With sheer determination coupled with a don't lose site of my true goals attitude, I did mange to achieve a couple of difficult goals (weight and riding skills), and many rather easy one's (miles, endurance,exploring new regions by cycle, finding clothes that fit). The most difficult pinnacle has been weight. At one point I was down 61 pounds from what I weighed on March 27, 2008. That's when in I weighed at 232 lbs. I've stayed constant for the last 5 weeks at 180-3. I can handle that as my winter exercise program is not near as intense as my summer program, although I do still stick to an extremely strict regiment about my intake and exercise.
This was not an easy accomplishment because I do love to eat food. I quit smoking 9 years ago so I could breath, by becoming fat I put myself back in the same position (labored breathing) along with a host of other unwanted health issues ( diabetes, joints) attributed to being fat. So with a determined attitude not to be FAT any longer, I did what had to do. ....
" Eat less...exercise more". ........ Simple right!!!!! If it was that easy then every one would do it...NOT!
Phase 1; Eat less .... I cut out as much as I could that contained grease, sugar and fat (including but not limited to) fast food, chips, deserts, canned foods, prepared food(store bought), bleached flour, and (with tears welling up) BEER.
Phase 2; Exercise more .... I've been going to the gym for a couple years and cycling too. Yet, this did not seem to be winning the battle of the bulge. So last winter I researched various ways to do this. First and foremost, almost all weight reduction programs all say the same thing ... reduce intake of calories, while increasing burning of calories..... Piece of cake...! Then why wasn't my previous program working? I had to face the music and start with radical changes. Well , up to this point I wasn't reducing any of my intake at all, not to mention that my out take program fell into a comfort zone syndrome. You know the drill ... if it is at all difficult or strenuous DON'T DO IT. Being a disciple of that wonderful advice is what got me into trouble in the first place.
Starting is always the most difficult part. After spending week in Florida and realized that the beached white whale was really me, it was well past time to do something. I started out by cutting out all the above mentioned junk as much as possible. Also reading and learning as much as possible about how the body processes energy from the introduction ( stuffing mouth full), to the burning and storing of calories (read fat here). If you do not understand how your body stores and or burns fat then you will never be able to expel it from your body(know thy enemy).
By now the weather was becoming conducive to long, intense bike rides. This is where I decided to I must exceed my comfort zone tenfold. I put together a strenuous program of distance and interval training.
Something I read from Chris Carmichael really stuck with me. He was answering a question BEFORE IN FLA APRIL 08,--> I'M THE FAT ONE ON THE RIGHT about slow and easy rides as a way to lose weight. In his answer he states ...if S & E worked, then why is it that people who ride S & E are not all skinny, rather than the truth being, skinny people ride fast and fat people ride slow? Reason is that fat people do not burn enough calories on a S & E ride, and when they finish, they all to often replace twice as many calories as they burned immediately after any exercise. 
Thereby negating any health gain that was accomplished. Skinny people have learned to replace what calories they need to preform at peak performance....... This certainly made sense to me. AFTER SEPT. 08-----> I also forced myself to go way beyond any newly established performance threshold. Also I went against conventional wisdom in a few area's. Cycling mantra's say eat before your hungry, and drink before your thirsty. I would not eat anything on rides less than 4 hours. I had more than enough food stores(read fat here). If I did eat it would be high protein, low in bad carbs, sugar & saturated fat items only. Most athletic snack foods (energy bars, gels, and drinks) are high in sugars, bad carbs & saturated fats. They may give your body a very short boost in energy( due to the caffeine and sugars in them), but then you body will not work on burning up the fat reserves you already carry. Also they leave behind residual fats that your body will store away thus defeating the purpose of burning off calories.... which by the way is my reason for all this intense riding if the first place. When I did eat and drink, it would be the bare minimum to get to end of ride. At first, by not eating anything there was a significant drop in performance. But performance was not my main objective...weight loss was the main objective. Lets face it, I had to reduce my water weight, and fat weight in my body, the only way I found to do that is limit the intake and increase the out take. After a few weeks my body adjusted to this regime and started working on the fat reserves, that's when the performance drop off became minimal. As the season drew to a close it was I could start eating in a far more normal manner.WOW ... once the lbs started to diminish, life became more fun and cycling skills increased. A very basic rule of physics comes into play at this point... action = reaction. Less weight and maintaining or increasing power = performance increases. Keeping with my program of exceeding comfort zones, rather than coast along on the bike, I sought out tougher terrain, and longer rides. which brought about a nice sub 7 hour century at the Highlander.
To lose weight like this requires a major effort. To sit around and devise useless plans, or ways and means, will not accomplish a darn thing, other than mental exercises and perhaps the waste of ink. Action is required. Very serious action. That is something many will never accomplish because of the difficulty of commitment, and stamina required to perform any very serious action. I had to reshape my thinking, and actions to develop the stamina and commitment to an undertaking this caliber. It was my lack of commitment and lack of stamina that put me in the position of being over weight in the first place.
Now comes the maintenance part, almost as difficult as the loss program. At least now I can eat a few of those wonderful foods I did without. But only once in a while. There is still a vast amount of work to Be accomplished in the skills department. Having worked outside most of my adult life, I'm well aware of the severe drop in performance due to the need to generate and retain heat that cold weather brings on. With this in mind, I'm working on my winter cross training program using the gym, core workouts, and spinning.Last winter I started working on cycle specific muscles and that translated to better base to start this season off with. I'm extremely pleased with those results and look forward to what this winters program will bring.
I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings
