Was this symbolic? Attending a ceremony where a pig was sacrificed and roasted is a somewhat uncomfortable experience for a guy with a formerly, shall we say, hoggish appetite.
Anyway, I've been cycling since last I wrote. Ever since I've dropped the weight, cycling has been much easier. It makes sense if you think about it. People spend oodles of money to get a bike that's just a few pounds lighter than your average bike so they can ride faster. Well...I dropped 134 pounds of weight. So, you think that might make me blazing fast...
But it doesn't. I'm perhaps fastest among my friends, but in a recent bike race, I was the 310th person to cross the finish line...beating maybe a hundred people. I think I saw more than a few little old ladies and men passing me, along with a very determined looking 8 year old. I tell my wife the 8 year old is clearly a future Olympian...
Still, I am enjoying myself immensely. I bike every weekend for hours and sneak bike rides in during the week. I recently bought myself a carbon road bike and I've convinced myself that this is the path to greater fitness.
Speaking of which, you may be happy to hear that I'm still relatively skinny. My weight has remained in the 205 to 210 pound range since November. My diet has remained fairly strict, though I don't count calories. I mostly eat vegetables, chicken, fish, eggs and fruit almost to the exclusion of everything else. My vices are almond butter by the spoonful, an occasional piece of fried chicken and I've recently started allowing myself a spoonful of a desert if it looks particularly good. So, if you order Spumoni ice cream, don't sit to close to me and my spoon.
My exercise has consisted of the aforementioned cycling and weight lifting. I recently completed two bike races- a 38 mile Rosarito to Valle de Guadalupe race and a 56 mile San Diego Race. When I started weight lifting in November, I was pretty wimpy. The diet took a good deal of muscle, I think. But, after consistent weight lifting, I've about doubled the weight that I can lift. To be honest, I'm probably still kind of wimpy..but I'm working on it!
I'd like to thank all of you that have supported me with your kind thoughts through this process. It's made some hard days go by much easier to hear a compliment or a good humored post. One of my favorite quotes from the movie The Edge with Anthony Hopkins is "What one man can do, another can do." I've learned from many people that have successfully lost weight. If they could do it, it helped me believe that I could as well. If, reading this, you want to lose weight, you can definitely succeed as well!
