2005 Tour de Cure

May 22nd, 2005

Yesterday I completed the Seattle 2005 Tour de Cure 70 mile bike ride. This was an exciting, draining, and worthwhile ride. I never would have thought 6 months back I would have been able to ride for over 4.5 hours straight on a bike. I’m super excited about the progress I’ve made, and feel much more confident that I’m on track for the Seattle to Portland ride in July.

Preamble:

Earlier this week I was having a chat with a friend and he asked me if I was ready for the ride. My answer to him was “I don’t know”, which I explained as I intellectually felt like I’d be able to do it, but was not confident that I could physically.

My concerns were driven in part by my being on a business trip for the week leading up to the event. I only got one day of exercise in, and I was definitely not eating great-healthy ‘training’ food. Instead there was a lot of fat drenched convention food. Good tasting food, but definitely not healthy training food.

My other concern was persistent knee pains I’ve been having for the last few weeks in both my knees. I’ve been going to physical therapy, where the physical-therapist has found my knee caps (especially my right one) not tracking straight up and down. She’s had me doing stretches and specific exercises to try and get it back in alignment. While in Los Angeles during the last week I never felt any knee pains but I had terrible hip pains on my left side, almost like my leg bone was not sitting in the socket with the hip correctly. This hip pain would come and go randomly and it was freaking me out leading up to the bike ride.

I also didn’t get a lot of rest leading up to the event, especially the night before. My plane got in just before 9pm and I didn’t actually make it to my house until after 10pm. By the time I got unpacked and everything ready for the ride in the morning it was close to midnight. Check-in for my group was 7:30am……

The Ride:

My wife drove me down to Marymoore park, where the start of the ride was. It was nice to have a cheering section for the start of the ride. The event organizers had a great spread out for the riders and families. Even though I had eaten breakfast at home (whole wheat waffles with peanut butter, Special K cereal) I took advantage of some of the options they had (bagels with cream cheese, banana and a yogurt.) The event sponsors had gifts and prizes for everyone. I spun a prize wheel at the KBSG radio station booth and won a 10th anniversary copy of Pocohantas.

I was given my rider bib and bike number (201) and then had to figure out how to attach it to my bike. I looked around and saw people putting the numbers in all different spots, I picked the middle of my main tube and managed to knock it loose after 3 pedals strokes into the ride. (Next time I’ll take a few turns of the crank before lining up for the start.)

As I made my way to the starting line, I went to put on my gloves when I found I only had one within my helmet. I had let my 5 year old daughter carry my helmet, with gloves and sunglasses in it, from the car to the registration area. Somewhere along the way she managed to lose one of the gloves. I’ve never ridden a single mile on my bike without my gloves and now I was just minutes away from the longest ride of my life with only my left one. A quick search of the area and lost and found turned up nothing. One missing glove wasn’t going to stop me….

The ride started with a ribbon cutting ceremony. My wife got a picture of me at the start line. And we were off at 8:30am….

As mentioned above I managed to knock my number loose immediately and had to pull to the side to fix it. I worked to catch back up with the pack and cruised in our little peleton down E. Lake Sammamish at a good clip of 21 to 24mph. Looking back on my heart-rate graph I can see that even at that high speed my HR was pretty low. This made me appreciate riding with a pack.

Four miles down the road I hit Inglewood Hill road. This is a *very* steep hill, even though it is pretty short (1/2 mile long). While making the turn from E. Lake Sammamish onto Inglewood I felt something snap within my seat. As I was struggling up the hill and moving into and out of the saddle, another snap and damn if my saddle didn’t just fall off. I felt like I was about to die (my heart rate was at 184) anyways so I grabbed the seat and started walking up the hill. I was able to get to the first side street and propped my bike up against the stop sign. I wasn’t able to get my saddle back to how it was suppose to be, (there are three secure points and at most I could only get two to lock in) but I was able to get the two rear points in and the saddle felt usable as long as I didn’t rock left or right.

I was only a few minutes into the ride, down one glove and now about to head back up the hill on a broken seat. I briefly thought about calling my wife and telling her to pick me up. But I pushed that aside as there were too many people who had sponsored me and I didn’t want to let any of them down.

The next 50 miles went by really quickly. Much faster and easier then I had expected. Almost exclusively I rode completely alone. I skipped the first rest stop but appreciated each of the follow-up ones. My routine was pretty simple, grab some food (normally an energy-gel or two and some additional carbs) some water/Gatorade and then hit the restroom. In and out within 5 mins.

On the road between Carnation and Duvall I was riding along minding my own business when a blue Ford F250 truck came flying by and blew its horn for no reason and scared the living crap out of me. This was the only vehicle related incident the whole ride.

After the last rest stop in Fall City, at about mile 53 I started to realize that I was pushing past the longest single day ride I had every done. Then I hit the damn Fall-City/Issaquah Road. You’ll see it start on my heart-rate graph just before the start of hour 3….and 50 long, hard, painful minutes later I finally reached the top. It was a hard climb and I was mentally fighting for every undulation of the hill. Convincing myself to push to get to the next tiny plateau was all I could do to keep going. I was really wishing I had a 3rd front gear. I will not do this ride again until I either get a compact crank or a 3rd front gear.

It felt like the final 15 miles took as long as the first 55 miles. Stroke after stroke and minute after minute the readings on the computer seemed frozen in time. I kept double checking to make sure it was working (which it was of course).

I eventually came down Beaver Lake hill and got back onto E. Lake Sammamish with about 10 miles to go. I’ve ridden this part of the course many times but never in such an exhausted state. I managed to ride a mile or so behind the Gold’s Gym team. They had a large group, about 15 people, but were riding slow, I wanted to keep my average speed up so I pushed past the group and headed off for the finish line.

