Maybe This One Should Start Out With A Two-Step
This blog post comes a couple of weeks late. Since the weigh-in, I’ve started riding to work and have ridden more than 100 miles in commute. I’ve also lost six pounds. –Liam
I love my wife. I was ecstatic to see her post, How I Dropped a Lily-Sized Amount of Weight. I won’t pretend there’s any way I can take any credit for her weight loss, but I can celebrate with her. Not, however, without a small measure of jealousy.
At the beginning of March, I stepped on the scale and found that I’m stretching the joists at 250 pounds. This is very, very close to territory I said I’d never breach again.
When I was working at Halliburton, dating Kim/married to Kim, and eating home cooking again, my weight ballooned to 260 pounds. My back was always aching, I had no energy, and I generally didn’t feel good, either about myself, or in my own body.
These days, I find myself eating restaurant foods, almost every day, and once again, my weight has gotten away from me. How can I stem the tide?
Mindfulness.
Exercise.
Nutrition.
Maintenance.
Quite often, I’ll head into some attempt at weight loss with both feet planted in exercise. I’ll go all out, throw my back out, and give up.
Now I’m looking to be smarter with this whole thing. Sensible eating, and taking care of my body by stretching after exercising.
Exercising: hopefully this part will clear up this post’s title. By the end of summer, my goal is to have ridden 2000 miles on the bike. This is doable. My commute is 10 miles in each direction. Doing math doesn’t have to be part of your reading experience. I’ll do it for you. That equates to 20 miles per day. In order to go 2000 miles, I will have to commute 100 days. With the Double-B’s help, I was able to calculate that there are in the neighbourhood of 130 work days between now and September 21. Totally doable.
This, combined with my floor hockey, swimming, and running, should be more than enough caloric output to help me to lose weight.
A goal that ties into the above will hopefully keep my back from betraying me. I’m going to spend a lot more time stretching after any physical activities.
Talking with my friend Atti, who has been on this trip before, he’s convinced that the key is 80% diet, 20% exercise. I’m resistant to that figure, but I’m coming around.
Yet another goal: less restaurant foods, more packed lunches. I can pack lunches on Sundays, and take them throughout the week. I’ve done this before, so I know it can be done. I just need to be mindful and keep doing it.
With all of this in mind, it doesn’t feel like too much of a stretch to say that by the end of summer, I want to be 210 pounds.
That is all.
Woo!! I’m a big fan of you doing this in a way that doesn’t end up with you hurt. And the super buff biking legs aren’t bad either.
Awesome you have a goal like that. I am with Atti though, diet is a HUGE part of losing weight. We did the Wild Rose Detox, and just ate much healthier and I lost 12 pounds with diet alone.
My goal is to be 200 or just under as I train for the 1/2 marathon again this year. Should be good.
All I got from this post is that you hate freedom – and the metric system.
Good luck – I can help you avoid bad food at work. I can also help you by eating any donuts that you win in the office.
I’m not going to go 4 km out of my way to make my commute divisible by 20km, Robb.
Also, isn’t it YOU who hates freedom, by forcing me to conform to your freedom-smothering metric system?
I have recently been following weight watchers method on my own and dropped 15 pounds, about a pound per week from just diet changes. I realized I was eating mostly healthy but too big portions. What has changed for me is i log everything i put into my yap and cap at 27 points a day. Which is really WW way of converting calories to points.
I have realized that eating out should really only happen about once a week and the rest should be home cooked. I am also making very conscious choices. If I have 27 points per day and a DQ blizzard is 21 (think about that), i will pass. I can still have some yummy yogurt ice cream for a treat. And I load up a lot more on filler foods like veggies and fruits.
In the end its no mystery, just put less high fat, high sugar substances in my body. Look for foods lower in calories and fat and high in fibre. I really am not feeling deprived at all and I am eating better than ever. My goal is not to be stick thin, that just isn’t me, but to feel healthy and live a long healthy happy life!
Way to go Kim and Liam. Its good to stay healthy and show a great example for your kids too.