Category: Diet

Frustrated

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, ExerciseLeave a comment

I’m probably checking my weight too often but it just doesn’t seem like I’m losing any weight.  This has been my problem though, I check my weight and I don’t lose then I get frustrated and then stop exercising/dieting and go back to my old eating habits and idle behavior.

I do realize that since I’m building muscle with riding the bike that I probably am losing fat but just building muscle.  And since muscle weighs more than fat then that is probably why I haven’t lost any weight.  I just have to stick it out for a bit longer and just not think about my weight.

Biking is Easier

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, Exercise, HealthLeave a comment

Riding the bike is getting a lot easier.  I rode the bike from my house to Oak and Palm before realizing I didn’t stop for water once so naturally I stopped for some water.  I got all the way to the park in 19 1/2 minutes this time which is I think 3 minutes faster.  Probably because I didn’t stop to take a water break so many times.

I also didn’t sit on the picnic table for that long either, on Monday I think I sat there for 20 minutes before heading back home and this time I think it was like 10 or 15 minutes.

When coming home I didn’t turn right on H st. going on 21st st.  Instead I went further down to Chester Ave. because H st. has no bike lane in downtown Bakersfield but Chester Ave. does.  I think it’s easier to ride in a bike lane than cause an accident, don’t you?

So, I went a further distance and it was only 40 minutes this time.  The last time it was 45 minutes and this time I went a further distance which tells me that 1 I’m going faster and 2 my legs are getting more used to riding that I don’t have to stop to take a break for them.

I can remember not too long ago that I could only ride up to California Ave. and back and that was like 12 minutes and when I came home I could barely walk because of the stiffness in my legs.  If I am able to go faster and further than that just means that I will start to lose weight a lot faster.  I can already see it in my face that the fat is starting to come off.

If I can just keep doing this 3 days a week it wont be long before I’m thinner.  Oh and I need to start following the SparkPeople food plan again if I’m going to be successful.  The food they have is low-calorie and very good for us especially for Darrin because he has borderline diabetes now so whatever I make for myself I can make for him too then before you know it he will be losing weight too (but just on food, he doesn’t want to exercise).

To Beach Park

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Exercise, HealthLeave a comment

Well, I finally made it to Beach Park today.  I feel so good about myself that I actually did it.  I also noticed that I’m riding a little faster because the time it took me to get there and back was a lot shorter than it took me to go less distance.

Ok so according to SparkPeople that is 5.4 miles total (to there and back, I mapped the directions out on google) and 720 calories.  The minimum amount of calories that I should burn in 1 day is 260, I mean for my diet plan, so I’ve exceeded that.  Which is totally awesome.

As I was riding the bike over the very high and very long bridge on Oak St. I was expecting that I wouldn’t make it because the one other time I tried going over I didn’t make it, I ended up having to stop and walk most of the way up.  But it wasn’t so difficult this time.  Also when I was coming home I was riding on H st. on the street under the bridge and what I did was I just peddled so fast as I was going down so that when I had to start coming up I didn’t have to pedal at all because I was already going so fast.

Anyway, my legs are swollen and painful so I’m gonna go lay down.

It’s A Green Life

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Exercise, Green, HealthLeave a comment

A few weeks ago we came home from San Diego after only being gone for a few days and discovered that someone had taken our garbage can.  The city wants to charge us $60 for a new one.  It hit me below the belt because it made me think that I do take it for granted.  Trash that is.  We normally just save soda cans and soda bottles and give them to the dumpster divers but we decided to start recycling them for ourselves.

I took it a step further though and instead of just soda bottles and cans I’d look at the back of every container we buy and those cans that food come in are recyclable too and so are milk containers.  Paper can also be recycled.  I set up 2 paper bags with the cans (1 bag for each type of can) and I’m going to set up another bag for shredded paper which I am now going to start shredding the mail along with junk mail and even bad ideas that I’ve printed.  I have so much paper just sitting around in notebooks that have absolutely no purpose anymore so those will be shredded straight away.

I’ve also become green when I shower.  When you live in a trailer or if go camping and have one of those hanging bags of water for showers you have to use the least you can use so you have enough water for yourself and others so you get wet, turn off the hose, lather your hair and body then turn the hose back on to rinse off.  Well, I’ve started doing that at home.  I don’t know exactly how many gallons of water I am saving but I bet you it’s a lot.

I started riding my bike for exercise, not to get anywhere in particular but so I can lose weight and so that’s good that I’m doing that but it really serves no green purpose for me.  But it’s at least a statement.

And we do have to drive our car to the recycling center just to recycle all this stuff.  I can’t carry bags of cans, bottles and tied up newspaper and bags of shredded paper on a bike so we have no other choice.  I feel I’m at least helping.

