Milestones

So, last night I weighed in at 181.2 lbs.  It occurred to me as I was slowly waking up this morning that there are a number of weight milestones coming up, which is kind of fun.

• 180 lbs - not really a milestone, but it a nice even number, so that's cool.
• 178 lbs - This was the weight I hit a little over a year ago, the last time I went on a weight-loss kick.  At the time, it was my lowest weight in years.  So it will be nice to match that again.
• 176 lbs - This will mark a big 10-lb milestone for me during this effort.  176 lbs will mark a 50 lb loss since I started back on January 1.  50 lb is such a nice big number to talk about, so I am looking forward to that
• 170 lbs - Another nice even number
• 166 lbs - This will mark 60 lbs of weight loss this year
• 165 lbs - This number is my goal for this year, and the number that I wanted to be at for riding the Triple Bypass on July 13.   Right now, it still seems reasonable, but I would love to get even lower if I could.

I was looking online at some "ideal weight calculators" and the numbers are all over the board.  No one can seem to agree on how to determine this, and various calculations have been used over the years.  Based on what I saw, I would say my "ideal weight" is probably somewhere in between 155 and 165 lbs, so I think my goal is reasonable, and if I can beat it a little bit, even better.

In terms of cycling, weight becomes a little more interesting.  Cycling power is often measured in a power-to-weight ratio.  You take your measured power (with a power meter) or calculated power (based on a calculation of personal weight, bike weight, speed and elevation gain on a bike ride) and divide it by your weight in kilograms.  This gives you your power-to-weight ratio, a number that you can use to gauge your performance, and a good number to watch and improve over time.

Currently, I am fat.  No getting around that.  But I've lost over 40 lbs, and am getting closer to where I want to be.  Ever pound of fat that I lose makes me healthier, and improves my power-to-weight ratio.  And with all the training I did over the winter, and the outdoors riding I am doing now, I am improving my power numbers as well, thus further improving power-to-weight.  Pretty soon, I hope to be at my goal weight, where losing weight stops being a goal, and increasing power becomes more important.  I will need to start adding more power-based training to my routine, improving leg strength and building lean muscle mass while maintaining that ideal weight.  This will mean more climbing, and probably some weight training.  I found a good explanation of power-to-weight for cyclists HERE.

In terms of today, I wasn't able to get in a good ride.  The kids had swim lessons, so I headed to Lifetime and swam laps during their lessons.  After lessons and lunch, I spent most of the afternoon fixing up the family's bikes.  Cleaning and adjusting, getting rid of the weird little noises, truing the wheels a bit.  Then, we headed to the middle school track for some practice for my daughter's relay race tomorrow.  We were using a paper-towel holder as a practice baton.  Looking forward to the relay tomorrow.  Should be fun.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Ran out of avocado, so we didn't do a smoothie today.  Had a bowl of Special K instead.
• Lunch:  Steak fajita burrito from Chipotle
• Dinner:  The kids went to Parents Night Out at Lifetime, while my wife and I headed out to the movies and dinner.  "Oblivion" was the only movie that worked into the schedule.  It was ok, but nothing spectacular.  And then we stopped at Marco's pizza.  That's all we had time for before we had to go pick the kids back up.

Exercise:

• 650 meters in the lap pool at Lifetime.

Today's weigh-in: 184.8