Carbonfiberboy 

Sorry about your dad. First it's your grandparents, then the parents of friends, then your parents, then your contemporaries. I'm in the contemporary phase. Hope he comes out of it.

I'm not surprised that sweet spot intervals hurt. Coming back is tough, really tough.

I've been losing weight for a couple of weeks, simply because I'm down with a cold or flu or whatever. Seems odd to me that being sick should drop weight. I've had to cut way back on the workouts, that's probably some of it. Scale says it's mostly fat, some muscle though. I did get out in the dry for 65 miles of lower 40s on Saturday. Rode straight through, rode my ass off. Stoker is also sick, so this is the first time I've been out on a single in a year. My good bike is torn down for a rebuild, so I rode a CAAD9 that's 2 cm. too small for me. Rode a bunch of people 20 years younger into the pavement, so I can't be too bad. Fast group got away from me though, so I rode the whole thing with my nose in the wind. I like riding my own ride, though. Tried to stay out of Z4 'cause I'm sick.

Good luck to you.

youcoming

Good Luck OP, I'm on the same journey. Started year at 226 and today at 216, funny but my goal is almost right in line with yours. I'm gunning for 185 by my BD on June 17th, I would love to hit 170 by end of the summer and try and maintain that throughout winter.

LowCel 

Diet starts back up on Monday. In the past 10 days I have managed to gain just about all of my weight back. That happens when you are inactive and eat all of the junk food in sight I guess.

Carbonfiberboy 

So sorry, LowCel. Be well, yourself.

Machka 

Do you have a gym membership? If not, I highly recommend getting one. Check out your local community centre or YMCA ... they tend to be less expensive than the private gyms, and provide a wider variety of exercise choices. They've usually got a swimming pool, cardio room, weights room, etc.

Rowan and I were in Canada for a month from mid-December to mid-January, and joined the local gym there so we could improve our fitness and perhaps lose some weight ... and it was good!

I was doing about 45-60 minutes on the treadmill, 15-20 minutes on the rowing machine, and 30-45 minutes on the spin bike. Rowan did that too, but for less time, and then he spent 30-45 minutes in the pool.

After the first week, we both noticed an increase in fitness, and we started losing weight ... slowly but surely. By the end of the month, I had dropped 6 lbs ... without making a drastic change to my diet. All this was happening over Christmas, after all!

Now that we're back in Australia, I miss the gym ... there isn't one where we're staying right now.

Working out outside is great, but it can be weather-dependent ... if it is cool, wet, snowy, etc., you might be less inclined to go out. And for me, I find that there is something about the atmosphere in a gym that encourages me to put in a decent workout. Maybe there's a tiny bit of competitiveness about me ... when I see others putting in a good effort, I want to do the same.

LowCel 

I currently do not have a gym membership, I really don't have time for it these days. I work 6:30 am until 5:00 pm,most gyms don't open early enough for me to go before work. I can't go after work since I try to ride just about every evening.

On top of those excuses I have a feeling I am going to be spending a lot of time with my mom for the next few months.

BarracksSi

Here's my trick: Put it out of sight. I'm on the road right now, and four or five years ago, I used to have cereal, chips, energy bars (now I call them "sugar grenades"), and other things like that on hand. Today, I've got fruit and veggies in the mini-fridge, plus some yogurt and semi-healthy frozen meals. Not a perfect selection, but still a much better bunch of stuff than Clif bars and Doritos.

Going to get dinner now. There's a Subway across the street, so I think I'll get my usual turkey sub loaded with nearly all the veggies they have. Everything but olives, that is -- draining gallon-sized cans of olives in the kitchen at Pizza Hut made me hate them forever.

LowCel 

Your plan is great but wasn't really possible when I was living in the waiting room of the hospital waiting for Dad to wake up from his coma. The past few days haven't been any easier with everyone making us food and bringing it to us. It's amazing how helpful everyone has been these past few days.

BarracksSi

Continuing --

Neither do I. To be fair, we have gym facilities at work, but I'm out of town for about three months each year, and not every hotel has very good fitness rooms. I've had to find ways to exercise without any gym equipment. I travel with some resistance bands and I have a doorway pullup bar at home. That's all the gear I need, and it's been going really well the past few years.

If I do end up at a gym, I go straight for the multipurpose room. Crossfit fans would call it the "box", I think. Pullup bars, medicine balls, free weights like dumbbells and kettle bells, and that's it. Give me an 8'x8' space and I'm good.

BarracksSi

Yeah, I know. Didn't mean to sound insensitive about it. I try to not recommend what someone should do in that situation because everybody deals with it differently. But, you'll get back on track. Don't worry about it.

LowCel 

Was going to start tomorrow but I'm going to enjoy being a pig one more day. Monday starts a new week.....

