Do or do not, there is no try..

Do or do not, there is no try..

1800 calorie weight loss fat guy fishing k2 Zed lost 200 pounds walking for weighe loss zeusmeatball

This weekend went well where my calories and exercise are the subject, Saturday was an awesome day all around that ended with a bike ride with my eldest daughter and Sunday ended with fishing and a walk in a park that's local to us. I am finding keeping myself on task lately easier than its been in a good long while, I am again eating for fuel instead of recreation and that's huge!

Saturday I dodged pizza, I passed on cup cakes, said nah none for me to cookies. decided against ice cream and honestly besides the pizza all of that was pretty easy. My calories are where they should be and I have walked almost every day for the last 3 weeks, I am back on my bike in the order of after dinner rides with my daughter and I setup a longer ride with a friend and his kid for this coming weekend, I am sure I will be damning the cold weather soon enough as I pull my bike trainer out again.... I hope. 

A shot of my bike by the water from a couple nights ago.

I try to snap a few pics when we stop but honestly I am enjoying the rides again so my daughter is actually asking me to snap pics of "our rides" meaning the bikes so I do have a few. I will try and do my part and keep this trend going... wait.. scratch that, I will do my part to keep things going in this directions because in the words of Yoda "Do or do not, there is no try" so we'll go with that. 

So all in all I seem to be on a decent little run here, I feel better than I have in a while and its getting easier to go for my walks with the kids. I still don't know my exact weight as my scale is limited but I can't bee too much more than its limit at this point so soon I will have a weight to post on here and start my progress downward again with my motorcycle comparison weight images.

Until the next episode of as the fat guy turns... tune in to see bike rides, walks and fishing while a fat dude gets smaller... again....

As Ever
Me

Big ol fattys...

Big ol fattys...

26 x 2.4 k2 Zed low calorie Weight Loss weight loss success

After the swift kick in the ass yesterday I decide to go for a walk to reinforce the message to my body that play time is over, I ended up doing just under two miles with the baby stroller. After I got about a mile out I realized that my son would be home from school in 5 minutes and I needed to be there to let him in so I hustled back for the second mile and just made it as his bus pulled up. If mowing the lawn counts I did that as well as far as exercise and I am coming to the realization that I am going to have to go see a doc about this shoulder pain so that  can start in on my daily push ups again. 

I will touch on the shoulder, nine months ago give or take I started having shoulder pain in my right shoulder, at first it was minor but its since gotten way worse and I believe it to be rotator cuff related. I can do daily life type stuff but anything past that is painful especially if I were to throw a ball, that motion is the worse. I need to look at this go at weight loss as new, when I was 500 pounds I needed to do things a certain way because of where I was then at 300 pounds I was almost unlimited yet now I am somewhere in between and if I think like that 500 pound guy I am in the wrong spot and I am not close to where the 300 pound version of me was so taking it head on as it is a completely new experience is how I need to advance through this. 

Setting goals is going to have to be in my approach because well.. goals help and give a fella something to focus on while turning down brownies and declining the cherry pie. Setting a cycling goal for myself is on the chart and setting weight loss goals will be less prevalent this go around, I mean hell I am a scale addict when I am doing well so I will be aware of what my weight is doing but I have come to the realization that I really don't care what I weigh if I am unhindered in anything that I want to do. This sort of means that if I can do my 25 mile Sunday rides without death finding me on the trail or flattening my bicycle I am happy, currently I am not confident on my bicycles not because I cannot ride them but I worry about breaking something so riding tender will be where I am. 

Riding tender? what the hell does that even mean man? well it means that even being a "clydesdale" rider I am merciless with my bikes, I RIDE my bikes, I do tend to ride light but at my current weight I feel that I may be pushing my luck even while riding light. When I say riding tender I mean literally just getting the pedals turning on easy rides, no standing on the pedals and no off road excursions because "hey that little trail over there looks fun" but I do need to get back out there even if its short trips to get things going again and perhaps gain some confidence back. 

I recently bought some big ol fatty tires for the K2 which is pictured above they are CST Cyclops 26  x 2.4 tires and are extremely ummm rotund so I am using that as a reason to get back onto the bike as well.  My shoulder keeps me from riding as much as I would like to as well, but it is what it is I suppose for now but I am hoping to get things lined back up and having my body begging for mercy again because this me begging for mercy thing just don't fly. 

So with all of that said it is time for me to hit the road and get a couple miles into my day, I am going to try and get a few minutes later for a quick spin around the lake as well because when I am moving the weight typically comes off. I hope that was enough random for your day coming from my direction because that's what I got for today, I have never seen cookies jump into someones mouth on their own before so as long as I don;t pick any up they should stay out of my mouth. 

As Ever
Me

Grenading a Bottom bracket and some work on an old friend.

Grenading a Bottom bracket and some work on an old friend.