With only a few miles left to go I was cruising along nicely when out of a driveway on my right came a crazy white terrier barking its head off. It was the second time I had the crap scared out of me. I came out of the saddle and tried to lose the dog, but he kept up and was gaining on me. I was actually starting to panic as he was getting closer and closer. I’m not sure how far he chased me but eventually he gave up. You can actually see this on the graph at the 4:30 mark, where my heart-rate jumps and my speed goes from 15 to 25mph.

I finished the ride back where we started and was presented a medal for finishing.

I was really happy with my performance. I only had the one mechanical problem (my seat) with the bike. A day later and I’m sore in my quads and upper shoulders. I have a really hard time lifting my right arm higher then my shoulders, which I will follow up with the Physical Therapist next week.

Below is log from the computer in addition to a few snapshots of the ride.

Quick Stats: 69.3 miles, 15.6 mph average, heart-rate 155bpm average for 4:41 minutes. 5437 Calories total

May 22nd, 2005

Current Weight: 247lbs


It has been a few weeks since my last update. I’m officially done with the 20/20 program and have been flying on my own. The numbers don’t lie, and knowing I haven’t lost any weight in the last 3 weeks is a clear indicator that I’ve dropped the ball in some aspects. In fact I’m actually up two pounds.

Meal tracking was the first thing to go. As I’ve widened my breadth of foods I take in I’ve found it more and more challenging to find the proper nutritional information for the ‘new’ foods I’ve been taking in. This is obviously a poor excuse.

I’ve also been traveling, spending all of last week in Los Angeles for a work related conference (E3, go Xbox 360!). On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being a ‘perfect’ 20/20 participant, I would say I skated by as a 5 or 6 during that week. I only worked out once, and I my food intake was not optimal for weight loss. To balance this I did find myself walking a lot, especially since I was taking the metro train around and not using my rental car much.

I’m turning this next week into a big checkpoint for myself. My goals are simple, to get 5 days of exercise in, and to keep my daily caloric intake to 2000/day or less. This will of course require me to meal track to measure my intake.

A week out / off

It's been seven entire days now since I last worked out. A series of unexpected events have pushed me out of my training zone and I'm a bit freaked about it.

It started after the long bike ride last Sunday. I woke up to go do an indoor cycling class early Monday morning, and decided after all the miles on the bike, and with my knee hurting a bit towards the end, I would take a rest day on Monday. Seemed like a reasonable thing to do at the time.

On Monday I learned I needed to fly down on the 6:30am flight to California for some family issues on Tuesday. I was down there all day Tues and Wednesday, not getting back until 1:30am on Thursday morning. I didn't even hear the alarm go off for my Thursday morning class. I was barely able to get up in time for work.

While in California I think I did a 'fair' job of staying focused on my meals. I keep thinking about staying in 'chemical balance' and less about what specific things I could and could not eat. I was sorely tempted to stop in an In-n-Out burgers a icon of great food in Southern California. I managed to avoid the place but did sucumb to having 1/2 of a plain chocolate milkshake on Wednesday during lunch. That was my only sugary type of food I happened to consume, the rest were fairly balanced except for getting stuck at Ontario Airport Wednesday night with Round Table Pizza being the only available option. I could've chosen a garden salad, but went with the personal sized sausage. Damn it was good. Totally loaded in fat, but did I meantion that it was damn good!

Friday my wife was flying down to San Diego and I promised I would take her to the airport. I badly mistook her take off time and thought I'd have enough time to work out in the morning and still have time to get her down to SeaTac. I didn't so I had to miss my scheduled appointment with Emily. Saturday and Sunday were spent all day alone with the kids which leaves me late now typing about how its been 7 days since I've worked out.

I checked the scale this morning and I'm exactly where I've been for the last two weeks, hovering right at 245lbs. At least with my trip and lack of excercise I have gone up any pounds.

Monday I'm going to get back into my 5 day a week workout routine. I may change it up and try doing a lap around Lake Sammamish in the mornings instead of a spin class at the gym. There is only 20 days left until my Tour de Cure ride and I've yet to do a full 70 miles, let alone one with as many hills and elevation gains as this ride will be.

My goal for this week will be to get in 150 miles, which is just four times around the lake plus one long 50~60 mile weekend ride.

Longest Bike Ride

This was one of the perfect weekends in the Seattle area. Tempatures in the mid 60's and lots of sunshine. I arranged to spend Sunday doing a long bike ride and it finished up being just over 53 miles.

it was good to be out on a long ride. Time is starting to run out on my 70 Mile Tour de Cure ride in May.

I also added in a 'big ass' hill to get over which you can see below at as the near vertical black line. This is Lakemont blvd starting at the end of W. Lake Sammamish and ending at the Newcastle Golf Course. My buddy John has done this ride a couple of times and he's told me about how tough it is. After my recent success with Bell-Red road (see below) I thought I'd be able to tackle this hill with no problems. Good grief, I couldn't have been more incorrect.

The hill feels like it never ends. It's a couple of miles long and is severly elevated. At one point I had to stop and walk the bike up for a couple of hundred yards. It was so steep at the point I was walking that my heart-rate was still in the mid 150's! This will be my new test ride that I will come back to every couple of weeks. Besides increasing my physical fitness to handle this hill, I need to really think about either adding a 3rd front gear or at least getting a compact crank which changes my gearing so that on severe hills I can spin away without coming off the bike.

Aside from the hill, I didn't have many other problems. My wrists started getting sore around the 40 mile mark. I was having to change hand positions often to keep them from getting numb.

I did make a big mistake in my liquids that I took with me. I had read that salt loss is the biggest thing that saps energy and performance on longer distance training, and even gatorade doesn't provide as much as you need, so I decided to add some table salt to the gatorades I took with me (and in my Camelbak). I got the mixture all wrong and it tasted like I was downing salt-water the whole ride. It was just annoying enough to anger me, but wasn't so bad that I felt compelled to stop and change out all the water bottles. In hindsight now I think the first gas station I went by I should've switched the stuff out.

