Day 31 - End of Month 1

Well, I'd say it's been a pretty good month.  I made a resolution, set a goal, and I'm well on my way.  In order to get to my goal weight by the time of the Triple Bypass ride, I would need to lose about 2 lbs/week, every week.  Throughout the month of January, I averaged about 5 lbs/week.  I don't have any illusions that I can keep up this pace for 6 months, but I'm happy with my progress for now.  I'll do my best to keep it up as best I can.

In the last few months of 2012, I basically did nothing.  I had been training all year for a big September bike ride, but once I completed that ride, I basically stopped.  I don't want that to happen again.  I've made a number of changes for the better, and plan to keep these going, and truly change my lifestyle.

I have gotten into a regular pattern of exercise, including running, biking and swimming.  And with our family membership to Lifetime Fitness, getting the exercise I need becomes even easier, and we've made trips to the gym part of our regular routine.  My wife is in a 6-month, 3-day-a-week training program, and the kids are going to be taking swimming lessons and doing all kinds of other activities.  The amount and quality of activities available at Lifetime is pretty amazing, and I really look forward to every trip there.

As a family, we've started eating much better.  We've gone from bagels for breakfast every day to fruit and protein smoothies.  Instead of going to lunch on weekends, we're making chicken or turkey wraps, fruit and protein bars.  And we've been focusing on healthy dinners.  Props to my wonderful wife, who pores over new cookbooks and magazines every week, finding healthy and delicious options for dinner.  We've added a lot of great new dinner options to our repertoire.

I've put a little bit of money into my biking, but mostly just on the Garmin Edge 500 computer.  I'll write more about this some other time, but I really love it, and truly believe it helps my training.  Being able to track all my fitness data on the bike just makes training much more effective.  Between the Garmin computer, and the Spinervals videos, I'm really getting in some good training to improve my performance over last year's peak so I should be more than ready to conquer the Triple Bypass in July.

So, here's to a great first month, and many more to come.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar
• Dinner:  Not sure what it was called.  But it was gnocchi, marinara, ricotta and parmesan cheese.  It was definitely lacking in any kind of protein, so we added some diced chicken.  Mix it all up, and stick it under the broiler for a few minutes.  Quick, easy and delicious.

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine
• 20 minute walk at lunch
• 80 minute ride on the trainer, with Spinervals 16.0 - Aero Base Builders 1.  I'm trying to focus mostly on aerobic workouts right now, with only the occasional anaerobic workout.  Here's my Strava report for this ride.  Overall, I rode 313 miles in the month of January.  If my bike hadn't been out of commission for a few days here and there, I could have increased that quite a bit.  I plan to improve on that quite a bit during February.

Today's weigh-in:  204.8

And to finish off the month, here is a chart of my weight loss for the entire month.  This makes a total weight loss of 21.2 lbs in the month of January.  Woo hoo!

Day 30 - Cheesesteak time again

So, I keep reading things that say although there should be some kind of interim rewards during a weight-loss program like this, I shouldn't reward myself with food.  Screw that.  I love me a good cheesesteak sandwich.  With yesterday's weigh-in coming in below 206 lbs., I had lost another 10 lbs., and there was due another stop at Cheesesteak Connection.  Oh man, that tastes good.

Today was another Lifetime today, so I had the opportunity to work off some of those calories on the elliptical and in the pool this evening.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Giant cheesesteak sandwich and a Dr. Pepper.  And I made sure to enjoy it, but it's going to be another few weeks before I get another one.
• Dinner:  Asian chicken salad

Exercise:

• 30 minute heart-rate program on the elliptical at Lifetime Fitness.
• 15 minutes in the pool.  6 laps.

Today's weigh-in:  206.0

Not bad considering the giant cheesesteak sandwich at lunch.  I expected it to be higher.

Day 29

Finally, a successful day on the bike.  Fixed my flat and got the bike back on the trainer.  Everything was working great tonight.  I decided to continue my aerobic base training with another Spinervals video.  Tonight was Spinervals 18.0 - Aero Base Builder 3.  This was another long, steady effort in my aerobic heart rate zone.  And even though I was working out in the garage and it was generally below 50 degrees in there, I managed to work up a really good sweat.  I thought it was cold enough that I didn't need the fan, but I may have been wrong.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
  Lunch:  Protein bar while driving over to REI to pick up a couple things.
• Dinner:  Taco Tuesday!  I managed to limit myself to only two tacos tonight, which is impressive for me.

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine.
• 60 minutes on the bike.  Spinervals 18.0 - Aero Base Builder 3.  My ride report on Strava is HERE.

Today's weigh-in:  205.2

That means I've lost over 20 lbs in a little less than a month.  Nice.

Day 28

Quick post today.  Annoyed, again.  Was riding on the trainer tonight, and got a flat.  Looks like an old patch failed on my tube.  These tires are ridiculously hard to deal with, and fought with them for quite a while.  Finally getting a new tube mounted, and pinched it trying to mount the last little bit, putting a couple holes in the tube.  Took a break, and went back out to try again with another tube.  Managed to get that installed just fine.  Thinking of getting a new tire, without a wire bead.  That should be easier to deal with.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar while driving to a meeting
• Dinner:  some kind of Asian chicken salad.  Quick, and pretty tasty.

Exercise:

• Was in the middle of Spinervals 17.0 this evening when I got my flat, about 50 minutes into the 90 minute workout.  Ended up spending the rest of the evening trying to change my tube.

