evanroberts.com

So, here I am at my lowest weight so far: 173.9lbs. That’s frikkin’ awesome.

But then I decided to look up what my healthy weight should be based on my height. I am 5′7″, and while there really isn’t a “normal” that I should go for, most sites provided the same average weight range. This was one of the better charts:

So, according to the above, with a medium to large frame (hey, I have broad shoulders!), I should be weighing a maximum of 168lbs. Going further, and finding the actual number, I’d take the highest number of the two ranges, add them together, and divide by two:

154lbs + 168lbs = 322lbs ÷ 2 = 161lbs

Looking at that number, I recalled that I used to weigh around 160lbs when I worked at Interlog. Back then, I was younger, and got a LOT of cardio due to the fact that I used to… uh… “rave”. Can’t do that anymore, but getting back down to that weight is my new goal. 161lbs is close to 160lbs, so why not round that down?

…and so I have. I’m approaching 170lbs, and so I figured I’d stick with it. We’ll see how long this takes.

This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was 175.3lbs! This is the first time I’ve weight this less since before I really started checking my weight back in 2004. I know that this is just a low right now, and that my normal eating will increase my weight again, but the fact that I have hit this weight means that I will more than likely see it again soon, and then pass it on my way down to 170lbs.

I pretty much chalk this up to the 17.7km bike ride I made after work all the way up to Don Mills to install a new drive in my server. I’d never ridden that far before, and considering as how I’d like to do it again to save some cash I’d normally spend on the TTC… oh, and considering how I’d like to get more exercise… I wanted to see if I could do it. Going up Mt. Pleasant was a bitch, as it is just one long sustained hill. I guess that’s why it is a “Mt.”. The rest of the ride was pretty smooth going, and I especially enjoyed the HUGE hill doing down Eglinton towards Leslie. I took the bike path through Wilket Creek Park (which sadly has run to ruin in some places due to river overflow), and rode up to the exit near Overland and Leslie. As a kid, I recalled my Father riding up this steep incline while my brother and I had to walk our bikes up, so I was determined to do this. While steeper than the hill at the foot of High Park, it turned out to be not that bad at all. However, had I tried that a few months ago, I surely wouldn’t have made it.  

Getting the drive installed took longer than expected, as I wanted to make sure everything worked properly, and by the time I left, it was pretty dark out. I had stopped off at Canadian Tire to pick up head and tail lights for my bike, and had installed them at the house, but as I was leaving, the headlight went out. The packaging said that the headlight took four AAA batteries, but I could see inside the thing that clearly that was a typo, and they meant four AA batteries. The AAA batteries rattled around inside the headlight, and even the slightest bump would knock them out of place. I rode carefully towards Yonge on Lawrence, as I could see some pretty crazy potholes, and endured the long incline between Bayview and Mt. Pleasant along Lawrence. Once at Yonge, I went North a bit and bought four AA batteries at the Dominion there. Unfortunately, they didn’t help at all, as the headlight refused to even turn on; while banging it trying to get it to work, I must’ve broken it. Piece of shit. At least the tail light worked properly, but I didn’t feel safe riding my bike home without a headlight, so I took the subway and met up with Molly on our way home.

All in all, a very good bike ride, and I think I’ll do that again sometime in the near future. It was a lot of fun, more than I expected, so I guess it’s time to check out some of the bike paths throughout Toronto!

I think today was my single most exercise-filled and exhausting day since I started the whole “eating better” and “being active” routine. I am wiped. Check it out:

http://www.evanroberts.com/2008/07/02/185

Part of my fatigue is due to the Quad session, and how I started to be a smartass. For one of the songs, for each “tap up” of a quarter turn of resistance that Quentin told I to do, I instead did a half turn. Near the end of the song, I was dying, and it required me to put my weight into peddling, and I just couldn’t get them to rotate. I was counting on Quentin to tell us to take all the resistance off at the end of the song, but that didn’t happen. As soon as he said “Don’t touch that dial!”, I groaned inwardly.

There was NO WAY I could continue at that resistance level and continue to add more during the next song, so I will fully admit, here and now, that I took a full turn of resistance off. I’m not ashamed to admit it. It was too much, and I didn’t want to hurt myself. In the end, it didn’t matter, as we were already back at that resistance level half way through the song, but it could have been MUCH worse.

Anyway, can’t wait to see what my weight is tomorrow. I think I’ve up’ed the bar a little.

