RTAWW #8 The Touch… The Feel… Of saANd, The Story Of Our Lives

      I woke up at 5 this morning as I’ve been doing for the past few weeks and went for my morning walk.  I walk/jog 3-4 miles depending on what I feel like doing, or really it depends on how good the book that I’m listening to is or how bad I want to get through it. I’m not too excited about the book that I’m listening to so the walk was shorter, besides it was windy. It was windy all night and was still windy when I went walking. I’d say the winds were something like 10mph probably stronger, but I’ll keep my guess safe as the actual speed in my area – the weather at the airport recorded wind speeds of 20-40 miles an hour at the time of my walk and it’s not more than 10 miles away (point being it was windy). Took a trip to the Asian market, which is always fun, and got a few things for several soups that we like. Have I mentioned I like soups? When we got home, my mother in law had prepared some…guess what…soup! Some pea soup. It was delicious!

      The highlight of this day again was riding with my kids. We went out again and they were much more confident today than yesterday – maybe a bit too confident.  My oldest son face-planted into some sand. He came roaring down a hill and I imagine he thought that he would be able to go through the sand or slow down easily in it because yesterday the sand was a bit more wet from rain and he had gone through some short patches of it, but he went about 10 ft started took a swerve left, corrected right in the shifty sand and KuhFWAhP! It took a few seconds for the pain to set in of having his handlebar jabbing him in the abdomen but it did. Luckily my wife and mother in law were strolling around in the park when it happened and came to calm him down. After spitting out all of the sand in his mouth and getting it out of his hair and off his face he calmed down and in a few minutes he was riding around again – but now making sure to steer clear of the sand. Big time kudos to him for get back on and riding. Earlier he had told me that he fell off somewhere that I hadn’t seen but said it was not big deal because stuff like that happens in life, but you just have to get up and keep going. I do believe that is pretty sound advice from a child.

      Mostly we’ve been riding around on grass, which I know is difficult to ride on, but I’m thinking about the long term here – they’re building up some great strength pushing those pedals to trudge through the grass so once we do hit up some bike paths and easy dirt roads, it’s going to be super easy for them.  They actually know that it’s harder (they first learned on blacktop), but I think they feel more comfortable on the grass for now. Plus it’s more fun to go fun to go up and down hills. As long as they’re having fun, I’m having fun!  And having fun on a bike usually means that I’m not going to be stressed or depressed or gaining weight. Bada-bing Bada-boom.

      Time for a recovery sleep – got to do some drivin’ tomorrow that I wasn’t expecting.  Ride on!

RTAWW #7 - Riding is Miraculous and more!

Bikes are just amazing.  It's thrilling to ride, fun to challenge yourself or try something new, and a great workout.  It's even better when you get to do ride with your family. Today I ventured to get my kids riding bikes again.  They had learned over the summer and had gained a bit of confidence, but after school started, colder weather set in, and their bikes got roasted, they fell out of the rhythm and it was difficult to get them going. They were both super excited to get new bikes for Christmas (which was a miracle in and of itself because their bikes were a gift from a family that we don't even know that decided to 'adopt' our family for Christmas - we're so thankful for their kindness, words can't really express it but seeing my kids smile as they rolled down a 80-90 ft hill with 25% grade and then ride around a lesser incline to get back to the top at which point one of them, my older son, let out a "YAHOOO!").  It took a few balancing games and some push starts but they got the hang of it and I know that they'll get better and better. They already want to go out and ride tomorrow, but they want to leave earlier so we can ride longer! Our ride was described as "epic" and I had to let them know that there's lots more where that came from and riding just keeps on being epic. It was fun to have my wife out riding too. I guess the point of all this is to say that bikes are miraculous, amazing, epic, and make you go "YAHOO!" Ride on, Eat less, Move more, and Keep breathing...and drink more water. 

