Fitness.

I have been rather lazy in my health goals over the last couple of weeks. I have been slowly losing weight but I would say that my attempts have been half-hearted at best. I decided at the end of last week that I had approached this latest attempt wrong. Yesterday I ramped up my efforts and made new goals for myself. So far, so good.

One of the things that I felt was amiss was that I was thinking of this as a “diet” rather than “eating healthier”. Quite frankly I’m sick of dieting. Then again, who isn’t sick of dieting? It seems like since I lost that first bunch of weight back in the beginning of the oughts that I’ve been dieting ever since. I never learned new habits, instead I denied myself food (at times) so that I wouldn’t gain the weight back. This approach isn’t working. It won’t work for the long term and the result is a constant battle of the bulge.

So what am I doing differently? For starters I stopped weighing myself. I don’t care how much I weigh, as long as it’s a good weight. I often mention that I drop kick my scale from time to time. I could easily lose weight by starving myself but then I’d be losing muscle mass, not fat. I need to lose fat. Therefore I’m gauging my success by my BMI (body mass index) and I’m striving to cut that in half by the end of the year. It’s an ambitious goal. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

I didn’t want to admit it when I talked about this before but I need to just give up beer and all alcohol for that matter. I don’t know if I want to do this permanently but at the very least I need to do it to get things under control. A lite beer once a month isn’t going to kill me but I’ve been chugging down the cheap stuff with the best of them this summer and quite frankly all that beer has parallel parked itself over my abs. Does that mean I’ll skip Saranac Thursday for the remaining two weeks? No. I’ll just be the designated driver and drink water.

I want to be able to take a punch in the gut without having things swing or bounce around after I take the punch. You never know when you’re going to have to take a punch in the gut but I figure it’s good to be prepared. I was never a boy scout but I certainly know the importance of some of the things that they teach and being prepared is one of them.

And lastly I am going to stick to the cycling and such until my feet freeze to the ground from the cold temperatures. Autumn is my favorite season and a beautiful time for exercise and I plan on embracing all that Mother Nature has to offer. I am allowing myself ONE day without outdoor exercise a week. It’s a shame I don’t deliver mail because I’ll be out there doing something for an hour a day six days a week. This exercise will be complimented with the various crunches, squeezes, lifts and whatnot that I do inside.

I’ve never measured health success by BMI before so this will be a new experience for me. I believe I’ve set myself up for success and I am confident that I will achieve it. At the very least, I’ll feel quite confident in my Blue Marvel costume at Halloween.

I have mentioned before that I occasionally approach my health as a big science experiment. Not one to subscribe through the “better living through chemistry” route, I avoid going to the doctor as much as possible. I suppose this has to do with my medical history; as a small child I was as little bundle of medical bills for my parents and as a teenager, occasional bouts with medical needs in my favorite parts has helped me in a couple of ways: I have a wicked high tolerance for pain and I don’t run to the emergency room for every little sneeze, cough or broken limb.

My aforementioned troubles with my favorite parts was corrected a number of years ago (and continues to function perfectly), but I keep very close tabs as to what’s going on down there. Hence the confirmation of my latest suspicion: diet pop is bad for you.

I hadn’t had any sort of diet cola over the past month or so. Whilst eating out I have favored iced tea or just gone for the gold and asked for Guinness. When working at the bar, I favored bottled water or a beer (aside from one shot I was asked to do with a bartender which turned out to be Goldschlager last weekend). While we were in New Haven last weekend, I had a couple of beers with the guys after the chorus concert and then decided enough was enough: I didn’t need anymore beer so I switched to Diet Coke.

Sunday I found that my favorite parts don’t like Diet Coke. Nothing became stopped up nor was there wasn’t anything alarming going on, but things felt different (and not as ‘streamlined’) with my plumbing and the only change I had made in my diet was the addition of the Diet Coke. I had one more diet coke with a burger bomb (why the Thruway McDonalds don’t carry iced tea anymore is anyone’s guess) and then switched back to water and/or iced tea.