Today's weigh-in:  207.6

Day 27

I had planned on going for a nice 50-mile bike ride today, but life just got in the way.  Errands and such.  But I managed to squeeze in some good exercise and good food.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch: Tried to make a copy of the Lifetime Café's Harvest Turkey Wrap.  But it turns out we were out of mayo somehow.  So, instead of whipping up a cranberry mayo, we went with a raspberry vinaigrette. Deli turkey, lettuce blend, sliced apple, shredded cheese and raspberry vinaigrette.
• Dinner:  Spicy basil chicken.  Yummy.

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine
• As I said, I was planning to go on a 50-mile ride today, but it didn't happen.  Decided to do an 80-minute Spinervals session at home instead.  Spinervals 16.0 - Aero Base Builder 1.  Here's my Strava entry.

Today's weigh-in: 209.2

Day 26

Quick post tonight.  It's late.  Just finished watching Looper.  Wow, that was pretty awesome.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Not a smoothie.  Decided on 2 scrambled eggs, and 2 pieces of bacon.
• Lunch:  Chicken wrap again, like the other day.
• Dinner:  Our weekly dinner out.  Went to Old Chicago and had some pizza.

Exercise:

• Lifetime:  10 minutes on an elliptical, as a warm-up to my . . . 
• Lifetime:  60-minute spinning class.  My first-ever spinning class, and I really liked it.  Today was an "aerobic endurance" session.
• Decided that wasn't enough, so I hopped on the elliptical at home before dinner, and ran for 20 minutes watching episode 4 of Undeclared.

Today's weigh-in: 209.6
Went up a little, but probably to be expected with eating three normal meals today.

Day 25 - A little break

Hopping in to bed last night, I twisted my foot a little, and must have tweaked that toe I broke about 3 weeks ago.  It kind of hurt last night, but felt ok in the morning; at least, until I started my morning workout.  I could definitely feel some pain in the toe, so I stopped right away.  Everything had been feeling better, so I took the tape off a few days ago.  I think that was a mistake.

I managed to get in a little walk at lunch, and some swimming after dinner.  But I'm going to stay off the bike and elliptical tonight, and hit it hard again this weekend.  There is a kids rock-climbing session at Lifetime in the morning, so we're probably going to take the kids there.  They'll love it, and I'll get in a good morning workout while they're having fun.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie, with egg again
• Lunch: Protein bar
• Dinner:  Chicken wrap, the same as the other night.

Exercise:

• 30 minute walk at lunch
• Laps in the pool at Lifetime.  2 laps crawl, 1 lap breaststroke, 1 lap kicking-only, 1 lap arms only, and 1 more lap crawl.

Today's weigh-in: 209.0

Day 24 - Back on the Bike

I mentioned yesterday that I finally got my replacement speed/cadence sensor from Garmin, but realized I had a broken spoke.  Well, I got my bike back from the shop today, good as new.  So, I finally got to get the real bike workout that I've been missing.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie.  Lisa and I met have met with separate trainers at Lifetime Fitness, and both have mentioned adding raw egg to our morning smoothies, so we decided to do that today.  This seemed pretty weird to both of us, but we gave it a try anyway.  I threw 2 eggs in the blender, so basically we each had one mixed in with our serving of smoothie.  It didn't add any taste, and didn't seem to change the texture.  And supposedly, it adds a lot more protein, Omega-3 fatty acids, and other good stuff to our body.  I don't know.  I didn't throw up, which I guess is a plus.
• Lunch:  Box lunch at work.  Turkey sandwich, chips and a pickle.  Unfortunately, this meant no walking today.
• Dinner:  One of our favorites.  Pan-grilled Pork Chops with Grilled Pineapple Salsa.

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine
• 45 minutes on the bike in the garage, with Spinervals 1.0 again.  One of my favorite hard Spinervals workouts.  It just has a little of everything, and really cranks up the heart rate.
• 20 minutes on the elliptical with a strength interval program, watching episode 3 of "Undeclared".

Today's weigh-in:  209.4

Hey look!  I've lost enough that I decided to move my chart up a little bit.  Now it shows a range of 190-230 lbs, instead of 200-240 lbs.

Day 23

Another crazy Lifetime day.  After an afternoon meeting, I drove home, picked up my bike and dropped it off at the bike shop to get a tune-up and the spoke replaced.  Then, picked up the kids and brought them home to get their homework done.  Whipped up a quick dinner.  Then, off to Lifetime.  My wife had a class tonight, so we all went.  She did her class, the kids had a race-day in the kids room, and I got in some cardio and more time in the pool.  We also turned in our registration for swim lessons, for me and the kids.  The kids need some regular kids lessons, and I would just like some instruction on improving my stroke and breathing.  It's not much of a cardio workout if I just flail down the lane for about 10 minutes, sucking in water.  I'd like to be able to smooth out my swimming so I can swim for a longer distance to get a better workout.  Overall, a good night at the gym, but it's just a little hectic.

At the bike shop, we took a look at my broken spoke, and it actually looks like I may have damaged the spokes a bit when I jammed up my chain a few weeks ago.  They're going to check and see if some of the other spokes look ready to break, too.  But I should get it back tomorrow evening, so I'm hoping to get in a Spinervals workout again.


Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch: Protein bar while driving to a meeting
• Dinner: I really liked the chicken wrap I had at the Lifetime Fitness Café last weekend, so I thought I'd try to recreate it.  My version:
• Grilled chicken, diced (from a bag of frozen pre-cooked grilled chicken strips)
• Lettuce and carrots, chopped (from a bag of a salad blend) 
• Bacon, chopped
• Little bit of ranch dressing
• Chipotle mayo (Lifetime used red pepper mayo, but I couldn't find any, and didn't have time to make my own)
• Tomato, diced
• Mixed all up, and wrapped in a multi-grain tortilla
• After-workout snack:  Apple, clementine orange, and a handful of peanuts

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine
• At Lifetime:  30 minutes of intervals on an elliptical
• At Lifetime:  15 minutes of swimming.  3 laps crawl, 1 lap breaststroke, 1 lap kicking only, with a floaty thing.

Today's weigh-in: 210.2

Day 22 - more bike problems

Good news:  My replacement speed / cadence sensor showed up today.  Time to hop on the bike again!

Bad news:  I got the sensor installed, only to find out I had a broken spoke on my rear wheel.  That's not something I have the ability or tools to deal with, so I need to get my bike to the shop.


Really disappointed, since I was looking forward to finally getting in a good bike workout again.  Instead, I ended up on the elliptical, which is fine, but not what I was planning on.

Food:
Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
Lunch:  We had a lunch 'n' learn at work today, so I ended up with a box lunch.  Turkey sandwich, bag of chips and a cookie.  This also meant no lunchtime walk.
Dinner:  Spicy thai basil chicken lettuce wraps.  Had these earlier this month, too, and they are just fantastic.

Exercise:
My usual morning routine
45 minutes on the elliptical, with a break in the middle for a quick cardio routine similar to my morning workout.  Watched the end of Everything or Nothing, which was really good.

Today's weigh-in:  210.2

Day 21

Today started off pretty normally, but got a little crazier this evening.  My wife is starting a fitness program at Lifetime Fitness, 3 nights a week.  And Monday is my daughter's gymnastics night.  So, dinner ended up being a little screwy.  I got home from work just in time to take my daughter to gymnastics, while my wife was getting ready to take our son over to Lifetime.  They had time to eat dinner before I got home.  I decided to go grab some Tokyo Joe's during gymnastics because I didn't want to wait until after gymnastics to eat something.  Then, I waited for my wife and son to get back from Lifetime so I could find out how that went.  So, I ended up hopping on the bike pretty late tonight, and decided to try to go to bed at a normal time instead of getting in some time on the elliptical.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch: Protein bar
• Dinner:  Tokyo Joe's - regular steak bowl with broccoli, carrots, snap peas, green and red onion

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine.
• 30 minute walk during lunch
• 30 minute walk this evening during my daughter's gymnastics class, after I got back from dinner.
• 45 minutes on the bike in the garage, watching Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007.  It's streaming on Netflix right now, and I heard about it on the Filmspotting: SVU podcast I listen to.

Today's weigh-in: 211.0

Day 20

Back to Lifetime today, but didn't get much of a workout.  Lisa and I had consultations at 11am, so we dropped off the kids at the kids room and went to our separate fitness consultations.  This was basically a discussion with a gym-person where we discussed our current day-to-day routines, diet, any current exercising we do, fitness goals, etc.  Then they talk about what Lifetime Fitness can offer to help us, from different equipment, fitness programs, personal training, health testing, nutrition information, etc.  They also offer metabolic/endurance testing, which I'd like to look into at some point.

After the consultation, we only had a short time before we had to pick up the kiddos from the child care center.  I went down to the pool to swim some laps, but unfortunately, a swim class was going on.  I had to wait about 10 minutes for them to finish, then had a few minutes before we had to get the kids.  I only managed to get in 3 laps today, but that was plenty for me.  Swimming is much harder work than I thought.  I'm used to being able to be on an elliptical or a bike for 45 minutes or an hour, and not really have any problems, but 10 minutes in the pool just kills me.  But I managed to have a nice cool down in the leisure pool, playing with the kids.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  We ended up at Lifetime way past lunch so we decided to just eat there.  I had a southwest chicken wrap at the Lifetime Café.
• Dinner:  Well, this was interesting.  We'd been cooking a Smoky Chipotle Steak Stew in the crockpot all day.  But somehow we misread the recipe and instead of adding "1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, from a 7 oz can", we added "1 7 oz can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce". Needless to say, the stew was so spicy it was practically inedible.  So, while it was pretty good, I was barely able to eat any of it.

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine.
• 3 laps in the pool at Lifetime Fitness
• 40 minutes on the bike trainer in the garage, watching the end of Bronson.  Wow, that was a great movie.  Looking forward to getting my replacement speed/cadence sensor from Garmin so I can start doing the Spinervals videos again.
• 20 minutes on the elliptical, watching episode 2 of Undeclared.

Today's weigh-in: 211.8

Day 19 - Lifetime day

So, today was our first day at Lifetime Fitness.  We stopped in and officially got our member numbers and stuff.  We dropped the kiddos off at the kids area, just in time for them to go do the sports program over in the gym.  Sounds like they played some dodgeball and tag.

Lisa and I went up to the cardio/fitness area.  I ran on an elliptical for 30 minutes, and she was on a treadmill for 45 minutes.  After that, I went down to the pool to swim some laps, while she hopped on a bike.  I've known how to swim for most of my life, but this is the first time I've actually swam for fitness instead of fun.  Playing Marco Polo and stuff, sure, but swimming laps?  That was new to me, and I had no idea how it was going to go.

