Friday, December 28, 2012

Looking back..and ahead

As we all often do at this time of year, I have been reflecting on what I've accomplished over the last year and then I start thinking ahead to what I want to accomplish in the next year.

As for what I did in 2012:

I rode a total of 566 miles in 2012. (this may change if I can get out there in the next day or to).

I competed in the corporate challenge bike race in May.

I purchased a new bike in 2012 and am happy with it after the trials and tribulations with the spokes/wheels and pedal issues.

I completed the Viva Bike Vegas 17 mile ride in September.

Along the way I've gained and lost a bunch of pounds and have rededicated myself to improving my health and losing weight.  I've picked up a fitbit tracker to try and motivate myself to move more and it seems my wife and daughter are joining me on this journey as they have each gotten the fitbit for Christmas.

As I sit here I'm thinking about the events I want to do in 2013.  Those events include:

Tour de cure ride - April 2013

Corporate Challenge - May 2013

100 mile of nowhere - June 2013

Viva Bike Vegas - September 2013

Bike MS - November 2013

As you can see I'm hoping to accomplish much more int he ride department in 2013.  I also am looking to ride at least 2013 miles in 2013.

With this much riding and watching my diet, I'm planning on also getting below 300 lbs. by 12/31/2013.

I hope to see some of you on some of these rides in 2013!

Friday, December 21, 2012

Weekly update 12/21/12


Well, it looks like the Mayans were wrong and the world didn't end today. :)  That being said its time for a weekly update.

Here is my FitBit data for the last week:

Steps:  25142 (up 2472)
Miles:  12.51 (up 1.23)
Calories Eaten:  17725  (up 1716)
Calories burned:  25839 (up 1227)
Net:  -8114 (down 489)

As you can see, this is not bad, but it can be better.  The good news is I did increase my steps, distance and burn.  The bad news is I also increased my consumption.

Now comes the challenging part of the year.  I am off work for over 3 weeks and it is the holidays.  The tendency for this time is to slack on the activity and gorge on the food.  I am going to pay close attention to make sure things don't go too awry.

The best news is that since 12.1, I am down a total of 23.3 pounds.

Friday, December 14, 2012

A Long Overdue Update

For anyone who does stop in to read, I must apologize for the time that has lapsed since my last post.  We all know that the best of intentions don't always end up with the best results.  Frankly there hasn't been a lot to talk about.  I haven't been riding, I have been watching my diet, through.

I joined a challenge on FitBit.com to lose 50 lbs.  The challenge is simply - whoever loses 50 lbs. first gets the first place prize, second gets second place, etc.  This challenge started on December 1st so I weighed in for the challenge the evening of November 30, after dinner of course.  I couldn't believe what the scale said: 464.4 lbs!  That's the heaviest I have been in almost 3 years - up 80 lbs from my lowest when I did Pumpkinman 2 years ago.

This was an eye opener for sure.  I was glad I had already decided it was time to get back into the process of getting healthy because this was unacceptable.

That was 2 weeks ago and I have to say that combining a bit more walking with truly watching what I'm eating and going back to the low carb diet has paid off.  As of this morning my weight is 441.8!  That is a 22.6  pound loss in only 2 weeks.  Yes I know this is not truly a sustainable trend and that a large part of the initial loss was fluids, but still it is definite progress in the right direction.  I also has me in first place for the challenge as well by a significant margin.

With this in mind over the next couple of weeks I'm going to try to stick to the every Friday updates and monitor my progress on here for even more accountability   Along the way I'll look back over the year to see what I've managed to accomplish and set the stage for new goals for 2013.

Also, here is a picture of me at the Viva Bike Vegas event back in October:



This is my before picture.  Never again will I be this size.  I am hoping to have another picture from this event in 2013 and there will be a dramatic difference between the pictures.

That said here is my FitBit data for the last week:

Steps:  22670
Miles:  11.28
Calories Eaten:  16009
Calories burned:  24612
Net:  -8603

As you can see, this is not bad, but it can be better.