After a couple of hours, all was right with my plumbing once again and things have been fine ever since. The only change? I stopped drinking diet pop again (and I’m not adding beer back to the mix either).

I think there’s something to be said about this little science experiment of sorts. I’ve never been a big fan of the chemically modified food; I figure if you’re going to eat sugar then it’s better to eat the real deal instead of the fake stuff. I’ve told about my experience with “Olean” (nee Olestra) in Pringles, the Thruway and a tree along the side of the roadway. It makes me wonder about all the other chemicals that we are putting in our body in an effort of being healthy; especially the stuff they hock in television ads these days.

If anything I’m making a stronger effort in keeping things natural. My favorite parts are most appreciative.

With another beautiful day upon us, I decided to take full advantage of the weather, dress up like a bumble bee of sorts and hit the pavement with my bicycle. Earl took the obligatory shot of me in my cycling gear, complete with my new cycling glasses. I’m also excited because I found my cycling headband and cover so I don’t have sweat dripping in my eyes.

Not really having a destination in mind, I ended up riding the local streets and roads and the Rail Trail that was built back in 2005. All in all I clocked in 25 miles in about 1 1/2 hours. My body is feeling worked out but that’s all good. It helps combat the lingering effects from the field days food from last night.

Years ago I rode a number of times with the local cycling group. They must have had money to burn as their cycling clothes often matched their bicycle. As you can see by the picture, I enjoy dressing up like a bumble bee but I create a huge faux pas by wearing a blue helmet, red and black gloves and then of course my red road bike. This created gasps of dismay in the cycling club. Well, they also didn’t like the fact that I wore my camelback (backpack with built in water supply) while I rode as they preferred to have a van follow along with the fancy water bottles.

I guess I’m a loner of sorts when it comes to cycling, which is really not a surprise since I’m a loner by nature. I am looking forward to riding with Thom in Virginia this fall when the leaves are changing color. He’s a great guy and like minded in many ways.

I guess Earl will follow along with the fancy water bottles.

After nearly two weeks of being off my bike I took the opportunity to hit the pavement this evening. With all traces of my little cold just about gone, I think the ride did the trick and knocked whatever was left completely out. I feel great.

I was tempted to ride this evening until after dusk but I don’t have a light on my bike. When I was a kid I loved riding after dark. I’d be on my Huffy three speed (in startling brown) with my little generator light humming off my tire and the subsequent light only bright enough to make out vague shapes of what was ahead in the road. I’d hang out with the other kids down the street, goofing off or playing some super stealth version of hide and seek and then make the trek home after dark. There was only one street light along the 1/2 mile between point A and point B and it didn’t do a good job of revealing the dog named Barney that liked the chase bicycles. He was always a challenge. I like to think of him from time to time and thank him for my strong leg muscles. He helped them develop early.

The weather looks promising for more cycling this week. It’s good to be back on the saddle.

Despite my flat tire the other day, I’ve been out on my bike and enjoying the cycling experience to the hilt. I’ve often said that I love the recreational trails along the Erie Canal because they’re quite and peaceful. So naturally I hit the trail this morning ready to listen to nothing but the animals and the wind rushing over my shaved head.

Except today the annual Cycling the Erie Canal Ride is underway and I felt like I had just merged into heavy traffic in downtown Knoxville.

Actually, traffic wasn’t that bad and the folks passing through our area were super nice. Even though I’m pretty much a loner when it comes to cycling, it’s good to ride with others once in a while, even if it’s just for a refresher in cycling manners.

I rode with the group for four miles or so before I left the trail and headed up one of the many hills in our area. I’ve avoided this hill because there’s a gorge across the middle of it. You get halfway up the hill, then you descend into the gorge and then you have to climb up all over again to get to the very top. It was a struggle but I can proudly say that I did not have a heart attack.

I’ve mentioned before (and demonstrated) that we live near several ultra high voltage powerlines. We’re near where many of the major lines in the Northeast come together, so we have several of these dotting the top of our hills.