Quick Stats: 53.2 miles, 14.1 mph average, heart-rate 152bpm average for 3:54 minutes. 4256 Calories total

Toughest Spin Class Yet

Now that I'm tracking insane amounts of data on all my work-outs I can make a statement like "this was the toughest workout ever" and know its an accurate remark.

On Wednesday when doing my strength training with Emily I had a really bad shooting pain in my right leg when doing leg-presses and squats. This freaked me out a bit, as I'm six months into this training and haven't had any physical problems at all. I took it easy on Thursday (played 9 holes of golf in the morning) and by Friday morning my knee was feeling much better.

In Friday's Spin class I wanted to see if the knee would hold up, especially since I'm planning to do a tough outdoor ride on Sunday. The knee felt fine!

After about 10 mins of warming up, I decided to push my zone-4/zone-5 efforts as long as I could. It started by getting my heart-rate 165 by coming out of the saddle. I decided to stay off the seat as long as I could. I managed to remain 'climbing' for the next 33 mins straight. I also kept my heart rate bouncing between the high 160's and into the 170's. The thing that was making me want to stop was my feet.... 30 mins out of the saddle is a lot of pressure on the balls of my feet.

I averaged 166bpm for 55 mins and burned >1200 calories.

Last Dietician appt

On Monday I had my last dietician appointment. I also weighed in and had only lost a single pound for the previous two weeks. This was dissapointing.

We walked through my meal tracker and found a number of items in the last few days that were pretty high in sodium and she thought it may be a factor in the reduced weight loss (retaining water). I had worked out 5 days each of the previous two weeks. Her advice was to watch the sodium and keep going, and the weight loss would continue.

She also talked to me about NOT sticking to an abstinence only policy when it comes to 'trigger' type foods. For example I've completly avoided foods like ice cream, or cakes for the last six months. She asked me what I would do if I found myself craving something like that or at a birthday party. My policy for the last six months has been to avoid them. Going forward FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, she explained this is not practical.

Instead I should make allowances (in her words maybe 'a couple of times per month) where I have a small ice cream for example. Keep all the other success factors in mind (like make sure there has been proteins and fats consumed to balance the sugar/carbs). My son has his 7th birthday on May 8th, so I think I'll make that the first 'allowance' and see how it goes.

By the way a few days after this appointment, I stepped on the scale and was down 3 more pounds (to 245lbs.) This brought my total weight loss to 75lbs.

Rain, Spokes, and Cold

If you've been reading for the last month or so, you'll notice a recurring theme... I've been avoiding riding on the weekend because its been cold and wet. Yesterday (Sunday) I decided I couldn't go another weekend without getting some miles in on the bike, and I need to be training in the rain also.

My plan was to do 2 or 3 'laps' around Lake Sammamish just to get some miles under my belt and should I get too miserable I could always call home and have someone pick me up.

I left my house just before 11am (actually 10:47... the chart below is handy for information like that) and as soon as I got around the corner it started to drizzle. By 3 miles into the ride it was a solid rain. The tempature was 47 (f) and I was badly regretting my decision not to wear pants. (Silly me thought I'd warm up plenty and it wouldn't matter.....LESSON #1 for this day)

The wind chill factor when doing 15 to 20 mph, when wearing wet shorts and with a below 50 tempature is bad. My legs looked lobster-red. There wasn't necessarily any pain, so I kept going.

About 15mins into the ride I heard a 'snap'. Since I broke two spokes already on this bike I'm much more tuned into the various noises it makes. I was on a hill climbing to the end of W. Lake Sammamish and didn't want to stop on the side of the road as there was a lot of traffic, so I pushed on to the top. Once clear and on a side road I inspected the rear-wheel and found a broken spoke. Here I am 20 mins into the ride...its raining hard....and I've got a broken spoke making the wheel rub hard against the brake pads. I thought about calling home, but decided I should be able to handle something like this....I then thought about heading home, but W. Lake Sammamish has no northbound shoulder for bikes and I *really* didn't want to ride against traffic. So in the end I decided to adjust the spokes around the broken one to bring the wheel back to true and continue on around the lake. (Never leave home without a Spoke Wrench....Lesson 2 for the day)

The rest of the ride was awesome. You reach a point where you are so wet that there's nothing more to get saturated. So even if it rains harder or the road puddles up, you're so soaked it doesn't matter and you just enjoy being out on the ride. I'm really happy I went out in the morning and experienced riding in the cold-rain.

A couple of notes on the chart below. I was finally able to integrate the bike sensors into the heart-rate monitor....now I can see my speed, elevation changes and heart-rate altogether in one spot. The Blue line represents speed. The Yellow filled in areas represent my Heart-Rate. The Black line is altitude.

Where you see speed and heart-rate drop, it's most likely because of a stop-light.

One big accomplishment: you'll see a long steady climb at the end of the ride. This is where W. Lake Sammamish turns into Bell-Red road behind the Microsoft Campus. Last time I rode up this hill I had to stop three times to catch my breath. This time I was able to climb the whole thing, seated, and without stopping once. I kept my heart-rate steady the whole time, right at my Zone-4 to Zone-5 transition thus avoiding too much lactate build-up. For me getting up this hill as I did was a huge validation of the Indoor Cycling efforts I've been putting in.

When I got home and got off the bike I noticed the rear wheel was severely rubbing the brake pads again. Checking the spokes I found another broken one. I'm not sure how much energy I lost going up that damn hill with a rubbing wheel, but I do know that I'm going to get a new wheel soon that will support my hefty body better.

LifeForms

I'm a big fan of the LifeForm software to track my diet as well as my excercise history.

I've researched and tried many different tracking programs for food/meals/excercise/etc...and this one by far has the best and easiest user interface. The creators are ex-Wordperfect employees and wrote it back when WP was near the top of their game. It's unfortunate that they are no longer building updates for the program. But even in its current state I've used it daily for six months and have never had a single problem with it. I wish i could say that about all software.

