I know there are people in this forum who aren't seeking to get fitter or slim down, but I think most of us are. I weighed myself this morning, and found I was up 2-3 pounds from just a few days ago, and static for nearly three weeks. I thought "Man, I'm stuck, I'm not making any progress." The daily weighins and the recent performance in the "Biggest Loser" thread both kind of made me feel stuck. I am/was very frustrated. Then I read Missbumble's post about how she hasn't been active for a week (A whole week, think back a few years and consider what a week of inactivity was like?) and was depressed about it, not wanting to get gain weight. This all got me thinking about whether I was really stuck, whether others who hit temporary setbacks are really stuck, and how much progress and change we've had over the time since we started riding.

So, basically, I'm curious how cycling has worked for us and trying to start a feelgood thread both.

In June 2006 I was completely sedentary. Between June 2006 and March 2007, I sold my car and began biking everywhere. I gained 15 pounds though (living with 2 other enthusiastic hobby cooks and not eating well at all), but began to hit a marginal level of fitness. By July 2008 I dropped down to around 225 pounds, but didn't begin biking for anything more than commuting.

In September 2008, I rode 90 miles for the first time, and could hardly walk for days. I went something like 13.5 mph.

Yesterday I rode 100 miles at 18.1 mph with no trouble at all. Since July I've dropped only 15 pounds, but I can run 5-6 miles without too much trouble, ride 130 miles (with trouble), and ride again the next day.

So, despite feeling stuck and useless lately, cycling has helped me shed around 44 pounds in 26 months and go from sedentary and winded after 3 flights of stairs to pretty comfortable riding 100 miles at a decent clip. Not one of the epic clyde success stories (Like Tom Stormcrowe), but it is nice to take a step back from the week to week and see what the cycling can do for us.