Biking Update - August 9, 2008

This was a fairly good week of weight loss. After being fairly flat last week with the travel-related issues, I lost steadily this week and passed below the next decade in my weight. I am now only a few pounds away from having lost 30 lbs total. Very encouraging! It was also a good week of biking, riding the Trumbull Trail last Saturday, riding down by the River Monday and Tuesday, riding up to Captains Pizza on Wednesday, and day off on Thursday for knee pain/extreme weather. Currently, the plan is to ride the Larkin Trail today with Nick and Nora, if the weather cooperates.

My current weight takes me into a new stage of my weight loss, as I am now back to the weight I was at when I started the Atkins diet about 5 years ago. That was the diet that got abandoned when I had a herniated disk, and had to eat whatever I could get to because I was trapped in a chair much of the time. It is encouraging to know that I am back into familiar territory, and my older clothes now fit well again. I am down to the leanest hole on all the belts I have bought since my back surgery. I'll have to get some thinner belts soon. And I am fitting into suits that I had tailored during the Atkins Diet time. I am still hopeful that I can keep up this new eating plan (smaller portions, little sugar, lots of veggies) better than I did Atkins, so that this weight-loss can be long-term.

The original goal when getting the bikes was simply to ride up to Captains Pizza each week for Guys Nite Out (our friend-time/small group with Nick, St. Patty, and Bowhunter). We are doing that every week, plus a lot more riding as well. I did some back-of-the-envelope calculation and I think I am averaging about 30 miles a week on the bike now, which means I have ridden at least 120 miles since getting the bike and probably a lot more. Not bad. The next goal is to start biking up to Wal-Mart once a week, which is at least twice the distance to Captains and uphill most of the way. If we keep this up, maybe next year we can do the Ididaride event with Bowhunter.