Below are pictures of my cans bags and a trash bag of bottles which is a new bag so it only has a couple of bottles but you get the idea.

Longer, Harder and Uncut

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, ExerciseLeave a comment

Ok.

I thought the ride would get harder because when you push yourself to go that extra block you use more energy to get there.  Well, when I got to Eye st. I decided to just keep going to Chester and I made it so then I was able to turn right and go back to 3rd.  It was actually easier coming home on Chester than it was going to California on H.  Maybe because I knew I was coming home.

Hmmmm, let’s see, what is uncut…  Well, this blog is, there are no commercials.  So there 😛

By the way, going from Eye to H to California to Chester to 3rd then back to Eye was only 1.6 miles and I’ve been going 1.5 miles turning on Eye instead of going to Chester while on California.  I know, 0.1 mile is not a lot and 2 min extra is not a lot but I started out with 15 min for 2 days then got to 17 min.  Who knows, tomorrow I might do 17 min again or I might do 20 min and 1.7 miles.  The point is that I’m getting my legs used to the work.  The first day my legs were in agony, I could barely move.  Of course today when I came home I could barely walk, I looked like i was an old man using a walker again lol.  But that’s what it takes to get the muscles back into shape.  A little pain at the beginning so I can go the distance with no pain at all.  That’s why they say “no pain, no gain”.

I remember as a teenager riding my bike to school in the morning and not being the least bit tired from the bike ride, then riding home, putting my McDonald’s uniform on and going back out the door on my bike to work.  When I got there I had no pain in my legs because I was so used to riding a bike that my legs were never in any pain from it.  I think because I was so thin back then helped my case because I have 100lbs more than I did 22 years ago.

Also when I was 22-23 years old and I rode my bike from North Hollywood all the way to Hollywood and I did that several times a week too and it would take maybe an hour but it didn’t matter, I was never in any pain.  And I never had a water bottle with me because it wasn’t that hard that I needed water.  Although now that I think about it I probably could have used a water bottle lol.  But that trip was uphill and downhill and curvy.

Oh and when I was 19 and I lived in Canoga Park I used to ride my bike once in a while on the Santa Susanna Pass going to Simi Valley to visit my Aunt Betty at Ralph’s.  That never even phased me.  Although I was a bit winded, I needed water lol.  But I got through it no problem and the ride home was a breeze because it was uphill the entire way there so it was downhill the entire way home.

Todays Bike Ride

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, ExerciseLeave a comment

I did the same thing as yesterday.  I couldn’t go any further.  I was looking at the street signs this time and it was 7th street when my legs started straining.  I only live on 3rd so that’s only a few blocks lol.

Anyway, I brought my step counter this time because it has a stop watch on it and I did 14 minutes total.  And I was in the wrong gear by the way.  That’s why my legs are struggling to keep me standing up when I get up.  When I realized the lower gear was an asset I kept it.  So tomorrow morning when I go out the bike will be in the right gear and I won’t have to struggle to ride and maybe, just maybe, I can go further.

PAIN

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, Doctor, ExerciseLeave a comment

Ok.  First off Darrin woke me up at 6am because the pain was too great in his stomach and he needed to go to the E.R.  He told me he was having a heart attack.  He wasn’t thank goodness.  The doctor gave him some meds for his stomach pain and we were on our way.  Ok that was Chips pain.

Now for my pain.  When we came home from the hospital Darrin got ready for church and then left.  I on the other hand geared up for what I thought was going to be a long bike ride but turned into a 20 minute bike ride, if that.  I put my sunglasses onto my glasses then strapped on the helmet then put the ear buds in so I could listen to Gavin Degraw’s latest self titled CD in my Dell DJ so the ride would be at least tolerable.

I go down H street from 3rd and I’m nearing the Catholic church which is like 10th street or something, I remember seeing 11th street as I was passing the church but just before I started to get near it I could feel my upper front legs just tightening up from the stress I was putting on them from the ride.  I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t in the right gear or something but my legs were in pain.

I had to push myself to get to California Ave though so I could say I tried.  As soon as I got to California Avenue I sighed a big sigh of relief.  Then I had to turn right and Eye street wasn’t too far then I could turn right and go back to 3rd st.  Now keep in mind, I didn’t go very far.

I finally got home, took of that hot helmet and I swear to science that my legs were in so much pain I was walking like an old man in a retirement home using a walker.  Flower was so happy to see me that she was jumping up on my back legs trying to show her love and trying to get me to pick her up but I could barely walk much less bend over to pick up a toy chihuahua.

I’m glad it’s over BUT… I gotta try again tomorrow.  If I can get to California avenue and not be in so much pain then I can keep going, maybe to Truxton lol.  The song I was on was just track 5 so you know that I wasn’t gone long lol.  Maybe tomorrow I will get to track 6.