1988 specialized rockhopper comp k2 Zed Weight Loss

A little more than a year ago I picked up a little project that I have been playing around with when I have time in the way of a 1988 Specialized Rockhopper Comp. It is kind of the bike that started me in on my "Buy fix sell at a profit" thing that I do from time to time with bicycles but there is something about this one that I liked so I could never bring myself to sell it. The frame is an 18 inch and I can ride comfortably on a 19 to 21 inch frame depending on the bike so it is a tad small but with the stem up as high as it can go and the seat is up almost as high as it can go I can ride the bike comfortably. Whats your point Mister Meatball? I'm gettin' there, I'm gettin' there, Last weekend I grenaded the bottom bracket on my K2 AKA my main bike and I ordered a new BB/Crankset but the catch is that it will not be here until Monday the 13th and there ain't no way I'm going to not ride until I get the BB and get it installed. I suppose a 300 plus pound fellow Hammerin' on a bike for the past two years warrants the equipment failure, especially as it appears that the BB that was on the bike when I bought it was not of the highest quality so onto an upgrade it is.

Here is the Rockhopper the day I brought it home mangled and forgotten.... until that day.

So I looked to the Rockhopper with soulful eyes and requested its help, it looked at me as if to say that there were some conditions to this arrangement and I listened. I did an initial clean up and rust scrubbing a while back and got the bike looking decent but never finished the job to a point where I would call the bike perfectly ride-able. This time around she ended up with a new pair of shoes even if they are only 26 x 1.95 instead of the 26 x 2.2 that I normally like, some Brandy spankin' new grips and I cannibalized a seat and post from an old Trek that I have just sitting there doing nothing in particular. I figured that since She was getting a make over and going into temporary service I may as well pull out some touch up paint and hit the spots that were chipped up. Since the bike was going to be in service for a bit I may as well give it a proper tune up while I was at it right? so that I did, out came the tri flow and the tool bag and 15 minutes later she was right as rain.

This is what it looked like after my first go at it to get the heavy rust and grime off.

New grips, new/old tires, cannibalized seat and post, changed out the bottle cage, touch up paint and a tune up this is as she sits right now, sorry for the cell pic.

New/old seat, its pretty comfy I do have to admit

New grips, no more styrofoam these are knock off Oury grips I think, Origin 8 is the brand, knock off or not they are comfortable and very grippy.

After the tune up I took the bike for a quick ride around the lake and I have to admit it rides really nice for a 23 year old bike that a novice like myself had a whack at fixing up, I like it. It is a tad too small like I mentioned but it is honestly comfortable enough that I believe I can make a 20 mile ride without issue on my body and plan on testing that theory out on the weekend! I have exactly $22 into this bike and some of my time and am very pleased with how it has come out so far, I may just keep going with it and make it "nice" I think right now as it sits it looks pretty cool and is a good solid road ready Vintage mountain bike, not bad for $22!

The K2 will be fixed sometime next week after I take possession of the new crankset and the repair is not exactly a surprise. I knew the BB was going because of a noise it has been making and I am looking at it as a chance to upgrade something rather than "damn I have to fix my bike", gotta look on the bright side sometimes. If the Specialized ends up being a good rider on longer rides for me I will very likely upgrade the pedals to a set of Odyssey Trail Mix pedals like I have on the K2 but otherwise I like the fact that this old bike is what it is, an old, well used vintage mountain bike that is still bringing enjoyment to someone riding down a trail on it and won't change too much more.

I have been more than busy with the new addition to the Fam and trying to stay on my bike as much as possible (I almost have my 2010 legs back) but am trying to get back to daily blogs again, I promise! Putting my time where it is needed most is what I am doing and I love writing this blog but it is just not possible for me to find enough time in every day to get here and post up my thoughts. I am on track with my calories, I am riding my bike LOTS! and I am in fact down 26 pounds from where I was just a tad over a month ago so trust that I am doin' what I do where my health is concerned.

Until next time..

That's all I got for tonight...

As Ever
Me

My life my ride....

My life my ride....

bike ride k2 Zed Weight Loss

Its amazing how a simple thing like sitting on an aluminum framed contraption and an afternoon can change ones mood to the point that I would compare it to a high. The thermometer hit the mid 50's yesterday and wet roads be damned I wasn't missing the opportunity to get out on the bike for a ride! The trails are still covered in a heavy layer of snow so for safety's sake staying off of them until its clear and I can see the land mines which fell from the trees laying on the path is how its going to be. Everything is melting so the street looks like it is raining out and I was completely peppered with dirt, mud and puddle water by the end of my ride but it was more than worth that small nuisance, I thought that I had the bug to ride but after yesterdays trip around the lake and surrounding roads I am bit and can't wait for the weather to warm up for good.

The one time I stopped to snap a quick picture of my trusty steed next to the still frozen lake.

