Weigh Crazy and Crazy in General

Hovering on the edge of being in the two hundred some things is driving me a bit more insane than my normal insane! My “official” (IE someone besides me saw it) weigh for last weekend was 301 for another 4 pound drop. WAIT! That number says 299!!! I sort of did it not thinking unprepared with jean shorts on and a belt. As you can see at home I can hover under that magic number… somehow 301 seems so much more than 299!!! Weighing can drive you insane, if you wear the wrong clothes, have eaten or drank something, time of day, need to use the rest room… are wet from a shower?! they all can bounce those darn numbers around!

I’m trying (with some but not perfect success) to focus on weighing ever two weeks and getting off the scale between times. Daily (even multi-times daily) weighs can drive you bonkers.

It’s been a bucket load of oddities lately, travel, rain, super hot weather (I saw the bank thermometer over 80 one night after 8:30 at night!) various stressors… now it’s motorcycle week in the area, and the sleepy little city seems to gain double it’s population for a bit. I couldn’t resist riding my bicycle yesterday even in the mist got in about 13 miles. I headed toward Weirs Beach and kidded some of the people I saw as I peddled along with my bicycle amongst a thousand motorcycles, “I thought this was *Bike* week? I’m so confused!” Or found groups of people sitting on the side of the road watching the motorcycles ride by and I ching chinged my bell to cheers. I got a feeling some of those folks might have had a bit of “liquid encouragement” in them if you follow my meaning.

Hopefully later this week will have a decent day and I can make another trip up there and get a few pictures to share. During my last trip I got a new pair of amber yellow shades and a stretchy cargo net for my bicycle adventures. I’m thinking if I might want to go all out and get a battery powered light for night riding, as some of my rides push the border into sunset.

I’ve gotten to the point where I seem to be collecting pictures of the bicycle with odd things in odd places. One ride recently I got this shot with my Boba bicycle below a rocket in Concord, New Hampshire (In the United States of you are somewhere else in the world that is the state capital and in the northeast of America) I think you can click on the picture to enlarge it or just look close at the base of the rocket and you should see my bicycle



I hope everyone is well and keeping on the road to becoming more healthy- Alan AKA Fools Fitness

Faster Than A Locomotive!

How fit am I becoming? Well, I’ve started racing trains on my bicycle for sport! The pictures you see are of little two person railroad service cars, I think they are nick named putt-putts. As I was bicycling I bumped into a group of 20 or so on the railroad. A group of people restore them as a hobby. I happen to be riding in the same direction and noticed that if I ground my gears I could actually keep up with them!

Then I thought the game was ON! Being a messenger I knew most of the side streets and where the railroad lines go, I started racing them, me riding the streets and meeting and waving to the group as it passed each railroad crossing. Then I pummeled the pedals of my bicycle Boba to the next crossing down the line. Doing some bicycle messenger work I rarely ride aggressive, but I really let loose for fun sake cutting corners and hopping curbs… I can honestly say I got a tiny bit of air bouncing the bicycle around and used all gears including the very insane top gear. On a flat I can get that cargo bike doing about 17 miles an hour or so for a bit, my max on a downhill is about 34. I’m not certain when the last time was I rode that hard.

So over the next 6 miles or so I met them at about 5 railroad crossings all the way from one side of the city to the other! Once the group saw what I was doing as we ran parallel in some areas they whooped and cheered me on. After that I knew the next crossing was a town away and up a rather long hill so I had to wave goodbye for good. However I can now say I am faster than a locomotive, actually several! OK, not real locomotives… but some small putt putts anyways!

After the “race” I had really pushed my physical limits. I was working at nearly top aerobic level for a good while and a few times crossed to the burn of anaerobic. I bonked my glucose level in my muscles and was on total empty. Moreover I had involuntary muscle spasms twitching and shaking for a good time after. I popped into a convience store for a majorly needed snack and had to hold my cup of soda with both hands so I wouldn’t drop it. It was a hoot… a loss of a bit of dexterity meant I struggled putting the cover on and trying to unwrap a sandwich from the plastic was an awkward endeavor for sure. Where I sat on the curb I literally drenched with sweat. I’m thinking in the future I might carry a couple packets of honey on my bike.

At Foolsfitness we chase cars and trains too, but like dogs wonder what to do with them after we catch ‘em! - Alan

Proud to Be an Idiot!

Last winter I took a shot of this guy snow blowing. There had been so much snow he didn’t seem to have anywhere to put it… I couldn’t help but think how bizarre it looked to snow blow it all of ½ foot away into a 20 foot tall snow bank! I didn’t use the word “idiot”, but I couldn’t help but laugh and take the picture at what looked like a really futile battle.

This last week we’ve had wonderful bicycle riding weather and I’ve only really stopped because I couldn’t peddle any more… If you ride your bicycle for any distance at all you are very likely to get screamed at by someone in a passing car. This last week I put on one of my best weeks in the saddle with over 60 miles in seven days and actually over 130 miles for the month of May, thus I was bound to get screamed at sometime.

