Weekly Weigh In & National Bike Week (Coming Soon)

Last week - 217.1 lbs (15.51st)
This week - 219.2 lbs (15.66st)

In fact I'm the same weight as I was 2 weeks ago! BUMMER!!

To be honest after the little scare with the blood sugars last week I havent been doing any exercise, and this weekend I spent two full days replacing the gate & extending the frame on the side of the house. I actually enjoyed doing it, however this is probably only because for one of the rare occasions in my DIY life everything went right...ish - well no major problems anyway.

Next weekend is the start of National Bike Week (19th - 27th June). There was a 4 page spread on it in the free local paper (thanks go to Mr Paperboy who for once in a blue moon actually delivered it to us), with activities in Reading all weekend and throughout the week. I'll post more on that during the course of this coming week.

For now if you are interested in whats going on Nationally, or just in your area, take a look here LINK

Uploading Video & Weigh In

Doing these video's is confuddling! I gather YouTube only allows a max 100mb file and a max 10 minutes video. That means our bike ride video would need to be cut into...umm...loads of smaller videos. That's crap (plus I'm not so sure how to do it anyway).

So I can't upload any video tonight as I'm going to have to read up on how to do these things with Windows Movie Maker. Sorry. I just watched it all through and the first bit isn't "great" as I had the camera pointed too far down really. Looks like a handlebar mount may be a better solution. Having said that, there are some good bits, but Id like to upload it all so family can also see it.

On another negative note, I put on weight this week. I knew it was going to happen as I haven't been on the exercise bike once and had some bad meals, but its still a blow. 219lbs. Tomorrow we go out with family for a meal, then we're staying in a hotel for 2 nights with complimentary full English breakfast, then theres the wedding on Monday with a large BBQ afterwards plus an evening thing afterwards....I am looking at some serious temptation.

Oh God just thinking of those full English breakfasts is making me drool. Its been sooo many years since I had one. Plus I found this article HERE which is quite good at explaining the calories.

I particularly like these lines: "This kind of breakfast is acceptable once in a while, if the rest of your diet is well balanced," and "Have your egg poached and choose wholemeal toast over fried bread. If you have reasonable portions of bacon, sausage and egg and load up on mushrooms, baked beans and tomatoes, a cooked breakfast can provide a really nutritious, well-balanced start to the day."

Woohoo I'll have 2 then!

Weekly Weigh In

A day or so early with this, but I figured what with all of the exercise bike miles I've been doing this week (nearly 35.5 miles) and that this may be a busy weekend I'd not lose or gain much by doing the scales earlier.

Last week = 218.4lb (15.6st)
This week = 217.6lb (15.5st)

To say I'm disappointed is putting it mildly - I am totally gutted. I've slogged my balls off on that sodding exercise bike this week, eaten properly, no bad stuff, and admittedly generally felt better for it, but to only lose a poxy 0.8lb after all that is shattering.

I just cant think of what more I could do. Oh sure its still weight loss, despite the low number, and that's better than gain, and at the end of the day I am doing this to lose weight and you can't rush these things, but still I was positive that I would lose my highest number this week as its the most continued exercise Ive done since my teens, and for me it was quite exhausting work.

I won't give up, but I have to admit that the thought did cross my mind briefly as I got off the scales this morning. Not bloody happy though!

Weekly Weigh In

WOOHOOOO!!

Take a ganders at the weight chart (the tabs at the top of the page). Just weighed myself.

218.4lb (15.6st)

Funny really as I didn't think I'd really pressed myself yesterday, and I know from a sneek peek on the scales midway through the week that it was on the up again so this is amazing news for me.

If I can keep this trend going then I can print off the chart to show the diabetic doctors at the end of the month when I go for my next appointment. Trouble is theres my nieces wedding 2 days before that appointment!

Sister if you read this, I want vegetarian everything there ok? Even vegetarian wedding cake.

EDIT: Damn - realised I've just narrowly missed out on my goal of losing 2lb in a week.

Weekend Cycling Fun

Today Karen was off work so she, Ben & I decided to go for a cycle in Swinley Forest again, although this was the first real time Karen's been on a bike since...dunno! Anyway as Ben has the new "pocket rocket" that frees up his old adult size bike for her to ride. Despite my protestations, she insisted that the saddle was going to be okay as it was - it was set for Ben's height and was a kids size one. This later turned out to be an error on her part.

So we loaded Ben's bike into the boot and put the others on the bike rack and set off.

We decided that this time we wouldn't bother taking the map as there were barely any signposts at the forest. Karen was soon moaning about the unforgiving saddle and I gave her my gel cover to use which seemed to ease the pressure a bit, but I think the fact that the saddle was too low for her meant that more weight was on her butt than being taken by her legs, however she said she wasn't sure enough cycling yet to have it higher. I do need to change it over for a bigger one sometime though.

