I started a new eating habit (I’m not calling it a diet) on March 24. My goal is to lose 58 pounds by July 24, an ambitious goal, but with exercise and eating right, I know I can pull it off. My weekly goal is 3.41 lbs, with a monthly target of 14.5 lbs. After the first 3 weeks, I had lost 18 lbs, so I was a little ahead of my target, which was nice. I went stagnant for 2 weeks, gaining and losing the same 2 lbs over and over. Finally, I was able to ride with a little more consistency, so I lost something like 2 lbs already this week. That brings my total to 20 lbs.
Looking at the goals, if I consider that I reached my goal last month of 14.5, that gives me a surplus of 3.5 lbs starting this month. I’ve lost 2 lbs more, so that makes it 5.5 lbs since April 24. That’s 11 days, so that averages out to .5 lbs per day. My daily target is .48 lbs per day, so I am actually ahead of that. So, I have to lose 9 more lbs over the next 19 days.
I have an excel spreadsheet that runs projections and tracks things, and according to that, I am right on pace to meet my July 24 goal. The thing that makes me uncomfortable is that, when starting a new nutrition program, you ALWAYS drop a lot of weight right off the bat, then you valley (level out where you don’t lose any), then it’s a battle to take off 1 or two lbs a week. I was hoping to lose more in the first month to give me some extra padding for the next few months.
I’ve seriously cut back on the portions that I eat, which is a contributing factor to the weight loss. However, I’ve noticed that when my riding is inconsistent, I don’t lose anything, and might even still gain a pound here and there, no matter how little I eat. So, I think the biggest factor in maintaining a steady weight loss is to keep riding my butt off. Literally.
I figure if I can ride at least 4-5 days a week, I should be able to continue dropping the tonnage. I rode 20 miles on the Silver Comet trail yesterday, and weighed 4 lbs less than the day before. But two of those lbs were from the “lose one gain one lose two gain three” time that hits me when I miss a few days of riding.
Dropping a whopping 9 lbs in 19 days is going to be hard. I have scheduled myself for at least one weekly mileage ride on the Comet, where I get out in the heat, ride as far as I can, as fast as I can. On Mondays and Fridays I’m going to hit Blanket’s Creek, and the weekends I’ll go to a new trail, preferrably one with 15+ miles of trail that will make me sweat my ass off. No pun intended.
Casey and Pop want me to go play golf, but I can’t even spare the time for that now. I have to focus on losing this weight, and riding the bicycle is the only way that will make this work.