Day 69: Heading To The Beach

Update: 222.0 lbs, 36.2 lbs so far, 1.8 left to reach goal.

I'm heading out with a dozen of my favorite folks, the Mid High Staff, to the beach for the night, and will be back later tomorrow...so there may or may not be an update in the morning. Last time we stayed at this house on Devil's Lake, there were a few people who insisted on shooting their wi-fi into the house, so I did some quality assurance testing for them. We've got an early morning planned, so depending on how much earlier I get up, I may or may not be here.

Don't think I've forgotten about the pool, I'm still looking forward to buying Starbucks for someone, even though it may be 2008 before I hit my goal at the rate I'm going. I'm not going to really start worrying about progress though until I start feeling better. I think between the old body trying to heal itself, and cough medicines and what not...I'm just not at peek performance. I am still making slow progress, just not amazing progress. Standings so far:

K-biz - 4/1 - Date Passed.
Mistee - 4/4 - Date Passed.
Syd - 4/5 - Date Passed.
Jen - 4/8 - Date Passed.
Michael - 4/10 - Date Passed.
SeagravesJ - 4/25
Joe - 4/27
Skovelli (late entry) - 5/1

Until we cross that halfway point between 4/10 and 4/25 (what is that....4/17?) Michael still has a pretty good shot. 1.8 to go...we'll see. My apologies to everyone who had such great confidence in my ability to drop the tonnage...I don't know what happened. Wasn't for lack of trying, that's for sure! Blame my schizo-fattia!

Hasta!

Day 68: The Tire Swing

Update: 222.6 lbs, 35.6 lbs so far, 2.4 left to reach goal.

Today I saw this old picture of a tire swing and thought, "Hey, that's what I'm going through right now...a tire swing." The 'spare tire' around my mid section is teasing me by going down...then up...then down...then up. The double meaning of both the tire and the swing fits so amazingly well, I should just put one out in the giant japanese maple in front of the house as a tool of encouragement. (Reminds me of the time Chris pointed up to the bridge at Cove Pallisades and said "look, Chicken Carver." To be on that inside joke, you'd have to love both Boston Market and John Carver...but you can get where I'm going.)

I didn't look for too long, but really couldn't find any significant history on the tire swing. Simple concept...need some fun, grab and old tire, find a tree, tie it up and have at it. You could go out and spend $600 on one of the play structures sitting out in front of Wal-Mart, but the reality is that your kids would probably have just as much fun, if not more, on one of these babies.....treadmarks and all. Plus, most of the play structures out there only have swings that get you a few feet off the ground, but I've seen more than one tire swing that will launch you into the stratosphere. Or you could wrap yourself up in a cardboard box and let your buddies launch a tire swing at you from 50 feet up like these yahoos, for a whole different level of fun.

Well, tomorrow should be interesting. If we estimate the plot point using the data we have available to us, I should be UP about 5 lbs. I've become a schizo-fattic.

Hasta.

Day 67: Coffee To Go

Update: 223.8 lbs, 34.4 lbs so far, 3.6 left to reach goal.

Really hacked about a freaking pound upswing after busting my butt in exercise for 4 days in a row, while sick, and continuing to stay on my caloric and water targets, so rather than whining and complaining (more), let me just say I think this photo is a brilliant idea.

The cool thing about that coffee cup holder is it also doubles as a light mount, so you can swap between your coffee and night time driving needs. Although in my book, you probably need both.

There is also a whole site dedicated to coffee cup systems for bikes called BicycleCoffeeSystems - no amazing web design, but plenty of information, check it out.

Ok, since I didn't even try to make anyone smile today, here's a picture of the brown geek on his bike, big helmet and all, from his last commute. BGOHB for short.

Hasta.

Day 66: Boy Meets Grill

Update: 222.8 lbs, 35.4 lbs so far, 2.6 left to reach goal.

No, not THAT grill. Those of you who know me, and my backyard, know I'm on a two year plan to finishing up my brick barbeque outside. BUT I have managed to build a nice cedar shed out there, and set up a monster wooden play structure, so life has not been without progress in the backyard, the grill has just become a life mission at this point.

Anyway, last night was the first night we pulled out the little mini-grill. Yes, it's gas, and I felt kind of dirty, betraying charcoal, the true grilling love of my life, but I was in the mood for something cooked outside, and that's what was handy. Grilled up some chicken in Sweet Baby Ray's, and let me just say, if you haven't tried SBRs yet, GET OUT AND GET SOME! Ask anyone who's had bbq at our house -- THE SAUCE IS THE BOSS! I don't work for the company, I'm just trying to help set free those trapped in KC Masterpiece land. But chicken is easy. Toss it on, slather with SBR, and flip a few times. No worries.

