You may have seen it on twitter and/or FB, not sure – but I’m back on the weight loss kick. I do so with mixed emotions and quite honestly, some confusion and frustration. As the 4 people that read my blog may recall, I lost a lot of weight last year. 51 pounds … if you weighed me on the right day. I did really good from January 2nd until about June. I then sort of faded. I couldn’t stay as motivated and wanted to eat some more junk. Then came July – I rode and rode and rode… setting some good standards for myself. I felt good about it. Flats, miles, mountains … I did it all. August sucked. My back went wonky on me and I couldn’t ride in august. For a while, I maintained my weight … but not really well. Creeaping back up. Then came the holidays, vacation, pizza, chipotle and the rest of the things I eat. Along the way I won the “Biggest Loser” at work, I kicked major arse… but why? It’s almost all back.
That’s the thing. Since I LOST so much, and AGAIN… gained a bunch back, I am like who cares. It just seems quite inevitable. At the same time, I know that if I want to be healthy, if I want to live past 60, if I want to do what is right and not have to deal with diabetes or some other disease. It’s frustrating and miserable to think “I can do this… but I fall apart later”. I really don’t want to – but I don’t know what to do. Well, I supposed I have a few months to sort that out – as I do know if I can get going, I can lose weight, get healthy, get fast and have fun. I had a LOT of fun competing and winning the biggest loser last year – it just miserable to win a competition of that nature and then fall apart. Enough of that… let’s talk about the next 6 months… (give or take a few months).
I needed/wanted some motivation. If I am in “competition” I try harder. It’s what I do. I talked to my boy, Naten Zeep. I said “Nate, you and I are big men… we shouldn’t be this big.”. We went round and round a bit and came up with a motivating competition that we have “affectionately” named “Velo Losers”. Velo is french for bicycle, or something… Losers, well… that’s obvious. We talked to our mutual friend, Don Walker, and he too wanted to participate. In talking to other people, our little snowball is growing and we currently have 5 players, 1 hidden player and two people in negotiations. I think it will be a lot of fun and it will be lucritive – at least for me as I plan on dominating the competition. Yes – smack talk is part of the game. I feel confident in my smack talk – win, lose or draw – I will be in final smack sprint!
So – friends – family – people that don’t like me and want to keep me around so you can pick on me – whoever… I’d love some support. I’d love some help in 5-6 months when I’m probably 40-50 pounds less than I am now and trying to push to the big goal of weighing less than 200 pounds. (I haven’t weight less than 200 since the early 90’s.)
To my competitors – I only want to win by .01%. I want us all to lose the weight. My smack is good becuase you are my friends. If you need help not eating that donut, taco salad, burrito or something else… I’ll do my best to talk you away from the edge. Let’s work together and make this one work!
Scott, will this put you back into the same see-saw pattern as before? My bet is that most “biggest losers” rebound and end up bigger than before. IMHO has to be a long term commitment of moderate degree vs a short term weight loss binge…again just my opinion after observing the pattern a million times.
Also, do you use weight training in combo with riding? This is extremely beneficial.
Take care,
Your pal, Brian
That’s kind of the point of my long winded rant. I don’t know what the right solution is. If I “go slow” and “eat right” I get bored and eat pizza. At least if I use a shock and awe campaign to lose weight, I do lose some. Last year was a long term commitment that got thrown off track (like all the rest of them). I so some weight training – which I am about to go do right now.
Hi Scott, Thanks for pointing me to your blog this morning! This is an area I have an inordinate amount of experience in, being from a large, extended Italian family (my mom’s side). Believe me when I say . . . I come from a long line of food-obsessed, overweight people. Half of my life has been spent learning how to eat properly.
In fact, for a few powerful reasons, I had to ask myself why riding and racing is so important for me the past three years.
I found the answer while visiting my 96 year old Grandma, who’s been wheelchair-bound and rotund for as long as I can remember. That, and in spending time with my mom, her daughter, who’s gained and lost the same 20-50 pounds repeatedly since the day I was born. At 5’3″, she lives each day obsessing over food and wishing she could break 200lbs.
I ride, because it helps me stay ahead of that legacy. And I race, because it gives me the goal setting and discipline I never had growing up in that environment.
The gentleman, Brian, above is correct in that slow and steady wins the race. Your metabolism will eventually even out if you commit to feeding your body nutritious whole food vs. empty, corn-sugar & fat-laden junk. The problem with fast and heavily processed food is it leaves the body starving for real nutrition, which consistently places you in a binge-state of mind.
Slow and steady wins the race. Eating more protein, veggies and whole grains will keep you satisfied longer. So will eating smaller, more often. All of this is about changing behavior . . . what and when and how much you eat.
I have a few concrete things you can do to help make this work. I’ll keep checking in, or drop you an email.
Good luck!