Below is a sample graph taken from this week on what my meals look like by the end of the day. In a more perfect world I think my Carbs could have been down about 5% and my proteins up about 5%. For the last month or so I've been right at these levels +/- 150 cals.

Staying in Zone 5

The other day on the internal Microsoft Bicycle alias there was a post about training for hills. One person mentioned he had been doing 30 mins every night on an indoor trainer (actually rollers) and found that when he got back on the hills he was performing much better outside. A few more people jumped in on this and the gist was for hills its important to raise your lactate threshold by spending more and more time right at it.

So this morning in Thursday's spin class I really pushed myself to spend time in Zone 5 (beyond my threshold value of 167). At the end of the class I did a very hard push of 10 straight minutes. It was tough for the first few minutes but as the time went on I felt a weird feeling of calmness, as if I could do this for a long time.

1056 calories in 52 minutes and an average heart-rate of 162bpm over that time.

My 20 Week Numbers

Last week I met with the doctor to go over my 20th week numbers. It's hard to believe I'm 5 months into this already. Just one more dietician appt. to go and a couple more weeks of working with my trainer.

Item 11/1/04 4/1/05
Age: 33 34
Height: 67 67
Weight: 320lb 249lb (-71)
Blood Pres. 116/86 112/84 (-4/-2)
Chest (inch) 54 45.4 (-8.5)
Waist 52.75 42.5 (-10.25)
Hips 56.5 48.5 (-8)
Waist/Hip Ratio .93 .88 (-0.5)
Biceps 18 15.5 (-2.5)
Thigh 34.25 25 (-9.25)
BMI 50.1 39.3 (-10.8)
%body fat 38.5% 28.3% (-10.2%)

For the 5 areas measured I've lost over 38 inches total! The doctor commented on my thighs especially, saying that may be near an all time record for 20 weeks.

My blood pressure didn't come down too much, but I also didn't have very high pressure to begin with.

I'll be weighing in for the last time on Monday (4 days from now). As has happened in previous weeks the scale hasn't shown much change from my last weigh in. I'm still hovering around 249lbs (+/- 1 or 2). I'm going to try to get out this weekend for a longer bike ride. It has really been too long since I've been out at all, so hopefully a good 60 or 70 miles will help me shed a few final pounds before the weigh-in.

-daryl welsh

Spinning at home

A few weeks ago The Pro Club got new Indoor Cycling bikes (LeMond Revmasters) and sold off 30 of the older bikes. I was able to purchase one of those for a pretty cheap price. I now have an indoor trainer for my bicycle and a 'gym quality' spinning bike. Today I decided to try the the spinning bike to workout instead of going to the gym. I normally would have just went into the gym for my cardio work but I could feel the onset of flu-symptoms building up in my throat when I woke up this morning. I didn't want to skip the excercise and I didn't want to pass on the symptoms to others so I gave it a go at home.

I plopped in a DVD (Return of the Jedi) into my laptop and set it up in front of the bike. I dragged a large fan over as well and set off for some spinning fun.

I mentioned in previous posts either here or on my STP Training log that working out alone on the trainer takes A LOT of mental energy. When you're in the class the people around you and the instructor help keep you motivated. When you are alone you can start to think of a million reasons to slow down, or reduce the tension or even just to stop early.

I was able to get a complete hour in and still maintain a 159bpm average over the hour. You can see that I pushed myself into zone 5 a number of times. This equaled 1195 calories and bucket-load of sweat. If I could do it again I think I would've rested today as I was feeling *really* weak and more sick from when I woke up. I decided to stay home from work and rest. Hopefully I'll feel better by the end of the day.

Sickness around our house

For the last couple of weeks there has been an on-going sickness running through our house. Its been passing from family member back and forth. This weekend my wife came down with a pretty severe cough and was stuck in bed.

This prevented me from going out and riding since I needed to stay and keep and eye on our kids. This was dissapointing as I was going to ride to the top of Newcastle Golf Course with my buddy John. This is a huge climb and something I will definately try to do on my own in the coming weeks.

Instead I was able to do a 2hr. ride on the indoor trainer. While not the same as an outdoor ride it was tough enough to exhaust me, and as a bonus I was able to watch Tiger Woods win his 4th green jack at The Masters

UPDATE: I was able to combine both charts into one, which is the first chart below.

Below are my two charts from the ride. I paused the workout at the one hour point and mistakenly hit stop instead of continue, which is why its two files instead of one. If anyone knows how to combine Polar excercise files into one, please let me know.

I averaged 155bpm for the first hour and 152bpm for the second hour. Combined calories expended was just over 2200 calories.

"Friday workouts count for Double!"

Today's workout was good. I averaged 156bpm across the 50 mins of the class, and touched into zone 5 a number of times.

Roland was back from his Triathalon in Hawaii. Class actually started late as he was busy printing out pictures of himself to tape to the walls. I guess if I did a Triathalon I'd want to brag about it some too.

One thing about Roland is he likes to do these things called "jumps" where you get out of the saddle for 4 seconds, then back in for 4, then out, then in....you get it. I'm sure they serve some purpose but I've decided to just not do these. During the Jumps I just crank up the resistance and do a hill climb. I really don't like the constant up and downs, especially when he switches them to 2 count Jumps.

Stats, Graphs and Number goodness

The heart-rate monitor I have has a way to capture the data and transfer it to a PC. This is cool because now I can monitor my work-out sessions and know how I'm doing. Below is my first cut at this.

On this graph, you'll see along the left side the heart-rate scale and the plot is of my real-time HR during the excercise.

The rainbow background shows 5 HR Zones (100% to 90%, 90% to 80%, etc). With my Max HR being 186.

Only one more dietician appointment to go...

Original Weight: 320lbs
Weight Two Weeks ago: 252.6
Current Weight: 249lbs

Total Lost: 71lbs.

Today was my next to last meeting with the dietician. I posted a few days ago that I had gotten down to 249 and was pretty excited. Between last week and yesterday I had bounced up and down a few pounds. In the end when I weighed in this morning I was through the 250 barrier (another big hurdle for me!)

