An update of sorts and some vintage steel for your morning Joe.

An update of sorts and some vintage steel for your morning Joe.

1976 motobecane nomade sprint bicycle bike trainer cycleops fluid 2 cycling for weight loss fat guy on a bike healthy life style low calorie diet Weight Loss

I cross posted this with my cycling blog so you can check it out there if you haven't seen it, My weight has how do they say? plateaued? lately, I can't figure it out because I am eating ok, exercise has been coming more often with the weather I have been taking the little one out on rides on the Adams trail a bike but the weight loss has stalled. I am not going to worry about it but will keep on doing what I am doing and call it a slow time because if I let it get in the way I will undoubtedly gain weight in the long run and I ain't down for that. I mentioned the weather warming up and its got me in a bike kind of mood, like I said me and my eldest daughter have been going on rides out on the lake with the trail a bike and I started working on the old Motobecane again, we're getting close on that bike I tell ya! soon enough I will have a new ride in the stable even if its short lived as I am unsure I am a roda bike kind of guy but we will see.

I needed some down time so I headed off to work with the Motobecane yesterday for a couple hours and finished up cleaning the rear derailleur, the shifters and I got the cables/housings installed. I am still not done by a long shot and there is still a lot to do before the bike is done I did make some good solid progress on the bike last night. I chose Jagwire platinum braided cable housings to blend in with the frame a bit and I really like how they look on the bike! I did make a couple decisions on just how closely I was going to polish things up, I was thinking about the fact that I am planning to ride this bike and polishing everything to a mirror finish didn't make a lot of sense because of that fact, I mean if its going to get grimy anyways why make it shinier than when it was new?

With that said, I did not skimp on the polishing! I think that the bike is starting to look pretty nice even if this shot makes my basement look like a dungeon! who am I kidding.. it IS a dungeon! I still have to completely do the wheels (I just tossed them on to see how the bike looked) as I have not touched them other than a small test spot where I polished the rust off of the chrome and I do believe that the wheels will look pretty good after some elbow grease. You can see that I laid the rack on there just for a look at how it would play out and I think that I like it and will stick to the original plan of doing fenders and rack on this bike.

Above is a closer shot of the braided cables installed on the shifters, I think they compliment the silver frame pretty nicely! I am still on the fence with what color I should do the tape/hoods/saddle in but I am sure that it will come to me... eventually. I originally wanted to do the bars and saddle in brown/honey but that is more expensive than the other options and since I am not 100% on whether I will keep this bike in the long run I keep going back to just do the bars red, black saddle and brown or black hoods, I am very on the fence with the whole thing. I don't really ride road bikes let alone vintage road bikes! and that is why I am unsure about whether this will become a permanent ride in my ever growing fleet of bicycles even though I have put a good amount of thought and time into this bike.

Finally a shot of what I started with compared to where I brought it, I think there is a big difference and when I am done I think it will be even bigger! Next on the list of things to do will be the tape and saddle and I am very anxious to see how it looks with a bit more of a finished feel to it. Now the decision must be made on the tape, once that happens I can choose a saddle and finally hood color, some new tires and we will be off for a ride to snap a couple photos in a nicer setting than my dungeon... er I mean basement!

Over all I am on the right road and with the spring right around the corner I am expecting the biking to pick up some which will hopefully help tear away some of my winter jelly that I have packed on during the hibernation. I will never stop striving to get to my goal and some day I will be able to say that I weigh 250 lbs, it may not be in a week, or a month but the day is coming because I will not let weight control who I am or what I do in life and that's that!

Until next we meet, keep on pedaling!

As Ever
Me

New content on the fat fella, check it out here!

New content on the fat fella, check it out here!

1976 motobecane nomade sprint Two wheels and a fat guy Weight Loss

A good weekend was had, there was snow, working on that old bike, riding the trainer and a walk with the kiddos through said snow, all things that at my highest weight of 534 would not have been possible. Living this way now feels natural to me, my stumble with the stress and weight gain was such an off balance feeling and its not something that I noticed as much before I got my shit back together and I believe this may be part of the reason so many people struggle with weight. I enjoy eating the meals that I make that are healthy, they taste good, are not hard to prepare and the bonus of feeling awesome because of them is well... awesome!

