Bicycles in the Dark

Just the other day I was riding home from an evening event. It was about 8:45 p.m. and while the sun had set, the night sky wasn't quite entirely dark. The day had been quite hot and I was looking forward to the relief of riding after the sun had gone down, if for no other reason than to cool off and actually enjoy being outdoors. Have we already hit the hot summer temperatures? {sigh} For a brief moment, I panicked about not having lights in my bag, but then remembered I had thrown them in a few days prior should they be needed. I strapped the headlight and taillight on and went on my way. About a quarter of a mile into riding I realized I don't do a lot of night time riding in the summer months. I suppose the same is true for most of us since the sun doesn't set until quite late in the day.

*Image source here

Although I was certainly enjoying the ride, I had a brief moment of concern as I started thinking about all the obstacles I knew were in the bike lanes on my path home. I ride the same path several times a week, but it's always during daylight hours (when I can see the debris and obstacles in my path). I thought to myself that I should hurry while there was still a bit of light to be able to see the road.  But, just as this thought entered my mind, I saw the flashing lights of the train tracks in front of me, and the cross arms coming down to block the road. Instantly, I knew it would be dark-dark by the time I reached the debris-spotted portion of the bike lane.

I made it home in one piece, safe and sound without incident, but it did make me think about folks who regularly ride in the dark (both the morning and evening hours).  Do you ever worry about hitting something you simply don't see in the dark? Have you ever struck anything that caused you to wobble or fall? While potential debris isn't going to keep me from riding, there is a very small part of me that does wonder what would happen if I hit the wrong spot. I try to go slower during these hours, but I'm not sure slowing would necessarily prevent a run-in with an unseen pothole or giant boulder in the path. The biggest thing I've hit has been a decent-sized rock, and that almost caused a tip (of course I'm incredibly klutzy as it is, so I'm probably not the best judge of such things). I'd love to hear your experiences or how you have dealt with potential unseen road debris.

Save Me From Myself: The Public Bikes Golden Gate Bridge C7

For the love of pete, someone tell me I don't need another bike! I have been drooling over Public's Golden Gate Bridge version of the C7. Apparently, they are almost sold out, so perhaps if I bring it to the attention of others, you all will rush out and buy them up? Please. I seriously don't need another bike.

*Image from Public Bikes
Golden Gate Bridge C7

The bike itself is the same model as the other C7's at least from what I can tell, however, they did a limited number of these to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities, and it's almost as though I was meant to see this {or so I will explain to Sam when yet another bike shows up in the bike storage}. The color seems a bit off in the photo, but Public states that it actually changes from oranges to reds, just like the Golden Gate Bridge. Pretty amazingly cool.

If you'd like to save me from myself, you can read more about the bike here and a bit more here. Unfortunately, its biggest downfall is that it doesn't have a coordinating rack available, which means one would have to pick a color that would complement it well, or stick with a standard silver or black rack, which honestly, could be nice. Takers? Anyone... anyone.

Pausing to Enjoy Accomplishments

As of this morning, I have lost a total of 28 pounds. Not too shabby, considering that for a month and a half of the last 11 weeks I fought with the same 3 pounds. I have a long, long way to go, but for once in my life, I want to stop and appreciate what I have accomplished instead of longing for something more or something different.

I had hoped by this point in the journey to have lost around 35-40 pounds, so one might think that I would be disappointed. On some level I suppose that is true, but I am also incredibly proud of myself for sticking to something, even when the weight loss wasn't happening. I am encouraged that I have been able to stick to "2-a-day" kickboxing workouts twice a week, and still continue to participate in other activities throughout the week as well. I have adjusted when needed, instead of being hard-headed. Honestly, I think I am pretty awesome.

In a few days, I will have been at this for three months. It's a very short amount of time in the grand scheme of life, but I think the short journey thus far is teaching me lessons every single day. I am grateful for the strong body developing under all the layers, and am looking forward to the successes ahead.