I didn't workout this morning like normal. I did six days straight last week, including 30 miles on the indoor trainer this weekend which I wrote about in my STP training journal. This morning, when the alarm went off at 5:20 my body refused to move. Because of the time change it really did feel like 4-in-the-damn-its-too-early-to-get-up morning. Also I know I need to give my legs some time to recover....so I went right back to bed.

As I've been hitting these new 'lows' in my weight I'm finding myself more and more tempted to 'try' things I haven't had in a long time. The mind really starts to play around in justifying it too. "Hey you've worked this hard, you can drop by Coldstone for a small." Or "Don't worry once will never hurt." I find myself thinking about this more and so far I haven't given in to the temptation. I've gone back to check my meal planner to make sure there aren't any specific items that are trigger these thoughts, and I really can't find anything.

I think more then anything it's just been almost six months of controlled eating and needing to break free some. I'm still working to make smart choices even as the food options expand. For example, up till now all the pizza we've had has come from the Bistro, where they have 20/20 approved food. I like the Margerita Cheese pizza a lot. This weekend we tried Papa Murphy's deLite pizza. The calories were only about 150 more then the 20/20 pizza and was a good change of pace. Aside from the crust being paper-thin, I was really happy with it.

With only a few weeks left on the program I'm now starting to think about long term success. I've gone through other weightloss programs in the past and have lost a good amount of weight. The challenge now will be in keeping it off. I feel like I've been given all the tools I need and a solid set of information/education.

My short-term goal right now is to get down to 235lbs by May 21st. This is the day I'm riding in the Tour de Cure (and still looking for sponsors!). That's 7 weeks and 14 pounds to go. I'll need to average 2lbs/week, which is getting harder and harder as I lose each pound.

-daryl welsh

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

End of Phase 1 Numbers

I started 20/20 Phase 1 on 11/1/2004 and finished on 2/14/2005. I feel a lot better both physically and mentally. The end of Phase 1 means that there is a little less structure around how much supervision I will get from my dietician and trainer. I meet now every other week with my dietician and only twice a week with my trainer.

11/1/04 2/14/05
Body Weight: 320lbs 266lbs
Weight Loss: 54lbs
BMI 49.3 41.7
Blood Pres. 116/86 108/76
Total Cholesterol 186 149
HDL 46 36
LDL 120 98

Treadmill Test: 6:15 9:30
Bicep Strength Test 70lbs 82lbs
Flexibility Test 8.1in 12.3in

Measurements –
Chest 54in 48.25in
Waist 52.75in 43.75in
Hips 56.5in 50.75in
Bicep 18in 16.25in
Thigh 34.25in 30in

Total Inches Lost: 26.5inches

Polar Body Age 43 37


I averaged 3.6lbs per week of weight loss over the 15 week phase.

-daryl welsh

Here I am at 267lbs. 

Here I am at 320lbs 

The End of Phase 1 fast approaching....

Starting Weight: 320lbs
Last Week: 270.4 lbs
This Week: 267 lbs

Total Weight Loss: 53 lbs

I had a good weight loss week. 3.4lbs! I mentioned last week I felt like the 270’s was a previous set-point for me, and I’m hoping I can continue to drop around 3 a week for the next few weeks.

On Monday I met with my dietician for my last phase-1 appointment. (end of week 14 start of week 15). We computed that in the fourteen week, I’d lost 53 pounds even or about 3.8lbs / week. Looking back on it now, I have got to say I’m very pleased with the progress. Except for those first few weeks where I had to get accustomed to the shakes, the rest of the time has not been too bad.

This last week I did have a couple of ‘higher’ calorie days. Nothing obscene but I did break the 1900 cal barrier twice. Once was because of an all-day conference I got sent to at the very last minute. Fortunately I packed a couple of 20/20 approved energy bars for my morning/after snacks. But these conferences do not do anything to provide food that is at all healthy. Also I was unable to workout on this day. So I’ll take my 3.4 lbs as a big step since I only worked out 4 days and averaged for the week about 150 cals/day more then normal.

My prep work to get ready for the Seattle to Portland bike ride has started. I purchased a bike this weekend and eagerly await it’s delivery this Friday. The bike I bought was a Motobecane Fantom Cross. I got this instead of a strict road bike because I’ve read too many posts by ‘larger’ sized people that the really skinny tires on most road bikes can break spokes or get damaged. Also, I’ve still got a large belly and bending way over to reach the brakes on a traditional road bike is still tough. This Cyclocross bike has traditional and MTB style brakes, allowing me to keep my hands at the top of the bars but still be able to stop if necessary. I’ve read a lot of reviews and many people report these are good multi-purpose bikes. Put on some skinnier slick tires and it’s just as good as a racing bike. Put on some knobby tires and you can do some off-road (or at least trail) riding. My plan is to start commuting to work a couple of times a week and I think this will be a good bike for that as well.

I officially end phase-1 on Valentine’s day (2/14). I have my appointments lined up for next week to get blood drawn in addition to all the physical fitness tests.

Final note for this week. I’m wearing a pair of jeans. I haven’t owned a pair in a VERY long time. While shopping this weekend I decided to try on a pair and was surprised at how well they fit and looked. (By the way, since start 20/20 my belt has gone in 5 notches. Not sure what that amounts to in inches but it feels like a lot.)

-daryl welsh

Week: 13 the weight loss slows.....

Starting Weight: 320lbs

Last Week: 272.8lbs

This Week: 270.4lbs

Total Weight Loss: 49.6lbs

Man, I really was hoping to hit 50 pounds this week. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. I’m still think that this weight I’ve been at the last three weeks (275ish) was a previous set point for me. I’m expecting now that as I pass through the 270 mark that I’ll get back to 3 or 4 pounds a week.