A shot over the barely frozen lake now covered in snow.

Last night I had my wife take a picture of me in shorts and no shirt, I did this back when I started this blog as a reference for myself to see where I was and where I have gone, it was very effective in keeping me on track. I would take 2 images per month, one on the first and one some time on the middle of the month and I have a folder with all of these images dated and photoshopped together with the image from Jan 6 2008 so that I can see my progress. I will probably never share these images with anyone but my wife which is likely a better choice so that I don't scare the population or anyone that may stumble upon the images on the net but anyone that is trying to lose weight I would recommend doing this.

The Moto's new aluminum bars all nice and shiny.

Something else I would recommend to people trying to lose weight is finding something to be passionate about that is health related, you know, like bicycles! I think that my obsession... er I mean addiction... um still not right.. hobby, yes that's it Hobby, is a huge factor in keeping me interested in healthy living because its kind of hard to blast down a rail trail when you weigh 400 pounds. Bicycles have become very interesting to me once again, more so than when I was 10 years old riding around on my Huffy Santa fe' or when I was 14 with my Schwinn Super le tour, there is something about them that just speaks to me, I like riding them, I like fixing up the old broken ones and I have too many right now! The spring can't get here soon enough so that I can get my weekend rides back on the menu and I am planning on being back down to my fighting weight by then so I have a lot to look forward to with the spring coming around again.

Over all everything is on track, I am making time for myself even to tha point that I can post pretty regularly on this blog again! I even started a more cycling related blog not too long ago and there are more details on my bike projects there so anyone interested in that sort of thing please check it out at TWO WHEELS AND A FAT GUY, I would love to know that some of you followed me over there. The other blog is health/weight loss related but it is centered more on the cycling side of it because I wanted a place to post up my bike projects so that I would not bore the skin off of anyone that reads this blog for the weight loss side of it so again please check it out!

For today, that's all I got! everything is happening the way that I want it to and not by chance, I decided that beat the path into the ground where my feet will fall.

As Ever
Me

Pre weigh in prediction and a project.

Pre weigh in prediction and a project.

1976 motobecane nomade sprint low calore weight loss Weigh in Weight Loss

Tomorrow I weigh in again, last week I had a really good drop and from my peek at the scale this morning it would appear that I have a loss for tomorrow again, this makes me a happy fella. Last week I had a 6.2 pound loss and I do not exect to match that loss I am looking for a number that will keep me on track to get back down to that 305 pound mark that I was at in May of 2010, somehow the thought of getting that back is really driving me right now as I feel unstoppable. My time on the Cycleops fluid 2 is helping me stay focused and I am eating like I use to although I am eating more calories than I was last year when I was on point. My food choices are awesome right now and I am almost completely back to whole foods again, salads are my favorite dinner and carrots are sweet again to me.

A shot of the front brake after I disassembled, polished and reassembled it.

I've decided that I need a bicycle related winter project and since my New Trek is all blinged out now with some fancy new blue bits and the K2 has been assigned to trainer duty I figured it was time to work on an old Motobecane road bike that I picked up last year. I started pulling parts off of it so that I can disassemble, polish and the reassemble into a nice clean, functioning part again and I started with the brakes so look for some updates on that little project in the future too!

Though it wouldn't be difficult for someone that reads this blog to figure out what my current weight is I am going to post it in tomorrows post along with the loss for the week. Posting some of the changes that I made to my intake/calories etc is also in the future as I am finding this go around a bit easier and I want to share a discovery that I made about myself concerning what and when I eat so that should be fun! Putting myself first is so pinnacle in my success that it is actually crazy to me how much it matters in my results but having a family which includes a brandy new baby in it does not allow me to be in the forefront of my priorities all of the time, all the while it must be that way so a balancing act it is for sure.

This week has been good, I am looking forward to tomorrow mornings posting because I have a feeling that it will be a pretty decent drop this week which makes me a happy blogger.

Until then, eat well, exercise much and remember who holds the fork.

As Ever
Me