I’m on my cargo bicycle at a stoplight next to a car waiting for green and someone turning screamed, “Get out of the road IDIOT!” To some of you folks this might seem like a horrible thing to happen. However while I did get out of the road it was because I was laughing so hard I almost fell of my bicycle. Why was it so funny to be called an idiot some of you might ask? Most all the time the usual scream of something like “get out of the road” is directly tied to some rude comment about my weight with it. Now, I’m so proud that I’m just another idiot without the vivid and creative weight descriptor!!!

An official weigh in (I call it official because someone besides me witnessed it) hit the scales Sunday at 305! That’s another 5 pounds down since last post or about 7 in the last two weeks. Eyeing the 200’s club again!!! Soon… very soon! I’m an official person again because I no longer max out my digital home scale with the dreaded O.L. but have a number. My scale officially acknowledges I’m human!!!

There is lots’ of positives but a rather large negative. But I think part of the reason for upping my riding is that the relative I mentioned in a post before passed away and I’ve been riding to clear out my mind. I didn’t get to see him in person but I did get a message to him via another relative that was looking over him at the hospital that I was thinking and praying for him. I just couldn’t go remembering what cancer had done to the other relative. I don’t think I will regret it even though I’m sad I couldn’t see him one last time, because I did what I could. His funeral is this week. I will go to that. No funeral is “fun” or “easy” but I expect it will be very hard. He was only 53.

At Foolsfitness we urge you to try to live life more fully each day, because not many of us have forever here.- Alan

Encounter with a 10 Foot Tall Polar Bear!

Last weekend I wondered around a house built in 1625, went to a wedding, and saw Wild Bill Cody’s signature as well as a four legged baby chicken (it was a genetic mutation) and a 10 foot tall polar bear. I even ended up at a folk concert in the middle of the weekend. Oh yeah, there was also the part where I lost another two pounds since last week!!! About 310 right now. I got to see this very nice museum that had curios of all kinds of odd stuff. I literally walked through the jaw of a sperm whale. I know I’ve gotten a bit smaller but gee, seeing a polar bear that the tip of my head barely makes it to his arm pit and seeing that whale jaw, let’s just say a person would be like an M+M size in our mouths… if that! It makes me feel down right tiny!

This weekend was the first real daring eating on the go I’ve tried. Running around in another state and all about I just tried to keep a rule of moderation. What do runners eat anyways? Eating out I instantly divided the food in half to a takeout container before digging in, and avoided the cake at the wedding. I still don’t feel comfortable guestimating calories at all. All in all I think I was up a few calories over the weekend but not a ton.

I’ve gotten more adventurous with this developing body with somewhat unlimited energy! Maybe a bit intoxicated by the new things I can do almost like a little kid, “Look what I can do!” bouncing around like Winnie the Pooh's pal Tigger... It was a riot to dig out old dress clothes for the wedding I went to. I put on the pants and could have easily tucked in a couple of small lap dogs in with what’s left of my lap! After belting up I had to carefully bunch up the pants to make them look pleated. Perhaps by next year they will look like MC Hammer pants on me?! People are starting to comment now, sometimes it’s kind of odd because it should be a cool compliment but I feel really awkward sometimes.

It’s not all roses though I do have many blessings. Some of the darker side of the weekend is I have a relative that is among the closest blood relations I have left and he is dying of cancer. I tried to go visit him in the hospital but just couldn’t make myself go as I drove by. He has cancer similar to another family member that passed a few years ago that I still have trouble with. It’s really hard to wrap my mind around it. Another thing is with all the travel over the weekend and being spent emotionally I’ve not officially exercised in a few days. Hopefully tonight I can get in a volleyball game, the last of the season.

At Foolsfitness we love ten foot tall polar bears and four legged baby chickens!- Alan

Dropping Pounds... and Comments?

I got my “official” weigh in for the last two weeks… 5 pound drop. I was getting greedy for a while with my 4 pound drops per week for the last couple of weeks and wanted 8 but it’s nothing to sneeze at. Things are moving in the right direction, about ½ of my winter weight has been shed. I’ve actually started wearing a few XL shirts in public as well as my “skinny” shorts.

Has anyone lost comment posts? I think Blogger had a shut down last week and I’ve lost a couple of comments. Please note folks I did not delete you! In fact I really live for comments. I don’t see them in the spam and don’t know how they got deleted… Anyways, sorry but I didn’t do it and don’t forget that comments charge me up and keep me going!

So yesterday was the second to last Volleyball night for the league, next Tuesday is the finish for the season. The games were intense and I was sopping wet with perspiration at the end. My team ended the night loosing more games than winning. However, I had the highest scoring game I’ve ever played in… in the rules a team needs to win by two points. Normal games go to 15, but in this one game we couldn’t get two points before loosing the ball and the other team was the same. That final score was 21-23! We made the other teams earn those wins for sure. A couple of the other games were fought up a couple of points or only lost by two or three. Those games I don’t mind. Its no fun when one team runs over another like 15 to 8.