I was worried that there might be a lot of people in the lap pool, and there were probably some rules of etiquette I needed to be aware of, so I did a little reading online last night.  I'm glad I did.  It turns out I knew nothing about lap swimming.  When I went down to the pool, there was a little placard with some rules, and they pretty much agreed with what I saw online last night.  Still, I'm glad I did the reading ahead of time, so I knew what to expect.  But I still had no idea if I was fast or slow, how far I could go, or even if I could manage to swim in a straight line.  Fortunately, when I got to the pool, there were five lanes and only 2 or 3 swimmers.  So, I had a lane to myself and could get my bearings without screwing up anyone else's workout.  All in all, it went pretty well.  I swam 5 laps, or 10 lengths of the 25-meter pool.  I have no idea if that's good or bad, but it's something to build on.  And it was a good workout without knee or ankle pain.

And to top it off, I even went for a 20-mile bike ride after lunch.  Nice to be outside instead of on the trainer.  I guess I did some sort of triathlon today, with the elliptical, swimming and bike ride.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar
• Dinner:  We went to a party this evening, and they had a big falafel barfrom a place called Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill.  I'm not sure what I had, but looking at their menu, I'd say it was some kind of chicken shwarma pita.

Exercise:

• Lifetime Fitness:  30 minutes of intervals on an elliptical.  Added some arm and glute boosters to the elliptical program.
• Lifetime Fitness:  5 laps in the lap pool, 250 meters.
• Biked for about an hour, with a 20-mile loop near home that I like to do.  Strava page HERE.

Today's weigh-in:  211.4.  Sweet!

Day 18

Not much to report today.  Still annoyed that my Garmin isn't working, but I got an email from them today saying they were sending me a new speed/cadence sensor, which should be here sometime next week.  I certainly don't need it to ride, but it helps.  I need to cadence sensor to follow along with the Spinervals videos, and I need the speed sensor to record my mileage on the trainer.  No, recording mileage isn't as important as simply getting time on the bike, but I would like to record my mileage on Strava, and I can't do that without the speed sensor.

Tomorrow is our first trip to Lifetime Fitness.  Looking forward to it.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie
• Lunch: Protein bar
• Dinner:  Tokyo Joe's.  Yum.  Regular steak and brown rice bowl with Spicyaki sauce and lots of veggies.

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine.
• About a 1/2-hour walk at lunch.
• Elliptical after dinner.  20 minutes of strength intervals, 10 minutes off the elliptical doing the majority of my morning routine, and another 20 minute strength interval.  Watched the first half of Bronson on Netflix.

Today's weigh-in:  213.4

Day 17 - Cheesesteak and disappointment

Frustrated right now.  Was out in the garage riding my trainer, working out with Spinervals 1.0 again.  Looked down and noticed I wasn't getting any reading on my speedometer.  I hopped off the bike to take a look and everything was connected properly.  I messed with the placement a little bit, reset the sensor, changed the battery, but no luck.  The cadence sensor was reading properly, but the speed sensor wasn't registering anything.  I just contacted Garmin for repair or replacement.  That really annoyed me.  I ended up just getting off the bike and coming inside to type this post, only about 22 minutes into my 45 minute ride.

On a brighter note, I can talk about intermediate milestones.  One of the things I love dearly, and is probably a big part of the reason I need to lose this weight in the first place, is the delicious cheesesteak place near my office.  I used to eat there all the time, but haven't been there since before my Christmas vacation.  I decided when I started this training program that every time I hit another 10 lb. milestone, I will treat myself to a cheesesteak lunch.  I started at 226 lbs, so I was due for a cheesesteak at 216 lbs, which I hit a couple days ago.  Unfortunately, I had to eat lunch on the road yesterday, due to some meetings.  So, I got to enjoy my cheesesteak lunch today.  And it was fantastic.  Looking forward to hitting 206 lbs.

Given my big unhealthy lunch today and my not-really-a-workout tonight, I'm expecting  to have put on some weight today.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Cheesesteak, fries and a Dr. Pepper.  Soooooo goooooood.
• Dinner:  Spicy chicken peanut wrap

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine
• The first 22 minutes of Spinervals 1.0.

Today's weigh-in:  214.8

So, it went up a little, but certainly wasn't as bad as I expected.  I'm content with that, I guess.

Day 16

Another quick post today.  I worked out pretty hard this evening, so I just want to finish writing this and go to bed.

Today, I decided that there really wasn't anything on my Netflix Instant queue that I desperately wanted to see right away, so I rode the bike with a spinning video instead.  While it's not as enjoyable as watching a good movie almost every night, it is definitely a much better workout.  I have a number of videos from Spinervals, and I load them up on my tablet.  I'll decide which video to watch depending on how much time I have, and what type of workout I want, and I have enough videos to get some variety in my workouts.  I'll do an entire post on Spinervals at some point, but for now I just felt like mentioning that I cranked through Spinervals 1.0 - No Slackers Allowed this evening.  And even though it's pretty cold in the garage, I was sweating like crazy.

Also, we've officially signed up for a family membership at Lifetime Fitness.  We're definitely planning to make some time this weekend to head over there and picking up our membership cards and getting in our first workout.  I'm really looking forward to hopping in the pool and swimming some laps.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar while driving to a meeting
• Dinner:  Some spaghetti and meatballs

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine
• 45 minutes on the bike, riding along with Spinervals 1.0.  Strava entry HERE.
• 30 minutes on the elliptical watching the end of Primer.  Great low-budget sci-fi.  Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2004.

