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.
