Year to date: From 165.9 to 155.8 pounds (down 10.1 pounds)
I stayed consistently below 160 pounds this month, ending the month at my lowest weight, 155.8 pounds. For the month I’ve lost four pounds, proof that running a crazy amount may have some effect on burning fat.
For the year to date I have gone from 165.9 to 155.8 pounds, a total weight loss of 10.1 pounds, putting me within reach of my official goal of 150 pounds and not much further from my unofficial goal of 145 pounds. Looking at my waistline now I think it’s fair to say I still have more than five pounds of fat clinging tenaciously to my mid-section, so 145 is probably the more realistic goal.
I did not switch to an all-donuts diet as I had feared.
Body fat for the first eight months of the year:
January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat) August 31: 16.7% (26.1 pounds of fat)
And today I kind of tipped over on my new bike and fell off a ramp into some bramble. I got a long but shallow scratch on my otherwise sexy left calf and about a 10 cm swath of abrasions on my lower left arm. On the plus side, my new gloves kept my hands in pristine condition!
But let me back up a bit.
For awhile I’ve been thinking about getting a bike again–my last was stolen from Tim’s garage by a safety-conscious thief (he took the helmet, too). I rode that one to work and really, it was okay for urban riding but even going over a curb made it feel like the frame would bend like a pretzel. After a suggestion from Jeff, I perused the selection of bikes at MEC and settled on a Ghost Kato, which sounds cool, of nothing else. There was a choice between 26 and 27.5″ tires but it became obvious quickly that 26″ is passe–you know, “Grandpa tires,” while 27.5″ is sexy and happening.
I’ll include a picture of my bike soon but here’s a generic shot for now:
I picked up a bunch of other things to take advantage of the 10%-off-with-purchase-of-bike deal:
stylish black helmet which I look dorky in, anyway
fingerless gloves
padded undies because I’ve been on bikes without padding for my butt and my butt was very cross with me after
water bottle and holder
a small kit bag for holding repair doodads (it goes behind and under the seat)
After a few adjustments and a couple loops around the guest parking at the condo, we headed out and up SFU, then rode down two trails. The first was wide but very much a downhill thing. I used the brakes a lot and found out they worked well. I only had one brief moment near the beginning where I hot a patch of loose gravel and felt the tires start to slide, but I maintained control.
Then we moved onto the second trail, which Jeff described as not as steep but more narrow. This seemed like a fair trade-off to me, so we ventured onto Dead Moped.
I almost immediately ran into trouble because although not steep, it was still downhill and very twisty and turny, requiring a degree of coordination that only existed in my imagination. I tried to channel my imagination into reality but the bike was firmly on the side of reality. I muddled along and then got to a point where somehow I was in the lead (I’m still not sure how that happened) and was navigating one of those narrow plank bridges, which are sometimes directly on the ground and other times elevated about a foot or so off of it. They look like this (this is actually taken from Dead Moped):
I went to the handy trailforks.com website, which has several nice photos and videos of the trail. I found one video and managed to grab a blurry still which you may gander at below:
Just past that tree on the left, where the bridge turns to the right…I turned to the left. I didn’t plan it that way, but somehow my combination of speed, balance (and lack thereof), and inexperience combined to where I could not correct quite enough. I very nearly stayed on the bridge, but in the end my balance shifted a little too much to the left and gravity took over. I had a moment to consider if I could put out my left leg to somehow brace myself but this bridge is elevated and my legs are not freakishly long, so I just toppled over onto my side.
A guy came up, seemingly out of nowhere and asked if I was okay. He offered a hand to help me up. I thanked him and said I was okay (except for proving what a noob I am when it comes to two-wheeled transportation). While it may be true that you never forget how to ride a bike, I can verify that it is quite possible to forget how to ride a bike well.
And here’s the damage, nothing a little Polysporin can’t fix:
Pretty minor, especially compared to actually embedding gravel into my hand last summer.
I walked my bike the rest of the way out of the trail (it wasn’t that far), not willing to risk finding another way to separate myself unexpectedly from the bike.
The ride along the rest of the route home (a little under 7 km) went without incident.
Overall, it was actually pretty fun, if terrifying from time to time. I’m flattered that Jeff (who rides these trails with the ease that most people would walk them) thought I could manage it. I later learned that Dead Moped is rated Blue–intermediate difficulty. At this point I’m probably best to stick to whatever color they use for “can barely stay upright on a bicycle.” But I’ll improve.