Today's weigh-in: 212.6

Day 15

Just a quick update.  We got a new stove today, and I got a new phone today, and I've been busy with both.  So, while I managed to make time to work out, I didn't leave much time to write a blog post.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar
• Dinner:  Sesame beef and green beans

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine.  By the way, my broken toe is feeling better, so I've added the squat thrusts and mountain climbers back into the workout.  Only adds about 45 seconds to the routine, and definitely gets the heart going.
• Same evening workout as last night:  20 hard minutes on the elliptical, about 5-10 minutes of various cardio from my morning workout, and another 20 minutes on the elliptical.  Watched the first 45 minutes of a movie called Primer.  Great movie so far.

Today's weigh-in:  213.8
That seems crazy, but that's what the scale said, and I weight myself a few times to make sure.  Weird.

Day 14 - Triple Bypass

It's official.  I'm going to be riding in the Triple Bypass bike ride on July 13.  The Triple Bypass is a big annual organized bike ride in Colorado, traveling from Evergreen to Avon, climbing three big mountain passes along the way.  Registration opened a couple weeks ago, but the ride is limited to a certain number of participants, and the final selections were made today.

The Triple Bypass actually consists of three different rides.  The Saturday ride travels from Evergreen to Avon, and the Sunday ride travels from Avon back to Evergreen.  And there is the Double Triple Bypass, which combines both the Saturday and Sunday rides.

Each day includes a 120-mile ride, with over 10,000 feet of elevation gain.  This includes climbs of Squaw/Juniper Pass, Loveland Pass and Vail Pass, and some truly beautiful Colorado high country.
I haven't mentioned this earlier, since the registrations weren't finalized, but this ride was one of the main reasons I started this blog.  The Triple Bypass is my main cycling goal this year, and the impetus behind me trying to get in shape.  Last year, I spent the summer training for the Good Sam Bike Jam, and this year I will be training for the Triple Bypass.  My goal weight of 165 is the number I came up with, a weight I felt at which I could complete this ride.  It is a little more than my ideal weight, but seems pretty realistic to me.  From now on, all my training described on this blog is my effort to build up my strength and endurance for this ride.  And a big part of building up the strength and endurance is to lose a lot of weight.

So, please continue to follow me here to hopefully see me transform from a fat blob into a lean, mean, biking machine.  I plan to continue with healthy eating, general fitness, and once it warms up, lots and lots of training rides.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar while driving to a meeting
• Dinner:  Couple pieces of pizza.  Daughter's gymnastics night is usually pizza night.

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine.
• After the kids went to bed, I did 20 intense minutes on the elliptical, 10 minutes of cardio pretty similar to my morning routine, and another 20 minutes on the elliptical.  I've adjusted my stance a little to keep the pressure of my achilles; running more flat-footed, which seems to help.  And I finished watching the movie Bernie.  Loved it.  
• The weather is supposed to warm up in a couple days, so I should be able to get back on the bike soon.

Today's weigh-in:  216.4

Day 13 - Still cold

Well, yesterday was cold, and it didn't really get any warmer today.  Making it harder to get in a good workout.  I had been planning on working out a lot this weekend, and getting in some good bike rides, but when it's in the single digits outside, that's just not going to happen.  We did manage to go check out Lifetime Fitness this morning, and I think we're going to be getting a family membership there.  It's a really great-looking facility, with a lot of great fitness options, and very family-friendly.  I'm looking forward to adding swimming to my repertoire soon.

My achilles tendon is still hurting, so this was another day of light workout.  I spent some time on the elliptical, but wasn't working very hard.  I didn't really get the heart rate going like I'd like to.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar
• Snack:  Some cheese and crackers
• Dinner:  Crock pot honey sesame chicken with rice

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine
• 45 minutes on the elliptical at a pretty relaxed pace.  Watched the first half of a movie called Bernie.  Very good so far.

Today's weigh-in:  217.2

Day 12 - It's cold!

As anyone who watched the Broncos game today should know, it's cold here in Denver.  Very, very cold.  I was looking forward to riding outside this weekend, but with temperatures barely above 10 degree F, that wasn't going to happen.  Instead, another day on the trainer in the garage.  And that was incredibly cold, too.  I plugged in a space heater to help a bit, but it really didn't do much.

And it looks like it's going to be bitter cold again tomorrow, so I'll be on the trainer again.  I really want to get back riding outside soon.

We got invited to go see a Colorado Mammoth game tonight, and ended up eating dinner at the Pepsi Center.  Not the best place to find much healthy food, unfortunately.  And the Mammoth lost.  Not really a good day for Denver sports.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar
• Dinner:  Pretty disappointing sausage sandwich at the Pepsi Center.

Exercise: 

• My usual morning routine.  But my 6-year-old son decided to join me this morning, which was fun.
• About 90 minutes on the trainer this afternoon, watching The Artist.  I thought it was pretty enjoyable, but Best Picture?  I don't get it.

Today's weigh-in:  217.2

Day 11

So, my achilles tendon is still bothering me.  I want to make sure I keep doing some cardio work so I can lose the weight I need to, but I'm tying to avoid further damage.  I rode the bike for an hour tonight, mostly on a pretty low tension to avoid stressing the tendon.  I'm going to have to alter my routine a bit, and hopefully I'll be able to start swimming soon, which should help.

I really needed to crank out some calories tonight, since I didn't eat very well today.  Instead of my usual protein bar and a walk, I went to lunch with someone from work and had a pretty tasty chicken cordon bleu sandwich.  And the family went out to Chipotle tonight, and I forced myself to get a salad and water instead of a burrito and Coke.  So, maybe that offset my lunch a bit.

Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie
Lunch:  Giant fried chicken cordon bleu sandwich, fries and a Pepsi.  Oops.
Dinner:  Steak salad at Chipotle, with a water and a few chips

Exercise:  My usual morning routine.  An hour on the bike after dinner.  Pretty low intensity to try to take it easy on the achilles, so I didn't burn a ton of calories.  Finished watching Paul.  I really liked it, but I'm pretty sure I'm exactly the target audience (plenty of references to Star Wars, Indy, Star Trek, Jaws, Aliens, Duel, The X-Files, and many, many more.)

Today's weigh-in:  218.2

Disappointed, but expected after what I ate today and my lower-intensity workout.

Day 10

Not much to say to, except for some reason I forgot to eat lunch.  Maybe that's why I just didn't have the energy riding the trainer tonight.

Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie.  Running low on protein, need to get to the store.
Lunch:  Oops.  Forgot to eat my usual protein bar after my walk today.
Dinner:  A few potato-and-cheddar pierogis with grilled peppers and onions.

Exercise:  My usual morning routine.  About a 45-minute walk at lunch, made more enjoyable by the fact that I ran into the National Western Stock Show Parade.  That was a nice surprise.  After dinner, 45 minutes on the trainer watching the first half of Paul.

Hey, look!  It's the stock show parade!

Today's weigh-in:  217.2

Day 9 - Ouch

Started having a little pain in my right achilles tendon today.  Probably from running too hard on the elliptical.  Being overweight certainly can't help.  Going to try to focus a little more on the bike, and a little less on the elliptical for a bit.  I read through a few web sites on achilles pain and tendonitis.  They had some good suggestions, so I'm going to work on stretching a bit more and stressing it a bit less.

It sounds like I may have the opportunity to get a membership to Lifetime Fitness nearby.  I may look into adding some swimming to my repertoire, which would allow me to get a cardio workout without straining my joints.  Between this new achilles pain, and a couple somewhat-bad knees, lower impact is better.

Today's info:
Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie
Lunch:  Protein bar while driving to a meeting
Dinner:  Pasta and veggies

Exercise:  My usual morning routine.  Nothing at lunch today, since I spent my lunch hour driving to a meeting.  But after my meeting, I came home instead of going back to work, and managed to squeeze in a 35-minute ride on the trainer before picking up the kids.  Then another 30 minutes after dinner.  Nothing on the elliptical tonight.  I did finish watching Project Nim, though.  Fascinating and disturbing documentary.

Today's weigh-in:  217.6

Day 8 - Beginning of Week 2

Another quick update today.  If I write long posts every day, I'm going to run out of topics pretty quick.  I may just write the longer posts when I happen to have time, or on the weekends, and stick to just the facts the rest of the time.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie
• Lunch: Protein bar
• Dinner:  Chicken quesadilla

Exercise: 

• My usual morning workout.  
• 45 minute walk around town at lunch.  Today I realized how many good looking restaurants I walk past.  Makes it difficult to know I'm going back to my desk to eat a protein bar. 
• After dinner, 45 minutes on the bike trainer, watching the first half of Project Nim, and 25 minutes on the elliptical, watching the first episode of Undeclared.

Today's weigh-in:  219.6

I think yesterday's weigh-in might have been due to a screwy scale.

Day 7

Busy evening tonight, not much time for riding or running.

Food:

• Breakfast: Fruit/protein smoothie
• Lunch: Protein bar
• Dinner: Boboli pizza, which is our typical dinner nights when my daughter has gymnastics
• Dessert!:  Our smoothie was so good this morning, my wife asked if I would make the same one again.

Exercise: 

• My usual morning workout. 
• Walked for about 40 minutes at lunch.  
• Then, with only limited time tonight, just a quick 30-minute ride on the trainer, watching the end of Casa de mi Padre.

Today's weight-in: 217.8

That's a little over 8 pounds in one week.  Pretty impressive, but I certainly don't expect to keep that up.  That's a little crazy.  It's going to slow down soon, I'm sure.

Day 6 - Strava

Got in a couple decent rides this weekend.  Needed to work overtime, so I rode to work both days.  All my rides, both indoors and out, are tracked on a web site called Strava.

Strava is a site that collects data from various fitness activities and organizes it.  One of the main features of Strava is to divide your ride into segments and compare your results on those segments to your previous times and to the times of other Strava users.  Another great feature is "achievements", which show when you've gotten either a personal record or an overall record on any particular segments.

Strava collects your data using either a free smartphone app or from various Garmin devices.  Either way, just start recording and go!  With the smartphone app, once you finish your activity, the data uploads automatically to the Strava site.  If you use a Garmin GPS device, you connect the device to your computer, and the Strava web site uploads the data. Piece of cake.

Strava includes social feature that let you "follow" other users so you can see the activities they are doing.  I am following a couple riders who live nearby, so I can get some ideas for new places to ride.  I am also following a couple local pros, because it's interesting to see the type of training they do.

The Strava web site includes a couple widgets you can include on web sites or blogs to be able to show off your recent activities.  This is the first time I've used these widgets, and it looks like the top one only includes actual rides, and not indoor training, which is disappointing.