Bicycling & Greetings

I'm not well-known for being a mary sunshine, particularly in the early morning hours. I like to warm my way into the day, and as Sam will attest, when I get up in the morning, even if it's later in the day, I tend to slowly move into things. That said, I try not to inflict my inability to immediately jump into the day on others, and as I pass people on my bike who are walking or riding their bicycles, I say good morning as I ride by, send out a quick hello, or offer a little nod in their direction. It could be that I was brought up in a small-ish city and was taught that it is impolite not to greet people, or maybe it's just the sheer glee of riding a bicycle, but any way around it, I find myself doing this 99% of the time. I will admit that the other 1% of the time I am spaced out in my own little world and sometimes simply am unaware of people around me.

This habit has now become a small game for me when riding, particularly on multi-use trails where one would think that nearly everyone there is either 1) transporting themselves using a less congested path, 2) exercising and releasing endorphins, or 3) letting off some steam by skating, walking the dog, riding, etc. I have noticed that about 75% of the time, I receive absolutely no response from a person when I greet them. No nod, no grunt, no "good morning" in reply. I'm even factoring out those wearing headphones, as I understand they're not going to hear me. The lack of response is causing me to think that I am the crazy person and perhaps I shouldn't be greeting people at all. Knowing that I'm not a morning person, maybe I am going out of my way, particularly in the early hours, to greet people? It's not as though I'm trying to stop them and carry on a 30 minute conversation (I do have places to go - usually), but I often get looks that seem to relay a message that I should absolutely not be greeting the individual.


The fact that the person looks at me causes me to believe that it's not that they are "spaced out," or that they haven't heard me, but rather that they are making a conscious effort not to respond. I also understand that sometimes the workout is intense and perhaps the person is simply focused, but I don't think this is the case for the majority of people I'm passing. So, what do you think? Does it bother you when someone says hello as you cross paths? Am I crazy for greeting people as I go by, or is this just the reality I need to get used to? Feel free to leave your thoughts, or take the poll.

OMG - Is it Actually Working?

HOLY SHIT! <--{Please pardon the language}

I think this is actually working.

It's only been a couple of days since I started increasing my caloric intake and I have lost 3 pounds! I have spent the last six weeks struggling with three pounds, so to lose three pounds in two days. You've got to be kidding me? All I had to do was eat more?

Okay, okay. I don't want to get overly excited about something that I just started doing, but you have to imagine my utter glee to lose that amount of weight so quickly while actually eating more food. It seems so counterintuitive, but at the same time, it makes sense. My engine (body) was out of gas. How can I expect it to do all that it's been doing if I don't provide fuel? The answer... it doesn't do all that it's been doing... at least not without consequences, and that is why the engine was clinging desperately to the fuel - because it was afraid to give up the energy for fear that it wouldn't get any more.

Duh.

I am truly not stupid, but I honestly thought I was getting plenty of nourishment. I was wrong. I can admit that fact - I am wrong often - but it seems like such a simple fix and it took me far too long to figure it out. Again, I will wait out the full 2 weeks to see if this is actually what the problem has been, but I am already excited about the results and remain hopeful that if I just feed my body properly, it will cooperate with dropping the excess pounds.

Yippee!

June 1 - Checking in

This is the second "check in" for my self-motivated adventure to try to improve myself over five months. If you missed the post about setting goals and what I thought might turn into a contest, I'm basically trying to accomplish something for the first of each month until September 1. The problem has been that I am finding I need to re-evaluate the goals every time I check in because things change or I've already accomplished what I set out to do (I know, poor me... accomplishing my goals quicker than I thought).

