No more treats for you! |
Sometime around Thanksgiving I abandoned the practice of logging my meals and snacks. Today I resumed my food journal, hoping that it will encourage me not to eat or drink bad things.
In January I spent 13.5 hours on the treadmill at Planet Fitness, went snowshoeing once, rode my bike outside on five occasions for a total of 83 miles, completed 12 upper body strength training workouts in my home gym, and used my foam roller as part of my stretching and self-massage routine every single day. That’s not a bad amount of activity for January, but a permissive approach to my diet prevented meaningful weight loss.
Now it’s February. I couldn’t get to Planet Fitness yesterday, so I went today on what otherwise would not have been a treadmill day. As I burned 500 calories during a 1-hour workout, I noticed that the gym was far less busy than it had been just a couple of weeks ago. I think a lot of New Year’s resolutions are failing. For me, February provides another framework in which to start over. It’s the shortest month of the year. Surely I can show some discipline and restraint over just 4 weeks. With a combination of exercise and responsible eating, I know I created a calorie deficit today. One day down, 27 to go.
And where do I want to be? I’ve got a number in my head that sounds good. Certainly, I won’t reach this target by March 1 but maybe I could get there by June 1. I think 175 is the weight I need to reach to be as competitive in my racing endeavors as I can be. My bike-specific, preseason training plan will begin on Feb.12, but no amount of training will yield as much real-world benefit as simply losing weight. How much does your bike weigh? Do you obsess over every gram? If I can lose 26 pounds over the next 4 months, it will be as if my bike weighs nothing!
This is ambitious, I know. Fanciful? Unrealistic? Maybe. But I am resolved to take my best shot for these 28 days of February and then revisit the plan as March begins. If I see good progress this month, then I will be encouraged to keep pushing. If I don’t, then maybe I’ll just accept the “big for a bike racer” label, plod through a couple of seasons with mid-pack results, and return to the podium when time takes away your quickness but leaves my toughness largely untouched.
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