However, the shining jewel of the night was some grilled asparagus, as you can see in the picture. I drizzled lightly with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled some salt on it, and threw it on until the light green color had changed to a nice Jolly Green Giant dark green. Cook those babies between 5-10 minutes depending on your heat -- I did mine on low -- and they're done. Way better than steamed, or boiled, or even broiled for me. And, the whole meal was nice and lean.

Looking forward to lots of grilling this summer....anyone have any favorite items they like to grill? I'm curious about fruits too...pineapple, peaches, etc. Love to hear your idea.

Hasta.

Day 65: Uncle Paul's Life Lessons From The Road

Update: 223.6 lbs, 34.6 lbs so far, 3.4 left to reach goal.

The other day Nick told me about a 13 mile loop that takes off from my neighborhood, circles around the boonies, and then back, for a good bike ride. For those who know the area it takes off down Shoreline, which crosses to Windsor Island Rd, out to Ravena, cut back down Wheatland to River Rd, to Lockhaven, back to Windsor Island, Shoreline, and then back into the neighborhood. As is usually the case, a new venture like this for me is full of little lessons...lessons which today, Uncle Paul would like to share with you.

You CAN Teach An Old Dog New Tricks
Remember the pitbulls from last week's ride..yeah, well I avoid them now by taking a different route. Today from a distance I spotted an old, chubby German shepherd guarding a farm, that I would have to ride by. I picked up just a little speed to be sure, and as I got closer, he started barking and started moving towards me. I could tell he wasn't going to catch me as long as I didn't slow down, but I decided to act like I needed to speed up anyway...to give him a little thrill chase. I'm sure as an old, chubby dog, he was going to go back and tell his other dog buddies how he nearly mauled this big brown guy on a bike -- "you should have seen it, like a ginormous double scoop chocolate cone on two wheels!"

Well just about the time I was patting myself on the back for boosting this old dog's ego, I picked something up out of my peripheral vision -- a younger, slightly less chubby german shepherd that was coming from another part of the same property, making a bee line to cut me off at the pass! Santa Maria! This time, I actually had to kick up the horses a bit so he wouldn't take out my front forks. Close call, but I staved off the sneak attack. Later on, I was pretty sure the Pitbulls from across K-town called the G-Sheps and told them they'd need a blind sweeping attack to fake me out. I don't know who let the dogs out, but call the score: Attack Dogs - 0, Mex-On-The-Bike - 2.

Don't Spit Into the Wind
Ok, this one I actually learned from Jim Croce back when I was a wee lad, (or Wii lad these days.) However, I'd forgotten what a pain it is to ride in the wind. Today I realized that a good tailwind can make you feel like you're Lance Armstrong, whereas a strong headwind actually reduces you to Lance Bass...(yeah, I'm not really sure what that means either, but I needed a good Lance-Lance drop there.) With no wind, I actually had some pretty good cruising speeds, but once I hit some of the open fields of the backwoods the winds slowed me down to nearly half speed, which stinks. I'm not sure how this works, since I made one big loop, but I managed to have a headwind for about 2/3rds of my ride...which is nice. Check the wind before you ride. If Something Wicked This Way Comes, maybe hold off for a break in the weather.

Easy Does It
On the gearshifting that is. As I hit one particular hilly area, I decided to shift down to make life a little easier, but actually went the wrong way and geared up making the pedaling twice as hard. I panicked, and shifted right away two gears the other direction. This was on the front sprocket shifter, so it's actually jumping by 10's, if that makes sense. Anyway, since I didn't allow for the chain to fully engage before shifting the other way, and since I was standing on that crank at the time, I derailed it. Thank goodness I still had a runny nose from my cold, because I had put tissues in every pocket of my shorts (all 4 of them) in case I needed them. Turns out I did, but to wipe the grease off my hands. Now I realize carrying a few tissues, or some sort of rag is a good idea. Also didn't realize there was a U-Pick Tulip patch (farm, garden, villa..???) on Wheatland, but I do now, and a mom and daughter got a great shot of me from behind bending over to fix my chain...sorry ladies.

No Means No!
At about mile 7.3 of this loop is a road that runs uphill named Ravena. It's named for the late famous hispanic cyclist Edwardo Ravena who died instantly when he attempted to actually ride up this almost completely vertical stretch of road. He made it about halfway, and simply gave out from exhaustion. The local townfolk decided to memorialize his effort by calling that Ravena's Hill, or simply 'Ravena' nowadays. Anyway, my eyes were bigger than my stamina today.