Rowan

LowCell's dad died. LC hasn't updated here. Condolences to him and his family.

LowCel 

Thank you. Sorry about not updating this thread, for some reason I thought I had. Oops.

LowCel 

2/18/13

I have gained most of my weight back, weighed in at 222.

Food:

Breakfast - Raisin bran, 2 bowls.
Lunch - 2 ham, turkey, and roast beef sandwiches
Snack - Italian Ice
Dinner - 2 turkey burgers and fries
Snack - Italian Ice


Activity:

27 mile bike ride. First time back on the bike in almost two weeks. I suck!

https://app.strava.com/activities/41431976

LowCel 

2/19

Food

Breakfast: Oatmeal, raisins, pb I brought a bunch of brownies and cake to the office, letting them eat it all so I won't.
Snack: banana
Snack: Broke down and had a brownie.
Lunch: Campbell's GO Chicken & Quinoa with Poblano Chilies (320 calories)
Drink: Hot Chocolate
Dinner: Pork Roast, carrots, potatoes, creamed peas
Snack: Italian Ice

Activity

3 x 1 mile walk
45 minutes on the trainer. 566 calories. Endurance zone. https://app.strava.com/activities/41572196

LowCel 

2/20

Food:

Breakfast - Oatmeal, raisins, pb
Drink - Hot Chocolate
Lunch - I was bad. Two slices of pizza, couple cheese sticks, couple chicken tenders.
Snack - Banana
Dinner - Hot Bologne sandwich x 2


Activity:

2x1 mile walk
No ride this evening, rest day plus I needed to do a couple of water changes on my 210 and 300 gallon aquariums.

LowCel 

2/21/13

Food.

Breakfast - Oatmeal w/ raisins and pb
Lunch - Hamburger and 1/2 order of fries


Activity.

1 mile walk

LowCel 

2/22

Spent day with Mom helping her take care of some things.

Breakfast - nada
Lunch - Chicken, baked beans
Dinner - 6 buffalo wings, fries, burger
Beverages - 7 Sam Adams Seasons.

2/23

Breakfast (pre-ride) - Sausage and egg biscuit
Dinner - Fajitas
Beverages - 3 Dos Equis

Activities

45 mile ride, 3,600 feet climbing, 1,666 kj's (1,857 calories). https://app.strava.com/activities/41985897

2/24

Food
Breakfast - Lucky Charms
Lunch - 2 bologne sandwiches
Dinner - Pork Roast, mixed vegetables, rice

Activity
32.1 miles, 2,241 feet climbing, 1,288 kj's (1,436 calories). https://app.strava.com/activities/42152011

LowCel 

2/25

Food

Breakfast: Oatmeal, raisins, pb
Drink: Hot Chocolate
Lunch: Chicken and rice
Dinner: Lasagna

Activities:

2x1 mile walk
21.9 mile night ride, 1,567 feet climbing, 805kj's (898 calories). https://app.strava.com/activities/42277498

BarracksSi

What happened? Was the beer about to pass its expiration date? C'mon, man....

LowCel 

My mom is having a rough time with the passing of my dad so we ended up going to the Casino for about 9 hours after taking care of picking up the death certificate and transfering things to her name. I am not a fan of the Casino so beer is a requirement. On Sunday she wanted to split a pitcher when we went out for Mexican.

Carbonfiberboy 

Sometimes life gets in the way of training. How inconvenient of it.

LowCel 

Kind of the way I am looking at it. There will be plenty of time later, right now helping my mom cope is coming first. I can't argue that the beers are necessary but so be it.

BarracksSi

I know (and knew) I was going to get some flack for that, but I'm also pretty sure that you're not expecting this thread to be full of "atta boy"s even if it looks like you're going to fall off the wagon. Usually, when people tell others about what goals they're reaching for, they're not just doing it out of pride. They're doing it to be held accountable.

The fact that you told us about the unhealthy stuff says (to me, anyway) that you're not trying to hide your missteps. Therefore, you probably aren't all smiles when you sit down to write each post, but you do it anyway. That takes some guts, and I appreciate it.

Casino or not, even with the family tragedy, the stack of beers over the weekend is not the way to cope. I think you know that. Maybe one for some flavor with dinner (it could be argued that beer is healthier than soda, too), but any more than that is going to be a problem. Sticking with the topic of training and weight loss, you likely undid all your hard work from the past week or more.

This kind of thing is what got you here in the first place. It'll be tough to stay out of those habits, but you gotta do it. Make good habits your new normal. Life is going to throw all sorts of hell your way, but you need to treat yourself better each time.

I'm not here to beat you down, man. I'm just trying to get an arm under your shoulder and keep you progressing. Cool?

LowCel 

I wish I could argue with anything that you typed. Unfortunately you are exactly right. Thank you.