Wednesday weigh-in: Week 8

I've broken through a wall that has been a problem for a while now - I'm dropped below 270 and held it for a couple of days. I've also made it back below the "best fit line" on the overall Physics Diet graph (red circle below).This is more significant that it might seem initially. What little graphing I remember from my time in math courses tells me that the "BFL" the is straight line that runs through or closest to most of your data points. If you look at the early days on the diet, my actual weight (green dots at the bottom of the graph, hanging down like stalactites) and the average weight calculated by the algorithm were far below the BFL, which indicates that I was losing weight rapidly enough to "confuse" the graph a bit. They we get to the last few weeks where it flips, and I'm above the BFL because I had pretty much stopped losing weight, excluding some daily fluctuations, and the BFL caught up with me. Now, it looks like I'm moving forward again and will hopefully start dropping like I was before.This second graph is only for September, and you can see the slight decline in the BFL, with the more significant drop in the green measured weight over the last couple of days.

Breaking 270 is significant for me, because that has been my floor of weight loss over the last few years, so getting past that is a great thing personally.

An almost fully-loaded commute

I have avoided commuting to work on Mondays because I usually have my laptop and a big heap of papers that I've brought home to work on over the weekend. This week was no different, except that the heap was closer to two heaps because of the (work-related) trip to Carson City last week. But I also did some riding there that both 1) reminded me how much I luv my bike and 2) demonstrated conclusively (and emasculating-ly) how much more I need to be on it. So I loaded up last night to make sure I would ride this morning. The result:


The back end is my Two Wheel Gear garment pannier (that I luv almost as much as my bike) and the front end, strapped to the top of my Nice Rack is my backpack with many heaps of papers and my laptop. I'm not a fan of a high load like that, the front was a bit wobbly, which reinforces the need to get some normal panniers that will mount on the sides (and low, an advantage of the Nice Racks) in the near future.

I will post about the rides in Carson. One was on dirt and really fueled my desire to get my hands on a twenty-niner, the other was a solo trek around town. Both were great and both hurt (see note above on emasculation) in that good "this ride kicked my sorry @$$" way. But more on that soon.

Quick post

Just a quickie this morning before a road trip. I'm on my way out to Carson City, NV and will be bring my bike. So here's the question - anyone know some good rides in the area? I don't have a MTB, but will be grabbing some knobbies for my Long Haul Trucker, so mild trails are fine, but I'm thinking more fire-road than single track. Any thoughts are welcome.

I do plan to spend at least part of the weekend in the area, so rides over a wider geography would be great.

Wednesday weigh-in: Week 6

I'm traveling again, so the weigh-in this week will be mostly historical data. First, the graph.


My biggest issue is the grand flatness that is emerging. I've plateaued pretty badly, and it's my own fault. I've been lax with following the fast - basically I've had a number of days where I didn't have the correct number of supplements leading to extreme hunger at the end of the day, leading to me eating. I also haven't been at all diligent with exercising, so the excess intake from eating actual food isn't offset by increased burning.

All that being said, I've gotten back into the swing of the fast, before I left for my trip I got rid of the last remaining food components (things like peanut butter), and have some definite plans for exercising. The downside is that this week and next week involve a lot of travel, so my hope to begin biking to/from work a few days a week will be disrupted. On the upside, the hotel I'm in now has a nice gym and since I don't have to worry about getting dinner I'll have plenty of time tonight to "enjoy" it.

Wednesday weigh-in: Week 5

This is just a quick note, and the full post will be up later today. I'm out of town for work today, and neglected to bring my little sheet with all my weigh-ins. Last week I had a last-minute trip to Seattle that messed up my timing.

The short version of the news is that things have slowed down. I'm at just over 20 pounds total loss, but haven't lost much in the last couple of weeks. My crazy work schedule has prevented me from working out, although I have plans for that.

Look for a full update tonight.

International Win For Susan Day

I've written about Elden and Susan more than once, and won't repeat. Head to his blog, check him out. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, David Schloss over at Bike Hugger declared Sunday 23 Aug "International Win For Susan Day" and encouraged all supporters to get out and have a ride in their Fatty gear, upload it to Twitter, and donate to LAF.

Since I don't tweet, I'm doing it here.
No, I wasn't having a bad day. I was just trying to catch a quick pic of myself as we were heading out after grabbing coffee at the halfway point in the ride.