This is a cropped image from Google Maps of today’s short route hehe.  It was 1.5 miles by the way.

My Weight

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, HealthLeave a comment

Wow!  I just weighed myself and it’s not good.  Of course most people would just not talk about it, they would pretend that it doesn’t matter or the problem doesn’t exist but I know the problem exists.  I was doing Spark People a year ago (I started on October 1st 2007) but something happened in my life and I just couldn’t do it anymore.  I gave up dieting altogether even though I had lost over 20lbs.  I was so proud of myself and then I just quit.

I was eating the food but not exercising and I was in a plateau for over a month and just couldn’t take the torture of having to suffer eating such small portions and so many veggies.  Although it wasn’t all that bad, the veggie portions were pretty big but it was still torture to eat good and not lose a single lb.  But I wasn’t exercising either so that’s where I made a huge mistake.  I didn’t step it up and help myself along the long road of losing weight.

My highest weight that I’ve ever been was 245 and I weighed myself just before I started this post and I was 243.  I’m just 2lbs from being right back to where I was.  I need this Dell DJ battery to come soon and the pump and bag.  I need them to come so I have motivation to ride my bike to get exercise.  I need the pump because it has a gauge built-in so I can see if I’m pumping the correct amount or not.  Right now they don’t feel fully pumped but I’m afraid to put too much air in because it will pop if I do.  If it doesn’t have enough it may pop from my weight.  The frame bag is just a bonus to keep all the tools with me so I don’t have to carry them.

The Dell DJ battery is a crucial part of this whole journey.  I refuse to ride the bike in silence.  It will be too boring and I will not want to keep doing it day after day if I’m bored doing it.  Of course I probably won’t have to do it day after day.

As of right now my leg muscles are still not ready for a 2 hour bike ride.  It is ready for a 5 minute bike ride before I can’t walk anymore.  What I will have to do is just ride for as long as I can going towards beach park where the bike trail is and when I get too sore then just stop, rest and head back home.  Just keep doing that every day or every other day or whatever I need.  I can’t push my muscles too far because the more sore my legs are the less likely I will want to do it.  But I heard from a trainer that if your legs are sore, so what, keep doing it.  You don’t want the muscles to heal fully, you want them to be sore because they won’t get used to it unless you keep doing it.  Yeah they will be sore for a few days but once they get used to it they wont be painful.  It will become old hat.

Let’s just hope that these items come to me soon, within a week at least.  I don’t know how much more of this fat I can take.  I can’t look at myself in the mirror anymore.  I have BDD so bad from this that I don’t even want to leave the house because people are staring at me and judging me every day.  I just want to be back to where I was when I was thin.  Nobody even noticed me because I blended in with all the other skinny people.  Fat people don’t blend in too well especially when their t-shirts are stretched out in the stomach area. Which reminds me, if this does work, if I lose a massive amount of weight by riding my bike, I’m gonna need a wardrobe change hehe.

Talking Pedometer

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, ExerciseLeave a comment

Awhile ago, I think about 3 – 4 weeks ago I bought a talking pedometer from Publishers Clearing House and it finally arrived today. Now, I can see how many steps I take and it tells me how many calories I’ve burned. So it sort of gives me a bit more motivation to go walking because when I walk I can see how many calories I’ve burned. And it talks. Which I really don’t see any really good use for that because you can barely hear it, you have to hold it up to your ear to hear it and even then it’s still not great.

Slim Fast Optima

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, FoodLeave a comment

I was very happy when I found out that Slim Fast Optima had an appetite suppressant that lasted 4 hours because I needed an appetite suppressant. I’m usually so hungry all the time and I needed something that would keep me from eating all the time so I can lose some weight. However, I was most unhappy to find that I was unable to go to sleep at night.

I would take a sleeping pill and it wouldn’t even take effect at all. I would end up taking another one and still nothing. I would take 4 sleeping pills and still no effect and it would keep me up until 3 or 4am and I would be laying in bed wishing I could go to sleep but I had so much energy even at 4am. This stuff is like speed lol.

However I didn’t put 2 and 2 together right away, I had no idea it was the slim fast until I stopped using the slim fast all day yesterday and I was able to go to sleep last night with no problems. And today around 6pm I got sleepy so I took a nap and was asleep until 9pm. Which is good because I missed dinner.

Well, I wanted to because we ate Hometown Buffet for lunch and I ate more than I should have. I had a salad and then my 2nd plate I had roast beef, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy and corn. Then I had a little bowl of non fat ice cream with a little piece of mousse which I couldn’t eat all of because I was so full. I guess I will try to lay off the Slim Fast for a while or maybe take it early in the morning for breakfast and then again for lunch then that’s it for the rest of the day, see if that helps.