Weigh-In Results

Hey it's Monday!  Mondays are weigh-ins around here.  That means I step up on the scale and deliver some news.  Whether it's good news or bad news, that's for the scale to decide.  Now I can certainly try to influence the scale's decision with healthy eating, plenty of exercise, and lots of sleep, but it's really a crap shoot sometimes.

Now I realize I might sound a bit negative.  I don't mean to be.  Maybe we should just get to the number.

Yup, there it is.  My lowest weight in nine years.  238.3.  I lost 2.1 pounds this week.  I'm excited, but like I said earlier, I suspect the scale might be teasing me.  Then again, the 21-day challenge of stopping before I'm full combined with 30 Days of Biking might actually be doing something for me.

Anyway, I'm motivated again.  The weather is improving and I'd like to bust out the bikini this beach season.  

30 Days of Biking!

I took my bike in for a repair estimate yesterday and was told it would cost between $200-$250 to get my bike back into riding condition.  Yikes!  That much money just to get my 12-year-old mountain bike where it was a year ago?  No thank you.  I am in the market for a bicycle and I need one soon.

30 Days of Biking starts tomorrow!  What's 30 Days of biking you ask?  Well, you're in luck.  Here to tell you all about it is a friend of mine and one of the founders, himself.

What is this 30 Days of Biking Thing Anyways?

30 Days of Biking is a challenge to ride your bike every day for thirty days during the month of April. It is what you make of it. Your goals drive what the event means for you. The one common theme is that we all ride every day!

We then share adventures online and with the world: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, Daily Mile, snail mail, bottles in the ocean. Take photos, issue tweets, write blog entries. By participating in 30 Days of Biking, you join a worldwide community of cyclists who will encourage you along the way—you won’t be alone, you will be encouraged!

At 30 Days of Biking, we strongly believe that biking enriches life, builds community, and preserves the earth. It's what we here have personally seen and witnessed time and time again from year one participants. People who participate literally change their lives in a profound way—from physical enhancements (slimmer bodies, tighter butts, titanium legs) to internal changes (state of being, feeling zen) to social boosts (meeting new fun people, spending quality biking time with family).

We encourage you to try 30 Days of Biking, challenge yourself, and see what kinds of stories you have!

--
Zachamon

Zachariah Schaap is one of the founders of 30 Days of Biking.  You can follow him on twitter @Zachamon or just use the hashtag #30daysofbiking.  You can also "like" 30 Days of Biking on facebook here.  Sign up here! It's free!

What I Hate About Myself

I hate my chin.

Now that you've seen it, I'm sure you hate it too.  It's pretty gross.  It's the reason I have a beard which my wife, Claire, has never seen me without.  I shaved it once five or six years ago and I looked like this.

That's me on the left.  People get us mixed up sometimes.  It's the hair.

I'd like to be able to at least have the option to ditch the beard without looking like a huge chubo.  Even with the beard, I'm not happy with how I look.  I'd like to think that when I reach my goal weight of 196 pounds, I'll have a nice chin with a strong jaw line, but I don't know if that will happen.  I'd like to say, "Be happy with what you have," but that attitude doesn't help me lose weight.

What do you want to change about yourself?

Topless Mayhem

This is an eventful week.  I've got a guest post coming up and 30 Days of Biking Starting on Friday.  I'll be doing a giveaway this week at some point too, so stay tuned.

Today's post is titled Topless Mayhem.

No, not that kind of topless mayhem.  This kind of topless mayhem.

On the left is me at my heaviest.  313 pounds.  Gross.  In the middle is what I looked like last July and on the right is what I look like now (well, yesterday).  I can't really tell if there's much of a difference between July and now.  Maybe a little.  I feel kind of stuck.

Here's a view from the side.

I think I've shrunk a little, but it's really hard to tell.  What do you think?  The biggest motivator here is seeing how far I've come since I started.  All I have to do to succeed is just do what I've already done one more time.  I can do that.

Oh, for those of you who really wanted some topless mayhem, I won't disappoint.

Maybe I'll look like this some day.

Weigh-In Results

Spring Break, Woo!

As you may have surmised, I have this week off of work.  Today, that meant sleeping until noon and not putting on any pants until 3:00.  The rest of this week, that's going to mean cleaning and biking (probably not at the same time though).

This is my bicycle map of Minneapolis.  The green lines on the right are the rides I've taken this year.  Here's a better view:

As you can see, there isn't much green yet.  Probably due to the brutal winter we've had this year.  This week I'm on spring break and it's getting warmer.  On top of it, 30 Days of Biking starts on Friday.  There's going to be a lot of green added to my map this week!  Stay tuned.

It's almost April and my new 21-day challenge starts today.  For the next three weeks, I will be trying to stop my meals before I am full.  I will be satisfied without being stuffed.  I have recently read that a difference between people who are naturally thin and those who are overweight is that people who are thin naturally stop eating before they are full where overweight people keep eating until they are full.  I'm going to take the fake it 'til I make it mentality.

Now the only way to do this is to record how full I feel after meals.  Since I don't overeat during breakfast and lunch (because I pack a small lunch and only eat a bowl of Special K for breakfast), I'll be tweeting a number -one through ten- each day to report how full I felt after dinner.  My goal is to keep that number around six or seven for the next three weeks.  Hopefully, by then it will be a habit.  Today after dinner I was about a 7 out of ten for fullness.

It's Monday and weigh-ins are on Mondays.  Let's get down to business.

240.4.  I gained half a pound this week.  I haven't done very well as far as diet and exercise, but I'm not sweating it.  I'm pretty sure I'll be able to knock it out this week.  What kind of exercise do you think I should be doing over my spring break?

Oh, and stay tuned.  I'll be announcing another giveaway soon!

A New Goal

I ate at Chipotle tonight and I was famished.  I saved myself 300 calories and ordered a burrito bowl instead of a burrito.  I also refrained from ordering the chips and stuck with water.  When I was finished I was still hungry, but I filled up my water again and hit the road.  Great decision.  20 minutes later, I found I was full, but not stuffed.

I stole this picture from the Paleo Diet Blog.

Given my relationship with food, it was really hard for me to do.  That got me thinking.  Maybe my next 21-day challenge should be to eat without overeating.  I already (usually) do it two meals a day.  Why not make it every meal?  I don't think I eat unhealthy foods very often, I just eat too much.

So here's my plan for the month of April:  I'm going to stop eating before I'm full at every meal.  This one seems more habit-y than any of my other challenges.  I recently read that the difference between thin and overweight people is thin people have a better awareness of when to stop eating.  Maybe I wasn't born with that awareness, but hopefully I'll be able to fake it until I make it.  With any luck, this one will stick and I'll be able to get myself out of the slow lane.

Weigh-In Results

Happy Monday everyone.  It's time for a weigh-in. 

239.9.  I lost 1.4 pounds this week.

I don't get it.  I've been exercising less, eating more, and still managing to lose a little weight each week.  I feel like I've gained weight.  The only thing I can think of is that I'm losing muscle.

It's hard to motivate myself to eat right and exercise if I'm losing weight without doing anything.  I know all of you are probably telling me to shut up right about now.  A loss is a loss and I should be happy. 

I just don't feel like I earned this one.

It does, however, feel really good to be below 240.  It's been months since I've been this far and I feel like I could make some real progress in the next couple weeks.  I feel like if I push now, I'll make some big steps in the right direction.  I don't know where the ammunition is going to come from, but I've got to find it somewhere.

Where do you find your motivation?