Amazing to look back at this

Bust my gut project

195 lbs when I started.

This morning I weighed in at 178 lbs.

17 lbs less--nearly 10%.

Yes, it's been a long time and a lot of frustration but it's paying off and I feel good. I had ambitious goals then and didn't achieve them but I kept pushing and tweaking my routine.

Notable is that is was harder than I thought. I recall when I was younger, this was easy and everyone reads all these plans on how easy it is to lose pounds a week. It's not that easy once we get older. This is the most important thing I have learned based on my lifestyle.

The 10 pound in ten days plan is for suckers sending money to temporarily dehydrate themselves while making a salesperson rich.

The two pound a week plan is for dreamers or extreme and lucky people.

The one pound a month plan is for real people devoted to it.

Like I said, you also need to realize if you have lost weight successfully in the past, it's not that easy now--you need to up your game now that you are older. It's harder. You are older and slower and the hill is steeper and longer. Sorry for the bad news, but you cannot live in fantasyland. Reality is painful and unavoidable.

I seemed to be at 184 lbs for the last six months but suddenly had a breakthrough. Part was keeping my bike mileage at 100+ miles a week but other things were making unsweetened iced tea at work and keeping moving when I was not riding. They key I found was keeping happy...for many people food is happiness under stress and if you can find a zero calorie substitute, you win.

What is really important here is that not only have I lost the mass, I have increased my endurance and fitness to achieve a long term goal or riding the white rim in a day without killing myself. Long term goals are very effective and important.

I still have a goal of 170 lbs and I plan to achieve it by August.

White rim is in October.

Sorry Sandisk

I love my 8GB sansa and was excited about the new 32 GB Sansa View for more expandable storage.

Adventures of Lidarman: What I have been waiting for.

But I did some research and found that there is no way to change the battery. Sad. Other players like the Zen are less expensive and yes, you can change the battery. I use mine every day and wind up killing the battery in about a year. I have changed the battery in my iriver and feel close to needing to change it on my Sansa 8GB.

Thus, I have changed my opinion on Sandisk so much, I am looking at other players and I sold my 100 shares of stock (SNDK--luckily I sold a while back and didn't lose my azz but now it's so cheap maybe I will buy it back :P ).

Of course this is a moot point if I wind up buying a new player before I kill the battery every time. Most people probably do this.

I still like your cheapo and reliable compact flash cards though....the ones I use for all my photos.

Bike Week Begins in Boulder

To kick it off, the cruiser swap was happening at the Farmers Market on Saturday.



It was so exciting to see all the wonderful bikes.



A couple of were adopted by this household. Here is one of them.



Wednesday is Bike to Work day with breakfast stations everywhere. For more information go here. Some call it the "Tour de Breakfast." whereas we hit as many as possible on the way to work. One of my favorites is the Premier Credit Union at 55th and Arapahoe, which has great breakfast burritos. Rumor has it that there is an excellent one (at least it was last year) on Gunpark Drive in Gunbarrel.

Owls

There is a family of great horned owls at Twin Lakes, Boulder, CO. An owl has been seen at twin lakes in the past, but recently there is a nesting owl, along with it's apparent mate--with babies as well.

One of the owls caught here.




The other proud parent



One of the babies



The other one

Mileage summary for the week

Total miles (mostly offroad): 135
Longest ride was Home to Heil and back via dirtroads: 37.5 miles.