Definately slacking on the strength training...

Now that I am in phase-2 of 20/20, I only meet with my trainer twice a week for 60 mins at a time. I think most people in this phase do cardio on their own and do the strength training on those two days they meet with their trainers.

I've asked Emily to do it a little different, as I still want to do the Indoor Cycling classes on Friday mornings, which leaves us only 1 day each week for weights. I'm starting to rethink this as today was really challenging. Almost across the board I've lost strength in my upper body.

Emily also explained that when people focus too much on a single set of muscles (like I've been doing with all the bike training) the body can start to consume some of the muscles from other parts of the body for energy. I now have this twisted image in my head of muscle fibers in my arms and back feeding directly into my legs everytime I slide into the saddle of my bike.

The bottom line is that in the first 15 weeks of this program we were doing strength training 3 days per week and I saw lots of steady progress. That's all fallen to crap in the last 5 so I'm going to need to do a lot of this on my own. Deciding when and which days is the challenge.

New photo and a video too

Here's a new picture of me after breaking through the 250lb mark. I'm at 249lbs on March 28, 2005 having lost 71lbs since November 1st, 2004. - daryl welsh


Along with the photo I was able to morph together the three photo's I have of me during the 20/20 process into a short video file here. This was put together in about 3 mins time using Microsoft's Photo Story version 3.0 which is a kick-butt application.

-daryl welsh

Diabetes and the 2005 Tour de Cure

I've recently signed up to do the Seattle 2005 Tour de Cure to support Diabete research and treatment. The event takes place less then two months from now (May 21st) and I will be doing the 70-mile ride.

While this length is only a short amount above the 50 miles I've done in the pass, the elevation changes are really large. I am a bit concerned about how poorly I've performed on the hills and will need to seriously change in order to not fall apart on the ride.

The event is a chance to challenge myself and to measure progress towards STP, but it is also a chance to help raise funds for the American Diabetes Association. Below is an e-mail I sent out to some friends and family to help me meet my fund-raising goals.


Dear Friends and Family,
I’ve never been one to openly solicit for a cause in the past. This is really a first for me so please bear with me as I try to explain to you what the Tour de Cure is for.

Just a few short months ago I was a prime candidate for developing my own adult diabetes and was fortunate to begin a program that allowed me to reduce my risk. So far I’ve lost 68 lbs. I recently accepted the challenge of cycling in the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure fund-raising event. I am taking part in this event because diabetes has touched my families life (my mother has type-2 diabetes) and I believe in and support the Association's mission: to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes. It’s a great feeling to know the training I will be doing to succeed in this 70 mile event will go to help a much larger cause then just my own health.

You, too, can help by supporting my fund-raising efforts with a generous contribution. Your tax-deductible gift will make a difference to more than 18 million Americans who are affected by diabetes and another 20 million who are at risk for developing diabetes. It is faster and easier than ever to support this great cause - you can make your donation online by simply clicking the link at the bottom of this message. If you would prefer, you can also send your tax-deductible contribution to me at the address listed below.

More information on the American Diabetes Association, its programs, and diabetes in general can be found at the Association's Web site, www.diabetes.org. To find out more information on our Tour de Cure, please visit tour.diabetes.org.

Whatever you can give will help! I greatly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress. I know giving is a very personal thing and even if you can’t provide financial support, please take a few minutes to learn about diabetes and how you too can help prevent it from happening to you or your family.

Sincerely,
Daryl Welsh
To donate online, click here. http://tour.diabetes.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=2440&px=2221518

If this link does not send you directly to my personal fund-raising page, please cut and paste the entire link, from beginning to end, into your Web browser and hit return.

To send a donation:
Make all checks payable to:American Diabetes Association
Mail to: Daryl Welsh
1208 175th PL NE
Bellevue, WA, 98008-3837

Damn, so close to 250 but not there yet

Original Weight: 320lbs
Two Weeks Ago: 257 lbs
This Week: 252.4 lbs

As I posted earlier I was really hoping to get down to 250 this week. I came up a couple of pounds short. I’m going to blame this on not getting out on the bike this weekend. I had been hoping to do 60 miles on Sunday, but a few conspiring factors were working against me: after several weeks of early spring and dry-sunshine, Mother Nature came back with a vengeance this weekend. There were very high winds and it rained hard. I know I need to be prepared to ride in the wet, but this weekend was a little insane to start wet-weather training. The other factor was both my wife and son came down with the flu, leaving me responsible to take care of the home front.

