It's official - I'm no longer an Athena by the 150 lb. standard. I started last June at ~174 pounds and according to the scale at the gym, I now weigh 147 and dropping. I started out just riding my bike as a lot and lost the first 20 pounds fairly quickly with that approach. In mid-September of this year I started working with a personal trainer and eating in accordance with his recommendations. This really got the weight loss kick started again (8 lbs and 1.5% body fat in a month).
27 pounds lost over 16 months isn't a fantastic rate, but considering the somewhat half-@ssed approach I took, I'm pleased. Honestly, this is probably the only way I could have done it. Previous attempts to get in better shape involved changing EVERYTHING at once and resulted in me feeling overwhelmed and quitting the entire program.
Compared to Tom and bdinger and The Historian, this is a miniscule amount of weight loss, but I'm still proud of getting it done. This is my favorite forum on this board, so I don't plan on going anywhere.
-M