RTAWW #5 - eat less, move more...drink more water

No picture or anything today. "Andrew, you're so boring." Me: Shrug my shoulders and say, "eh," which is to imply, "oh well, what do you do?" So, I did good today at the eat less. I can't say that it's anything new, but I did my normal 8 hr window of eating which often turns into a 6 or less hours like today.  But while I ate less today, I didn't move so much - unless you consider traveling 400 miles moving ;). Yes, I was trapped in a car most of the day which isn't the best situation for eating healthy food since I like thinks like popcorn to munch on to keep me awake or like that last time I made this same trip, my mom gave me a box of Dewar's peanut butter chews - so I had to eat them. All of them. Of course I ate them to keep myself awake. If you don't know what Dewar's peanut butter chews are, I'm sorry you haven't lived yet. They are good, and if you're ever in Bakersfield and you do the ice cream thing, then I would check out Dewar's (and Rosemary's - probably my favorite ice cream). I bet you can order a box of chews on their website. Anyway, moving on away from sweets. I wanted to say that I love water. Water is my weight loss "secret."  I truly believe that water is what allows me to eat less easily. I've noticed that if I'm not drinking enough water, then I'm eating more and that means that I'm likely gaining weight.  When I am drinking enough water, I've noticed that my appetite is curbed. I try to drink most of my water in the morning and then throughout the day and only a bit at night so I'm not getting up all night. The point is, that water made my long trip relatively easy because I had my camelbak bottle hanging out with me in the cup holder next to my seat. Water's good for other stuff to like staying alive - or lesser things like not getting headaches or keeping your body functioning properly so you don't get sick as easily. OK that's all, I didn't do too much today, but water is good and kept me feeling fine on our trip back to Bakersfield. So eat less, move more, and keep breathing, and drink water.  Tomorrow I weigh-in. 

RTAWW #3

Who doesn't love an acronym? Third day into this and I'm already tired of writing out my own title to the "series."  The good news is that I'm pretty darn happy with my day today.  I was able to do a good amount of reading for my thesis paper and in between I did various stretches and exercises. I'm sure I'll talk about them in more depth as I figure out a better routine or schedule for doing them.  I also watched some GCN videos on Youtube today.  I particularly liked this one about time efficient training.

As usual they have some good advice, but I think the biggest take away is that consistency is key. Today felt like a day that was more consistent with my goals as far as eating and staying more active.  This evening my wife and I went on a walk to get the heart rate up and the legs stretched out and even though it was a bit cold, it felt great (even my wife, who needed quite a bit of persuasion to go for this walk, said that it felt good and that she was glad that I talked her into going for the walk.
      Another thing that came up in the video is that having some kind of goal might be a good idea, so I'm tentatively setting one for myself for the distant future - a year and a half-ish into the future.  I'd like to do the Sherman Pass RR (climb) again if it's still going on, or at least go at it at race pace and see if I can smash my only attempt from several years ago.
       The last bit, which is my favorite part of the video, is the emphasis on the importance of getting adequate rest - exactly what I'm going to do right now. Ah, yes, sleep. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Road to a Weight Weenie #1

       So I'm going to do some cycling journaling because I am hoping that it will help keep me honest and going in the right direction - the lighter direction. I can't say that it's really a new year's resolution because I've been losing weight for a while now.  I maxed out at 209 lb over last summer and I worked my way down to 173 before the fire. If you have questions about the fire, look up the Campfire in Paradise, CA.  We were displaced and are living with my parents in Bakersfield.  Over the holiday's I went back up to 180 and now I'm getting back on track - that is back to my schedule before the fire with some additional exercises. 
        Basically I don't eat 'til 10 and then stop eating at 6. That is about the extent of my effort to lose weight and it had worked for me when I was in my own home with all of our food. We tend to be vegan, but here in my parents home we have been eating out a lot and well Thanksgiving and Christmas brought sweets up the yingyang (ying-yang?ying yang?). No matter how it's spelled the sweets were up there - they're not up there anymore I imagine.  Because the sweets have now been flushed through the system it's time to get this 5'10" frame back to the leaner side. 
        My goal has been, and still is, to get to 155 lb where my race weight is 145 or lower (I'm fairly light naturally?).  Another goal is to get bikes. I had 3 bikes burn up and my access to a TT bike melted away as well (since my brother kindly let me use his TT bike when I wanted, but his home also burned up).  One of my mom's friends has given me a Specialized Crossroads that I have nicknamed "ashy anne" or "the ol' crossroads" or "the phoenix."

This bike is getting run through the ringer. It is essentially my road/cx/mtn/TT bike right now.  I can't say I'm' pushing it too hard because I'm not really that fit right now, but it's taking me through sand and mud and everything it's not made to do and that makes it pretty fun.

        Something that I wanted to share that for some reason has inspired me is a TED talk I saw on Youtube about how fat leaves the body.  I had always thought that fat leaves your body, after being broken down, in your feces or urine. This is not completely inaccurate but it turns out you breathe out most of it.  This knowledge has created in me the desire to get out and be a bit more active and get myself breathing a bit harder. I also liked the guys catch phrase at the end - something like "Move more, eat less, and keep breathing."  That is my mantra for 2019 - Move More, Eat Less, and Keep Breathing!  Since I'm planning on doing this often (we'll see how long it lasts) I think this is enough for now. Below is the video that I watched. Maybe you already knew about how fat leaves that body, maybe it's off base (I didn't do too much research on the legitimacy of the information) and I did spoil the punch line of the guy's talk but it was a good presentation.

      Hope your new year brings some cycling happiness!