EDIT:  I also noticed that Strava isn't correctly handling the time when my Garmin bike computer was stopped and turned off.  The 5+ hours shown on my recent rides also seems to include the 3 hours I spent sitting at my desk at work each day.  The information is recorded correctly on the Garmin site, where it appears I just turned around and went home, for a 2-hour ride.  Strava is showing 3 hours of nothing in the middle of my ride.  I'll have to check with their support people to figure out what's going on.



Overall, I'd highly recommend Strava for tracking fitness activities.  It's fun, offers a lot of great information, and is incredibly easy to use.  Check it out if you get a chance.  Note that the above widgets link to my Strava page, but Strava limits the amount of information non-registered users can see.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie
• Lunch: Protein bar
• Dinner:  Spicy Thai Basil Chicken.  Holy cow, this was delicious.  Way better than I expected.

Exercise: 

• My usual morning routine.  
• Another day of riding to work to do some overtime, about 28 miles total.  
• Then another 25 minutes on the elliptical after dinner, continuing to watch Casa de Mi Padre.  What a strange, but amusing, movie.  I'm enjoying it.

Today's weigh-in:  218.4.  Wow.

Day 5 - Indoor Training

Although I actually rode outside today, I do most of my winter riding on a trainer in the garage.  I could probably squeeze out some room in the basement, but it would be tight.  And I like the convenience of just being able to pop my bike off the trainer and go for a ride if I want to.

Thd downside of riding in the garage is having to deal with the heat and cold.  In the summer, I tend to jump on the trainer after the kids go to bed, and it could be 80 or 90 degrees.  A good fan is a necessity, or you will be swimming in your own sweat.  Even in the winter, with temperatures around freezing or below, I still sweat a bit, so using the fan turned to low definitely helps.

Dressing for winter rides on the trainer is basically the same as dressing for winter rides outside, but without the helmet and glasses.  Bundled up with long pants, a long shirt, jacket, skullcap, shoe covers and winter riding gloves.  I found these gloves at REI the other day:   Novara Headwind Tech Compatible.  Warm and windproof, and they have conductive thread in the fingertips so I can operate my tablet while riding.  I typically don't need to use this on an outdoor ride, but it's great for the trainer.

So, here is my trainer setup:

Bike on the trainer in the garage.  It's not pretty, but it works.

Here's the trainer.  CycleOps Fluid2 Trainer.  I've had this for a little over a year, and really love it.  I've never had a single problems, and popping the bike in and out is a piece of cake.

And here's the "control center".  At the same time I was buying my trainer at Performance Bike, I saw this cool book holder.  Turns out it is also great for holding a tablet.  I stuck a binder clip on each side to keep the tablet from sliding around.

This is basically my view while I'm riding.  I usually watch Netflix, HBOGO, movies ripped from DVD, or some cycling-specific training videos.  Below the tablet is my new Garmin Edge 500.  This is a fantastic bike computer that combines all the data I used to collect all within one device.  I'm going to write a full post about the Garmin some other time.

Although I'd always rather be riding outside, having a job and a family doesn't really allow that.  I ride in the garage almost every night, and try to get outside on the weekends, weather permitting.  I managed to get out today since I needed to work a little overtime, so I decided to ride instead of drive.  That allowed me to get in almost 2 hours of riding, without being stuck in the garage.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar
• Dinner:  A little chicken fried rice.

Exercise:

• My usual morning routine.  
• 14-mile ride each way, to and from work.  Listened to a few podcasts:  Planet Money and Stuff you Missed in History Class.  
• After dinner, a 25-minute run on the elliptical, and watched the beginning of Casa de mi Padre on Netflix.

Today's weigh-in:  221.0

Day 4 - TGIF

Well, Friday night is typically "go out to dinner night" for us, and this week was no exception.  I've been so good all week, but failed miserably tonight.  We decided to go to Old Chicago and get a pizza.  Jalapeno cheddar pretzels, pizza and Dr. Pepper all packed into my hungry tummy.  And to top it off, they screwed up our pizza.  We ordered mushrooms on half, and when it came out, it was obvious that they cooked it without the mushrooms, realized it when they took it out of the oven, and then threw some warmed-up mushroom slices on top.  It looked terrible.  Fortunately, it was my wife's half of the pizza, and not mine.  But by the time we had finished most of it, I finally said something to the waitress, and she apologized, saying the kitchen screwed something up, and then gave us an entirely new pizza, boxed up and ready to take home.  We felt bad, and figured if there were any homeless folks on the way home, we'd just give it to them, but they typically hang out closer to the freeway exit ramps, and nowhere on our route home.  So now we have a whole other delicious pizza sitting in the fridge, tempting me.

On top of that, I really wanted to get a ride in tonight, so I got bundled up and went out to the garage for a ride on the trainer shortly after getting home from dinner.  Cranking out intervals with a stomach full of pizza and Dr. Pepper isn't much fun.  I'm going to have to remember how this feels next time I decide to get in a good workout eat a lot of pizza.  But I managed to get in a ride anyway.


Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit/protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar on the drive back to the office after some morning meetings.
• Dinner: See above.

Exercise:  

• My usual morning warmup.  
• Half-hour walk around town once I got back to the office.  
• And about 50 minutes on the bike.  Watched about the last 30 minutes of Batman:  The Dark Knight Returns Part 1.  That left me short of my intended workout time, so I cranked up NIN: Pretty Hate Machine, which I hadn't listened to in years, and seemed like would be pretty good workout music.  I was right.

Given what I ate for dinner tonight, I expect my daily weight to have gone up a bit.  Let's see:

Today's weigh-in:  222.4

Yep, as expected. I really need to control myself better.  Looking forward to a successful weekend.

