Project More Thrust, Less Drag has begun.
Yes, this photo is stolen. I purchased prints so I feel entitled to the electronic rights. I made no effort to remove the watermark and I cropped it. It was taken by
Greg Sadler Photography. They shot photos at the
Tour de Cure and are selling prints online (proceeds go to the ADA). Their pictures are really nice, even when the subject looks like an overstuffed sausages on a bicycle.
Yes, I confess, that's me. I honestly didn't realize that I look like such a lard butt on my bicycle. Ick! That was taken at the finish line of the Tour de Cure. It was a hard day so please ignore my poor form (by that I mean the shoulders that are crawling up into my ears and the elbows pointing sideways instead of turned back and relaxed).
Now, I've known for quite some time that my "got married and quit smoking" weight gain wasn't particularly healthy or attractive. And I can definitely feel it when I'm trying to pedal those extra pounds up a hill. But it really hit home when I saw this picture. I'm not just a little chubby here, folks. This is downright disturbing. A small part of me is actually a little bit proud because I don't know anyone that's anywhere near my size that can ride as fast or as far as I can, but still, it's disturbing. This photo is the last straw. Something must be done.
You see, I worked really hard to lose a lot of weight several years ago. I got my lazy tush off the couch, I swam, I biked, I joined a gym, and I did
Weight Watchers. At one point I had lost a full 100 pounds. My lifestyle had done a 180. Through most of my 20s I was a grumpy, sarcastic, overfed couch potato. I worked too many hours, smoked too many cigarettes, and ate way too many nacho cheese combos. One fine day in May of 2003 I decided that enough was enough and I turned the corner. Over the next year I discovered that I kinda liked exercise, especially bicycling, healthy food can taste really good, my life and my job are NOT the same thing, and it really is possible for me to lose weight. I became healthy, happy, and, for the first time in my life, I really liked myself.
Weight Watchers (henceforth known as "WW") was a huge part of this. See, I love to eat. I love little snacks. And I love to sit down at a meal and try a little bit of everything and have seconds of my favorites. I love going to
Morgan & York (if they're not the best cheese mongers in the US then their right up there near the top) and tasting a dozen different cheeses and bringing home a decadent snack to share with Buster. I don't mind cooking and I like to try my hand at new recipes and taste as I go. From cheesy poofs to grilled asparagus, from sushi to prime rib, I just love food. If I don't pay careful attention to what I'm eating, no matter how much I exercise, I will gain weight.
WW held me accountable for everything I ate. It's really a very good program. You track what you eat using a "points" system. The number of points for a given food is based on its calories, fat (bad), and fiber (good). I did WW for so long that you can hand me any nutritional label and I can calculate the WW points in my head in a few short seconds. I can also give you a fair points estimate for most food items without a nutritional label. WW really worked for me, but somewhere along the line I just plain burned out. Buster and I got engaged and my commitment to WW started slipping. Then we got married and a few months later I quit smoking and decided to give WW a break while I recovered. I never really got back on track. I tried a few times, spent the money, went to the meetings, kept the points journal for a few days, then I'd fall off again. I backslid, bad. I've managed to gain back over half the weight I worked so hard to lose.
Other than simple burnout (after three years, can you blame me?), I had only one real problem with WW. It wasn't designed for people that do intense exercise. Road biking isn't for slouches. I wear a heart rate monitor when I ride so I know that I routinely burn well over a thousand calories on a weekday evening ride. WW would give me 12 extra points on a day when I burned 1200 calories. 12 points represents somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 food calories. That system works when you're burning fewer than four or five hundred calories a day, but 1200? That's too much deficit. WW also wants you to eat those extra calories all on the same day you burn them. If I rode hard and took the next day off I would get very hungry on the off day because my body is still recovering.
So, when I saw that sausage photo above and knew that biking alone wasn't going to peel off those excess pounds or make me ready for
DALMAC (Lansing to Mackinaw on a bicycle, 5 days, 340 miles, at the end of August) I decided that project "More Thrust, Less Drag" must begin. I'm a geek remember? And I studied aerospace engineering in school so thrust and drag are painfully familiar concepts to me. I need to get stronger - more thrust, and weigh less - less drag.
I knew that WW wasn't going to do it for me this time around. A friend of mine signed up on
SparkPeople not too long ago and she told me a little about it. So I decided to sign up and see what they have to offer. It's part social networking site (think facebook or myspace), part fitness and nutrition site. I've mostly been ignoring the social networking part and using the food and exercise trackers. It's actually pretty similar to WW.
Similarities:
- both are more "lifestyle changes" than "diets"
- you have to record everything you eat
- there are no off-limits foods
- both strongly encourage exercise
- both have online message boards, recipes, motivational articles, etc.
Differences
- WW uses points. Spark tracks calories along with fat, carbs, and protein (these are by default, other values, like fiber, sodium, and calcium can also be tracked).
- WW gives "activity points" for exercise. Spark asks you to enter a goal for calories burned in a week, then spreads extra calories over the whole week to cover your needs.
- WW can be done on paper or online. Spark has to be done online.
- WW encourages you to go to weekly support meetings (but also has an online only option). Spark has no meetings available.
- WW strongly encourages a weekly weigh in. Spark tracks weight and measurements, but doesn't suggest how often these should be measured (at least not that I've seen so far). [ETA: Found it. Spark wants weekly weigh ins also but they're less stringent about it.]
- WW costs money. Spark is free (their site is full of ads but it's not overwhelming).
I just started a few days ago and, so far, I like Spark. It gets around my WW burnout without sacrificing the things I know work for me. It tracks meaningful nutritional stats and I really like the way it handles exercise calories. I don't know if I'm going to miss the WW meetings. I met a very dear friend going to those meetings and, for a while, they helped me stay motivated. I'm also not sure how I feel about being tied to the computer for tracking. I don't mind it so far and I think it's all gonna work out.
My short term goal is to ride every mile of DALMAC -- no sag wagon for me! The photo on the right represents my long term goal. That's me on a beautiful natural beach in the Bahamas in February of 2005. That was my first vacation with Buster. We spent most of the vacation fishing and I loved every minute of it. When I get back to that size I think I'm going to ask Buster if we can go back to that place. They say you're supposed to reward yourself for reaching a fitness or weight loss goal. I think another vacation in a remote part of the Bahamas would be a perfect reward! I'll keep you posted on my progress.
I try to be cheery and upbeat around here but life isn't always cheery and upbeat. Truth be told, I'm a bit frustrated with my training and weight loss program. I've been exercising a ton, putting 75 miles or more on my bicycle each week, playing some softball, and hitting the gym on rainy days. I've also been counting calories using the spark pages nutrition tracker. It's been nearly six weeks since I officially started this project, and except for that typical week-one drop (probably water) I haven't lost a single pound.