There’s another one about twice the size of this one at my back, but I couldn’t get a good shot because I would have been pointing the camera directly into the sun. The lines from the substation pictured head to Niagara Falls and the powerplants in Oswego, N.Y. The lines directly over my head are tying this substation with the one behind me. There’s a lot of humming going on. Notice I did not bring a fluorescent bulb with me.

After indulging my geekness a little bit, I proceeded on to the top of our road. I’ve complained that since we’ve moved to the new house I’ve had to ride uphill to get home from a bike ride, well today I decided I was going to ride down to the house for a change. Why wimp out?

Here’s a shot from the intersection of our road and the road that goes along the top of the hill.

Unfortunately, the haze in the picture obscures the windmills in the distance that are about 25 miles away, but you can still see pretty far today.

And here’s the hill that I rode down to get home. It took me 35 minutes to get up this high whereas the ride down, which is about three miles, took no more than five minutes. I topped out at 41 MPH. I start to chicken out if I go faster than that on my bicycle.

I’m still working on how to record video and ride a bike at the same time. Cock your head to the side at the appropriate moments in the video.

I want to know how that guy with the awesome mustache in “SuperSize Me” ate nothing but McDonalds food for a month and only gained 30 pounds. How did he do it? I have a Burger King meal once in a weekend (for the first time in a month or so), eating nothing but vegetables and reasonably numbered caloric/carb/fat craptastically healthy food otherwise and I pack on five pounds.

I can’t figure this out. My clothes are fitting reasonably well. I have not pelted anyone in my math class with exploding buttons or snaps from my clothes. At Hillside I was able to jump from the ground up onto the big rock on our site which looked to be a little above knee level. By the end of the summer I hope to be able to jump up onto a picnic table from the ground as I figure if the cat can do then so can I. This past weekend I also did pull ups and then pulled myself up into the rafters of the open air shower to convince myself of how strong I was. I was naked at the time to keep it interesting.

But I jumped on the scale this morning and saw that I’m gaining weight. I’m really hoping that I’m the added weight is from muscle and not fat. If the pants explode then it must be the latter. I don’t know why I obsess about the digital readout of that blasted electronic scale.

I think I’m going to go workout.

Feeling the rebirth vide of spring and the need to confidently wear a superhero costume on a video, I installed the pull-up bar in our workout area today. I don’t know why I rushed to the occasion, because we bought the pull bar only six or seven months ago, but the planets were aligned properly or something so I figured I might as well go ahead and do it.

Ready to do six or seven sets of 10 reps, I confidently pulled myself up onto the pull-up bar and promptly had flashbacks to junior high where we had to do the exact same thing in front of our classmates. Back then I could do 1 1/2 pull ups if I was lucky and encouraged by my classmates that called me “Johnny Wing Dingbat”.

Today I did three, sort of. Big whoopin’ doo.

I don’t think that was a bad start for several reasons. First of all, I’ve done no strength training at all. I’ve been focusing on my legs (for cycling) and my cardio for fat burning. My clothes are fitting better to the point where I’m wearing my smaller sized clothes without having to hold my breath or fear showering anyone near me with Levi rivets. I’ve been eating healthier and feeling better but the scale isn’t agreeing with me, so I think I’m gaining muscle which is heavier than fat (so I’ve been told). At least that rationale sounds good.

Anyway, here I am at the pull-up bar doing three pull-ups when I realize that I should take the stool away so that I’m really hanging there. Naw, I did that part, but I don’t remember if I should have my palms facing away from me or toward me while I’m doing this exercise. So I did three pull-ups each way, for a total of six. Later tonight I might actually unpack the free weights and then do some reps with those.

I told Earl last weekend that I think I was either suffering from seasonal depression or a midlife crisis (I’m approaching 39). He said I’m just nuts and besides he had planned on enduring several of my midlife crises before all is said and done. I’m glad he’s the sensible one.