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...