On top of the above, I ate a few hundred extra calories Saturday night (whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce) to bulk up on some carbs in preparation for the extended ride. After not taking the ride I felt like I had this boat anchor of pasta hanging off my gut for most of the day. I’m sure it was only in my mind but the feeling kept pestering me all day.

I met with my dietician today and we went over my meal diary and talked about how things are going. Much like last week she didn’t have anything really to offer on things needing to change. She did encourage me to pick a food item that I haven’t had in a long time and try to ‘responsibly’ incorporate it into my meal plan in the next week or two. I’m not sure why, but the thing that popped into my head was “Ivar’s Clam Chowder”. I think the craving was triggered by a news report this morning on this being Ivar Haglund’s 100th birthday today. It’s weird sometimes what I find myself craving. Just this last week I was thinking about the really bad taco’s at Jack-in-the- Box. Another one was Chips and Salsa from Azteca. I should probably stop listing these as I’m starting to get myself hungry as I type.

I’m sad this next week with be Ganelle’s last week being the Wed/Fri Indoor Cycling instructor. She’s about 5 or 6 months pregnant now and is turning the class over to a substitute instructor. I’ve mentioned this before but her classes are light years different then everyone else’s. Wednesday she’s going to have us do the L’Alp D’Huez climb in class, with all 21 switchbacks and everything. I remember doing this one time before in her class and she does an awesome job of really getting us to visualize the course, and feeling the pain of each switchback where the grade of the road changes between and in the middle of each switchback. She also mixed in actual race commentary and music into the final five minutes making us really feel like we were in the middle of the Tour de France race as we crossed the finish line.

Last note for this update…. In this mornings cycling class I had my real struggle to go on in the middle of a class. It was weird. I was going strong, but wasn’t near my max, or for that fact even in an anaerobic state at the point. I just felt like quitting and it took a lot of mental regrouping to keep up the pace and finish. I figure it was about 5 to 8 minutes of this feeling before I was able to get past it. I’m not exactly sure what brought this on, but I did realize I didn’t have a snack before leaving the house so I was running on empty (I typically grab a 100 to 150 calorie snack 45 mins before a class). I have the sad feeling that had I not been in a class with 30 other people and instead out on the road or in a room by myself I probably would’ve stopped. I need to be aware of this to make sure I don’t succumb to this in the future.

-daryl welsh

Quick update for this week

This is just a quick check-in. Today's Monday (3/14) and I won't officially weigh-in with my dietician until next Monday.

I took another long bike ride this weekend and wrote about it. This morning I stepped on the scale and was down 4 pounds from last week (to 253). I'm not entirely sure if this is just some extended water loss from the 50 mile bike ride or not. Like last week I did eat extra calories to make up for the calories burned.

I didn't do any excercising this morning. Unlike last week after the 50 miles yesterday I was more sore then expected. For most of the day my legs were rubbery. When the alarm went off at 5:20am this morning I shut it off.

I'll make sure I hit at least 4 more days of excercise this week. I feel like I'm on a roll now and I don't want to let up on the momentum. I'd really like to be at 250lbs for my next weigh-in.

-daryl welsh

Chugging along in the maintenance phase

Original Weight: 320

Last Check-in: 262.8

This Week: 257.2

Total Lost: 62.8

I’ve been pushing myself harder these last two weeks hoping to really break through the 260 barrier. I dropped 5.6 for the last two weeks and I’m comfortably into the 250’s.

As I noted in my bike log I did a really long bike ride this weekend. Almost 50 miles is what I’m considering really long, especially since it takes > 3 hours and I burned in excessive of 3,000 calories. I also managed to climb out of bed at 5am the next day for an Indoor Cycling class. That was challenging. Both mentally (with my little voice screaming at me to stay in bed and take a rest day) and physically (with my legs screaming at me that I’m an idiot exercising less then 12 hours after a half-century on the bike). By the end of the class I felt fine.

My dietician didn’t have much to add/change or do for me this week. I showed her how I bumped up the calories (to 2400) for the day of the bike ride, but have stayed between 1600 to 1800 for the rest of the days. She says I’m doing perfect and there’s nothing different to do.

-daryl welsh