And, I’m back on my bike again. Third day in a row. And it feels good. Even if its getting cold. In fact, I kind of like riding in the cooler weather better, though I could really go for a great way to keep my feet a bit warmer. I’ll be putting on shoe covers tomorrow. Sadly, at 50 F, I find myself wanting shoe covers and long fingered gloves.
Time to revisit rule 5.
I started 30 days of cycling on October 4th, and have thus far kept to the goal. I’m on day 4 and I’ve got to say that my legs are giving me a bit of a beat down today. I’ll work past it, by taking a shorter less intense spin this afternoon. Since I started this week, I’ve logged 51 miles, which has put me over 700 for the year. I’m not a big mileage guy I guess, but maybe that will change.
Tuesday’s ride was a 17 mile ride over some rolling hills and the gentle flatness of the B&A trail near my house. Wednesday was a simple end of the trail and back kind of day, and yesterday was a 21 mile ride over rolling hills and the B&A trail again. Today, I plan to get out after my last concall for work and hit the trial for a slower recovery ride spin. That will probably tack on an additional 12-13 miles and put me around 63 or 64 for miles for the work week.
I am probably going to get up and join my local group ride tomorrow which will put another 26 on the odometer, but it is an early ride on a Saturday, so I may have to sleep in on that one. We’ll see.
Last week, I’d made a commitment to myself that I would ride my bike every day in October. My first ride was yesterday, October 4th. Track record, 1 and 3.
If there’s one thing I’m good at, its being hard on myself. There are a number of good reasons why I didn’t get a ride in on before Tuesday, not the least of which was spending both Saturday and Sunday with Mr. Grey. I’ve also got this pesky thing called a job. Monday I had to go up to Philadelphia for a meeting, which wiped out the entire day. In fact, today is the first day this week that I haven’t had a 2 hour drive in the morning. Tomorrow is a different story.
I’ve tried to do 30 day challenges and even 365 projects in the past, and I almost always end up failing for some reason or another. In the past I’ve been hard on myself about it. That’s counter-productive at best.
Maybe my life just isn’t set up for doing something every day. Or maybe I need to be less stringent on things like start and stop dates. Sure, starting 30 days of cycling on the first of the month makes it clean and tidy, but my life isn’t clean and tidy. There will certainly be at least one or two more trips to Philly in the next month, and that will effectively eliminate the possibility of getting a ride in, but even if I don’t hit all 30 days, at least I’ll be out there more than once a week.
Here’s hoping.
Three and a half weeks ago, I took inventory of my goals for 2011 and realized that I was falling short on the most important one of the three. I’d set out to lose 30 pounds in January and hadn’t changed a thing about my lifestyle that would get me on track.
I’ve been “on weight watchers” now for three and a half weeks. I’ve had some ups and downs, but overall I’m down by 5.5 pounds. That’s 18% of my goal, in just three weeks.
I expected being “on weight watchers” to be difficult. I’d done the program before about 10 years ago and it was frustrating. I felt like I couldn’t eat any of the things that I wanted to eat. As many people know, I love food. I’m not just talking about a casual love affair with food, I’m talking about a full-bore passion for food. Nothing makes me happier than to spend an afternoon cooking a huge meal for friends and then sharing it with them over a few beers and some wine. I was worried that making changes to my lifestyle would put a damper on my cooking.
But it really hasn’t.
For one thing, the program has changed and there is less emphasis on fiber as the solution to all woes, less emphasis on processed sugar alternatives and more of an emphasis on eating the right amounts of all kinds of foods. I can use olive oil, sugar, even butter. I don’t have to deprive myself of the good things in life. I can have a real beer (not a watery light beer) with my meals and not feel guilty.
I even cooked chicken parmesan twice in these three weeks. And that would have been out of the question on the old program.
Of course, I’m also way more active than I was ten years ago. Not as active as I’d like to be, but I logged about 120 miles on the bike in March. I’m keeping track with a great little app on my iPhone now called cyclemeter so next month I won’t be estimating my miles.
Losing weight, like investing, is a long-term goal. Some weeks will be better than others. I know this. Still, last week when I stepped on the scale and was up a half a pound instead of down I had a sinking feeling. To be fair, the first week of my Weight Watcher’s experience was unusual. I lost over 4 pounds according to the scale. This week was probably more realistic. I tried to tell myself that I was still down by 3.4 pounds, but I wasn’t gaining much traction with that thinking.
So, on Friday, I had a choice. I could let the slight increase bring me down (interesting that an up is a down here) or I could reinvest in myself and make some positive changes over the weekend. I knew I’d had a few more beers than I should have during the week, and I’d eaten a few extra snacks when I really didn’t need to, and I’d missed the mark on my fruit and veggie intake. I also didn’t get to the gym.
I still didn’t get to the gym over the weekend, but I didn’t need to because I hit the road on my bike and logged 71.72 miles over two days. I limited my beer intake and upped my fruit and veggie intake. I got myself back on track. And I broke a “rule” of weight loss this morning – I weighed myself outside of my designated weigh-in day. Happily, I was down 2 10ths of a pound.
It was good to see that number on the scale. I’m moving in the right direction and I feel great. And that’s what this is all about.
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