First Real Bike

After months of thinking it over and constantly changing my mind, I finally took the leap and bought my first real road bike yesterday, a Trek 1.2. The last road bike I had was a blue huffy 10 speed that I put red foam grips on. With the added weight of my basket for my paper route, it must have weighed 35-40 lbs. The Trek comes in at a slender 25 or so.

I took it for my first ride today since it was too dark by the time I got home yesterday after getting fit by the shop. I got all of a little over a mile on it. My legs burn and I was pretty sweaty.

I had a hell of a time trying to get my feet into the straps on the pedals. I managed to get my left foot in, but not the right. I stopped about halfway out to fix the straps and I still couldn't get them to work. I plan on trying again later today I hope. I still managed to get up to around 25mph on my street coming home. And I was keeping an eye on the computer to keep my cadence around 90 or so. (I got the Cateye Astrale 8 computer with the bike)

And as for the shop, I highly recommend them. Peddler's Shop in Deptford. http://www.pscycles.com The salesman that helped me was Eric, a young skinny guy who didn't treat me funny because of my large girth. I told him I wanted a road bike and he took his time to explain the differences between a couple I was interested in. All in all a great experience, plus I get 10 years of tuneups, free installation of any accessories I buy there, and free flat service. If I get a flat, I pay for the tube and they install it. Sweet deal.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my weight loss journey. I figured this was as good a way as any to keep track of how I am doing on my way from fat and out of shape, to trim and built like a Greek god. Or at least in shape.

I'm tipping the scales at 280lbs. these days. My heaviest ever. I've ballooned since high school, when I graduated in 1997. I was weighing in around 185lbs when I played both football and ice hockey senior year. I went to college and probably got up to 200lbs by the end of my freshman year. Lots of beer and fast food. I know I got up around 240lbs, maybe even a bit higher, sometime in 2002 when I started Atkins. I was down around 220lbs by the time I got married in July of 2003. And pretty much ever since then, I've been steadily climbing.

I joined a gym that I went to faithfully 4 times a week when I worked at the FAA Tech Center outside of Atlantic City. I really don't recall seeing much of a change in weight at the time and I was eating a lot better too. Doing a lot of weight lifting and a lot of elliptical machine. I was around 250 or 260 when I was going to get laid off.

I beat my company to the punch and landed a new job before they could lay me off. That was in June of 2006. While I really like my job now, I have to work a lot of off hours testing in a lab with no windows and lots of artificial light. Especially when we have long events, it can be hell on the GI tract. People bring crap food in the middle of the night and the vending machine is right down the hall. Lots of coffee (with Splenda please) or soda (usually Coke) and sugary snacks like candy bars or cookies from the jerks that bring the crap food. Needless to say, I've gained weight. I love sweets, but I also like fruits and try to bring some with me every day.

I carry a lunch with me everyday. Usually a sandwich of something like turkey and cheese on whole wheat (I never eat white bread anymore) and some fruit and snacks. Or if there's no lunchmeat in the house, I'll grab a lean pocket from the freezer. But even trying to eat well isn't doing much when the candy is plentiful and exercise is nonexistant. I've been waiting diligently for the LA Fitness to be built outside of my development, but I fear I'll be waiting a long time as they still haven't broken ground.

So, after that long winded welcome, the moral of the story is Jim + bike + eating better = healthier, thinner, more athletic Jim who can go play hockey on a Friday night at the local rink and not feel like he's going to die and doesn't end up developing diabetes.