Well, June has come and gone, and here I am, still hovering around the same weight… only, a bit less, and more often.  

Riding the bike to work has become a routine thing, and spinning classes are quite frequent. Ultimate Frisbee was a write off after twisting my ankle, and we’re going to hold off on the sport until the Fall; I’m not a fan of the heat and humidity of the summers here in Toronto, and the one year we played during the summer was damn near torture. I’ll make up for the lack of Ultimate with more biking and extra working out, which is also starting to become a routine thing. Sticking with the healthy foods is second nature now, as I allow the odd “cheat night”, which you need to have otherwise you risk insanity.

All in all, I’m quite happy with the fact that I finally got below 180, and while I’ve gone up and down over the course of the month, I’ve hit 179lbs or lower a bunch of times. Now the trick is to ensure that I STAY below 179lbs, and hit my goal of 170lbs in the next month. It’ll be tricky, especially since I’m adding muscle as I lose weight, but I’m sure I’ll be able to find the balance.

As per usual, thanks for all your kind words and support. I can’t believe that its been three months already Goodness.

Yesterday’s workout at the gym didn’t hurt at the time, but later on in the day I started feeling it in the arms and the back. I knew that the following morning I would probably be aching, and sure enough, this morning, I was. It was painful to lift my backpack and put it on my back. Good lord… am I THAT out of shape?

I think not.

Being my first upper body workout in quite some time, my muscles were more than likely screaming “WTF!?!?”, followed by threats of “YOU SHALL PAY TOMORROW!!!”. As expected, they came through with their threats. But, this shall not deter me. For far too long I have not worked out when I had the chance, and then hated myself for it. Even last year, I set a goal with myself that I would weigh a certain weight by last August, or I would buy Windows Vista. As it turned out, I found a loophole in my goal, as Windows Vista was included with the Dell I bought at the time.

I ended up looking for a way to cheat myself out of my goal.

That’s sad.

Not any more. The pain, while… uh… painful… is a surprising motivation to continue. Eating right, I’m doing that. Riding the bike, love it. Going to Spinning classes, hell yeah. Playing Ultimate Frisbee, as soon as my ankle is no longer an issue. What’s missing? Good old fashioned working out. Time to bring that back into the mix. The only thing that is a pain in the ass is knowing what the exercises I’m performing are called, so I can then note them down. But, that’s a small bump in the road.

They say “No pain, no gain”. Well, I’m feeling the pain right now. Let’s continue so I can see some gain.

Today, I hit a milestone: I weigh 179.1 pounds. I haven’t weighed this much (or less) since before I started working at easyDNS in 2004.

Two and a half months of eating right (for the most part), being more active (biking, Ultimate, Spinning, etc), and drinking less. 20 pounds. I picked up one of the 20 pound weights I have, and was somewhat taken aback… this is what I am no longer carrying? Good lord.

So, as my target weight was 175 pounds, and I am almost there, I started thinking: If 20, why not 30…? I’m not starving myself; I’m working hard, and eating right (again, for the most part), so 170 pounds shouldn’t be too hard to achieve. As such, I have updated my target weight: 170 pounds. Hopefully, the extra 10 pounds is all contained within my gut.

If I can do all this in two and a half months, I’m sure I can do a bit more before the summer is over. I’m not at the point where I am considering signing up for a year membership with Quad just yet, but once it gets too cold to ride my bike to and from work, I’ll seriously think about it. I’m really liking the extra energy I have these days, and also liking the fact that I’m not as chubby in the face!!

I wonder how long it’ll take to hit 170…

Biking to and from work isn’t that big of a deal anymore. Sure, when I started, 6.1km each way sounded daunting, and the hills killed me. That was then. With the addition of Ultimate Frisbee and Spinning to my activity palette, I’ve found that my endurance is up, as well as my energy. All very good things.

However, I’ve never biked to and from work AND taken a Spinning class in the same day. Realising that I hadn’t done so, I made a point today to ensure that I tested my legs. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that difficult at all. I didn’t take my bike to Quad, as I don’t like the idea of locking it outside, and there isn’t space in the room for me to put it, so I took the streetcar across King… which took FOREVER. I was really concerned that I wasn’t going to make it in time; isn’t that the case when you REALLY need to get somewhere fast, the world just seems to want to try it’s darndest and make you late. Waiting for the streetcar to arrive took at least 10 minutes, and as we got going it was moving so slowly that I briefly considered getting off at Strachan and walking from there, but decided against it (hey, a bit of laziness during a crazy exercise day is acceptable!). In the end, I got to Quad with minutes to spare, but enough time to set up my preferred bike.

