Welcome ( back ) Zach!!

thanks guys. its a new day and i am going to make some changes.

fall, dust off, get back up, start again, good fuel, good exercise, feel great, feel energized, feel amazing, feel a little impatient, feel like taking a short cut or 'just one bite', start to wobble, fall, dust off, get back up . . . repeat

That pretty much summarizes my diet and exercise experience. Accepting this has helped me lose 35 pounds. I've accepted that falls happen now and then, but I'm getting better at catching them during the wobble.

It's true, the success is not in avoiding falls completely (weddings, birthday cake, etc), but in getting back to the healthy living a little quicker each time. I thought I would pass that on.

I have a first to share. This weekend I went to a wedding and planned to eat 'whatever I want', so I was pretty focused on healthy eating for the ten days before. At the wedding, I ended up talking and visiting so much that I ate less than I would on a normal day. I actually came back with a deficit on the scale. Giving myself days off for special occasions make the world of a difference for me. I enjoyed the bites I had (and really just forgot to finish because waiters were so quick to pick up any unattended plates).

Sandy

Rock on Sandy!!

Good job to you both. We have all fallen and this is the stuff that motivates me to get back up. If losing weight were easy then there would be no need for this thread. Thanks for sharing and be sure to post the success you are about to encounter.

Wonkerjaw, one word... AMEN!


WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM ;)

One of the coolest things I can testify to is that some of my "thin" friends are seeing me lose enough weight to be noticeable and more than that, they see me "becoming healthier" between my diet and the cycling.

They (thin friends) are now coming to me for advice asking me about my diet and exercise and stuff. That's kind of cool. :)

Just thought I'd share that. ;)

Cool indeed!

This is soooo true! How much weight did you lose before you started receiving comments?

I'm probably at about 40 or 50 lost now. I'd say about 30 before they started noticing, around 40 a few started paying attention and asking me what all I was doing.

Is anyone else watching NBC's Biggest Looser? I watched last season and am hooked on it this season as well. I'm shocked at the amount of weight some of these folks are loosing each week. I am also inspired by the work they are putting into the weight loss.

Just thinking out loud here. . .
I have some specific goals outside of weight loss that greatly depend on loosing the weight and improving my overall cardio capacity. I'm specifically thinking of the Triple ByPass next July. I feel the pressure of this event looming large on the horizon. RESULTS! I say. RESULTS! Give me RESULTS!

For some time now I have felt on the edge of a major brake through in my physical fitness. On the fence between being the athlete that I now know is within me. The uncertainty of it in the back of my mind of how to give that athlete the permission to flourish. To blossom into the now. Sorry. Working for a mental health organization exposes one to different views of one's thoughts.

How do we, those of us on this quest, flip the switch to unleash this inter-athlete that lives within each of us? The plan is before us. Eat better. Move more. Simple. It is so simple that to my mind it should be as simple as a binary number. 0100101. Simple. Perhaps it is within this simplicity that my mind latches onto it and attempts to make it a more complex task.

What do athletes do? I'm not talking elite level athletes. I'm talking the guys that do well in local amateur events. What do those guys do? How did they make it to the level that they are?

I have my plan mostly laid out to achieve. To give my inner-athlete permission to come forth. Now, I have to figure out how to force myself to get out of my own way! Thats right. I am the one holding that inner-athlete down. Not giving him the time and effort he needs. Not committing to putting the time in the gym. One the bike.

We must commit! Put in the time. Effort. Just do it! The results will come if we just listen to that inner-athlete.

What do you tell yourself? What do you do? How are you giving your inner-athlete its due voice?

I am now at 294, down from 330 in july. I put on alot of muscle in the last 4 months, especialy in my legs. im happy with my body, but i have about 60 more pounds of fat to drop. whats crazy is that if i got down to 215, i would be at 0-3 percent body fat!

Rock On! …that’s a good 36 lbs. start. At 3% you would be a ROCK! Be a nice goal to achieve... I say go for it.


Now I know why you changed your login to Zin! Well stated. This gives me something to mentally chew on… no pun intended.

I have a friend from college who recently lost 75 pounds (over the course of two years). He joined Weight Watchers. He said he was usually the only guy in the meetings which he hated and loved (but mostly loved, he admitted). We recently had a phone conversation about the social side of weight loss. When I told him that 20 pounds is when people freaked out (which freaked me out), he said, "try losing 50 pounds and having no one notice." Now that he has lost 75 and is at goal, people are suddenly noticing. They think he lost it all within three months because that's when they started noticing. He said overall he liked it better that way because the habits were solid before his body 'went public.' Thought I would pass that on.


Zin - you might have fun reading a book called Mental Athlete. A lot of it is pretty sport specific, but you might it gets into the mental side of competing. There are things you can do to awaken your inner athlete mentally. I used to be a competitive athlete, then was overweight and inactive for a decade, then struggled with all of the mental stuff that comes with starting over and I'm now active and learning a new sport (tennis) still have a few pounds, but feel good. Mentally there is not a lot of difference between the struggle of putting the shoes on and going for that first walk and competing seriously . . . the difference is in the detail, but the feelings are exactly the same. Some of it is fear of the unknown.