 

Day 3 - My Morning Workout

Morning is typically a pretty busy time around the house.  We have two people trying to get ready for work, and those two people are trying to get two young'uns ready for school.  It's pretty hectic, and doesn't leave much time for a decent workout.  But while my wife is in the shower, I can manage about 15 minutes for a quick workout before I need to make breakfast and lunches for the kiddos.

Typically, I head to the basement where I can turn on some music without bothering everyone.  After turning on Pandora to some kind of workout music, it's time to get to work. The quick morning workout is typically just some stretching and light cardio, just to help get going in the morning.  I've been through EA Active on the Wii, and one round of P90X, so I decided to pick and choose from the various types of cardio in those workouts.  Here is my typical routine, all done quickly and without breaks:

• Arm, shoulder and chest stretches
• Side stretches
• Back and leg stretches
• Jumping jacks - a few more each day, and fast.
• Run lunges - a few more each day, and fast.
• Steam engine - hands clasped behind the head, bring left knee up and right elbow down, the repeat with the other side.  Maybe 40 or 50.  Kind of like doing crunches, but standing up.
• "Boxing" with very light weights.  3 sets.
• Straight punches, 10 reps
• Upper cuts, 10 reps
• Hooks, 10 reps
• Shoulder press, 10 reps
• Mountain climbers, usually about 40 reps*
• Squat thrusts (sometimes the P90X version, with pushups in between, depending on how I'm feeling), usually only about 10-15 reps*
• Push ups, as many as possible
• Sit ups, as many as possible
• Cool down: Go make kids lunches.

* I broke my toe about a week ago, and am skipping these for now.

So, that's my usual morning workout.  It really gets me prepped for the breakfast-and-lunch-making to come.

Breakfast: fruit/protein smoothie

Lunch: Protein bar

Dinner:  Stir-fried lemongrass chicken.  Delicious, but in pain in the ass to make.  Lots of prep.

Exercise:  1/2-hour walk around town at lunch.  About 45 minutes on the bike in the garage.  Not sure why, but I'm on a Batman kick lately.  Decided to get the disc of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Part 1 from Netflix and put it on my tablet.  I watched the first 45 minutes of it, and will finish it tomorrow night.  I was a big fan of the graphic novel, which I read about a year ago.  The movie seems to be extremely faithful to the book, at least so far.  I can't wait for Part 2 to come out at the end of the month.

Today's weigh-in:  221.8

Another thing about the weights.  I make sure I weigh myself at basically the same time every day, typically shortly before bed, as I'm sitting here typing these posts.  And I use the same scale, and wear approximately the same clothes, and no shoes.

Day 2 - I'm Sleepy

Part of my fitness routine is going to involve getting in a quick 10-15 minute workout in the morning, just to help get the day started right.  Well, for some reason, I just couldn't sleep last night.  I stayed up way too late trying to figure out the best way to embed Excel charts in this blog.  Once I finally got that figured out, it was time for bed.  But I ended up laying there, wide awake, until at least 2am.  And I needed to get up early to get on the road to head up to Estes Park for work.  Needless to say, no morning warm-up today.

After dinner tonight, I had time for a decent ride on the trainer, but decided not to follow up with the elliptical, hoping to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Breakfast: fruit/protein smoothie

Lunch: Protein bar while driving back from Estes Park

Dinner:  Gnocchi / broccoli thing that was pretty good

Exercise:  1/2-hour walk around town at lunch.  About an hour on the bike in the garage.  Watched Batman: Under the Red Hood on Netflix while riding.  Thought it was pretty terrible, especially compared to Batman: Year One that I watched the other night.

Typically, I watch Netflix or read books on my tablet while I'm on the trainer or the elliptical, and listen to podcasts while I'm on the road.  More info on what I'm watching/reading/listening to in future posts.

Today's weigh-in:  223.4

A note about the weigh-ins:  I think we have a pretty good scale, but it still gives slightly different results each time we stand on it.  So, I typically step on the scale a number of times until I get the same result twice.

And here is another attempt with a different-looking weight chart.  Rather than linking to a chart from an online spreadsheet, I just created a different version of the chart with some more relevant information for this blog, and exported as an image.

It's A New Year! Time to Get Moving!

Well, here it is, 2013.  I've managed to put on a lot of weight toward the end of 2012.  Unfortunately, the cheesesteak place a block from my office is delicious.  Back in 2011/2012, I managed to lose about 50 pounds, and this year, I plan to match, or hopefully exceed that.

Back when I lost the weight previously, I had a little weight-loss-challenge going with my wife and sister-in-law, for motivation.  This time, I'm doing this by myself.  But I figured I'd still need a little motivation.  So I decided to post my progress online, figuring my fear of failing in public will motivate me.

I am planning to weigh in every evening, and post the results here.  I know there are people out there who disagree with daily weigh-ins, but in my opinion, a daily weigh-in will keep me more in tune with what's going on with my body more effectively than a weekly weigh-in.  It worked before, and it will work again.

Over time, I will be posting information on myself, my struggles and successes, my fitness routines and equipment, and maybe even a little bit about my diet.

Right now, it's late, and I need to get up early.  I created this blog and wrote my first post quickly this evening, but plan to update the appearance and information as I get more time.  I will also being including some charts showing my progress.

For now, I am tracking my weight loss with a chart from Vertex42.  Here you go:



Starting weight:  226 lb
Goal weight: 165 lb

Here we go!