Of course losing 2 or 2.5lbs a week is not all that bad. 1% of body weight a week is suppose to be the safe and healthy way to lose. With that as a guide line I should feel too bad. Also I’ve been bumping up my calories these last few weeks. Not a huge amount but I’ve been in the mid-1700’s a number of times with 3 or 4 servings of grains per day. My dietician said that the grains will probably slow down my weight loss. I’d like to give them up but we are constantly trying out new items to see if anything triggers strong cravings.

Also today is my birthday. I’m 34 now. In a couple of weeks I’ll re-do on the initial testing that was done at the start of the program and I’m hoping that my ‘body-age’ comes in a lot less then my physical age.

-daryl welsh

"You can do anything for 60 seconds"

Week 13 I think….

Each Friday Emily and I skip our usual routine and do the 6:00am Indoor Cycling class. I’ve written about this below and each time I take the class I find it more fun to do. I attribute 3 things to the increasing fun factor in these classes…..1) I’ve dropped almost 50 pounds and sitting on the bike, even with those tiny seats, doesn’t make my ass sore anymore…… 2) I got a pair of bike shorts with the padding in the appropriate areas which helps even more on the sore butt problem…… 3) Ganelle, the Wed/Fri 6am instructor is awesome.

I’ve gone through sessions now with 4 or 5 different instructors and she is by far the best. She has a great way of making me push myself harder then I would otherwise. One of her favorite lines is “You can do anything for 60 seconds” which she’s usually spouting out as we’re trying to nail a really tough interval. I also enjoy her music selections much more then the other instructor. One reason is that there are lyrics in most of her songs which she grabs for a reason. The wording is often picked to be inspirational or motivating, especially when we are in the toughest parts of the workout.

The other thing I really like about Ganelle is that she tries to train us like bikers. She’s constantly working us through getting the most efficient pedal stroke, and ensuring we’re not wasting energy through our upper bodies. I seem to always forget to leverage my hamstrings during my pedal stroke and depend too much on my quads. This must be a common problem because she somehow senses it and reminds the class about it all the time.

-daryl welsh

Week 12: Gorillas watch out.... I get to have 3 bananas this week.

Starting Weight: 320lbs

Last Week: 275lbs

This Week: 273.8lbs

Not a lot of weight lost this week. I was expecting as much as I kept getting on the scale and not seeing it budge. I’m not going to get too worried about it. I see what my average daily caloric intake is (1540 cals this week) and I’m still working out 5 days a week. The weight loss will catch happen. (At least this is what I keep telling myself.)

I had a couple of firsts on the program this last week. Azusena (my dietician) wanted me to try out some servings of potatoes to see how my body reacted. I decided to add a baked-potatoe to one of my dinners, topping it off with low-fat sour cream and some salsa. I didn’t find myself having any new cravings or anything afterwards, so I’m going to try it again this week. I should mention that everything we’ve added so far has failed to produce any strong reactions or cravings. I think this is because of the multi-tier approach we’re forced to take when eating. I’ve become religious about not eating any carbohydrates unless there is some accompanying protein and/or fats to go along with it. I think this is the real key to success on the program. Any blood-sugar or insulin spike that could occur because of the carb is muted by the protein and fats.

The other first is what we had for dinner on Sunday night. Sunday’s at our house use to be Italian night. We started this when we were heavily engaged in watching The Soprano’s. This last Sunday I decided to fix up a 20/20 friendly Italian dinner and much to my surprise it came out really well. Recipe below:

Start browning 1 lb of low-fat hamburger (or use ground turkey/chicken). Trader Joe’s has a great 4% fat ground hamburger that is only

Add in ½ of a diced onion

Add in 4 or 5 garlic cloves (diced)

Brown till done and drain the fat off.

In a separate sauce pan, add one jar of Low-Fat Marinara sauce (I use the Trader Joe’s Tomato Basil marinara) and everything from the frying pan above.

Add .5 cups of water and bring to a simmer.

Let the sauce simmer for about 30 mins.

In a boiling pan, bring several quarts of water to a rolling boil. Add Whole Wheat Spaghetti (I used the Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat). It’s 2 oz (uncooked) per serving.

Boil for 13 minutes. The package says 10 to 11, but add a couple to make sure it is well done. Al-dente whole wheat pasta can be gritty.

When fully cooked, drain and place a serving on a plate….. add sauce and enjoy.

Calories Per Serving: 440cals (assuming 4 oz of hamburger)

Fat Per Serving: 12g

Protein: 35

We added on the side some grilled asparagus and a tossed green salad.

In today’s work-out Emily decided I was ready to take it up a notch in our strength training. Previously we’d do one set of 20 repetitions on each machine. Today we changed to doing 2 sets of 15 reps, with a 20 sec ‘rest’ period between each rep. This was MUCH harder to do then I would have anticipated. I was sore and dragging ass by the time we were done. The leg presses were the toughest and at one point during the second set my heart-rate was at 170, which is the upper end of my cardio zone.

-daryl welsh

Week 11: 45 pounds have gone

Starting Weight: 320lbs

Last Week: 280lbs

This Week: 275lbs

I’m not sure why, but hitting 275lbs feels like milestone for me. It has been a long time since I’ve been at this level. I can remember back as my weight was in the 280’s/290’s range a few years back that I would try to ‘get back in control’ by dieting till I got back to 275lbs. I was only able to do this a few times before getting back to 275 seemed like an unattainable goal.

Now I can only hope it is just a point in the road and I try to drive down to 190lbs. That is the weight I want to get down to. I don’t think I actually put a numeric value on it so far. But this is a weight I was at in college where I was able to pass the Army’s physical fitness tests and earn a 2.5 year ROTC scholarship (I never took the scholarship by the way, electing instead to drop-out and pursue the life of a broke, out of work college student, scraping by with menial jobs)

This last week I was only able to workout three times (I did Indoor Cycling all three days). I was pretty sick and am still not completely recovered. Today Emily was back and I did a full workout (Cardio and Strength). I’m not sure if it was from still feeling a little sick or not having worked out since last Thursday, but man was I dragging ass. I did all the routines including 30 mins of the StairMaster at level-6, but I was super exhausted. By the time we hit the last few strength machines I was rubber armed, and feeling a little dizzy. I never felt like I was going to pass out or anything, but it was unusual. The protein shake I had after working out made me feel much better, so I think it may have been my lack of calories from the day before (only 1200 on Sunday).