Over the weekend we've had a lot of rain and there were a substantial amount of puddles. Ben decided that he was going to go through every single one of them, and for the first hundred or so he did just that - at full speed, however as he approached a particularly large one I said to Karen that it looked quite deep, and sure enough it was what I would call a "Vicar of Dibley" sized one! The water in the middle must have been nearly to the bottom of his seat post. His front and rear mudguards couldn't handle the volume of water coursing up the wheels and about a gallon of water ended up all over his back and legs...classic!

After that he was a little more careful in choosing which ones to go through. We tried the side tracks but Karen wasn't so sure of herself on them so we stayed mostly to the wider man-made paths, but this didn't stop them being quite muddy in places. I tried to pick the best routes but sometimes they wouldn't follow me, and on one occasion Karen got stuck in a deep quagmire and Ben had to go back and help her pull the bike out.

It rained off and on during the morning, but nothing too hard & we stopped for lunch around 12.30 when we saw some nice sized logs begging for tired asses to sit on them.

Having a rest wasn't part of Ben's plans for the day and after eating his lunch decided to race up and down the path to get his miles up higher than mine.

Shortly after we reached an old hill fort called Caesar's Camp and realised we'd made a slight error in our route, however I found a dirt track we managed to negotiate which was quite fun & heading in roughly the right direction; lots of humps and twists and even Karen was managing to cope until we got to a long downhill bit with a path-spanning puddle at the bottom.

I tried to ride through but the wood buggered me up and by pure fluke I managed to put my foot down on a bit saving me from getting wet feet. A little way further on we hit a long steep uphill bit that none of us could cycle up and remain sane. Heck it was knackering just walking up and I stupidly offered to push Karen's bike up as well as mine! When we got to the top and turned around we saw this sign.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it was unsuitable for cycles, though riding down the hill would have been preferable to going up the ba***rd. I also have to apologise for the photo Ben took of me at the top. I hadn't realised how ugly I really am!

After another mile and a half of uneventful cycling we reached the start again. Oh I suppose I ought to mention Ben getting chased by a big dog as he was riding and he didn't even know about it. The thing was a baby werewolf or something and was right up to his rear wheel, but Ben hadn't a clue it was there before the owner called it back.

We stopped off at the cafe for tea, Lucozade and a rest as well as photos and funny faces.

(I'm sure I must look better than this - must be a dodgy camera).

Total miles cycled = 6.66 miles.

So we got home and I really didn't feel like I'd been out cycling at all. There was no tension or tiredness in my legs so I decided to do 5 miles on the exercise bike. What can I say but holy crap that did me in! I did 5.5 miles at a constant 20.5 mph. The bikes in the sun lounge and it gets really hot in there too and I was sweating buckets at the end.

Sadly, my weight has increased by 0.59lb this week to 220.2lbs (15.73st). I can't understand how, and it's disappointing as I've not eaten anything over and above normal. Still its giving me determination to get it down for next weekend.

At least I managed to scratch off a couple of my goals this week. Shame about the weight though...damn!

Weigh In & Eye Test

Just come back from having my annual Diabetic eye test at the quacks. I hate those things! I'm totally anti anything being put into my eyes, and they put these drops in which make your pupils huge so they can photograph them to see if there are any problems.

Fortunately for me I only live 3 or 4 doors away from the docs so getting home isn't an issue but as soon as you go outside the daylight hurts. This is why they don't allow you to drive or operate machinery for 4 hours afterwards. A real PITA when I have a tender to get in for work tomorrow!

On the plus side, you may notice that there is an extra tab at the top of the page. I stumbled across Google Docs over the weekend and decided to chart my weight loss progress. This morning it had gone down to 219.6 lbs. I'm flabbergasted because as you can see I haven't weighed myself for 4 months and what with Christmas, a large birthday lunch for my brother in law a few weeks ago and generally not a lot of cycling I have still lost weight. In fact I'm pretty damned pleased as I was sure it would have gone up :) .

The chart explains it a load better than just seeing intermittent numbers every few blog posts and its a great impetus to carry on - or rather get started on it again. The only downside is next month is my niece's wedding and that's bound to be a blowout feast akin to a Viking orgy of gluttony and drink.

Okay off now to rest the old peepers as this screen burnsssss my eyesssss...

Weekly Weigh In

Last Sunday 223.4lb (15st 13.4lb)

Tonight 222.4lb (15st 12.4 lb)

Another miniscule drop in weight, but its still on the right side i.e going down. I wish it was faster and more of a drop though. Also it seems which website I use to do the lb's to Stones conversion makes a difference to the weight! Theoretically if the difference in pounds is the same then so should the difference in Stones. So in theory if I go by the Stones figure I've lost more :)