The picture was taken on my first ride with the Cherry City Cyclists, a local club. It was my first club ride, with this club or any. It was a mellow ride, which I used to work on my cadence training rather than anything else. It was different for me to ride at someone else's pace for that long. The last time I did group rides it was with a group of friends who would stop periodically and regroup, but other than that we broke up and rode in smaller groups. Something new to get used to.

Wednesday weigh-in: Week 3

Another week down, this one not quite as good.

Don't get me wrong, it's still going in the right direction, but I was hoping I'd be able to get into the gym more this week and get the pace to pick up a bit. I did see the training last Thursday, but the Friday was working and driving up to northern CA to see a friend. Saturday was spent at a county fair (so lots of walking but not too strenuous), a couple of hours hiking Sunday before the drive home (oh, and couch moving once I got home) and the first few days this week had no real activity.

My work load has gone through the roof, and will stay there for the next week or so. Hopefully I'll be able to get some things organized and spread the tasks to other people, but until then I'll be pulling 12 hours days to get it all done.

Wednesday weigh-in: Week 2

A little late getting it up, but today is still Wednesday...

I was a little concerned about what the trip to the group was going to show. I'll be quite honest here and say that I haven't stuck to the fast as rigorously as I should, as in I've had real food a couple of times, and my exercise hasn't kicked in full-bore yet. Also, I had no clue what the difference between my scale and the program scale was.

All that lead up, and it was good news. I'm down 11.8 pounds total (2 weeks) which is slightly above the average of 5lbs/week. I also learned (by checking) that my scale is within a few tenths of the program scale, so no more worries there. Once I get into a regular exercise schedule I should see the weight start falling more rapidly, but at this rate (5.9 lbs/week) I'll hit my goal in 11 more weeks, right in line with the 14-16 I thought it would take. I rode earlier in the week, and have an appointment with the trainer tomorrow afternoon. Next week I'll be starting a couple of classes at the gym, which will get me over there regularly (and whoop my @$$), which I need if I want to speed up the loss.

There's still a difference of a couple of pounds (about 3) between my scale weight and what the PhysicsDiet graph is coming up with. My guess is that this is because my loss isn't all that great compared to my total weight, and that the longer I keep up the same rate of loss the closer their average will get to my actual weight. This time around it's also a lot easier to see the benefit of the smoothing that the rolling average of their system puts into place. I didn't go above the average (all green points) but the spike where I was out of town and not weighing or exercising didn't really impact the overall trend. I also have a feeling that I pulled a Homer Simpson ("Dad, towel rack") on 9 Aug, there's really no good reason why I would have dropped two pounds and then have it show right back up and begin tracking slowly down from there. Had it been an up-tick it would make more sense. Oh well, it all comes out in the wash.

A newly discovered treasure

Tonight I needed a ride. Work is moving back into being stressful and it's been a few weeks since I've been on the bike, so I decided to check out Oyster Point Regional Shoreline. It's a smallish park only a short distance from my house. The downside - getting into the park means going past the "Davis Street Station for Material Recycling and Transfer" aka a non-permanent dump site. Oh, and the San Leandro Rifle and Pistol Range.

Once into the park it was easy to forget I was only 10 minutes from home. Well, except for the airplanes landing just across the slough.

All in all it was a great place to ride and will probably become my new training site. It has paved flat stretches running around the perimeter and a number of fairly wide dirt trails running over and across the hilly interior, providing opportunity for some speed training and for some mild climbing (since I'm not ready for serious climbing yet). Since it's only a short distance from the house it's not a problem for me to head over after work, get an hour or so in, and get home before it's too dark.
On top of all that it was just nice to be out on the bike after a long day at work.

A fight well-fought

I have written about Elden "Fatty" Nelson a number of times before. Today I'm borrowing his post in case there are some of my readers who haven't been to his site.

Don’t Say She Lost

08.5.2009 | 8:40 pm

Susan died tonight (August 5) at 7:25pm. It was a hard, long day, and Susan fought right to the end, for much longer than anyone would have thought she could.

My mom, my sisters Kellene and Jodi, and my Brother-in-Law Rocky were all here to support my family as Susan passed away.

I’ll have more to say soon, but consider this. Susan inspired me to expand the focus of my blog from nothing but bike-related jokes to a serious and pitched fight against cancer.

Then she inspired 500+ of you to join Team Fatty, the largest LiveStrong Challenge Team there has ever been.

And Team Fatty has raised close to more than $500,000 — a record amount.

Susan’s part in the battle is over, but she didn’t lose. She led the charge. She showed the rest of us how to fight: with determination, focus, creativity, and outrageous endurance.

Now it’s up to the rest of us to Fight Like Susan.