As I’m settling into week 11 the routine of Cardio options has been getting dull. For the most part there are only three or four options at the club (stairmaster, elliptical, treadmill, bikes). I know there is swimming, but I’m just not ready for that yet. Five workouts a week on this limited set of options starts to make things boring. I think I’ll talk to Emily about it on Wednesday. This may just be a sub-conscience desire to stop doing the stairmaster, as I do hate this machine with a passion, and we start all our routines with it.

-daryl welsh

Week 10: Where'd everybody go?

Today is suppose to be the day I meet my dietician to get weighed in and to find out what new foods we’ll add to the list.  Unfortunately Azusena is out sick today.  By my own estimates I’ve lost approx 2 lbs this week.  After 3 weeks in a row of 4+ pound loses, this seems like a bad week, but I know it’s not possible (or healthy) to maintain that much weight loss week over week.

 

Also Emily is out for the week on holiday at DisneyWorld.  So I’m totally on my own this week.  I’m doing the 6am Indoor Cycling class on Mon/Wed/Fri but haven’t figured out yet what to do for Tues/Thur.  Normally I’d do the cycling on those days, but I just don’t think I can take 5 straight days of it.  It is a very tough workout and I usually feel it in my legs the rest of the day.

 

 

It keeps falling off

Starting Weight: 320lbs
Last Week: 286.2 lbs
Current: 282.2lbs
Total Lost: 37.8lbs

I lost another 4 pounds this week.  I really wasn’t expecting that as only a few days before my dietician meeting I looked at the scale and it showed I was about even with the start of the week.  On top of that I had taken Thursday off from exercise as Friday was going to be a 2+ hour long Spinning Class.  Emily and I arrived for the class on Friday only to find out the instructor was down with the Flu. We decided to play racquetball instead.

 

I haven’t played racquetball since my junior year of high-school.  That was like 15 years ago.  For the most part my hear-rate was at the extreme low-end of my aerobic zone during the 90 mins we played.   It was fun though to do something completely different.  A couple of things I noticed the next two days after playing:  you use muscles in RB that you don’t use in any of the other ‘regular’ activities.  Damn, my back, and forearms and even my toes were really feeling it the next 48 hrs.  Don’t wear running shoes to play RB!  Part of my toes hurting was that they kept sliding around as I was constantly changing direction.  

 

I was finally able to yesterday sign-up for the Seattle to Portland (STP) bike ride.  I’ve asked a few buddies to sign-up and do the ride with me.  Hopefully they’ll be able to go or at least start training with me on the weekend.  This is an important event as I’m really looking to figure out a way to stay engaged and motivated for my exercising after the structured part of 20/20 ends.

 

On the diet side, I was allowed one serving a day of CORN.  We are going to treat it like a grain, and see how I react to it.  She gave me the option of Corn, Potatoes or Bananas.  I don’t think I’m ready yet to add in potatoes and frankly I don’t want to slow down the weight loss any.  Week over week I’m still managing to average between 1500 and 1600 calories and my fat has stayed below 50g / day.  I’m slipping a bit in my daily water intake. 

 

Yesterday I blew past my “Theoretical Maximum Heart Rate” while doing intervals on the elliptical.  I’ve mentioned before that we had approached it in previous training sessions.  This time I was pretty determined to see how I would handle going above it and to my surprise it was just fine.  I was surely winded but I was definitely in a euphoric state.  I looked over at Emily and saw a very concerned look on her face.  I’m not sure how many of her clients try to do something like this but I have feeling its not many.

 

 

 

Rice and Wheat....week 8 ends

Starting Weight: 320lbs
Last Week: 290.8lbs
Current: 286.2lbs
Total Lost: 33.8lbs

I lost 4.6lbs during Christmas week! I really wasn't expecting this, especially since I did pork out a little on Christmas day. (Just over 2000 calories including a nice slice of pumpkin pie). I think the extra effort in the workouts this week helped. I'd really like to lose another 8 pounds before the end of my 10th week. That would ensure my 4lbs/week average keeps up.

I've also finished with my weekly group meetings this last week. Of all the parts of the 20/20 program I would say that the group meetings are the least useful. It's nice to know there are others going through similar issues, but for the most part you get very little pratical information that helps you suceed.

This last week I was given 1 serving of grains. For the most part it's one slice of whole wheat bread (whoo, whoo...a half a sandwich) or my favorite a couple of whole wheat tortillas. This week we added brown rice to the allowed foods. I hope to have some homemade Chicken Masala with rice this week.

End of Week 7

Week: 7

This was a slow week for weight loss. Only 1.4 lbs this week. This
brings me less then 1 lb from 30lbs in 7 weeks.

Barely losing a pound this last week is a pretty big bummer. I really
put a lot of effort into my exercise routine this last week, and my
diet was right in the middle of where it was suppose to be. I hope
I'm not at another set-point, where I have to wait while my body
figures out what it wants to do with itself.

Today I pushed really hard during my cardio with Emily. I stepped up
on the Stepmill to level 6 for the last 15 (of 30) mins. For that
time my heart rate was in the low 170's. We finished up with 10 mins
on the Elliptical, where Emily 'suggested' instead of 60 sec intervals
for the last 5 mins, that we do 90 sec intervals. (My training zone
is 132 to 162)

My heart rate during the intervals pushed up into the 180's. I think
it peaked at one point at 184. This was just 3 beats short of my
'theoretical maximum heart-rate'. You find that by taking 200 - (age,
in my case 33). I actually felt very energized at the end of the
intervals and while in the middle felt like I could've gone on for a
long time. Rationally I know I couldn't have, but it was a euphoric
feeling unlike any I've had so far in my training. Emily tried to get
me to take it easy for my own work-out on Tuesday, but I told her I
was doing a spinning class and I'd instead try to take it easy on
Thursday.

