Help losing 20 lbs

[Badonkadonk]

It's pretty simple; typical breakfast is fresh fruit (cantelope, strawberries, blueberries), 2 eggs, 2 pcs toast, black tea...mid morning snack, banana bread and tea....lunch, 2 rice cakes w/ peanut butter, cottage cheese or string cheese, couple of dried apricots and water....afternoon snack, handful of nuts and a couple of apricots or small box of raisins before workout....dinner is either a small salad or a bowl of consume and crackers...if I'm still hungry I might get into some Graham crackers before bed. I drink only water or tea, no fruit juices, milk or soda ( well sometimes I'll have a coke or dr pepper on a long ride)....but if we're at a function or party I'll eat whatever is around, but i might skip breakfast the next day..... That's it!

ok, i'm a little confused now. can you edit this so that we can understand a) how much beer, pretzels, wine, cookies, ice cream, etc. is around the margins and b) what you habitually unconsciously snack on while watching prime time tv with your spouse? or have i found my problem?

[Tom Officer]

ok, i'm a little confused now. can you edit this so that we can understand a) how much beer, pretzels, wine, cookies, ice cream, etc. is around the margins and b) what you habitually unconsciously snack on while watching prime time tv with your spouse? or have i found my problem?

I like your sense of humor!

I know this will sound a little crazy, but my spouse and I haven't had any alcohol for ourselves or in our house for 3 years now, nothing to do with weight loss. Really that is just our way of helping a loved one who has struggled with addiction problems and our way of providing a safe haven for them. We gave up cable tv a few years back as well, so no snacking while American Idol is on or whatever it is that ATMO watches these days. But we don't have any strict diet rules, if the kids come over for dinner we'll have pizza. Last weekend we were up in NH celebrating my parent's 60th anniversary. I did eat a ton, but got in 11 hrs of riding in 2 days. Saturday night ate a 5 course meal, including cake and truffles, but skipped breakfast Sunday morning and just had tea for the drive home. The biggest advantage I have is that I am motivated to lose the weight and race for another year or two. As good as it feels to get fit and skinny, I'm not sure I could do it without that motivation to go and kick some butt on the road next year.

Did you find the problem yet?

[e-RICHIE]

We gave up cable tv a few years back as well, so no snacking while American Idol is on or whatever it is that ATMO watches these days.

i don't snack, eat between meals, eat while standing, or eat anything after 8pm atmo.

[Tom Officer]

i don't snack, eat between meals, eat while standing, or eat anything after 8pm atmo.

Richie, all ya gotta do is trade 6 hrs a week of web time for on the bike time

[Badonkadonk]

I
Did you find the problem yet?

i'm sitting in a suit at a conference in nyc probably an hour from my bike and because a)it would be rude and b) i dont want to be a laughingstock, instead of falling asleep i ate an oatmeal cookie an hour ago amd got 30 mins of wakefulness in return, now i feel groggy again. awesome. i'm guessing that once again tonight my toddler will wake me up at 530, and i will spend the day tired.

i think i'm zeroing in on the problem

[wasfast]

The biggest advantage I have is that I am motivated to lose the weight and race for another year or two. As good as it feels to get fit and skinny, I'm not sure I could do it without that motivation to go and kick some butt on the road next year.

Thanks for the diet insight. I did wonder some why you were continuing on a rather steep weight loss this time of the year unless you were doing cyclocross. I agree on the comment you made about not gaining 10 lbs in the winter just because it's the "off season". I gain weight easily and without having a head start in Nov-Dec, I'm just looking a more work the first of the year. There's discussion that you can't maintain race weight levels since you're not doing the same amount of work and that your body will automatically adjust. That's not the same as doing an Ulrich in the late fall/winter.

