A weigh in post and a ride on the Xcal.

A weigh in post and a ride on the Xcal.

2011 trek X Caliber Trek X caliber Weigh in

I have been walking my ass off quite literally! Its Friday so its time for a "weigh in " post so here goes nothin'. My life has again become about staying healthy, I walk every day, sometimes twice per day, once in the afternoon with my daughter and then again after dinner with the whole family and the dedication to the process is starting to pay off. I watch the scale pretty much daily and lately all its got to say to me is good things and I am breaking back into lower numbers which goes without saying is awesome. 

This morning I stepped onto the scale and the number that flashed was 394.8 and that is 2.2 pounds less than last week and I'll take it. I walked 3.2 miles yesterday afternoon and then after dinner my daughter and I went on a ride together, we left early enough that I thought it wouldn't get dark out before we made it home but the fact is that its getting darker earlier so riding as the sun sets is how it goes. I decided to bring the Xcal out as its been a while that I rode that bike and I think for a while it will be my bike of choice for my evening rides, I forgot how fun that bike is to ride. 

 My new light is BRIGHT, that's a pitch black section and the image does not do the light this thing is throwing off justice.

I will continue to eat properly, walk my ass off and ride when I can until I get to my goal weight, After getting to my goal I will continue to do those same things and keep the weight off while expanding what I can do.

The only thing any of us can do is to keep pushing until our goals are reached because the other opinion is not that appealing and will surely lead to an early check out date and I just cannot let that be something that becomes a reality for me. 

Thats all I got, 2 pounds gone and we'll keep on pushing. 

As Ever

Me

Day 1393, yes that says Thirteen Hundred Ninety Three!

Day 1393, yes that says Thirteen Hundred Ninety Three!

1700 calorie menu 2011 trek X Caliber Gary fisher x caliber Weight Loss Windsor tow path zeusmeatball

Staying on track is the theme of the week for me, I had an awesome week last week and dropped a good amount of weight, got in a nice bike ride on Sunday in lieu of the still broken toe and this week is off to a good start. Sunday we decided to check out a different trail and it did not start off good or end well, Pulling into the trail head my riding buddy says that his tire was flat when he woke up but he pumped it to 60psi so we should be ok. Deciding that it was a good idea to check if the tire had lost air from then until when we got to the trail head we did, less than 40psi so we started the ride by changing his tube, no biggie. I slammed my already broken toe onto a rock near one of the trail head barriers, my camera mount broke because the terrain was not great, we rode through a muddy un-kept trail with lots of branches across the mostly single track section of trail just to get about a mile and a half in to find a dead end via a huge boulder a bunch of tires and .... a swamp. After a quick discussion on our options we decided to head on over to a tow path on the Connecticut river to salvage the day and our ride and that part of the day was awesome.

The new section of trail looked promising enough at the start.

A mile and a half down the muddy, ever thinning trail we found a swamp! time to head back and stick with our original plan of riding the tow path.

Stopped under the railroad tracks on the tow path for a quick drink I'm really diggin' the color scheme of the new bike.

Same place that I took the shot a few posts back with my K2, I figured the new ride needed to pose there too.

Something that I seem to have found my groove with again is the intake, I am pretty spot on with the calorie limits that I have set for myself and am not feeling hungry or "deprived" at all. Falling back on my experience with creating low calorie options for fuel is proving to be the ticket with that one and I am not 100% back into the game yet as I had transitioned into mostly whole foods at one point since starting down the better health path and we're not there just yet. I am depending on quick decently healthy if not slightly processed options for lunches and mid day calories right now because quick and easy yet staying on track trumps eating more calories or getting frustrated and eating too much so deli sandwiches it is for now. I also find that writing down my calories for the day helps keep me in check, in the beginning I used my excel spreadsheet to great success so it only makes sense that I use it again for this "restart" until I get my juju back, and with that here is yesterdays menu.

Breakfast
7:15 AM
coffee/creamer 90

8:45 AM
2 cup honey combs 220
1 C almond milk 90

11:30 AM
2 slices lite Rye 120
3oz deli ham 180
1 wedge laughing cow cheese 35

Lunch
12:30 PM
1 banana 105

2:45 PM
1 oz turkey pepperoni 70
1 wedge laughing cow cheese 35
1 deli slim 100

Dinner
6:15 PM
8oz grilled chicken 400
brussel sprouts 160

Grand total of 1605 calories is almost true.... I did take a couple bites of some pasta that I made on the side with dinner, less than 100 calories for sure but more than nothing so I left the excel sheet at 1605 and let the bites account for the remaining 95 calories.

The menu does need tweaking, I need to stop having that morning cup O joe for one thing, switching the processed stuff back to more whole foods and veggies needs to happen as well, all in good time. Right now I am dropping weight at a rate that is more than motivational for me, I know the tweaks that need to be made and am slipping them in as the days go by. Losing that am cup of coffee gains me nearly 100 calories that I can spend on veggies, taking the deli meat out of my lunch will surely get me feeling a bit better, not that I feel bad but I know when I was mainly on whole foods I felt unstoppable and we need to get back there. Drinking enough has never been an issue for me, I still drink a gallon of green tea per day and at least another half to whole gallon more in straight H2O and or powerade zero throughout the day so that's where it needs to be.

