4:40 
• Distance walking: 13.7 miles 

How do I feel? Overall I feel much better and a lot more energetic. I get up earlier in the morning, and seem to go to bed a little earlier, but that's to be expected. I don't have the back and leg pain I had when I was heavier. My clothing fits better, and some of it is already too big. Yes, it pains me that I bought a suit for a wedding that I will wear once, well maybe I'll try it on when I hit the year anniversary, but that is additional motivation and I have clothes that didn't fit before that I can wear again. I guess being a bit of a pack rat has some advantages. On the bike, and walking, I am noticably stronger and faster. I had my first top 10 finish in a class, I'm taking 20 and 30 minute classes and can almost always do all the out of seat parts. 

My goals for March: 

• Weigh 275 or less 
• Ride 300 miles 
• Complete a 45 minute spin class. Ideally I'd like to complete a 60 minute class but we'll see how that goes. 
• Do 100% of all standing activities in classes for the month 
• Walk 15 miles 
• Add swimming in for some cross training.  Our pool is still too cold, and the aquatic center is closed, but I might see about swimming in Clearwater

Final thoughts:

This was a bit longer than I planned, but I had a bit to say and I rambled on a bit.  I'll provide better and more concise updates as the month goes, and if I hit goals I will update them.  If you use strava or echelon feel free to add me.  Also, my aria scale is acting up and sometimes doesn't sync to the Internet unless I restart it.  I suspect it's because Fitbit/Google want us to buy a new one.  I probably won't buy an Aria because it doesn't have the best Apple integration so I'm looking for a good, reasonably priced, smart scale that integrates well with Apple health.   Yes, I have an Apple watch and I prefer it to the fitbit.

Talk soon... Cheers!

Spin classes

Not going to lie, I had no idea what a spin class was like. Holy fuck I feel ragged out but a crazy workout. And no, I don't have a Peleton, we bought an Echelon on sale at Costco for a fraction of what the Peleton cost. So far it's been a great investment.

Overnight oats

I know it's the current fad for breakfast, but they're actually pretty tasty and are a healthy breakfast plus you can customize them to taste however you like. If you like oatmeal give it a try.