After the class, being all sweaty, and because it was so nice out, I decided to not take the TTC, and walked with Adam for a bit along King as I made my way back to the office. Once there, I packed up all my gear, and made the journey home on the bike. I thought that my legs would be rubber, especially considering that this was the hardest Spinning class I’ve gone to (Quentin seemed to be in hardcore mode), but it was all good.

Still, while it doesn’t hurt now, tomorrow is another day. We’ll see how that goes.

I don’t have a large sweet tooth, but there are various candies that I am partial to:

• Peps
• Nerds
• Linda’s Lollies
• Starburst
• Gobstoppers
• Skittles
• Smarties
• Caramilk
• Aero (mint or milk chocolate)

…and I believe that’s it… or at least, as far as I’m willing to admit as this list was larger than I thought it would be.

Anyway, while at Costco on Friday with Mike F., I was looking for more Premier Nutrition Protein bars, as I was tired of always searching for them at the Hasty Market. Turns out, they didn’t have any, but I got a good deal on light Babybels; 22 for $9.79. Not bad, considering that at Dominion they’re 10 for $9.99.

On our way to the cashiers, we passed by some candies, and I initially didn’t think anything about them, but then I spied one of my weaknesses: a box of Peps. 18 for $11.79. Normally, they’re $2.50 each at the convenience store I go to, so I was thinking “Hey, that’s a deal!”. For his part, Mike did try and tell me to walk away and just leave them… but I didn’t listen. I even got scolded by Molly, and rightly so, as they’re NOT good for the diet… but they taste good!

In the end, yesterday I ate four of them, and lo and behold, I’m up to 184 pounds again. Fak. If they stay in my fridge, they WILL BE EATEN, so I have to get rid of them. Me thinks I’ll bring them to work, or hand them out… test how many people actually listen to the rule of “Never accept candy from a stranger”.

So, while playing Ultimate Frisbee yesterday evening, not only did I fall twice due to my useless cleats, but I ended up twisting my left ankle pretty badly, and watched the rest of the game on the sidelines. Naturally, that was the last straw for those clown shoes (they’re too big for me anyway), so I sentenced them to eternal suffering in a garbage dump somewhere… most likely Michigan, as I believe that is still where Toronto ships it’s garbage.

Anyway, it hurt to walk upon, but I didn’t think that it was that bad of a sprain. However, when I tried getting to sleep, my ankle would just NOT stop throbbing. It just seemed that no matter which way I lay in bed, it would just hurt. All in all, I think I got about two hours of sleep. I am a frikkin’ zombie today.

This morning, I asked my Dad for a ride to Toronto General Hospital to get it checked out, as everyone was telling me to do so. After waiting for two hours to be seen, I was told that it was just a bad sprain, that an x-ray was not necessary, and just to wrap a tensor bandage around my ankle, keep off it for a few weeks, and pop an Advil should the pain be too much to handle.

…so… pretty much do what anyone with a brain would figure you’re supposed to do should you sprain your ankle. Glad I waited two hours for that. Personally, I would have liked to have an x-ray done just to be sure, but what can ya do?

What sucks is that this means I’m not able to go spinning, ride my bike, or play Ultimate for a while. However, it does mean that I get to go buy some new cleats, ones that will actually grip the terrain I’m on, and also not have an extra inch of toe space like my last ones did. Also, the actual cleats were directly below my foot, and not distributed out to the sides at all, which made it feel like I was running with ice skates on. Useless, and an accident waiting to happen… which happened a few times too many.

Ah well. Guess I’ll just have to sit on my ass for a while.

Darn.

Two months into my diet, and in the last month I’ve lost 1.6 pounds. But, its been one hell of a roller coaster for the diet. A camping trip up to Algonquin, and then a trip down to San Francisco; both times not adhering to the diet, both times coming back with extra poundage, and both times losing the extra weight gained once I got back on track.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Now that the warmer months are upon us, I’m sure it will be FAR easier to get more and more exercise. I already have Ultimate Frisbee and spinning classes to help get the heart pumping, so I guess now it’s time to start biking to and from work again. I stopped because we had a cold snap, and would have started again last week, but I had a bunch of things going on that were just easier to get to via the TTC.

Anyway, thanks again to all of you for your kind words and support. You all rock!