Bike Challenge November Update

A few weeks ago, I decided to take a virtual bike ride to Seattle, Washington from my home in southwest Ohio in an effort to get healthy again after a series of setbacks that have made it difficult to exercise.  I am hoping to lose 22 pounds in a year or less.  My kids would love to go on an actual bike ride to Seattle, but this will have to do for now.

Today I added up my miles, 16.7 so far over three weeks, which is way less than I planned but is at least a start.  I looked at Google Maps to see where I was and found that they have a bike route option, which is more miles but simulates how you would actually go on bike, which is super cool.  I tried to print it out to track my progress, but the directions included 59 printed pages, which is totally unusable.  Instead, saved an image of the map and the step by step directions so I can track my progress.

The little red dot next to the A is where I am, which is so close to the starting point that the big arrow that points to my current location seems to also point to the starting point.  I will persevere nonetheless with my goal for next month to make it to Indiana and maybe burn off some of the pumpkin pie. 

It looks like it is about 100 miles from the starting point to Richmond, Indiana, which is just inside the Indiana border on the bike route I have selected.  So I have about 85 miles to go to reach this goal before January 1.  I am sure I can do it.  If you would like to join me, leave a comment with your virtual progress and I will post it on the Bike Challenge page.

My other goal for this week and the weeks up until Christmas is to lay off of the pies, cookies, and sugary sweets that seem to be creeping into my life.  It's all  beans, vegetables, and brown rice for me for three weeks.  Yum....?

Bike Ride Challenge

My older kids and I are fascinated with The Biggest Loser.  It amazes us that people that are so out of shape can suck it up and run a mile and eventually a marathon.  I don't especially agree with throwing them into it so quickly and the way they don't seem to appreciate the pain these people are in.  My experience is that weight loss involves small lifestyle changes made over time.

Here's my story: 
I was not a healthy, athletic kid.  I remember my grandmother calling me her "strawberry shortcake with too much whipped cream."  I remember believing I was fat when I was only five years old.  I always believed I was somehow less than everyone else because I was a little soft and chubby.  I remember lots of 8:00 PM meals of White Castles, meat lover's pizza, or fried chicken.  My mom looked at me like I embarrassed her, but never provided healthy food.  Every day of high school, I had a can of Coke for breakfast followed by chocolate milk and barbecue chips for lunch (I cringe at the thought of that). 

After my divorce, I lost weight, mostly motivated by stress.  A couple of years later, I got sick and lost an extra three pant sizes in a month.  I wore size four jeans.  I still thought I was fat when I looked in the mirror until my teenager got tall enough to wear my jeans.  She was skinny in them, so I must have been too; how could I not see that?  Then I got remarried, had another baby, and then hurt my foot, which has seriously limited in the types of exercise I can do.  Now I am a full twenty-something pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight and weigh nearly the amount I was when I was full-term with my last baby, which doesn't make me feel good - not at all.

Tonight I challenged my husband to take a virtual bike ride with me to Seattle, Washington, which is 2,340 miles from our house.  It is possible we could do it in a year.  We can ride our indoor recumbent bike or our normal bikes with our baby and kids along for the ride.  My husband is not a friend of exercise, but this seemed fun to him too, even more fun if we ride there together and then go there on a real trip.  My nine year old was fascinated and helped me plan it.

Tonight I rode 3.1 miles on my recumbent bike at a very slow pace for only 20 minutes.  I burned a sad 20 calories a mile.  Twenty calories is nothing and doesn't even cover the creamer in my morning coffee.  However, 20 calories for each of the 2,340 miles to Seattle is 22 pounds of fat (assuming I did the math correctly).  It may take a year.  It may take two, but it is a scientific fact that if nothing else changes I will lose 22 pounds if I take this journey.

I challenge anyone out there to join us too.