Day 1..... Sorta

Well I am a pretty impatient person so I decided that tonight was the night.  It didn't hurt that the wife told me to get her bike on the trainer which pretty much means it's game time.

For the first time in over a year I was able to complete a full trainer session!  That's right!  I have attempted to finish interval training sessions on my stationary trainer many times and not having the fitness necessary in order to finish them. 

There is only a slight difference between me now and 12 months ago me. 

12 months ago I was 175 pounds and an FTP of 300 even.
Currently, I weigh 205 pounds and my FTP is a measly 230.

For anyone keeping score and have even the slightest curiosity of what FTP is, here is a link to a pretty good explanation.

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/cycling/what-is-threshold-power.aspx


And as a night cap, the wife and I handled some planks to the tune of 45 seconds, 60 for me :)

And for the dinners,  the wife cooked some Curry with potatoes and peas over rice.  Had myself a bowlski and gonna take some for lunch tomorrow.

Pedal Faster

Honing my skills of failure

Lately, I have been taking stabs at lifestyle changes with great amounts of fail. It was only one year ago that I was in what may have been the best shape of my life. The last twelve months have been filled with a downward spiral of disgusting eating/living habits and little to no physical activity.
 
I am going to change this.

I need to change this.

Over the past couple of months I have tried to incorporate a healthier diet and increase my physically activity. The only thing that I have done with great success is substitute about 4-5 meals a week with juice. I have also increased my physical activity (riding)marginally however, I seem to have only gained weight. I am not saying that having juice and riding more is bad for me or not doing me good, I am simply just not doing it right.

I have tried to go on a 5 day juice fast with very little success. My issue is that my will power has decreased significantly. Every time that I do something healthy or good for me, I negate the act with fast food, ice cream and just pure laziness. I am ready to make the change, until I begin. After I start, I realize that I can just start it next week. So much like the Underpants Gnomes in South Park, here is my plan:

Step 1 - Start a blog
Step 2 -
Step 3 - 30+ lbs lighter and in great physical shape (and a 300+ FTP)

You might have noticed that Step 2 has been left blank. That is because I have no specific plan to get me from step 1 to step 3. In the past, I would just stop eating like shit and ride my bike like I am possessed. This time it is a bit different. I have a full time job and I am going to school full time. I have to find a way to incorporate healthy eating habits and possibly consider giving up meat, along with finding physical activities (other than cycling) to get me back into fighting shape.

I will document my eating habits via text and photo journals and activties every couple of days, cycling activities will be documented via Strava. I hope to make some big strides and hopefully motivate at least one other person to do the same along the way.

I will start by documenting the plank challenge that the wife and I are doing. So far we are on day 9 and we are up to the 45 second mark. The goal is to be able to plank for 300 seconds by day 30. I don't think that I am going to have much trouble with this challenge however, it is the perfect thing to get my feet wet and build my core in the process.

Pedal Faster