This continues the downward trend that started in May and has picked up a wee bit of momentum. Three times in the past week I dipped below 160 pounds, once tipping the scale at 158.6 pounds.
For the year to date I have gone from 165.9 to 160.5 pounds, a total weight loss of 5.4 pounds. Not super-dramatic but I am getting close enough to my goal that I no longer despair and feel the urge to give up and switch to an all-donuts diet.
And body fat for the first half of the year:
January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat) July 30: 16.6% (26.8 pounds of fat)
Down 2.5%/4.9 pounds of fat. Again, not numbers to make your socks roll up and down but a continued improvement over previous months. Onward and downward, I say!
Today I weighed myself, as I do every day, but today was a little different.
Specifically, I was less than I was yesterday. Even more specifically, I was down exactly two pounds, from 160.6 to 158.6 pounds, marking the first time the entire freaking year I have been below 160 pounds.
I celebrated this achievement by eating an entire chocolate cake.
Okay, I had sushi. And it was yummy.
My official goal of 150 pounds is now in sight. My super-secret goal of 145 pounds is…closer. Still, even going by the stricter goal, it’s only 13.6 pounds away, which seems a lot more doable than when I was pushing 170.
For a weight loss (!) of exactly one pound. Not exactly a staggering amount but still down for the month and continuing the downward trend started in May.
For the first half of the year I have gone from 165.9 to 163.4 pounds. That’s 2.5 pounds, which is pretty so-so. The good news is most of that has actually happened in the last two months, so the weight loss is accelerating. Yay.
And body fat for the first half of the year:
January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat) June 30: 17.2% (28.3 pounds of fat)
Down a not-bad 1.9%/3.4 pounds of fat. No wonder I feel slightly lighter when running.*
Today is officially the first day of summer and it defied expectations, given the weather we’ve seen so far this year. Rather than raining brimstone and fire or perhaps just letting loose with another monsoon, the day instead was a bit breezy but pleasant, with clear skies, sun and temperatures hovering just under 20ºC–right around seasonal.
It was kind of weird.
I took advantage by actually going for a walk at lunch. I admit I have a motive other than enjoying the nice weather, and that is a renewed effort to get the rest of the flab off me.
On that note, I make a solemn vow now: No more Goldfish crackers. These are like year-round shortbread for me. They are small and tasty and so it’s easy to eat five or ten or 5,000 of them before you know it.
No more.
Begone, Goldfish! You will be a lightly-salted memory from now on. As soon as I finish this bag, that is.
There’s no need to be wasteful, after all.
But anyway, the first day of summer was pretty nice.
Before looking back on May’s weight loss/gain/donut catastrophes, let’s first look back on April:
April 1: 166.3 pounds
April 30: 165.2 pounds
A small amount of weight loss. Encouraging, if only slightly so. And now May:
May 1: 166.2 pounds
May 31: 163.9 pounds
Note that only one day into May I had effectively erased the minor but of weight loss for the month of April. However, I managed to actually move in a positive direction for the month as a whole, shedding 2.3 pounds and 2.0 pounds for the year to date.
How about body fat?
January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
May 31: 17.9% (29.3 pounds of fat)
Body fat is down 1.2%. Not much, but it’s down. If Fitbit’s estimates are even remotely close to accurate it’s kind of grossbuckets to think I’m carrying nearly 30 pounds of fat around with me. No wonder I don’t feel light on my feet these days. 😛
Still, May was a month of progress, so here’s to June seeing the momentum continue as I shed pounds like some efficient pounds-shedding device.
Two lists after the sudden and unwelcome arrival of a head cold four days ago.
List 1: Things I have missed since getting a head cold
two runs
one writing group
my daily activity goal as per the Apple Watch (four days so far)
work (on-site)
going outside (two days)
List 2: Things I have achieved since getting a head cold
sneezing
runny nose
stuffed sinuses (goes great with #2)
headache
mild fever
coughing
sore throat
sleeplessness (one night, see immediate item above for explanation)
conversely, plenty of napping during the day
weird dreams
possible addiction to NyQuil (not really, but it has probably saved my sleep 3 of 4 nights)
work (a little that I could do from home on the fourth day)
This one bugs me because it just seems so random and out of the blue. Friday I was fine, Friday night I was sick. Weekend shot, missed work, behind on everything again, going in when still not 100%, missing runs after finally getting back into a regular routine. Why haven’t we cured the common cold, anyway?
I went for a follow-up with my doctor yesterday in Steveston, where it always rains, at least when I’m there.