Over all things feel normal again where my intake and drive are the subject, avoiding foods that are bad for me is easier again now that I have refocused myself with the task at hand. Its funny that no matter how far along a person comes when dealing with an extreme weight issue the risk to "fall back" on old habits is there when stressful situations come into the fold. Never claiming to be Super man or a robotic entity that can be programmed I can 100% understand how people that are so driven and diligent with something like this can get sucked back into the spiral of eating bad. Its too easy to just grab that "insert favorite crap food here" when we get in a bleh mood and solve the problem with a paw full of a salty calorie filled band-aid that has nothing to do with the not needed food that we now feel pushing against our cheek.

We all have goals, we all have stress, all we can do is try and balance things so that the goals can be reached and the stresses don't rule the day.

That's all I got..

As Ever
Me

A trail ride, my new Trek and some more photos.

A trail ride, my new Trek and some more photos.

2011 trek X Caliber bike ride broken toe Gary fisher x caliber Jamis Exile 1 rails to trails Trek 29er Trek X caliber Weight Loss

So, I mentioned in my last post that a new bike was brought into the pile O bikes that I now own and I got to take it out on Saturday for its first ride and my initial opinion on the bike is that I love it. Do I really NEED another bike? yes and no, yes because I feel that my riding had advanced past the K2 that I have been riding and the bike is a couple years old now and since I am me I kind of just wanted a new ride! no because the K2 does what it needs to and has been awesome for me so far but the trigger was pulled on the new bike in either case. I started researching bikes and since I am a fan of the Specialized line up I assumed a Rockhopper comp would be the bike for me but upon test riding one it felt cramped so I kept searching. The Trek Cobia was looking like a clear winner to me after riding a lower end version of the same frame so to the LBS I went, I started chatting with the sales lady and I asked about a last years model Trek X Caliber, she said "let me check". Long story short for a tad more than the 2012 Cobia I could have a 2011 X Cal and I liked the paint scheme better on that anyways not to mention the upgrade in components, the order was placed and a few days later my new bike was ready to be picked up.

There she is, 2011 trek X Caliber Gary Fisher collection.

My plan was to get dropped off at the bike shop and ride the bike home but it was later than I wanted to get there, it was raining and I had no one that was able to drop me off so onto the rack it went and I would have to ride it another time. The bike stared at me..er I stared at the bike as it sat in the living room waiting for Saturday to come and the excitement built up right up until I put it back on the rack Saturday morning to meet my riding buddy at the trail head. A quick once over of the bike when we met up and we were off, we had no real plan on how far we would ride we only wanted to make sure to hop off of the trail at the LBS so that he could buy some pedals for his Jamis. Taking our time we kind of just rode and stopped randomly to let the bikes pose in their natural environment and we ended up riding just under 22 miles, now I really love the bike.

Stopping for a quick break the new Trek next to Ed's Jamis Exile.

One of my favorite shots from the day, I like the way that birch log matches the white on the bike.

A longer shot of the first image that I posted.

Look out! big man coming through!!! 300 pounds plus 20 miles per hour equals a bad day for anyone that gets in the way!

Nice little bridge shot, there were hundreds of geese in the water just to the side of the bridge.

I liked the way that the bikes were positioned in this one, pretty cool picture I think.

Just a little brook with a bridge near the end of the ride, it was a fantastic day for a ride.


Stopping for a rest at one of the trail heads.

My initial thoughts on the new bike is that its well made and VERY comfortable for me, when I first looked at the seat (Bontrager Evoke 1) I thought that it would very likely need to be removed from inside me after a ride but to my surprise it was not uncomfortable during our 22 mile ride. I mentioned in my last post that I did have a little mishap... lets call it a lack of judgement perhaps and ended up with a broken toe on this ride about 12 miles in so I had to ride the 10 miles back to the car with a sore foot, this did not at all take away from my ride, I laughed about it the entire way back and hopefully I am healed up enough to get back out this coming weekend. I have a new set of pedals on order wt the bike shop and I am hoping that they come in this week so that I can ride over there on Saturday and get them put on, I also bought some lock on grips which are already on the bike.

On the surface of my mind almost every time I am riding my bikes I think about how once upon a time I was more than 500 pounds and getting on a bike was not really an option for me. Perhaps I appreciate my time on two wheels as much as I do because of that fact, perhaps its just something that fits me either way my bicycles and my time pedaling them is one of my greatest passions and I don't see that changing any time soon. There are photos of me from when I was 500 plus and most of them I am sitting on a couch or in a chair, not very far from my front door or I use the excuse that "I was holding the camera" now I look at some of the images that I have taken and some of the places that my two wheeled transportation devices have taken me and appreciate every single minute of my time that was spent that way, even when a broken bone was part of it. If you are thinking about getting back onto two wheels my advice would be to stop thinking about it and do it! there is lots to see out there and doing it on top of two wheels is a great way to go about it.

Attempting to post more regularly, stay tuned for more on the fat man, his progress, meal plans and his bikes! don't be afraid to click that leave comment button either!

Until next time, that's all I got.

As Ever
Me