One of the most interesting experiments I do is a visualization. It's sort of a meditation. I still do it when I find myself struggling. It always gets me through humps. They say everything begins with visualization. Yours might take different forms, but to give you an idea . . .

first thing in the morning and before bed sit on a pillow on the floor (so your back is straight)
settle in, close your eyes
take 10 deep breaths in and out (keep count on your fingers)
after the 10 deep breaths visualize a beautiful (perhaps familiar) scene . . . I usually imagine a field of sunflowers
there is one other person in the field in the distance walking towards me
this is my 'ideal' self or 'athletic' self
as she walks towards me, I see first a silhouette, then try to see specific details of what she looks like
at the beginning, she remains a blurry silhouette, but
the longer I do this (over the course of several weeks or months), I imagine that we sit down to have a conversation
what would she tell me if she could? what would I ask her? and sometimes we just sit.

It has always worked best when I am consistent, even if I just do the ten breaths and say a quick 'hi' to my athletic self.

Sandy

WonkerJaw
LOL. It is something that I am trying to figure out myself. I just wonder if anyone else looked at loosing weight and getting fit the same way. I'm a long way into this fitness and weight loss journey after loosing over 100lbs. I'm to the point where I think I'm ready to become that athlete.
Sandy
Thanks for the information. I have been doing some mental imagery with a friend of mine who lives in Boulder, Colorado. It has helped quite a bit. The sticking point is moving from the imagery to the physical world. I'll see i I can find the book too. It sounds interesting.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. I have some good news for this Monday… I'm down another five pounds which brings the total to ten pounds. We had some birthdays to celebrate in my family this weekend. I had a great thirty mile ride Sunday to help balance the abundance of food and cake.

I've got a metric century coming up next month. Is anyone else training for a ride, run, walk, swim, etcetera… etcetera… etcetera?

I'm riding like crazy, for me anyway. I'm currently at 2361 miles for the year of 2005. My problem seems to be equating food with feeling good! My mood always seems to elevate after I eat, and I enjoy that "High" for a while, then I get all remorseful and beat myself up for eating so much, or just the wrong thing! How do Y'all deal with this? Remember, this is a support thread, and if we can't be gut-level honest,this will wind up just being a pep-rally. Thanks Guys and Gals. Peace, Ritz.

WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM ;)

That's amazing....2361 miles? I am doing pheonominal for me at about 800 miles for the year. I feel like a complete rookie. LOL

Don't know how to cope with that "high" from eating syndrome...would like to work on that myself.

Great news Wonkerjaw! Keep it up!

Ritz, when I want a "treat" or comfort food, we only get a "single serving" package. Most of the time my wife and I split it between the two of us.

As for the riding your "butt" off. I feel your pain man! I'm at 3350 miles for the year and I gained weight! UGH! I am thinking that daily consistent riding is more important that overall miles alone. An example is that 20 miles 5 days a week will work better for weight loss than a single ride of 100 miles on the weekend. Last year I was far more consistent in my rides. This year I've got many more long rides spread out over the month to make the same, no, more miles than last year. Last year I lost weight. This year I gained. This is not to say that we shouldn't do our longer rides. In fact, I believe that if I had time to do a metric daily, I'd be dropping wight like a candle loses hot wax.

Yeah K.T.,the mileage is kinda hard for me to believe too! But it's all in black and white under rider stats on Bikejournal.com. It's under the name "Ritz" (Original, I know.)

Zin, check the same stats, I am pretty regular in the riding, problem is I'm pretty regular in the eating too! I'll get the hang of it eventually. Thanks for the single serving tip, that could help a lot. I read somewhere that you can achieve satiety by consumeing as little as three bites of something if done slowly. Peace, Ritz.

WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM ;)

Sounds like good stuff is happening here.

I always feel better after I eat. The difference is with really bad food the good feeling is followed by a crash, followed by days of cravings for bad food. I know healthy foods will make me feel better. They give me even more strength and endurance during the 2-3 hrs. after the meal.

Just change what you eat . . .oatmeal with a grated apple and cinnamon . . . a sweet potato with cinnamon . . .1/2 a pineapple . . . chai tea . . . pumpkin and flaxseed muffins . . . a bowl of Go Lean . . . extra dark chocolate . . . candied ginger . . . a really ripe mango . . . a bowl of blueberries . . .rice cakes with pumpkin or nut butter . . .

Sandy

Sandy, you're making my mouth water! :D

Ritz,

Everytime someone here mentions checking stats on Bikejournal (and I attempt to do so), I leave the site shaking my head. Is there no search function there? For the life of me, I can't figure out how to narrow the list of riders down except geographically. That's fine if you're looking for local riders. But, if not...

And that's only if I'm looking for your profile. If I look under Stats, it lists by mileage rank but still no search function.

I hate to be critical but it's like the world's lamest interface if you're looking for something other than your own stats. Or am I the world's lamest user, and I'm just not figuring it out?

Sorry for the hassle Bransom! Try this link: http://www.bikejournal.com/journal.asp?rname=Ritz .

Slantz, the guy that owns the site, really is very personable. If you ever have a navigation problem there again, just post a question to him, if he doesn't answer right away, I would be very surprised! Peace, Ritz.

WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM ;)