State Of The Weight Address or "How Long Have You Been On That Bike?"

So yesterday while I was at the gym I get a phone call. It was my good friend and fellow weight loss blogger, Jeff (overweightrockstar.blogspot.com).

"Hey man, what's going on?" said Jeff.

"Oh, not much, I'm just here at the gym. I'm on the bike today."

"The bike, huh?" Jeff queried. "Did you just get started? You're not even breathing hard."

"Let's see, I've been on here..."

At that point, I moved my sweat towel from over the bike timer.

"Twenty eight minutes."

Twenty eight minutes on the bike and I wasn't even breathing hard. Not too bad for a fat guy. I hadn't gotten to the gym much in the past week and a half because of all the play rehearsal I had been doing. I was worried that when I went in there that I would have lost a step. Turns out, not only didn't I lose a step, I actually improved my time spent exercising. The last time I was at the gym I did thirty minutes, yesterday I pushed it to forty. Even at forty minutes, I wasn't that tired, but I could feel the lactic acid building up in my side, and quite frankly, the seat on the bike was starting to hurt my butt. Those machines are not built for larger folks, which I find sort of weird since, theoretically, we are the ones that should be using them.

I started this blog on August 5th, and in twenty-four days I have managed to go from barely being able to do ten non stop minutes on the bike to a whopping forty minutes, stopping only briefly to adjust my position on the seat or adjust my feet in the pedal straps.

On top of that, the eating portion of my lifestyle change is still going well. I'm fairly sure I'm eating less than 2000 calories a day, and I don't usually feel hungry or like I'm being deprived. I cheated a tiny bit today and had some barbecued ribs for lunch, but I didn't eat the potato salad or the rice dressing. I basically had four small ribs and a small portion of baked beans. I've also not had a non diet soda in 24 days, and maybe only two or three diet sodas. Mostly I've been drinking water. A LOT of water. I have a bottle that holds forty ounces and I go through probably three of those a day.

I feel better, I seem to be more energetic, I have a higher tolerance for the heat, and I feel good about myself. Today I'm wearing a shirt that I haven't worn in probably six months. It's good day.

For those of you out there who are on the fence about starting a new lifestyle, please come down of the fence and jump in. It's not as hard as you imagine it will be, and the benefits are fantastic. If I'm feeling like this after less than a month, I can't imagine how I'm going to feel in six or twelve. It's worth the effort.

I'm also happy to report that my good friend Jeff just celebrated a milestone in his lifestyle change. He was able to buckle his seat belt for the first time in months. Good on you, sir. I'm proud of you.

Today's moral: The best things come to those who get off their butts and go after them.

Until next time, dragon slayers.