[Shoogs]

175.9

[joosttx]

172.0 / 18.6% broke 19% floor

[Tom Officer]

142.2 / 6.5

Just a thought here, as I'm detecting a whiff of "He's crazy, therefore it doesn't make sense for me to try to lose weight". I first looked at this thread like the rest of you, curious about losing 20 lbs, but really hadn't focused on it or done anything about it. Now here we are, about 2 months later and I've dropped 15 lbs, going from 157 to 142 and this thread had almost 11,000 views. If you look at it from the standpoint of 2 lbs per week it doesn't sound very extreme does it? Yet now that it's 15 lbs I can hear some of you guys making excuses, "He's a little nuts", "He's got some super motivation", "He doesn't have young kids around"….you get the point, but remember the only thing going on here is free will. It was my choice not to eat the cookies and ice cream, no big deal for 1 week to the rest of you, but now that it's been 2 months all of a sudden it's a little extreme. Why? The mind is sometimes the most difficult thing to conquer in any endeavor, the choice of losing weight is no different than the choice we make when training. When I'm tired and going hard up a hill, it's my choice to sprint as hard as I can over the top or just ease it over. The consequences of that decision are mine as well; ie get stronger and win the next race or remain the same. It's never an easy thing to make those choices, but having a realistic view of what's going on when faced with the choice helps enormously. So don't get caught up with the excuses.

[Badonkadonk]

last night instead of wallowing in pudgy self indulgence i went out to darrenct's men's tennis clinic. didn't weigh myself this am, but no snacking and 70 mins of running around instead has to be a ~1lb swing i figure. tom is onto something with the whole "make choices" thing i think

[wbarocsi]

We went to the local Chinese/Japanese/American Buffet last night. It was a quite stressful day at work, and I skipped my afternoon snack. The snack helps to keep my dinner reasonable.
This series of events led to some over-eating. I made generally good choices, had plenty of vegetables, and no meat or cheese, but my calorie consumption was about 1500, compared to the 800 or so that it should have been. I increased my time on the trainer from the half hour scheduled to 90 minutes, which will help with most of the extra calories. My plan is to keep calories light for breakfast and lunch today. This should get things back on track calorie wise. Thanks for the support folks.

Wade Barocsi
166.4

[Tom Officer]

141.6 / 6.5

[DCT]

141.6 / 6.5

should i bring over my favorite triple layer chocolate cake to enjoy after saturdays ride?










*snicker*

[wbarocsi]

Had a fairly low calorie day, which bumped me ahead of schedule. I'm rather embarrassed to say this , but I've lost 50 lbs! Maybe 15, or a bit less to go to get to racing weight.
I bought a pair of size 32 dress pants for work, and they are almost loose. I haven't been in a 30 waist since college. I guess I've accomplished "the easy part", now I've got to
maintain this new healthy lifestyle, and keep the weight from coming back.


Wade Barocsi
163.2

[Tom Officer]

should i bring over my favorite triple layer chocolate cake to enjoy after saturdays ride?










*snicker*

Dude, I'm 10 lbs lighter than the last time we rode….you'll still be going up Great Hill and I'll be back at the ranch eating the cake!

ps: don't they do early morning lessons in Greenwich? Oh wait I forgot the day doesn't start until after 10 am down there.

[e-RICHIE]

august 2 -

157.6 / 11.8

october 13 -

141.6 / 6.5

nice work atmo. NICE!

[Tom Officer]

august 2 -

october 13 -

nice work atmo. NICE!

I know you're watching and it keeps me on track! Thanks

[MarkC]

134.9 / 8.0


Wade - nice job mate!

[Tom Officer]

141 / 7.2

[Tom]

I gotta get a new scale. You started me on data collecting. Same time of day, same conditions (morning before I shower, some days having ridden, some not) and I have a 6 pound range over the course of the first week. 165.6 to 171.6, not enough data to detect clustering yet. No relationship to whether I rode or not. What's frustrating is the scale will read 1-2 pounds different if I step off, reset it and step back on. It also says I'm lighter if I'm holding something heavy. I think I figured out how to get it to read as high as I can by where I put pressure on it but I gotta get a new scale. It's not motivating if you think the scale is just making it up. This morning no matter what I did it decided I was 171.0... I got off, reset it, picked up a gallon jug full of water, got on, still 171.0. Piece of junk.