Figuring that I could get a decent workout if I targeted all of the hills I came up with a just over 6 mile loop that would assure that I hit all of the steeper hills and off I went. Amazingly enough not a single hill phased me, perhaps all of the high RPM spinning that I have been doing at the gym is helping me more than I thought! Dealing with puddles and just an over all soaking wet road for 70% of the ride only to have the other 30% be slush/ice patches or really sandy declines it was a dodgy ride to say the least and I did have one pucker moment where the Darwin alarms sounded loud and clear.

Coming down the steepest decent I got up to about 25MPH, this hill is usually a 35MPH hill but with the roads the way that they were I took it easy but there is one section that has a curve to it and I had relaxed because the middle section of the grade had no sand and was dry. Coming around that bend suddenly there was a small patch of slushy ice sort of like where the car tires make a rut and left that small patch on the side towards the center of the road and it was lining up perfectly with my line and I had to hit it, ooops. All at once in the 1.2 seconds that I had before hitting the patch I thought "Oh shit!", "I hope the tires hold onto this", "I should get a helmet", "You Shall NOT Pass!!" in my best in my head Gandalf voice and then the front tire connected with the beginning of what I thought may be the end. The warm weather had softened it up enough that the patch split with my tire in the center and for a split second I thought "Yay!!!" and then up onto the patch I went "Oh shit!", the bike slid off the side and I was back on the road surface with an adrenaline rush for my efforts.

Upon getting back to the house with my ear to ear grin I cleaned the heavy debris off of the bike and wiped it down, changed my dirt covered clothes and felt relaxed. I did get to use my new Garmin 305 that Wify got me for Christmas for the first time and it seemed to perform as it should have, it reported that I burned 762 calories on my 38 minute ride and I'll take it! I very much dislike wearing things on my wrist so getting a handlebar mount is on the top of my list of things to do and will likely place an order as soon as I click publish on this post. I still find it amazing that I was once upon a time a 500 pound guy that struggled to walk for more than 5 minutes at a time and when I hammer up a hill on my bike I think its somehow pushing me because I know what it feels like to be caged within my own body.

My life is completely different these days because of losing the weight, I am not alone in that I am sure anyone that has done it has similar feelings on the subject. My love for riding a bike was very likely always there but I stripped it away from my options when I allowed myself to grow to more than 500 pounds but I assure you that I will never see that side of the equation again. Make the choice, refuse to accept a life that involves a cage made of flesh and the entire world gets as big as it was when we were children with new experiences around every corner. For too long I sat idle on an old couch wishing that things could be different, these days I choose to take the difficult line and go uphill merely because it will get my heart pumping a little harder than the easy path would. Taking the easy path only got me into the quarter ton club and its not something that I want to be a part of ever again so I refuse to let it be a part of my life ever again.

My bike, my life, my terms, I ride for me and that will never change I will not be caged by my own hand ever again.

As Ever
Me

Its YOUR life, live it! lots of pictures.

Its YOUR life, live it! lots of pictures.

k2 Zed rails to trails Weight Loss

There are days when a person feels like they don't want to get up out of bed and then there are days when we jack in the box out of that bed, hit the ground running and have the most amazing of days and today, well you can call me Jack. I think that the program going as intended is starting to get my body back into a rhythm because I have not stopped moving today and feel like I can do more than I already have. This post shall be dedicated to movement and my bike for I owed her a nice ride because of the state that she was in yesterday with the clothes hanging from her limbs.

I had to start off with the tunnel of love to warm her up to me again

My trip to the gym this morning was a good one, I did 25 minutes on the stationary bike followed by 20 on a treadmill and finished up with some light weight lifting for about another 20 minutes. I did some light shopping for bananas and oranges and homeward bound I was but as I drove I noticed just how gorgeous the day was and decided that a bike ride around the lake was in my future. Upon getting home I ate a banana and topped off the tires on the bike and off I went but when I hit the spot in the road to turn and go around the lake I decided that I would hop onto the Rails to Trails path that's not too far from my house and off I went. These photos are just a few shots that I took during my ride, I figured that since I disgraced my poor bike with the clothing photos yesterday that I would make it up to her with a few pictures more in her element.

oooh! a Bridge!

and the purpose for the bridge.

Just me stopping for a drink about half way through my ride.

Same spot as the image of me above just shot from behind the bike.

This is one of the crossings where the path crosses a street.

oooh! a Lake!

I came across a couple other riders on the trail today but otherwise it was all mine and I have to tell ya, enjoyable does not even begin to describe the just over 10 mile ride. I also came across a couple deer! I was cruising about 11 mph down a nice sunny part of the path when about 100 yards in front of me I see a deer cross the bike path, then another and in the interest of not plowing into a deer on my bike I slowed down and kept my eye open for any more crossing. I wanted to get a photo of the deer but as soon as they heard the bike coming down the path they leaped back across the way they had come about 30 feet in front of me so no picture but it was pretty cool none the less.