For the meal plan I was given access to ONE (yes just ONE) serving of
wheat bread per day. My dietician walked me through what a wheat
kernel really is and I understand it a lot better. Here's the 30-sec
recap:

Whole Wheat has three parts: The Bran, The Germ, and The Endosperm.

The Bran provides fiber and Vitamin-B
The Germ provides protein and Vitamin-E
The Endosperm provides carbs.

"Enriched" "Processed" flour means they strip out the Bran and Germ
and you get high-carb (high-sugar) flour. Tastes damn good, but
really not good for a guy like me.

Products made from "Whole Wheat" means they grind up all three parts
with nothing stripped out. <-- This is the ONLY type of wheat I
should be eating.


For this next week I'm going to eat my one slice of bread each day and
see how it goes.

Things you *almost* never hear your trainer say....

Week: 6

 

Yesterday while working out, I was approaching the 20 min mark on the Stepmill when I told Emily that I was going to step it up to level-6 for the last 10 mins.  My heart rate was already at the top of my training zone and going up to level 6 moved me into the low 170’s  (my range is 132 to 162).

 

Emily then said “when you workout tomorrow I want you to take it easy and stay at the low end of your training zone.”  Now this is almost unheard of. Trainers are usually pushing people to go harder, to do more, or go longer. Her reasoning seems sound.  This whole week I’ve been pushing very hard during my cardio’s with her, and on my own I did a Spinning class on Tuesday.  With our plan to do Spinning again on Friday she felt the need to make sure that I had some sort of recovery before we pushed hard on Friday together in the Spinning class.

 

As I trudged through 60 mins on the elliptical today I found it tough to stay at the low end of my zone.  It was a constant battle to go slower, or reduce the resistance, but keep up enough of a rhythm to make it smooth.  I finished the workout and felt as if I could’ve gone on for another few hours.  I’m sure I actually couldn’t but it did feel like a really lite-workout.

 

 

The Beans have arrived....

Week: 6

Starting Weight: 320lbs
Weight Last Week: 296.4
Weight This Week: 292.2

Surprisingly I lost another 4 pounds this week. I say I was surprised because just a couple of days ago I had weighed myself in and hadn't moved from my last weigh-in.

I had a few down days as far as calories go this last week. I've only averaged 1 or 2 shakes a day and this has caused me to have to bulk up on other foods to still get in ~1650 cal/day. One day (Saturday) we had planned to go our for a nice dinner, and I ended up eating a lot less at the restaurant then I expected.

With my dietician check-in today, I was given legumes to add into the diet. This means BEANS. This will make the chili more bulky! Also a lot of restaurants offer black beans as a side which will help keep the blandness out.

Spinning....

Week: 6

 

Today I did my first Indoor Cycling class, also called Spinning. I still have the goal of doing the Seattle to Portland bike ride next July, so this is a good first step towards getting some ‘saddle’ time.  For those who haven’t done Spinning, I can highly recommend it! 

 

It was a blast.  The instructor was very motivating, and provided great imagery.  I was a bit concerned as the first thing she said was “…as promised last time we did speed work, so this session we are going to tackle the hills……”  This meant a lot of high-resistant training and lots of standing up and trying to power to the top of these imaginary hills.

 

A few other things:  make sure if you’ve got a wide butt you get one of the wide seats.  There are a few bikes that have extra-wide seats.  I was able to get one and this made the hour long session tolerable.    Also, error on the side of the handlebars being too high.  Mine were too low and it was painful in my hands to support my upper body.  Finally bring a couple of extra towels.  I probably doubled my ‘normal’ sweat output in this session. 

 

At the end I was very exhausted, but felt super satisfied.  My trainer said few people actually go through their whole first session.  By the way Emily went right along with me during the session on her own bike.  I think she pushed 2x or 3x what I did, which was evident by the level of sweat below her bike which could’ve been measured by the cup-load.

 

Emily and I are going to do this regularly on Fridays.  I had such a good time I may try to get some more of these classes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Changes in behaivor

Week: 6

 

I met again with Sara, my therapist this week.  I still think these are somewhat frustrating for her as I end up giving very simple answers to her questions.  “Everything is going good…. Thanksgiving was fine, we had a good plan, stuck to it, and even lost weight that week…… no real roadblock or challenges.” 

 

One thing we did talk about was this blog and how jotting down changes in behavior was a good idea.  1) to reinforce it and 2) to recognize the achievement for what it is.  So as I come across stuff I notice myself doing differently I’ll try and remember to note them in this blog.

 

Here are a few changes to date:

 

A cup of yogurt can be a satisfying after-dinner snack.  I use to be pretty heavily into ice cream, cookies, etc about 2 or 3 hours after dinner.  Now I’m finding a single cup of Cascade fresh yogurt ends the day on the right note.  Six months ago I would have laughed at the thought.

 

I don’t ‘have’ to eat the samples at stores.  Stores like Costco and especially William Sonoma this time of year, are bending over backwards to hand out samples of their product.  This weekend my kids thought they were in candy heaven inside WS.  While tempted a bit, I was able to say ‘no thank-you’ and shopped without adding on the extra fat and calories.

 

 

On a different note, I hit a new milestone on my arch-enemy the Stepmill.  Instead of waiting for Emily to push me up, I decided to take it from 20 mins to 30 mins on level 5.  This turned out to be a lot more work then I expected.  It was just under 500 cals in those 30 mins. My legs were like rubber afterwards, but I still managed to get through my strength training, including all the leg work. 

 

On Friday I’m going to try doing a Spinning class instead of the normal cardio work we do.  I’ve heard good things about it.  Emily said she’d ride along as well, so hopefully she’ll share in the pain.