Also, the bus trip is long and agonizing. I mean, more than a usual bus trip.
But good news was in store.
The blood sugar test showed a level of 4.7. The ideal range is 4.5-6 so I am actually near the low end. My doctor advised me to keep doing what I’m doing, which probably means “continue to not stuff donuts into my face” and “do not treat bags of sugar as a food group.”
The other news was concerning the unwelcome lump. It is still unwelcome and that will not change.
Less unwelcome is news that it is the testicular equivalent of varicose veins. It’s both kind of gross and a relief to learn that it’s nothing serious. I asked if anything can be done about them but it seems short of some form of dark magic, they are here to stay. The good news is they don’t cause any discomfort and as long as I’m not working to get someone pregnant (I am not nor do I have this penciled in on my calendar any time soon), there should be no potential complications.
So good news all around. I celebrated by having a Mars bar. Yes, I know, it’s exactly the opposite of what I should have done, but it was a yearly indulgence. I promise not to have another before 2018.
I have achieved the improbable and lost weight over the course of the month. Not a lot of weight, but some, so hooray.Here are the stats:
April 1: 166.3 pounds
April 30: 165.2 pounds
I weighed 165.9 pounds on January 1, so my total weight loss for the year is 0.7 pounds. It’s not exactly melting off. 😛
I’m starting to run more, walk at lunch (weather permitting, which has generally been horrible ALL YEAR SO FAR) and am working to cut down on snacks (no more chips in the house, at least).
Maybe by the end of May, I will have lost an entire pound from the start of the year. A boy can dream.
I had a vacation day today but unlike most vacation days where you do fun things like take a trip somewhere interesting, relax on a beach or simply spend time shopping or sight-seeing, I went for two medical tests.
The vacation day was due to the tests being in different cities and different times of the day. The logistics simply weren’t manageable.
The first test in the morning was for blood sugar. I got to the lab early and got in early–yay! I opted to have the vampiric removal of blood done through my right arm this time and there was no bruising, unlike the last visit, so good there.
The next test was an ultrasound (I will always think of the ultrasound as being a PC sound card, which I had back when people actually bought sound cards for computers) at Richmond Hospital. I arrived mega-early because I have a highly-developed skill in getting lost inside hospitals. You don’t want to get lost in a hospital because they are largely unpleasant places, filled with the sick, the dying and the dead. They also smell funny.
After spending a half hour or so walking around the pond/park next door and carefully avoiding a couple of geese on the path (it is a verifiable scientific fact that geese are the nastiest birds in the world) I toodled over to the main entrance, went inside and studied the map, looking for the imaging area. Almost immediately a nice older man appeared and offered to assist me. He took me to the imaging area (which I probably could have found on my own since it was only steps down the hall and even my usual bumbling was unlikely to lead me astray), I was given a number (77, they were serving 74 when I arrived) and before too long I was ushered into the ultrasound room by Chris the technician. When I left it was 3:10 p.m., which was pretty nice, because the appointment had been for 3:45.
I was told to remove my pants and underwear but could leave everything else on. I opted to remove my shoes because they would have been awkward to pull the jeans over, anyway. I did keep my baseball cap on, though. I imagine I looked a little ridiculous. I was given two folded towels to place over my manly bits. Not because my manly bits are huge and require two towels, you apparently need one to go over and one to kind of go under.
Anyway, unlike my heart ultrasound where the jelly was not warm and I fairly leaped out of my skin every time the tech touched me with the magic ultrasound wand, the jelly this time was warm. I was especially appreciative, considering where the wand was going.
In all, it only took five minutes. I had to hold my breath a few times and near the end was asked to point to the unwelcome lump of something or other. Chris then made with the wand again. He asked if the size had changed recently. I said I wasn’t sure, though a few days ago it sort of seemed like it might be smaller, which would be a good thing.
He said my doctor would have the results in a few days, that he’d clean up the towels, then left.
I put my pants back on and also left. I successfully navigated back to my original starting point at the main entrance, to my delight and surprise, and headed out into an unusually warm and sunny afternoon, thinking how the whole experience was pretty benign as far as things that can happen in a hospital. I wonder what it would be like to go through the same thing while being horribly shy. Horrible, I guess.
In a little under two weeks, I’ll discuss the results of both tests with my doctor. Here’s hoping it’s good news but even if it’s not, I’ll deal with it and move on.
I’m good with not needing another ultrasound for awhile, though.
