Off Track

I’ve been off-track for years now.  It’s been almost two years since I last posted.  I’ve now gained back all the weight I had lost.  I’ve lost most of my fitness.  I suffered injuries, depression, and I’ve gotten older.  These aren’t excuses.  I made my own decisions, and it’s time to undo some of them.

Let start with a recap.  I started this adventure in late 2007, over eleven years ago.  From then until 2009 I lost 100 pounds.  From 2009 to 2012 I mostly held steady, gaining a little, but being very active.  In 2012 I started drinking a lot more.  This began faster weight gain, fewer long bike trips, less fitness, etc.  In 2015 I started a job that I felt I needed a car to get to reliably, so I bought a car.  This almost entirely killed my bicycle riding.  Things got worse in 2017 when I bought a motorcycle.  Now, I have two motorcycles, but no longer have a car.

My old neck/shoulder issue has become a debilitating mostly-shoulder issue.  I’ve been back through physical therapy for it again.  It was time for change.

Now that the New Year’s Eve drinking is done, I’m done drinking, for at least a month, but honestly, I need to stop for good.  I’ve become a daily drinker, never really getting drunk, but drinking as a habit, to have something to do.  Much like I have always treated food, hence my weight issue.

I stepped back on the scale on 1/1/2019, and it read 299.4.  That’s where I started in 2007.  I’m weighing daily again, but I’ll average it out weekly, as I used to.

I’m back to tracking everything I eat.  I’ve been hungry a lot the last few days.  I’m drinking more water.  I have a new gym membership, this was mostly for shoulder exercises, but all the other equipment is available, I should use it.

I’ve made more realistic goals.  I want to be down 40 pounds by June – when I have another doctor’s appointment.  I want to get to around 220 pounds over the next 18 months.  I want to be capable of 70 mile bike rides on the weekends again.

Not everything has been terrible.  Two-up motorcycle touring on a big bike is wonderful.  Diane and I are approaching five years of marriage, and we’ve learned to live with each other’s quirks.  We have two cuddly dogs, friends, family, jobs.  I sometimes feel like I complain too much for having so many good things going on.

I’ll be writing here again.  I’ll probably slip motorcycle content in now and again, much as I started writing bicycle content in 2008.  I probably won’t bring back the “fat pictures” section I once had.  I’m older now, and nobody wants to see that.

I fill in some details of what’s been going on in the last two years, but in the meantime, I’ll be working lose the weight… again.