I am still floored at the fact that I can just on a whim hop onto my bike and head off for an awesome ride like the one I took this afternoon because I can clearly remember not being able to run and this is a far cry from that old me. I at times think about all of the things that I must have missed out on in the past because of my weight and I can with all honesty that it saddens me. There are whole blocks of years worth of my life that I cannot get back and they were wasted on brown bags full of greasy fast foods laced with sodium and who know what else, I could have been enjoying things like I did on today's ride all along. Making the decision to lose the weight that was holding me back was one of the best and most important decisions that I have ever made in my entire life because now I am actually living that life unlike in the past when I was much heavier.

If you are on the fence about starting a weight loss program I recommend that you hop on down and start today, it doesn't matter if you count calories like me, join one of the pay to play programs or if its just making the choice to go for a walk after dinner tonight just do it. Who knows what I have missed out on because of being so heavy? I will never know the true extent of it but I wish that I had started earlier than I did because this side of the fence is a lot better than the one where dragging myself up a flight of stairs to take a piss was a reality. You owe yourself the chance to live life on your terms just like I do and everyone else that's in this world and if its weight that's holding you back you CAN do something about it and you MUST do something about it or else you are cheating yourself out of what life really has to offer.

That's all I got for today but you can be sure that tomorrow is another day and another post will be on the way, until then keep on keepin' on.

Oh yeah, I caught my bike smiling at me through the dust on the gears so she ain't mad no more.

As Ever
Me

Day 912 and an attack on me.

Day 912 and an attack on me.

bike ride Green tea k2 Zed tea maker Weight Loss

Wednesday went pretty good on all fronts of this war on blubber and you could imagine the shock and awe that my body experienced in the beginning when it was all brandy spankin' new and this morning my quads looked up at me with a whimper and said "no mas senior" not unlike back then. I woke up and my quads and shoulders are sore because of a bike ride that I took and the fact that I waxed my entire car yesterday afternoon, the bike ride was of course with daughter in tow but I hammered the entire ride both ways standing on the pedals for almost the entire cruise and I have to say that riding that way uses a slightly different muscle group than when sitting judging on the way I feel today. My intake was slightly over but well within my limits and I drank more than two gallons of fluid throughout the day, oh and I found out that I am NOT allergic to wasp stings when I was attacked during my bike ride and making green tea just got easier.

Deciding to take a ride over to a dam that's close by turned out to be more painful than I was expecting because of some small flying terrors. We roll up to the dam and hop off of the bike and head on over to look at some wild life and bamn! bamn!! BAMN! my right calf felt like it was burned and hit with a bat or something all at the same time I look down to see a small swarm of black wasps all around my leg. Looking up I told my daughter to run as I watched wasps in formation slip one after another out of the hand rail on the bridge so we took off down the dam and stayed about half way across until the cloud of attackers dissipated. I will very likely be heading back over to the dam later this afternoon with a can of wasp spray to exact my vengeance on the little fuggers as I am sitting here with 6 stings on my leg not feeling to awesome, here are a couple shots from our ride.

A shot of our chariot parked next to the dam, this was pre wasp attack.

We had a few visitors come over to see what we were doing out on the small pier near the dam.

A shot of the bridge over the dam taken from the pier.

Finally a look at the lake from the middle of the bridge.

For my birthday Wify got me the bestest gift that ever was! an ice tea maker! so now when I forget to make a gallon over night I can just plug in the old ice tea maker and bamn! 13 minutes later three quarts of fresh and ice cold green tea. The instructions says that it calls for filters but when using tea bags there is no reason to use any as the bags work just fine all alone and last night I brewed my first pitcher of the good stuff and to my amazement it was strong enough. I was expecting it to be weak because it brews the tea hot in a little catch thingy at the top and then drops it into the pitcher of ice thus making iced tea, I love this gift. I brewed a pot this morning so that I could take a couple pictures to post up and I timed it to see how long it would take and 13 minutes seems to be the magic number, here is a photo of the new toy and some tea that I made this morning which is darker than normal because of the black tea that I added.

Some tea plus that dandy tea maker plus a pitcher of ice and..

Bamn! 13 minutes later an ice cold pitcher of green tea! I used 3 green tea bags, 1 green tea/passion fruit bag and a black teabag in this batch but haven't tasted it yet so I will report how it came out tomorrow.

Over all my focus has returned and we seem to be getting it done again in the intake department while the exercise is starting to come along as well. Measuring every bite that goes into my mouth again to kick start some losses is my plan and I'm stickin' to it because like I said yesterday it works. Its time to head out and do a little weeding in the garden followed by a bike ride so for today that's all I got, Thanks for following and thanks for the support and remember that we are the ones controlling what goes into our mouths.

As Ever
Me