I saw the hill from a good half mile to mile away, and started mentally preparing for it. "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can." But my legs were saying, "yeah, aint gonna happen my friend." Having been recently inspired by an episode of Friday Night Lights I began to encourage the legs that 'they really could, if they'd just dig down deep.' As I neared the throat of the hill, I downshifted (no derailement this time) and proceeded to dig on in. Everything was going great until about a third of the way up, when something strange happened...my bike simply stopped. No slowing down, or rolling to a stop, it just up and stopped. Really, the wierdest thing I've had happen on a bike in my life. There was no more energy in my legs, and we were at such an incline that gravity pulled us to a motionless state. I quickly hopped off and pushed it the rest of the way up the hill.

I later noticed something odd...I have a shifter on the right side of my bike too, and if I move that little dial thingy, I can actually change the gears on the back sprocket, which makes life much easier. I had tried going up that hill in about gear 8, instead of something like 3, or more realistically, 1. Anyway, I know better for next time. And since I remembered that whole 'other gear thing' on Wheatland, it made the hill by McNary Golf course easier to get up and over as well. Use them shifters, they're there for a reason.

Well, there you go...dont' say Uncle Paul never gave you nothin'!

Hasta.

PS - you know what stinks? Riding to work and back, playing golf, and playing basketball on Friday, riding for an hour on Saturday, and staying under 1500 calories for 3 days in a row (eve over a holiday) and going up .4 of a pound, not losing.

Day 63: End of the Week Round Up

Update: 223.2 lbs, 35.0 lbs so far, 3.0 left to reach goal.

I think readership is lower on the weekends, but for those of you who check in for your daily bit of chubby love, here are some random things from the week.

Yesterday was crazy. Rode into work, then off to the golf course for a round, then raced back into town and grabbed stuff to set up for game night with the mid high kids last night, then somehow got conned into playing basketball for about 40 minutes -- something I haven't done in ages. Today the old chesteral muscles are feeling a tad sore, and not sure if it's from first golf of the season swinging, or shooting the ball. Needless to say, yesterday was like triathalon calorie burning.

Also, discovered the wonders of White Tea this week. Mark from the office brought some in and I'm officially hooked. We kept trying to figure out what it smelled like when it was brewed (kind of scary since we had some serious sea water smell from some of his previous green tea) and the word citrus was thrown out once or twice. However, while sipping on some freshly brewed tea while watching Mark give his best effort at ripping it up "You Really Got Me" on Guitar Hero, I realized what it was - Starbursts. The white tea we have smells like Starbursts...how can you not love that tea.

And to follow up on the gut question from yesterday...yes, the swing is a little different. I overpowered almost every single short iron shot when approaching the green yesterday, and long shots are a bit wacky, but overall it felt much better playing with 35 of my little fat buddies as only distant memories. My back was a little sore at the end of the round, but that's because I've recently realized I'm quite a sloucher, and I no longer have as much of my gut to kind of prop me up from slouching too much, if that makes sense. So now when I slouch, I really slouch, and it's kind of messing with my back. Trying to work on posture now.

That's it...we're off to a rainy egg hunt for the little fella today.

Hasta!

Day 62: Does the Gut Interfere With the Swing?

Update: 224.0 lbs, 34.2 lbs so far, 3.8 left to reach goal.

I think I'm getting out onto the course today, 34 lbs lighter than the last time I picked up a club. I'm just curious if the gut, or the reduction of the gutteral area, will affect my swing, either for the better or for the worse?

I read an article in Golf Digest on John Daly, a golfer who shares similar body shape to me. He said losing weight did nothing for his game but hurt his swing:

GD - The PGA Tour media guide has you weighing 220.

JD - Uh, that's a little low. I'm about 245 right now, and I'm not fighting it anymore. I wouldn't mind being about 230 or 235, but I found when I did lose weight, like when Loy put me on that starvation diet, my swing changed with my body. I've tried to lose weight two or three times, and every time, my golf game was horrible. My swing got quicker. I know that sounds like an excuse not to lose weight, but that doctor in Pittsburgh said nothing's beating fast inside me. So I'm happy and Sherrie's happy. She says she likes fat men.

Hmmm, well I don't claim to be anywhere near the golfer that Daly is, but if losing weight means my meager game will become all the more meager, then I guess I can be a happier, skinnier, mini-golf fan. Who else loves fat men? Lets here it for us stout fellas!

Anyway, looking forward to a little extra exercise too. I'll let you know how it goes.

Hasta.