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)
- 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...
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