I thought this was an experience I might want to record.
Right now, I'm pretty fat I have been for the last year, with my weight mostly fluctuating between 190 and 198. I never crossed 200, but I've come pretty close.
Why? There's a number of reasons. I was sliding for a while, but I think the real killer came when I did the double-whammy: took a new job near Princeton and moved to New Jersey. Suddenly, I went from walking 2 1/2 miles a day and living right next to some great cycling areas to not walking at all and living in a place with terrible roads for cycling. Making matters worse, I was traveling for work a lot and eating with a group of people a lot, so I was more likely to eat huge portions of restaurant food instead of a sandwich.
More than anything, I didn't have any motivation to get on the bike and I was completely outside the culture where I was influenced to get back on.
I slowly grew over about six months. By the time of my wedding and honeymoon, I had topped off at about 199 pounds. I stayed in that same realm for about a year, but never crossed 200 lbs.
When I started my MBA in September 2008, my amount free time got even smaller. When I got back into firearms in December and started going to the range, I had a hobby to keep my busy.
In February 2009, I got a membership at a local gym. It was small, but at least it had weight equipment and a couple elliptical machines. I started workout out there a couple times a week. Within a couple months, the gym moved into the same building as the bike shop owned by the same guy. The new location made it REALLY small, with just a couple cardio machines, a few weight machines, and a dumbbell rack. The gym was not a great fit for me, but at least it got me moving. I found one elliptical machine that I liked, and rode it about four times a week.
A couple weeks ago, I finally decided that to lose the weight I had gained (about 30 pounds from where I'd really like to be), I'd have to plan it like I used to do with my training. I based my plans off the local gym, thinking that using dumbbells would give me more of a workout than machines anyway. I also figured that I could find dumbbells at most hotel gyms. I was thinking that I could ride the trainer 3 mornings a week, ride outdoors on the weekends, and lift 2 or 3 nights a week.
My first week, while great in the training log, was brutal. I rode 7.7 hours and lifted twice. The first night lifting was mostly upper body and left me so sore that I was sure both my arms were broken. It really was excruciating.
That night left me thinking that I didn't have the right gym. I realized that any time I had been there to workout, if anyone else was around, the room felt crowded. I knew that I would need a little more space. So, I went and found a new gym.
There is a branch just up the road, so I went to check it out. As soon as I walked in, I knew it was for me. They had a squat cage, an incline leg press, a spinning studio, and stationary bikes with fans built into them. I knew it was time to make a change.
Last weekend had me thinking about racing again. I got in 2-hour rides on both days, and even though I'm a lot heavier, I was still able to hold 20 mph or so at Tempo intensity and 17 mph at a cruising pace. When I lifted for the first time at the new gym on Friday, I was doing squats and leg presses, not at the mega weights that I used to, but still not bad (12x135 lbs on the squat and 15x270 on the leg press). I'm nowhere near the performance I had before, but I hadn't lost as much as I had expected to.
What do I really want to do? First off, I want to get rid of the gut, slim my face back down, and get back into pants with a 32-inch waist. I'd like to at least tone up my arms and build some core strength, which I was always bad about. I'd like to get my body fat percentage below 15% (I really want 12%, but we'll see about that).
Performance-wise, I'd love to get some racing speed back. Ideally, long-term, I want to get back into doing the 8.3 mile West River Time Trials with a time of less than 20 minutes (less than 19 would be better ;-) ).
While I love the sensation of crushing people on the road, I know I'm not nervy enough to do criteriums all the time. I like my skin reasonably intact. Crits tend to have a lot more crashes than I'm ready for.
The 2010 racing season is a long way off, but it helps to have goals. One closer performance goal is that I want to do the Breakaway RPM classes this fall (starting in October) and I want to be able to hold my own in there, not get killed with a high body weight and low power output. I'd like have a threshold power of 1.5 to 1.6 watts per pound by winter, then maybe up to 1.8 by spring.
I'm also looking for rewards for myself if I can get down to 165 pounds again. I've kicked around a few ideas, but I know I don't really need (and can't really afford it anyway!). I'd love to get my right leg tattooed like my left one is, but that's expensive too. Maybe something like a new suit for work?
I've been loading myself with motivators. I just renewed my membership to QCW/Breakawaybikes.com, bought myself a new team uniform, I'm blogging about weight loss, I'm telling everyone I know that I'm doing it, I've joined Traineo, and I'm reading up on fitness again (including renewing my membership to NSCA).
So, yes, I'm diving in with both feet. I'm still trying to figure out how to fit in all the workouts I want each week. I've modified my diet, eating five small meals a day and not going more than four hours without eating. I'm eating less cheese and fewer potato chips cheese, cut out mayo, and a lot more English muffins and tuna.
As a start, as of May 17, when I decided to do this:
197 pounds
28.2% body fat
38 inch waist
I plan to get about a month of training in before doing any testing. I don't want to set too low of a bar for myself.
