This is the new beginning

Its hard to believe I've been posting on here for as long as I have - since April of 2010 and I really have not posted a selfie.  As I am reading through many different blogs, books and other information on making life changes, I've come across the idea that you can't map out a course to where you want to be unless you know where you are starting from. This idea, which should be obvious, has struck me as an 'AHA' type moment.  With that in mind I have taken a couple of pictures of myself to post here as before pictures.

Now these are not the usual, shirt off, wearing shorts, before pictures - I'm reserving those shot for a true before and after comparison, but these are shots showing where I am at right now. I didn't intentionally have the flash obscure me, but what the heck - it seems like a cool effect:

 

This is my starting point and I hope the last time I will ever be this big.

On a different note, it looks like I am going to get pretty decent at climbing on my bike.  It seems that the new area of the valley I moved to is not flat.  At all.  I was driving around the last few days noticing that there is literally no road within 3 or 4 miles that is not on a grade of 2% to 8%. Time to make sure the bike is shifting correctly and get out and use those gears!  Watch for some more posts showing the new riding area.