Another question to fellow bloggers… I’ve recently gotten a couple of requests to guest blog, I’ve blogged as a guest a couple of times but I guess I’m nervous when someone writes requesting to blog on my own site. I’m uncomfortable “endorsing”, I’ve tried to keep this walk away from the fad diets, tricks, and quick fixes and such. I’m not saying people asking to guest on my blog are any of those but I just get nervous about it. I even struggle with sharing links to resources at times. I honestly don’t want to lead people astray.

At Foolsfitness Ice cream is a food group- Alan

Thinking Small

I’ve been trying to set lots of “mini” goals on my way to a more fit and healthier me. One of those goals is to go 50 miles a month during the fair weather months on my bicycle. On the bicycle today I *HAD* to stop by the library to send off this quick post… Month of May, gee in only 11 days I’m actually over my 50 miles for this month!!! I had a free day today and I just ended up riding for miles and miles. I think like 14 miles or so, the highest single day number of this year so far.

Thinking small can add up for sure… a few miles here and there start turning over the odometer miles. A goal of keeping the calories under my 2000 mark and a little goal of just getting out and doing 3 miles 4 times a week, string a few of those days together and suddenly little things are adding up!

I played Volleyball last night, but my finger is still pretty sore and not completely mobile from last the week before’s injury. Still, I’m glad I played… there were some intense and seriously fun games. My normal serve was impossible due to whacking that finger on the ball, so I improvised… some of my serves were so weird aimed and off speed that people had trouble adapting to them. My serves suffered for sure but I seem to adapt by trying to play a bit more tactically. I couldn’t spike but I’d focus on tapping the ball to odd spots.

I’ve been trying to not be so psycho with the scale, attempting to curb my weight checks to once every two weeks. I’m itching to see what it’s going to be on Saturday. I haven’t eaten perfectly but pretty close and I’ve been getting a good amount of movement in. I know clothes are fitting differently. Last night I almost lost my shorts in attempting to jump up for a block on the net!!! Time out! I need to redo my belt!

What small goals are you setting for yourself?

I May Need Adult Supervision?

Being more mindful of what I am eating, including tracking everything has given me an opportunity to reflect. In the last two days I’ve eaten oddly. One days total complete food intake list was two scoops of Sheppard’s pie, ¾ lb of turkey burger, and some yam fries with mustard. In the next day a 57 percent of my calories were “invested” in ice cream and the day after 30% in chips!!!

I personally have a no rules policy when it comes to banning foods. I guess it makes sense if you’re diabetic to watch your sugar or someone with peanut allergies really shouldn’t have a PB + J sandwich… but I’ve found banning foods just makes me want the “forbidden fruit” more. However, I am increasing efforts to obtain some nutrients beyond those found in Doritos and Funny Bones. Right now I’m trying to keep it fairly simple asking myself if I’ve had something from the major groups meat/protein, bread/starch carbs, milk/cheese, veggie, fruit, and the junk food group. I’m doing well with the last one.

I am the type of guy who runs with scissors and thinks the 60’s Batman theme song makes the best ringtone for your phone. Maybe some people are just wired differently, think differently, and need general adult supervision. Overweight people have got to be wired differently. Somehow it makes sense that a pizza is a serving to people like us. I’m not saying we are in any way lemmings that need to be herded for our own good and general protection… I’m just saying maybe we need to relook at some of the first impulses that cross our mind before acting on them.

I’m thankful I’m keeping a food journal. It’s a reflection I look at then ask myself things like well if a big cookie is an OK breakfast is it ok to just buy a package of cookies for the day and skip veggies altogether? Hey, its seems to work for Cookie Monster…

I’ve gone to three places in search for my funny bone cupcakes, this time for breakfast and after giving up looking for them I figured since it was brunch time I’d find something else. I noticed a sign up at Cumby’s for wraps. I picked up the southwestern style turkey wrap and thought overall this is better nutritional choice than some of my standards. For 520 calories you get zero sugar and 36 grams of protein. Moreover it’s a serving of a whole package (one wrap is cut in half) so if you ate a half wrap it would be a manageable snack at 255 calories. I think my main complaint was that the sodium is pretty high at 1040MG! Also beware if you use one of those sauce packets, some of them are like having heavy salad dressing and lots of it. It makes me tempted to start making my own wraps as I know I could keep a better eye on the sodium.

AN UPDATE: someone just replied to my blog (Rachel) about the hospital food… she says the hospital she knows *Does* fry their stuff and some of their food seems to rival old high school café type menus. I guess it shows you got to ask and be constantly aware, I would have thought hospital food would have been of the same level everywhere but no. I guess I have a blessing at my area. They did tell me they bake everything here but they do have some of those heavy soups and occasional foods I do tend to avoid… Thanks Rachel.

Another example of being constantly aware is the difference between the two wraps on sale at Cumby’s. My glance at the hummus one saw it was over 700 calories. I didn’t compare the nutrition after seeing that the general calories were higher than I had planned to spend on a sandwich at that time.

At Foolsfitness we occasionally treat ourselves to an apple, but usually try to wash the taste out of our mouth with chips after! - Alan