Image source here

My goal for June 1 originally was to lose 10 lbs. Oddly, I did that pretty quickly (even before the May 1 check in), and instead, have struggled for the last six weeks with the same 3 lbs. I cannot even begin to express how annoying it is to be working out constantly (okay not constantly, but a good chunk of each day), eating properly, and not losing weight over that stretch of time. I have read about calorie consumption and working out, what truly is the right amount of caloric intake for me, BMR, RMR, BMI, waist to hip ratios, protein rich diets, vegetarian diets - pretty much you name it and I've become fairly well versed on the topic. Everyone seems to have an opinion - "Eat fewer calories, or you won't lose," or "Eat more calories. Your body is starving," or "Do more muscle training."

Speaking as someone who struggled with an undiagnosed eating disorder when I was young, I desperately don't want to eat too few calories. It becomes addictive and game like to try to see how few calories one can eat and still survive. I have done so in the course of my life a few times and I will lose (my body has no choice at some point to give in), but it reaches a point that I am no longer capable of functioning, and I stop seeing the drops.  Although I have never been thin, the disorder itself has nothing to do with that - it's more of an opportunity to have power over something. It's all very unhealthy, and while I would prefer not to carry extra pounds around, I would much rather be strong and lively, than thin and sick.

Currently, I am trying a kind of opposite method to see if it will work. I am actually going to eat more (as insane as it sounds) to try to lose. In some ways, it actually seems more logical to me. If we think of the body as an engine trying to power on, it needs fuel to keep running. If we keep feeding it, it works better and more efficiently - or so the theory goes. Since I have been working out quite a bit, and some fairly intense workouts (including kickboxing), I think I need to be eating more like an athlete... or so this round of my personal challenge will explore. I have added a minimum of 300 calories a day to my food intake, in the hopes that it will actually force my body to work in my favor. Time will tell if this is what is needed, and in the mean time, I'm just hoping it doesn't cause a drastic weight gain.

My July 1 goal was to have my jeans falling off of me so that I could buy new ones. I'm going to keep that as the goal, but honestly, I'm not sure it will be doable in one month. I won't discount it, but I also don't want to be disappointed if I cannot quite get there. I'm going to add on to the challenge attendance to my kickboxing class at least 6 times a week for the next month. I've been doing some 2-a-day's of that class and it's truly a butt-kicking experience, so I'd like to see what I can get in over a relatively short amount of time.

Anyone else who's journeying on their own path of goals, please feel free to add your accomplishments or  possible set backs. Hopefully, June is going to be a beautiful month, and I'm looking forward to it immensely.

What the Bleep?!

For the last 6 weeks, I have struggled with the same three pounds. Some days, I want to give up - like today. While I am thoroughly enjoying kickboxing and watching my muscles develop through that class, I don't understand what I am doing wrong. I have been eating between 1450-1700 calories a day and going to kickboxing between 3-6 times a week, in addition to riding my bike and going to the gym. There is no reason the weight shouldn't be falling off my body, or at least losing some small amount each week. 

I spent a good portion of yesterday investigating various reasons people don't lose weight. Things like thyroid issues and not properly measuring food were the largest search results, but the one thing that stood out in the search was the possibility of not eating enough food. Could I be eating too little? In a world of people who judge and want to tell overweight individuals they are eating too much, is it possible that I was starving myself? I don't feel hungry. Okay, I get hungry, but then I eat and that takes the hunger away. For the average joe, eating the amount of food I'm eating seems like more than enough, but I thought it might be worth a try to see if it's possible my engine just isn't getting enough fuel. I am burning around 7-8,000 calories a week. Perhaps the scale just needs to be balanced a bit more.

Over the next 1-2 weeks, I am going to test the theory that I need more food. In the back of my mind, I fear that I will suddenly start gaining dramatically, but I figure that in order to see if this is the issue, I have to give my body enough time to respond. I have accepted the possibility that I may gain, but I have to attempt to determine why such a large person isn't dropping at a more steady rate. If I find that I do gain, then I'll try the other direction and drop some calories off... and if that doesn't work {sigh}, well, let's just see where this goes and then I will worry about the potential "what if's" down the road.