Almost not cold.

(not my picture, but it looks nice)

I check weather.com obsessively, because when you live in a place this cold and bleak, it helps to know that there is a ray of hope ten days or less away. While this winter has been relatively mild, it's still much colder than average, it barely broke 30 today and the high for this time of year should be more like 39. There is 40-degree weather on the horizon, but it seems like every time I check, that day just keeps getting pushed farther and farther back. Still, next week it will be in the mid-to-upper thirties every day, so there's that.

I've been seriously slacking off on the weight training. And exercise in general, because of the weather. I've only ridden twice this week, and I haven't done any other workouts. Still, I'm controlling what I eat pretty well, so my weight is down a little. I need to get in a good, long ride tomorrow though. Or possibly play basketball for a couple hours. Or do a few thousand jumping jacks.


Weight: 201.4
BFP: 20.6
Activity: Bike 16 miles, weights

Hello Moderate Comfort Level!

This has been an amazingly mild winter compared to last year, at least for us in the Northwest/East Mid/NorthWest region, or whatever we are. It seems to me we are too far north to be in the midwest, and we aren't east or west, so I am going to officially call where I live the "Mid-North," or alternately the "Worst Coast." Some people call the region the "Third Coast," but that implies an actual coastline, and all we get is some fake beaches, no waves and concrete partitions. Still, it could be worse. I could live in Nebraska.

I'm pretty sure the weather is going to break next week. Starting next Monday, it's going to warm up and I'm going to start running and being generally more vigorous outside. It will actually be in the high thirties next week! SoCal eat your heart out! I ride about 16 miles most days, which according to some calorie calculator I looked at means I burn about 900 calories each day that I ride. So that's good. If I run for just 15 minutes, I burn about 350 calories or so, but i would rather ride for an hour or two, as every minute I run seems like an hour. I need to alternate my workout though, or I'll just get in a rut.

Hmm. I was going to spice up this post with pictures and links and whatnot, but I can't seem to copy and paste anything, and I'm sure not going to type out URLs. I mean, seriously.


Weight: 202.4
BFP: 21.4
Activity: Bike 16 miles, weights

We're not the worst?

So, according to this thing, Chicago is the 10th most miserable city in the US to live in. The only reasons they cite though, are long commute times and high sales tax, pretty minor complaints when contrasted against places like Flint, Michigan where the city is buying up homes just to raze them in an attempt to make the city more sustainable, or No. 1 Cleveland, where the river catches on fire more frequently than one would expect a river to.

I don't mind at all living here. My commute is about 35 minutes whether I ride or take the train, and the sales tax isn't really a big deal when you consider that tax on groceries is only 2.25%, and most other stuff we just get on the internet anyway. The only complaint I have is the weather, really. And it was like, 40 degrees today! Amazing! The Comfort Index actually jumped into the "Moderate" range for a few hours.

Life is good.

Weight: 203.2

BFP: 21.2

Activity: Bike 16 miles

I saw "Avatar" last night, making me officially the last one in the country to see it (who actually wanted to.) Very impressive visuals, but almost too much to take in. And the story was pretty weak, it was basically a really cool-looking version of Pocahontas, with tails. And I couldn't help feeling a sense of deja vu when a certain extremely large object was teetering precipitously. James Cameron sure loves big stuff. Still, it was fun, especially hearing Sam Worthington's terrible American accent. You can take the Aussie out of Oz... Apparently he is going to be in every single movie coming out for the next ten years, including Clash of the Titans and the next James Bond.

Anyway. It's pleasantly non-freezing today. The Weather Channel is still trying to convince me that it's uncomfortable workout weather outside, but 32 degrees in February is not too shabby. Another five degrees warmer and it would even hit the average, although according to the 10-day, next Friday will be about 10 degrees below the average for this time of year.

Brrr.


Weight: 202.4
BFP: 21.6
Activity- Bike 16 miles, weights

How to dress like a Chicagoan

I must be on my way to becoming a native, because the weather this morning felt nice. According to Weather.com, it was 28, felt like 17 and there was a slight chance of flurries. It snowed about a quarter inch last night, but most of it had blown away. Weather.com also has a "fitness forecast," presumably telling you how much you'll suffer should you decide to exercise outdoors. Today's forecast was a "uncomfortable," out of a possible uncomfortable, moderate or comfortable rating. It's all about how you dress though. I wasn't uncomfortable at all this morning on my ride to work.

This morning I wore:

Lower half-
Bike-type shorts under tights, leg warmers and nylon 3/4 shpants, bike shoes with cotton socks and neoprene shoe covers.-
Upper half-
Jersey-type T-shirt, arm warmers under softshell jacket, fleece gloves, fleece neck gaiter, runner's beanie, helmet with vents taped over.

It looks like it might be a couple degrees warmer when I ride home, but not worth changing any part of my outfit. If it warmed up significantly, I could ditch the arm or leg warmers and be comfortable.

And yes, I do wear leg warmers and tights. And I'm ok with that.

Weight: 205.2
BFP: 21.8
Activity- Bike 16 miles, weights.

Backsliding

Despite my exercise on Saturday, I weighed in about a half-pound more this morning, which is probably nothing, but negative progress is not good. I had a couple of cookies last night, but nothing else terrible. Still, I'm not going to obsess over the food that I eat, or at least I'm not going to write about obsessing over food, because that would be dumb.

