I hit the stationary bike this morning to disasterous results.

20 minutes and I only burned 180 calories.

I didn’t know the machine’s difficulty levels so I spent 20 minutes jumping around trying to find my 50% effort mark per the body for life program and then just didn’t find my grove.

I bicycle all the time.

I much prefer the Elliptical.

However, I’m going to have to find an elliptical that has a higher tension/difficulty level than the one I’ve been using. Maxing out at 20 it’s not enough to challenge me and burn enough calories.

Bike Fail:

Started at 20 (machine max) and held that pace for 20 minutes. Then began the 15 – 20 climb. Repeated 2x.

I am working up to my old workout where I did everything…

Most importantly, it takes 45 minutes to do my full weight and abbs regiment, so I have to get to the gym early enough to do the full workout and get cleaned up in time for work.

I’ll get there though.

An amazing new substance has been found to drastically assist in weight loss…

Drink till you drop: A magic elixir is shown to promote weight loss

CONSUME more water and you will become much healthier, goes an old wives’ tale. Drink a glass of water before meals and you will eat less, goes another. Such prescriptions seem sensible, but they have little rigorous science to back them up.

Until now, that is. A team led by Brenda Davy of Virginia Tech has run the first randomised controlled trial studying the link between water consumption and weight loss. A report on the 12-week trial, published earlier this year, suggested that drinking water before meals does lead to weight loss. At a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston this week, Dr Davy unveiled the results of a year-long follow-up study that confirms and expands that finding.

The researchers divided 48 inactive Americans, aged 55 to 75, into two groups. Members of one were told to drink half a litre of water (a bit more than an American pint) shortly before each of three daily meals. The others were given no instructions on what to drink. Before the trial, all participants had been consuming between 1,800 and 2,200 calories a day. When it began, the women’s daily rations were slashed to 1,200 calories, while the men were allowed 1,500. After three months the group that drank water before meals had lost about 7kg (15½lb) each, while those in the thirsty group lost only 5kg.

Dr Davy confidently bats away some obvious doubts about the results. There is no selection bias, she observes, since this is a randomised trial. It is possible that the water displaced sugary drinks in the hydrated group, but this does not explain the weight loss because the calories associated with any fizzy drinks consumed by the other group had to fall within the daily limits. Moreover, the effect seems to be long-lasting. In the subsequent 12 months the participants have been allowed to eat and drink what they like. Those told to drink water during the trial have, however, stuck with the habit—apparently they like it. Strikingly, they have continued to lose weight (around 700g over the year), whereas the others have put it back on.

Why this works is obscure. But work it does. It’s cheap. It’s simple. And unlike so much dietary advice, it seems to be enjoyable too.

Workout:
15x Bicep Curls, 15x Tricep Curls, 60 second break. Repeat 3x

What I’m working toward being able to do:

Weights:
15x Bicep Curls, 15x Sit-Ups, 15x Tricep Curls, 60 second break. Repeat 3x

Weight: 226 lbs

Don’t want to wind up like this:

It’s not January 1st, but I’ve got a weight loss goal. I think the title makes it pretty obvious.

My best friend Doug Baker is getting married on that day, and it will be the second time he and I stand side by side in tuxedos.

Unfortunately, the first time we were photographed in tuxes was at my wedding, and I weighed in at a whaling 260 pounds!

That was a year and a half ago. Today I am a much healthier 220. However, that is not good enough.

I’ve still got a stomach paunch, even if it is no longer an overhang.

The next pictures of me in a tuxedo will be much better!

I weighed in last night on my “official” gym scale, like the ones doctor’s offices use, at an even 220 pounds. I want to be 200 pounds by June 20th, which is the date of Doug’s wedding, and my tuxedo debut. If I averaged losing 2 pounds per week, that would put me at 200 in just 5 weeks, which makes my June goal very easy. However, it’s still cold and rainy making bicycling, my favorite workout, either miserable or impossible.

For now I have a standard workout regiment that I maintain at the gym.

I do all of my exercises in 3 sets of 15 repetitions, alternating between an arm and ab exercise. I don’t know all the technical names for the workouts that I do, so don’t make fun of my explanations below.

• Start out with stretching, VERY IMPORTANT!
• Incline Sit Up Bench alternate with Bicept/Tricep pulldowns/pullups on a weight machine (apiece of rope you pull on).
• V-Ups (sit on bench and pull knees to chest while moving upper body forward) alternating with Lat Pull Down
• Chair Leg Raises alternating with Bicept & Tricep bar
• Leg Raises alternating with Chest/Back Weight Lift (semi-lay down on bench and pull weight up toward your chest).
• Lower Back Raise (lean over padding and pull yourself up)

I think that covers everything.

Obviously bicycling is my cardio workout, which I will start doing once it warms up.

Eating right and going to the gym to do the above exercises Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings should get me there.

I hope to post pictures in the near future.

Good Luck with your weight loss!

This morning I took the plunge, and for the first time I rode my bicycle to work. Presently I am working for a local CPA office at their front desk. Lucky for me, they also have a shower in the basement.

Bicycling is a wonderful recreation, but it’s also phenomenal transportation.
For the better part of this past decade I’ve logged around 300 – 500 miles a year on my bicycle. It’s nothing special, a 6 year old Specialized I purchased from Cycle Extreme here in Columbia for $200. Since then I’ve put around $100 more into it including tires, tubes, new petals, new seat, and routine maintenance.

You Cannot Beat Free!
In 6 years I’ve spent $300 on a transportation medium that is 99% free. It requires no gasoline, very little maintenance, zero insurance, no licensing or taxes or any other hidden fees you find in vehicles.

Push Pedals and Get Healthy
You do not have to be Lance Armstrong to ride a bike for transportation. Anyone can pedal a bike. I don’t care how overweight you are, how out of shape you are, or how little you exercise currently. Bicycles can support 500 pound people, are the easiest exercise form and make it painless for anyone to start exercising.

Bicycling is Easier and Faster than Walking
I cannot stress enough how easy it is to begin exercising on a bicycle. Bicycling is easier than walking because you don’t have a gear system to your legs. You can pedal up hills easier than walking as you just have to shift into a higher gear and make it less difficult. Bicycling is very low impact. Running, Weight Lifting, Jumping Jacks, Aerobics, and more are all very high impact. When you run weight is transfered into your joints called impact. Bicycling has no such impact, making it easier on your feet, ankles, knees, hips, back and neck. You can pedal much faster than you can walk. My personal best top speed on flat ground is 28 miles per hour. Maintaining 15 miles per hour over a distance does not take much effort, while the average person can only walk around 5 miles per hour. That’s three times as fast. This morning my commute of 5 miles took less than 30 minutes. However, I did not want to sweat much, and was not pushing myself at all. Also, there were two huge hills on my route, which I’ve found ways around.

Start Today!
I would bet money that most of you reading this article have bicycles in your garages collecting dust. If you don’t then there are hundreds of free resources on the internet to teach you how to purchase the best bicycle for you. There is also the tried and true method of walking into a store and talking to a sales person. Never purchase the first thing you look at, and make sure you go into an actual bicycling or outdoor sports store. The sales people are usually cyclists as well and have the inside track.

Save Money. Exercise. Help the Environment. What’s stopping you?

This is a great 9 Week podcast which will pump you up to get off the Couch and Run.

Robert Ullrey‘s podcast puts together some great music to keep you energized.

Try it out and make your couch feel lonely again.