So I'm going to focus on what I'm doing to lose weight, instead of not doing. Today, I didn't ride because I got up late and it was too cold and a dozen other crappy excuses. To avoid a repeat, tonight I need to get to bed by 10, up by 6 and out the door by 7. It will be about 24 with flurries, but I don't think anything's going to stick, and if it does I can always take the bus home. The only issue I've been having lately with the cold is my face freezing, which I can somewhat alleviate by wearing glasses and my neck gaiter.


Weight: 205.2
BFP: 22.3
Activity- Walk 1 mile, weights or ball workout.

It's on like Diddy Kong

So today is the first day of the 20 pound challenge between my brother and myself. The first one to lose 20 wins movie tickets, or some other prize to be determined.

So let's crunch some numbers. Initially, my goal was to reach 185 and 11 percent body fat. I guessed I would have to lose about 20 pounds of fat to do that. However, my calculations were a bit off. Actually, as long as I get to 185 or 11 percent, I will be happy with either.

But that's not my goal, and that doesn't work for the challenge. Currently, I weigh a little under 205 and my body fat is hovering a little under 22 percent. That means I'm carrying about 45 pounds of fat. Yuck. If I lose 20 pounds of fat, I will weigh 185, however that means my body fat percentage will be about 13.5. Which would be great, but still short of my goal.

So, to actually reach my intended goal of 185 of 11 percent, I will have to lose about 25 pounds of body fat and gain 5 pounds of muscle. In four months. I can do it.

First though, I'll concentrate on losing 20 pounds. I have a secret weapon too. I haven't cut my hair in about 4 months, so I'm pretty sure I have about five pounds of hair. Boom. Six bucks and it's gone. Fifteen pounds to go.

Well, maybe not.

In related news, it was sunny and relatively warm today, although still about five degrees below average, so I got in a nice twenty mile bike ride. Thanks City of Chicago for plowing the lakefront path! Maybe I won't be such a wuss this coming week and brave the sub 20 degree weather in the morning and ride to work.

Or, maybe not.

Weight: 204.8

BFP: 22.0

Activity- 20 mile ride, weights.

Snow day

When my wife was growing up, a few inches of snow meant that work and school was closed down. Not so much for me, since I only lived a block away from my school. And here in Chicago, the snow doesn't seem to to hinder anything either, except my desire to be outside. We got about a foot of snow on Monday and Tuesday, and it hasn't been warm enough for any of it to melt, so it just sort of smooshes around like dirty, white sand.


That said, it also hasn't been really cold enough to prevent me from going out and running. I doubt the bike path is clear, but I will check it today and see if a ride tomorrow is feasible. Saturday morning will be very cold, but I might be able to get a ride in the early afternoon, as it will be 26-ish and sunny.



Weight: 204.4
BFP: 21.7%
Activity- Walk 2 miles, yoga.

Cupcakes

Today is my wife's birthday, also my son's 8 month birthday, which mean I now have exactly four months to achieve my goal. It also means this:




This is a reasonable facsimile of the cupcake I will be buying for her in place of a cake. While a cupcake may seem stingy, it is actually all she wants, and will probably cost me like 4 bucks. I will not be eating a similar cupcake. I may, however, treat myself to some ShotBloks this weekend, especially if I go for a long run, or ride, or whatever the weather permits.



Mmm, a "semi-solid, easily chewable source of carbohydrates" Yummy. actually, ShotBloks are very tasty, and I have to ration myself or I will eat the whole package in a few seconds.


Weight: 204.6
BFP: 21.6
Activity- Walk approx. 2miles, weights

Here we go...

Hi. My name is Michael, for anybody who stumbles upon this by accident. How are you? Good to hear. And the young'uns? Awesome. Anyway, I'm starting this blog to keep a daily record of my weight loss and fitness.

As of "press time" I weigh 207 lbs and my body fat percentage is about 22. This means I am carrying roughly 45 pounds of fat my body, a number I hope to cut in half over the coming months. My goal is to reach 185 lbs and 11% body fat by the time my son turns one in June. I have to lose less than two pounds per week to do it. Sounds easy, right? Well, maybe not so much. I am 6'2", and have weighed roughly the same for the last 12 or 13 years, give or take. I have tried and failed to lose weight multiple times, but inevitably fail due to my own lack of motivation.

So how is this time any different? Well, I'm changing my diet, for one. I always had the misconception that I could eat whatever I wanted to, as long as I exercised hard enough to burn it off. This is patently untrue, especially since I never got around to burning it off in the first place. I'm not making any radical changes, just eating healthier in general, more vegetables and cutting out any processed foods, especially stuff with any trans fats or processed sugars. I am also more committed to exercising, even though it's the middle of winter in Chicago and opportunities for exercise are limited.

I will also be working out with weights, boosting my muscle mass and theoretical burning fat, killing two birds with one stone. I don't expect or want to bulk up, but I do need to seriously tone some areas. (Do guys tone?)

So every single day until June 11th, barring unforeseen lack of Internet access, I will update this with my current weight and description of the day's physical activity. Also possible witticisms and anecdotes, if I feel like it.

Weight: 207
BFP: 22%
Physical Activity: Walking approx. 1 mile. Ball workout tonight.